Chapter 575: Confrontation
The actions of Origin Mage Association were swift. With a wave of President Rada’s hand, various professionals from the association quickly entered the stolen artifact chamber to collect clues and analyze various traces, all vying to be the one to solve the case.
For these professional mages, this was the best opportunity to gain renown. The artifact chamber case was the biggest thing to happen in over a hundred years.
As long as they cracked this audacious case, their names would become household, even written into textbooks for others to learn from…
The Yuan Squad, floating over the Huludao Sea, also joined in, becoming the most inconspicuous team.
Wearing blue, Sherry, along with the squad, entered the artifact chamber. Originally a forbidden place, it now turned into a vast empty underground space, without even shelves specially designed to hold artifacts. Isn’t it strange?
After circling around inside, Sherry found nothing and exclaimed softly, “Whoever did this is really skilled!”
One of her teammates corrected her softly, “Sherry, you should say they’re bold! Whoever it is, I think they’re doomed.”
Sherry glanced at her teammate Feiyuan, seeing him frown in thought. Itched by curiosity, she wanted to ask if he had found anything, but he was in contemplation, so it wasn’t a good time to ask. Instead, she paced around Feiyuan anxiously, more eager than anyone else.
Feiyuan glanced at Sherry, reaching out to tousle her messy hair, and said helplessly, “Sherry, what are you doing?”
Sherry exclaimed happily, “Ah, Feiyuan, you’ve figured it out! What did you find?”
Feiyuan said, “I found something.”
“What is it?”
“I won’t tell you.”
Sherry widened her eyes, “Huh? Why?”
Feiyuan ignored her, glanced at the various expressions of the Yuan Mage Investigation Team around him, and headed out first, saying, “Let’s go, let’s leave here first.”
“Um, aren’t we going to investigate anymore? Feiyuan!”
Feiyuan said, “I’ve said it so many times, don’t add your own imagination when thinking about problems. Did I say we’re not investigating anymore? No!”
Feiyuan couldn’t understand why his teammates’ minds were so stubborn, why they couldn’t adapt and learn to be flexible. He also couldn’t understand why things that seemed simple to him were so incomprehensible to others!
He was fed up with the life of constantly answering all sorts of weird questions for others!
After arriving at a secluded place, Feiyuan still couldn’t stand Sherry’s pestering, “What’s the rush? I’m going to tell you anyway.”
Sherry made use of what she learned, “But you just said you wouldn’t tell me earlier. I didn’t add my own imagination this time.”
Feiyuan had nothing to say, so he changed the subject directly, “When I said I wouldn’t tell you, it’s because there were too many people around, it wasn’t convenient to say.”
Sherry said, “I understand, I understand. Industry secrets, everyone else is a competitor.”
Feiyuan said expressionlessly, “No, the fact that the artifact chamber was stolen means there’s a fifty percent chance it’s indirectly related to us. So, to avoid trouble, I didn’t directly disclose it.”
Sherry and the other teammates were shocked, “What? How are we related? We didn’t steal anything.”
Feiyuan said, “It’s just speculation, with a certain possibility, but not necessarily true! Let’s analyze it. In recent years, there have been three cases of large-scale disappearances in major locations.
The first was the disappearance at the Evergreen Factory on the outskirts of Huchang City four years ago, the second was the island disappearance we were investigating a few days ago, and the third was today’s theft at the association headquarters artifact chamber.
These three cases are not entirely identical, but they share a certain similarity, which is the ability to move large objects seemingly out of thin air, just like the first row and thirty-seventh source artifact ‘Arbitrary Portal’ stored in the artifact chamber.
So, it’s not difficult to guess that these three cases are the work of the same person. No, it should be said, the same organization!”
Sherry’s eyes lit up with wisdom, “You mean, ‘Scourge of the Earth, Kai’? Wow! Feiyuan, you’re amazing, solving the case with just a walk around! We’ve solved the case!”
Feiyuan thought to himself, “Am I really that good? I don’t think so…”
Sherry then asked curiously, “But what does that have to do with us?”
Feiyuan said, “Timing! The time the artifact chamber was stolen just happened to be shortly after we returned to the association to submit our report. This means the thief might have followed us to the association and ‘conveniently’ moved the source artifact away.”
Sherry and the others were stunned, “Followed…”
Feiyuan continued, “That’s not the main point. The main point is, he probably already knows that we know about him.”
Sherry became somewhat panicked, “What should we do? Will we be implicated?”
Feiyuan completely ignored her and showed a rare excitement on his face, “I guess, he chose to steal not too early, not too late, precisely now, to let us know of his existence. He’s demonstrating to us!
Heh heh, ‘Scourge of the Earth, Kai,’ what an arrogant fellow, I like it! I’ll definitely catch him! Let’s go, back to the association!”
Sherry asked, “Why go back?”
Feiyuan said, “To announce our findings, to let him know we’re aware of his demonstration, and to formally declare war on him! We can’t let him underestimate us!”
This statement ignited the enthusiasm of Sherry and the others, as if they were about to embark on a complex, thrilling, and adventurous journey of solving the case, culminating in an epic battle to capture the ‘Scourge of the Earth, Kai.’
…
Unfortunately, Su Hao himself was not aware of, nor did he care about, the underlying implications behind his casual actions.
After acquiring a large number of source artifacts, he immediately began researching them.
“Through previous research on source beasts, I’ve already learned about the relationship between source artifacts and the ‘system,’ overcoming a major obstacle. Now, with so many source artifacts, it’s the perfect opportunity to shift the focus of my research from source beasts to source artifacts!”
Su Hao thought to himself, and quickly outlined the next steps of his work:
Step one, test the functions of these source artifacts.
Step two, record the movement patterns of all source artifacts within an hour in the space of the pinball, comparing them with the harvest from source beasts and summarizing the patterns.
Step three, reverse search for the ‘system’ hidden somewhere unknown.
Step four, analyze the principles.
The first step of testing the source artifacts’ functions greatly broadened Su Hao’s horizons.
‘Harmony,’ ‘Free and Easy,’ ‘Inside-Out Flip,’ ‘Come Chase Me,’ ‘Hundred Percent Accuracy,’ ‘Stunning Performance’…
Various abilities of all kinds dazzled Su Hao, abilities he couldn’t even imagine appeared before him.
The key is, each one of them is extremely absurd, unreasonable!
But then again, the critical thing is that the threshold of material and energy, the “source,” itself is an existence that defies logic, isn’t it?
Treating the source as a zero vector, this thing that the source can change, theoretically, can point in any direction, as long as it’s given a specific arrow.
So, there’s no such thing as the most absurd, only more absurd!
A month later, Zhi Peng communicated with Su Hao through the parrot, reporting the current progress, “Mr. Jia Wei, I’ve already gathered over two thousand source mage friends. They are now concentrated in the complex terrain near the coastal city of Pingkong. Next, we will use Pingkong as our first base.
Unfortunately, my action to gather friends was noticed by the Source Mage Association. The remaining two thousand friends have been controlled by the association and can’t be contacted for the time being. We can only wait and see what happens in the future.”
Su Hao smiled, “More than two thousand source mages should be enough. Furthermore, placing the remaining two thousand friends in the enemy’s camp may have some unexpected effects in the future. Don’t hesitate, next, let’s formally begin the second step! Seize Pingkong City and make it your absolute territory.”
The power exerted by the gathering of over two thousand source mages far exceeded imagination, comparable to the mage associations of the world’s largest cities. This was a force that no one could ignore.
After briefly explaining his plan, Zhi Peng asked with some doubts, “Mr. Jia Wei, our goal in the Radiant Society is the royal family, not the mage association. I believe that the existence of the mage association is beneficial to the world. I don’t want to destroy it, but if I focus on the royal family, it will inevitably lead to conflict with the mage association. How should I handle these relationships?”
If this kind of problem were placed on Yashan, he wouldn’t have brought it up and would have just directly pushed it aside and rebuilt it.
However, Zhi Peng was not Yashan after all. Although he had been harmed by this world all along, his heart still overflowed with love for the world.
Su Hao smiled, “As far as I know, it’s not all about confrontation. After all, there’s a faction within the Source Mage Association called the ‘Innovative Faction,’ advocating for natural development and belonging to the neutral faction, and they make up the majority of source mages. Perhaps there’s a chance to win them over and turn them into your supporters.
It seems like there’s opposition, just because the power you’ve displayed isn’t strong enough yet! If the cost they have to pay for opposing you exceeds their limits, then they won’t choose to oppose you. On the contrary, they may even become your friends.
So, you just need to think about how to gain more powerful strength. As long as you have power, everything else is not a problem.”
Su Hao had written down everything about how the Radiant Society should build its organization and gradually develop into a world-class behemoth in his plan.
In fact, Zhi Peng was also very clear about the next steps, but without Su Hao’s nod of approval, he still felt uncertain.
It’s like someone telling him, ‘Do this and that first, then that, and finally that, and you’ll earn millions.’ However, regardless of whether it’s true or false, without experiencing the complete process personally, every step he takes always feels nervewracking and full of suspicion.
Now that he had heard Su Hao personally say, ‘Don’t hesitate,’ he felt much more relieved.
