Chapter 334: Trade

Then, after a few trivial matters, Shi Dong finished his medicinal tea and the topic shifted to work.

“So, my dear consul, these days we’ve already talked about everything that we should talk about, and we’ve started talking about things we shouldn’t talk about. So when will you let me present myself before Her Majesty?”

Caligula looked reluctant. “That, I’m afraid that’s very difficult.” He sighed. “Her Majesty has been very busy lately.”

“There’s always time.” Shi Dong picked up the small box next to him and smiled at him. “Just let me present a small gift on behalf of my family.”

“And then make a ‘small’ request?” Caligula smirked at him.

“Of course.” Shi Dong nodded and looked him in the eye.

The two of them were silent for a moment, and then Caligula couldn’t help but sigh. “Do you really have to make things so difficult for us, Bishop Shi Dong?” He tapped the teacup in his hand and said softly, “We were abandoned by this world, so we left the ground. We were no longer were Romulus’s sinners. All that was left were the winged people. Human wars have nothing to do with us. Everything that happens on the ground can stay on the ground. Now we stand on our own in the world of dark, bettering ourselves. Why would we need to talk about something so ridiculous as an alliance?”

“Because you owe us,” Shi Dong answered indifferently.

The sound of an “eternal friendship” breaking rang out.

Caligula’s eyes went cold, and his smile disappeared. He just looked at the old man and said, “We don’t owe anyone.”

“No?” Shi Dong smiled and reached for the small box next to him but grasped only air. He was stunned. He turned around in shock and saw that a slender figure had appeared behind him at some point.

Flames. She was like flames…

The young girl looked to be even younger than his granddaughter, but gave him a painful sensation like flames, like if he got too close he would get burned.

His skin tingled.

He winced involuntarily.

It was like a fierce flame had suddenly ignited in the darkness.

The case was in her hands. She was fiddling with it.

“Is this a present for me?” The young girl played with the box happily. “Can I open it?”

Shi Dong looked away to hide his discomfort. He bowed to her and said, “This is for you, Your Majesty. Naturally, it’s at your disposal.”

She opened the case.

There was a moment of silence.

The Queen seemed shocked.

“It’s him. Didn’t I say you were hiding something from me granddad?” She took the straw doll that was about to fall apart out of the box. She held it in her hands, touched its button eyes, then asked, “Is my friend still alright?”

Shi Dong smiled.

…

Above the ruins, Ye Qingxuan stared at the divine armor before him.

“Long time no see.”

“Yes, long time no see.” The old musician’s regretful voice came out from the steel. “You truly are the Hand of God. Even though I knew the Saints couldn’t stop you, now it seems I missed the best chance.”

Ye Qingxuan knew what he meant.

He knew more than anyone how powerful the old musician’s Scepter could be if used correctly.

Observing everything through a lens that could nearly stop time, he would never be so careless as to give his enemy a chance. When dealing with such an opponent, you could never expect him to make any mistakes. This was because he always had enough time to consider, to observe, and to find the best solution.

Now the old musician was regretting having made the safest choice when the Saints had Ye Qingxuan surrounded, rather than the riskiest one…

He had predicted that the four Saints’ attack would have left Ye Qingxuan wounded if not dead. Instead of rushing in and giving Leviathan an opening, why not let the Sacred City waste Ye Qinguxuan’s power? After he had used his superior power to absolutely crush Mary, the mortally wounded Ye Qingxuan would have to face the combined might of all of Asgard in the divinity armor.

Unfortunately, the Saints’ enemy had not been Ye Qingxuan, but Hermes, who had already died, or rather, the countermeasures he had left behind to protect his work.

Under Hermes’s calculations, the four Saints were disposed of easily. Ye Qingxuan had not only not been wounded but had wasted four of his precious weapons.

It had been a mistake.

This was probably the old musician’s biggest weakness.

He was old.

Old people had too much, they carried too many burdens, so they would play everything safe. They could not be careless like young people, nor gamble everything on a single move like them.

If he had not cared about the risk of him and Leviathan perishing together at that time, he could have killed Ye Qingxuan with Gungnir at the moment that he was trapped.

Unfortunately, he had chosen safety.

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In this way, he was afraid that even the power of the Sacred City had been wasted on Ye Qingxuan.

When men grew old they grew treacherous, when horses grew old they grew crafty, and when rabbits grew old, even eagles would be foiled.

When facing this old b*stard, Ye Qingxuan did not dare let his guard down at all.

Who knew what kind of poison these old b*stards had in their hearts that they had never even trusted their allies? Moreover, after Rommel’s overconfidence had led to the destruction of the sea fortress, an irreparable rift had opened up between the two sides.

In an instant, he could see the old musician’s heart clearly. Ye Qingxuan tapped the blade of the New Testament Sword and couldn’t help but laugh. “You really believe in me…”

The old musician did not pay attention to the mockery in his words. He merely sighed with a hint of impatience, as well as undisguised disgust and indifference. “When will you cast off this detestable modesty? Enough, Mr. Ye, why pretend? Are you not about to hold the whole world in your hand? When that day comes, you will only be a step away from Asgard…”

The old musician stared coldly at Ye Qingxuan. “Unfortunately, the Sacred City does not understand that the biggest enemy is not the Commonwealth of Caucasian, that puppet that Gaius pushed to the front to catch the arrow, but you.”

“Me?” Ye Qingxuan was amused. “How can it be me?”

“Yes, they don’t understand. You don’t understand either.” The old musician sighed with exhaustion. “The Church has not thought from the perspective of humanity for centuries. They have never lived in the human world, so they don’t understand what you bring. The greatest threat to the world was never power, just as the main axis of the human world has never been catastrophes. Humanity’s worst enemy has always been humans. Unfortunately, I realized this too late, too late…” The old musician’s heart was full of regret. If he had realized this earlier, if he had known what kind of awful ideas lurked under that monster Ye Qingxuan’s skin, he would definitely have utterly annihilated him.

Unfortunately, the situation was already set. In fact, it was not until he had decided to meet death and transmit the Emperor’s extinguishment orders that his thinking was freed from the perspective of the past.

It was no longer limited to himself, nor was it limited to a single time or place, but took everything into consideration. It had emerged from the perspective of Asgard and now saw everything from the perspective of the whole human world.

It was then that he realized how terrifying Ye Qingxuan was.

In this war, everyone carried the banner of the world, but the only one who truly wanted to destroy the world was Ye Qingxuan.

If the Church was victorious, then, for the world, it would be nothing more than returning to the so-called “right track,” continuing to advance under the guidance of the Church.

If Gaius won, then it would be nothing more than the Church controlling the world under a different name.

Although he called it a capital revolution to create a new world, he could still not escape the cage of the old world. In the end, the nobility would be overthrown, the Church would be overthrown, and God would be overthrown, it was true.

But there would be a new capitalist class to replace the nobility, there would be a new organization to replace the Church, and there would be a new God to replace the old one.

Although God was frightening, he was only a god.

Were the countless Kings of Black throughout history not gods? What was the difference between their power and that of a god?

But in the end, the human world had human rules. No matter how strong their determination was, they could only change it around the edges, at best, planting a new testing field.

Let him create the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Let him keep dreaming.

You could always wake up from a dream.

One day, God would grow weary of this world, go into self-exile, and become an empty idol.

Like like the Kings of Black throughout history had chosen.

And one day, Gaius would realize that everything he had done had been exactly the same as the Church. This was the cycle of the human world, since time immemorial it had always been like this.

But Ye Qingxuan was different…

This was not what he wanted at all. What he wanted to do, what he was able to do, was far more sensational than it seemed now. Right now it seemed like he was merely competing for the main role on the stage, but what he wanted to do was completely demolish the stage.

He had already completely cut off the road to power, using the poisonous Net of Aether to erode the path of musicianship that had been open to humans for centuries, giving the power to everyone.

He would use the New Testament as a weapon to fight against the holy writing that had maintained the justice and righteousness of the old world. He would replace the old power with the new. He would replace old morality with new morality.

Perhaps, in his lifetime, there would not be much difference between what he would do and what Gaius would do, but everything that Gaius wanted to do was just a temporary link in the whole plan…

As long as Ye Qingxuan did not become a god, the role of God would be left empty and God’s authority would be weakened. In only three generations, no, two generations, the world would become unrecognizable.

If Gaius won, Asgard could surrender, could pay reparations, could admit defeat, and could sacrifice a generation for the Commonwealth of Caucasian, letting them become the next Asgard. After that, they could slowly figure things out.

But if Ye Qingxuan was able to win, then the whole world would be drowned in his poisonous wine, a slow suicide…

He would cut down the rules and pillars of the world with his own hands. One day, all of the nations would experience violent social upheavals and he would build his kingdom on the ruins.

What he wanted was not this current second-hand world.

He wanted a new one!

“Although I’m very happy that you think so highly of me, or should I say understand me, if you’re the person who understands what I’m thinking more than anyone else, this still can’t change the force field between us. After all, we are still enemies, no?” Ye Qingxuan slowly raised his sword, and without expression said, “So, before we discuss the future, we might as well figure out which of us is going to live and which of us is going to die. How does that sound?”

There was silence in the divinity armor.

After a while, the old musician laughed quietly.

“No, you win.”

He said what Ye Qingxuan had never imagined he would say. He took three steps back, discharged the lightning spear, spread out his steel arms, and a hoarse roar came forth from the giant, “With this power alone I cannot defeat you. I admit defeat.”

At that moment, Ye Qingxuan could not control the shock in his heart. He fell into a daze.

“What… What did you say?”