Chapter 170: Tenacity

While Li Wuyi was still discussing this matter with his political chamber, Su Chen was busy taking matters into his own hands.

All he was doing was carrying out assassinations left and right.

Actually, Su Chen had never really cared much for this way of doing things, but he had no choice.

He needed to give himself a plausible reason for remaining in Sky City.

If he wanted to protect Zhu Xianyao, Su Chen needed to remain in Sky City so that Eternal Night would hold onto hope until the humans were putting so much pressure on Eternal Night that he had no choice but to let Zhu Xianyao go.

On the other hand, it would cause Eternal Night to grow suspicious if Su Chen remained in Sky City for too long, now that he had managed to escape from Kelesda’s detection.

As such, he needed to remain active.

Even if his actions were a bit suicidal, he needed to demonstrate that he had a purpose in remaining here.

Robbing people had become harder, so assassinating people was an acceptable alternative.

Golden Blaze’s casual comment had given Su Chen enough reason to move.

The death of Skycatching Prison’s warden, Divine Feather Weave was a huge shock.

They couldn’t get in contact with him, but instead of keeping himself hidden, he had actually come out to assassinate other Harpies. What was he trying to accomplish?

Was this a challenge?

Did he know that the Zhu Clan was already in their hands or not?

All of the high-status Harpies could only wonder, but no matter how they thought about it, they never came to an answer.

The main issue now was that their opponent’s bloodthirst seemed to have been aroused. In the following days, he had actually assassinated two more high-status Harpies.

Hunting Harpies and looting strategic locations were different in nature.

The Harpies could set up spatial lockdown formations at Sky City’s strategically important locations to deal with Light Shaking Phantom, but none of those high-status Harpies could carry a spatial lockdown formation with them. As such, Su Chen was basically targeting one of their major weaknesses.

Su Chen hadn’t done so earlier because it wouldn’t benefit him at all. It was only natural that he had had no interest at that point in time.

But now, these assassinations would serve a purpose, and it appeared that he was really getting into it.

In the span of just ten or so days, around eight high-ranking Harpies had been murdered. Sky City was in turmoil as a result, since the Harpies had finally discovered that, despite the fact that they had managed to deal with a Desolate Beast, a disguised human had managed to infiltrate their ranks, and there seemed to be nothing they could do against him.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were completely at his mercy.

News about the Zhu Clan’s arrival reached Su Chen’s ears again and again, but Su Chen ignored them and didn’t ask about them, as if he was totally unaware, and he made no attempt to get into contact with them.

This gave the Harpies a great headache.

If their opponent made no attempts to negotiate or get in contact with the Zhu Clan, there was no way they could anticipate what he was thinking, and the second half of the plan was basically impossible to carry out.

Eternal Night’s thought process was very thorough, but Halcyon Wing Streak’s actions made the Harpies question whether they had captured the wrong person for the first time.

That wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but the problem was that this would create problems down the road.

Just as the commotion in Harpy territory had not gone unnoticed by the humans, what the humans were doing couldn’t escape the attention of the Harpies either, especially if they were never planning on keeping it a secret in the first place......

Within the Perpetual Daylight Castle.

Eternal Night sat on his throne, listening to his subordinates discuss and debate.

“News of our battle with the Thousand Poisons Toad has already spread. The humans appear to be crying out for war. Li Wuyi has already ordered Wang Rang into the palace three times to discuss things, and it appears that Li Ruyun has also received orders. The soldiers guarding the Auspicious Dragon border are merely there as a distraction.”

“Zhu Chenhuan has gone to the capital and is currently activating his connections to convince the other nobles to mobilize. Zhu Xianyao appears to be the primary excuse for this.”

“We’ve heard rumors that Li Wuyi has contacted Empty Mountain and Water Sheen. It appears that he will be allying with the two of them to increase their military strength.”

“News has come from the capital that Halcyon Wing Streak was one of the hostages that Li Wuyi had agreed to release in an exchange for the purposes of disrupting our society.”

Report after report came in, causing even the unshakable Eternal Night to begin to feel a headache coming on.

Empty Mountain and Water Sheen were the two countries under the least pressure because they were behind the front lines of the four countries. As such, they were also the most likely to mobilize their troops. If the three countries combined strength, the Harpies would have no way of resisting. Of course, they could hole up in Sky City and defend themselves. However, they would lose a lot of the territory outside of Sky City, which was also impossible for them to accept. And once they lost the steady stream of resources coming in from the outskirts of Harpy territory, Sky City’s production alone would have a difficult time of keeping up with the rate of consumption.

Even the strongest defense would eventually collapse without any ability to mount an offense.

This was also why the Harpies placed so much importance on the Floating Points plan.

Sky City was powerful, but it was surrounded on all sides by enemies because it had been constructed in the middle of territory belonging to other races.

“Your Majesty, the most important item currently is to send a diplomatic envoy to Liaoye Country and convince them not to mobilize their troops......” one of the subjects proposed.

Eternal Night harrumphed, “If the wolf wants to eat, can you negotiate with it?”

All of the imperial subjects were stunned.

Eternal Night said, “The only way to deal with a hungry wolf is to fight it off so that it knows this meat is not easy to eat. Even if it does manage to take a bite, we need to make it pay a bloody price...... Send word to the Chaos Tower and the Harpy Star to head for the Origin Light Castle and assume the Trigram Formation. Prepare for battle."

Of the Harpies' four Floating Points, Eternal Night had chosen to send three of them off in the direction of Liaoye Country. His determination to show strength was obvious.

However, this decision didn't put anyone at ease. Apart from the humans, the Harpies were also enemies with the Beasts and the Oceanids. The Oceanids were terrorized by Demonic Beasts in the sea and were in no condition to pose much of a threat. They were the weakest of the five Intelligent Races. However, the Beasts the Harpies had to deal with were under Sovereign Inferno's control.

Now that Sovereign Inferno's son was captive in Harpy territory, the Beasts were also probably getting ready to spring into action.

The Origin Energy Demonic Tower alone could not withstand the Beast invasion.

But no one said this aloud. Eternal Night was obviously tearing down the eastern wall to rebuild the western one - no matter how the Beasts responded, the humans needed to be dealt with first.

"If that's the case, then we have no choice I suppose," the subjects all agreed.

In the southern regions of Sky City.

A fierce battle had just concluded.

After slaughtering the final guard, Su Chen reached into the carriage and grabbed the official, hauling him out and saying, "Look into my eyes."

"You bandit!" The official still wanted to mount some resistance, but when he saw Su Chen's pitch black, mysterious eyes, and a powerful will invaded his mind, he began to howl and writhe with pain.

After a brief moment, the official collapsed on the ground, completely motionless, as if he had died. A moment later, Su Chen unleashed a swath of black flames, which surged forth and devoured the Harpy, leaving behind nothing but ashes on the ground.

This Shadow Flame was incredibly intense, clearly demonstrating Su Chen's strength. However, Su Chen had no happiness on his face.

By taking that official's memories, Su Chen was able to confirm what Eternal Night's decision had been.

This vexed him immensely.

Eternal Night's decision would cause the battle to be fought further away from Sky City, which was a problem for Su Chen.

There was no such thing as an impenetrable plan. Like a game of chess, everyone wanted to be the player and not the pawn.

As the ruler of an entire race, Eternal Night was a chess player. How could he allow himself to be led around by the nose by someone else? He didn't know whether the commotion over in human territory was due to Su Chen's interference, but he could sense a sinister aura in the storm brewing.

This was also why he had chosen to fight fire with fire.

Did you think I would be afraid just because we were weakened after a fight with a Desolate Beast? Did you think you could take advantage of me?

Don't even dream about it!

Even if we Harpies die, we will die by the sword! You humans think you can scare us so easily?

He actually didn't care much about Zhu Xianyao.

In this political gambit, Zhu Xianyao was merely a symbolic piece. He had no idea that Zhu Xianyao was the source of all of this turmoil.

In this sense, Su Chen's plan had both succeeded and failed.

He had successfully tricked Eternal Night, but he had failed because, despite the process taking place without a hitch, the outcome left much to be desired.

"Fine, Eternal Night! You refuse to lower your head unless you're beaten to death? Then I'll just have to beat you to death!" A trace of savagery appeared in Su Chen's eyes.

At this moment, Harpy pursuers had appeared behind him. Su Chen didn't waste any time speaking. His figure flickered and disappeared, reappearing in Mair's room.

Because he had placed a clone in the room, Mair never knew that Su Chen had even left. At the moment, they were happily conversing with Golden Blaze.

Perhaps because they had gotten to know each other during the past few days, and because Su Chen had never done anything malicious to them, Mair began to let go of his fear. At this point, they were able to laugh and joke with each other.

As Su Chen returned, he heard Mair say, "......then my father bent me over and spanked me hard. I never saw that clock again after that."

The room was immediately filled with laughter.

Golden Blaze was the only one who noticed Su Chen's return.

He glanced at Su Chen and chuckled, "You're back? Old Mair was just telling us about how he once used Withering Liquid to lubricate his father's clock when he was younger. This is too interesting! I didn't know that the usually stoic Craftsmen could have such an amusing side to them."

"Craftsmen also belong to the Intelligent Races. We also feel joy, anger, and sorrow," Old Mair said sincerely.

"Then what about you? Have you ever shared such amusing experiences with your father before?" Su Chen asked Golden Blaze.

"No, Father was always......" Golden Blaze was just about to reply when he suddenly realized something. He turned to stare at Su Chen, stunned. "Why are you asking me this?"

Su Chen didn't reply. He walked towards where Golden Blaze was sitting, staring intently at him.

Golden Blaze stared at Su Chen in shock. "You...... What exactly are you planning on doing?"

Su Chen suddenly reached out and grabbed Golden Blaze's arm.

He said, "This will hurt a little. Try and endure."

"What?" Golden Blaze was stunned.

With a flash of cold steel, Golden Blaze's arm had been cut off.

"AHHH!" Golden Blaze howled in pain and attempted to run, but Su Chen used his other hand to press Golden Blaze down, keeping him from running. "Hey, hey. Don't be so nervous. "

"My hand, you cut off my hand!" Golden Blaze bellowed.

"Don't be so nervous. It'll grow back...... Here, drink this. It will stop hurting very soon. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." Su Chen hurriedly pulled out a vial of medicine and tossed it to Golden Blaze. Golden Blaze didn't want to drink it, but he couldn't resist Su Chen's pressure. Mair and his two sons were dumbfounded by the scene that had just unfolded before their eyes.

"Why?" Golden Blaze whimpered.

He didn't dare resist Su Chen. All he could do was cry.

Cry like a child.

However, after drinking the medicine, it was true that the pain began to subside.

"I just want to know if your father loves you enough," Su Chen replied.

He carefully wrapped the hand up.