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Chapter 1182: Rise in Revolt

The first reaction from the Heavenly Gates was that the Ninth Shade Faction did not have this intention, and there was definitely someone driving this behind the scenes. However, someone had actually dared to do this. Currently, they only had some rumors sparked by the Netherworld King’s reaction. Furthermore, their only witness, a miner from Black Gold Town, was dead. Thus, even the Machinery Race who had been sent to the underground world for an investigation might not produce any results.

“Not producing any results is one thing, but we must have the attitude to investigate. The culprits will not clean up their mess completely every time.” The voice of the Heavenly Shell superintendent was cold and strict. Her gaze swept past the Fire Demon Race and Blood Demon Race elders in the meeting room. “I hope that everyone will fully cooperate with this investigation and maintain order in the Land. If anyone dares to put obstacles in our way, they will be punished severely!”

“Wang Zhong’s death is a loss, regardless of whether it is to the Heavenly Gates or the Star Alliance. We all understand the superintendent’s feelings,” the Fire Demon Race elder calmly said, “but we should not allow the Land to descend into chaos because of an insignificant matter. I think this is something no one wants to see.”

This matter was executed... in a rather ugly manner. Such a small affair had caused a great uproar, but it did not matter. Wang Zhong was already dead, and this should be of little import. Furthermore, this had nothing to do with the Fire Demon Race.

“Superintendent, don’t you think that we should deal with the Earth first?” the Blood Demon Race elder asked with a smile. Even if they felt that the Blood Demon Race had done this, it was useless before they obtained any evidence.

“The Earth?” There was a glint in Erza’s eyes. The Earth was a small matter, but they were using this opportunity to attack her authority. Wang Zhong had disappointed her slightly...

“The Earth is no more than a new member, having been in the Star Alliance for only three or four years. Even among the level-4 civilizations, their overall strength is at the bottom, and they do not have the qualifications to advance. Before this, as a member of the Celestial Honors Class, it was forgivable for Wang Zhong to pass some commendation to his civilization. But now, Wang Zhong is dead. It is not very suitable for the Earth to possess the status of a pseudo-level-5 civilization, right?”

“Since when did the appointment of a mere level-4 civilization fall under the purview of Elder Miehill?” Erza was prepared to play down this matter. “There is no need for Elder to trouble himself with this.”

“That is not the case. This matter concerns the balance between the many civilizations in the Star Alliance. Does it matter if it is a major or minor affair then?” Elder Miehill smiled and said, “They do not have enough strength, but they enjoy the privileges of a pseudo-level-5 civilization. This might not necessarily be a good thing for the Earth.”

“Then, Elder Miehill, do you intend to revoke the Earth’s previous appointment?”

“No.” Elder Miehill smiled. “I feel that not only should we revoke the Earth’s previous appointment, we should also punish them severely! Revoke their qualifications to join the Star Alliance!”

Superintendent Erza was slightly dumbfounded. She had expected that the Fire Demon Race would attack the Earth when they were down. However, now that Wang Zhong was dead, the Fire Demon Race wanted to eradicate the Earth, whose strength simply did not qualify for the Star Alliance, in such an ugly manner. This was somewhat unthinkable.

“What’s the reason?”

Elder Miehill stood up and said in a stern voice, “The Netherworld King from the underground world claims that he came from the Earth and started a war against the Ninth Shade Faction because of Wang Zhong’s death. Doesn’t this confirm his identity as an Earthling? Ever since the Earthlings entered the Star Alliance, they have not contributed anything, but they have many people creating disorder. That Aiolos turned the Arena system into a mess. Furthermore, a Resistance Army was established in the Mirror World. Who are they resisting? Who are their enemies? The Earth has brought so much trouble to the Star Alliance, so shouldn’t we punish them? If it were me, just chasing them out of the Star Alliance would be too little. If we were to punish them, even exterminating their entire race is not even enough to make up for the losses we have incurred!”

Everyone started to discuss. It was very obvious that they were not too concerned about this, but they were convinced by Miehill’s words. However, Erza knew that they were wary of the Earth’s potential.

After all, figures like Wang Zhong and the Netherworld King had emerged consecutively from there. This planet full of life was definitely not a trivial place and might have various special characteristics. Furthermore, with the legends that it was once the Playground of the Gods, there must be some secret hiding on the Earth.

If she had guessed correctly, the vanguard troops from the Fire Demon Race should have passed through the transmission array and were about to reach the Earth. As long as the Heavenly Gates issued a command to revoke the Earth’s membership in the Star Alliance, the Earth would instantly fall. Furthermore, according to the rules of the Star Alliance, whoever occupied such “ownerless” planets would own them.

Just as Erza was about to speak, the people around her responded, “Not a bad idea. There needs to be a balance in the development of civilizations. If they are forcibly advanced without enough strength, others will definitely not be willing to accept their place.”

“There has never been enough resources in the Star Alliance to go around. A person’s talent will arouse the envy of others, and this will only harm the Earth. I hope that the superintendent can make a judicious judgment.”

There was no end to the rising voices in the meeting room. At least half of the 30 cabinet members openly expressed their support. Naturally, there was a minority who were neutral. Meanwhile, the Titans and a few other races who were loyal to the Heavenly Shell Race did not speak.

“...”

Erza, who previously felt that everything was under her control, suddenly sensed a grave danger. Before this, the Heavenly Shell Race had always been in an advantageous position in the underlying dispute between them and the Fire Demon Race. Furthermore, most of the cabinet members in the meeting room supported the Heavenly Shell Race. However, with the death of Wang Zhong, it seemed as if the current had suddenly changed.

There was no doubt that the conflict between the two races seemed balanced to most of the other powers. Wang Zhong’s addition had allowed the Heavenly Shell Race to have the upper hand, and everything was going smoothly for them. However, with Wang Zhong’s death, the Heavenly Shell Race had lost their advantage. Furthermore, they did not protect Wang Zhong’s life, so it felt as if the Heavenly Shell Race had suffered a great loss from this situation. Thus, their original advantage had turned into a disadvantage, and they shifted from an active to a passive actor...

The commotion in the meeting was not important; their attitudes and the changing trends were. As for matters concerning the Earth, as the superintendent, she still had the authority to make arbitrary decisions.

“The Netherworld King from the underground world only claims to have come from the Earth, but there is no other actual evidence. However, using this as an excuse to punish the Earth is too improper. We still have to wait for the evidence from the Machinery Race’s investigation before making a decision. As for the Earth’s civilization qualifications...” The complex expression on Erza’s face gradually relaxed and calmed down. “I believe that everyone has investigated the potential of the Earth, and Wang Zhong was not the only outstanding figure. I’m afraid that it is not the case that they do not have the qualifications to be a pseudo-level-5 civilization. Furthermore, we have just appointed them as a pseudo-level-5 civilization. If we immediately revoke this appointment, it will inevitably seem as if the higher-ups of the Star Alliance make frequent changes to their policies. It will be hard for people to feel assured about us.”

Before Elder Miehill could oppose, she simply announced, “This is an order from the superintendent. The pseudo-level-5 civilization status of the Earth will be maintained. Order the higher-ups of the Earth civilization to stay on the Earth. Until the Machinery Race announces the results of their investigation in the underground world, they are not allowed to leave without authorization. At the same time, seal the transmission array to the Earth. Other than the Machinery Race law enforcement squad, no one is allowed to enter or leave!”

For civilizations that were below level-6, the orders by the Heavenly Gates superintendent would take immediate effect.

Just as this meeting ended, an official document had been sent to the Heavenly Treasures Street from the Heavenly Gates.

The Street was now the official contact point of the Earth, and this was acknowledged by the Heavenly Gates. Thus, there were naturally staff at the office executing commands at the transmission array. At the same time, they sent an encrypted video message to the Federation on Earth.

......

Beep, beep, beep...

A signal sounded from Ma Dong’s Skylink wristband. Over the short span of half an hour spent on assigning jobs as usual, a dozen unread messages had accumulated on his Skylink.

Ma Dong was tired and waved his hand, allowing his subordinates to leave. Then, he conveniently poured a glass of red wine for himself and opened the dozen unread messages on Skylink. Eight of them came from the Star Alliance, and there was also an encrypted message.

The communications on Earth were no longer as restricted as in the past. With the Heavenly Treasures Street as their official contact point, the signal transmission established by the Star Alliance could directly connect to the Earth. Besides being able to get the first-hand information that the Heavenly Treasures Street received at any time, Ma Dong had also spent a large amount of money to construct a simple information network through his relations with the Illusion Race. Even though it could not compare to the massive information system of the Illusion Race, at the very least, the Earth could immediately know about major events in the Star Alliance.

Recently, he frequently received news from the Star Alliance. In particular, Wang Zhong had sent him a private message before heading to the underground world to investigate. This allowed Ma Dong to discover that the Netherworld King who was causing chaos in the underground world was Mu Zi. Back then, this information had made Ma Dong extremely excited. Even though the winds howl around the highest peaks and the Earth was currently in this situation, in any case, one stopped worrying about these issues when there were too many of them.

The Earth had lacked an expert that could frighten others. Everyone thought that Wang Zhong was their only pillar of support in this aspect, but Ma Dong never expected that an even more intimidating figure would appear in the blink of an eye. As compared to the waves that Lao Wang caused among the Void Cores and the Solid Cores in the Heavenly Gates, Mu Zi had defeated the Three Great Factions and slaughtered an almighty Gold Core expert in the underground world. This was a major incident that could bring about enough threat to the various powers.

The encrypted document was sent from the Heavenly Treasures Street. As Ma Dong left the document to be analyzed by the decrypting program unique to his Skylink, he opened the other messages in there.

There were messages regarding Aiolos, finding Earthlings who had been separated from the others in the Land two years ago, and so on. Most of these were good news that came in bits and pieces. This was the usual pattern that Ma Dong was familiar with. Ever since the Earth had advanced to a pseudo-level-5 civilization, it had been a long time since he had encountered any vexing matters. This was until he read the fifth message that had to do with the underground world.

“The Netherworld King murdered a Gold Core Elder of the Ninth Shade Faction along the Netherworld River and slaughtered several dozen disciples from the Faction. It was said that he was taking revenge for his fellow Earthling, Wang Zhong.”

The Netherworld King? Wang Zhong? Take, take revenge?

His usually steady left hand could not help but tremble slightly, and he spilled his red wine. However, Ma Dong was completely unaware of this. He suddenly felt as if his mouth was dry and his limbs were weak. It was as if the blood throughout his body was about to condense.

It was impossible. How could something have happened to Wang Zhong?! The Earth’s information network in the Star Alliance was not that developed yet. Thus, it was inevitable that there would be mistakes. Perhaps this was just a rumor.

Ma Dong consoled himself, but even he did not dare to believe his own consolation. Even if the Earth’s information network was not mature enough, those people should know how significant Wang Zhong was to the Earth. If this was simply hearsay evidence, would they dare to report it to him?

Ma Dong’s hand could not help but tremble. His glass of red wine had been casually tossed aside. His hand continued to tremble as he took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down before continuing on to open the next message.

It was news from the Illusion Race.

Elder Hades from the Ninth Shade Faction had taken action and seemed to have killed Wang Zhong at Black Gold Town. The Netherworld King who claimed to have come from Earth decided to avenge Wang Zhong and murdered this Gold Core Elder from the Ninth Shade Faction. Furthermore, he slaughtered several disciples from the Faction...

If the Earth’s information network could be considered still immature, then there were no mistakes in the information from the Illusion Race, as would be expected of a developed intelligence system. However, the word “seemed” made Ma Dong feel as if he could still grasp a last straw of hope.

Regardless of whether it was their personal friendship or Wang Zhong’s current importance to the Earth, Wang Zhong was far too indispensable, and any mishaps to him could not be accepted. The Earth simply could not bear the cost of losing Wang Zhong.

As long as the word “seemed” was there, it meant that his death was not completely confirmed! Wang Zhong was extremely lucky with his life. How many fatal situations had he encountered in the Earth and the Holy City? In particular, his death had been confirmed several times on the battlefield during the Holy War with the Mizobudapi, but he had still survived, right?

It was fine, it was fine...

He continuously consoled himself. He looked at the two remaining messages with some conflict in his gaze. He hoped that there was more information regarding Wang Zhong but was also faintly afraid.

He opened the messages, but they only contained unimportant information. As a result, he was slightly disappointed but also silently heaved a sigh of relief. However, before he could finish sighing, the encrypted message was finally decrypted.

Ma Dong stretched out his hand and slapped his face. Then, he cautiously opened the file. It was an official order from the Heavenly Gates.

The Earth’s level-5 civilization-upgrade assessment procedure would cease immediately, but the Earth would retain their qualifications as a pseudo-level-5 civilization. All the higher-ups of the Earth civilization were to wait on the Earth. Before this order was lifted, they were not allowed to leave the Earth without the approval of the Heavenly Gates and the Star Alliance.

This...

Ma Dong was somewhat surprised. Information was typically either good or bad, but it was hard for him to determine whether this order from the Star Alliance was good news or bad news.

It was bad news as the smooth-sailing days of the Earth would reach their end today. Ceasing the level-5 civilization assessment meant that the Earth had been erased from the promotion list. At the same time, there was an order that all the higher-ups from the Earth civilization were not allowed to leave the boundaries of the Earth. To put it nicely, the higher-ups would have to wait to be summoned at any time. However, bluntly speaking, they were imprisoned and could only await their punishment!

This seemed to be the greatest danger that a civilization could encounter and was only slightly better than being on the Star Alliance’s punitive expedition list. This only gave them the opportunity to “make arrangements for their funeral” and provided them some buffer time. After all, when any low-leveled civilization like the Earth entered the Star Alliance Court after waiting for their trial, there was no doubt that the final result would be death.

However, whether this was good news would depend on the word “seemed” in the news from the Illusion Race.

Ma Dong was very clear of the Earth’s significance in the eyes of the Star Alliance higher-ups. They could not even be considered ants to them. If Wang Zhong was truly dead, the Star Alliance would either vigorously and rapidly cut off any commendation or benefit for the Earth, or have their attention captured by the chaos in the underground world and forget about an insignificant civilization like the Earth. However, since the Star Alliance had given plausible notice to await their punishment, it was as if this was an unsettled case that they would have to await trial for.

A true level-4 civilization was not possibly worthy to be treated in this manner by the higher-ups in the Heavenly Gates. If the Heavenly Gates was to make such a decision, then there could only be one possibility. Wang Zhong’s death was still unconfirmed, and the Heavenly Shell Race was still considering the situation where Wang Zhong could possibly return. Thus, they temporarily protected the Earth. They would only be able to hold on with the appearance of the Heavenly Shell Race!

If the news from the Illusion Race only gave Ma Dong a thread of hope, then there was no doubt that this order from the Star Alliance that involved the Heavenly Shell Race gave Ma Dong an even greater hope.

Ma Dong knew very well that the danger that the Earth faced and waiting for their trial were not as important as Wang Zhong’s survival!

As long as Wang Zhong was still alive, the Earth would have the capital to improve themselves! Even if Mu Zi had killed some Gold Cores in the Land, so what? It was not like he had extinguished an entire Faction or killed a Gold Core among the higher-ups in the Star Alliance! If the situation could be resolved, if Wang Zhong was still alive, and if the Heavenly Gates saw an opportunity for them to use Mu Zi, Mu Zi’s strength could allow the Earth to be seen in a new light!

Knock knock knock.

Hurried knocking could be heard from the door.

Ma Dong closed his Skylink and calmed his emotions. He definitely could not allow the other higher-ups on Earth to know about the information regarding Wang Zhong, even including the trusted subordinates behind him. He could not allow them to obtain any clues. The deterrence that Wang Zhong provided was far too important in stabilizing the situation on Earth. If others knew about this, an internal strife would happen on Earth even before the Star Alliance passed their judgment.

“Please enter.”

His guard entered and bowed respectfully. “Minister Ma, Elder Hebre has called for a Patriarch Society emergency meeting. The meeting will begin in half an hour. A hover car has been prepared for you.”

Hebre? An emergency meeting by the Patriarch Society?

Ma Dong’s expression darkened. “I got it. Let’s go— Wait.”

He paused slightly. “Alert all the members in the No. 1 and No. 2 Aura Chambers to await orders. Get Captain Emily to execute the No. 5 Contingency Plan.”

“Yes!”

...

While Ma Dong rushed to the Patriarch Society meeting, everyone else had arrived. When he opened the door to the meeting room, the entire room fell silent. Shirley and Wang Zhanfeng sat at the host seats, while the dozen other Sacred Teachers all turned to look at the late Ma Dong.

“I’m sorry. I was involved in a minor matter that caused me to run late.” Ma Dong smiled. Over the past few years as the Minister of Finance, he had seen too many major and minor incidents. He was no longer a weakling whose legs would tremble when a Sacred Teacher glared at him.

“Something that could cause the punctual Minister Ma to be late probably isn’t a small matter, right?” Elder Hebre’s voice reverberated throughout the meeting room.

Ever since the Patriarch Society had been suppressed by the joint efforts of Shirley and Wang Zhanfeng, especially after they knew about Wang Zhong’s series of impressive deeds, Hebre had become much more frank and low-key. When he came to the Patriarch Society to attend meetings, he was usually silent. However, he actively gathered the Patriarch Society today. Furthermore, from his tone, everyone knew that he was particularly lofty today.

Ma Dong smiled and said, “Elder Hebre didn’t call for the Patriarch Society emergency meeting to catch my ponytails, right?”

“I was only joking.” Hebre did not debate with Ma Dong. This was surprising as he was typically someone who felt uncomfortable all over just at the sight of Ma Dong.

“Elder Hebre, everyone has arrived. You were the one who called for the meeting. What exactly is the matter?” Wang Zhanfeng, who sat in the host seat, asked.

“Yes. Recently, the Earth civilization has been flourishing, and Wang Zhong has established a stable footing in the Heavenly Gates. Even the Heavenly Shell Race and the Fire Demon Race have seen us in a good light. Heh heh, it is hard to imagine what important issue would involve so many people.”