Chapter 193: My Home Deity Wants to Meet You (8k Mega Chapter)

Wu Chang returned home from the Crimson Wave space and found Ailin, unusually, not studying but watching a movie.

Three sticky notes were stuck to the screen, with many names handwritten on them; at the very top of the notes was a title: "Twenty Movies to Help You Comprehend the Many Facets of Life."

"Ailin, what are you doing?" Wu Chang asked curiously.

Ailin's gaze shifted from the screen to Wu Chang, and she said, "Researching humans."

Wu Chang sat down beside Ailin and asked, "Why the sudden interest in humans? Is it because of me?"

He had meant it as a joke, but he hadn't expected Ailin to answer in all seriousness:

"It is because of you. When I saw you reading those survivors' thank-you letters, I felt very complicated—I wasn't purely happy that you had won everyone's affection. I felt this wasn't right; I've never experienced anything like this before."

"A while back I happened to hear someone say that movies are the best way to capture the delicate emotions between people, so I found some classic films to study."

Wu Chang felt himself being struck by how cute Ailin was when she was being serious. He pressed his lips together hard, trying not to laugh out loud, which led Ailin to mistake him for mocking her.

Ailin was actually analyzing herself over the Li Yubin incident, and he very much wanted to tell her the answer straight—that woman Li Yubin was different from the others; that woman was after his body.

But he held back. Perhaps this was a chance—a chance for Ailin to truly begin understanding human emotions. With such things, only by understanding them oneself does one truly understand; outsiders pointing fingers would only backfire.

"Then good luck with that." He shrugged, preparing to leave and raise his strength, when he suddenly thought of something and turned back.

"Oh, if you want to sort out your feelings toward me, watching *Untouchable* won't do you any good."

Although Wu Chang considered *Untouchable* a good film, watching a Black street kid take care of a white disabled old man wouldn't offer Ailin any insight into her current situation. Rather than *Untouchable*, she might as well watch *White Album*.

But right now Ailin was as pure as a blank sheet of paper, far too easily influenced. What if, after opening some strange door for her, she went straight to watching *Day in the Schoolyard* and ended up slashing him? That would be a real mess.

After parting with Ailin, Wu Chang sat alone in the training room, preparing to raise the level of the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll.

The Thunder Art Remnant Scroll was the product of two arts fusing, thereby raising the art's grade, which meant the Corrupted Silver Coins required to upgrade it were far lower than for other arts capped at A.

Even so, raising the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll from B to A still required 150,000 Corrupted Silver Coins.

It looked expensive, but compared to the 120,000 needed to take Spatial Magic from C to B, it was a steal.

Completing the Silent Voyage instance had brought Wu Chang's Corrupted Silver Coins back to 97,500. It still looked like quite a gap to upgrading the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll, but now the benefit of raising the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to B-grade—stepping beyond a mere skill and becoming a true art—was already showing.

The transformation into a true art, beyond making the abilities within the art as easy to wield as one's own limbs, also allowed the art to be cultivated and self-improved, just like in xianxia novels.

In the Silent Voyage instance, Wu Chang had used the baptism ritual modified by Cui Chengze to absorb large amounts of occult energy from the Shipwreck Belt; in the final ritual and the Bloodline Awakening ritual, he had also absorbed large amounts of energy from the Evil God's remains.

Unlike other Arcane Knights, he hadn't toughed out absorbing this energy raw; instead, he used the cultivation circulation method from the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to convert and absorb it all.

Most of that energy went toward the cost of his class advancement, but inevitably some of it was treated like a toll and converted into Thunder Spiritual Energy.

These two sessions of cultivation directly replenished him with energy equivalent to 60,000 Corrupted Silver Coins!

If it weren't for the Evil God's remains dying completely and the Shipwreck Belt dissipating with it, he could have returned to the Silent Voyage instance and run a few more baptism rituals in the Shipwreck Belt, probably enough to automatically raise the Thunder Art to A-grade on its own.

If this had been a few dozen days ago, Wu Chang would definitely have chosen to wait and see, to check whether the next realm had a cultivation treasure ground, saving himself another pile of Corrupted Silver Coins.

But now he couldn't.

The mysterious organization kept making moves—from causing instances to lose control, to attacking the four great organizations. He felt a tremendous sense of crisis dogging his heels, forcing him to accelerate forward without a moment's pause.

No one knew which would come first, accident or tomorrow; he had to make sure that when he faced danger, he was at his best.

He hesitated for a moment, then clenched his back molars and chose to raise the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to A.

In Abyss Game, S-grade was something you could only encounter by luck; for the vast majority of players, A-grade was the highest grade in Abyss Game.

"You have raised the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to A-grade. It has reached the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll's cap. Your Vitality attribute increases by 10, Energy attribute by 20, Inspiration attribute by 5, and Will attribute by 15."

Raising the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to A-grade meant he had reached the apex of conventional Wasteland Realm Thunder Art.

In a daze, Wu Chang's consciousness rose, just like before when his Inspiration broke a hundred and he broke through to the Plane Barrier; he once again entered an out-of-body state.

Only this time, what he saw was not the Plane Barrier, but five thunder domains crackling with lightning.

The knowledge from the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll surfaced in his mind: these five thunder domains represented the Five Thunders of Daoist law.

The art he had obtained from Lei Hu was called the Five Thunder Art Remnant Annotations; upgrading the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to A-grade unlocked a new ability—the Five Thunder Art within it.

The Five Thunders of Daoist law were distinct from the Five Element Thunder Art; they were not Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Thunders, but rather Heaven Thunder, Earth Thunder, Water Thunder, Spirit Thunder, and Altar Thunder.

Heaven Thunder governs the proper order of the heavens and the four seasons, subduing demons and vanquishing evil, dispelling plagues and sweeping away pestilence.

Earth Thunder governs the generation of all things, nourishing the five grains, sweeping away mountain spirits and stone monsters.

Water Thunder governs summoning thunder to bring rain, calling wind and summoning rain, commanding the Water Court.

Spirit Thunder governs slaughter and warfare, toppling altars and breaking temples, punishing the treacherous and eliminating the wicked.

Altar Thunder has broad duties, chiefly protecting the peace of the world.

The origin of Thunder Art was not occultism, but Wu Chang, who possessed the Eye of Law-Breaking, drew parallels by analogy and quickly grasped the essence of the five Thunder Arts.

The five Thunder Arts were not simply five skills, but in truth the embryonic forms of five Authorities.

Once the Thunder Art of a given domain was cultivated to its utmost, evolving into an Authority, one would be invincible in that Thunder Art's domain.

In the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll's current state, Wu Chang could only learn some superficial bits from it, but even those superficial bits were enough in the Wasteland Realm.

For example, if he met Zheng Ruiyuan again, he could use the Spirit Thunder method to summon a thousand thunders, and combined with his Blasphemer title, even without the Fisherman's ambush and self-destruct, he could shatter Leimann's Authority within three thunders and take down Zheng Ruiyuan.

Wu Chang was very satisfied with the effect of raising the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll to A, but satisfied as he was, looking back he found that his account, which had just become flush, now had only 7,500 Corrupted Silver Coins left in the blink of an eye.

One Corrupted Silver Coin could be exchanged for 1,000 Xia Nation currency—looked like a path to getting rich.

But in actual practice, even though every time he maxed out his instance output and received rewards several times those of other players, spending Corrupted Silver Coins was still a constant struggle.

To fill the two holes of the Thunder Art Remnant Scroll and Spatial Magic, he'd have his hands full for a long time, and the spatial backpack he'd wanted to expand since the Moonlight Sanatorium—he had no idea when that would ever be done.

As for high-grade skills and powerful items, don't even think about it—everything had to be farmed by his own hands.

Earn in the Abyss, spend in the Abyss; don't dream of taking a single cent home.

What can dispel worry? Only sudden wealth.

Wu Chang sighed as he pulled out another 2,000 Corrupted Silver Coins and threw them into the Crimson Court's training room.

With the foundation he already had, he had mastered the rhythm of controlling his body; he spent four days fully adapting to his current state.

By the time he stepped out of the training room refreshed and clear-headed, asking around for recent intelligence, he learned that whether in the Abyss Game's Wasteland Realm or in the real world, quite a few major things had happened.

First, in the Wasteland Realm, the four great organizations had been attacked; central hubs like the Primordial Divine Palace had been severely damaged, and the most direct consequence was that the four great organizations' grip on the Wasteland Realm had weakened.

Many instances on the verge of losing control could not be detected in time to prevent the collapse, leading to an increase in out-of-control instances over the past few days.

Beyond this, another topic generating extremely high discussion on the player forums was—whether the shortening of the public zone countdown and the changes in instance difficulty signified that a major upheaval was imminent.

Players on the forums generally reported that since the four major organizations were attacked, the overall difficulty of instances had increased.

There were even rumors claiming that the instance NPCs had become sentient, and that clearing instances no longer required players—the instances could clear themselves.

Wu Chang opened the corresponding post. Although the leaker had hidden a lot of information, he still saw at a glance that the other party was a survivor from the Silent Voyage.

Because he had lingered inside the instance for some time after completing the main storyline, the clear time displayed for him differed from that of Xiang Jianxing and the others.

Combined with the fact that he had blocked all information on the speedrun leaderboard, people did not believe that the mysterious newcomer who broke the situation had done so in the Silent Voyage, judging solely by clear time.

Precisely for this reason, Xiang Jianxing, the Negotiation Master, and even the upper echelons of the Management Bureau still believed that it was because the hidden NPC Li Zaishi was absurdly overpowered, and had broken the instance without needing any player's help.

As for the changes happening in reality, aside from the erosion instances triggered by the frequent loss of control of instances, there was the thunderous mole-hunting campaign being carried out by the four major organizations.

Almost every day, new moles were caught, which made the upper echelons of the major organizations realize that their previous core member review mechanisms had many loopholes.

According to Xiang Jianxing, the local Management Bureaus would soon assemble members for another collective inspection, and the situation would be considerably stricter than the previous onboarding inspections.

Wu Chang didn't want to comment on this, and even cursed, unsure whether they were investigating moles or investigating him.

Who would have thought that the "soon" Xiang Jianxing mentioned was really soon.

The day after notifying Wu Chang, the Wanghai City branch began a new round of collective inspections. Relying on the False Divine Miracle, he successfully passed the inspection, but some people were not so lucky.

Two members were tested on the spot and identified as moles. The two fought back fiercely, but their strength was too poor—one died on the spot, and the other was captured alive.

The guy captured alive was a Level 1 Explorer, two levels higher than Wu Chang, the same level Xiang Jianxing had been before. Ranked by level across all of Wanghai City, this mole could be placed fifth, just below Director Gao, Meng Yawen, and Lei Huo and a few others.

It was said that the other party was a founding elder of the Wanghai branch and one of Director Gao's most trusted people. The blow this dealt to Director Gao was greater than his streaking around Bai Shui Bay that night.

The investigation results came out quickly: the mole caught was a member of Revelation.

During his time infiltrating the Management Bureau, he had not only leaked a large amount of classified information, but had also exchanged it for a large amount of Management Bureau intelligence through resources supported by Revelation.

The reason the actions of Revelation members in Wanghai City were so hard to detect was largely because he had been helping them along the way.

For example, the Night Song Bar incident, and after Tang Renquan's incident, he had also helped Tang Renquan's wife evade capture.

The arrest of Tang Renquan's wife was not the Management Bureau practicing collective punishment in order to eliminate evil completely, but because Tang Renquan's wife was the real big fish—she was the person in charge of Revelation in the surrounding cities including Wanming City, and could also be said to be the mole's direct superior.

This intelligence was extremely important. According to the mole's confession, Tang Renquan's wife, Yu Na, for some unknown reason, was still hiding in Wanghai City and had not left.

Director Gao immediately organized personnel upon hearing this, and based on the mole's confession, implemented the arrest of Yu Na.

Because the target was powerful and belonged to an extreme organization like Revelation, Director Gao only arranged for players above Level 20 to participate; others were only responsible for blocking and reporting.

Wu Chang did not understand much of the intelligence about the mole, but he understood that Yu Na was a high-ranking member of Revelation and knew many secrets.

The arrest operation targeting Yu Na began that very night.

Director Gao called for reinforcements from the Management Bureaus of the other three cities, totaling more than twenty veteran players, to encircle Yu Na.

It had to be said that although the Management Bureau was often led around by the nose, once this behemoth backed by the state machinery truly mobilized, its power absolutely could not be underestimated.

At 2:30 AM, Yu Na was running through the suburban woods with her Stealth skill active.

Her breathing was very rapid, and she kept coughing softly as she ran.

She had taken a gunshot wound to her left shoulder, the right side of her thigh had its defenses broken by a fire spell, the burned clothing and skin had fused together, every step sent a piercing pain through her, two ribs were broken, and there were several internal injuries as well.

Her injuries and lack of oxygen were making her vision go black, and the iron-rust taste in her throat had never stopped.

If she could, she wanted to find a place to rest right away and get a good sleep.

Unfortunately, she couldn't stop.

Not far behind her, one could see the Reveal Light scanning for hidden targets, as well as the Extraordinary Hounds chasing her scent.

Her previously smooth infiltration experiences had made her underestimate the Management Bureau too much—to be precise, overestimate her own concealment ability as a player.

Without the mole's assistance, her actions were full of flaws. Three times in a row she thought she had escaped capture, and just as she was about to rest each time, she discovered she was already surrounded by the Management Bureau.

Even though she had broken out of the encirclement three times through good fortune, she had sustained no light injuries for it.

This had given her PTSD regarding the word "rest." Now even if she were truly allowed to rest, she wouldn't dare let her guard down for a moment, afraid that if she wasn't careful, that hateful phrase would ring out around her: "You are surrounded. Give up resistance and surrender."

Although she didn't want to stop, her footsteps were growing heavier and heavier. She didn't know what poison had hit her during the melee, but her body was gradually losing control.

Every time she broke free from the pursuit, she would anxiously look for a hiding place to rest, precisely to deal with the annoying toxin in her body.

But in the end, she couldn't hold on. Was this as far as she could go?

She stopped, gathered her last strength, and prepared to fight the Management Bureau to the death.

That despicable little bastard who used poison, you really deserve to die. If I find you, even if I have to self-destruct, I'll drag you down with me.

Just as Yu Na had made preparations to perish together, a figure darted out not far from her, and said before she could attack:

"Don't make a move, I'm one of us!"

Yu Na sneered, "In Wanghai City, I no longer have any 'us.'"

"No, I can be. As long as you're willing, I can take you away," said Wu Chang, who had consumed a Transformation Pill.

Yu Na looked at Wu Chang as if he were an idiot. "You think I'd believe that?"

The next moment, she only felt a strike to the back of her neck, and then her vision went dark. When she opened her eyes again, she had already left that heavily surrounded grove and was sitting in the passenger seat of a car.

She glanced outside; the car had already left Wanghai City and was heading toward Wanming City.

And in the driver's seat, the one driving was precisely the man she had last seen.

Wu Chang glanced at Yu Na and said, "You're awake?"

Yu Na adjusted her posture and sat up from her half-reclined position. As she rose, she noticed that the wounds on her body had been treated—the broken ribs had already healed, the internal injuries were basically eliminated, the burned skin on her leg had regenerated, and someone had thoughtfully changed her into a new pair of pants.

Only the annoying toxin in her body remained, with a faint lingering trace. Although one couldn't call it fully healed, her mobility had at least recovered eighty percent.

Seeing Yu Na inspecting the wounds on her body, Wu Chang said, "I'm not a player specialized in healing, so I could only treat you to this extent."

Yu Na glanced at Wu Chang and said, "Thank you."

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "It's what I should do. I said I can be one of us."

Yu Na asked, "Then why did you knock me out?"

!

Wu Chang said matter-of-factly, "You were very emotional at the time. If I hadn't knocked you out, I was afraid you'd mistake me for someone from the Management Bureau and self-destruct on me."

"How did you get me out?"

Wu Chang turned his head to look at Yu Na, grinned, and flashed a row of white teeth.

"If you haven't caught on yet, let me remind you—I'm far stronger than you, and far stronger than those Management Bureau members chasing you."

Yu Na was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "You changed my pants too?"

The car, which had been cruising steadily, suddenly jolted. Wu Chang's voice was a little dry as he said, "It wasn't me. It was a kind-hearted passing Young Lady."

"Heh." Yu Na curled her lip, clearly not believing Wu Chang's explanation.

"What's there to be afraid of? Even if you want some compensation, I won't refuse."

Looking at the mature, alluring Yu Na, Wu Chang clicked his tongue. As expected of a married woman, her scale was truly bold.

A married woman was fine, but he wasn't a Cao thief. Yu Na had wronged him—the pants really weren't changed by him, but by Eileen.

Including the wounds on Yu Na's body, those were all healed by Eileen. Eileen expended great effort to minimize the treatment volume, which was why Yu Na didn't simply revive at full health and wake up on the spot.

Yu Na asked, "Why did you save me?"

Seeing that Yu Na had finally gotten to the point, Wu Chang said bluntly, "I want to make a deal with Revelation. You're my stepping stone."

"What deal?" Yu Na asked.

"Let me state in advance—our Revelation is neither the Tranquility Sect nor the Bliss Sect. When we make deals, we won't go against our own principles. Especially anything too heinous is off the table. But if you really want that, I can, on account of you saving me, help you contact the Bliss Sect overseas."

Because of the four major organizations' heavy promotion, although the Believers' Circle's reputation among ordinary players couldn't exactly be called approachable, it could certainly be called viciously evil.

Especially Revelation—not only was it targeted by the four major organizations, even other evil god believers within the Believers' Circle looked down on it.

What decent person would come to them for a deal?

Wu Chang said, "I want to know why the four major organizations being attacked recently affected the entire Wasteland Realm."

Hiss.

Yu Na sucked in a breath of cold air. "How about we talk about something a little more heinous instead?"

This guy's appetite was truly not small. A secret of this level—she herself didn't even know it. Intelligence she didn't know meant her life wasn't worth as much as this piece of information.

She began to regret being saved by Wu Chang.

Wu Chang saw Yu Na's concerns and said, "Since it's a deal, I'll definitely offer a sufficient price. I told you, you're just a stepping stone—I wasn't planning to use you directly as payment."

Yu Na thought for a moment, then gave an address.

"17 Anyuan Street, East Lake District, Wanming City."

After giving the address, Yu Na adjusted back to a half-reclining position and rested with her eyes closed.

"This piece of information is very valuable. I'm not sure you can offer a sufficient price, but I can try to help you."

The stranger before her might very well be Management Bureau fishing for evidence—pretending to save her, but actually trying to follow the trail to find Revelation's other strongholds.

The two had communicated for a very short time. She didn't even know the other's name, yet her intuition told her he was trustworthy.

Truly strange.

If Wu Chang knew what Yu Na was thinking, he would tell her—it was spiritual pressure. He had used spiritual pressure.

A Spirit stat as high as 138 gave him absolute spiritual pressure over Wasteland Realm creatures. As long as he wanted, very few people could resist his friendliness.

"Rest well." Wu Chang looked at the route on the navigation, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

Finally got it done—his whole night hadn't been wasted.

When he heard that Yu Na was a Revelation high-ranking member and knew a lot of secret intelligence, Wu Chang had begun to scheme.

Unlike the Tranquility Sect, Wu Chang's impression of Revelation wasn't actually bad.

Yu Na was a max-level player with very strong individual combat ability. In a one-on-one, she could steadily take down Director Gao. Combined with her extremely familiar knowledge of Wanghai City, a group of Wanghai City Management Bureau members in their twenties really wouldn't have been able to take her down easily.

If it weren't for Eileen using the Earthly Kingdom to monitor Yu Na the whole time, letting Wu Chang use various methods to pass information, and Wu Chang having Yu Na poisoned with snake venom right at the start, it really wouldn't have been easy to push this woman into a desperate situation.

When a person is in a desperate situation, the misattribution of arousal effect causes them to develop goodwill toward someone they suddenly encounter. If that person is also their savior, the goodwill is even greater.

For a first meeting with a stranger, nothing works better than a desperate-situation rescue—especially when Wu Chang wanted to get in touch with Revelation's line.

As for how Yu Na fell into a desperate situation—don't ask.

The car quickly stopped at the location Yu Na had specified. It was a private club, looking very upscale.

Feeling the car stop, Yu Na opened her eyes. After getting out, she waved at Wu Chang, signaling him to follow.

The two entered the club one after the other. Relying on Yu Na's face, they passed through without obstruction, all the way to the hidden church at the deepest part of the club.

Yu Na didn't knock, just pushed the door open directly.

Four or five believers inside the church were praying. Seeing Yu Na bring a stranger in, they first frowned, seeming about to question her. But upon meeting Yu Na's gaze, they swallowed their questions back down.

The message in Yu Na's eyes was very clear—What status are you, to question me?

The few lowered their heads and greeted:

"Greetings, Bishop Yu."

Yu Na said coldly, "Pause your prayers for a moment. I need to contact Archbishop Yan."

What rank is an Archbishop? In the entire Xia Kingdom, there are only four Archbishops, but nearly a hundred Bishops. An Archbishop isn't someone you can just see whenever you want.

Don't say it—Yu Na really could see one whenever she wanted.

Although Yu Na was a Bishop, her strength and professional competence were both solid, and her status was extremely high. If it weren't for the Earthly Kingdom ritual failing inexplicably some time ago, she would already be the Xia Kingdom's fifth Archbishop.

Yu Na had stayed in Wanghai City precisely to investigate that incident.

The few didn't dare object, and hurriedly used the altar to contact Archbishop Yan.

Soon, flames rose around the altar. On a specially encrypted screen on the altar, a masked man appeared.

"Yu Na, you've broken the rules, bringing an outsider into the church."

Facing the Archbishop's rebuke, Yu Na wasn't afraid at all, and said nonchalantly:

"Today the Management Bureau switched to a new screening method, all the nails were pulled out, and the nails over at Wanghai City bit me out. Every somewhat-famous person from the surrounding Management Bureaus came, four bureau chiefs chased me down, nearly got me killed in Wanghai City."

"Regarding this, I actually didn't receive any wind of it in advance. Yan Xin, do you have anything to say?"

Archbishop Yan was silent for a moment, the reproach in his tone lessening, and said: "Recently the Management Bureau has been guarding against moles very strictly, our informants have had difficulty accessing classified information. Letting you fall into danger was my dereliction of duty. Afterward I will find a way to restore the intelligence network."

"But that's no reason for you to bring an outsider in. What if he's one of the Management Bureau's people?"

Yu Na said: "He saved me from the Management Bureau's encirclement. Hey you, I asked you before why you saved me, but before that there's another question — repeat to him the answer you gave me."

Wu Chang frowned. Was this a test of his memory?

That was almost too easy — he flipped through the chat records in his mind and found it!

He said with a smile: "Her pants really weren't changed by me."

Everyone:?

Seeing the strange looks from the crowd, Yu Na's face reddened and she snapped: "Not that line, the one before it — how did you get me out of there."

As a prominent figure in the Apocalypse, Yu Na had originally not wanted to use the word "escape."

Wu Chang suddenly understood. "That one? You should've said so earlier."

He turned his head toward Archbishop Yan and said with a smile: "I'm far stronger than all of you, and far stronger than every Management Bureau member who showed up today."

Yu Na pointed at Wu Chang's face and said: "A real Management Bureau person rarely puts on that kind of villain mug. Combined with the fact that he saved my life, I choose to trust him. If there's a problem, I'll take responsibility."

Archbishop Yan was silent for a moment, then said: "I trust your judgment. What does he want?"

Wu Chang said: "I want to make a deal with you. I need a piece of intelligence."

Archbishop Yan glanced at Yu Na strangely — what piece of intelligence required his personal decision?

"Go ahead."

Wu Chang: "I want to know why the four major organizations being attacked recently affected the entire Wasteland Realm."

Archbishop Yan: …

A secret of this level, he himself was only barely qualified to know the broad strokes — this kid sure wants to know a lot.

"Intelligence of this level, saving Yu Na alone isn't enough."

Wu Chang said: "I know. On the way here I already told Yu Na — she's just my stepping stone. Since it's a deal, naturally I'll offer other payment."

Having said that, Wu Chang took the "Research Report on Miracles and Wish Power" out of his personal storage space.

A massive tome of parchment some forty to fifty centimeters long, like a small suitcase, was placed right there on the altar.

After seeing Wu Chang's price tag through the altar's attribute panel, Archbishop Yan's eyes went wide.

A grade-B consumable — though on the surface it's said to be equal in value to a grade-A prop, in reality it's priceless on the market, worth far more than an ordinary grade-A prop.

Moreover, the grade-B consumable Wu Chang produced was a perfect professional match for their Apocalypse. The instant he saw it, he knew this deal was done.

Archbishop Yan looked at Wu Chang and asked, puzzled: "A prop of this level, and you just reveal it outright? Not afraid we'll call people to rob you?"

Wu Chang put on a friendly smile and said: "Not afraid. I told you before — I'm far stronger than you."

Archbishop Yan nodded. "Bishop Yu's read on you was right, that mug of yours really doesn't look like a proper Management Bureau type. I'll take this deal. But before I tell you the intelligence, I need to contact the Shepherd first — I'll give you an answer soon."

While waiting for Archbishop Yan, Yu Na hovered around the "Research Report on Miracles and Wish Power," stroking the parchment tome as if caressing a precious jade.

"If you'd told me earlier you had such a killer item, even if I didn't know what intelligence you wanted, I could've agreed to the deal right there in the car."

Wu Chang said: "I told you long ago — I prepared a sufficient price."

Yu Na sighed: "But this was supposed to be my performance credit."

Wu Chang clicked his tongue — these grinders were something else. Barely escaped death and already thinking about performance credit.

"There's plenty of time ahead. If I deal with the Apocalypse in the future, I'll still come to you first."

After waiting about three minutes, Archbishop Yan's face reappeared on the screen. Though he wore a mask, Wu Chang could still sense a lingering astonishment on him.

Archbishop Yan took a deep breath and said: "I told the deal to the Shepherd and got his approval, but the deal has one condition — I don't know if you can accept it."

Wu Chang noticed that when addressing him, Archbishop Yan had switched from "you" to the honorific "you."

"What condition?"

Archbishop Yan: "The true god our Apocalypse cult believes in would like to have a few words with you."

Wu Chang:?

The all-nighter champion finally finished writing — once I started I couldn't stop, an 8k chapter counts as a bonus update, that shouldn't be too much, right?

(End of chapter)