Kai Deng arrogantly sat in his seat, effortlessly securing a spot in the top eight. Luckily, he had picked up some core technology, successfully bluffing Ivanovic.

What's the point of being able to fight one more person? In the Royal Court, it's all about forming alliances. Colleagues of equal rank are all competitors vying for promotion. You need a binder from this department, another from that department—only when they're reliably intertwined can you gradually erode the upper levels of power.

Moreover, Alicia is a huge piece on the chessboard.

Whether I can resign is not up to Diaz. No matter how cunning the Alan Royal Court is, they still care about appearances. Best to blend in first.

Just need to deal with one more fool to make it into the final round.

Making it to the top four is already a big achievement! This is the final showdown—let's see which dimwit wins this one.

Elsewhere.

Outside the Drifting City's oasis camp.

"This is a damn fixed match, a hero move, turned emo for no reason."

Liszt couldn't understand a damn thing the host was saying—it's all mental battles, is it? Some mutual visual destruction fantasies?

"Getting to the top eight is already impressive. That woman isn't really planning to lead troops to attack Heaven Port, is she?"

Rein held his head in his hands; the East Sea Island struggle just got real.

"We can win! The Immortal Emperor is likely already in the city. As long as Mr. Mai launches an attack, everything will get better!"

Liszt urgently called the Mulong Capital, fearing the Emperor's wrath.

"This is Liszt; get Celeste on the line immediately!"

Liszt lit a cigarette; he needed to micro-manage again, especially after what he did with Mulong. The Alan Royal Court wasn't happy with him, probably needing to take some action.

Should I avoid confronting them?

A strategic retreat is necessary, playing it safe for now.

[What's going on? You should be on your way to Golden Palm Port; it should be quite safe.]

But the voice over the radio was General Fen's.

Over the past few days, Fen had been busy, arranging for railway transit fee distributions, initial construction of the oil plant, and finalizing leasing agreements for Golden Palm Port.

Mulong doesn't have many seaports, and Golden Palm Port is the biggest one. Although it's leased out, tariffs that influence local purchasing power can't be entirely monopolized by Black Sail; blood needs to flow inland.

It's not a real cession of territory; otherwise, Black Sail would have to consider their position of constantly fighting a war of public security in Mulong. And public security wars are something even great nations struggle with unless you wipe out the entire population, and it's not something Black Sail can handle.

Lao Li and Su Yizhana have a subtle relationship—it's a double-edged sword. From Fen's perspective, it's not that Liszt was manipulating Su Yizhana; it's more like Su Yizhana, as the Spartan Queen, sacrificed for her country. This led to the negotiations over the past few days; because Mulong's people didn't understand oil and gas resources, aside from that, Black Sail pretty much conceded in all other aspects.

Instead, it feels like Black Sail is working for Mulong and getting paid, though the pay is quite amenable.

But it doesn't matter; these people lack foresight, while Su Mei's "1.6 billion Golden Dragons" deal is locked in.

"I'm listening to the Continent Martial Arts Competition broadcast—aren't you worried at all?"

Liszt had had it, feeling indifferent due to facing unfathomable cold during mental exchanges.

The proximity didn't leave room for much delay.

[If we can't change the predetermined outcome, being anxious won't help. We should instead consider what to do if the Emperor throws a fit because he's not on board.]

Fen's tone was incredibly calm.

"What can we do? The Aran Navy is bound to get lost around Heaven Port. I even get lost on Kersuna Island. How could they not?"

Liszt burst into maniacal laughter.

[...]

Fen was dumbfounded. "I better move my machine gun position five centimeters to the left."

[Since we reached consensus a long time ago, there's no turning back now. To maintain our current scale of power, we can only bet on Lostra. A Beima envoy came during Su Yizhana's coronation days ago. Now, Beima's internal situation is quite bleak. Rodrigo the Eleventh has already clashed with the puppet king. Heaven Port is relatively out of reach, but it has geopolitical disadvantages. When the Great Wall falls and Beima collapses, sea transport supplies can set off from ports like Londen City, greatly shortening the voyage. It's challenging to hit the Far East due to the long battle line; history has proven that. But hitting Heaven Port is easy. Given complete antagonism with Alan, we can only pour all our life's force into bleeding the Emperor in Beima to gain more of Lostra's support.]

This is Fen's worst-case scenario.

"Damn." Liszt didn't know what to say—Glasses was ruthless. He didn't expect to find himself on the same side as Mr. Chai in such a surprising way. "I'm not asking about this; I just want to know if the newspapers in Lostra are ready, especially the group photo with Zote. Otherwise, when it opens, it'll be hilarious if nobody knows who did it."

[I've already communicated with Celeste yesterday about this. The Lostra civilian media has printed the newspapers, and they will be massively distributed after the literary performance before the champion is decided. Alan's intelligence department will be the first to get the news. Achieving the feat of taking down Zote is inevitable.]

"General Fen, you're the most reliable when it comes to getting things done. I'm heading to Pedan, going to dig up your black history!"

Liszt threatened.

[Hope you're bold enough, and the Magic Energy Industrial Committee doesn't find you. By the way, I should remind you: the third quarter's financial report will not suffer losses like the previous two quarters. The dividends are quite considerable.

But those dimwits Reinshadi fantasize about becoming super-rich in the Narrow Sea, buying buildings like they're going out of style, which is obviously unrealistic. Have them lower their expectations. It's still the investment phase, over and out.]

"Tsk..."

Liszt found it hard to imagine how Fen could hold himself together sometimes, with the creeping dissolution of a broken financial guide.

Tuned back to the Continent Martial Arts Competition channel.

The match between Silence and Gedre had already started.

"We can only place our hopes on Silence and the stateless person! They must win and violently take down Kai Deng!"

Shadi cheered for both, not caring who won as long as it was a fierce man.

"Goddamn stateless person, the most genius nickname ever, there's a hint of the anonymous there."

Rein was impressed, as this guy claimed to have no nationality, yet the adventurer's guild had already given him a moniker. There's a bizarre charm to it.

At this very moment.

In Aran Imperial City, at the Continent Martial Arts Competition venue.

Silence had already chosen his weapons, a longbow with a wing blade and a short sword.

Gedre was peculiar.

He held just a spear, and not in the usual grip but reversed, held backward.

Gedre planned to save all his strength for after he won the championship. No more exhibitions—just one kill shot.

"The match begins!"

The female host had just finished speaking.

Boom!

A terrifying explosion sound; Gedre held the spear backward to throw it directly in a split second, an instant.

The electric light hadn't even sparked.

When clarity returned.

The barrier protecting the viewing stands outside the coliseum shook.

Silence's neck was spewing blood, his head pierced by the spear, pinning the spine to the wall at the edge of the field.

After this scene unfolded, it brought forth the deafening terrible explosion sound.

The tremendous tearing airflow split the field's sand in two, cleaving it into halves.

The first death of the evening had occurred.

Instant kill.

The entire scene was in an uproar.

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