Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Zheng Zha pondered, quickly arriving at this conclusion with his relatively muscular brain. After all, Chu Xuan's reputation was quite good, and he hadn't really tricked him before—the ones who had tricked him were mainly the two witches, and neither of them was currently near this battlefield.

That's good. He decided to continue steer the conversation in a different direction.

"This god is about 1.5 times stronger than the previous one, so the third god we encounter next might be 1.5 times stronger. So who should we attack next? Manwei? Ori? If we don't start with the most troublesome gods, the longer we drag it out, the greater their power will become. If we're unlucky, by the time we reach the strongest ones, they will have already restarted their Mind Light, and enemies of that level are beyond our capabilities."

Chu Xuan's voice suddenly rang in his ear.

“Zheng Zha, I remember you already knew our next course of action in the previous meeting. You should know very well which god we should deal with next, and how to deal with it. Or do you have any other unique insights?”

“I have no other opinion,” Zheng Zha said confidently, raising his head. “But I forgot!”

Before he could finish speaking, he heard a soft chuckle from around him. He turned around and, not entirely surprised, saw a now-energized Celine covering her mouth, looking both amused and surprised. She quickly recovered from her awkwardness and waved her hand.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect you guys... to get along like this in our team. Uh... if you don't mind, I still remember the battle plan we came up with back then. Would you like me to repeat it to you?"

Chapter 82: Warfare, Part 2 (May 19)

Zheng Zha's momentum suddenly faltered.

Recite the battle plan? Ah…yes, that’s a good idea indeed. As long as Sirin recites the battle plan jointly compiled by Alice, Patchouli, and Chu Xuan, no one will care about the minor details of the battle with the God of Dance. Because if that plan were copied into paper, the table of contents alone would weigh a kilogram!

No one would want to listen to the whole thing! Only extraordinary beings could read it in the blink of an eye with their overwhelming processing power, far surpassing that of supercomputers—but reading and reading are two different things, and if Sirin dared to start anything here, someone, including herself, would definitely interrupt her and immediately push the process towards the plan to kill the next god. However, this was hardly a good thing!

[Yes, that would directly resolve the previous awkward situation. But I'm the captain of the Central Plains team! Having a new recruit reiterate the battle plan makes my position look terrible!]

And why should I waste my time on something like this?

[It's just my face! It's not like I've been embarrassed more than once or twice. Even if someone took photos, documented it, or even edited them into a funny video and uploaded it online, I would absolutely...absolutely not be very angry!]

He immediately coughed loudly and then waved his hand to stop Celine from taking any further action.

“No need, I’ve already figured out who our next god is. Tokas Astaredo—the god of war, right? It’s rather strange that the god of war in this world is only a minor god. But it’s good to start with him, at least when we deal with the fourth god, I’ll be able to unleash my fourth-tier combat power—if this thing doesn’t cause any problems.”

He glanced instinctively in the direction where Chu Xuan might be, then immediately realized with embarrassment that he couldn't sense Chu Xuan hiding in the Tower of Babel world at all. So he had no choice but to lower his head, briefly sense the progress of the divine power absorption, and calculate that it would take another four minutes.

Four minutes... not long, not short.

But you have to find something to do.

He slightly shifted his gaze and saw Zhao Zhuikong disappear from his sight, only to reappear on the other side of the battlefield next to Zhao Yingkong, who was clearing out the spoils besides the divine corpse. The interaction between the brother and sister was probably not something outsiders should interfere with.

So……

He looked at Sirin. This purple-haired girl with scalloped eyes had left a deep impression on him during the battle just now. No, not in the sense of being particularly good at fighting. Sirin didn't seem like the type to fight head-on at all. She had many tricks up her sleeve, a lot of equipment, and a lot of items, but whether it was skills, equipment, or items, almost all of her abilities emphasized a sense of spontaneity.

Spatial Storm is more inclined to trap enemies than to destroy them. Of course, since the opponent's temporary Familiar isn't particularly strong, it can also be used as a map-wide attack.

The Void Belt, the Void Spear, Dimensional Rift—her most commonly used techniques are primarily control skills. Their effect is to disrupt the combat rhythm of opponents of the same or higher level, thus controlling the battlefield. While these abilities are effective against opponents of the same level, they are nowhere near as effective as Zheng Zha wielding the Destruction Greatsword and hacking at their face.

This is a skill, and so is her equipment. Senzu Beans, SCP-500, large purple potions—she has an endless supply of various healing potions and equipment. Her strange-looking set of equipment possesses the ability to heal a half-melted body in a microsecond, and her shoes allow for continuous, uninterrupted spatial jumps with a distance of about one kilometer. The gems on her body, imbued with the powers of fire, life, and lightning, store powers for restraint, survival, and stealth. One wonders how unlucky she must have been in the past to have prepared so many countermeasures.

But this is for the best.

Zheng Zha considered his options. He was a melee fighter who could draw fire and deal massive damage, while Zhao Zhuikong and Zhao Yingkong were both assassins who emphasized stealth and single-target burst damage. The witches, while not incapable of melee combat, primarily provided ranged support and created defensive positions. Therefore, Xilin, with her survival skills and mastery of crowd control, perfectly filled what might have been a weakness in the Zhongzhou team.

Great, she's a nice girl, we need to get to know each other better.

"You had a tough time fighting the God of Dance earlier." Zheng Zha tugged at the corners of his mouth, putting on a friendly smile typical of office workers. "Those binding abilities that manifested as white light bands were a great help to me. If it weren't for your help, it would have taken me about twice as long to end this battle—have you encountered this type of enemy often before?"

“Occasionally,” Sirin smiled subtly. “The chances of encountering such an empty shell of a god are relatively rare. I encounter Leviathans or Krakens more often in the sea, Titans on land, and abominations like Berserkers and Hundred-Handed Giants in the void. Such situations… well, are relatively uncommon.”

"Cough cough." Zheng Zha narrowly avoided spitting out a mouthful of water (because he hadn't drunk any). He rubbed his head and said somewhat reluctantly, "I had heard about it from Ying Kong and Margot Lloyd before, but hearing it from you is truly astonishing. Your experience is really..." He thought for two seconds before finally finding a suitable adjective. "Heart-wrenching."

"Yeah, I don't deny that. But since joining the Zhongzhou team, I've felt much better." A smile appeared on Xilin's lips. Although her intelligence... was rather average, she could still sense Zheng Zha's desire to find topics to talk about and get to know her better. So she lightened her tone a little and expressed her joy without reservation.

"At least now I don't need to consult the oracle before doing anything, and the consumption of my substitute puppets has been greatly reduced. I won't get hit in the face by falling meteorites or dimensional rifts when I'm walking on the street. I won't find out that the octopus I just took a bite of is actually the offspring of an evil god when I'm eating. Although I've basically gotten used to these unlucky things, I would still be quite happy if I could get rid of them."

Zheng Zha: [...]

【Girl, you're making it hard for me to continue the conversation.】

"Our Zhongzhou team is a very strong team." He pondered for a while before finally saying this. "As long as we work together, we will naturally be able to easily overcome any difficulties."

"Yeah, I know that. And we were really lucky," Sirin added. "We slew two gods in a row, and neither of them managed to break through their limits or summon any powerful allies. That kind of luck is unheard of. I even prepared a magic scroll for a major resurrection spell and a lot of items for healing and detoxification, but I didn't even have to use a single one—is it really because our team is just too lucky?"

No... I think it's just because your face used to be a bit too dark.

Zheng Zha's lips twitched; he suddenly lost interest in continuing the conversation with Xilin. He was certain that this newly joined pink-haired girl was a reliable person, and he could entrust her with many important team events in the future. Furthermore, she had a suitable place in the combat sequence, and he didn't need to worry about devising a strengthening strategy for her.

This is a very convenient 'new' person, at least for now.

As for the future...

Zheng Zha suddenly shook his head, cracked his neck, and looked around with some confusion.

"Speaking of which, where did Xiao Honglu and the others go? Did Chu Xuan send them on some strange mission again?"

....................................

Today is the second watch beast, striving to transform into the third watch beast.

Chapter 83: The Flames of War, Part 3

Alice floated lightly to the top of a town as dusk fell, watching the myriad lights that illuminated the city below. The dim setting sun slowly disappeared at the horizon, the dark purple sky gradually turning indigo.

This was no longer Middle-earth, but a landmass far beyond it, west of the vast ocean. During their previous search, she and Patchouli had explored three locations where Melkor's power was sealed. The explorations of these three locations had yielded some results, but none of them were particularly significant.

The first point was in the north of Middle-earth, but by the time the witches arrived there, the dark forces hidden there had long since faded with time. The seal was broken a thousand years ago, and the one who carried it out could only be Sauron—Sauron was dead, so this point was naturally useless.

The second location was in the sea, far from the mainland, where the seal showed no signs of being broken. Melkor hadn't reached there, and it was unlikely the seal would be broken anytime soon. So the witches left behind a teleportation coordinate and a monitoring spell before departing for their next target.

The third location was an island emerging from the sea, close to the mainland. Melkor arrived before the witches, breaking the seal and extracting the dark power stored within. Judging from the traces of power left on that island, it had recovered to a mid-level of the early fourth tier, with combat strength roughly equivalent to Alice at the end of Starship Troopers.

Naturally, the witches failed to capture it. However, since the traces it left behind allowed them to determine its power, they were also able to track its location. And through the resonance and guidance of these forces, the witches quickly pinpointed the fourth point—

"That is, this city."

Alice's gaze slowly swept across the city from above. At a steady pace, with her eyesight and calculation abilities, she could easily detect even the most illogical movements of a single ant in the entire city. But after her gaze had swept over the entire city, inside and out, she still sensed nothing amiss.

There's no problem with the city residents. There's no problem with the cats and dogs they keep. There's no problem with the wide streets where cats and dogs play and frolic. There's no problem with the flowers, birds, trees, buildings, and shops lining the streets.

She could clearly hear the voices of everyone in the city and understand the words they spoke. Love and hate, money and power, blood and sand—everything that belonged to this city was woven into stories with beginnings and ends in her vision. She could browse through all of it in just a few seconds, and when she felt it necessary, she could completely recreate the entire city in her mind with just a thought.

Deep within her, she felt a sense of clarity, knowing it was a sign that the light of her soul was beginning to gather. But right now, this matter wasn't particularly important to her.

Because she couldn't find Melkor, but Melkor should be here.

“Alice, there’s something strange about this city,” Patchouli’s voice rang in her ears. “Everything seems perfectly harmonious, but I just feel there’s something odd about it.”

Alice nodded in agreement.

"This shows that we are very close to our goal."

She landed on a temple in the very center of the city. In her observation, the dark power sealed within Melkor surged like a tide at the temple's base. Several elderly, white-haired priests, roughly a seventh her age, prayed incessantly at the temple's lowest level—they were likely elders of the city's church. While their prayers had no effect on Melkor's power, they did serve to maintain the divine seal that bound it. And in Alice's scan, this seal, even unattended, could continue to exist for a thousand years.

The fact that it has been able to operate autonomously for over a thousand years means that this seal has not been interfered with by other extraordinary beings of the same caliber as Alice—Milkor has never been here, and even if he had, he had never touched this seal, nor had he ever approached this temple.

This is strange.

And strangeness often signifies some kind of omen.

Patchouli lightly tapped the top of the temple with her toes, and an invisible ripple spread out, forming an invisible crystalline wall about a kilometer away from the temple. These crystals quickly extended into the sky, soon transforming into an eggshell-like shield that covered the entire city.

There was no interference, and no change.

Even after the Crystal Wall sealed off the entire city, including the ley lines and water sources beneath it that did not affect the seal's operation, no external force appeared to hinder Patchouli's actions—the tracking spell still indicated that Melkor was in this area, but apart from the information in the spell, there were no other signs.

“Could it be that we were actually lured by Melkor?” Patchouli raised an eyebrow slightly. “That guy didn’t actually arrive in this city, but instead set up a decoy to buy time? The traces detected by our tracking spells are fake, and it has actually gone to another area now?”

"The possibility is very low. If it's a decoy, simply delaying the time would be too wasteful. If I switch places with it, I will inevitably leave a trap while setting up the decoy trap. Simply misleading it won't delay much time. We just need to leave a teleportation coordinate here and leave directly."

“Perhaps it’s because it can’t set traps?” Patchouli tilted her head slightly, suggesting a possibility. “It can’t get any external help now. The gods can’t cooperate with it, and the monsters or dragons among the natives don’t pose a threat to us. The natural disasters are a joke, and of the only two possible reincarnation teams, the gods’ team should be hostile to it. And the East Sea team is now firmly confined to the Sharl region by us.”

Alice looked up at the sky. A dozen or so stars shone brightly in the darkness—the light of the gods' hearts. They were bound to the edge of the world by the Outer Revelation: The Holy Cataclysm, used as material to mend the world's fractures. Of these fourteen stars, three had already dimmed.

Zheng Zha and his companions have already dealt with three empty shells of saints who possessed only energy: Ilmu, the god of inspiration and dreams; Nisa, the goddess of dance; and Tokas Astaredo, the god of war. The elimination of these saints even affected the spiritual light hanging high in the sky, weakening it—though they were still capable of fighting, this action would likely effectively delay the escape of these celestial beings.

“The Vera and Veri are fine, and Altair is staying obediently in Bag End in the Shire.” Alice glanced at the monitoring records shared on the insect satellite cloud image, which clearly showed Altair's movements in the Shire region. And it wasn't just Altair; her cherished protectee, the ordinary mortal Shimazaki Setsuna, had also appeared in the outside world in a wheelchair. Judging from this, it was clear she intended to cooperate with the Central Continent Team in this world and not cause any trouble.

After all, her goal in life was to protect the girl named Shimazaki Setsuna. While the Central Continent Team might not be able to recruit someone like her who was completely incompatible with the team, they possessed a way to free Shimazaki Setsuna from the cycle of reincarnation—the site of the Mount Tai Lord Festival ritual used by Zhao Zhuikong had not yet been demolished. As long as the conditions and elements were all in place, coupled with Altair's own prayer ability, arranging a reincarnation ritual for a mortal that completely detached them from the human race's stance would not be difficult.

So, it's not the Celestials like Vera and Veri, nor is it Altair representing the East Sea team. The only remaining possibilities are the Celestials and Ilúvatar—the latter can most likely be ruled out. Therefore, the current situation might be that the Celestials and Melkor, while setting aside their hostility, have also formed some kind of alliance. And this is the manifestation of their alliance.

The possibility is low, but not impossible. And if we want to verify it…

“Patch,” Alice glanced at her companion. “Caution or risk?”

“Let’s take a little risk,” Patchouli replied after a few seconds of thought. “This world is about to end, and although our plans are generally working without deviation, if I’m too timid, I’m afraid I won’t be able to cross that threshold smoothly.”

"Is it really necessary to push yourself to that point?" Alice's voice held a hint of hesitation. "Didn't we already agree on something..."

Patchouli waved her finger. "Anyway, I'm already 70-80% sure, so it's good to push myself a little."

"...I think it's better to wait until you're absolutely certain before getting a promotion."

“So you are you, and I am me.” Patchouli glared at her companion. “I’m not like you, who wouldn’t dare to gamble unless I was 90% sure. For me, the difference between 70% and 80% isn’t that big. Besides, I feel like I can’t hold out much longer. If I haven’t reached the transcendent level by the time this cycle ends and the next one begins, I suspect I might do something irrational.”

Alice didn't speak again. She lowered her head and headbutted Patchouli. At that moment, the city's lockdown completely ended. The power of the crystal sealed off the possibility of even a single air molecule escaping from this area. Another invisible wave was then released, instantly putting everything in the city—people, animals, microorganisms—into a state of slumber or dormancy.

In the next instant, the entire city, encased in a crystalline shell, along with the land beneath it, detached from the ground and rose slowly into the sky. Tiny swarms of nanobots coalesced, altering the city's underlying ley lines and installing new energy conduits to ensure the gods' seal on Melkor's power remained intact. This medieval metropolis, roughly five kilometers in circumference, began a rapid transformation. The nanobots, their proliferation limits lifted, swiftly turned the city into a metal-bound steel forest. Streets became pipelines, shops and residences became factories, and mortals, forcibly put to sleep, were transported to arrays of nutrient tanks and connected to a beautiful and believable dream. In an instant, the city's atmosphere shifted from the Age of Empires to The Matrix!

Alice's gaze remained fixed on the transforming city. She witnessed the stripped-away ley lines transform into energy reservoirs, after being fitted with reactors, maintaining anti-gravity and allowing the entire city, encased in a crystalline shell, to levitate. She watched as rice paddies and irrigation ditches turned into smooth metal surfaces, covered by defensive arrays generated from nanite swarms. The city changed its shape every second, and soon, a colossal floating city was nearing completion!

No witch could resist the temptation of creating a floating city by hand, even if she no longer needed such things. The sheer satisfaction of bringing to life this culmination of a generation's most advanced technology was immense. Under Patchouli's intervention and planning, the new city quickly took shape. Artillery arrays, research equipment, and numerous industrial chains, each assigned a production task by her, were rapidly established and ready to operate at any time.

Alice's gaze remained fixed on the city, still finding nothing amiss. There was still no trace of Melkor, nor any remnant of the Celestials' activities. It was as if everything she and Patchouli had prepared here had been a waste of time, a worthless decoy, and the real Melkor had long since bypassed this area, heading towards other locations where power was sealed and reactivating his authority.

A very effective disguise, a very appropriate response. If it were Alice's usual methods, she would probably waste at least an hour here cracking the secrets, then leave with some unexpected surprise on her fourth attempt, after gaining a little something. After all, the time before dawn and after success is when people are most relaxed. But this time, the situation is somewhat different.

With Patchouli's command, all the energy pipelines within the crystal-encased floating city instantly connected to the seal of the gods and the sealed dark power. Countless production lines then began operating, the energy consumed—equivalent to the entire Lord of the Rings world's annual production—compressed into seconds and loaded onto these sealed dark forces. The immortal power inherent in these forces, belonging exclusively to gods or demons, rapidly dissipated!

..........................................

I embarrassed myself again today...

Chapter 84: The Flames of War, Part 4

Meanwhile, in a certain place.

In a closed-off place.

Adam flicked his fingers lightly, and a chaotic gust of wind spread outward from his fingertips. Every air molecule in the sealed room flowed outward under the interference of this wind. In an instant, all the causal threads, fate threads, and even other miscellaneous objects that might lead to the leakage of information in this area were completely cleared away, and then a round conference table appeared in front of him.