The Holy Son's residence.
True Lord Qingshui gave Fang Mo a detailed account of his meeting with Silad.
After listening, Fang Mo smiled. "Looks like we were thinking too small. We should have asked for ten billion."
Qingshui smiled as well. "I never expected the Mechanical Empire to be so filthy rich. They carried a billion gold crystals aboard their ship. They probably anticipated our demand long ago."
Fang Mo's smile faded, his expression turning serious. "Then Leiya's intelligence was true. The Mechanical Empire is building a Star Gate. Their reinforcements haven't arrived, so they don't want a conflict with us right now. They're trying to buy time."
Qingshui nodded. "That should be it. But they didn't expect that we don't want to fight either."
Fang Mo said, "The Mechanical Empire is clearing the Fenyu Continent no slower than we are. They'll be a great help against the evil beings in the future. Since neither side wants to fight now, we can use this opportunity to squeeze a little more out of them."
Qingshui asked, "When should we let them see Leiya?"
"Stall!" Fang Mo said. "Drag it out for two days first. Let them get anxious."
He paused, his gaze sharpening slightly. "But we must make them ransom Leiya back. We can't let them notice anything wrong."
Qingshui nodded solemnly. "Understood."
After Qingshui left, Fang Mo did not linger. He set out on another campaign of extermination.
Now, a palpable tension hung in the air.
Everyone active in the wilderness could sense that some force was suppressing the mutant beasts, but they were already on the verge of erupting.
There were too many of them—enough to make people's scalps prickle.
Those danger zones and domains had spread into a plague. Once they erupted and the mutant beasts poured out,