Time zipped by. Several hours passed. Dusk arrived; the night would soon follow.
Time passed as quickly as any other day, but the people on the continent saw it as the longest day of their lives.
The new defense project could only include nine base cities; the remaining base cities had to give up and move to the fortified locations.
The nine base cities were stuffed to the brim. Those who had already experienced relocation didn’t get too frustrated this time around; they had gone through the pain of leaving home once. They just went through the process again without any ruffled feathers.
But, the locals of the nine base cities were complaining
Those at the bottom of society were more obedient; they only had boring jobs, average families and a short supply of courage. None of them dared to disobey the orders, especially when they were enforced by battle pet warriors and their huge battle pets.
The ones who had fixed assets, bigger ambitions and stronger forces were very unhappy. They had to leave their comfort zone and suffer greater losses.
Even though people were complaining, few were fighting back.
Most knew that it wasn’t due to whims of legendary warriors; the orders came straight from the Tower itself!
The Tower was the absolute ruler on the Blue Planet; a single command could render a base city to pieces.
No one wanted to challenge the Tower; the general public saw it as an entity out of reach. They had no other choice but to listen and obey.
A small number of people did try to fight back. Some of them were punished with death. Others were “persuaded” to give up. The initial stage of the defense project was completed in a few hours.
Two towering walls had been built, each of them over six hundred meters high. Few beast kings were able to climb that height.
Making the walls any higher would have been inconvenient for those who would watch the perimeter from up there; this would reduce their long-range skill’s efficiency. The height had been decided upon after meticulous calculations.
The walls were eight meters thick!
People might find it hard to envision what eight meters meant; a skyscraper in a base city was usually less than eighty meters high. The structure of the walls was complex; several different kinds of materials were mixed to build them. The Tower contributed by adding some top-secret formations, to prevent some beasts of the stone family from stealing the stone materials in the walls and weakening them.
While the walls were being built, the relocated population was assigned to the nine base cities; they were evenly distributed to avoid overburdening any of the base cities.
Apart from the nine base cities, four new base cities were built within the protection of the walls to house the relocated population. If they hadn’t made those accommodationsbasically cramming all the survivors of the continent in the nine base cities—the base cities would have been overwhelmed. The battle pet warriors unable to fly were having difficulty moving about in the base cities.
Building a new base city wasn’t hard, and construction standards were lowered during those trying times. Astral pets were used to make the buildings. Some of the more powerful astral pets were able to build a community that could house a hundred thousand people within one hour. Of course, a community of that size was already considered large.
People were hurrying to and fro as they took care of all tasks in the construction of the defense project and the relocation underway in an orderly fashion. People would rarely encounter wild beasts as they went through the barren areas to relocate. For one thing, the wild beasts across the continent had been enlisted in the strike force. For another, Su Ping, Xue Yunzhen, Xiang Fengran and the others had combed through the continent for hidden wild beasts.
The remaining beasts in the barren areas were weak ones and strays. The titled battle pet warriors in charge of the relocation would easily keep people safe.
At dusk.
Longjiang Base City. The setting sun cast a warm glow on the Longjiang Base City which was one of the nine reinforced base cities. Many legendary battle pet warriors had gone there since it was Su Ping’s hometown, and that was the reason why it was seen as the command center.
Many legendary warriors were gathered in Xie Jinshui’s office at the moment. Su Ping was also there.
Another person who would catch everyone’s attention was there.
Gu Siping!
The Tower Master was an elusive man. Even the members of the Tower would think of him as mysterious and terrifying.
After all, he was the only known warrior able to reach the Fate State!
Gu Siping and Su Ping sat opposite to each other at the table.
There had once been a main seat at the head of the table, which had been saved for Gu Siping. Still, the latter behaved like a modest man and refused to sit there. The seat was eventually removed.
After all, since Gu Siping chose not to sit there, who else would have the courage to?
Su Ping didn’t mind the seating arrangement. He would be okay with being the command-in-chief but he had to be sure that he would in fact command everyone. For example, Gu Siping and the other legendary battle pet warriors that he brought along from the Tower might not answer to Su Ping’s command.
Those legendary battle pet warriors would still act based on Gu Siping’s orders.
Su Ping gazed at the gray-haired old man sitting across the table.
That was the first time he had seen the Tower Master. He had immediately noticed that Gu Siping was indeed at the Fate State.
It was a gut feeling. While his perceptions and senses were strong, he was unable to sense the power of the Fate State, especially when Gu Siping was deliberately withholding his energy output. Also, even though he hadn’t personally experienced the Fate State, he had seen it enough times.
Su Ping had met many Celestial Gods who were at the Fate State when he visited Joanna’s home. Some of the Celestial Gods would unabashedly display their power, letting it radiate wildly.
Still, there was a common trait in the Celestial Gods.
Su Ping noticed it after interacting with those Celestial Gods several times, and it was something he had not seen on those who were at the Void State. It was hard to describe what the trait was with words, and yet he was sure that he felt it in the Tower Master.
He could also tell that the Tower Master was not at the peak of the Fate State; he was just average, considering what he had seen. Su Ping had met with peak Fate State Celestial Gods; there was something special, something otherworldly about them. He could stand in front of them and still feel as if they were only projections of themselves. Su Ping’s contempt against Gu Siping grew after gauging the latter’s strength.
The Tower Master couldn’t have stopped the strike!
He was the most powerful man on the Blue Planet, the hope for all humanity. However, he would be unable to save the world from the wild beasts. To make things worse, he wasn’t paying enough attention to the strike. To put it simply, he was incapable and ignorant!
The wild beasts had been able to bust out of the Deep Caves because the formation in the Deep Caves had been breached. The Tower had overlooked the matter… The Tower Master had committed a grave crime!
“I only knew you by name; I am glad to have the chance to finally meet you. Mr. Su, you’re an amazing man. I heard that you killed a Fate State beast by yourself not long ago. I believe you’re also at the Fate State, Brother Su. What a pleasant surprise!” Gu Siping said to Su Ping with a faint smile.
Su Ping sneered. “The Nordic Continent, the West Ocean Continent and the Dragon Swamp Continents have been destroyed. I don’t think anything is pleasant right now.”
The others turned a bit pale, afraid that Gu Siping would get angry.
But Gu Siping didn’t seem to be enraged by it. He heaved a sigh and replied, “Indeed, I am to blame for the destruction of the three continents. I’m too ashamed to be the commander-in-chief. I heard that you saved the Xing-Jing Defense Line and made great contributions before, Brother Su. I think you should be the commander-in-chief this time.”
The many legendary battle pet warriors who came from the Tower wished to object but stopped on second thought.
We’re making Su Ping the commander-in-chief?
A legendary battle pet warrior at the Void State from the Tower voiced his worry, “Sir, don’t you want to… rethink this?” With golden hair and blue eyes, the man was somewhere in his sixties, apparently a former citizen from the Nordic Continent.
“Indeed, Brother Su is powerful but Brother Su is still young. I don’t think he has dedicated much time learning about things aside from cultivation. Commanding is no trivial matter,” another man added. He also hoped that Gu Siping would remain in command. If he hadn’t seen the video of Su Ping killing the Fate State beast, or heard testimonies from the witnesses, the man would have directly pointed out that Su Ping was completely unqualified to compete against the Tower Master!
However, the man knew he could not speak of such things out loud. After all, Su Ping was most likely at the Fate State.
“Sir, you are not to blame for the destruction of the three continents. Those beasts caught us off guard; we weren’t prepared for them,” an old man said calmly. It was Yuan Tianchen.
He never looked at Su Ping; his gaze was on Gu Siping all the time. “You were also heavily injured when you were helping the West Ocean Continent, and you managed to kill a Fate State beast. You have made substantial contributions!
“Brother Su is still young. Having a high rank doesn’t equate with experience in combat. You, sir, have the most experience. For the sake of all humans around the world, I beg you to stay as the commander-in-chief!”
With that said, Yuan Tianchen stood up and bowed to Gu Siping.
The man knew he would offend Su Ping. However, in no way would he allow Su Ping to become the commander-in-chief, not when he and Su Ping had disputes before.
He didn’t know if Su Ping would nurse a grudge but he knew he would.
All the people from the Tower would have to follow Su Ping’s orders if he became the commander-in-chief, including Yuan Tianchen. He would be unable to reject being sent to fight against the most vicious of the beasts if Su Ping sent him. He would die!
“We also ask you to be our commander-in-chief!”
Another legendary battle pet warrior stood up and bowed to Gu Siping.
The others from the Tower looked at each other. They eventually stood up and bowed to Gu Siping.
The complete row of legendary battle pet warriors sitting across the table from Su Ping stood up and bowed.
On the other hand, Xue Yunzhen, Xiang Fengran, Qin Duhuang, and the others sitting on Su Ping’s side remained seated; all of them had gotten Void State battle pets from Su Ping and they felt they owed him for it. In fact, Su Ping had sold those pets at an incredibly cheap price. He had earned their complete trust!
“Nonsense!” Gu Siping shouted.
Su Ping slowly leaned back against his chair.
“Huh, interesting.”
Su Ping tapped the table with his finger.
“You lot…” Su Ping glanced over at the many legendary battle pet warriors. He didn’t finish that sentence. He shook his head and shifted to another topic. “I think we can have Mr. Gu take care of command. He is more experienced than I am, and I don’t want to contend against him over this. Besides, I think it’s utterly ridiculous that we’re arguing about such a trivial matter at this critical time. Can we please talk about serious business? How should we face the upcoming strike?”
Gu Siping and the others from the Tower looked livid with anger. Su Ping didn’t hide his contempt; they knew that Su Ping wasn’t intending to take command. A glint of rage flashed past Gu Siping’s eyes. He glared at Yuan Tianchen and the others who had begged for him to keep the position.
He honestly wanted Su Ping to take command; he wasn’t faking it.
He had his reasons and plans; however, those people had disrupted them. Su Ping wanted to stay hands-off and he did not care, nor was interested in that powerful post.
Persuading Su Ping would be hard.
It would be even harder to convince those that were begging him to stay in command to give up!
“Brother Su is right. Who stays in command doesn’t matter; arguing about this is a waste of time. Let’s talk about the beast strike.”
Gu Siping then wore a serious look and said, “According to the information I collected, at least ten Fate State beast kings came out from the Deep Caves. We have to consider the four heavenly Kings, as well as the Ocean Emperor and the eight beast kings working for it…
“We are talking about twenty beast kings at the Fate State!”
Gu Siping’s summary rendered the entire conference room silent.
Xue Yunzhen, Xiang Fengran, and Qin Duhuang were also stressed out by this.
They were merely at the Void State; they usually had to exert their full strength to distract a Fate State beast king. Defeating one would be more than difficult!
That is, unless they coordinated a surprise attack!
However, there were more Fate State beasts than Void State legendary battle pet warriors. Who would attack who!
Su Ping held his breath.
The number of Fate State beasts was higher than he had expected.
He knew about the four heavenly kings… But there were also nine Fate State beasts coming from the ocean?
There were already over a dozen beast kings making their way over, let alone those from the ocean!
To make matters worse, only the Tower Master was at the Fate State… That was ridiculous!
Su Ping felt terrified. Humanity should have gone extinct even before those beasts from the Deep Caves came out! That is, if the wild beasts would have wanted to nibble the humans’ territory away!
Gu Siping saw the confusion and fright on everyone’s faces. He sighed. “The threat of ocean beasts has always been there, but the Ocean Emperor once reached an agreement with the first Tower Master. The Ocean Emperor promised that they would never invade the land. Therefore, those wild beasts in the ocean thrived over the years and there was nothing I could do.
“I have to remain on good terms with the Ocean Emperor. After all, it made the promise that they wouldn’t come to us. They would fight back if we invaded their territory.
“The four heavenly kings were never friendly amongst themselves. They’ve always acted independently. That is why we have gained time to rehabilitate over the years.
“Now, I’ve lost contact with the Ocean Emperor; it doesn’t answer any of my calls. But I do not dare go and seek clarification. The Ocean Emperor has clearly gone back on our agreement. Naturally, I suppose the Ocean Emperor would now try to attack.”
Some of the legendary battle pet warriors felt they were losing all hope. There were about twenty Fate State beast kings; they could easily flatten the world. What could they do to protect the Blue Planet?