Chapter 199: The Agreement Fulfilled!
To retrieve Hai Ping’s corpse, the fishmen had set up a detailed plan.
Among them included how they would safely transport the corpse back after it had been found.
After much debate between their higher-ups, they vetoed using storage equipment.
The benefits of doing that was that it was quick and kept things hidden.
But there were many problems with it.
There were two main problems.
First was that there was no storage equipment that could carry Hai Ping’s body.
Hai Ping was saint level, and was essentially saint level material, thus one needed at least a gold level storage device to put him in.
Second, it wasn’t safe.
If the storage device was damaged, it would cause the space inside to fluctuate, creating a spatial shattering phenomenon that would consequently damage the goods inside it.
Hai Ping’s corpse was just a pile of materials and wasn’t able to resist the spatial shattering.
If a spatial hole formed, Hai Ping’s body might be sucked through it and be banished to another place, at best to somewhere in the main world, for if it was banished to another plane, it would be difficult to relocate it.
After the fishmen higherups investigated for a good while, they decided to use the Pearl Bubble.
To them, it seemed this was the safest measure!
The God they believed in was very powerful in the domain of deception.
Many skills, even if they were legend level, found it difficult to see through the Pearl Bubble’s disguise.
The flaw to this plan was its high price.
The divine artifact, the Mermaid Fairy Tale, had been lost, and one Pearl Bubble used meant one fewer left.
But considering how important this operation was, the sect’s higherups could only bear the pain and use one.
Regardless of whether it was them or the purple scaled fishman, neither of them ever considered that the Pearl Bubble’s power would suddenly vanish!
Even though it happened before.
But in the records, this was when it faced a god’s power.
In this situation, where not even a saint level was present, the Pearl Bubble’s power vanishing instantly caught the purple scaled fishman unprepared and gob smacked.
She was exposed, and the Golden Flash immediately reacted to an extent.
Bang!
A light beam suddenly fired from the sky, locked onto the purple scaled fishman.
The prior bombardments were light net ones, this was massive and focused.
This light beam was fired by the main light cannon alone.
This had gold level might.
This was what had struck Qi You and seriously injured him.
Hai Ping’s corpse was exposed, causing the Golden Flash to burst forth with all of its power.
The instant it fired, the purple scaled fishman felt her heart go crazy with warnings. But the mortal aura of death bound her tight!
She wanted to flee, but it was too late!
The light beam was too fast.
Although the purple scaled fishman was strong, she was merely silver level and was buried into obscurity by the light beam.
The light beam’s power did not decrease as it exploded into the seafloor.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish was disguised as a reef, and was also underneath the purple scaled fishman, thus it was what the light beam had exploded.
The magic alchemy ship shook violently, ear piercing alarms rang out, and flashing wild red lights filled the hold of the ship.
Zi Di clenched her teeth and persevered inside the cockpit.
She didn’t move the Deep Sea Monster Fish out of hiding, a wise decision.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish was fast, but not faster than the light beams.
Even if it could hide, it couldn’t escape.
If it decided to reveal itself, then the consequences would be massive. No matter which power it was, all of them would burst if they suddenly discovered another gold level magic ship.
At that time, the Deep Sea Monster Fish would probably be targeted by all.
“Endure it for now!”
Zi Di was resilient.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish stiffly resisted the blow and succeeded in maintaining its reef camouflage.
But to an outsider’s eyes, the reef was broken in half, as to not expose the illusion.
The greater half that remained was scorched black and appeared hot enough to churn the nearby seawater and produce massive amounts of bubbles.
This was the ingenious effect of the Deceptive Disguise spell.
It wasn’t stuck in stone and was malleable to change.
If it was immutable, a common reef withstanding a gold level light beam cannon would provoke suspicion from anyone observing.
With the Deceptive Disguise spell, the Deep Sea Monster Fish could match changes in the outside world and produce a corresponding shift with it.
Of course, this had a weakness.
The part of the reef exploded by the light beam had sunken completely into oblivion.
But in reality, this part of the hull was still there.
Therefore, if a lifeform touched this piece of “blank space”. They would be stopped, unable to move through it.
Of course, touch was one of life’s senses.
This could also be affected by the Deceptive Disguise spell.
Lifeforms wouldn’t likely see through this flaw.
But if an alchemy puppet carried out an investigation, then it would fail.
“Was that a silver level fishman magician?”
“Her camouflage magic suddenly failed, drawing the light cannon turret’s fire.”
“Who is that dead fishman? It’s actually a saint level!”
Zi Di was filled with doubt.
The light beam soon dissipated, leaving a deep hole in the seafloor.
Hai Ping’s corpse slowly sank down, like the valuables before it, gradually reaching the bottom of the hole.
At the edge of the hole sat the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Without the Pearl Bubble’s deceptive power, the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s detection abilities immediately functioned.
Zi Di also noticed how impressive the corpse was.
“Why didn’t that fishman magician ever show themselves in battle, but instead tried to abscond with a saint level corpse?”
Zi Di couldn’t be certain who the dead purple scaled fishman was.
The latter had leaked no life aura.
After the Pearl Bubble was absorbed by the divine artifact, she didn’t have enough time to cast anything before the light beam blew her up.
“Don’t tell me the fishmen’s true goal was this saint level fishman corpse?”
“Who is he really?”
“Even death, what could compel these fishmen to sacrifice themselves?”
Zi Di was skeptical.
At the same time, she felt a rush of excitement.
No matter who this fishman was in life, he was extremely valuable.
No matter what, he could be regarded as a pile of saint level alchemy materials!
“Perhaps it was precisely because of its high worth, it provoked the main light cannon’s fire.”
“What just happened validates my guess.”
“That flying magic ship can differentiate between friend and foe, then it will target its light beams based on who is worth more.”
“This style…is it worthy of being Hun Tong’s flagship?”
Zi Di looked at Hai Ping’s corpse on a magic image, her heart itched, but she didn’t act.
She had already guessed at the Golden Flash’s bombardment pattern and knew if she grabbed the saint level fishman corpse, it would provoke the light cannon’s bombardment.
The purple scaled fishman was the best warning to heed.
“Wait for an opportunity.”
“There should be an opportunity.”
Zi Di watched the old clan elder, the naga priestess, and the others with more expectations.
The naga priestess was ashen.
She presided over this operation and was the highest authority for it.
The Blue Green Coral fishman clan’s attempt to retake their homeland was not a high priority to her.
Both sides only had a mutually beneficial cooperation with each other.
The naga priestess only had one objective.
To retrieve Hai Ping’s corpse as intact as possible!
Now, the purple scaled fishman was slain and Hai Ping’s corpse was exposed.
The entire operation was only one step from success!
But with Hun Tong’s clone and Yan Ding working together to obstruct her, there was nothing she could do.
“No, even if I break out, I will still face a gold level magic ship’s fire!”
“It’s time.”
The naga priestess deeply sighed, revealing her frustration and determination.
Hun Tong had his trump cards, and so too did she.
The trump card was the Devil Gold Coins!
The naga priestess produced a mirage, temporarily attracting the enemy’s firepower as her true form began to pray.
“Great Devil Lord, one of the masters of the abyss, God of Sincerity, God of Trustworthiness.”
“Ally of my Goddess!”
“A priestess of the Charming Blue Goddess prays to you.”
“I beseech thee to display your power, to fulfill your agreement, to display your trustworthiness.”
“Bend the enemy’s insincerity, made them more noble beings!”
A priestess praying to a God was almost identical to a templar knight, there wasn’t a 100% success rate.
Because the Gods were not focused on every believer at all times.
But this time, the naga priestess was very confident.
Because the Charming Blue Goddess and the Sincerity God had a contract of alliance, and also because they had gathered many Devil Gold Coins.
These gold coins came from the Sincerity God.
It was the Sincerity God’s sacred tools!
The naga priestess finished her prayer and immediately looked at Yan Ding.
But the outcome disappointed her completely.
Yan Ding’s offensive was uninterrupted and didn’t suffer any disturbances.
According to the priestess’ deduction, Yang Ding should be the leader of the imperial secret spies dispatched to Two Eyes Island, Shadow.
At the time, the imperial secret spies had placed agents inside the Vinegar Jar Pirates.
The spies were discovered, and the naga priestess beat them at their own game, allowing the Vinegar Jar Pirates to dispatch Xi Dai Zi to Two Eyes Island to make an insincere deal, for their true goal was to give them the Devil Gold Coins.
The Devil Gold Coins were the Sincerity God’s sacred tools and were a most formidable contract.
The contract was as stated: “help the Vinegar Jar Pirates attack Two Eyes Island”.
When the contract took effect, the coins’ master would use divine power to make them wholeheartedly fulfill the contents of that contract.
This was one of the naga priestess’ hidden trump cards.
According to her understanding of the imperial secret spy organization, these gold coins were liable to end up in the leader’s bag.
When the agreement took effect, it could convert an enemy into a friend and turn a strong human against their fellows on the eve of battle!
When that happened, it would likely catch the enemy off guard and cost them dearly, with one side losing while the other gained, tipping the scales of victory severely in the other direction.
However, Yan Ding was completely unchanged.
“What’s going on?”
“Did the humans see through my stratagem and deal with those gold coins?”
“Perhaps Yan Ding isn’t an imperial secret spy?”
“Or perhaps the Great Devil Lord didn’t respond to my prayer?”
The naga priestess’ lips were dry with constant misgivings.
According to her assumption, when the agreement took effect, Yan Ding would not only let them pass, but he would also help protect them.
When that happened, she would have a great opportunity to retrieve Hai Ping’s corpse.
But it wasn’t so.
Yan Ding was unaffected.
The naga priestess was pained, “What can be done?”
The naga priestess thought she was wrong about who Yan Ding was, but he really was an imperial secret spy.
However, the Devil Gold Coins had never fallen into the imperial secret spy’s hands.
When Xi Dai Zi contacted Shadow to verify it, he had insincerely said that he had taken possession of the gold coins due to face.
While in reality, these gold coins had fallen into the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ hands.
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