Chapter 545 – Return to Xiangyang
'Mercenary, not my direct subordinate?'
"Yes."
Instead of submitting to Ancestor Minghe, Miaomiao chose to be neutral.
Being a mercenary wasn't equal to being Ancestor Minghe's underling. He could decline jobs if he didn't like it, thus, retaining some of his freedom.
'So, you don't want to be bound by either Heavenly Dao or me, is that what you want?'
Unfortunately, Minghe caught on to Miaomiao's scheme. He directly exposed Miaomiao's goal.
Miaomiao bit his lower lips. This move might be too risky, but he had to try. Still, even if it failed, he could always bow down to the Heavenly Dao and be this sage's colleague to survive.
"To be honest, I don't know much about Heavenly Dao, sages, or the higher realms. I lack the experience to make this decision."
While saying that Miaomiao glanced at his system screen. He secretly questioned Dion.
'What's the difference between Heavenly Dao and Heavenly Dao of Zenith Heaven?'
Ding
"…"
Sometimes, Miaomiao doubted Dion. He wondered if it was created by Heavenly Dao or something similar since it was too knowledgeable.
Meanwhile, Minghe was in a good mood.
'Hahaha! Are you saying that you need time to explore the universe and broaden your horizon before you can decide?'
"Yes, if you phrase it that way."
'Good. I like the cunning and cautious ones better than naïve yes-men. I'll hire you and your clansmen as my mercenaries. But, you know… you're too weak to be any use. If I send you to a battle like this, the other sage's pawns will instantly slaughter you and your family. Let's do it this way. I'll give you a grace period of training as a trail mercenary contract.'
"A trial contract?"
'I'll test your talent of how you fare under the deadline pressure. The trial contract period is 100 years, and your only duty is to become an Immortal Saint or a 30-Star Constellation Immortal before the deadline. Then, we'll talk about the real mercenary contract and your wage. During the trial period, no god, sage, or even Kishin Douji will bother you. I'll tell everybody to leave you alone… unless you cause troubles yourself.'
Miaomiao was surprised. This sage was more generous than he had expected.
However, Miaomiao hadn't trusted Minghe yet.
"I have a condition. During the trial period, leave me be and respect my privacy. I don't want to be bound by karma or a nasty slave collar again."
'I understand how you feel. Very well, I won't interfere with your affair. But you still have to prove that you can be useful to me in the future. Otherwise, your fate will be the same as Devil's.'
"Devil?" Miaomiao was interested in what the sage had done to Devil, "Where is he now?"
'You don't need to worry about him. Well, I'm busy. I'll send Grim to finalize the contract when he's free.'
Ancestor Minghe cut the communication.
"…"
Miaomiao lied on his bed, gazing at the ceiling. He groaned and covered his face with his forearm in frustration.
How come the gods never left him alone? What kind of curse was this?
Should he give up being a protagonist and be satisfied by working for Ancestor Minghe?
No, Miaomiao couldn't mess around like when he served Xu Xiuying again. This time, it related to his long-term life. If he were to make a wrong move, he would have been stuck with that for the rest of eternity. There was no second chance!
The sages knew about Miaomiao, Devil, and the previous timelines. Therefore, they could easily and instantly kill him before the new timeline would even begin!
"This is getting complicated, goddammit! Can't I just have a simple storyline like a normal protagonist? Can't I just go from point A to point B, then fight the local villains, get stronger, and move on to the next stage one at a time?! Why am I confronting the last boss before I even get the chance to fight the mid-bosses or mini-bosses?!"
Miaomiao stayed in bed, venting his frustration by yelling and swearing at Heaven.
…
It took Miaomiao a day to adjust his mental fortitude and mood. He hyped himself and got out of the bed, getting ready to pay someone a visit.
He thought of the annoying dungeon master's face, who was a transmigrator as well.
Even though Minghe said that he had already contained Devil, Miaomiao still wanted to either tame or get rid of the variable in this timeline.
'Alright. The last time I saw Brocell… should he be somewhere around the Xuan City or Chicken Ann City? Do I need to search underground?'
When Miaomiao thought of the underground, the face of Liu Guang appeared in his mind.
He missed her antics and her bugs. He wondered how she was doing in the Netherworld Realm.
Miaomiao touched the Ring of Yin Slave Master, wondering if he could sense their presence somewhere around here, praying for a miracle.
"Hmm?"
He wasn't disappointed. He sensed Liu Guang's presence at the east!
"She's still around?!"
Miaomiao rushed out of the mansion and flew east, tracing Liu Guang's presence.
He came to Xiangyang City, the Capital of the Southern Province.
When Miaomiao arrived, he widened his eyes and smiled – The bugs of Liu Guang were still there!
"Liu Guang!" Miaomiao called for her right away.
Within less than a minute, Liu Guang rushed out along with Sima Yi and Guo Jia.
When they saw Miaomiao's new look, they were taken aback. But then, they recognized his lewd aura and carefree demeanor. The two aides saluted to Miaomiao while Liu Guang jumped into his arms.
"MIAOMIAO!!"
"Guang'er!"
They embraced each other. Both of them couldn't believe that they could still meet after Lilith and Lilim messed with their family.
After licking, sniffing, hugging, and kissing enough, Miaomiao and the gang entered Xiangyang Palace to catch up with the changes.
However, as soon as Miaomiao and others entered the palace, they ran into one of Lilim's subordinates, who was sent here to monitor Liu Guang.
The woman was an Arachne like Dian Wei. However, she was an immortal.
Miaomiao couldn't measure the strength of the woman, but she was a lot weaker than Lilim for sure.
This supervisor of Liu Guang strode toward Miaomiao. Her eight eyes stared at his face while her mouth was wide open as if she wanted to swallow him whole.
"You look delicious for a demon. What race are you? Where are you from?"
Miaomiao tilted his head, gazing at the spider woman in bemusement. He tested the water, wondering if she knew about the recent developments, "When was the last time you contacted Her Highness Lilim or Her Majesty Lilith?"
"Oh, are you one of us, too? Why haven't I seen you before? Your voice is quite deep for a little girl."
Miaomiao scratched his cheek. Because of his pretty face and feminine physique, the spider mistook him as one of Lilith's subordinate demons.
This misunderstanding seemed interesting. Miaomiao played along.
"Look at my cultivation base. I'm weaker than you and the others, so Her Majesty deployed me as a backup."
"I see. That explains why your beauty is on par with us."
"…"
"Anyway, since you come here, are you by chance responsible for this continent, too?"
"Yes. I'm in charge of patrolling Red Sun City, Siren City, and Xuan City for any leftover family members of Mao Miaomiao. Say, do you know why she keeps this woman here?"
Miaomiao pointed at Liu Guang, but he winked at the latter, gesturing her to play along.
Liu Guang frowned for a moment before she understood him. She pretended to be annoyed.
The spider laughed, "Her Majesty Lilith is fond of that girl's potential. She wants to raise her as Beelzebub's successor, and she wants her to expand her bug kingdom."
Beelzebub
Miaomiao remembered that name. Although it represented one of the seven sin demons, this world's Beelzebub was just another trap of Devil – Anybody who inherited this bloodline would automatically become Devil's slave!
It seemed that Lilith wasn't aware of Devil's scheme in this timeline. Otherwise, she would have backstabbed Devil by now.
"I see. But what for?"
"Obviously, Her Majesty has ordered this girl to slaughter every human cultivator on this planet. The first step is to expand her colonies and manpower! Since I'm experienced in managing spider colonies, I'm here to teach this girl the ropes."
"Ah, that makes sense," Miaomiao grinned as he glanced at this spider's karma strings. He located her existence karma thread and licked his lips, "Say, senior."
"Yeah?"
"Has Her Majesty and Her Highness bestowed you her token or branded you with a Life Brand?"
"Ney. No one has ever received their grace with their life brands, let alone a tattoo! Only Levy's people get their life brands like human cultivators."
"So they don't care if their subordinates die?"
"Pfft, if someone were to die, it's their fault for being weak! Moreover, Her Majesty can read karma! If someone among us were to die, she would have found the culprit on the same day and mobilized her army to catch that fool! Well, it's not like we need those silly life brands anyway."
"I understand. I heard enough."
Miaomiao widely grinned. Lilith and her goons were so careless that Miaomiao inwardly laughed.
Even mortals branded their subordinates as a precaution. If their subordinate died, they could see the dead person's memory during their last seconds, and they would learn the cause of their death.
As for Lilith and this unknown immortal spider woman, they were either overconfident or stupid. Lilith might have been too cocky about her karma powers that she didn't need such a thing.
But she forgot that someone had just recently obtained a similar ability. He could also erase a trace of his deeds.
Miaomiao caught the karma string of the spider woman's existence and cut it right away!
He didn't care if he might provoke other sages. He needed to get rid of this immortal before she got in his way!
After all, all Lilim and Lilith's subordinates were now his enemies!
As soon as Miaomiao snapped the karma string, the spider woman suddenly stopped moving. She looked around as if she was confused.
"I don't know why, but I don't feel so good."
Miaomiao scoffed, "Yeah, goodbye, spidey…"
The immortal spider's body and soul faded and dissipated as if she had never existed. All her belongings, such as a heaven-grade claw and her spatial ring, dropped on the ground.
The other karma strings also receded back to the other ends. Whoever this spider woman had a tie with, they might instinctively learn about her death or completely forget about her.
But that was none of Miaomiao's business. Regardless of whoever this spider woman's relatives or friends were, Miaomiao decided to Yun-Che every one of them.
Slaughtering everybody that sided with his enemies was the only way, the protagonist's way!
Now, Miaomiao wondered which side was the true villain, the protagonist side or the antagonist side.
While Miaomiao's mind went to Lalaland, he picked up the weapon. He sent a few strands of negative karmas to threaten the spirit inside.
"Yield or die. Make your choice, spirit!"
The weapon spirit emerged from the weapon and manifested. It was a heinous giant spider.
"WHO ARE YOU?! HOW DID YOU USE HER MAJESTY'S POWER?!"
"Don't talk in caps. It's annoying. Oh well, since you don't want to submit to me, die then."
The negative karma strings squeezed the soul and crushed it. The weapon spirit vanished, and the claw's power reduced to that of a sky-grade quality.
Miaomiao picked the weapon and tossed it to Sima Yi, who was still confused about how everything resolved so fast.
"It's yours from now on."
Sima Yi gazed at the weapon in astonishment. Though shocked, he knelt on one knee and bowed, "Thank you, my lord!"
"If possible, talk to Nobunaga about it. If he and you can work together, this claw might be useful for you guys."
"… Understood."
Miaomiao turned to Liu Guang next, but the latter was still in shock.
"Miaomiao, how did you…"
The opponent was an immortal, not some run-of-a-mill young master! Although fighting people across realms daily occurrence in this world, killing an immortal as a mortal should have been impossible.
Miaomiao patted Liu Guang's head, "It's a long story. For now, I want to make a pact with you. You guys too, Guo Jia, Sima Yi. Become my familiars, and I'll bring you to my dantian world!"
Liu Guang got even more puzzled as to why Miaomiao wanted to make a new pact with them, "Wait. Can you explain it here?"
Seeing how confused Liu Guang and the others were, Miaomiao sighed and opened a portal to his dantian world, "This will take a while. Let's talk inside, so I won't be wasting time here."
The group stared at the portals with round eyes. They looked back and forth between the portal and Miaomiao.
In the end, Liu Guang led the group to Miaomiao's dantian world. She had been there countless times, so she trusted him.
Still, entering the Isolation Training Space with her real body was new. She wondered if she could use him as a ferry to bring her around the world.
…
It only took Miaomiao a few hours in the dantian space to explain everything to the new group.
Ma Xingjuan, Kang Yan, and Dian Wei were there to listen to Miaomiao's story as well. This was their second time hearing it, but they still found it amazing.
All of them looked at the middle-aged Xie Tian, who was minding his own business recuperating and kept a distance from the girls.
"Unbelievable."
"I know right? I thought Xie Tian was Miaomiao's nemesis, but they're buddy-buddy now."
Kang Yan's eyes strangely glittered. When she noticed that Xie Tian was wearing Miaomiao's clothes, she got excited.
"Hehehe."
Ma Xingjuan frowned at Kang Yan, "What are you thinking? Your expression is kinda… nasty."
"O-Oh. Nothing. Just a girl's fantasy."
"Care to elaborate?"
"W-Well. I just imagined Miaomiao and Xie Tian… doing lewd things."
All women: "…"
…
While the women gathered and had a girl's talk in private, Miaomiao completed the pact with Liu Guang and sent her out.
"What's the plan, Miaomiao?"
Although Liu Guang was still partly confused about how everything escalated so fast, she was ready to follow his instruction.
"Gather your subordinates."
"How many do you need? I have over a billion bugs-"
"Everyone."
Liu Guang raised her eyebrow, "All of them?! What are you planning to do? Are we waging war with someone?"
"Something like that," Miaomiao turned to the northwest, where he last visited Brocell's dungeon, "We'll be raiding a dungeon to kill someone.. We'll be hunting a dungeon master protagonist."
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