Chapter 215: Let

It was three in the afternoon, and the sun shone brightly.

A park in Weimar City.

Luosen neither accepted nor rejected the man's proposal: "I'm only traveling to Navat, I have no intention of getting involved."

The man smiled: "Young legendary mage, I know you, and I know why you have come."

"I have heard what happened in the De Rui Tan world; Obulade's death showed me your great power. If you are set on opposing me, it would indeed cause me huge trouble."

Luosen felt a slight alarm in his heart, but considered it normal, since all planes are interconnected.

He calmly replied: "So his name was Obulade."

As he spoke, he immediately activated the Soul-Combusting Secret Technique to its utmost limit that his body could bear, pouring all his mana into the Crystal Torrent Staff.

Since his presence was already exposed, he decided to seize the chance to vigorously replenish his strength.

The speed was also extremely fast; in one minute he could infuse the staff with a tube of mana.

On the other side, the stranger seemed oblivious and continued: "Young man, let me tell you another bad news."

"Because of Obulade's death, the De Rui Tan plane has entered many demons' sight; soon, plenty of demons will come to the De Rui Tan plane to trouble you, hehe~~"

Luosen's spirit trembled slightly, but he quickly regained calm, feeling neither regret nor fear.

If it happened again, he would still choose without hesitation to kill the Silver-eyed Demon.

"May I know your title?"

"Of course, I am Olikote Azasusa; my name is a bit long and tongue‑twisting. So I prefer mortals to call me the Lord of the Shadows."

"Lord of the Shadows, what deal do you propose?"

"I will do my best to answer a question you have about legendary knowledge, while you remain silent about my existence and stay in Anweima City."

"After the rest period of the phase shift ends, you will immediately leave the Navat plane."

Luosen's face remained impassive, with a faint smile: "If you answer three of my questions, I will agree not to interfere in your affairs. Also, I will not leave Navat until I meet Archmage Naya."

The stranger frowned: "Young man, you are too greedy."

Luosen smiled slightly: "I owe Archmage Naya of Navat a great favor, and I'm at a loss how to repay it. You'd better not force me to use you to settle that favor."

The stranger was silent for a few seconds, then said: "Alright, let's make a wager."

"If you win, I'll grant your request; if you lose… then you die."

Luosen shook his head decisively.

"This bet is unfair, especially the stakes are unfair."

"If I lose and die, then when I win, you should die!"

The stranger, hearing this, couldn't help but turn his head toward Luosen, a hint of amusement flashing in his void‑purple eyes.

"Duke Luosen, I must remind you that a mortal who gains legendary power remains a mortal, whereas I am a higher‑level being, you could even call me a god."

"The massive gap in actual power and intellect shows that our lives are not equivalent."

Luosen nodded in agreement: "You're right."

"I must also add that a wager is only valid because a higher power restrains both parties. Right now, that power does not exist."

"Therefore, any wager between us is essentially meaningless."

As he spoke, Luosen rose from the bench, looking down at the stranger seated on it.

"Lord of the Shadows, since you enjoy games, let's each rely on our abilities and play a match to see who can claim victory."

The stranger sighed lightly: "Mortals, hubris will be your downfall."

"I know you carry a powerful artifact, giving you the illusion you can oppose me, but I must tell you that our huge intellectual gap renders raw power meaningless."

"I could easily take your life."

Luosen recognized it as intimidation the moment he heard it, for if the fellow could truly kill him easily, there would be no need to appear and discuss any deal.

That is a classic flaw of void beings: they love to bluff and frighten, yet once their will wavers, they are easily fooled.

Luosen grinned.

"You don't care about my life; you only care about your game."

"Likewise, I don't care about your game; I care about my own life."

"Lord of the Shadows, make your move."

Having said that, Luosen turned and left.

A voice from behind called out: "You'll regret this soon, mage!"

Luosen smiled lightly: "You are not the Creator, you have no right to speak for the Creator. If you ask me, let the Creator decide who will regret."

The city park wasn't large, but it wasn't tiny either, covering over a hundred meters.

He walked about twenty meters along the park's widest path, when Laifu's reminder echoed in his mind:

'Fate interference activated once, consuming 0.1% mana.'

This indicated that someone attempted to ambush Luosen, but an unexpected disturbance in the power of Fate silently nullified the ambush.

Luosen glanced back and saw the stranger behind him had fallen hard to the ground, nearly knocked unconscious, and a Navat‑specific small demonic‑purge hand‑cannon lay in the bushes to his right‑front.

Indeed, it was a cannon, likely silenced by magic.

It should fire some kind of anti‑spell projectile, with a very large caliber of two centimeters, strong enough to breach ordinary legendary barriers.

If it were fired, it would certainly still miss Luosen, but would consume a huge amount of mana; since it wasn't fired, Luosen only used a tiny bit of mana.

Practically negligible.

He turned back, walked to the fallen stranger's front, and whispered: "Lord of the Shadows, you claim to be a god. I, too, claim to be a god."

"Then let's see which of us two gods is a false god and which is the true god."

The stranger lifted his head on the grass, shock clearly visible in his purple eyes: "Who on earth are you?!"

Luosen smiled faintly: "I won't tell you."

Luosen turned and left; after walking just over twenty meters, Laifu's alert tone began to sound repeatedly.

"Fate interference activated, consuming 0.6% of mana."

"Fate interference activated, consuming 3.2% of mana."

"Fate interference activated, consuming 0.2% of mana."

"Fate."

Within three seconds, it actually flashed past 11 times, consuming a total of 6% of mana, yet all of it was neutralized.

Because 11 assassins wielding hand cannons appeared, but none of them hit Luosen.

Either the hand cannon jammed, or it exploded outright, or the assassin slipped accidentally; only once did they successfully fire the exorcist hand cannon, but it inevitably missed.

Luosen silently sighed: "This is truly a deadly situation."

If twelve hidden assassins each fired a hand cannon and all twelve shots hit Luosen, he would be killed on the spot.

And without Laifu's high computing power controlling the fate spell with millisecond-level precision and speed, Luosen alone could not use the power of fate to interfere with those twelve powerful assassins.

But there are no 'ifs' in this world, so Luosen's 'Eternal Fate' technique is equivalent to a divine fate art existing in the mortal realm.

Unless the Shadow Monarch exhausts Luosen's mana in one go, Luosen is effectively immortal.

But Luosen's crystal torrent staff already stores 25 tubes of mana, and it is rapidly increasing; moreover, under Laifu's fine control, the spell consumption has been reduced to an extreme.

Yet the Shadow Monarch still harbors hopes, not wanting to escalate matters fully, so he holds back; this makes it even harder to break Luosen's Eternal Fate.

Obviously, Luosen's spell exceeded the Shadow Monarch's expectations.

When Luosen walked out of the park and onto the street outside, there was temporarily no assassination attempt.

Upon reaching the street, Luosen walked close to the wall, trying as much as possible to avoid open, exposed areas.

As he moved forward, he quickly replenished the mana he had expended.

There are two ways to replenish it.

One is the faith of the Natural Alliance; because the distance is too great, this replenishment speed is not high—relying solely on faith, it takes five hours to fill one tube of mana.

The advantage is that this route is very covert and hard to block.

The second is the Soul-Burning Secret Technique.

Operating the Soul-Burning Secret Technique at its peak places a heavy burden on the body, so after ten minutes Luosen reduced its output, yet filling one tube of mana still takes only a quarter of an hour.

Thus, after Luosen had walked on the street for ten minutes, his mana did not decrease but increased.

So where should we go now?

Rosen Ziran naturally had an idea.

Since we have already broken ties and prepared for war, the first step is naturally to seek allies.

And the strongest ally is naturally the guardian mage named Arlena.

So Luosen headed again toward the government building.

As Luosen walked, his steps suddenly stopped, and he stepped back a few paces.

Almost simultaneously, a Black Stone tram running at about 40 km/h derailed and slammed straight into the spot where Luosen had been sitting.

The street instantly fell into chaos, and taking advantage of this turmoil, another assassin targeting Luosen emerged from the shadows.

"Fate interference activated, consuming 8% of mana."

This consumption is a bit large.

Luosen also discovered the assassin's method of attack.

It was a powerful sniper shot.

From a position roughly 200 meters away, an object of immense power and extreme speed flew past, whizzing by one meter outside Luosen's right ear and striking the wall beside him.

The thick stone wall was left with a small hole the size of a teacup, its mouth black and deep, the cement inside hot, silently attesting to the terrifying force of the blow.

Luosen turned his head following the trajectory and saw a stranger lying prone on the opposite rooftop, quickly packing away a device set up on a tripod.

It resembled a sniper rifle, but its structure was far more complex, even giving off a sci-fi vibe.

"Tsk tsk~ Originally a powerful device meant to deal with demon minions, it is now being used by a Void God against me, a mere mortal—what a twisted world."

Luosen had no thought of retaliation, for this was enemy territory, teeming with countless foes, making retaliation impossible.

Luosen quickened his pace, soon reaching the government building's entrance, and told the guard: "I seem to have dropped something just now, sir; I'd like to go inside to look for it."

The guard had not been infiltrated and still remembered Luosen; seeing the passage badge on Luosen's chest, he immediately let him through.

Luosen hurried into the government building.

Luosen was indeed not mistaken.

Perhaps the Shadow Monarch's power has already seeped in here, but he still dares not be too overt; thus, from entering the government building to reaching the guardian mage's office, Luosen suffered no attack.

Soon, Luosen arrived at the guardian mage's office.

The office had no outsiders, only three guardian mages.

Upon seeing Luosen, the three guardian mages all regarded him with strange looks.

Although they were all strange, their strangeness differed.

The two male mages showed a strangeness that hinted at a subtle light, which contained both hostility and fear.

This fear stirred Luosen slightly: "It seems the Shadow Monarch has already informed these two guardian mages of the situation, but because Luosen arrived too quickly, they haven't yet had time to mount an effective response."

"It also indicates that the Shadow Monarch's infiltration has only just begun, and there is still a long way to go before achieving absolute control."

In that case, Luosen is much safer, and the chances of expelling or even killing that legendary Void God Six are greatly increased.

As for the remaining female mage named Arlena, she simply felt strange.

Arlena asked: "What's the matter, Mage Rolin?"

At that moment, Luosen glanced sideways at the other two guardian mages and noticed they were looking at him tensely, with their hands hidden beneath the desk.

Seeing that, Luosen knew they were preparing for a fight to the death.

He naturally won't die, but Alianna's situation is hard to say.

In an instant, he reached forward, holding a high-quality Soul Gem in his hand, and wore a gentle smile: "Mage Alianna, I just went out for a round and found I brought too little money, far from enough."

"I want to use a Soul Gem to exchange for some money, is that okay?"

This remark eased the tense atmosphere; the two followers of the Lord of the Nether Shadow breathed a sigh of relief and abandoned their plan of mutual destruction.

One of them said, "I'm feeling a bit unwell; I'll go to the restroom."

He hurried away.

Another mage followed up, saying, "My stomach also feels uncomfortable."

He also hurried away.

Mage Alianna is no ordinary person; she has already sensed something.

She immediately said, "Mage Luolin, just say what you want to say."

Luosen also spoke bluntly: "Mage Alianna, my true name is Luosen, I come from the Weilan Principality of the Natural Alliance."

"I obtained legendary power through some special means; this power let me discover the demons' traces. If possible, I want to have a secret talk with you in a safe place."

Mage Alianna was greatly surprised; her clear blue eyes stared intently at Luosen, and Luosen met her gaze calmly.

After locking eyes for several seconds, Alianna said, "Follow me."

She took an oddly shaped arcane device from under the table and led the way out of the room.

Luosen hurried to keep up.

As the two left, the two secret followers who had departed earlier had already gotten into a Black Stone vehicle and left the Government Building.

Inside the Black Stone vehicle, both of them had pallid faces.

The younger grey-haired mage said, "What should we do now?"

The older mage, with a head of blue hair, spread his hands: "In this situation, we can only fight to the death."

The grey-haired mage's face showed despair: "How can we fight? Alianna is a candidate for Guardian Archmage!"

The blue-haired mage gritted his teeth: "Even if we can't win, we must fight!"

Meanwhile, Luosen followed Mage Alianna to the courtyard of the Government Building and boarded her Black Stone vehicle.

Luosen felt that the Black Stone vehicle was extremely sturdy, practically a moving fortress.

As soon as they got in, she closed the door and, without hesitation, told the driver: "Take us to the Blood Soul Army Camp!"

"Right away!"

The next chapter will be a bit late; don't wait for it.

(End of chapter)