The Decision to Attack

"No, I suspect that what you encountered was the mysterious force of the Plundering Clock!" Katharine said.

Despite the fact that major powers in the other world are investigating this evil cult, little actual progress has been made so far, aside from eliminating some peripheral organizations.

Moreover, intelligence on this organization has yet to reveal its full extent. As a result, Katharine has repeatedly raised her expectations for the strength of the Plundering Clock, judging that the opponent may still possess Saint Rank combat power.

Su Ming narrowed his eyes, "If that's the case, it's really hard to say!"

What happened on Earth just now was very likely related to the Plundering Clock, and now we've encountered this group of people in another world.

"Can you take care of them?" Su Ming asked.

"Uncertain," Katharine said with concern. "Ailisha has only just entered this realm, and she will be at a disadvantage against most Saint Rank opponents."

If we encounter a powerful veteran, a one-sided defeat wouldn't be surprising. Worse still, we know nothing about this old woman; if we encounter a class with a counter-class, the situation will be even more complicated."

Faced with an enemy of unknown strength, potentially high intensity, and completely unfamiliar characteristics, Su Ming was starting to have a headache.

What Katharine didn't know was that Zijin also had a weakness in her mental defenses. It was fine against ordinary enemies, but if she were to expose herself to a powerful foe, it would be extremely troublesome.

How should he decide? Su Ming was momentarily at a loss.

"In short, it's too late for me to get here," Katharine continued. "Yise and Silver Mask's squad are nearby; I've already notified them to come and provide support."

"Good."

"Oh, right," Katharine added before ending the call, "Ge'enda'er, when you see Yise, tell her to make sure she wears the winter coat I prepared."

Sure enough, every mother worries about her daughter getting cold.

"It's not that style again, is it?" Su Ming said. "Your little poison milk is full of resentment about the luggage you prepared."

"I'm doing this to help you," Katharine chuckled, covering her mouth. "Don't worry, what I'm preparing for Yise is just a simple matching outfit for the two of us."

****

In the Lisi City, in the illusory world of the ranger's investigation site, the fire suddenly flared up with the girl's movements and then spread rapidly.

Leoni kicked.

Time was instantly frozen in "Trace Shadows of All Things," and all images were instantly stilled.

He walked through the flying debris and slowly approached the strange girl, carefully observing the gray threads wrapped around her head. The threads did not appear out of thin air, but gathered from above, like some kind of invisible string, controlling this body.

Leoni had never seen such a bizarre spell or skill. He took a deep breath, enduring the stinging pain from his injury, and began to trace the source along the silk threads.

Soon, he followed the silk thread to the outside of the house and then out of the Asitake family's courtyard. As the exploration area expanded, more phantom images of buildings were constructed in the world of "Fangwu Trace Shadows," and fine beads of sweat began to appear on Leoni's forehead.

Two streets away, the threads finally converged on a blurry figure.

"Saint Rank expert!" Blood trickled from the corner of Leoni's mouth.

"Trace Shadows of All Things" couldn't make out the face of this level of powerhouse, only vaguely judging from her figure that she was probably a very old woman. But from Trace's feedback, it was certain that the opponent's strength was definitely above his level before he was injured!

"I'm not surprised at all," Leoni said with a self-deprecating laugh.

The encounter in Crescent Forest more than a year ago that left him seriously injured was a similar surprise—even more extreme than this.

Beside this Saint Rank expert was a respectful middle-aged man.

The two gazed in the direction of Asitake's house, and the threads controlling the girl extended from the powerful man's withered fingers, connecting directly to the girl's head in the basement.

Leoni narrowed his eyes, a glint of silver flashing in his pupils, and quickly deciphered the name of the ability: "Thread Puppet Prison".

Only now did he finally decipher the truth of the threads: they were essentially manifestations of a domain, capable of penetrating and binding the consciousness of the target.

Even more terrifying is that, once it has penetrated to a certain depth, it can control the target's actions like a puppet on strings!

After confirming the situation, Leoni breathed a sigh of relief.

He lifted the time freeze, and the scene began to flow again. Blazing flames immediately surged out of the basement like a giant beast.

He continued to observe the powerful figure before him, and another trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth. But it didn't matter; he had grown accustomed to this since his injury.

In the illusory world, Old Ji ended her control over the girl. The house in front of them was shrouded in billowing smoke and dust, with people and various objects flying everywhere. In the midst of the upheaval, the priests were too preoccupied to prevent the explosion from taking the lives of all the human traffickers.

Abigai was quite satisfied with the result. She didn't look at it again and turned to leave with Ruogejin.

They were just ordinary businessmen who had come here to buy young girls at the behest of an agreement. When they discovered that things had changed, they simply eliminated their trading partners to silence them and had no interest in getting involved any further.

"Abigai, killing the mercenaries alone is not enough," the middle-aged man said respectfully in a low voice. "I'll arrange for a few street thugs to set another fire when the opportunity arises, to avoid leaving any inappropriate traces."

"Okay." Abigai nodded lightly, "Just make sure things are clean."

"Yes, sir."

The illusory image of "Trace Shadows of All Things" gradually dissipated, and the surrounding scenery returned to normal. Leoni leaned against the wall and took out a handkerchief to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Your Highness, you've really struck gold with this deal," he thought to himself.

****

On the Youth Civilization.

Seventy-five, seventy-six--·

Younier stared intently at the footage transmitted by the drone, her finger lightly tapping as the bear-men moved. There were a great many bear-men.

Since the software wasn't updated, she counted them one by one.

When Su Ming entered, the junior clerk had just finished counting. "Ninety-seven bear-men!" she immediately reported.

Considering there are still hundreds of bear-men units inside the cave—this is an extremely powerful fighting force— Su Ming pondered.

"Are the bear-men easy to fight?" he asked Zijin.

"They're enormous, with high muscle density and incredibly hard bones. They're extremely resilient, and once enraged, they'll fight to the death." Zijin was clearly recalling some unpleasant memories. "I fought one once, and ever since, whenever I see a group of bear-men, I'd rather take a detour."

The scholar is strong in burst damage but weak in sustained damage; she really dislikes enemies who can withstand a lot of damage.

"What was the outcome of your discussion with Katharine?" Zijin asked in turn.

"I advocate continuing reconnaissance to ascertain the enemy's strength, but Katharine believes we can attack immediately." Su Ming pointed to the middle-aged man on the screen. "I've gathered the intelligence with her, and we speculate that this man might be named Ruogejin, the person in charge of the Plundering Clock in the Northern Lands, a powerful earth-elemental Grand Magus Mentor."

Just then, the drone's monitoring footage changed, and an elderly woman emerged from the cave and came to the "Ring of Winter".

She exchanged a few words with Ruogejin and the bear-man, and the bear-men immediately resumed their activities and got busy again.

Su Ming's finger moved to the old woman surrounded by the crowd. "The key point is this woman; she might be a Saint Rank expert—but we have no relevant information."

Zijin understood Su Ming and Katharine's logic, after all, the old woman held the highest status present, and both the Grand Magus Mentor and the bear-man powerhouse treated her with utmost respect.

But she didn't think so. "Saint Rank isn't like cabbage; she's more likely just a more powerful Master Rank!"

"I know," Su Ming said, "But this risk does exist."

****

On screen, the bear-man brings in more things and begins assembling the core of the "Drifting Winter Ring".

"The outer layer of the Ring of Winter ' is a defensive component," Newman told Su Ming. "I haven't seen the middle layer; it's probably some kind of enhancement component. But what's being assembled now is the inner ' Winter Core,' which is an offensive component. I suggest we either take action before they finish or evacuate immediately!"

The footage captured by the drone's camera couldn't show the rune images, so Newman could only make judgments based on its shape and structure, which presented him with a great challenge. He even suspected that what was in front of him wasn't a simple "Ring of Winter," but rather something that had been significantly modified and strengthened.

"With so many mountains blocking the way, the ' Winter Core ' attack trajectory shouldn't be able to reach us, right?" Su Ming asked.

Newman shook his head and pointed to the sky. "The ' Winter Core ' is powered by the Winter Spell Formula, which doesn't require a trajectory—it directly generates an ice array above the target, delivering a high-intensity, area-of-effect attack."

"Isn't this just an ice-type heavenly tribulation?" Su Ming thought to himself.

"Like Katharine, I also believe we should launch a preemptive attack," Zijin commented. "Su Ming, you certainly anticipated various risks, but you didn't have a particularly good contingency plan to deal with them." She stood up, her heterochromatic blind eyes flashing with a resolute light, "But avoiding battle itself is the greatest risk!"

"What's the meaning?"

"Right now, our target is the Divine Might Prison. Or to put it more directly, the group of necromancers and scholars imprisoned Divine Might Prison. This means that we and the Plundering Clock are destined to be fierce rivals!"

Su Ming did not respond immediately; he was seriously considering Zijin's perspective.

"In the long run, we are not on the same path; we are destined to be enemies! So if the enemy is not strong, we should eliminate them along the way. If the enemy is too strong, we should seize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack to increase our chances of victory!"

Su Ming unconsciously clenched his fists.

Just then, Ge'enda'er hurriedly pushed open the door and handed Su Ming a report, "An urgent message from Lady Katharine!"

Su Ming took the note and quickly scanned it, his face immediately displaying a variety of expressions. "The target has been confirmed to be Saint Rank being, and what I feared most has come to pass!"

Zijin looked at the contents of the communication and was speechless for a moment.

"Prepare for battle immediately." Su Ming finally made up his mind. "It's best to eliminate such a dangerous enemy now!"