The Spirit Pagoda Under Sanctions

Xiao Mu opened his eyes again to find himself inside the Spirit Pagoda's metal pod.

The ceiling was cold metal, the white light blinding.

Xiao Mu sat up and flexed his wrists. As he stepped out of the pod, the corridor was in total chaos.

Staff in white lab coats sprinted through the passageway, clutching data pads, while red alarms on the screens made one's eyes ache. Someone shouted into a communicator, their voice cracking:

"Core temperature in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform is abnormal! Data chain severed! Requesting emergency shutdown!"

"We can't shut it down!"

"What do you mean you can't shut it down? Do you have any idea how much of a loss this is causing the Spirit Pagoda?"

No one answered, and Xiao Mu didn't care; if he offended them, so be it.

Xiao Mu leaned against the wall, watching the farce. Na'er emerged from the pod behind him, her silver eyes sweeping over the chaos before she stood by his side.

"Brother, what did you do?"

"Nothing much."

"That was quite a commotion. Won't you offend the Spirit Pagoda?"

"They offended me first. When something is no longer useful, it doesn't need to exist."

Xiao Mu couldn't topple the Spirit Pagoda for the time being, but he could certainly plunge the entire organization into disarray.

He wasn't afraid of offending anyone. Below the level of gods, everyone was just a carbon-based lifeform, and he had ways to kill them all.

If a thousand-degree heat wasn't enough, then ten thousand degrees would do; he could always kill them.

Tang Wulin and Xie Xie tumbled out of the pods almost simultaneously, with Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi following close behind. Wei Xiaofeng rubbed his temples, looking dazed. Gu Yue was the last to emerge, her expression calm, though her heart was filled with helplessness.

Her teacher was coming in a few days; how was she supposed to explain this? Xiao Mu had only destroyed the environment of the Spirit Ascension Platform, right?

"Xiao Mu!" A staff member rushed over, his lab coat collar askew, sweat streaming down his face. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"What I did inside the Spirit Ascension Platform shouldn't matter, right?"

"But this has severely damaged the Spirit Ascension Platform!"

"The Spirit Ascension Platform swallowed my rewards, why didn't you say anything about that?"

"That was the arrangement of the Tower Master. That has nothing to do with us."

"Rest easy, I have retaliated against everyone equally."

Hearing this, the staff member had a very bad premonition.

Wu Zhangkong remained silent throughout, observing Xiao Mu's confidence. It seemed he wasn't afraid of offending the Spirit Pagoda, so he was undoubtedly backed by the Federation's War God Hall.

However, repairing the Spirit Pagoda's Spirit Ascension Platform shouldn't be difficult; it had been fixed quickly last time.

The group walked out of the Spirit Pagoda, the night wind hitting them with the scent of the sea. The lights of East Sea City glowed in the distance like a cluster of stars floating on the ocean surface.

Wu Zhangkong walked at the front of the group, his white trench coat fluttering slightly in the wind, not saying a single word from start to finish.

The bus was parked by the side of the road, its engine still running, the exhaust pipe puffing out a wisp of white smoke.

Xiao Mu was the last to board, taking a seat by the window. Na'er followed and sat next to him. "Brother, is it really okay?"

"It's fine, you don't need to worry. Qian Gu Dongfeng should be panicking right about now."

Xiao Mu still felt it wasn't enough, so he opened his portable laptop and tapped in a few more lines of code.

He reversed the payment flow for the Spirit Pagoda's public accounts.

For instance, if you spent one hundred thousand to buy a spirit soul at the Spirit Pagoda, after payment, you would receive a refund of one hundred thousand Federation coins from the Spirit Pagoda.

If Qian Gu Dongfeng had the ability, he could disconnect from the network system entirely, though Xiao Mu hadn't been the one to build this network security.

Compared to Blue Star, it was truly riddled with loopholes.

The vehicle started, the tires rolling over the road with a rhythmic hum. No one spoke in the carriage; Tang Wulin leaned against his seat with his eyes closed, while Xie Xie tried to strike up conversations with everyone.

Gu Yue gazed out the window, her fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the glass.

She was still wondering how to explain this to her teacher.

"Brother, I want to eat barbecue later," Na'er suddenly said.

"We'll go as soon as we get off."

The bus stopped at the entrance of East Sea Academy, and the group filed out. Xiao Mu held Na'er's hand, and instead of walking into the academy, he turned and headed into Gourmet Street.

"Xiao Mu, aren't you going back to the dormitory?"

"No need. You guys go ahead."

At the same time, on the top floor of the Spirit Pagoda headquarters.

Leng Yaozhu stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the city lights, which resembled a sea of stars floating on the ground. She glanced down at her communicator; there was no signal at all.

She tried three times, but the call wouldn't go through.

"Interesting."

She walked outside the perimeter of the Spirit Pagoda, and the signal returned.

Within the perimeter of the Spirit Pagoda, all communications had failed.

"The Spirit Pagoda has offended someone. This tactic is like a child throwing a tantrum, yet it is vicious; this way, no one will come to the Spirit Pagoda anymore."

She turned around and headed back into the Spirit Pagoda.

In the corridor, staff members were running, the hems of their white lab coats fluttering, while the red alarms on their data pads stung the eyes.

"What is going on?" She stopped a young man.

"Pagoda Master Leng, all signals within the Spirit Pagoda have been cut off, and a group of people is complaining. Furthermore..."

"Furthermore what..."

"The payments we originally collected have all been refunded to their sources. When I left the pagoda to contact the Federation, the Federation claimed it was a network error and that they were adjusting it."

"This is clearly targeting my Spirit Pagoda."

In truth, it was simply that Zero's intrusion capabilities were superior to the defensive technology of everyone in the Federation.

Leng Yaozhu felt that the Federation was dealing with the Spirit Pagoda; otherwise, no other organization could have accomplished this.

It couldn't be that there was some hidden technical backing, could it?

Leng Yaozhu shoved her phone back into her pocket and turned to walk toward the elevator. Her high heels clicked crisply against the floor.

She would let Qiangu Dongfeng handle this matter himself; after all, he was the one in the biggest hurry, not her.

The Qiangu Family was a dictatorship within the Spirit Pagoda.

The elevator doors slowly closed, shutting out the chaos in the corridor. The metal cabin descended, and the lights cast a cold, white hue across her face.

She was going to East Sea City to see her newly accepted disciple.

As for the mess at the Spirit Pagoda, it was certainly something Qiangu Dongfeng had stirred up, so he could deal with it however he pleased.

The elevator doors opened, and Leng Yaozhu strode toward her mecha, which was black and resembled a phoenix spreading its wings.

The cockpit opened, she sat inside, and the engine roared to life.

The scenery outside the window began to blur, from the glass curtain walls of the Spirit Pagoda to the city's elevated highways, and finally into the dim night.

Watching the signal on her communicator fill up bit by bit, she gradually breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, in Heaven Dou City.

The night sky was like a deep blue curtain, with sparse stars and the moon partially obscured by clouds. The city slept at her feet, its lights connecting into a winding river.

Suddenly, a red light rose from the edge of the city.

It was a Red-Grade Mecha.

In the cockpit, Mu Ye looked at the flight path: East Sea City, estimated flight time forty-two minutes.

He was going there this time to find Xiao Mu.

Although it was a dual-hand martial soul, judging by the strength, there was a ninety-eight percent chance it was a body martial soul; the fact that it manifested as hands clearly indicated a difference between the hands and the rest of the body.

Perhaps there was a special ability.

"A secondary awakening should be able to reveal the special ability of those hands; at the very least, it will be a silver-grade awakening."

Mu Ye analyzed, feeling as though he had grasped the essence of the matter.

As for Qiangu Dongfeng, he finally managed to learn, through his own network of connections, that the person he had offended was in the East Sea, and he even obtained the address.

Dong Zi'an gave a final piece of advice: "The child is still young, how can you blame them? Also, don't get beaten up!"

Hearing this, Qiangu Dongfeng was puzzled. What did it mean that he would get beaten up? He was, after all, a Limit Douluo.