026. Long Time No See, Have You Reached the Moon? (Part 1)

  The young lord’s kidnapping was quickly noticed, and the guards pursued relentlessly in their hover cars. Fortunately, Barnum’s driving skills were det, and after two hours of wild rag and zigzagging, they mao shake off the guards who were discreetly tailing them.

  The hover car stopped in an abandoned factory to evade low-earth orbit satellite searches. Li Aozi dragged the tightly bound Marlis out of the car and threw him to the waiting Bemudes rebels who had been lying in ambush.

  "This is—Marlis, the Grand Duke's son!" a Bemudes soldier shouted excitedly. "You did well, Mr. Li Aozi, you’re truly our hero for capturing Marlis."

  "Just a ce," Li Aozi said casually. "You interrogate this guy—but don’t kill him. He’s a Beta level; your ons won’t harm him. Also, there were many issues in today’s battle..."

  Li Aozi wao say more critical words, but when he saw the wounded Bemudes soldiers peeking out from behind, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

  After all, as a hired thug from the Tianhuan, he wasn’t qualified or responsible to point fingers at a group of blindly passionate rebels. He might end up leaving himself open to criticism, so it was better to say nothing and just do his own job.

  Although Li Aozi wasn’t particurly intelligent, his emotional intelligence was at least passable. He pulled Barnum out of the car and handed him over to the Bemudes people, telling them to teach him how to shoot and fight, and also to gather information about these people. pared to Li Aozi’s strong image, someone like Barnum, eak and powerless, was better suited to infiltrate and gather intelligence.

  Marlis was taken away, and Li Aozi leaned against the vehicle, a cigarette in his mouth, looking thoughtful.

  "...Iing."

  In fact, the Yellow Cuckoo Blood Pad the 【Inquisitor】 were just urban legend-like Easter eggs in the previous life, discovered by some story enthusiasts who dug into the backstory. People only then realized that there were still many untapped stories from the old era of the Azure Star, and that the Gunth Duchy, which seemed to have a harmonious retionship with the Frost-Pted Republi the surface, had its ows.

  Li Aozi had inally prepared to storm the Surut Pace to forcibly capture someone and then ask about the 【Inquisitor】's whereabouts. Uedly, Marlis came in a hurry, without any bodyguards, perhaps overfident iy's lockdown and his Beta level strength.

  However, both Marlis and the Grand Duke were mentally aligned with the Frost-Pted Republic. Although they were rulers of the try, they didn’t care at all about the people’s lives. Marlis, as the heir apparent, spent most of his time iwin Cities of the Frost-Pted Republic, spending 3 million derbies a week on his appearance, wearing the same clothes only twice, and he greatly disliked the traditional Gunth national attire.

  As for his father, Grand Duke Gamoth, despite being a Gamma-level powerhouse and having ruled the try sihe old era as an immortal being,

  To free himself from physical and spiritual pain, he was utterly subservient to the Frost-Pted Republic, long subjected to PUA by their presidents. Oernational stage, he was essentially a mad dog for the Frost-Pted Republic, biting whoever he could, using his personal power and Gunth’s strategic location (surrounded by five ies and protectorates of the Frost-Pted Republic) to tinually send Gunth people to the front lines, sacrifig them for the Frost-Pted Republic’s women.

  The Grand Duke's brain was long oxygen-deprived; it would be absurd if he could govern the try well. He maintained domestic stability by lig the Frost-Pted Republic’s boots, exp rge quantities of grain and bor from there.

  He didn’t care at all about the domestic talent drain. To the Grand Duke and his son, what was Gunth? They identified only with the Frost-Pted Republie of the femonic powers, from the bottom of their hearts.

  Yet Gunth's agriculture was too advanced; it was like a super field where a single grain of wheat could yield 1,800 kilograms per acre by autumn. As long as people had enough to eat, they could bear it; at worst, they could try to flee. This zy policy led the entire try to lose its motivation tress. No one wao be a teacher in a middle sany people found that after w all their lives, they could make more money by setting up a stall, and they broke down, being unemployed drifters oreets.

  Beyond Silpaya, the try’s w and order were poor, with many unemployed people crowding under bridges. There weren’t enough jobs to help them, but the cyberic modification teology and advanced eai industry from the Frost-Pted Republic made them yearn for the developed four nations.

  This led to an absurd situation: Frost-Pted Republi loo move to a small pce like Gunth, while Gunth people desperately tried to go to the Frost-Pted Republic, at least there they wouldn’t be at the bottom of the discrimination .

  This was also why the quality of the rebels was so uneveile nd and a zy ruler left the only things that could uhe people being fleeing or pig up arms to rebel against the state.

  It sounded ughable, but upon closer thought, it was sad. After the sadness, Li Aozi saw that the rebels didn’t know how to deal with Marlis, and he had no idea what to say.

  In short, the successful kidnapping was an ued surprise, but Li Aozi didn’t let his guard down.

  The Bemudes soldiers finally decided, with excitement, to lock the young lord in the dungeon, but they didn’t have the capability to execute or disarm him. Li Aozi had to use gravity to break his limbs before he felt safe handing him over to the Bemudes.

  Killing him ht wasn’t an option—it would cause quite a stir, not to mention that Li Aozi noticed a yer of frost on this guy’s body, indig he might have been possessed by a ghost.

  "sidering that the Grand Duke himself is a 【Shaman】, it’s normal for him to leave a ghost to monitor his child."

  Killing Marlis directly might alert Gamoth immediately. Li Aozi had no choice but to use his rudimentary knowledge of the occult to add some runes he dungeon, trapping the ghost inside so it couldn’t escape.

  The 【Shaman】 css was quite ridiculous; not only were they proper spell tanks, but they could also manipute souls, walk in the spirit world, temporarily ignore physical ws, and had extremely versatile abilities, especially effective against reckless 【Warriors】.

  However, the 【Shaman】 had a high operational threshold and could also suffer soul erosion during bat. If not careful, they might even end up in a ical situation of "I killed myself."

  In this regard, 【Mediums】 were much better. They mainly unicated with spirits and used psychology, rather than directly merging with them, though the drawback was that their formation was slow, and they were physically weak.

  Li Aozi’s 【Gravity】 didn’t work on spirit entities, but his 【Natural Ignition】 was highly effective. However, against a Gamma-level 【Shaman】, who was far more skilled at pying dead and resurreg than even a 【Biochemist】 professor, it would be difficult.

  Of course, there was some good news.

  Li Aozi’s interrogation of Marlis revealed something iing: Grand Duke Gamoth’s physical dition was extremely poor. He hadn’t obtaihe life support device ized by the Frost-Pted Republic famma levels. His overly powerful body couldn’t be sustained by the enviro of the Azure Star.

  This situation was essentially like nuclear ons; developing them alone wasn’t enough. Without long-term ste capability, whether they could eveonate was still a question.

  The same applied to bat. Without strong logistics, professional guidance, high morale, calm judgment, and swift thinking, having a powerful body was nothing more thara protein, easily burned up.

  Although the difficulty of the "Roar of Freedom" mission was only B, there was still an unavoidable issue if it was to be pleted perfectly.

  Li Aozi looked at the Bemudes members: After a day of fighting, they had all retreated from the city, most of them injured and demoralized. Although Li Aozi had captured the Grand Duke’s son, it couldn’t decisively overthrow the regime.

  Even if the Grand Duke were killed, the Frost-Pted Republic would just airlift a governor over, failing to escape ial rule.

  Unless iional forces were leveraged—but that would take too long.

  The best solution was to kill the Grand Duke, dissolve the Gunth Duchy gover, and within a day, reahe govero attend the GTB summit as a nation—Li Aozi believed the Tianhuan would certainly reize their legitimacy, but whether this would spark a war was unknown.

  However, looking at the situation with Bemudes, the group was a mix of all sorts—you're a young officer, I'm a civilian militia, he's a religious leader—like a manganese nodule of plexity. Expeg them to elect a leader accepted by all seemed unlikely.

  Even if a popurly elected leader came to power, so what? Gunth's terrain was mostly fertile pins covered in volic ash, with occasional valleys. The Frost-Pted Republic's mobile armor could theoretically advance 1,000 kilometers in a day, makiaile.

  They could only choose to appease the Frost-Pted Republid seek external assistance, like from the Tianhuan.

  The Tianhuan never sighe arms embargo treaty. If it came to a fight, the Frost-Pted Republic might not be able to quickly occupy Gunth.

  Li Aozi basically gave up trying to uhis group. After all, he wasn’t a Gunth native; although his reputation was good, reputation alone couldn’t bring bullets and tanks.

  Gunth's fate could only be decided by the Gunth people.

  Li Aozi khis was easier said than dohe fate of a weak nation wasn’t in its own hands.

  Whether it was him or the Tianhuaher inteo leave the Frost-Pted Republic with a full granary. Inflig damage on a great power like the Frost-Pted Republic couldn’t be resolved by simple independence.

  sidering this, obtaining the 【Inquisitor】 was the safest option for Li Aozi.

  After talking with the Bemudes people and learning that they po gather forces to attack the capital, Silpaya, again, Li Aozi abahe idea of ag with them.

  In his view, the decapitation pn was still the best approao exceptions, though he needed a little help.

  Li Aozi gave Barnum a coordinate, and the two drove straight to the K region oskirts of Silpaya. It was a sealed-off, abandoned industrial area where Li Aozi could see a huge crete sarcophagus used to seal off an old-era nuclear power pnt leak.

  "Isn’t this a wastend? The Arkia nuclear power pnt, a reli the old era, supposedly caused a fire c tens of thousands of hectares 300 years ago due to a nuclear leak. It took pilots dropping sandbags from fighter jets a week to extinguish it."

  Barnum alshe ndmark and looked puzzled.

  "Are you sure your ‘fiancée’ is here?"

  "This is the pce." Li Aozi replied.

  Barnum, skeptical, casually turned on the radiatioor.

  Click, click, ctter, hiss, click, click...

  FAL