Chapter 6

1

Late at night, everyone either went back to their posts or went to bed—except for a few of us who left together.

“Clubbing? Duke, did you sleep too much or something? Why’re you so full of energy?” I glanced at my young-looking father. Youth really had no limits—staying up past midnight to hit a nightclub and dragging us along—Wenxin’s dad Xiaolin, me, Coyalu, plus Nana who insisted on coming.

“It’s quieter for me here.”

The doorman pushed the doors open for us. The surge of music and voices instantly drowned out the word “quiet.”

“You’re just worried two girls will block you from hitting on other women!”

“Xiaolin, don’t call me out like that!”

“Um… is a priest really allowed to go clubbing?” I still remembered priests’ rules said no nightclubs.

“Keep your voice down. With the robes off, who’s gonna know I’m a priest?”

Coyalu took a lap through the crowd and came back. “Drinks are all free after 1 a.m. Two minutes to go.”

“Dude, you really know your way around. You hit this place every time you come to the frontier city. Just… it’s wartime now, way fewer people.”

Coyalu looked unusually sentimental. “Haven’t been to a place for young people in a long time.”

Xiaolin stared at him, baffled. “Why do you sound like some old man?”

“Ha, places like this are way wilder in The Demon Realm. And my heart’s way older than yours.”

2

We sat at the bar farthest from the stage. Coyalu ordered the strongest drink they had, then walked off with a bright smile.

“Guess the elders really know their stuff. He’s already making a move?” Xiaolin looked amazed at Coyalu’s speed.

Watching Coyalu step straight into enemy territory, the duke summed it up in one line. “Fast and brutal.”

“Xiao Yang, why aren’t you going?”

“Go for what?” Nana was right next to me. She made anywhere feel scary. That look, that aura. She was still mad because I’d told her the built-in timer in our contract had broken thanks to the time reversal, and she’d kept this expression ever since.

“You didn’t just come here to have fun, did you?”

“Smart.” The duke handed me a small device. Under the laser lights it looked like an earpiece. “This is classified, but I trust you. I hope you’ll help us win this war.”

“And that friend of yours too.”

“Him? He’s a free agent. If he feels like coming, he’ll come.” I put on the earpiece. Voices sounded by my ear, and my right eye saw another side of the club.

Everyone at this bar had a number and name tagged over them. They were all commanders of The Othrie Empire in this border war.

The nightclub was just a front. Its true face was a secret conference room hidden under shadows and wild screams. The earpieces linked everyone here wearing the same device. All voice data and intel got fed straight through them into our brains.

‘Since the duke insists on trusting him, there’s no need to argue. Let’s just hope he doesn’t disappoint us, the duke, or the empire.’

‘To counter a god-tier, you need a god-tier. The empire has quite a few, but getting them to move isn’t a matter of a day or two. We still need strategy and tech. Human technology was never fully replaced by Magic.’

‘If it was one god-tier, I might agree with you. With the empire’s tech, we could fight it out. But Duton’s got three. This war’s been brewing for a long time.’

‘Just now, one of Duton’s god-tier was captured. He’s imprisoned right here.’ The duke suddenly cut into their discussion.

‘We didn’t know anything about this?’

‘But Duton already knows. I assume everyone understands why this meeting’s being held like this.’

‘There’s a mole.’

‘If we’re allowed in this meeting, that means we’re trusted, right?’

‘Yes. Everyone here is someone I trust. Now that I’ve recovered from my injuries, and with Qin Yang’s help and a god-tier from Duton captured, I expect us to be tied on high-level Magic combat. The rest depends on whether our tech can beat Duton’s demon troops. Also, the first item on our agenda is how to win against demon troops in regular combat.’

‘Can we use the digital Magic weapons from the imperial labs?’

‘Too many flaws. The experiments stopped thirty years ago. No way we can fix them now and rush them into battle.’

‘…’

The discussion kept circling around how to use the empire’s technology.

‘What about the main-cannon mothership?’ I couldn’t hold back.

The main-cannon mothership was built on The Demon Realm’s “Floating Smoke” mobile fortress. Humans added their own skills and imagination to create an aerial gunship carrier. Every major country had one. It carried each nation’s most advanced aircraft and aerial soldiers. On top of that, the giant warship mounted one or two Magic main-cannon systems. The systems were so massive that two was already the limit of current technology.

The original “Floating Smoke” was a fortress that could mount whatever artillery you wanted. Humans had long thought about building aerial battleships equipped only with rapid-fire magic cannons for large-scale support. But the same old problem—defense—never got solved. Modern tech had countless weapons of mass destruction, but strong, focused, man-made systems to defend against Magic were rare. Even twenty years later, the “Golden Bell” system wasn’t developed by humans alone.

So aerial soldiers existed mainly to protect the mothership, while its main cannon was there to end battles in one decisive strike. The shorter the fight, the less chance it had to be shot down.

‘We’d need to apply for the main-cannon mothership in advance. And it’s currently patrolling the southeastern seas. If it leaves its patrol, it could affect the negotiations.’

‘Our military intel division got word that Duton’s mothership is under maintenance right now. If we can get ours, we might win.’

This war took up barely any space in the history books. Just dates, names, outcome, and historical meaning—nothing else. If we wanted to win, we’d have to use our brains.

‘Right now we’re under siege. We need two armies outside the city to cooperate and break the deadlock. That’s our most urgent problem. Please don’t be overly optimistic.’ Finally someone sounded a bit rational.

‘………’

3

An hour later, I left the bar. The meeting had ended. The decision: have the armies outside the city form a strike team. Target: the enemy rear support zone. Temporarily cut off the demon troops’ energy supply and give the frontier city a window to counterattack. As for logistics, we had the advantage—our supply line in the canyon behind the city was our biggest support.

If the operation worked, the god-tier we held would become a bargaining chip. We could use him to force Duton into negotiations, maybe even win a more distant border for the empire.

I walked out of the club alone and crossed to the small shop across the tram street to buy a little ice-cream cone. There was only one old lady running it. Staying open at midnight—that was some dedication.

“Auntie, it’s so late. Why’re you still open?”

“I’ve got a life to keep up. No choice!”

“I thought during wartime, everyone would be hiding.”

“Haha, as citizens of the empire, we have to believe in our own country. A setback for a while doesn’t mean losing the whole war, right?”

“Auntie, you’re so optimistic. Is that why you didn’t leave the frontier city?”

“The frontier city’s been at peace for fifty years. That peace made this place flourish. No one born here wants to leave.” The old lady sat kindly on a long bench, looking at the city with deep attachment.

“Don’t worry. We’re definitely gonna win. It’s written in history.”