Ultragene Warlord

Zhang Lie snorted as he heard the envoy's words.

The envoy continued, "Superior worlds don't need the ordinary resources that this world possesses—the only thing that can serve as collateral is the energy of the Zongming world itself."

That was the catch, then. All the superior worlds in the third realm were greedy, avaricious wolves, without exception.

Li Zongming slammed a palm down on his armrest, which splintered. "In the end, you simply want to claim this world for yourselves, too."

The envoy didn't seem perturbed by Li Zongming's outburst. "You'll have to give something to get something. Maintaining law and order among the three thousand worlds is the responsibility of us superior worlds. We're hardly doing charity, and we don't know anything about you, so why should we loan you troops for nothing?"

Li Zongming gritted his teeth. If not for his reluctance to wage war against the other eight superior worlds simultaneously, Li Zongming would kill this envoy right then and there.

The envoy spread his arms. "A new superior world doesn't have any resources to spare. Who knows how you defeated the xuluo? What if you lose us all our troops, too?"

Even as the envoy revealed his true colors, Zhang Lie remained calm.

"It's not as though we'll claim your world, is it? You're simply using it as mortgage. Of course, you can choose not to borrow our troops, but that would make us other worlds quite upset. If the line of defense against the death spirits breaks, though, we'll be sure to inquire as to why. We might even get rid of you useless folks before we deal with the death spirits in earnest."

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The envoy's attitude wasn't one of equal cooperation; it was clear he viewed them as nothing more than bugs to be squashed underfoot.

"You'll be able to maintain law and order just by giving up some of your world's energy. Isn't that a good trade?"

Li Zongming wanted to snarl at the envoy to shove this 'good deal' up his ass, but Zhang Lie had flashed to Li Zongming's side and prevented his outburst.

Li Zongming glanced up at Zhang Lie, perplexed.

The envoy continued, "Maintaining law and order among the three thousand worlds is a sacred duty of the superior worlds. The other superior worlds are kind enough to offer this trade so that your world can have a few less deaths while defending against the death spirits. Only then will you have the ability to develop as a superior world. Isn't that so?"

Zhang Lie smiled. "Please convey my thanks to the various superior kings. We accept this deal."

"Can you make decisions on behalf of your king?" The envoy frowned at Zhang Lie as he looked toward Li Zongming.

Although Li Zongming didn't know what Zhang Lie was up to, he was certain he had a plan.

Without Zhang Lie's presence, the Zongming world would have been taken over by the xuluo; he was willing to trust Zhang Lie unconditionally. Li Zongming nodded. "We will accept this deal."

The envoy grinned, as though this was the only reasonable outcome. "A wise decision. However, even though we'll be loaning out our warriors, we have additional conditions that you must fulfill."

Li Zongming frowned. "Other conditions?"

The envoy nodded. "First, even though we're loaning these troops to you, they don't belong to you. We can still mobilize them at will, and you can't restrict their freedom."

"What do you mean?"

"If they think that you're forcing them to participate in battles where they have a high chance of dying, or they think your commands are unreasonable, they have the right to choose not to fight or to follow your commands."

"What?!"

The envoy continued, "Furthermore, if they get injured, you'll be responsible for their medical fees; if they die, you'll be responsible for reparations to their family. You'll be responsible for their food and lodgings, as well as weapons. Naturally, these have to be of high quality, or they won't be effective in combat. Furthermore, because of the high-pressure environment on the battlefield, the warriors can frequently get temperamental, so you need to provide them with women of sufficient beauty as well."

Li Zongming and Li Qianlin frowned. These 'requests' were far too demanding.

Li Zongming replied, "You call these warriors? More like lazy good-for-nothings!"

The envoy smiled and turned to Li Qianlin. "If the princess is willing to serve our warriors herself, they would surely fight at full strength."

In other words, despite all this preferential treatment, they wouldn't be fighting at full strength without even more benefits.

Li Zongming became truly incensed.

The entire Zongming world began to shake. Lightning flashed through the air, and the meeting room in which they were located began to creak and crack.

The envoy belatedly realized that he had gone too far. Weak though Li Zongming might be, he was still a superior king. The envoy gave Li Zongming a fake smile. "I was simply joking, your majesty. Please don't take it personally."

"And those ridiculous requests for your troops? Are those also jokes?"

Zhang Lie waved a hand, placating the weather and restoring the space around them—until all was right with the world again.

Li Zongming was stupefied. Was he the king of the realm, or was that Zhang Lie? Why could Zhang Lie access authority that could even countermand his own?

Zhang Lie said, "We agree to loaning your forces, but we'll need to negotiate more regarding the details. It's rather late out, envoy, so why don't you rest here tonight? We've already prepared the best of accommodations for you."

The envoy's smile widened. "Naturally."

If the Zongming world were willing to borrow the troops, then his mission was all but complete. This was only to be expected—who wouldn't succumb to the combined pressure of eight superior worlds? Anyone with even a shred of logic would understand what the right choice was.

After the envoy left, Li Zongming repaired his splintered armrest. Instead of asking Zhang Lie for the details of his plan for the envoy, Li Zongming posed another question.

"Zhang Lie, what do you think these superior kings are planning?"

"What else? They don't know how we managed to defeat the xuluo and don't dare to provoke us to find out, so they're just using the death spirits as a test subject."

No xuluo had escaped the destruction of the xuluo world, so they had no sense of the Zongming world's strength.

"If these superior kings strike at us and find that we're strong enough to annihilate their worlds—well, none of them will take that risk. Even if their worlds weren't destroyed, they would surely suffer huge losses from fighting against a strong foe, and then become easy pickings for the other superior worlds.

"However, they also don't want to see the Zongming world take over the territory that originally belonged to the xuluo and compete for more of the precious world's energy from this realm. They only have one choice left: to make use of the death spirits to whittle us both down, and to get a sense of our strength."