Before the Curtain Falls

The next morning,

At an abandoned factory in the suburbs, this place welcomed such numerous visitors for the first time. Military jeeps had already departed at dawn, before the ability users arrived by car.

They arrived at the scene immediately after the battle ended.

Lightning danced in arcs through the water flow, like rising pillars of luminescent water.

The massive flood and lightning, resembling divine punishment from heaven, surprisingly didn't spread outward to form waves. Such excellent control ability made the water and lightning ability users present grow solemn.

There was no mistake - such formidable power could only belong to those two organizations.

Unlike what they expected, the battle ended very quickly, without even hearing any screams. The fighting ahead suddenly ceased.

They waited until their legs went numb before confirming the battle had truly ended.

Although they knew the suburban buildings were likely destroyed, when they saw the scattered ruins everywhere, their breathing quickened and their pupils dilated in shock.

They initially thought nothing would remain from a battle of this scale, but while following procedure to search the area, they unexpectedly found multiple bodies in the collapsed buildings.

When they identified them as Ancient God Cult members, the news shook the world.

[Masked men = Ancient God Cult, I don't understand but I'm shocked!]

[Many countries jointly issued arrest warrants, it must be real...]

[That's wrong, the masked men also cooperate with others, like the incident leaked by Dragon Country recently.]

[What's going to happen? Recently the major powers have been clearing out monsters and blockading the Ancient God Cult. Could the battle between the Stolen Operator and Shared Operator be about to begin...]

[Troubled times ahead, everyone should be more careful.]

However, the instigator moved his gaze from the screen, stretched lazily, and picked up his water cup like an old official going to check on his prisoner.

A five-colored white mist was imprisoned in the specially modified room.

The experience card obtained from this Elder allowed Qi Yuan to easily transform the room into a prison to contain him.

The moment he entered the room, the white mist condensed into a fist, approaching from far to near in the blink of an eye. Soon Qi Yuan's vision was filled with nothing but an enormous fist...

Yet Qi Yuan's expression remained unchanged, maintaining his room-entering posture, allowing the fist to pass through his body.

He had "sealed magic" here. If it were a real person throwing a punch, he'd need to dodge, but an consciousness entity trying to attack was purely wishful thinking.

He chuckled lightly - being invincible was such joy!

Facing this experience card supplier who overthought everything, his gaze toward the Elder couldn't help but soften, like looking at a piglet ready for slaughter, his mind full of thoughts about the "money" the piglet would bring.

Having lived for many years and still able to maintain rationality, after the punch missed, the Elder managed to regain his composure from emotions of hatred and anger.

If the Elder had eyes, perhaps his gaze alone could kill, but unfortunately, he didn't.

While Qi Yuan hadn't transformed into a consciousness entity and wouldn't actively contact malicious emotions, his own consciousness defense was high, so the Elder's killing intent couldn't affect him at all.

Soon, the Elder noticed Qi Yuan's unusual behavior, the mist rising and flowing, revealing his unsettled emotions.

"What is this fellow plotting?"

The thought flashed by, but he didn't transmit it to Qi Yuan, instead calculating how to resolve his current predicament.

After this incident, the Elder confirmed that their clan was no match for the Shared Operators. If they didn't cooperate with the Stolen Operator, it would surely mean self-destruction.

So, he transmitted his consciousness to Qi Yuan.

"May I pledge my loyalty to you? As long as you allow me to live in this world, I will cooperate completely!"

After speaking, the occupied channel became active again - indeed, old foxes' words couldn't be trusted at all.

"Deliberately keeping me alive must mean he has some scheme. For now, I'll pretend to fear death and want to survive, let him lower his guard before making plans."

Regarding this point, Qi Yuan maintained his complete innocence - he had wanted to keep more of them. After all, the more experience card suppliers, the better.

If he had captured and confined them together, the Elder would surely have shared his theories with his subordinates.

But who could have known that his modification, while effective against consciousness entities, would trigger an ancient rule - Heaven's Lightning Strikes Evil.

These consciousness entities were treated as ghosts, taking critical damage and perishing on the spot.

The Elder's consciousness was more consolidated, giving Qi Yuan time to save him.

With only one seedling left, Qi Yuan could only come to look after the Elder, lest he lose hope and end himself.

As for information and intelligence, those were no longer important - with his overwhelming power, possessing the Eye of Time and illusions, how could he not extract information?

However, for overthinking people, without value in staying alive, they couldn't find solutions or possibilities for survival.

"Tell me about your people."

"Have you accepted my loyalty?"

The Elder countered with a question instead of answering.

"No."

Having successfully achieved his goal of making this invader feel hope for life, Qi Yuan stood up and left the room.

Hearing various speculative thoughts from inside, he showed the joy of a farmer watching piglets grow strong, and spatial transferred to Yu Anhe's office.

Yu Anhe had received his message and waited in advance in the office.

Sensing another person in the office, he asked with full vigor: "What bad news do you have this time?"

Qi Yuan almost stumbled, "How did you know it was bad news?"

Now it was Yu Anhe's turn to lose composure. He stood up, making the desk clatter loudly, his eyes almost popping out, "There really is bad news?!"

He was just making a casual joke...

"Yes."

Qi Yuan's expression turned serious, "We're about to lose money soon, of course it's bad news."

Hiss--!

Yu Anhe drew in a sharp breath, only realizing something was off after inhaling. He picked at his ear with his pinky, "What nonsense?"

Seeing Yu Anhe's dumbfounded expression, Qi Yuan couldn't help but laugh.

Seeing Qi Yuan's appearance, how could Yu Anhe not understand? He immediately gritted his teeth and said: "You little rascal, you're making fun of me, aren't you?"

After speaking, Yu Anhe realized the barrier between them had diminished somewhat, and he also understood the other's goodwill.

But this level was enough - if their relationship got any closer, his heart couldn't take it.

This kid never acted normal.

"How could I?"

Qi Yuan firmly denied, then diverted attention: "My power has recovered, the battle between the Stolen Operator and me will probably happen in these few days."

Emotions stabilized, Yu Anhe, who had just sat down, once again disturbed the desk with his beer belly, this time with even greater amplitude than before, his tone rising to a crack.

"Didn't you say we were losing money?"

Noticing his loss of composure, he steadied himself and said with certainty: "Can you handle it?"

"Of course, the battlefield will be right here."

Qi Yuan's words nearly made Yu Anhe lose his breath, until the next sentence helped him regain his thoughts.

"I can guarantee it won't affect your people, but you'll need the duty squad to help control crowd panic and chaos."

In the original plan, he had just intended to have a casual fight - after all, with power in hand, having a finale would be good enough. But he had to admit, the experience cards from the invaders were excellent, so he wanted to convert them to permanent ones.

To prevent the higher-ups from suppressing the news, he had to inconvenience the people of Jidu.

He had already prepared his reasoning - if he changed locations and the Stolen Operator didn't know, tragedy would occur.

What surprised him was that Yu Anhe immediately suggested: "Then let's evacuate the people."

Possible, but unnecessary...

Finally, Qi Yuan barely convinced Yu Anhe by arguing that the world's protection would absolutely prevent accidents, and that evacuation would create more panic and trouble.

Yu Anhe only agreed because he feared that if people fell prey to monsters in their panic, it would increase the Stolen Operator's power. Without the ability to deal with the Stolen Operator currently, Yu Anhe dared not imagine what would happen if they couldn't resolve the situation, so he had already prepared for the possibility of Jidu's complete destruction.