Basecamp, Blue Lagoon. Everyone returned to base and was replenis.h.i.+ng their energy at the blue lagoon when Han heard 9527’s scream.
"You actually agreed to go to the Veins Vortex!?" 9527 appeared behind Han and screamed at him.
Han nodded, "Yes, it was a very bad situation at the time. Wai Late Dao and I were both injured and everyone else just came out of the Golden Tower. Everyone was exhausted and spent, so it was not a smart idea to confront other people."
"Besides, Lushui Qiulin vouched his life for us to leave and got into an argument with some guy named Sa Hai. I did not want to cause too much trouble for Lushui Qiulin so I agreed to it."
9527 said, "When you get to the Veins Vortex then you’ll know the seriousness of this matter. Listen to me, no one should go to the Veins Vortex, it’s a death trap!"
Han frowned, "If that’s the case then we would have sold out Lushui Qiulin and he’ll be in a lot of trouble."
9527 said, "Lushui Qiulin won’t die, but you will if you go. This is not a discussion, and I have made the final decision. We shall get ready to depart from the Veins Tunnel."
9527 turned to Sima Hunfeng, "Hunfeng, I need to discuss something with you." Sima Hunfeng got up and followed 9527 to the control center.
Sima Hunfeng frowned, "I’m afraid you cannot stop Han, he’s too stubborn. He will not betray and backtrack on his words, which is something he would never allow himself to do."
"I know." 9527 faintly said, "Han will go, so will you and I."
Sima Hunfeng confused, "Then why did you say you’ll never allow Han to go and suicide? Unless…"
9527 eyes lit up and opened a monitor, "Take a look at this first, our base entrance was under surveillance. I know these people well, they are spies from All G.o.ds Corporation. Specially trained agents to gather military intelligence."
"I spotted them shortly after you guys came back. Obviously, Jacquet has lost his trust in Lushui Qiulin, he sent Lushui Qiulin to meet the Golden Family. Meanwhile, he also sent Lus.h.i.+ Qius.h.i.+’s arch enemy Sa Hai to keep a tab on him. Lastly, he set up spies around the perimeter. All these points to the conclusion that Jacquet began to cast a doubt on Lus.h.i.+ Qiulin these days."
"Well, that’s a no brainer because Lushui Qius.h.i.+ is next in command after Jacquet. Everyone trusted him and his reputation was taking a toll on Jacquet. With his extreme pettiness personality, he will never allow such a person to separate his power."
Sima Hunfeng coldly replied, "Surveillance? I shall go and destroy them at once."
9527 shook his head, "No, we need to keep them for better purposes. You already know about the Veins Tunnel right?"
Sima Hunfeng said, "Yes, I heard we can leave the Cursed Land in stealth across the Five Corporation’s territories via Veins Tunnel. Weren’t you preparing for this? You crafted all these s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps and unmanned planes with the advanced fission metals."
"That’s right." 9527 said, "Not only did I use fission metal to craft the battles.h.i.+ps, I also made a number of recon drones. Look, this is a video captured by a recon drone scouting the Veins Tunnel. I now know where the Vein Tunnels leads to."
Sima Hunfeng stared at the monitor and saw a mysterious s.p.a.ce filled with colorful bubbles, and there were a lot of nerve like things.
"Not even I thought about this possibility, the end of Veins Tunnel was the Veins Vortex." 9527 was excited.
"Veins Vortex? Where Sa Hai asked Han to go?"Sima Hunfeng was confused again.
9527 replied, "Yes, the Veins Vortex is located at a special joint. It is where the Eastern Dark Net connects to the Western Dark Net. Anyone that wanted to go from East to West, will have to pa.s.s through here."
"As for the Five Corporations meeting at the Veins Vortex every seventeen years, it’s a form of conflict of interest!"
"The Veins Vortex is a one-way tunnel. The West Dark Net’s people and cargo can freely arrive, but the East Dark Net’s people cannot bypa.s.s the obstacles to depart for the other end."
"For unknown reasons, every seventeen years that the West Dark Net will send a lot of cargo floating towards the East. So, every time, the Five Corporations will send in their own team inside the Veins Vortex to extract these goods."
Sima Hunfeng was puzzled, "This is just to salvage the wreck? It doesn’t sound dangerous."
9527 answered, "Of course it is dangerous. First of all, the obstacles between the East and West is very lethal, and the stuff that comes from the West is not only goods, there will also be corpses, even soldiers, and demons! A tough fight will surely break out if you encounter them."
"Now we control a secret pa.s.sage to the Veins Vortex, it means that when the Vortex is open. We can avoid all the chaos and go directly to harvest the biggest fruit!"
"But before that, we need to create an illusion that we have already left, that way no one would know it was us who did everything!"
Sima Hunfeng let out a long sigh, "So that’s your real plan, let Han go in from the front and we enter from the side. Best if we can make it seem that we had an ugly fallout with Han due to the Veins Vortex."
"That way, we can take away all valuables without anyone suspecting that it was us."
Sima Hunfeng changed his tone, "But this will put Han in grave danger, he must face so many enemies alone."
9527 sighed, "Yes, because I knew the danger involved that’s why I wanted to discuss with you. Realistically speaking not everyone is Han’s enemy. Time Activator, Bruce, Dark North all admired Han to a certain degree and even tried to invite him."
"We can enter the side with Han as well. But I think if that happens, then we would really put Lushui Qiulin in danger. Maybe you don’t understand the importance of Lushui Qiulin, even if it’s one in a million chance we should still try to get Lushui Qiulin to join our side!"
"The All G.o.ds Corporation is huge and Lushui Qiulin represents almost half of the corporation. Jacquet is obviously strong, but he doesn’t meddle with corporate matters and rarely shows his face inside the corporation. All important events are handled by Lushui Qiulin."
"If we can gain the support of Lushui Qiulin, it would be like chopping off All G.o.ds Corporation’s legs!"
"Our largest enemy is the All G.o.ds Corporation. Even though no one is complaining, but I can feel it. Including Han, no one wants to stay here in the Cursed Land, everyone has family and would like to visit their loved ones. But the reality is no one can leave the Cursed Land and this has become our curse."
"So even if it seems difficult, we still must gather our strength to face the All G.o.ds Corporation. It’s like a fight between ants and an elephant. If we can’t take down this elephant, our men will be obliterated by it sooner or later!"
Sima Hunfeng had nothing to say, it was the reality. They were forced into the Cursed Land. Even though the All G.o.ds were super powerful, they still must face the challenge.
The group was getting stronger day by day, but it was still far from challenging the All G.o.ds Corporation.
Lushui Qiulin and the treasure inside the Veins Vortex were key supports for this group and 9527 did not want to waste such perfect opportunity.
The plan was perfect but required Han to risk everything. He needed to attract the enemy’s attention and attempt to convince Lushui Qiulin. 9527 can’t bear to push Han out as a friend, so he had to discuss it over with Sima Hunfeng.
As the two continued to hesitate, Han’s voice came from the other side of the door.
"No need to discuss anymore. I shall go to the Veins Vortex and attempt to convince Lushui Qiulin."
"Han! When did you get here?" 9527 asked.
"Awhile back." Han pinched off his cigar b.u.t.t as he walked in. He normally does not smoke but occasionally when he got stuck thinking, he’d chose this way to numb his nerves.
"But it is really dangerous." Sima Hunfeng said seriously.
Han turned around and slowly walked outside, "This is settled. Since we are putting on a show, then let’s put on a d.a.m.n good show. No one is to follow me beside Blue Star, Black Egg, and Silver Fox. NO ONE!"
Sigh
Sima Hunfeng and 9527 both let out a long sigh. No one could do anything about Han’s stubbornness.
"We have to trust Han. Now let’s plan out the specifics." Sima Hunfeng said after a moment of silence. "Han chose to shape the big picture, then we must not let his efforts go to waste."
… …
Three days later, the crystal lotus and blue lagoon’s effects were weaker than before. Still, they were the G.o.dsend treasures and it healed Han with miraculous speed.
Han and Wai Late Dao appeared in the training room, and Han’s theory had always been that those who fought beside him were considered brothers!
At the moment, Han did not have any divides between him and Wai Late Dao. They were close like family and Han told Wai Late Dao of 9527’s plan.
Wai Late Dao nodded, "No wonder he once was the All G.o.ds Corporation’s chief planner. He represents the pinnacle of technology in existence and also shows the courage that no ordinary man possesses."
"This time the plan is very risky, but if he actually succeeds, then from now on your group will have bargaining rights with the All G.o.ds Corp! s.n.a.t.c.h all the outputs from the Vortex at once, in front of the Five Corporations! This is the real business, it’s equivalent to robbing all Fiver Corps’ base."
Han curiously asked, "The Veins Vortex is that important?"
Wai Late Dao nodded, "It wasn’t like this before. But two of the most recent outburst all brought incredible loots. Before the Lone Abyss guy appeared, the Five Corporations were already prepared to fight each other. The most fundamental reason was that the Veins Vortex was about to open and everyone wanted a little bit extra."
Han shrugged, "I hope so. I believe that as strong as those weapons are, they are still only items. The most fundamental rule of survival is the people!"
"If it weren’t for Sima Hunfeng and others, I wouldn’t be alive today. I also wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Blue Star, Silver Fox, Black Egg, Xiao Bao, Yuan Yuan etc."
"So you joining us is far more meaningful and valuable to me than what the treasures offer. After all, you are the descendent of master soul formation spell strategist, and I am excited about your abilities."
"I only plan on doing one thing this time. Do what I can to persuade Lushui Qiulin to join us, especially with the opportunity now that Jacques is holding a grudge against him."
Wai Late Dao laughed because Han really treated him like an insider. Even though he never said he would stay, Han was already making claims of us doing this, us doing that.
But then again, Han was real down to earth to people, at least to his friends. A few simple words left Wai Late Dao very comfortable deep inside.
Wai Late Dao found out after he came here that there was no such thing as Wolf Fang group. There was no secret organization, it was just a bunch of strange weirdos that gathered around as friends.
In the beginning, Wai Late Dao thought Han was the leader and he later found out that was not the case, no one listened to Han off the battlefield. Wai Late Dao then thought maybe Sima Hunfeng was the leader, and that was also not the case. Wai Late Dao was surprised that big mouth Boya addressed Sima Hunfeng as the old geezer that just doesn’t die.
Then Wai Late Dao thought the leader must be 9527, since 9527 was once the All G.o.ds Corporation’s chief planner. And he was wrong again, when naughty Luo Ying pulled a prank on 9527 by hiding in a corner, it startled 9527 so much that his face turned all pale. A bunch of people just stood there and laughed, they joked how 9527 was pranked by a little girl Luo Ying of all people.
Well, this was an unorganized and undisciplined bunch and they formed a loose group on the basis of friends.h.i.+p. It was a complete misunderstanding that outsiders called this group the Mysterious Wolf Fang Group. There was absolutely no mystery to it, the group was the opposite of mysterious!
Wai Late Dao smiled at Han, "There is not much time left, let’s begin now."
"I formally invited Pathless Origin to help me, because the Six Path of the void has a hidden path, and it is reflected in his name, PATHLESS!"