Spare Azure Mountain

To Heavenly Wing Demon Lord, Saine was an utterly inscrutable oddball.

The questions Saine asked afterward were all bizarre and unrelated, completely beyond Heavenly Wing Demon Lord's expectations.

By the end, Saine even directly asked Heavenly Wing Demon Lord to produce several meteorite fragments from Evil Swamp Time-Space and hand them over as research samples.

This left Heavenly Wing Demon Lord, who had been wholly focused on obtaining more secret information about Primordial Universe Time-Space through Saine and finding ways to acquire resources and wealth from Different Dimensional Planes, utterly bewildered.

He simply could not understand why the Leader of Mechanical Civilization would ignore mutually beneficial cooperation and instead fixate on such insignificant meteorite fragments.

In truth, Heavenly Wing Demon Lord was at a crucial point in advancing toward Level-12 Mid-Stage. His cultivation was stuck at a bottleneck, and he urgently needed vast quantities of resources to support himself. In particular, top-tier treasures involving the origins of Dimensional Time-Space were things he had long dreamed of obtaining.

Establishing cooperative ties with the Primordial Universe Time-Space behind Saine would bring countless immeasurable benefits to Heavenly Wing Demon Lord and the forces under his command.

After all, Primordial Universe Time-Space had always been renowned for connecting numerous natural dimensions. Saine's side surely lacked none of the special resource materials that Evil Swamp Time-Space Beings desperately needed to resist the erosion of their own evil energy.

Likewise, a high-level Resource Dimension like Evil Swamp Time-Space, which constantly waged campaigns in every direction and possessed an exceptionally vast and abundant time-space territory, was bound to contain premium resources coveted by other Dimensional Time-Spaces.

To say nothing of others, powerful beings commonly classified as chaotic evil, such as Dark Nether Death God of Dark Universe Time-Space, the Darkness Sword Organization, and Destruction Demon God Locke, along with the many subordinate civilizations under their command, would certainly drool over the dense evil energy contained within Evil Swamp Time-Space and those Rule Materials related to the secondary attributes of evil energy.

Although many of the questions Saine raised during their exchange left Heavenly Wing Demon Lord feeling baffled and unable to make heads or tails of them, after the two had spoken for a period of time, Heavenly Wing Demon Lord recovered his bearings and steered the conversation back on track. In a solemn voice, he asked Saine the most crucial question.

"How should we demonstrate our sincerity to each other?" Heavenly Wing Demon Lord asked.

It was rather amusing. The two sides had not yet formally established a Cooperative Relationship, and the Surrounding Star Zone Battlefield was still filled with smoke and flames, with the aftermath of slaughter not yet dispersed. Yet Heavenly Wing Demon Lord himself had already given Saine quite a few special Specimen Materials from Evil Swamp Time-Space in his personal capacity.

These Specimen Materials, which contained pure evil energy rules, also struck Saine, who was within the Control Space in the chest cavity of the God of Machines, as quite novel and stirred a strong desire for exploration within him.

Saine then put away the evil energy Rule Materials he had just acquired. His metallic eyes flickered faintly as his gaze settled on Heavenly Wing Demon Lord before him. Slowly, he said, "Immediately withdraw from the current Azure Mountain Civilization war zone and ensure the continuation of Azure Mountain Civilization's legacy. Then I can acknowledge your sincerity and reach some preliminary trade and cooperation agreements with you."

The demand Saine put forward was actually rather excessive.

After all, Heavenly Demon Crown Civilization had been attacking Azure Mountain Civilization for tens of thousands of years and had paid countless prices. Now, just as success was within reach, they were expected to withdraw for no reason at all. No force would find that easy to accept.

Yet it was precisely because this was an excessive condition that it could truly test the sincerity of their cooperation. Moreover, by presenting such a demanding and harsh condition, Saine clearly intended to let the other party bargain and probe their bottom line.

As expected, Heavenly Wing Demon Lord immediately shook his head without hesitation. "My race has campaigned against Azure Mountain Civilization for tens of thousands of years, expending countless troops and resources. How could we possibly pull out at a time like this?"

"Although I alone have the final say in Heavenly Demon Crown Civilization, I hope you can understand that beneath our Heavenly Demon Crown Civilization are many subordinate World Civilizations. Their beings all depend on us for their livelihoods. If we returned empty-handed like this, I would have no way to convince them."

Heavenly Wing Demon Lord firmly shook his head in refusal, showing no intention of yielding.

Then his tone shifted as he proposed a compromise. "I can only promise not to pursue the Gear Beings that have already withdrawn from the Azure Mountain Civilization battlefield. In addition, I can secretly facilitate the integration of these Azure Mountain Civilization beings with the beings of Mechanical Civilization."

Heavenly Wing Demon Lord spoke slowly. His mind was clear, and he had long seen through Saine's demand to the true intention of this Mechanical God Emperor—to lead Mechanical Civilization in swallowing Azure Mountain Civilization.

Sure enough, there was no such thing as a free lunch, nor was there help given for no reason.

Saine had led the Mechanical Civilization Army to extend a helping hand to the Azure Mountain Civilization war zone for no other reason than to assimilate and absorb the beings of Azure Mountain Civilization, thereby strengthening his own forces.

Saine clearly did not accept Heavenly Wing Demon Lord's counteroffer. His expression remained unchanged as he presented Heavenly Wing Demon Lord with a new demand.

In fact, after coming into contact with the beings of Azure Mountain Civilization, Saine had discovered that these native races of Gear Time-Space were naturally suited to joining Mechanical Civilization. The gear structures inside their bodies possessed a natural affinity with mechanical energy.

Especially after Saine entered this Azure Mountain Star Zone battlefield, he could faintly sense the weak aura of that Level-11 Early-Stage Azure Mountain Being, which had already been driven into a desperate state.

For such a Level-11 Strong Practitioner, if it could later undergo a complete mechanical transformation and be converted into combat power for Mechanical Civilization, it would presumably bring many benefits to Saine himself and to Mechanical Civilization as a whole.

Saine's gaze narrowed slightly as he slowly said, "For your civilization, the greatest benefit of that Level-11 Azure Mountain Being may be the enormous quantity of Gear Crystal Nuclei contained inside its body."

"However, since your civilization wishes to represent Evil Swamp Time-Space in trade and cooperation with us, I can find ways to help your civilization obtain similar resources that can serve as substitutes later."

"I believe any cooperation can be negotiated. I want to preserve that Level-11 Azure Mountain Being's life."

Saine's words made Heavenly Wing Demon Lord look at him suspiciously, his eyes filled with confusion.

Heavenly Wing Demon Lord truly could not understand why Saine would suddenly intervene to help this Level-11 Early-Stage being, whom he had never met and who was already gravely injured and near death. What benefit could this bring him?

Even if Heavenly Wing Demon Lord truly spared this Level-11 Azure Mountain Being afterward, given its current state of utter exhaustion, recovering from its injuries and returning to its peak would be far from easy. There was even a high probability that it would permanently fall in level!

With that thought, Heavenly Wing Demon Lord could not help but turn his gaze toward the God of Machines before him, which was in a Fusion State. As he looked at that towering and enormous Rule True Body, radiating endless metallic majesty, an idea faintly flashed through his mind.

But he immediately felt that such a thought was too absurd and instinctively rejected it.

Could this Mechanical God Emperor possibly intend to merge that Level-11 Azure Mountain Being, with its astonishing body shape, into his own Rule True Body as well?!

Such a method truly exceeded the understanding and imagination of ordinary strong practitioners. There had never been such a precedent in Evil Swamp Time-Space.

Although he felt there was very little chance of such a thing happening, Heavenly Wing Demon Lord was still unwilling to relent. He shook his head again, rejecting Saine's proposal, while putting forward a new cooperation plan of his own in an attempt to break the deadlock once more.

The two Powerful Beings, representing different dimensional forces and civilizations, went back and forth in negotiation. After repeated discussions, they gradually reached cooperation terms that both sides found relatively satisfactory.

In the end, Heavenly Wing Demon Lord reluctantly relented and agreed to Saine's demand to spare that Level-11 Azure Mountain Being. However, in exchange, Azure Mountain Civilization's Dimension Supreme Treasure—the Spine of Azure Mountain—had to belong to Heavenly Wing Demon Lord himself!

And the price Saine's side paid to make Heavenly Wing Demon Lord accept such terms was indeed considerable.

Besides promising Heavenly Wing Demon Lord that he would later provide resources equivalent to the quantity of Gear Crystal Nuclei that could be obtained from the Level-11 Azure Mountain Being, Saine also agreed to another demand from Heavenly Wing Demon Lord.

This demand was the key to facilitating the cooperation between the two sides!

Moreover, it seemed utterly incomprehensible to many strong practitioners who did not know the full situation.

Yet Saine, who had gained some understanding of Heavenly Wing Demon Lord's intentions through their increasingly frequent exchanges, showed no surprise after learning of the demand.

The core matter Heavenly Wing Demon Lord wanted Saine to accomplish was actually for him to lead the Mechanical Legion in a surprise attack on the rear positions of the Dimensional Legion commanded by another Level-12 Being of Evil Swamp Time-Space!

There lay the massive stores of war wealth and resources that the Level-12 practitioner of Evil Swamp Time-Space had accumulated during this Dimensional Time-Space war.

Heavenly Wing Demon Lord would even provide Saine and the others with whatever assistance he could during the operation.

This included guidance, intelligence support, and resource supplies.

In return, after Saine and the others captured that Dimensional Plane position, they would have to share half of the spoils with Heavenly Wing Demon Lord!