The Last Sentinel

Supply and demand determine market dynamics!

Where there is demand, there will be a market.

Where there is a market, there will be buying and selling.

Such scenes were playing out everywhere in the Thirty-Three Heavens.

The Heavenly Alliance's vast intelligence network spread out like a spiderweb covering the Milky Way. In an instant, news of the Heavenly Court sealing the Northern Heavenly Gate and seizing Sentinel Ye Feng's new cultivation system spread far and wide. Wherever the news reached, the celestial markets were in an uproar; restaurants and teahouses buzzed with discussion, and even the fairies washing clothes by the Milky Way were whispering amongst themselves.

Heavenly Court, Headquarters for Battlefield Affairs at Flower Fruit Mountain.

The celestial palace had nine levels, with jade pillars coiled with dragons, and water-repelling beads hanging from the eaves reflecting a deep blue light. Inside, candles burned continuously, and incense smoke curled upwards. On the table were piles of intelligence reports and jade slips, each half a person's height, and a three-zhang-long (approximately 10 meters) long gilded silk scrolls were laid out.

The celestial official knelt before the desk, his blue robe sleeves rolled up to his forearms, his left hand holding a paperweight and his right hand holding a brush.

The brush tip, dipped in cinnabar, moved with remarkable steadiness across the gilded silk. With each character, a wisp of golden light rose from the stroke, swirling and disappearing into the celestial map atop the palace ceiling. The shifting star map corresponded to every beacon fire on the front lines of Flower Fruit Mountain.

He wrote very slowly, his knuckles turning slightly white from the pressure, his brow furrowed into a deep frown.

A voice came from outside the door: "Xiao Bai, still busy?"

As the clouds and mist dissipated, a young man dressed in a celestial robe and carrying a jade pot of celestial wine staggered in. His robes were half-open, his hair ornament askew, and a strong smell of wine preceded his arrival, dispersing some of the incense smoke in the hall.

Hua Xiaobai looked up and saw the drunken young man, and couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. Her pen paused, and a red dot of cinnabar spread across the silk: "Boss Jiu, how come you're drunk again! I've told you so many times, if you can't hold your liquor, don't drink! Can't you just stay online, laze around, and go to sleep?"

"I'm just going to sleep," I said, feeling wronged. "Alone? Have you ever seen a young, energetic man my age alone in an empty room?"

He plopped down on the table, slamming the jade pot down on it. A few drops of wine splashed onto the intelligence report, leaving a damp stain.

"I want to find a partner, but my ego says that anyone who dares to find one is cheating on themselves, and he'll just kill me!"

"Damn it! I can't find women now, so I can't even drink?"

"If I can't even drink alcohol, what's the point of my resurrection? To be a slave to my ego?"

Hua Xiaobai said, "Drink up, drink up!" Her tone was full of helplessness as she casually moved the information, which was soaked with wine, aside.

I glanced at the table and said, "What's wrong? You don't seem to be in a good mood." He squinted, and though his eyes were blurry with drunkenness, he caught a hint of barely suppressed agitation in Hua Xiaobai's eyes.

"Damn it!" Hua Xiaobai cursed, slamming his pen down on the pen mountain, splattering cinnabar everywhere. "That bastard leader of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance, coming out to cause trouble at a time like this!"

As I picked up the intelligence report, my fingertips brushed across the paper, and the effects of my drunkenness began to wear off.

The more he looked, the more his brows furrowed, and he couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy crap, what's the true nature of this Heavenly Secrets Alliance? They've grasped the Heavenly Court's pulse so accurately, even revealing the Seven Absolute Prodigies' purpose in going to the Dimensional Battlefield!"

"The most outrageous thing is that his publicly released information is almost identical to the Heavenly Court's confidential files! If it weren't for the fact that the other party isn't one of our own, I would even suspect that the Heavenly Secrets Alliance Leader attended your meeting with the Sin of Greed that day!"

Hua Xiaobai said, "Now we're in big trouble. Only Lord Greed and I knew about this. Lord Greed has already gone to the dimensional battlefield, so doesn't that mean I'm leaking information? I'm leaking intelligence? But I've never leaked any information!"

His voice trailed off, until it was almost forced out through gritted teeth. His right hand unconsciously rubbed the edge of the paperweight, oblivious to the red mark left on his fingertip. Suddenly, the candlelight flickered, casting a long, elongated shadow of him.

I picked up the intelligence report about the "playing dumb" scheme and remarked, "These people are interesting."

"A group of people believe that their true selves have obtained great opportunities, treasures, and supernatural powers in the long river of time, and now they want to follow behind the Seven Heavenly Prodigies to pick up the scraps."

"A group of people have a grudge against my id and are planning to take advantage of this chaos to get revenge and kill my id."

"Furthermore, a large number of people treat their true selves as a touchstone, wanting to test whether they are truly capable!"

He shook his head, tossed the intelligence report onto the table, and the paper spun as it fell.

"Tsk tsk, the battlefield of the multiverses is really lively right now!"

"How much money do you think the Heavenly Secrets Alliance made from this intelligence deal?"

"Since the Heavenly Secrets Alliance guessed so accurately, how about we share some of the profits with you?"

Hua Xiaobai's eyes were icy, a chilling glint in them: "I didn't reveal anything. This was all deduced by the leader of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance!"

The guy who was just going through the motions spread his hands and said, "You say you didn't leak anything? Do you really believe me? Don't be silly! Instead of thinking about how to plug the leak right now, you should be thinking about getting this job out of there as soon as possible!"

Hua Xiaobai shook his head and said, "No one will take this job. The one who tied the knot must untie it. If we can't solve the problem, then we'll deal with the person who caused it!"

He spoke with an eerily calm tone, as if stating something utterly ordinary. Yet, he unconsciously snapped the handle of the vermilion pen on the table, and red powder dripped from between his fingers.

"You want to play dirty?" the guy said.

"There's no such thing as 'high-class' or 'low-class'." Hua Xiaobai cracked his knuckles, making a soft popping sound. "Any job that gets things done is a good job! I'll go find the Heavenly Court's Star Gazing Office and locate this leader of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance!"

The lazybones shook his head and said, "Don't be silly. The other side can guess the Heavenly Court's intentions and your and Greed's scheme. Do you think they don't know you'll resort to desperate measures? You can't handle him!"

Hua Xiaobai looked at the lazybones, her gaze suddenly turning deep: "You're right, but you can handle him!"

The lazybones was taken aback: "What nonsense are you talking about! This is the first time I've ever heard of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance, and I have no idea who the leader of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance is! Stop messing around, I'm going to drink!" He grabbed the jade pot and was about to leave, but his steps were much more steady than when he came in—he had sobered up quite a bit without realizing it.

Watching the lazybones about to leave, Hua Xiaobai said, "The leader of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance isn't an enemy; he's only half an enemy and half a friend."

"What he's doing is extremely risky; it could even be described as suicidal."

"Doing this will only undermine the authority and interests of the Heavenly Court, while benefiting the boss's ego!"

"Everyone knows the boss went to the Dimensional Battlefield. The more people who go there, the better the boss's environment will be, and it might even reduce the pressure on the Flower Fruit Mountain Battlefield!"

"Since everything he did was to help the boss, then..."

"Then, I'll buy the boss a drink for his share; he shouldn't refuse!"

"After all, you have a lot of influence!"

"I'll use the Fruit of Fame to get him to show himself, then I'll meet him and figure out if he's friend or foe."

The lazybones remained silent, the exquisite wine in his hand emitting an intoxicating aroma. His back was to Hua Xiaobai, his shoulders slightly stiff, the spout of the jade pot aimed at his lips, yet he hesitated to pour it down.

Outside the palace, the sea of ​​clouds surged, and in the distance came the sound of the armor plates of the Celestial Guards clashing, one strike after another, striking the silence.

Hua Xiaobai walked to his side and said leisurely, "In this era of great strife, what is most important?"

"Two words: Talented!"

"Someone like him lacks a platform."

"Give him a platform, and he can take off!"

The lazy bum shook his bottle: "Take off? How do you mean take off?"

Hua Xiaobai spoke eloquently: "I'm actually not good at intelligence gathering or public opinion; I'm good at internal affairs and financial management. But this leader of the Heavenly Secrets Alliance is a true genius in pyramid schemes! His talent in the field of pyramid schemes is just like his boss's talent in the cultivation system—unmatched!"

"If we recruit him, given his current accuracy in predicting the boss, we could easily develop a 'Ye Feng version of the chain of suspicion' theory, which is seven parts truth and three parts falsehood!"

"In the Three-Body Era, Luo Ji proposed the concepts of a technological explosion and a chain of suspicion!"

"And you, Boss Jiu, should also have an achievement of your own, called the Pyramid Scheme Chain System! On par with Luo Ji's Chain of Suspicion!"

The guy who was just giving up suddenly became serious: "That makes sense, let's give it a try."

Hua Xiaobai looked at the lazy guy and felt great respect for Boss Jiu, without any disdain.

Although he may be slacking off, slacking off doesn't mean he's trash.

There was a rogue in history who lived a life of idleness for over forty years, fighting dogs at the village entrance every day, bullying men and women, and engaging in gang fights. Later, this rogue leader took up a sword and conquered the world!

Boss Jiu has this kind of lazy personality; he is the one who is closest to his true self!