Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

The news of the Longjiu Family and the Paradise Sect signing a peace and cooperation memorandum quickly spread across the three cities of the Eastern Border.

For the residents of the City of Defense, this agreement had no impact; as a border city often forgotten, they had barely ever benefited from the Laurel Royal Family, and naturally held no affection or animosity towards Duke Longjiu, who had captured the Royal City. The public sentiment in Thistlefort, however, was quite clear—the Kingdom Army had once bullied their way through this city, and the wounds and hatred from just over a month ago had yet to dissipate. The Longjiu Family had beaten the Kingdom Army into disarray and actually enjoyed fairly good public opinion, with most people supporting the peace agreement.

As for Magnificent Castle... separated by a vast sea, the people there merely treated the matter as post-dinner conversation.

However, this did not mean everyone was indifferent.

Shortly after the announcement of the peace agreement, no sooner had the Envoy Delegation left than Elise, followed by Shandela, came knocking.

"Mr. Zhao, what do you mean by this!?" Disappointment and anger were visible on her face, "You had clearly promised me and Shandela that the Paradise Church would replace the Alliance Army in defeating the Longjiu Family, but now you want to cooperate with them? I don’t know what Duke Longjiu has promised you, but I must warn you, he is an out-and-out liar and an ambitious man. If you believe his words, you will definitely fall into a trap!"

Chaoyang put down the book in hand, "You are right."

"Wilson Longjiu started with the same weak stance, guarding his Longjiu Peak, deceiving everyone. And what now!? By doing this, you will lead the Paradise Sect to—" Elise was roaring when she suddenly stopped mid-sentence, "You say... I’m right?"

"Yes," Chaoyang affirmed.

"Then why would you agree to them..."

"It wasn’t just my decision, but the result of discussions within the core of the Paradise Sect." He pointed to a chair in front of his desk, indicating for her to sit down, "Besides the Paradise Sect present, there were also Kokomoqi and Engfelt, and they both approved of this decision. You can’t possibly say that the Magic Goddess and the God of Heroes have been bought off as well, can you?"

Elise instantly calmed down, "Both divinities agreed as well?"

"Exactly, and they also spotted the flaws in Qibo Longjiu’s act, knowing that he wasn’t sincerely intending to share rule over the Kingdom with the Paradise Sect, so the memorandum is purely a front, or rather, an excuse for the Longjiu Family to buy time."

Even this affair itself could have been a decision made on the spot by the eldest son of Long Jiu.

Chaoyang guessed that the Duke must have given him a certain degree of authority. Beyond scouting for news about the liberation of the City of Defense, another purpose was to closely observe the Paradise Sect. No matter what news came from the Royal City, the people of the Western Borderlands had not seen this new sect with their own eyes. If the sect and divinities were both weak, they would simply be annihilated; if they seemed hard to handle for the time being, then a non-aggression pact would suffice.

As for why he would want to sign a treaty with great fanfare, the reason was probably simple—to apply eye drops to Duke Rosha from the land of mountains.

Since the other party could use the news of the Paradise Sect’s search for its heart to entice the Longjiu Army, Duke Longjiu could naturally use the news of the negotiations to gross out the Alliance Army.

Chaoyang agreed with Qibo’s assessment.

Looking at the sequence of events, the expedition team had just arrived at Thistlefort, and that place had already received the news, clearly indicating someone had leaked the high-level decisions from Zhaixing City. If the City of Defense remained a mist-covered ruin, searching the whole city would take at the very least a month or two. By the time Qibo’s delegation reached Thistlefort, they might still be wandering around the City of Defense without sparing a thought for what was happening behind them.

If this line of reasoning continued, it was possible that the Longjiu Army really had made a massive push eastward.

Unfortunately, City of Defense was indeed an Evil God’s Labyrinth, and even after returning to fifteen years earlier and experiencing a series of historical events, he still found himself on the same day upon returning.

That is to say, in the eyes of outsiders, the exploration team only spent two days on the road before returning triumphant, and this time difference made Qibo Longjiu see two cities closely connected, as well as a flourishing sect with more than two hundred thousand followers.

"Although the Paradise Sect is not weak, it’s currently quite difficult for them to reach the power influenced by the Western Borderlands. They need time to prepare for the next stage of war, and so do we, so signing this memorandum does not mean peace will truly come," Chaoyang said patiently.

"So that’s how it is... I’m sorry, I got too excited," Elise’s expression softened.

"I told you that you can trust Mr. Zhao," Shandela patted her shoulder, "He has never failed in what he has promised."

"Then do you know what kind of preparations they are making?" she asked again.

Chaoyang shook his head, "Currently it’s not very clear, but when the Longjiu Family and Mechanical Sect decide to unify the Old Continent, their momentum will surely be quite formidable."

Seizing the Royal City, invading Gleck Academy... This series of plans was clearly predetermined. To assimilate these resources, Wilson Longjiu could tolerate the Paradise Church and the Alliance Army temporarily controlling most of the Eastern Border. Moreover, this also indirectly proved a point, which was their optimism about their own growth in strength: annexing the entire Eastern Border did not require striking while the iron was hot, and sending troops out later would only be easier.

After the two said their farewells, Xue Quan walked in.

"The expansion plan has been roughly drafted," he placed a thick stack of reports in front of Chaoyang, "written by the Control Center Staff Department, including demands for various basic materials and estimates for manpower dispatch."

These people worked as efficiently as ever.

Even if the royal Envoys did not come, the Paradise Sect would inevitably expand its territory. After discussing with Xue Quan and others, Chaoyang believed that developing westwards was not as good as turning back to explore the New Continent. Wishing power, unlike money, is desired less by those who live in affluence and prefer stability, far less than those struggling on the brink of survival at the lower levels of society. Thistlefort and City of Defense still fit this characteristic, but the further westward you go, the more developed the cities, and it feared that developing followers efficiency might be difficult to achieve like City of Defense where a whole city was converted at once.

Therefore, it might be better to focus the main effort on those pioneering cities similar to Magnificent Castle, and the scattered Haiwei clans, all are potential targets for the Paradise Church to preach. As for the Old Continent, just continue with news and tourism campaigns as before. With the port of City of Defense, the Paradise Church actually opened up a link between the New and Old Continents, and all the overseas developed cities could become their backing in the Old Continent.

"They’ve worked hard," Chaoyang said while picking up the report, "Let’s go through them one by one."

...

In the land of mountains, Zhaixing City.

Since the exploration team brought back news of the revival of City of Defense, the atmosphere among the Alliance Army had been quite oppressive.

Duke Rosha strictly forbid anyone from publicly discussing this matter and demanded that all insiders must not reveal the situation in City of Defense nor the news of the divinities’ departure.

Indeed, this even more than the inexplicable recovery of City of Defense had deflated the army’s morale. Shandela’s escape was a betrayal, Ryan’s departure without a goodbye was a betrayal, Elise not coming back could also be begrudgingly chalked up to issues within the Kingdom Army. But the Magic Goddess and the God of Heroes choosing to stay at Thistlefort couldn’t be explained by betrayal.

For hundreds of years, the belief was that divinities were great beings born to protect humanity and any choice they made was the right one. Besides, these two divinities were also the protectors of the land of mountains; to accuse them was to slap Duke Rosha in the face.