North Ridge City.
A massive atmospheric vortex had appeared over Asia's skies. A typhoon was coming.
The city overhead was unusually quiet. Chen Ye stood atop a skyscraper with his hands behind his back, while the city and streets below were terrifyingly silent.
It was as if the government had notified the public in advance and evacuated them from the area.
The howling wind continuously whipped Chen Ye's suit.
He tugged at his tie and casually tossed it away. It drifted off on the wind, vanishing who knew where.
"So quiet."
Chen Ye put on a pair of white rubber gloves, then slipped both hands into his pockets.
The silence was eerie. The Nine-Tailed Fox had clearly arrived. Judging by their numbers, there were probably two divisions?
At least, Chen Ye could sense roughly thirty thousand fully armed soldiers.
Quite the grand spectacle.
Chen Ye chuckled softly. "Every great work requires sacrifice to forge it. The other lifeforms on Earth may not understand, but they must obey."
"The emergence of a god has long since become an irrefutable fact."
"No matter how far I still have to go in this process, it is merely a matter of time."
"Whether they call me a natural disaster or a demon during this process, I will gladly accept it."
"Because any explanation is superfluous. The moment a god descends upon the mortal world, that is truth beyond dispute."
"Don't you think so, Chu Yang?"
As Chen Ye finished speaking, a helicopter suddenly hovered overhead!
Chu Yang dropped from the sky and landed directly before Chen Ye. "I'm here to negotiate terms, Weaver of Fate."
"Is that your opening line?"
"Or are you really imitating someone?"
Chen Ye smiled. "Fine, no jokes. If you want to talk about last time, you should have brought that bomb with you again."
Chu Yang wore a standard black uniform, his clothes likewise snapping wildly in the wind. "A bomb like that probably couldn't kill you anyway. Besides, I don't have one. It was fake. Otherwise, I would've blown myself up long ago."
"And you still dare show up?" Chen Ye revealed an amused smile.
"I said it already. I'm here to negotiate terms."
"If I'm not mistaken, you intend to directly seize control of all of North Ridge City and use the citizens of North Ridge as hostages to make the Nine-Tailed Fox hand North Ridge over to you, right?"
"We can withdraw from North Ridge. The condition is that you release half of North Ridge City's citizens. That is our only condition."
Chen Ye pondered for a moment.
Release half and keep half. The hostages would still be in his grasp, yet he could take North Ridge without expending any effort.
It sounded wonderful.
But whenever someone offered you favorable terms, the first thing you had to consider was why they were doing so.
Since they could not save everyone anyway, they would save only half?
That line of thinking was certainly viable, but it did not seem like something Asian soldiers would do.
Abandoning the few to save the many, saving only half the people—perhaps it was possible abroad, but not necessarily here.
So either the favorable condition itself, or what lay behind it, could be part of their plan.
In other words, this was actually a smokescreen, spoken only to lower Chen Ye's guard?
Chen Ye had good reason to think so.
They had brought thirty thousand people to find Chen Ye just to negotiate with him and save half those people?
No, I seem to have overlooked something...
Chen Ye frowned beneath his mask. "How did you know I intended to take the entire North Ridge City hostage? Who told you?"
Chu Yang met Chen Ye's gaze without hesitation.
"You call yourself fate. Can't you figure it out?"
"True. Those who claim they can toy with fate will always be toyed with by fate once."
Chen Ye suddenly removed his mask, then took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
At that moment, countless humanoid puppets in suits suddenly appeared before Chu Yang.
The puppets were not invisible. They stood there openly.
Some stood to one side to block the wind, some drew out a cigarette and placed it in Chen Ye's mouth, while others took out lighters to light it for him.
"Whew..."
Chen Ye exhaled a plume of smoke. "Those who claim they can toy with fate will eventually be toyed with by fate, huh..."
"Interesting. I'd like to see what surprise fate has prepared for me."
Weapons of mass destruction?
Would they dare use them in the city?
Although there were no civilians left in this area, the citizens in the other districts had clearly not been evacuated. Would they dare use weapons of mass destruction?
Hmm...
Perhaps something smaller would do?
Chen Ye assessed his body. At present, a missile would probably reduce him directly to ash.
But that was irrelevant.
What truly puzzled Chen Ye was how Chu Yang and the others had learned his identity, and how they had determined that he would definitely be here.
Of course, it was possible that Chen Ye had missed some clue, or that he had been located by satellite.
But it was impossible for them to know Chen Ye's plan.
After all, the idea of taking all of North Ridge City hostage was utterly absurd. Even if their imaginations were unusual, they could not possibly have guessed that Chen Ye's threads could cover the entirety of North Ridge.
Unless...
That hypothesis was interesting.
Suppose there really was something—or someone—who could observe the future. Then it would not be strange for them to have made these preparations in advance, or even to know Chen Ye's secrets.
Thinking of this, Chen Ye exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Let me guess. Someone among you can observe the future, right?"
"Or are you a reincarnator who already knew my plan? Or perhaps it's both?"
Chu Yang's expression visibly darkened upon hearing Chen Ye's words.
"Looks like I guessed correctly. But how much did I get right exactly? Can you tell me? I'm quite curious about the future too."
Chu Yang's eyes instinctively flicked downward. "You did guess right. There is someone among us who can see the future."
"This time, I will use the future to defeat fate once."
Someone really could foresee the future?
Then this was troublesome. If they truly knew the future in advance, then their daring to come here meant they had already seen their victory.
That was very bad for Chen Ye.
To be safe, it was time to make a break for it.
Chen Ye had just begun to shift his foot when his brow suddenly furrowed.
No.
Could he be bluffing me? He knows they can't beat me, so he's pretending to be certain of victory to force me to make a move?
After all, if they had truly glimpsed a future where they won, why had they not acted yet?
What were they waiting for?
Just as Chen Ye was puzzled, Chu Yang suddenly stepped forward and launched a side kick directly at Chen Ye!
Chen Ye pulled the threads, and a puppet beside him struck out, instantly grabbing Chu Yang's ankle.
"Didn't you say we were negotiating? What, no more talking?"
Chu Yang clenched his teeth, kicked off the puppet with the borrowed force, then charged fiercely at Chen Ye!
"Negotiating, yes—but with our fists!"
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