Chapter 125: Chapter 125: Listening in on Conversations

Mila

Earth had been a lot simpler to conquer than Hira and there were several reasons for that. First, while Earth would eventually be an E rank planet, it was still undergoing the integration. The ease of sensing Laws, the power of the monsters born from the loose primal energy in the atmospheric mana, etc., everything related to the planet itself was about the same, and would be for the next couple years at least.

Second, the invasion forces were of about the same strength. Earth was an E rank world, so most of the invasion forces were of a high quality, but quite a few of the forces attacking Hira had been aware of the Shadow Thief’s inheritance and had thus invested far more than they usually would have, while those forces which had invaded Earth had not been aware Earth was the Yin Yang Sage’s testing grounds before arriving, and, in every case other than the Daybreak Empire and the Psionics from the Deep Void, hadn’t invested more when they found out.

Finally, third, when arriving on Earth, Mila was already too strong for the challenge of an apocalypse style integration, as was Diana as soon as she got that final skill. On Hira, Mila had started on equal playing ground with everyone else, but her accomplishments there had filled out her skill set and allowed her to grow her stats well beyond what most F ranks in the universe ever achieved. No one on Earth, other than maybe Diana, could resist her Evil Eyes - Lust leading to Devil’s Contract combo, nor even see through her stealth, so conquering Earth had been easy.

The aftermath, however, was going to be more complicated. Due to the nature of Nana Xara’s contract with the System, every cultivator in both the normal and the monster tutorials knew Nana Xara’s spirit was still alive, and there was no way to hide this information. Every force which had invaded Earth was aware long before Mila, Aalam, and Isaiah had even arrived, and the monsters born from Earth’s monster tutorial would likely spread the information even wider.

This wasn’t too bad, though, for two main reasons. One, Nana Xara wasn’t an idiot and had prepared some countermeasures to help keep her apprentices from just being squashed by her enemies, and, two, they had Aalam.

As part of Nana Xara’s deal with the System, Earth had gained a couple benefits during its apocalypse style integration. First, while Earth was invaded by forces from the Evolon Galaxy Cluster, Earth wasn’t actually in the Evolon Galaxy Cluster, but about 17 galaxy clusters away. And, second, instead of having 72 years after the tutorial where the planet would not be added to official maps and thus could not be found by anyone less than a god specialized in space magic, the sovereign of the planet would be able to continuously extend that hidden status for the cost of 12 C rank universal credits per year.

This would allow them to hide the planet, at least from people who didn’t already know Earth’s location like Aalam and Diana’s mother, but Aalam’s existence would make it much easier to hide their force. In the wider galaxy, the System generated title of Heavenly Spark Soul King would have an interesting effect, screaming that, A, this is a force which is operated by a monster not a cultivator and, B, that this is a force at the very top for its rank but unlikely to ever rank up. Hopefully, this would make forces at their own level not want to fight them and forces above their level not view them as much of a threat, while not having anyone associate them with the Yin Yang Sage.

When the meeting was done, Mila, still stealthed and walking around, noticed Irena Krol approach Diana and moved closer to listen in.

“Do you need something, Ms. Krol?” Diana asked, a little too politely in Mila’s opinion, as Diana had to radiate strength to keep people like Irena in line.

“Yes, if you don’t mind.” Irena’s tone was respectful, but not submissive, almost the same as Diana’s. But she did wait for Diana to nod to continue. “You said fighting would be permitted so long as no permanent damage is done. Does that extend to your people as well?”

Instead of getting irritated or flaring her aura like she should have, Diana just smiled. “That depends on who you want to fight.”

“I have a question for Li Dai-Zhao, and, if the answer is what I expect, I’m really, really going to want to punch him. Probably repeatedly.”

“Wait. You don’t know?” Diana had a somewhat shocked expression on her face. Then she looked around, aware that likely almost everyone in the room was listening in, but she then quickly seemed to relax. “Why don’t you ask me the question first. If it’s what I think it is, I probably know the answer.”

Irena looked around at the other people as well and extended her aura, filling it with the power of a wind based Law Larva to keep their words from spreading, forcing Mila to move to a location where no one was in order to have the right angle to read both of their lips.

“I want to know if his son and my daughter had a child out of wedlock and if he then kept me and my husband from knowing.” The expression on Irena’s face showed anger, sadness, and quite a bit of guilt, while her aura also trembled slightly, but Mila couldn’t trust any of it was genuine. This was her own biological grandmother after all and Mila could fake all of those easily.

Diana, on the other hand, wasn’t good at seeing through such deception. “That’s the case at least according to Mila’s former profile on the Chinese Communist Party’s servers. According to the copy of her birth certificate revealed in one of the dumps from my brother’s trojan, her parents were Lidia Krol and Li Xiu-Bo.

“Also, sure. Feel free to beat the bastard up to your heart’s content.” Diana reached up and placed a hand on the older woman’s shoulder and squeezed slightly. “Just no permanent harm. He’s still quite useful.”

Irena took a few seconds, seemingly to get in control of her emotions, but possibly just because that is how long such a thing should take. Were Mila doing the acting, however, she probably would have added a couple seconds more.

“Thank you, Ms. Alvaro. We all knew someone was going to become sovereign of Earth and I’m glad its someone like you.” She took a deep breath and her aura came back under full control. “But do you mind if I give you a piece of advice?”

“Not at all.” Diana took back her hand and smiled.

“I noticed you only used an alien spy in your show of force today. It’s all well and good if you’d like to keep all us remaining humans alive. I’ve felt your power and you probably don’t personally fear any of us. But you really shouldn’t agree to things like allowing a new subordinate to beat up an old one, especially someone like me, representing an entire new faction.”

“Understood.” Diana’s expression became a bit more serious. “But this case is special, so how about this.” Diana released her own aura, stopping Irena’s wind element Law from keeping everyone in the area from being able to listen. “Irena Krol, I order you to find Li Dai-Zhao and beat him up to your heart’s content, so long as no permanent damage is done. Then, when you feel like it would be enough, please punch him three more times.

“When he regains consciousness, however, you must talk with him and bury the hatchet.

“Do you agree?”

Irena smiled, the look reminiscent of a boxer right before a match. “Yes. Thank you, my lord.” Irena bowed slightly and then rushed away at max speed, likely already knowing Mila’s grandfather’s location.

“Diana, can we talk?” As soon as Irena was gone, Nitya then approached Diana, a somewhat controlled look of anger on her face, and Diana nodded.

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“Not here.” Nitya then exited the opera house, followed by Diana, and started flying up into the air, Diana following after absorbing her spirits. Mila, in turn, then made steps with Telekinesis and followed them while maintaining stealth.

“What would you like to talk about, Nitya?” Diana asked after they’d risen a couple kilometers into the air and Diana had spread out her mana to greatly weaken sound vibrations leaving the area.

“You know damn well what I’d like to talk about.” Nitya almost growled. “How long have you known Mila was alive?”

“A couple weeks.”

“And when were you planning on telling me?” Nitya almost growled the words.

“Today.” Diana was deliberately keeping her voice calm.

“And you’re working with her? After what she did?”

“Yes.”

“Why!?”

Diana raised the index finger on her right hand. “One, I never felt all that betrayed by her in the first place.” She raised her middle finger. “Two, she’s my fellow apprentice and she represents the Heavenly Spark Soul King, who I need.” Then she raised her ring finger. “Finally, three, she said sorry.”

“Sorry.” Nitya snorted. “Sure, stealing all your brothers tech and using me to gain access to Biosteel’s mainframe is all from before the integration, but how can you trust someone like that?”

“You’ve been working with Mr. Li for almost a year now,” Diana said calmly. “Why did you agree to that?”

Nitya paused for a couple seconds, and, knowing her, she was most likely just realizing her argument was an emotional one rather than rational. “She betrayed me. Acted like my friend for over 7 years all for the sake of using me.”

“Then she was shot by her own government and only survived due to the tutorial starting.” Diana was getting a lot better at lying, her statement entirely true but totally designed to make Nitya not realize Mila had actually died. “That type of thing can make people have a change of heart. Look at Mr. Li.”

Nitya took a deep breath, tears starting to form in her eyes. “Then why hasn’t she said anything yet? We used to talk on the phone every week.”

Mila didn’t know what to say. Nitya had been one of her college roommates, and they’d stayed close even after Nitya had moved back to India. Other than Diana, she’d probably been Mila’s best friend, yet, when asked by her handler, Mila had taken the chance of her leaving her laptop at her apartment to steal all her company’s data, and Nitya now knew.

Diana moved forward in the air and gave Nitya a hug. “Do you want my guess?”

“No. I want the truth.”

“Well, you’re unlikely to get that from Mila today, so my guess will have to do.” Diana smiled slightly as the two of them continued the hug. “I think Mila’s either afraid of rejection, so she’s been avoiding you, or she’s been so caught up in her own drama she hasn’t realized she owes you a major apology.”

Nitya continued to cry and Diana’s eyes turned to follow exactly where Mila was walking through the air to maintain her stealth, quite obviously having been able to see through Mila’s movements, at least while in the air.

Mila was trying to figure out what to do, but Isaiah spoke to her through their bond before she could make any decisions. “Aalam’s stirring and it looks like he’s about to wake up.”

“Diana, we have to go.” Mila sent, embarrassed at how relieved she felt. “Your brother is about to wake up.”

Diana gave her a judging look, then stopped the hug with Nitya. “Nitya, I have to go do something, but I’m going to make you a promise. Mila will talk with you sometime in the next week, or she and I are going to have some problems.”

Diana then gave Nitya one more quick hug and flew off, Mila following her as Nitya flew back to the ground.

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