"Long time no see."
'I was just sleeping a lot out of late, sorry.'
Arthur was standing inside a grand city inside his garden. Since the last battle over a month ago Gege was always sleeping many hours per day.
His mind seemed quite peaceful lately. The system was never a talkative being, and Gege was the main instigator of all debates and discussions inside his mind.
Yet after that battle she seemed more calm and silent. Even when she was awake she rarely opened her mouth to speak except when Arthur started asking.
"No need to be," he sighed, "It's just too bizarre out of late," he muttered while moving his glance around. "This city is getting more prosperous with time."
'Ding! The time difference here made it like this.'
"It's still impressive," he smiled, "I hope my other cities will grow at the same speed."
'Ding! What about those prisoners?'
"They are just a pain," Arthur complained while turning his gaze towards a certain direction, "some believe they won't succumb to me."
'As you much weaker than then?' Gege said.
"Oh, you were listening."
'Hahaha, I just love to rest but that doesn't mean I lost my love to eavesdrop.'
He smiled before glancing at the city again. "How many cities do we currently have here?"
'Twenty so far,' Gege said, 'If I was more awake then I could have easily doubled this number.'
"Don't stress yourself," Arthur said, "this number is great."
'The thing is they are almost about to be totally full.'
"This fast?!" Arthur was surprised. Since the fight he started to take half of the population he gained into his garden world to strengthen it.
The last fight highlighted a very crucial issue he had here… this place was defenseless. He thought that if those who came here had connections to other worlds like his, then this garden could easily be swarmed with massive enemies with nothing to stop them.
"Let's go," he turned into a dragon before heading fast towards the direction of the grand prison. "Have you found anyone worthy to nourish from here?"
'I honestly didn't have time to do that thoroughly,' Gege said, 'but don't forget we are talking about middle world residents here. They have many powers that go beyond what your army initially had.'
"You are right," Arthur nodded, "that's why we need to find a way to expand here."
'Expand?!' Gege was surprised by his greed.
"We will stay here for months and so if we can extend our reach to other places then we can also gain more people," he explained before adding, "your new body had grown beyond my expectations even. The total size of the garden world is at least ten times larger than it was before the war."
'Do you plan to make my body this crowded?' she teased him and he laughed as this was a faint glimpse of what the old Gege was like.
"Why not? You said it yourself, they are much stronger than us. If I manage to form a grand army or two from them then the task of controlling ten worlds won't be a problem."
'Ding! You already control three.'
'Don't forget me old man!'
'Ding! I'm not the old man,' the system said with a laugh, 'Ding! Your old man is in deep slumber.'
'I miss him to be honest,' she said, 'he had something that always got on my nerves.'
"And you missed him because of that?" Arthur laughed, "I can let the system make you crazy all the time if that is what you need."
'Nah, he is too cute to act like that old pervert,' she said and Arthur and the system laughed.
Yet this nice and rare conversation with her had to stop here as he arrived at the grand prison.
It wasn't correct to call it a prison as from far it appeared more like a forest of pillars. "One thousand prisoners and zero info… sigh," he couldn't help but shook his head in sadness.
After all he got all these enormous sources of valuable info but he couldn't crack into it yet.
'Why not try and turn them into slaves? Like that werewolf?'
'Ding! We discussed this while you were sleeping,' the system said, 'Ding! Each one of them had greater power than the werewolf, besides the werewolf was beaten near death already and was forced to accept the slave contract and not resist.'
"And there is also the issue of my strength being too weak compared to them to hold them in check all the time," Arthur said before landing just in front of a special prison.
Inside, a stunning beauty stood with much pride and with her head raised high like she wasn't affected by this bitter fate she was now living in.
"Hi there," he greeted, yet the lady only sneered.
"Aren't you tired of coming here my dear nephew?"
"Your dragon head is still thick as usual I see… how are you doing Mera?"
The silver dragonair glanced in an amusing way to him. "I'm confined inside this cage, what do you think I'm feeling right now?"
"Secure?"
"Enraged!"
"Comfortable?"
"Bored."
"You can get out of here and live freely as you like," he said while referring to his offer from before.
"You can take that offer and shave it into your sweet blue dragonair ass!"
He wasn't enraged with her rude remark, as he knew the only person here that was too valuable to lose was her.
She was the leader of his enemies, and knew everything about their current and future plans. All he needed to do was to force her to speak and then a flood of priceless knowledge would drown him.
But he lacked the right means to do that. And that was the reason he kept coming here one visit after another.
"Don't you want to hear about the news of the outside world?" he calmly said while waving his wings slightly in the air, "did you miss this feeling?"
"I miss the taste of crushing you one time after another."
"Yeah, as I'm now your prisoner not the opposite," he sneered and she also sneered.
"I won't be left here forever," she said, "my people would destroy planets to set me free."
"It's a waste of hope to put your freedom on deeds of others y'know," he said before adding, "plus no matter who they send after me, I promise you I'll kill them all."
"War isn't always about fighting and killing stupid nephew."
He glanced silently at her while he got the feeling that she knew about something that would soon happen.
"We'll see about that," he flapped his wings slowly and rose slightly off the ground, "flying here feels much fun… sigh it's a regret you can't enjoy it."
"Soon I will," she ruthlessly said with glaring eyes, "soon my dear nephew… I promise."
Arthur had no other reason to stay here as he flew in the air while her last words rang inside his mind. "She knows about something," he muttered.
'Like what?' Gege sneered, 'All she can know about is the coldness of the pillar prison she lies in.'
'Ding! I totally agree with Arthur… that silver girl definitely knows something.'
'How?' Gege argued, 'she is confined in the prison with no connection whatsoever with the outside world. Hell she can't even know a single word of anything happening outside her prison!'
"Are you sure?" Arthur asked, "after all she had the ability to shapeshift and might others have it."
'You don't mean…' Gege was taken aback from this theory.
'Ding! We can never know,' the system sighed, 'Ding! After all, we don't possess anything to detect or expose that technique.'
"We need to seek such technique," Arthur coldly said, "after all having traitors inside the close circle of you isn't a good thing."
'Ding! I lack any knowledge about such a dilemma.'
'I think the old man can know a thing or two,' Gege said, 'but he is still sleeping.'
"We need to find another way then," Arthur thought deeply and inside his mind a vague piece of info appeared inside his mind. He once heard about such a technique back in his cultivation world, but he didn't recall he ever learnt it.
'Speaking about cultivation,' Gege could read his mind and so she knew what he was thinking, 'when do you plan to advance your base? It has been a month since you trained your cultivation power.'
"It's called spiritual energy," Arthur corrected, "and I won't do it here. Not while I'm still facing strong foes and such adversary situations."
'Ding! He is hesitating because of that tribulation test,' the system explained.
'But isn't crossing the border to the next stage would make you stronger?' Gege asked in doubt, 'you don't want to become stronger anymore?'
"I never stopped training my other power," Arthur said, "but this cultivation one is so tricky. I need to be extremely cautious, until I can rest assured that no one would come and kill me out of the blue."
'Then you are going to wait for a long time,' Gege sneered.
'Ding! He is waiting for his godfather to come,' the system said, 'Ding! He awaits his backing to advance.'
'He isn't here yet?' Gege was surprised, 'Damn! I slept too long and thought I missed his visit.'
"He didn't show up yet," Arthrur glanced at the distant city before adding, "I'm sure something big has happened for sure, and that's a reason to make me refrain from advancing my cultivation."
'It's your decision,' Gege sighed, 'I'm just trying to help here.'
"I know," Arthur muttered, "but playing with the heavens isn't a wise thing to do. Heavens are ruthless and cunning. If one isn't extremely cautious he might end up losing much more than he would gain."
'…'
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