Chapter 314: Some Necessary Countermeasures

What Nadixa said is very realistic.

Duotuo Lei's slice Luo De had experienced in Inazuma.

It is not a trouble that can be resolved in a short time.

Even if the Thunder General personally took action and cut the slice with one blow, that was also done on Eight Yin Island, which had already become an uninhabited area.

Currently Zandike is hiding in the densely populated Xu Mi Cheng; if we were to fight him, even if Thunder Film or Zhongli took action, wanting to kill him in one strike would inevitably cause large-scale destruction.

Eight Yin Island can be cut into several pieces.

If Xu Mi Cheng were cut into several pieces, nobody dares to say how many casualties it would cause.

In that case, trying to kill Zandike by force inside the city is basically impossible.

Unless we lure him out of his own lair.

Otherwise.

Given his current situation of holding the entire city's people hostage, it's really not easy to act.

What's worse is.

From Zandike's situation, plus Duotuo Lei's overconfidence.

Luo De suddenly had a very bad premonition.

"Xu Mi Cheng won't still have his slice lying in wait, will it?"

Duotuo Lei is not just limited to two or three slices.

This guy has sliced himself from his youth to his prime, and the slices that reached Archon level are certainly not just one or two.

Luo De reasonably guessed.

The reason Duotuo Lei is so overconfident is very likely that he has already sent more slices into Xu Mi Cheng and is cooperating with Zandike to carry out an orderly infiltration.

What Luo De can think of, Nadixa has naturally already thought of.

"For now, we haven't yet investigated whether there are any other slices."

"If there are."

"The probability in inhabited areas is also not high."

"The Void is now operating at full capacity, monitoring all areas of the rainforest nonstop, 24 hours a day."

As for the Void, Nadixa is still very confident.

This divine-made network created by the Great Merciful Tree King, originally intended to eliminate and control Abyss pollution, after the Abyss was cleared, became a search engine tool for knowledge and an official surveillance camera.

Perhaps even the Great Merciful Tree King never imagined.

The Void that he himself created has now been put to a use he never imagined.

And this surveillance use.

This is also one of the reasons Luo De did not agree when Nadixa originally wanted to shut down the Void.

Furthermore, Luo De did not merely disagree with shutting down the Void.

In his idea, he also wants to lay the Void in the desert, not only hoping for the city side, A Ru Cun, and also those desert tribes; in Luo De's conception, they all need to set up servers supporting the Void, so that this network will completely link the whole Xu Mi Cheng.

However.

To achieve this, the difficulty is not ordinary.

On the desert side, not only is there no habit of using the Void, but given how the Dendro Archon's commands are implemented there, wanting to popularize the Void also requires extraordinarily complex preparations.

On this side, Nadixa hasn't finished speaking yet.

After finishing talking about her deployment and surveillance of the rainforest area, she then spoke about that batch of radicals in Xu Mi Cheng who have been investigated and cleared.

"I found some excuses for those people; some were sent to the desert, some were sent to external scientific projects, and those with dirty hands were expelled by me from the Academy."

"Now about a third have been cleared out."

"Any more and I wouldn't dare act, for fear of alerting that slice."

Under anger, Nadixa is much more decisive than before.

Although one third is not enough, it is already the maximum she can achieve.

It must be said.

Duotuo Lei is indeed difficult to deal with.

This guy, while his strongest slice was restrained by Zhongli, silently came up with such a sharp countermeasure, forcing Nadixa to hesitate to act, not daring to overstep.

"Let's first monitor Zandike."

"First, as much as possible, reduce his infiltration of the rainforest area, then accelerate the progress of creating artificial gods."

Regarding Nadixa's distress, Luo De for the first time has no particularly good solution.

This is the trouble brought by the extraordinary world.

An enemy who holds extremely powerful power in his hands, if he also has that mind deliberately targeting you, then it's doubly troublesome, and everything becomes hard to handle.

Of course.

The responsibility for this matter can entirely be pushed onto Luo De.

After all, he is the one who lured Duotuo Lei in, and also the killing intent he revealed was noticed by Duotuo Lei.

If we insist on calculating.

This can also be considered as, because of his personal selfishness, bringing a big trouble that is hard to solve to Xu Mi Cheng.

But speaking strictly about the matter.

As long as Xu Mi Cheng still has a demand for high-end combat power, Duotuo Lei's trip this time is inevitably unavoidable.

There's no way.

Who let Xu Mi Cheng's combat power decline to this extent?

Setting aside the two gods plus Luo De, the only one left who can actually take action is Saino.

As for the Dendro Archon's retinue, Lannaluo.

Although these little guys that Luo De hasn't seen before are very strong, the negative effects of using their power are also very large.

Moreover, since they don't show themselves before ordinary people, Lannaluo cannot be counted as Sumeru's regular combat force.

So many negative debuffs are stacked together.

This has resulted in the embarrassing situation where Sumeru currently lacks personnel and combat strength.

What's more,

In order to solve this problem, the artificial god also gained the unanimous consent of Nadixa and the Great Merciful Tree King.

Then the problem arises.

To manufacture an artificial god, relying solely on Sumeru's own strength is still insufficient.

It's not just a lack of funds; due to the Academy's six great prohibitions, their technical accumulation is also insufficient.

On the contrary, Dottore, who has long been conducting human experiments in Snezhnaya, can be called an expert in this regard, and even has complete technology ready for practical use.

With these premises in place,

No matter how you try to avoid it, Dottore is definitely unavoidable.

He must come to Sumeru.

Once this person arrives in Sumeru, in order to complete his experiments and conjectures, all sorts of things will definitely happen, including the possibility of attacking the Dendro Archon.

Kill him.

Not only for personal grudges, but also to prevent Sumeru, after obtaining the artificial god, from experiencing the same turmoil that almost destroyed half a country in the original world line.

Regarding the matters of Zandik and Dottore, the discussion is basically over.

Nadixa turned toward Ying and Paimon, greeting them again: "I was just rude; hello, I am Nadixa, the Dendro Archon of Sumeru."

Upon hearing that,

Ying and Paimon, who were admiring the reliefs and murals inside the Palace of Purification, immediately came to their senses, waving their hands repeatedly: "It's fine, it's fine; if you have something to say, go ahead—we're not in a hurry."

Ying came here to look for some clues about Kong.

Compared to what is happening in Sumeru,

she can indeed just pass by as if nothing were happening.

But Ying, having roughly understood what happened, still asked enthusiastically: "Do you need our help?" Although Ying hadn't seen the battle scene of Luo De and the doctor on Eight Trigrams Island, Luo De had told her that his fight with Dottore had almost destroyed an island.

Therefore, she has a sense of how troublesome the doctor is.

At first, Luo De intended to directly refuse.

After thinking, he nodded and said: "If you need help later, I'll let you know."

"Sure~"

Being able to be of use made Ying very happy, and a cheerful smile blossomed on her face.

Next,

The time was then given to Nadixa and Ying, so that the two of them could properly communicate about Kong and the Descender.

Luo De, meanwhile, brought One-Hearted Aspiration to the Academy to visit the two teachers.

On the way,

Leiying, who had no chance to communicate with Nadixa, spoke up: "I can help you monitor that Zandik you mentioned."

"Is it impossible without a physical body?"

Luo De didn't doubt Leiying's ability; it's just that Leiying is now merely a consciousness, lacking a physical body, so her combat power would be greatly reduced.

In this regard,

She is still somewhat inferior to Apep.

Back when in the mysterious space of the Chasm, Apep could, by borrowing power, forge an incredibly strong body for herself.

This might be related to the different elemental forces they control.

Dendro elemental energy is the elemental energy with the most vigorous vital energy, which is common knowledge on the Teyvat continent.

In contrast, Leiying's Electro elemental energy.

This elemental energy, aside from speed being top-tier among the seven elemental energies, is also renowned for its offensive killing power and its ability to dispel dark and evil creatures.

Such a difference.

This should be the reason why Leiying's power drops significantly after losing her physical body.

Regarding Luo De's question,

Leiying replied with this: "Aren't you able to make puppets? An adeptus-level puppet can also barely withstand my power."

"."

"Do you have some misunderstanding about me?"

Luo De laughed and cried, saying: "That body of Fushi back then could only be made after emptying Zhongli's inventory; it's not something you can just whip up whenever you say you need it."

Leiying fell silent.

She is the Electro Archon.

To bear her power and spirit, the vessel must be of Archon level.

Only three people in all of Sumeru have such capability.

Luo De, the Great Merciful Tree King, and Nadixa.

Even Cyno cannot.

Moreover,

Leiying's goal in coming to Sumeru is clear: to accompany Luo De in witnessing Sumeru's changes, then combine what she has seen and heard with the current state of Inazuma to make revisions and corrections.

In other words, she had better stay with Luo De rather than have someone else wield One-Hearted Aspiration in Sumeru to act as a monitor unrelated to her.

So her good intentions remain good intentions.

After Luo De pondered repeatedly, he still temporarily refused the help offered by Raiden Ei.

"There is Void surveillance and Nadixa's mind reading."

"The situation can still be held steady for now."

"The Zan Dike situation can't be rushed; at minimum we need a way to get him out of Xu Mi Cheng, or figure out how to have Duo Tuo Lei from the lab side proactively erase these slices."

"Now we just need to keep the situation from expanding further."

"As for Xu Mi Cheng, I'll bring you here again once we have a solution."

This is not overconfidence.

Rather, it is a judgment based on the current situation.

Nadixa's confidence is fine.

The Void had been widespread in the rainforest for a full five hundred years, and after Nadixa's return, they also vigorously installed Void terminals in the rainforest areas that originally lacked them.

Thus they established a vast and comprehensive surveillance network.

Under such near‑blindspot‑free surveillance,

Even if Zan Dike takes half of Xu Mi Cheng's people as hostages, it's not easy to resolve; those bewitched by him who secretly sabotage Xu Mi Cheng, the extremists, cannot escape Nadixa's surveillance.

This way we can strike first before they act.

Now the problem lies instead in the desert that lacks Void defenses.

Indeed.

Over there in the desert, the Great Merciful Tree King personally oversees it.

To properly control Hope City's underlying information, she even dropped straight into the City Patrol Squad, personally patrolling the city and using her own eyes to monitor any potential hazards that might appear in Hope City.

But the desert is after all as large as a country.

Besides Hope City and A Ru Cun, countless tribes and mercenary groups are scattered across the endless yellow sands.

Moreover, Luo De also knows that the Foolish Ones have contacts with the desert tribes.

The extremists over there are very likely Zan Dike's true trump card.

"After I finish visiting my teacher, I'll head back to the desert tomorrow."

"This way you can see our desert renovations and also help me capture the traitors there."

Luo De explained his arrangements to Raiden Ei.

This decision is quite reasonable.

Raiden Ei had no objection.

Thus.

Luo De first went to the Life Theory School to visit Nafis, who was busy in the lab.

The good news is.

This time he wasn't scolded.

Because Nafis, who ought to have been handling Academy duties, suddenly got busy with the Life Theory School experiment and had no time to scold him.

The bad news is.

The one who returned from the desert to the Academy told Luo De that, since the Life Theory School's experiments have repeatedly failed lately, Nafis's emotions have already built up like a keg of gunpowder.

Now he isn't scolding because there's no time.

When he's done, eight or nine times out of ten it will be a torrent of abuse like a mountain shout and sea roar.

Upon hearing this, Luo De decisively fled to Ju Lei Shi.

He couldn't avoid this scolding.

Ju Lei Shi had originally submitted a retirement application.

Under Nafis's behind-the-scenes maneuvering, the retirement application was rejected, and when Nafis returned to the Life Theory School experiment, he received Nadixa's approval, becoming the acting deputy Great Sage in place of Nafis, and every day he faces a flood of documents that drive him crazy, making his head feel as big as a bucket.

He, too, is bursting with pent‑up anger.

Finally he found a punching bag, so naturally he wanted to vent his pent‑up anger, scolding Luo De for a full hour without a single swear word or repeated phrase, fully displaying the erudition of the Academy's sages.

Just like that.

After visiting the teachers, once Ying and Paimon emerged from the Palace of Pure Benevolence, Luo De took them to Hu Mai Yi's home and the Grand Bazaar to stroll around, fulfilling his host duties until midnight.

Then the next day, just as dawn broke.

They then set off according to the original plan, heading deep into the desert.

(End of chapter)