Chapter 264: Ticking Clock
Liu Bian Campaign Quest #3 – Hunt that Motherfucking Protagonist Down!
Quest Description
What else do you think you need to do? Well, you have been through the tutorial quests and the first two quests. It's about time that you should think of your next moves on your own! Do you think I'll babysit you forever? You're supposed to entertain me, not the other way around!
Okay, since you're a newbie, here's your last hint. Currently, Liu Bian has mobilized his troops to repel the orcs at the north of your headquarter city. All of his forces are concentrated here while the capital city, Red Sun City, is left empty. You know what to do.
Be warned that Liu Bian is still being protected by several layers of plot armor. The clock is ticking, so you'd better hurry!
Quest Objectives (You must complete one of the conditions.)
1. Kill Liu Bian.
2. Obtain Liu Bian's Heaven Fate Fragment.
3. Turn Liu Bian into one of your loyal servants. (He must swear allegiance to you with his dao heart.)
Failure Conditions (The quest will fail if one of the conditions is met.)
1. Siren City is occupied by Liu Bian or other forces.
2. Your last Heaven Fate Fragment is stolen.
3. You are killed or enslaved by Liu Bian or other forces.
4. Liu Bian's strength reaches Early Stage Foundation Establishment Realm
5. Liu Bian has summoned two Liches or one Lich King.
Quest Rewards
1. Obtain any item of your choice from this world. (Your sponsor will steal the item from a local cultivator of this mortal world and give it to you. It doesn't matter if it's a piece of time-and-space mural, the max-upgraded pylon tower from the strongest clan of Holy Land Continent, or any heavenly artifact as long as it exists in your world.)
2. Enable 5th-stage advancement.
3. Increase your dantian capacity by 100 billion liters.
4. 100 billion liters of Life Essence will be added to your dantian.
5. A random supply box from your sponsor.
Failure Penalty: ???
…
The dantian expansion was what Miaomiao needed the most. The first reward was also tempting since he could ask his sponsor to get a piece of time-and-space mural for him.
However, it would be nicer if the sponsor could provide a catalog for Miaomiao to choose from.
'Say, can I have a catalog of available items in this world? I don't have a list, so I don't know what to choose.'
[No.]
'Why not!? How can I choose my reward if you don't give me a list of what I can choose!?'
[You need to come up with the item name or desired item yourself.]
[Also, if the item that you've requested doesn't exist in the mortal world, you will receive no reward.]
"…"
The first reward sounded tricky. It seemed that the sponsor wanted to manipulate Miaomiao into asking for a piece of the mural as a reward.
However, it didn't make sense. Miaomiao was confused why the sponsor chose a roundabout method to give him a piece of the mural.
[Your sponsor always gives you freedom of choice. As long as you work hard enough, you can discover the names of legendary items from the Holy Land. Then, you can steal it from them. Easy, right?]
'Doubt it…'
Miaomiao rolled his eyes and closed the menu, giving up talking to the manipulative system and his system sponsor. He looked around and contemplated what he should do next.
While Miaomiao was still absentminded, the system asked him for confirmation.
Ding
[A reminder, you haven't chosen which name you want the world to know about you yet.]
[Which name do you want every cultivator and demon to call you? Mao Miaomiao or Cao Mao?]
As Miaomiao didn't pay attention to the system messages, he half-heartedly answered without listening to the question properly, "Only my friends and family have the right to call me by my real name."
[Affirmative. Mao Miaomiao will be your primary name.]
"… Huh?"
Miaomiao snapped back to his sense. He tilted his head in confusion, "Wait, what was the question again?"
[What name will you be using to establish your clan and organization?]
"Hold it. Something isn't right. Did do you change the question?"
[The question is still the same. The system rephrased it, just in case you can't understand English.]
Miaomiao had the urge to swear at the system, but there was something more urgent. He had to correct the name before everybody started calling him a cat.
"Can I change my public name to Cao Mao?"
Ding
[The system has already registered your name to the world. You cannot change it.]
"Wait, I didn't mean to use that name. Change that to Cao Mao, please!"
[The "Mao Miaomiao" name has been registered, and it can't be changed again. Moreover, this is your real name, so you should use your real name to establish your clan.]
[The name, "Cao Mao", can still be used as your alias. However, the name, "Mao Miaomiao", will be publicly known by other system users.]
Miaomiao's face changed when he heard about other system users. He didn't miss the hint.
"Tell me about other system users. How many are there in this world and the universe?"
…
Ding
[Warning, Great Hero by the name "Mao Miaomiao" has finished constructing a pylon tower and officially established a new force.]
[Mao Miaomiao has occupied Siren City!]
[Many champions and a hero have joined Mao Miaomiao's forces!]
Series of notification messages spammed Liu Bian's system panel. The latter stared at the screen with bloodshot eyes.
"You've finally revealed yourself, greedy bastard! Since you've chosen to pursue the path of kings, I'll get rid of you and take over your pylon tower! But why the fuck is his name cat meow-meow? What were his parents thinking when they named him?"
Despite saying that, Liu Bian didn't have enough power to attack Siren City at the moment. He sighed and gazed toward the orc camp, which had been overrun by his undead army.
The orc camp had fallen, but Liu Bian had lost the war.
Yesterday, the orc put up a good fight. At first, the orc warchief and his men destroyed half of Liu Bian Army and almost reached Liu Bian.
However, at night, Liu Bian's undead soldiers obtained natural Yin Qi and Yin Essence from the moon. They got stronger and managed to deal significant damage to the orc troops.
After orcs began dying, Liu Bian obtained new soldiers to replenish his lost men. He also sent his death knights to mix into the crowd and harvest more dead bodies.
Fogan, the orc warchief, showed up and killed one of the four remaining death knights. Then, the orc retreated with his men in a hurry as they were aware that fighting against undead soldiers at night was disadvantageous.
Liu Bian Army pursued to the orc camp. Along the way, his army ran into several new faces and old faces.
The future emperor glared at a certain group of cultivators toward the north, who had slain one of his death knights. A 7th-stage cultivator and a masked old man levitated and stared at Liu Bian's warship from afar. On the ground, two weak cultivators were hiding on tall trees, but Liu Bian could sense them.
Li Jue, Qiang Sui, Niu Fu, and Zhang He were there!
Zhang He, who was helpless against the undead army, had run away from the ghouls and met Qiang Sui by chance. He showed the emblem of Qiang Clan's affiliate soldier to ask for help.
Qiang Sui brought Zhang He to Li Jue's party and regrouped with them. Qiang Sui teamed up with Li Jue as they repelled the undead soldiers, who chased after them.
Unknowingly, Qiang Sui and Li Jue indirectly helped the orcs by killing some of the weak undead soldiers while Niu Fu and Zhang He used the two elders as their shields.
Liu Bian saw this group of people as thorns. He clicked his tongue in frustration.
'Did I make another military blunder? I thought Qiang Sui had run away from here, but this bastard is still lingering around his territory. I should have waited a bit longer and let Qiang Sui and the orcs kill each other first.'
Liu Bian had read many books from the royal library. He had learned about the existence of long-distance portals and teleportation gates, which could transport many cultivators from continents to continents. He had also learned that there were other branch families of the Liu Clan, who still resided on the Holy Land Continent. However, that branch family was working under Zhang Clan as a vessel clan, so they were his enemies.
Being intimidated by the long-distance portals, Liu Bian became impatient and attacked the orc to destroy the portal construction site. And now, he regretted his decision as he indirectly helped his enemies instead of destroying them.
As Liu Bian hesitated if he should retreat or push forward, Wang Yun emerged from the prince's shadow. The Caucasian marine came back with a piece of bad news.
"I have a report."
"I thought you went back to Red Sun City. What happened?"
Wang Yun sighed, "Dong Zhongying and his clan rebelled. The emperor has died, and that fatty put your younger brother, Liu Xie to the throne."
"What!?"
The war against the looming threat of orcs and their long-distance portals had not been resolved yet, but a certain greedy minister had launched a coup d'état, stealing his future throne for his younger brother.
Currently, Liu Xie, Liu Bian's younger brother, was only 4 years old. It was obvious that Dong Zhongying wanted to manipulate the young prince to seize control of the court, noble clans, and all orthodox sects.
While Liu Bian was in shock, Wang Yun glanced at the remaining troops of Liu Bian. He roughly counted them.
"Your Majesty, you won't be able to defeat the orcs and Qiang Sui with only a group of ragtag ghouls and zombies. Also, you only have two death knights left, so it's not worth it to sacrifice your pawns to kill that orc warchief and Qiang Sui."
"What do you want me to do in this situation, then?"
Wang Yun walked toward the battleship deck and observed the battlefield below. He pointed at the south and the north, "I think we should leave those guys alone and let them deal with the orcs. Why should we waste our time fighting several enemy factions at once when they are at odds against each other? Haven't you studied Art of War before, Your Majesty?"
"I'm not a former military man like you. I'm not well-verse with warfare."
"Then, you should listen to me. For now, retreat and hide until you reach the 4th-stage or 5th-stage. Abandon the throne and pretend to be dead. I'll create a fake corpse and let the world know that you die."
Liu Bian frowned. His face flushed, and he yelled, "What's the point of that!? Why should I give away my throne to Dong Zhongying!?"
Wang Yun smirked. He teleported and reappeared behind Liu Bian. Then, he poked the prince's nick with his black knife, "You won't live long if you keep pursuing authority when you don't have enough strength to back it up. You must get stronger first, then you can come back and take everything later. Right now, you are too weak and immature. Take some time off from the worldly matter, and come back when you mature a bit."
"…"
Liu Bian was unwilling to surrender his throne to his younger brother or Dong Zhongying. Moreover, he had just learned about the new pylon tower's location from the system.
The prince gazed toward the south, where Siren City was located. Nearby, a certain monk had been floating in mid-air, looking at his battleship. A giant orc was also there, talking to the monk about something.
Liu Bian could guess that they might be in the middle of negotiation for a truce, or the orcs might even surrender to the monk. If it was the latter's case, Liu Bian Army might have to fight another monstrous cultivator, which he had lost once before.
Currently, the sun was directly at the center of the sky. The zombies, ghouls, and several undead creatures were weakened. Liu Bian Army was not prepared to fight three 7th-stage cultivators at once. Even when he had 4 death knights with him, he still couldn't kill Fogan.
The odds stacked against him. It was the time to retreat.
The prince gritted his teeth and sent a retreat signal.
3,000 elite undead, such as vampires, skeleton knights, Zhang Rang, and the two death knights, retreated and boarded Liu Bian's battleships. As for zombies, ghouls, and crippled skeleton soldiers, Liu Bian left them here as cannon fodders and rearguards.
With a broken heart, Liu Bian returned to Chicken Ann City. He had failed to subjugate the western provinces, and he would need a long time to replenish his soldiers. Moreover, his reputation had already hit rock bottom as many clans were aware of his necromancy skill now, and his throne had been stolen.
Reclaiming the throne at the moment was impossible. The only option left was to reclaim everything through absolute strength.
'Well, it doesn't matter if I lose my rights to the throne. I'll talk with Wang Yun and ask him to find a place to hide me for the time being. As long as I can raise my cultivation base to the 4th-stage or the 5th-stage, I should be able to summon a lich. If I have one or two 7th-stage liches or an 8th-stage lich king on my side, no one on this continent will be able to stop me anymore.'
Liu Bian voluntarily abandoned the throne since his secret had been exposed. For now, he decided to go into hiding, but he swore that he would come back to reclaim everything that he had lost.
…
The clock had started ticking, and the hunt had truly begun.
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