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Chen Qing had given up hope by then.....

He had reacted quickly enough, but still couldn’t catch up, from Baiyun Lake to Southeast River Domain, and then to the entrance of the Eastern Sea, for half a day’s time, he couldn’t catch up. Once into the Eastern Sea, it would be even less possible to do so.

The great battle of the Southeast had already begun, and he couldn’t be away from the battlefield for such a long time. He had to oversee the overall situation, swiftly refine the occupation of the Southeast, close the underworld, and avoid risks!

But just when he was about to give up, he incredulously saw Jiang Xiaoling waiting for him at the original location.....

This startled both Chen Qing and Ao Zhen. According to the tracking of the Dragon’s Breath Technique, King of Qin was already far away. What on earth was happening?

Could it be a real hunt aimed at him?

Indeed, it wasn’t impossible to imagine that, after all, there was no time to set up an Array at Baiyun City; perhaps near the sea entrance of the Eastern Sea there might be some hope?

After all, this place was near the Eastern Sea. If a long time ago an Array had already been set up here, and they simply restarted it, it wouldn’t be impossible.....

But after hesitating for a while, he decided to get closer.

He couldn’t possibly let this opportunity slip away.

Even if King of Qin restarted an ancient Array, under time pressure the restored Array’s power should be limited.

He still believed it wasn’t a dead end, and as long as it wasn’t a dead end, he was willing to take a risk.

"Mister Chen Qing?" Jiang Xiaoling sighed in relief upon seeing Chen Qing from afar.

Number One had decisively walked away, but left himself in the sea. Even with the Water-Repelling Pearl in his mouth, he didn’t know how to leave the vast sea. If he lingered too long, let alone being soaked to a pulp, it would be quite a spectacle if some water monster or shark showed up.....

"Where is the King of Qin?" Chen Qing asked, frowning.

"He’s gone..." Jiang Xiaoling replied with a wry smile. "Could you first take me away from here, then I can explain everything to you?"

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"It really went as you predicted..."

At the location of the Eastern Sea, Mister Tianji had been waiting at the sea entrance for the other party for a long time, a giant Stargazing Mirror in hand, ready to dispatch the prepared reserve forces to provide support in case of any unforeseen accident. Fortunately, they were not needed.

"Ah..... fortunately, we were lucky....." King of Qin gazed toward the Southeast, his eyes deep and profound: "Our time bomb, for now, we don’t need to worry....."

Mister Tianji nodded slightly. Their group all had disintegration programs. The Federation could kill them all if they so wished. At the time of King of Qin’s betrayal and death, he had originally wanted to contact his superiors immediately, but was stopped by King of Qin in his last moments.....

It was a gamble then. The superiors had spent so much resource to send them in; they wouldn’t easily execute them without investigation, especially since they had not only spent substantial resources but also yielded significant results.

So as long as it was not confirmed that they had betrayed the Federation, it was highly likely that they would not activate the program. Instead, they would find ways to reopen the channel and send someone to gather intelligence.

As expected, after waiting for twenty years, they finally saw their chance....

"There won’t be issues with Zi Yue, will there?" Mister Tianji frowned.

"There won’t be any problems....." King of Qin was certain: "She won’t remember, that crucial memory....."

"Really?" Mister Tianji sighed: "It’s a pity about what happened back then....."

"Actually, now that I think about it, there’s nothing to regret.

" King of Qin shook his head. "Even if we had succeeded in controlling this place back then, those people would have destroyed everything upon their arrival. What’s the state of the five major Virtual Realms now?

How do the native NPCs live? Is their life much better than here? "

Mister Paper lowered his head in recollection.

Though he hadn’t experienced the five great Virtual Realms himself, he knew that even a gentler approach like that in Huazhong, after the accommodation rate in the Zhuxian World gradually became insufficient, the authorities still decided to secretly eliminate the local natives to increase the accommodation rate.

The term "eliminate" was chillingly cold, as if to suggest the removal of some weeds.

For the Federation... no, for all players, NPCs could never be their equals.

Perhaps there was some initial goodwill, but once living space became constrained, there would be no hesitation from officials to civilians. ..

Demons and humans coexisting was simply impossible. The Siao Family’s Emperor was right to rebel immediately, for he was well aware that people like him could never walk the same path as them.

"What should we do next?" Mister Paper looked towards the King of Qin.

"Wait..." the King of Qin spoke in a low voice, "After the failure back then, I still can’t figure out who exactly those guys were, especially the government’s spy planted among us. To carry out the plan, that person... must be found!"

"Do you suspect Mister Tianji?" Mister Paper frowned.

Only after the betrayal did they learn that half of their group had been replaced, infiltrated by complex forces from all sides—those privately trained by Huazhong’s elite, those who had secretly reached agreements with ancient players, and especially those sent by the authorities to monitor them.

In the chaos of that time, he took the opportunity to kill those he suspected. Yet now, after an entire cycle of reincarnation, he still couldn’t be certain who among them was the government’s hidden agent.

"From what we learned from Jiang Xiaoling’s mouth, the upper echelons are completely ignorant about how they failed twenty years ago.

In these last twelve years, not a single piece of intelligence has been passed on.

From this, it seems that the government’s spy probably lost their memory in the reincarnation.

Of course... it’s also possible that they’re hidden, observing in secret. "

Not many survived that year, just him, Mister Five Poison, and Mister Tianji, all old-timers who had lived through it. If anyone was suspect, Mister Five Poison and Mister Tianji were most likely...

Mister Paper said, "If the reincarnation caused a loss of memory, then we must find out as soon as possible and kill them again. Without the government’s eyes and ears, they can only focus on Jiang Xiaoling.

This is very advantageous for us. If it’s the second situation—one of Mister Tianji or Mister Five Poison—that becomes a bit more troublesome. .. especially Tianji."

Mister Tianji excelled at divination and could avoid risks in advance. Catching him... would be extremely difficult.

"Tianji is a smart man..." the King of Qin laughed, "If he is the government’s man, then there’s no need to worry. The fact that he hasn’t reported back after so many years suggests he’s also dissatisfied with the Federation. He prefers to follow me because he knows I’m right."

"But he saved Chen Qing!"

"It’s just that he hasn’t thought things through clearly and fully yet. He’ll come around eventually..."

"What about Jiang Xiaoling?" Mister Paper frowned. "He must have a lot of information on the new versions, right? Don’t we need to extract that information first?"

"There’s no need..." the King of Qin shook his head. "As long as our plan succeeds this time, we’ll never lack information from the Federation..."

"That makes sense..." Mister Paper nodded, then added, "Will Chen Qing agree?"

"He will..." the King of Qin said with a smile. "I’ve followed him for twenty years. Though I’ve never been able to see through his true nature, one thing I’m very sure of is that he... has never felt a sense of belonging. He... has always wanted to return to what once was!"

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The battle in Southeast County was going smoothly.

Tian Heng, indeed experienced in warfare, maximized his advantage in troop strength and combat power.

Using Baiyun City as the center, his forces split into four routes.

Within just two days, they had successively conquered five counties, and after reinforcements arrived, they only needed to take down Tiannan Pass for the entire Southeast County to fall entirely within Jiangnan’s sphere of influence!

This grand victory boosted the morale of Jiangnan’s hinterland considerably. With each day’s battle reports, the entire region of Jiangnan was thrilled, and the reputation of the Western Sea War God soared unprecedentedly in these two days.

Facing such grand conquests, Chen Qing should have been quite excited, but at this moment, he couldn’t get excited.

Because... he had learned a truth!!