Chapter 43: Chapter 43: The Priests’ Alliance

Southern Cang City, in a basement.

A fat man and a thin man were sitting cross-legged here. One was surrounded by all kinds of food scraps, while the other had two wads of paper stuffed in his nose, sleeping with his eyes shut tight. They were clearly the two Priests who had gathered to hide after discovering the Water Priestess’s death.

Suddenly, the ringing of a cell phone shattered the silence.

The thin man opened his bleary eyes, glanced at the phone in his own pocket, then lay back down and said with a hint of resignation, "You pig, it’s your phone."

"I know."

The man called "pig" took another bite of the chicken leg in his hand, showing no intention of answering. But the phone rang again and again, annoying the thin man so much he couldn’t get back to sleep.

He stood up angrily, snatched the fat man’s phone, and was about to answer. But when he saw the caller ID, he froze. He gave the fat man a puzzled look and said in a grave voice:

"Feather Priestess... isn’t she with Sword Priestess’s group? Why is she calling us?"

"Heh, I’m curious too. When our Water Priestess and Blood Priestess died, we tried contacting them, but they wouldn’t pick up. Now she’s calling us. Do you think it’s for anything good?"

The fat man spoke with a broad smile, but his voice was cold enough to make one shiver. The thin man thought for a moment, then said, unwilling to resign himself to their situation:

"Fat Priest, do you really want to stay in this place forever?"

The thin man pointed around the basement.

This basement was their temporary shelter. Besides being safe, it had practically nothing.

The air was terrible, the amenities were nonexistent, and to top it all off, the fat guy next to him ate heaps of meat every day without throwing away the remains. He was covered in grease. This place wasn’t fit for a human being.

"Heh, let me repeat myself. My name is Power Priest, not Fat Priest. Besides... if you’re so unhappy here, go ahead and answer their call. It’s all the same to me."

The Power Priest took a bite of his chicken leg, acting as if he couldn’t care less.

The thin man knew that the fat man before him valued food above all else. As long as he had something to eat, he could be perfectly happy anywhere. But the thin man couldn’t do the same. After long consideration, he finally answered the call that had been ringing again and again.

"What do you want?"

"Heh, so the Thunder Priest finally deigns to answer his phone?"

A sharp voice came from the other end of the line. The Thunder Priest wasn’t annoyed, though. He just laughed and replied, "You didn’t answer our calls back then, either, did you? So, why are you calling this time?"

"We’re in the same situation as you now."

"So you’ve all become stray dogs, too?"

A smirk played on the Thunder Priest’s lips. It seemed he was still a little bitter that they hadn’t answered his call a few days ago.

"There’s no need to put it so harshly. At the end of the day, we’re all members of the Spiritual Sect. The High Priests have all gone into hiding, afraid of being found. Now, we Priests are the only ones who can help each other."

This was exactly what the Thunder Priest had been thinking a few days ago.

They had rejected the idea back then, but now they were the ones proposing it. Although he was annoyed, he didn’t argue. He just opened his mouth and asked:

"So, what’s your plan?"

"You told me back then that we should help each other and hide. That idea isn’t wrong... but it only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. The special organization’s forces are spread all over Cang City. We can’t hide for long."

"At this point, we only have one way to survive... fight them with everything we’ve got!"

"Fight them? How do you propose we do that?"

The Thunder Priest’s eyes narrowed. He could feel the sequence energy inside him growing restless. He had long since grown tired of living like a rat in this basement. Now that she had proposed a plan to fight the special organization to the death, his blood began to boil.

"It’s simple. We go on the offensive. The defensive forces in Southern Cang City aren’t strong. As long as we strike together, we can definitely get our hands on Su Yu. They will surely make an exception and let us enter the Spirit Realm!"

"That way, all of us can survive!"

Just then, the Power Priest, who had been quietly chewing on his chicken leg, suddenly spoke up:

"And what if we fail?"

"Fail? Do you think we can survive by just hiding forever? It’s better to risk it all on one gamble! Bet that the special organization is unprepared! Bet that they’ll never see it coming!"

"Heh... Interesting. I’m in."

The Power Priest said with a broad smile. Judging by his expression alone, he looked like a kindly uncle offering a lollipop to a child—warm and friendly.

A soft laugh came from the other end of the line, followed by a text message:

"Here’s the address for our meeting point. I suggest you get here quickly. I’ve already contacted the other Priests. Aside from that guy, the Soul Priest Li Kong, who’s suddenly gone missing, all the other living Priests have agreed to my plan."

"This will be the first time our Spiritual Sect has truly worked together. I hope our collaboration is a pleasant one."

"Alright. To a pleasant collaboration."

The call disconnected. The Thunder Priest glanced at the address she had sent... Dragon Heaven Building, 12th Floor.

...

"Alright students, class is dismissed."

Su Xing said with a smile, taking off his headphones. He then sheathed his greatsword and walked over to a nearby sword rack, leaning his weapon against it.

Only a few swords that Su Xing was comfortable using remained on the rack.

The old Hall Master had taken all the other swords. ’I wonder what the old Hall Master needs so many swords for. He couldn’t possibly be planning to go home and teach others how to practice with them, could he?’

Su Xing shook off his idle thoughts and sighed. "I’ll have to talk to the manufacturers and get some more swords over here. Otherwise, if we start holding in-person classes again soon, we won’t have enough."

After putting the sword away, Su Xing went to turn off his streaming computer, then opened his system panel to check his Sword Dao Points.

[Sword Dao Points: 19]

About a week had passed since the Hall Master had left.

During that time, Su Xing had gone from feeling out of place to gradually settling into his role as the Hall Master of the Sword Hall. With a young, handsome new Hall Master in charge, many of the students’ mothers started visiting the Sword Hall more frequently. Sometimes, they even forgot to bring their children with them.

However, Su Xing had no interest in them. Compared to that, his Sword Dao Points were far more exciting.

’I can finally upgrade "Sever White Line" to the Third Order.’

Su Xing muttered to himself as he stood alone in the training hall. He figured that once his "Sever White Line" also broke through, he could probably charge in and out of a group of ten, or even a hundred, Third-Order Sequencers all by himself. His strength had already far surpassed the level of the Third Order.

Thinking of this, Su Xing suppressed his excitement and was about to head to his room.

Just then, a vaguely familiar voice suddenly sounded in his ear, making Su Xing freeze. He scanned his surroundings but saw no one. Seeing his reaction, the voice seemed to grow much more cheerful and spoke again:

"Hey bro, stop looking around. I’m not near you. Can you hear me?"