Old Acquaintance

The surrounding Levitation Warships drew closer, extending a gangplank to connect with the airship from the Main Continent.

A group of fully armed soldiers came over from the Levitation Warship and transferred Wilmot and the others from the deck onto it.

Then—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Whether there was anyone left aboard the airship or not, amid a barrage of cannon fire, it shattered into countless fragments in midair.

Wilmot and the others watched the scene, their expressions changing drastically as their faces turned grave.

The spells unleashed by those gigantic tube-shaped weapons possessed destructive power fully comparable to seventh-tier spells!

The empire beneath their feet was far less simple than they had imagined.

Elsewhere.

Zhou Ming's intelligence agency had noticed Wilmot and the others' arrival long ago.

Through "Mana Web Eavesdropping," Zhou Ming had also roughly learned the true purpose behind Wilmot and the others coming to the Orunian Empire.

Conan Cecil.

And Iliyas.

As long as they found and captured those two, the higher-ups of Azure Hand would essentially know who was behind the Purifiers' riot in the Back Mountain Forbidden Area.

To prevent any unexpected complications, Azure Hand had even deliberately sent additional personnel—over a hundred Mana Web Walkers in total... This showed just how keen the Azure Hand higher-ups' insight was.

Yet they had still miscalculated. The current Orunian Empire had long become a colossal entity!

However, considering that his own strength was still insufficient to contend with Azure Hand, how to handle the captured Wilmot and the others became a rather thorny problem for Zhou Ming.

Kill them all?

Or win them all over and use them for himself?

Killing them all was certainly out of the question. If so many people died, the Azure Hand higher-ups would definitely notice clues and