Chapter 56

[PS: The second update of the day! Dear readers, rest assured, I said five updates, and there will be five! There are three more updates today, to be finished before midnight!]

"Bastard!"

"You guy..."

Veins bulged on Laxus’s forehead, and lightning flashed and thundered across his body.

In any case, he tried his utmost to shake off the foot on his head.

However, what made Laxus feel a sense of despair was that no matter how much power he unleashed, the foot on his head remained as immovable as a towering mountain.

Endless lightning surged from Laxus’s body, but before it could touch Aizen Sosuke, it was dispersed by an unknown force.

In the eyes of others, the terrifyingly strong Laxus was unexpectedly fragile before Aizen Sosuke.

Like a child.

"I wonder if this counts as being stronger than Mr. Laxus now?"

"Honestly, I’m the type who doesn’t really like to fight."

Watching Laxus, who was frantically trying to push against his foot to stand up, Aizen Sosuke shook his head helplessly and withdrew his foot from Laxus’s head.

After all, Laxus could be considered "one of our own," so Aizen Sosuke couldn’t go too far.

Giving Laxus a little bit of social discipline was enough.

Then, to Aizen Sosuke’s disappointment, apart from Laxus providing a relatively high amount of emotional value—about 20,000—all the other Fairy Tail guild members combined only provided about 100,000.

It was estimated to be less than one-tenth of the total.

There was no help for it; Aizen Sosuke defeating Laxus was too much within the expectations of the surrounding crowd, so it barely stirred their emotions.

Aizen Sosuke couldn’t possibly get serious against Laxus; that would be too exaggerated.

This made the difficulty of harvesting emotional value increase once again.

However, if Aizen Sosuke himself couldn’t trigger emotional value, he could make Laxus perform actions beyond others’ expectations to trigger and harvest it.

This also fit Makarov’s winking request to discipline the brat.

"Lightning Dragon’s Roar!"

Feeling Aizen Sosuke’s terrifying strength, Laxus completely cast aside the last shred of hesitation in his heart. His cheeks puffed up, and a lightning storm carrying destructive intent erupted from his mouth.

It swept toward the direction where Aizen Sosuke stood.

"Truly reckless."

"There are still many ordinary people behind me."

Aizen Sosuke glanced at the buildings behind him and sighed slightly.

Laxus using a wide-range AOE skill like the Lightning Dragon’s Roar was nothing more than an attempt to force Aizen Sosuke to take his attack head-on; it could be said to be a bit despicable.

But then again, at this stage, Laxus hadn’t reached the redemption arc yet.

It was only natural for his methods to be a bit despicable and reckless; after all, the plot after the Tower of Heaven was the Fairy Tail Civil War arc, and Laxus was the boss of that arc.

As he spoke, spiritual power gathered in Aizen Sosuke’s hand, and he once again nonchalantly swatted away the golden beam of endless lightning erupting from Laxus’s mouth.

Now that he had become an S-rank two-star puppet, Aizen Sosuke not only possessed the primary stage of the Hogyoku Sage Mode, but his basic attributes in all aspects had also increased significantly.

It was just that he needed some visual effects, so Aizen Sosuke played along with Laxus, pretending to be in a position where he needed to block Laxus’s attack.

Otherwise, if Aizen Sosuke did nothing and let Laxus bombard him, the current Laxus would likely find it hard to break through Aizen Sosuke’s basic defense.

"Anyway, haven’t you already blocked my attack?"

Laxus looked at Aizen Sosuke, who had maintained a nonchalant expression from beginning to end, his own expression twisting.

Twisting his neck slightly, Laxus’s neck emitted a few crisp cracking sounds, and then he pulled out a halberd made of lightning.

"See if you can block this move!"

"Lightning Dragon Halberd!"

Accompanied by a roar, Laxus threw the lightning halberd toward Aizen Sosuke’s position, only for it to be swatted away by Aizen Sosuke again.

"..."

Seeing this scene, Laxus suddenly became somewhat sluggish.

Everything before was one thing, but the Lightning Dragon Halberd was no simple move. For Laxus, while not his strongest ultimate move, it could still be called a very powerful one.

At this point, no matter how foolish or arrogant Laxus was, he knew something was wrong.

The guy in front of him, wearing glasses and a disgusting smile, seemed to have strength that was unimaginably terrifying; even his Lightning Dragon Halberd had been swatted away with a single nonchalant palm.

This was truly exaggerated.

‘This guy...’

Unaccountably, a drop of cold sweat slid down Laxus’s forehead.

Magnolia, Fairy Tail guild hall.

Laxus, with a face full of unwillingness, was tightly bound by circles of light ropes and hung from the ceiling, while his good partners, the Thunder God Tribe, were hung from the ceiling as well.

"Hahahaha."

"Laxus, didn’t expect that, did you?"

Natsu leaned in front of the sulking Laxus and laughed with a punchable expression: "That guy Aizen Sosuke looks very young, but in reality, he’s an old man several hundred years old."

"Truly overestimating your own strength, Laxus."

Rarely seeing Laxus get humbled, Natsu naturally had to gloat in front of him.

To gloat even more, Natsu even used the idiom he had just learned: "Overestimating your own strength."

[PS: Ahem, I’ve been slapped in the face. Only four updates today at twelve o’clock. Tomorrow I have to go pay New Year’s visits to my father’s friends, so I can’t sleep too late, so... anyway, all the New Year’s visits this year have fallen on me. My father’s legs aren’t very convenient. I really didn’t have any free time this year. I prepared to do five updates today, but I was dragged by classmates to play mahjong, and I lost three hundred, it’s really miserable... After the New Year, starting from the ninth day, I will definitely be diligent!]

[PS: Kowtowing to apologize to all the readers for the New Year!]

"Master Makarov, that’s about it."

"Within three days, we will gather the strongest lineup we can."

Ignoring Natsu, who was messing with Laxus.

Aizen Sosuke sat side-by-side with Makarov at the bar, saying with a serious face: "The Akatsuki organization shouldn’t have taken corresponding precautions against me yet. I can find their lair without attracting their attention."

"But there is only one chance. Once they are on guard, it will be very difficult to find the Akatsuki lair again."

"It is a sub-space; if they are on guard, it is almost impossible to find."

While speaking, Aizen Sosuke wrote and drew on the blueprint on the bar.

In any case, he was discussing with Makarov how to encircle and suppress the Akatsuki organization with as much certainty as possible.

"I understand roughly."

"However, Mr. Aizen Sosuke, do you think that if everything goes smoothly, we can really encircle the Akatsuki organization?"

Makarov looked at the plan on the table, his expression somewhat worried.

There were really too many forces appearing recently, and they were all powerful enough to make Makarov, one of the Ten Wizard Saints, doubt himself.

Now, Makarov had actually begun to feel that his strength might not even rank in this world.

Of course, this thought was definitely correct.

Let alone Lin Cheng inserting so many puppets, just looking at the original Fairy Tail world’s power ladder, Makarov might not even make it into the top twenty.

Exhaling slightly, Makarov continued to say to Aizen Sosuke: "According to Mr. Aizen Sosuke’s words, the leader of the Akatsuki organization is not at all weaker than Mr. Aizen Sosuke in strength."

"Then, does Mr. Aizen Sosuke really have the confidence to keep the leader of the Akatsuki organization, that existence named Uzumaki Nagato?"

Having lived for over eighty years, Makarov naturally understood the principle that if you don’t kill the snake, you will suffer from its retaliation.

If they couldn’t completely encircle the Akatsuki organization this time, the whole world would face the full retaliation of the Akatsuki organization later.

Makarov asked himself, if he fought a wizard of the same level, and the other party was determined to escape, he probably wouldn’t even have the chance to use his ultimate move, Fairy Law.

"Hmm, about this matter..."

"Mr. Makarov, I’m afraid you also understand that when facing an equal, even I can only manage to delay them. If the other party is truly determined to leave, I am also powerless."

Aizen Sosuke looked at Makarov’s worried expression and knew what he meant.

To this, Aizen Sosuke gave a very appropriate bitter smile, showing a very helpless expression, and said: "To completely keep the leader of the Akatsuki organization, Mr. Makarov, I’m afraid we need at least three wizards of the same level as me."

"If it’s just me, to be honest, I can only try my best to hold back the leader of the Akatsuki organization, giving Mr. Makarov and the others a chance to destroy the Akatsuki organization’s conspiracy."

"Snatching back or destroying the Dragon Cry Scepter that was stolen from the Kingdom of Fiore would be a great success."

The protagonist of this script was not Aizen Sosuke.

In Lin Cheng’s plan, Aizen Sosuke only needed to play an organizational role in this encirclement of the Akatsuki organization; later, he could just slack off after leading the coalition to Amegakure.

The protagonist this time was the Akatsuki organization.

Aizen Sosuke only needed to cooperate with the Akatsuki organization’s performance to set off their power.

Thinking for a moment, Aizen Sosuke said seriously: "Once the seal on the Witch is loosened, the Witch will be able to influence the world."

"If there are no accidents, once the Dragon Cry Scepter truly contains that unimaginably huge power, it will certainly be able to cause no small impact on the seal of the Witches."