Chapter 30

However, at the same time, the strength of Wolfheim, the third of the Ten Wizard Saints and one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Ishgar, was indeed beyond Lin Cheng's expectations.

The Four Heavenly Kings of Ishgar are the top four of the Ten Wizard Saints.

The first is God Serena, who possesses two Dragon King lacrima and six ordinary dragon lacrima.

The second is Hyberion, who possesses intermittent blood-sucking magic; the third is Wolfheim, who is currently fighting Ace in his beast form; and the fourth is Warrod Sequen, one of the founders of Fairy Tail.

In the original work, the Four Heavenly Kings of Ishgar didn't have many scenes, though Warrod's plot was slightly more.

The main plot was probably that the first, God Serena, defected and became one of the Spriggan 12 of the Alvarez Empire on the West Continent, and the second, third, and fourth Ten Wizard Saints went to intercept him.

In the end, the three of them were instantly defeated by God Serena alone.

It was this plot that made Lin Cheng always feel that the combat power of the last three of the Four Heavenly Kings of Ishgar was just so-so; the one who truly had a qualitative change was the first, God Serena.

However, after fighting today, it was somewhat beyond Lin Cheng's expectations.

The fight between Ace and Wolfheim actually resulted in a constant stalemate.

Although Ace didn't use his fruit ability and only relied on his physical techniques, Armament Haki, and Observation Haki to fight Wolfheim, at the same time, Wolfheim also didn't use his real strength.

In other words, even if Ace used his real strength, he probably wouldn't be able to take down Wolfheim quickly; Wolfheim definitely possessed strength close to an A-rank two-star.

As for the first, God Serena, his strength would probably exceed that of the A-rank two-star Ace.

Thinking about this, Lin Cheng sighed; although the speed of earning emotion points was getting faster and faster, the emotion points Lin Cheng needed were also increasing.

First, Lin Cheng needed to gather enough emotion points to upgrade Aizen Sosuke; upgrading an S-rank puppet from one star to two stars requires ten times the emotion points of an A-rank puppet, and upgrading an A-rank puppet from two stars to three stars is also ten times that of one star to two stars.

Adding these two together, the consumption of emotion points would be twenty million.

And after other puppets are upgraded, Nagato Uzumaki's star level also needs to be improved; wanting to change Nagato Uzumaki from A-rank two-star to A-rank three-star would be another ten million emotion points.

Drawing a new A-rank puppet...

Just a casual calculation is at least forty million emotion points in expenses.

Thinking of this, Lin Cheng sighed helplessly; the second stage of the script hadn't involved too much villain content yet, just the Witch Cult, the Whitebeard Pirates, and the Akatsuki organization slowly surfacing.

If he wanted something like the Akatsuki organization starting a Class Mage world war, Lin Cheng felt it would at least be in the fourth stage of the script; the first three stages of the script were generally still in the stage of foreshadowing.

"Young people today are truly amazing."

"Even I have to admit I'm getting old."

Wolfheim returned to his human form, coughed twice, and said, "I'm afraid that to subdue you, at least that guy Serena would have to come; as for me, I'm just too old."

Watching Ace, whose breathing hadn't changed much from start to finish, a look of shock flashed in Wolfheim's eyes.

Although Wolfheim indeed still had some trump cards he hadn't brought out, looking at Ace's current state, it was clear that he also hadn't used his full power.

So Wolfheim was convinced that even if he unleashed his strongest power, he probably wouldn't be able to take down Ace.

The most important point was that Wolfheim's relationship with the Magic Council was just a cooperative one; there was absolutely no need to risk his life for the so-called face of the Magic Council.

"The old gentleman's strength is still very impressive."

"If you really used your full power, even I would probably find it very tricky."

Ace looked at Wolfheim, who had admitted defeat, smiled lightly, then turned his head slightly to look at Chairman Crawford and smiled, "Mr. Chairman, can I understand now that the Magic Council is not prepared?"

"Not prepared to go to war with our Whitebeard Pirates?"

"..."

The veins on Chairman Crawford's forehead throbbed slowly.

Everyone could feel the anger in Chairman Crawford's heart at this moment.

However, Chairman Crawford ultimately didn't say anything and fell into silence.

Wolfheim, the third of the Ten Wizard Saints, had already admitted defeat; this was the biggest trump card the Magic Council could pull out at the moment.

Since Wolfheim had already admitted defeat, Chairman Crawford also knew very well that they had no more trump cards.

As for the so-called deterrent weapon, Etherion.

To use something like Etherion, even if he, Crawford, was the Chairman, he needed the approval of the majority of the council members.

Furthermore, even if they could use it, they wouldn't dare to.

Etherion was never a weapon used against a single target.

Once the Magic Council used Etherion without authorization, they would likely face protests from the entire world instantly, and by that time, even the Magic Council would be in deep trouble.

"It seems you all are not yet prepared to go to war with our Whitebeard Pirates."

"Hehe, since that's the case, I'll be going now."

Ace looked at the silent Chairman Crawford, chuckled twice, and then turned to leave.

This time, no one said anything or stopped Ace from leaving.

It wasn't until Ace had been gone for quite a while that the entire Magic Council entered a state of unusual silence.

"Meeting adjourned."

"Have someone renovate the hall."

As the Chairman of the Magic Council, Crawford was ultimately not a person who acted on impulse.

After forcibly suppressing the anger in his heart, he waved his hand and left the meeting hall.

As for the other council members, they naturally wouldn't look for trouble at this time and all consciously left the scene, but at the same time, everyone knew that an organization likely even more troublesome than the Balam Alliance was about to appear.

'It seems the subsequent plans need to be realized as soon as possible.'

Before Siegrain left, he took one last look at the scene caused by the battle between Ace and Wolfheim, then his expression remained unchanged, and he left with a faint smile.

Even Crawford, as Chairman, had layers of obstacles to using Etherion, let alone Siegrain, a council member; Siegrain had to make more adequate preparations.

In the end, the Magic Council did not reveal what happened with Ace in the Magic Council.

At the same time, Lin Cheng's second stage of the script also came to a small end; Lin Cheng had originally wanted to take this opportunity to popularize the three forces he had fabricated—the Witch Cult, the Whitebeard Pirates, and the Akatsuki organization—to the Magic Council.

Unfortunately, the Magic Council was a bit too pushy, so Lin Cheng could only put the popularization in the third script.

Night.

The faint moonlight cast a layer of silver gauze over the entire earth.

Eclair sat quietly on the grass with her hands around her knees, looking at the scene before her in a daze.

Every year, there were always a few days when Eclair would find a place to sit quietly by herself like this.

"Why are you sitting here alone?"

After finishing the business in the small tavern, Lin Cheng walked to Eclair's side with a smile, lay down, and said, "Do you feel like you should remember something again, but can't remember it no matter what?"

Looking at the twinkling stars in the sky, Lin Cheng smiled lightly.

Having been with Eclair for over a year, Lin Cheng naturally knew that Eclair would appear somewhat melancholy for a few days every year.

"Yeah."

Hearing Lin Cheng's words, Eclair looked at the half of the Phoenix Stone hanging around her neck and gave a soft "yeah," saying, "I always feel like there's something I haven't done."

"It should be about this stone, but no matter how I think about it, I can't figure out what I've forgotten."

"I only know that this stone is called the Phoenix Stone, and it is very important to me."

Because of memory loss, Eclair had long forgotten her duties as a priestess.

For four hundred years, most of her time had been spent in confusion.

Of course, in four hundred years, it wasn't as if Eclair hadn't had happy times; the happy days she was spending with Lin Cheng now were something Eclair had also experienced in the long four hundred years.

It was just that in the end, the other party couldn't withstand the passage of time and turned into a handful of yellow earth.

'It will be the same this time, right.'

'In the end, I don't know when, Lin Cheng will no longer be able to walk, and then close his eyes forever.'

Looking at Lin Cheng lying beside her, Eclair was somewhat distracted.

'After Lin Cheng dies, I will probably wander around again...'

Before Eclair could continue thinking, she felt a warm palm placed on her head.

"I won't leave Eclair alone."

Lin Cheng rubbed Eclair's head, messing it up, and said, "In a while, let's go find the other half of the stone."

"Perhaps when we find the other half of the stone, Eclair will remember many precious memories."

For Eclair to recover her memories, the two separated halves of the Phoenix Stone must be reunited.

And the reason Lin Cheng wasn't planning to take Eclair to recover her memories right now was entirely because once the Phoenix Stone was reunited, it would summon the world-destroying beast, the Phoenix.

This was a creation made by humans four hundred years ago to destroy the world and perish together with the dragon race of four hundred years ago.

Currently, although Lin Cheng possessed the S-rank puppet Aizen Sosuke, Lin Cheng was not confident in controlling the Phoenix.

Perhaps when Aizen Sosuke is upgraded to S-rank two-star, with the Hogyoku state, Aizen Sosuke might be able to defeat the Phoenix, but if the Phoenix dies, Eclair will also die.

The Phoenix and Eclair have a symbiotic relationship.

Therefore, Lin Cheng planned to increase his means before letting Eclair recover her memories.