Chapter 833: The Grand Plan

After Gong Yubai was knocked down by a flash of golden light, he was pinned to the ground and beaten severely.

He was not a man without options, and he tried to resist several times, but the opponent's strength was far greater than his own. Powerless to fight back and seeing flashes of gold before his eyes, he could only cover his head and take the beating, shouting, "You bird... wait! Your Highness Jinwu, wait! We can talk this over!"

He had already seen clearly that the one pinning him down was a massive golden creature that had flown out of the fire; it was clearly a crow, and immediately after, he thought of the Golden Crow.

The matter of the Golden Crow leaving Yunzhou and Clearing Clouds to See the Sun might not have been public in the Human World, but it had a significant impact within the circles of those in the know. Gong Yubai was extremely well-informed, so he immediately realized this was the Golden Crow and shouted for mercy at once.

The Golden Crow stepped on him with its talons and shook him back and forth like a rice-ball, sneering, "Talk over what? Who's talking with you? Don't call me Your Highness Jinwu, is that something you're allowed to call me? You are truly the most despicable person I have ever met, and that includes things other than humans; you even rank among them! Even the Wangliang are more human-like than you. The smoke produced when your kind is thrown into a fire is blacker than anyone else's!"

Gong Yubai screamed while saying, "Wait! This lowly one has never denied being despicable, nor would I dare to, but there are uses for despicability. This lowly one is still useful!"

The Golden Crow stomped on him a few more times and cursed, "You dog, what use are you? I'll give you three sentences for your last words, otherwise I'll have the red-haired ones outside tear you apart and eat you." It stopped, naturally not because it wanted to spare him, but because, by rule, how to dispose of him had to wait for the one in charge to return. Now that it was no longer in charge, it would not dispose of him on its own.

Gong Yubai breathed a sigh of relief, thinking: If you called the Fire Spirit clansmen in, that would actually be better. I was sent by the Shengnyu; how would they dare touch me? You came from the Human World and can just shake off your tail and return to the Human World where no one can touch you, but they are still one of the Hundred Races of the Lingjie; how could they touch someone from Wan Shen Gu?

At this moment, the situation was stronger than the man, so he had to act humble and subservient. Fortunately, he was particularly skilled at being humble and subservient, so he immediately said, "This lowly one knows some things that others do not, and I will naturally tell Your Highness everything without reservation. This is the first thing. This lowly one has some resources in hand, as well as manpower, all of which can serve Your Highness. This is the second thing. Whatever you wish to do, this lowly one can offer strategies; I consider myself to have a sharp mind and can be of help. This is the third thing. Although this lowly one is without virtue, I am not without ability. I hope Your Highness will see clearly."

The Golden Crow sneered and twisted his head half a turn, nearly unscrewing it like a bolt, thinking: Your manpower, connections, and wealth are of no use to me. Tang Zhao might find them useful, but that will have to wait until he returns. I am only responsible for holding down the fort for the Fire Spirit tribe for him; I don't make decisions. Information, however, is something I can listen to; I'm idle anyway, so I'll treat it as a pastime and pass it on to Tang Zhao later. The legend of the Master Sword he just mentioned was quite interesting; even I didn't know about it.

So it said, "Who can't blow hot air? If you have any real and credible information to disclose, speak. If you really manage to entertain me, I won't touch you."

I won't touch you, and then I'll hand you over to Tang Zhao.

Gong Yubai was an Expert at manipulating language and naturally heard the wordplay in its statement, but as he was the fish and the other was the knife, he had no way to struggle and could only say, "I have studied the clues to the Master's treasure for many years and am now seventy or eighty percent of the way there. As long as we follow the map to find the horse, success is just around the corner."

The Golden Crow shook its head and said, "That's it? Are you stupid? Why is the power I possess stronger than yours and your Shengnyu's? It's because I know more than you, you fool. In the matter of the Master, killing you just means one less person who knows; nothing is lost. Is there anything else? If not, then..."

Gong Yubai hurriedly said, "There is, there is! Have you ever thought about what we can do after obtaining the Master's sword?"

"Do what?"

"We can save humanity."

"Huh? You? You want to save humanity?"

Gong Yubai said, "If it were me, I naturally wouldn't do it, but I know you are a noble being and must have this thought. If we can gather the Master's sword, perhaps we can give it a try."

The Golden Crow said, "Even if the Master were resurrected and his strength restored to his prime, it is unknown whether he could save the Human World from the hands of such a powerful world, let alone a second-hand one? You really are trying to fool me!"

Gong Yubai said, "I am not talking about saving humanity from that world."

"Then..."

"From the hands of the Heavenly Demons."

"Heh, they can barely take care of themselves..."

"We will snatch that ship away from the hands of the Heavenly Demons!"

"Hmm?" The Golden Crow had only recently been born and did not know much about worldly affairs, but it knew about major events like the ship, so it said, "Ambitious... but not by much. You mean to use the power of the Master to compete with the Heavenly Demons for that ship, renegotiate, kick the Heavenly Demons off, and put a few million humans on instead? That would be better than nothing, I suppose."

"No, I mean to snatch the entire ship and keep it under our complete control. As for the Heavenly Demons, if we show mercy, we'll give them a few spots; if we don't, we won't give them a single one. Or we can go up to the sky and control them all, making them work like beasts of burden for humanity, just like they originally intended to do to us."

The Golden Crow said with some confusion, "This isn't something you can achieve just by being powerful, right? I heard that the Human World hasn't even touched the core technology of that ship yet, so even if we snatched the ship, we couldn't control it..." It realized, "You know?"

Gong Yubai said, "I know a thing or two."

The Golden Crow said, "You dare to brag when you only know a thing or two?" After saying this, it stomped on him again.

Gong Yubai had not expected it to be ignorant of this kind of humble-bragging, so he had to change his tune in a panic, "I know, I know everything!"

The Golden Crow still didn't believe him and said, "How could you possibly know? They've arranged for so many smart people to look for so long and still haven't found a way in. Even if you understand some skills and can get close to the Shengnyu, you couldn't have learned all the technology in such a short time. Even if they opened it up completely to you, you might not be able to learn it in ten or eight years, let alone the fact that I don't believe they wouldn't set up defenses against you regarding the core technology."

Gong Yubai sighed, "Because there is no core technology. It's just a matter of poking through a layer of window paper. That ship, by their own power, cannot be flown away; they are borrowing the power of a mysterious existence to control it and fly it away. They are only responsible for channeling energy to that existence."

The Golden Crow didn't quite react, saying, "What existence?... A god?"

Gong Yubai said, "You could say that? But even compared to the gods of this world, it could be called an Evil God, right? Their average gods eat the offerings of believers, and some eat very greedily, but not to the point of directly eating the believers themselves."

The Golden Crow was greatly shocked and said, "There's such a thing? You saw it with your own eyes?"

Gong Yubai said, "I did have the opportunity to see it. That Evil God did not reveal its true form, only a greenish avatar. It can perform Absorption of the believers' power, then convert a portion of that power to enhance the Airship, and it also handles the operation of other departments, realizing the various necessary functions for Flying in the Void; it can be said to be the inner core of the ship. They have already test-flown a small ship a few times, all relying on their own people to channel power, without letting this side notice. Because the distance was short, they only lost energy and no one died. But to really drive such a massive ship, I fear that just taking off will start costing lives. That is why they finally relented and brought many people from the human side onto the ship—it's because they are to be used as firewood."

The Golden Crow was furious upon hearing this and cursed, "What a bunch of bastards! There really is no worst, only worse. Even a guy like you, compared to them, is just one of the crowd."

Gong Yubai pursed his lips slightly. He discovered that this Golden Crow had a violent temper but was also equally naive. This was good; he was very skilled at dealing with these powerful, noble, yet actually worldly-ignorant fellows, and they were very easy to take advantage of: "In other words, the Heavenly Demons are blowing a lot of hot air, saying they built a Great Ship for millions of people, but in reality, they just built a sturdy enough frame and added some flashy accessories. The true core functions all rely on the Evil God to carry them. Why can't they dig out their core technology? Because there is no technology. The Shengnyu is busy, but she is mainly researching materials and building a hull capable of withstanding the pressure of the Void, which is impressive, but if it were up to them alone, they wouldn't have enough time even in a few hundred years to get that big thing into the sky."

The Golden Crow clicked its tongue, "Is it really like that? Although it makes sense, it's too bizarre. Who could have imagined it? No wonder... the people of the Sword Court are working so hard, but aren't they all working in the wrong direction?"

Gong Yubai said, "You could say it's like climbing a tree to catch a fish. But precisely because they have achieved nothing, there is an opportunity for you, and an opportunity for us."

The Golden Crow disagreed, "So what if I know? Relying on the power of the Master to suppress the Evil God? Not to mention whether we can win, what happens if we do? Will you kill it? Then no one will be able to get on the ship. You don't intend to tame it, do you? It's not that one definitely cannot tame those gods, but there has never been a successful precedent, meaning there is no reference; one would have to grope for a method oneself. Even if one could succeed, there wouldn't be enough time. Furthermore, if you tame it, will it stop eating people? It eating people is likely its instinct, and it cannot change that itself. It can only change from eating people to eating Heavenly Demons. Although we could temporarily divert the disaster, we would actually always be under the control of others, and the essence would not have changed."

Gong Yubai said, "What you say is true. But defeating it or taming it is meaningless; one must control it from the root and change it. Therefore, only the Master's sword can deal with it. Because that sword can make all things develop in a better direction, whether it is dead matter or living things, or even existence that has transcended life and death to a higher level, it is still influenced by the Master's sword. For example, the world, for example, the sword, or perhaps... a god!"

"To speak arrogantly, there are three steps to making a god serve us: the first step is to capture it, the second step is to reform it, and the third step is to drive it! For the first step, there is a good opportunity to act right now. For the second step, only the Master can do it, but if we join forces, there is still great hope. If the first and second steps can be achieved, the third step will follow as a matter of course..."

The Golden Crow chuckled and said, "You were doing fine before, but was your brain squeezed by a door at the end? This plan is pure delusion..."

Then someone suddenly interjected, "But the line of reasoning is quite interesting. Although he is a complete bastard, he is indeed a smart scoundrel who dares to think and act."

The Golden Crow looked back and said, "Finally back?"