Chapter 293: Chapter 215: King Arthur Advances to Tier Four, the Meeting Ends Abruptly, Guang Ling Gets Screwed Over
"My ability to find Aishwarya’s weakness was something of a coincidence. I’m just far too familiar with the Wizard Extraordinary Profession."
Lin Qi briefly shared the intelligence.
But he didn’t tell them everything, such as the most crucial part: the Exotic Spiritual Particles hidden within the Extraordinary Items.
The matter of Spiritual Particles had always been his secret, to say nothing of the Holy Light formed from the combination of Exotic Spiritual Particles.
This was the foundation of his leverage over Aishwarya.
At the same time, if the Capitalist learned the truth of the matter, he would undoubtedly be able to analyze a great deal of information about Lin Qi himself and guess that he wasn’t relying on combat strength at all to intimidate Aishwarya.
Telling only half the truth was more conducive to Lin Qi’s plans.
As the members of the Mercenary Corps processed the new intelligence, numerous ideas sparked in the minds of Master Ma and the Capitalist.
Jingang, as usual, was impassive and detached, while King Arthur was completely in the dark.
Her thinking on this Mercenary Corps mission was still stuck on infiltrating the major prosthetic body manufacturing companies that worked with Ninghang Technology.
King Arthur felt her head buzzing.
She had clearly been the one to invite the Wizard to join this mission.
But now, here she was, full of ambition, yet still stuck on an irrelevant part of the plan.
Meanwhile, the Wizard was about to strike at the very heart of the enemy, using the power of a permanent director of the Asian Political Zone Big Business Alliance to storm Ninghang Technology Headquarters.
’No, I have to hurry up!’
’I must complete this breakthrough to Tier Four as soon as possible.’
’I have to forge my Spiritual Badge as a Tier Four Knight today!’
There are two main difficulties for a Knight Professional breaking through to Tier Four.
The first is meeting the physical requirements—reaching the critical point to break through the limits of the flesh and achieve a Tier Four standard.
In the Cyber Era, this difficulty has been greatly reduced.
First, half of their body parts are replaced with S-Class Prosthetic Bodies. Second, the remaining flesh-and-blood parts can be enhanced by S-Class Potions.
Compared to a thousand years ago when the Knight Profession originated, the difficulty of breakthroughs for Cyber Knights has dropped significantly.
Just as King Arthur made her resolve, an unparalleled sense of conviction surged within her.
’No!’
’I absolutely cannot fall behind the Wizard!’
’A Knight who bears the name of King Arthur—how can I be weaker than the Wizard Professional who has traveled the same path?’
This intense conviction erupted so suddenly that King Arthur’s virtual avatar in the conference room began to blur.
Master Ma and the Capitalist, who had been deep in thought, abruptly looked toward King Arthur.
Even the uninvolved Jingang’s attention was drawn, and Lin Qi himself couldn’t help but glance over.
"Her Spiritual Power is affecting the cyber network. King Arthur is about to forge the Tier Four Spiritual Badge of a Knight Professional."
Master Ma was the quickest to react among them. As a Tier Four Martial Artist, he had a relatively thorough understanding of Knights, a Profession with similarities to his own.
The next second, King Arthur’s virtual avatar vanished from the conference room.
Guang Ling spoke, his voice tinged with helplessness, "I’ve temporarily kicked King Arthur from the conference room. It seems she was triggered by something and has suddenly completed the final step of her Tier Four advancement."
"Unfortunately, because Tier Four level Spiritual Power was injected directly into the cyber network, our conference room’s IP masking has been compromised. The multiple server hops I was using are now being traced by the cyber network’s monitoring systems."
"The meeting is paused for now. I’ll figure out a way to reconvene tomorrow or provide a temporary communication method for this operation."
"The conference room will perform an emergency shutdown in twelve seconds."
Watching the scene unfold, Lin Qi almost lost his composure.
Guang Ling’s "god-like" image had completely crumbled. He really wasn’t invincible.
The Capitalist’s previous words had only hinted at this, but King Arthur’s actions just now were a direct blow to Guang Ling.
She had well and truly screwed him over.
Who holds a meeting perfectly fine one moment, only to suddenly advance to the next rank of their Extraordinary Profession?!
Lin Qi still didn’t know that he was the one who had spurred King Arthur on.
It was a good thing he didn’t know, or he would have thought King Arthur was being a bit too obsessive.
’Who gets triggered that easily?’
’Who takes a teammate from their own Mercenary Corps and turns them into an imaginary rival?!’
’More importantly, how the hell does a Tier Two Wizard like me manage to provoke a Tier Three Top Level Knight into advancing to Tier Four?!’
’Shouldn’t it be the other way around?’
’I’m in a hurry to advance to Tier Three myself!’
He felt a bit helpless, but what was done was done. Lin Qi could only wait for news tomorrow.
No one logged off in a hurry, instead waiting for the conference room to shut down on its own.
Except for Jingang, everyone was lost in thought.
Finally, the dimly lit conference room closed, kicking Lin Qi out. The scene before him returned to his room in the Alliance Mansion.
After pondering for a moment, Lin Qi focused on his main task: to pass on intelligence in a calculated way, acting like a Chess Player manipulating the overall situation from a macro perspective.
His original plan was to relay some intelligence to Lin Xin.
But after this meeting, Lin Qi was even more cautious.
’Based on my current speculation, the relationship between Master Ma and Baili Xueyuan is not a simple one. Furthermore, it’s possible that Master Ma is also in contact with the Capitalist.’
’If I pass the information to Baili Xueyuan through Lin Xin, Baili Xueyuan might share it with Master Ma.’
’That would directly expose my identity to Master Ma. And if he finds out who I am, it won’t be long before the Capitalist does too.’
After some thought, Lin Qi concluded that there was no need to tell Lin Xin personally.
If his guess was correct, Baili Xueyuan would probably get the intelligence through Master Ma’s channels anyway.
Regardless of the true extent of their relationship.
As long as Master Ma needed to use the Assassin Alliance’s power to lay the groundwork for the mission, he would inevitably tell Baili Xueyuan about Aishwarya’s identity as a Wizard Professional.
’Looks like there’s only one thing I need to do now.’
’Meditate and wait for news tomorrow. If nothing goes wrong, Liu Xuan will contact me during the day.’
Having sorted out the details in his mind, Lin Qi sat on his bed, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.
...
「In the European Administrative Region, inside a private estate.」
It was less an estate and more a castle.
There was almost no trace of the Cyber City aesthetic; its overall style was almost entirely classical.
In this day and age, one could guess that the owner of this castle was, at the very least, a family that controlled a major corporation.
Inside the castle at this moment, a certain blonde woman, not quite 1.6 meters tall, was in a state of extreme Spiritual Power agitation.
"I’m breaking through to Tier Four! A day earlier than I expected. My mental state hadn’t reached its peak yet, but I didn’t expect to be spurred on by the Wizard."
"Hiss... Speaking of which, I think I was kicked out by Guang Ling. My Spiritual Power is practically boiling, nearly at the Tier Four level, and the fluctuations will be huge when I forge my Spiritual Badge. I didn’t screw Guang Ling over, did I?"
"If I caused Guang Ling to get located by the cyber network’s surveillance, that’s on me. But with his skills, that shouldn’t happen... right?"
Her Spiritual Power remained at peak activity, and her thoughts were sharper than ever.
Within her practically boiling Spiritual Power, an ultimate sharpness was about to be born.
A Tier Four Knight must forge a badge, and this badge symbolizes the Knight’s Will.
The badge each Knight forges when advancing to Tier Four is unique, and the abilities it grants are different as well.
The badge that symbolizes a Knight’s Will is often deeply connected to the Knight’s own emotions at the moment of its creation.
For example, the "Life Towards Death" badge of the current Grand Knight Commander of the Round Table Conference, a Tier Four Peak Knight, grants him a powerful Life Force nearly equivalent to that of a Phoenix.
Rumor has it that when this strongest Knight Professional of his time was advancing to Tier Four, he was in the middle of a battle against many foes. He forged this extreme Will Badge only when on the verge of death.
As for King Arthur’s emotions...
As the badge took form, King Arthur suddenly understood what her will was.
The Knight’s Will Badge unique to King Arthur was named "Transcend." She would transcend the Wizard, transcend all who were stronger than her.
Transcend everything, become the strongest Knight, and truly live up to the name King Arthur.
