Chapter 11672 — The Tree Longs for Stillness, Yet the Wind Will Not Cease

Only by lying low and biding his time, as Wei Zhao had done, was there any chance of withdrawing with his hide intact.

"The tree longs for stillness, yet the wind will not cease. The tide of the times is not a thing one can so easily dodge."

Jiang Xiaoshang offered this reminder.

Wei Zhao had his Nation of Sin; the other houses had their own back gardens.

If one could weather a great upheaval by such means, matters would be far too simple.

Having taken on the karma of the leading wave, that karma was bound to be called due upon each of them at the most fatal of moments.

Sometimes, the farther one fled, the more lethal the karmic reckoning when it finally erupted.

Yet Wei Zhao's confidence lay in this: the Nation of Sin was merely a disguise, and behind him stood an entire new world!

With only his own frame, he could hardly withstand the backlash of the Inner Royal Court's vast karma—but add a new world to the scales, and the picture became something else entirely.

Moreover, Wei Zhao had no intention of relying solely on the new world to carry him through.

He had another plan in reserve.

By his reckoning of the time, it should be about now.

Just then, something stirred in Wei Zhao's heart, and beside him Jiang Xiaoshang too wore a faintly amused expression.

"The fish is here. Quick, hand me the rod—I must begin to put on my airs."

Wei Zhao: "..."

Still, under Jiang Xiaoshang's repeated urging, he handed over the Rod of the Gods.

Then Jiang Xiaoshang, with great solemnity, seated himself upon a stone slab and began to fish into the empty air.

Wei Zhao stared, his brow furrowing into black lines: "If you're going to put on an act, at least have the decency to be professional about it. If you're fishing, at least make yourself a pond—what is the meaning of a little puddle?"

The spot where Jiang Xiaoshang now fished was, quite plainly, a puddle two meters square and no more than half a foot deep. If a fish could be pulled from that, it would be a true wonder to behold.

Jiang Xiaoshang said darkly: "You don't understand the artistic conception of a master like me. Just stand aside and watch and learn. Speak less."

Wei Zhao was speechless.

As master of the new world, he naturally knew what Jiang Xiaoshang was doing.

The fish he spoke of was none other than the quasi-god powerhouse Yi Liuchao.

Yi Liuchao had come after all.

Wei Zhao's earlier gambit of fishing for a great fish had indeed left him scorched and frantic, but a quasi-god powerhouse still had a quasi-god's pride; there was no chance he would swallow such a humiliation without a word.

Especially since the matter concerned Godking Haotian—if only to answer to his own master, he had to take Wei Zhao down.

So the moment he had steadied the situation, he had given chase.

Yet Yi Liuchao remained wary to the last degree.

From his vantage, Wei Zhao himself was nothing to fear; the god-level powerhouse possibly lurking behind him was the true menace.

This thrust into the Nation of Sin would very likely bring him face to face with that god-level powerhouse—and there lay the real peril!

A quasi-god against a god-level powerhouse: there was simply no chance of victory.

Though Yi Liuchao had always thought highly of himself, he entertained not the slightest doubt on this point—there truly was no fighting it.

But he had his own reliance.

So long as his luck was not absurdly bad, his methods were quite sufficient to snatch Wei Zhao from under a god-level powerhouse's very nose.

"The Nation of Sin truly is not what it once was—what on earth has happened here?"

Yi Liuchao carefully masked his traces and aura, creeping along the edges of the Nation of Sin.

He had been here before. His deepest impressions of the place, apart from the Lord of Sin, that half-baked demigod, were the reek of filth and disorder that seeped from every level of it.

Not merely filth and disorder on the surface, but the underlying fortune of the whole Nation of Sin—chaotic beyond all decency.

Such underlying fortune doomed the Nation of Sin to remain forever a foul mud pit, forever incapable of establishing any positive order akin to the Inner Royal Court's.

For this very reason, though many factions knew of the Nation of Sin's existence, not one had ever been willing to sink roots and cultivate it.

Because there was no point to it.

After all, who would willingly build their nest in a foul mud pit?

Yet looking at it now, though the overall order of the Nation of Sin still could not match the Inner Royal Court's, lacking its high coordination and clear structure, the whole place exuded an air of flourishing prosperity—verily the signs of great governance!

Even its lowest fortune had begun to surge upward, plainly entering an ascending course.

At this rate, the day might well come when the Nation of Sin's order surpassed the Inner Royal Court's—and it was no impossibility!

Remember, the Inner Royal Court was now in the midst of a great upheaval; its downhill slide had only just begun.

Yi Liuchao could not help but feel a little dazed.

If the two orders truly were to reverse, who then would be the land of criminal exile, and who the Inner Royal Court's true orthodoxy?

One had to understand that the Nation of Sin's positioning was, in essence, two sides of the same coin with the Inner Royal Court.

If those two sides truly flipped, the joke would be a great deal too far.

The Nation of Sin merely had a rotten foundation; in theory, at least, the ceiling it could reach was in no way inferior to the Inner Royal Court's!

"Such a grand design—who in the world stands behind this?"

Yi Liuchao's blood ran cold the more he thought; the deeper he considered, the more he broke into a cold sweat.

Just then, Yi Liuchao's hairs stood on end, and his whole body abruptly turned into an unremarkable stone statue, his state identical to that of the crimson ape Wei Zhao had encountered before.

The next second, a vast, half-there and half-not wave swept past.

Only after a long while did Yi Liuchao release the petrified state and re-enter his stealth, only now grown even more cautious.

Wei Zhao saw all of this perfectly clearly.

"He even knows a trick like that—now there's a talent."

Had he not been backed by the new world, whose perception let no faintest stir escape him, any ordinary god-level powerhouse would have been fooled blind by Yi Liuchao's methods.

Unfortunately, he had chosen the wrong opponent.

Yi Liuchao continued his stealth.

A full three days later, he still maintained utter vigilance and patience, cautiously prowling the edges of the Nation of Sin.

Until, of a sudden, a faint tremor rose unbidden in his heart.

Yi Liuchao rejoiced inwardly: "A surge of inspiration! This is an omen of opportunity!"

As a quasi-god powerhouse, he had known such experiences many times, and each had brought enormous benefit, never once failing.

This time would surely be no exception!

On the road to godhood, he had walked ninety-nine of a hundred steps; only the final push remained. Could his chance at godhood truly be bound up with this Nation of Sin?

Yet in the next instant, Yi Liuchao was sharply on his guard.

"This may well be a lure set by that god-level powerhouse!"

So, though the temptation was immense, he maintained absolute restraint and made no rash move.

Watching this, Wei Zhao said with amusement: "This fish doesn't seem so easy to hook after all."

"What the hell would you know!"

Jiang Xiaoshang was not the least bit flustered, still seated serene upon his fishing perch.

Seeing this, Wei Zhao did not interfere, and continued to watch at his leisure.