The Oracle

Bowers finally stopped coughing, his face flushed, and straightened up, his expression hardening again, his eyes straining to project a cold, ruthless light. "Die, you filthy green scum!"

He suddenly raised his arm! In the air, twenty pale white Bone Spear rapidly materialized, one after another appearing out of thin air! The sharp spear tips gleamed with a cold, eerie light, and like venomous snakes, they were all aimed at the goblin nobles who were slumped on the ground!

The fear of death instantly gripped the throats of all the goblins, and cries of terror and pleas for mercy filled the air.

"Wait, this scene!" Su Ming looked at the scene and felt it was strangely familiar.

"I designed it!" Zijin smiled, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons. "How is it? Pretty good, right!"

,,****

Inside the council chamber, just as twenty suspended Bone Spear were about to be unleashed, a blinding beam of light suddenly shot down from the dome, sweeping across the area. With a crackling sound, all the Bone Spear were reduced to light fragments, shattering into pieces in the air!

Bowers grunted, a trickle of red blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

"Who?!" he roared in shock and anger, his eyes darting frantically around the hall.

Another beam of light fell, leaving a deep, charred mark at his feet. The expensive carpet was set ablaze, emitting a pungent, burnt smell.

"Kneel down, you foolish mortals!" The statue on the dome roared majestically, and the blue orifice on its forehead was now emitting a blinding blue light, the source of the beam of light from just now!

"What the hell are you?!" Bowers roared hoarsely, "Why isn't there a single trace of Magic Power?!"

In response, a third ray of light emanated from the idol!

The light arrived in an instant, and the wolf slammed into Bowers! The magical shield on his body disintegrated like fragile glass, and he was sent flying backward, crashing through the heavy oak doors of the council hall and slamming against the walls of the corridor before slowly sliding to the ground.

"How dare you mortal rats presume to fathom the power of the gods!" The statue's voice carried an overwhelming majesty. "I am the guardian god!"

"Ah! It's our guardian spirit appearing! It's come to save us!" one of the goblin elders, who had just been pleading the loudest, screamed with tears streaming down his face, "The goblin race—it's not our time to die!"

Outside the main door, in the corridor with his back to the hall's spirit, Su Ming leaned against the wall, clenched his fist and shook it, silently mouthing encouragement to Bowers: "Good job! Keep it up!"

He wouldn't voice criticisms like his monotone delivery or stiff facial expressions, which he felt affected Bowers enthusiasm for the performance.

Bowers, slumped on the corridor floor, almost snapped out of character as he looked at the various gazes cast at him by his colleagues on either side.

He gritted his teeth, stood up from the ground, and with an extremely strange expression as he suppressed a laugh, rushed back into the council chamber. Bowers raised his staff high, and a terrifyingly vast Magic Power began to gather!

Enraged, the necromancer clearly intended to wipe out the troublesome idol along with the noisy goblins on the ground!

The goblins were terrified, but then the statue let out an angry snort! It waved its arms, making a series of strange movements to gather power, then its left arm was raised and its right arm was placed horizontally on its left wrist, crossing in front of it to form a huge cross shape, and its egg-shaped eyes suddenly lit up.

A stream of blazing light, interwoven with gold and red and containing destructive energy, suddenly burst forth from the back of his right hand!

"Ultraman Punishment!"

Pfft!

Bowers was sent flying backwards like a kite with a broken string, crashing outside the door and lying on the ground, his body trembling violently.

Su Ming waved helplessly. Two members immediately stepped forward, pretending to be rescuers, and quickly dragged away the unprofessional actor who had already burst out laughing.

He took a deep breath in exasperation, straightened his clothes, put on a stern face, and stepped into the strangely atmospheric council chamber.

"It's Bone King!" The goblins in the hall erupted in terrified screams.

It was this very fear that led that demonic army of constructs to descend from the sky, instantly breaching the Goldglint Fortress, slaughtering the goblin warriors, and bringing these once-high rulers down to earth, turning them into prisoners!

"Ultraman, is it?" Su Ming's lips curled into an extremely forceful smile. "Try attacking me again."

Behind the wall, Zijin raised her hand. A pure and sacred golden light instantly descended from the sky, completely enveloping the "Ultraman God" on the dome!

"Ultraman God," who was preparing to launch another attack, suddenly stopped moving.

"It is the Creator God's restriction—I—cannot interfere in the wars of the mortal realm." The statue's voice suddenly became solemn and distant, carrying a hint of forced helplessness.

It made a move to avert its descent.

"Wait! Guardian, please wait!" The goblins panicked instantly, and cries of distress erupted once again.

"Great Guardian!" King Nilunke hurriedly led the way, kneeling on the ground and slamming his forehead heavily against it. The other high-ranking goblins followed suit, kneeling down in disarray. "We beg you to have mercy and save your people! Deliver us from this hell of fire and water!"

Ultraman's face showed an expression of extreme reluctance and struggle. "I—understand." It seemed to have gone through a tremendous internal struggle before finally making a difficult decision. "For this, I will pay an unimaginable price! And you all must obey all my divine decrees without reservation! Otherwise, divine punishment will descend, and you will be doomed!"

As a goblin, King Nilunke instinctively hesitated at the word "must," opening his mouth to bargain. An anxious elder climbed forward, whispering to King Nilunke to agree first and get through the immediate crisis.

"You foolish and stubborn believers! I spared no expense, even at the cost of a god's fall, to save you, yet you dare to harbor doubts!" Ultraman statue suddenly erupted in thunderous fury, its blue eyes seeming to spew forth flames once more!

Outside the wall, the psychic Annalise clasped her hands tightly together, her bracelet emitting a soft glow.

King Nilunke and the other high-ranking goblins suddenly trembled, as if a sacred torrent had swept over their souls! All disrespect, doubt, and scheming vanished instantly like snowflakes. Only a completely purified and utterly pure piety remained in their hearts, as if the clearest holy water had cleansed every corner of their souls.

"We—we are under the command of our guardian deity! We have no other intentions!" King Nilunke's voice trembled with unprecedented fervor.

Su Ming secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If he continued to forcibly control his will, it would arouse suspicion sooner or later. But by cloaking himself in the guise of "god" and "divine decree," everything seemed logical and extremely deceptive and convincing.

"Letting the goblins go, that's not impossible!" he said calmly. "Aren't goblins the most ardent advocates of fair trade? So, what price are you prepared to pay for your lives?"

****

Woden Plantation.

Ruixiuli, Jielusi, and Silver Mask strode in. Silver Mask had already located this place during a secret investigation a few days prior.

The people outside the plantation were all ordinary farmers; the three men simply knocked them unconscious.

"Why isn't there a single decent guard?" Silver Mask frowned slightly and waved his hand again, knocking out a panicked peasant woman.

"I'm afraid we're a step too late," Jielusi sighed softly. "Janet and the others have already escaped."

Sure enough, when the magnificent main house in the core area came into view, the only corpses lying haphazardly on the steps at the entrance were those of the servants and maids. Without exception, their necks had been slashed open by sharp blades, and the deep red blood had long since congealed on their clothes and the cold ground.

"It seems Janet abandoned these people, but fearing a leak, she silenced them before leaving." Ruixiuli surveyed the row of lifeless bodies, closing his eyes for a moment to sense their presence. "Their souls—were also torn to shreds. A ruthless method indeed!"

Just as Ruixiuli was about to step forward, Jielusi suddenly raised her hand to stop him.

The body of a maid, who should have been dead, suddenly and without warning stood upright in the pool of blood! There was a shocking, dried wound on her neck, and dark red blood had matted her hair into clumps.

She opened her mouth, spitting out congealed blood and a distorted, hoarse voice: "Tell the Bone King and the Bay Owl— "

Wash your neck clean—wait!

Before she finished speaking, a huge blazing fire suddenly rose from beneath her feet, like a greedy fire serpent, instantly engulfing and engulfing the entire main house!

Ruixiuli glanced at Silver Mask. "Before you led the way, you didn't say Janet was such an annoying person."

"What enemy isn't annoying?" Silver Mask said calmly.

Jielusi's gaze, however, turned to her surroundings. The fruit trees in the plantation were laden with heavy mangoes, exuding an enticing sweet fragrance in the sunlight.

"The mangoes are ripe," she suggested. "Let's pick some to take home."

"Okay." Ruixiuli nodded.

The three quickly found a mango tree with the most plump and fragrant fruit. They picked some and tasted it; the sweet juice burst in their mouths, and the flavor was very satisfying.

While Ruixiuli and Silver Mask began picking the fruit, Jielusi pulled out her small knife and carefully selected the sturdiest branches to cut.

"What are you doing?" Ruixiuli, somewhat puzzled.

"Take it back and graft it, then we can grow it ourselves for our own consumption," Jielusi explained.

Ruixiuli was quite surprised. Even with the most advanced grafting techniques, it would take two or three years for the new tree to start bearing fruit and yielding a harvest.

"Can you wait that long?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Why can't we wait?" Jielusi asked in return.

"I just thought that once this was over, you would go back to Star Sand," Ruixiuli said.

Upon hearing this, Jielusi rolled her eyes slightly and ignored him, continuing to cut the scion branches.

****

When Su Ming left the council hall, he already had a parchment scroll covered in runes in his hand.

Everyone quickly retreated, but Annalise, Pulilade, and a small squad of elite necromancers stayed behind. They had already scouted out a hidden ambush point near Goldglint Fortress. This squad would remain in Gray Ridge, responsible for secretly controlling the group of goblin nobles, including the performance of that "Ultraman God".

"The official storyline is that although our Final Bone Mad Machines successfully raided Goldglint Fortress, we failed to capture the goblin high command. Under pressure from the continuous arrival of loyalist troops, we were forced to leave," Su Ming instructed before departing. "As for the subsequent diplomatic negotiations and wrangling, we just need to cooperate and play this role well."

"Understood, President!" Annalise nodded solemnly.

As planned, the Final Bone Mad Machines will continue their months-long tug-of-war and negotiations with the Goblin Kingdom. Under the cover of these actions, they will quietly complete their war preparations and launch a surprise attack on the Divine Covenant Faction!

"And these too." Su Ming handed them another box, pointing to the scroll on top, "Let's start with No. 45 steel. This is the most versatile, practically a universal steel grade."

"Okay!" A member of the Final Bone Mad Machines stepped forward and took the box full of scrolls.

The group parted ways near the Goldglint Fortress.

Inside the council chamber, the goblin leaders were still immersed in the grief and despair of surviving the catastrophe. Under the guarantee of the "Guardian God," and with their lives as collateral, they signed that humiliating contract—to pay tens of millions of gold coins in war reparations to the Final Bone Mad Machines and the Dragon Race within ten years!

They might be able to scrape together their quota for the first and second years, but with the depletion of the national treasury and private savings, death is inevitable for them!

"Why don't we break the agreement and fight the Dragon Race!" a goblin elder stood up and shouted.

But the next moment, the elder's eyes suddenly widened, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. He then fell straight to the ground, dead!

"This contract has been witnessed by divine power; those who defy it will die!" From the dome above, Ultraman's voice was as cold as ice.

For a moment, all the goblin nobles fell silent.

"However—it's not entirely hopeless." Ultraman raised his arm majestically, and in the light, a heavy scroll decorated with intricate gilded patterns slowly descended before King Nilunke, as if bestowed by the gods.

The latter quickly accepted it with both hands.

"Do you believe in the power of steel?" A solemn voice echoed deep beneath the dome of the empty council chamber.

King Nilunke's hands trembled as he swiftly unfurled the scroll. The scroll was made of an unprecedentedly fine and resilient paper, densely covered with astonishingly detailed information—the complete production process of a magical steel material, a technique never before heard of!

An elder, well-versed in mechanics and metallurgy, hurried forward to examine it closely. His expression quickly shifted from confusion to astonishment, and finally to ecstatic joy!

"A miracle! This is a true miracle! This steel—its properties far surpass any other in the world!" he exclaimed, gesturing wildly.

"Produce these materials as instructed, and then sell them at high prices to the Bone King and his band of bandits to pay off the war reparations!" Ultraman issued a divine decree. "I will also bestow upon you more methods for refining miraculous materials, to help your goblin race—to become great again!"

A sudden glimmer of hope appeared! The goblins were instantly moved to tears, trembling with excitement. They prostrated themselves deeply on the ground, their foreheads pressed against the cold floor.

This time, without Annalise's guidance, the praise for the great guardian deity spread naturally!