I Have Infinite Skill Points-Chapter 506: Barefoot People Are Not Afraid of Those Wearing Shoes
"Your Majesty, I don’t know if it’s just my illusion, but I always feel that our plans, the words we mean to say, are all within the expectations of Jade Country. They always seem to have the right response. Could this mean that they actually knew the truth all along?"
"That’s... hard to say, but when it comes to scheming, Jade Country is thousands of years ahead of us—we’re only playing with the leftovers they discarded.
Tomorrow, you and Wang Lan, among others, will head to Pioneer Space. Take this opportunity to cultivate closer ties with them. The longer we can drag things out, the better for us; I will seek more international assistance in the meantime.
Since my ascension to the throne, I have weathered many storms, have I not emerged unscathed every time? This time should be no different. There’s an old saying in Jade Country, ’When the mountains are exhausted and there seems to be no way out, the willows reveal blossoms, and another village appears.’"
Early the next day, Wang Lan and another person, along with State Preceptor Chenghai and two Galaxy Stage disciples from the Temple, prepared to set out. In Vine Country, the world of Star Martial Warriors and that of ordinary people are almost entirely separate.
The highest leader of the Star Martial Warriors is the State Preceptor, and even if they are not monks, the Temple is considered a Holy Land in the hearts of the Star Martial Warriors. Logically, if this were the case in Jade Country, the Star Martial Warriors would have already overthrown the king’s rule long ago.
But Vine Country is very strange because the Temple preaches Buddhist doctrines that emphasize transcending worldly power and disregarding fame and fortune. Therefore, even though the Temple leads the warriors of Vine Country, they would not commit acts of treason to maintain their orthodoxy. If they committed treason, then the teachings of the Temple would change, and their orthodox status would be lost.
Because of this balance, the entire Vine Country has always been under dual leadership: the King as the primary leader and the Temple National Master as the second. The territory of Vine Country is comparable in size to a province of Jade Country. Although Vine City is to the east and Pioneer Space is to the northwest, the distance posed no challenge for the five individuals’ speed.
Since they were led by the State Preceptor, Wang Lan and the others easily entered Pioneer Space, where the Star Martial Warriors of Vine Country were cautiously expanding outwards, reclaiming lost territory.
The total area of Vine Country’s Pioneer Space is less than 40,000 square kilometers, which is roughly the size of three cities in Jade Country. Some domestic Pioneers would probably laugh at this size. Is this even worthy of being called Pioneer Space? It’s just a bit larger than the average Different Dimensional Space.
The size of the Pioneer Space determines how strong the Exotic Beasts it can accommodate are. As the five of them delved deeper into Pioneer Space, despite the decent strength of the Exotic Beasts, and their leader being at the Galaxy Stage level, powerful for Vine Country, they hardly qualified as Exotic Beasts in the eyes of people like Wang Lan.
Used to playing on hard mode, Wang Lan and his companion relished the rare opportunity to play an easier version of the game, advancing with remarkable speed. If they were followed by a group of Pioneers, they could probably reclaim the entire Pioneer Space in just one day.
After advancing fifty kilometers, Wang Lan and the others reached the first line of defense. Vine Country’s defense philosophy differs from that of Jade Country; the further back their lines are, the stronger the defenses. The fifty-kilometer line was originally Vine Country’s last line of defense, an important one, manned by a force of a thousand Star Martial Warriors.
"There are signs of battle, but the response to the fight was very hasty, as if they only realized what was happening when the Exotic Beasts rushed into the camp and hastily organized a resistance," Yu Ruoyun analyzed after looking around.
"These idiots, waiting until the Exotic Beasts were right in front of them before noticing anything." Master Chenghai’s face turned ugly upon hearing Yu Ruoyun’s analysis, and he cursed through clenched teeth.
Master Chenghai assumed that the Cloud Sea Pioneer Space had been obliterated by a surprise attack from Golden Cicada, leading to the Exotic Beasts entering an undefended territory. It never occurred to him that aside from the first line of defense, the rest were all ambushed after only the guards on watch were killed.
Now, seeing the signs of resistance on his own line of defense, he subconsciously believed it was due to the negligence of duty causing them not to notice the incoming Exotic Beasts until it was too late. When they did notice, the beasts had already flooded in. Under such circumstances, with swarms of Exotic Beasts, death was inevitable.
"Master Chenghai, how many lines of defense are there in Pioneer Space?"
"There are three."
"Let’s go, to the next one."
The group again moved deeper into the territory, hammering any Exotic Beasts they encountered and rushing on when they didn’t. The combat prowess exhibited by Wang Lan and Yu Ruoyun left the two monks accompanying the State Preceptor in a daze of astonishment.
Both Wang Lan and Yu Ruoyun were stronger than Vine Country’s top expert, Master Chenghai, and they were merely members of the younger generation. By this measure, how formidable must Jade Country’s strength be?
If Vine Country were to be used as a reference point, wouldn’t there be hundreds, if not thousands, of young high-level warriors like Wang Lan in Jade Country? And what about the older generation, those who are ten or twenty years older than Wang Lan? Shouldn’t there be tens of thousands of them?
Put another way, in Jade Country, there are tens of thousands of warriors strong enough to be first-rate experts in Vine Country. Should a war break out between Jade Country and Vine Country one day, couldn’t Jade Country simply crush Vine Country with a flick of their finger?
Considering the tense relations between Vine Country and Jade Country, the two monks were filled with trepidation. Throughout the journey, they kept stealing glances at each other, and their eyes communicated an identical thought.
"What if we defected? Not be citizens of Vine Country anymore."
"I suddenly remember what my mother once told me, ’In this life, I have no regrets entering Huaxia.’ I recall that one of my ancestors ten generations back had half Huaxian blood. Hmm, I think it’s time to trace back to my roots."
At the second line of defense, the situation was much the same as at the third line. There were signs of resistance, but the frontier fortifications and the stealth posts were relatively intact. Seeing this, Master Chenghai also began to have doubts. Why were both defense lines so strange? Were they all blind and deaf when the Exotic Beasts attacked?
"It seems that Vine Country has also fallen victim to a secret attack," Wang Lan stated, no longer hiding what he knew.
"Major General Wang, do you know something?"
"This situation is quite similar to that of the Cloud Sea space: aside from the first defense line being slaughtered by the Golden Cicada, all the other lines of defense were compromised due to the withdrawal of the guard patrols, which allowed the Exotic Beasts to attack the camps without any early warnings.
"As the Exotic Beasts charged in, the hasty resistance ultimately failed to form an effective strategy. Outnumbered, they were all killed in battle, and their bodies became fodder for the Exotic Beasts."
"Damn it! I did suspect that even if the El Nino beast tide was ferocious, it wouldn’t have resulted in such heavy losses for us, right? From what I know, it’s not just Vine Country that suffered; Titanium Kingdom and Nest Country have faced a similar degree of devastation. Especially Nest Country—beasts have even broken out of the Pioneer Space there. In the end, they had to request a retired five-star admiral to take action to drive the beasts back into Pioneer Space.
"By the way, Wang Lan, in the Cloud Sea Triangle area, our country, Jade Country, Titanium Kingdom, and Nest Country all suffered great losses, but there has been no word of any losses for South Summon Kingdom. Could this mysterious force possibly be South Summon?"
"Vine Country has always been at odds with South Summon Kingdom!" Yu Ruoyun said, glancing indifferently at the State Preceptor. "You don’t sound very gentlemanly when you say such things, State Preceptor."
"Princess Yu overstated the matter. I am merely stating the facts. While our four countries have suffered immense losses, South Summon Kingdom alone remains completely unscathed. Isn’t that suspicious? If there were no human intervention, I could only say that South Summon Kingdom is incredibly lucky. But if there was human manipulation, why was South Summon Kingdom left untouched?"
"Let’s head back first. Just as it is with Vine Country, we’ll need to investigate the other four countries to see if a mysterious force was involved. If we find the shadow of this mysterious power in each case, it would indicate that their plans are exceedingly ambitious. They’re using our four countries as pawns in a grand scheme, not fearing the possibility that the pawns might be too heavy to move and might cause them to throw out their backs," Wang Lan mused for a moment before speaking.
Returning from Vine Country’s Pioneer Space, it was now approaching dusk. Facing Princess Chaxi’s invitation, Wang Lan unhesitatingly declined and returned to the embassy with Yu Ruoyun to rest.
"Envoy Liu, could we possibly request to investigate the Pioneer Spaces of Titanium Kingdom, Nest Country, and South Summon Kingdom? The scope of this mysterious force’s machinations seems vast. It’s not just targeting the Cloud Sea Pioneer Space; it’s aimed at all the nations in the Golden Triangle Area."
"Well... it is possible, but it would require diplomatic negotiation," Liu Yun said, showing some difficulty on her face. "Actually, there’s no need for such trouble, isn’t Yu Ruoyun a member of the International Security Council?"
"Huh?" Wang Lan said, looking at Yu Ruoyun in surprise. "Aren’t you part of the general staff?"
"The International Security Council is affiliated with but distinct from the United Nations and directly led by the Five Permanent Countries. As a global security body, holding an International Security Council agent’s credentials allows one to travel without a visa to any member nation of the United Nations and to enjoy the highest level of investigative authority.
"So, with an International Security Council agent’s credentials and an investigation directive from the Security Council, one can theoretically investigate any area in any country.
"This credential is essentially a universal pass. It doesn’t conflict with whether or not I’m part of the general staff," Yu Ruoyun explained with a hint of pride.
Finally, she had found something that could give her the upper hand over Wang Lan.
Wang Lan’s rise over the years had been too rapid. Originally, the Star Martial Art rank could press down on Wang Lan, but Wang Lan had already reached the Star Sea Realm. In terms of military rank, Wang Lan was a Major General, while Yu Ruoyun was only a colonel. Both were Titled Strongmen, but in a tally of two ties and one loss, Yu Ruoyun faced complete defeat against Wang Lan.
Now, with Wang Lan lacking the special agent credentials of the International Security Council and Yu Ruoyun in possession of them, the loss turned into a tie. Both were geniuses; it was fair to say they were evenly matched.
"Envoy Liu, turn on the television," a staff member of the embassy suddenly said.
"What’s going on?"
"King Manai is holding a press conference."
"We are deeply grateful for the selfless assistance from Jade Country. This afternoon, a team made up of aid from Jade Country and Master Chenghai led the defense forces of the Pioneer Space in a counter-attack.
"We spent merely three hours to reclaim a vast expanse of territory occupied by the Exotic Beasts and successfully recaptured the third defense line, liberating fifty kilometers of Different Dimensional Space.
"I hereby express my sincerest and warmest gratitude to Jade Country. Let us celebrate the friendship between our two nations..."
"What does Manai mean by this?" Wang Lan asked, puzzled.
"They’re making a big announcement about Jade Country’s assistance to Vine Country, placing Jade Country on a moral high ground. Later, Jade Country will be less likely to make excessive demands of them due to the need to maintain face," Liu Yun explained, seeing through the ruse.
"Aren’t they afraid of getting slapped in the face?"
"Those who have nothing to lose have long abandoned shame. However, this attitude shows that Vine Country truly has been cowed."
「Meanwhile, below the page of the press conference, a streaming news feed scrolled by.」
"At 1:30 this afternoon, Master Cheng Ming of Aiman City was brutally murdered in his home by thugs, who horrifically took his heart, presumably for some vile ritual."
