Paying thirty trillion Lang in one go was a crippling blow.
Even Anunnaki, with its immense wealth and businesses spanning over a thousand Open Stars, struggled to produce that much money all at once.
But it depended on the circumstances. Sometimes, being able to solve a problem with money was a victory in itself.
Zi Wei was already an avowed enemy of Anunnaki. In Kaleidoscope's mind, the organization had already been sentenced to death, but it was not the most urgent enemy. That could wait.
So they paid up gladly, planning to destroy Zi Wei later and reclaim everything they had lost.
Sacrificing something today for a gain tomorrow was a perfectly ordinary strategic trade-off.
Unfortunately, Anunnaki had mistaken who its truly most dangerous opponent was.
"Shadow Long, come with me."
After inviting Huang Ji to join the Heavenfall Project, Dulan brought him into an extremely private conference channel.
The two appeared on a beautiful virtual planet. In the distance, steep peaks rose beneath a vast, boundless sky.
Rivers, lakes, and thousands of peaks and ravines were all shrouded in a surging sea of mist.
As they descended, wind whipped up clouds around them. Enormous, stark-white bolts of lightning slashed hundreds of kilometers across the landscape, illuminating the mountains.
Above the highest of those towering peaks sat a being whose entire body was as clear and lustrous as diamond. With cloudlike hair, mistlike tresses, and a graceful bearing, the being had fluorescent light flowing through a transparent, slender body.
Ten beings with powerful auras sat on thrones in the nearby clouds, surrounding the diamond being.
Every one was a Hybrid-Base entity, with at least two layers and as many as four! Some had crane-like postures and mantis-like bodies, while others had swanlike heads and avian faces. Some stood three hundred