As one of the core leaders of the human resistance, she knew clearer than most people about the implication of the fight between w.a.n.g Tong and Patroclus.
"All I can say is that I believe that I will win, but I am not a fortune teller either. The quickest way to end this war is a fight between Patroclus and me. However, I doubt he is ready to fight me yet." w.a.n.g Tong replied, hearing which, Zhang Jin nodded in agreement. She knew that the showdown between the w.a.n.g Tong and Patroclus was only a matter of time. If w.a.n.g Tong was able to somehow make the fight happen sooner, the war could be avoided completely.
However, just as w.a.n.g Tong had pointed out, the Immortals had the decisive upper hand right now, so it was not likely that Patroclus would take the risk and fight w.a.n.g Tong in person.
w.a.n.g Tong was much more powerful than Li Zhedao, and even Patroclus could not be 100% sure that he would emerge victorious.
Although the powers of the two warriors were at par with each other, the powers of the factions they represented did not. If Patroclus approached the situation with a rational mindset, he would reach only one conclusion: avoid fighting w.a.n.g Tong.
"Can I...say something?" Sensing that the two"s arguments were getting nowhere, Ma Xiaoru asked timidly. Neither w.a.n.g Tong nor Zhang Jin wanted the war to drag on. The human race had suffered enough in the six years, and the sooner the war could end, the better. The conflict between w.a.n.g Tong and Patroclus was the only solution to end the war without having it drag on. On the other hand, the more w.a.n.g Tong fought on the battlefield, the more he would expose his power to Patroclus. With his sharp mind, Patroclus, might be able to catch w.a.n.g Tong"s flaws that even the latter himself wasn"t aware of.
"What do you think ?"
"If we were to locate the mother supreme and kill it, what would the Zergs do? "
Zhang Jin and w.a.n.g Tong were taken aback by Ma Xiaoru"s question. They stared at each other in surprised silence.
"Did I say anything wrong?" Ma Xiaoru asked sheepishly. w.a.n.g Tong turned and hugged Ma Xiaoru as he pressed a kiss on her cheek. "No, you are a genius!"
Zhang Jin burst out laughing. "How could we have forgotten about the queen? She is the source of the immortals" strength. If we manage to get rid of her, the immortals would lose their hold on the billions of Zergs."
"If the queen and Patroclus don"t get along, I doubt Patroclus would be able to keep his immortality. But, how are we going to find the mother supreme?"
Zhang Jin"s eyes glinted with hope as she said, "It used to be a million dollar question, but not anymore. We just have to think like Patroclus. Now, if I were Patroclus, where would I hide her?"
w.a.n.g Tong laughed. "No one knows Patroclus better than you, Zhang Jin."
"So...did I just save the humanity?" Ma Xiaoru asked mischievously.
"Almost, my dear! You can count on me to find out where the queen is located. Without the mother supreme, the Immortal army would lose all of their edges against us."
"Indeed, the queen is Patroclus" Achille"s heel." w.a.n.g Tong said hopefully. They had finally found a plausible solution to force Patroclus to fight him as soon as possible.
Patroclus knew the queen was the key to control the Zergs, and therefore, he would have placed her in the most secure place. But, where would it be?
The three of them mulled over the question for a while but were not able to find an answer. "Sh*t! I should have thought about it earlier so that we could have had more information to work with."
w.a.n.g Tong nodded. "As long as you can point a direction for me, I can handle the rest. However, we have only one shot at this. Once Patroclus is aware of our intention, our chance of success is zero."
"Someone must know something about the queen"s whereabouts."
"Agreed! Let"s focus on the Moon, Earth, and Mars first."
"She is not very likely on Mars, so we can exclude it from the list for now. It"s too risky and too far from the Moon."
"It"s not very likely that she is on Earth either. Even the Immortal occupied areas were filled with our covert agents, much less our territories." Ma Xiaoru said.
"That leaves only the Moon and s.p.a.ce."
"Yes. Those are the safest places where Patroclus could exert his influences on."
"Sister Jin, if you were Patroclus, where would you hide the queen?" w.a.n.g Tong asked.
"It"s hard to say. I would have placed her in either places. If I were worried about her safety, I would have placed her on the moon. But, I have no idea what the relations.h.i.+p was like between Patroclus and the Queen, so I really have no clue."
"What about you, Xiaoru?" w.a.n.g Tong asked.
"Eeww... I wouldn"t want to even get close to her. The queens are gross."
"Hmmm... I can think of at least one place where Patroclus could have hidden her." w.a.n.g Tong said and let the suspense hang in the air. In many ways, w.a.n.g Tong, was very similar to Patroclus, and therefore, he had some measure of confidence in his guess.
"Spit it out!" Ma Xiaoru urged.
"The Ark!"
w.a.n.g Tong"s answer caught the two girls off guard. They had almost forgotten that formidable s.h.i.+p and what had happened on it.
…
On the fifth day of Boston"s liberation, the masters of the court finally arrived. When Old Fart saw w.a.n.g Tong for the first time in nearly a decade, he simply smiled at him approvingly. Only with the slightest hesitation, w.a.n.g Tong closed in and embraced Old Fart.
Of all the masters of the court, only four had survived the war. The Templar had been at the forefront of the Confederation Army when the Zergs invaded, and had taken the brunt of the enemy force. They were able to push back the Zergs" initial charge, but their success cost them dearly. Nonetheless, the Templar"s court persevered and continued fighting the Zergs even till this day.
Much like the Divine Mastery Sect on Mars, the Templars had become the symbol of humans" resistance. While House Li fought the Zergs on the open field, Templars and House Ma organized covert operations to dismantle the Immortals" rule over the Earth from inside the cities.
"Your hair have grayed, old man!" w.a.n.g Tong said wistfully. He knew Old Fart had been under an unimaginable amount of stress.
"Haha, you have grown up…You have done well!" Old Fart said with a broad smile as tears of joy welled in his eyes.