Wielding the Thunders Across Two Worlds

「Europe. Gaul.」

CRASH—

A porcelain vase was swept from the table onto the floor. The elderly man at the head of the table was both shocked and furious. "Are they all fools?"

Unlike the ignorant, arrogant, and conspiracy-loving public, the upper echelons of various nations had already gained some understanding of Celestial Xia’s Extraordinary Beings. They had also investigated and tallied their own domestic Extraordinary Beings and were thus keenly aware of the power disparity between the two sides.

"Celestial Xia’s Extraordinary Beings are making less and less effort to hide themselves. They even revealed themselves directly in Kabia!

Based on our analysis, if these people were to participate in a war between major powers, they would be tantamount to strategic weapons. Reports indicate they even managed to find the location of the Extraordinary Beings’ conference hosted by Huaqi Country!

Right now, our only hope is that they don’t appear before the public—or at least, the later they appear, the better. We can’t let the general populace learn anything about Extraordinary Power.

We can barely keep this under wraps as it is, and they’re still thinking about testing them?"

The elderly man leading the meeting was practically apoplectic. He swept the exquisite porcelain pieces, meticulously arranged in front of his seat, onto the floor. "So, what did this test of theirs reveal?"

"It flushed out four more Superpower Users!"

The elderly man ticked them off on his fingers, doing the math for everyone. "Taoist Ming Yu from the Celestial Master’s Mansion, Taoist Yi Hong from White Cloud Temple, and the unidentified Daoist who saved the airliner and acted in Kabia. And now, four more have appeared!

By a conservative estimate, Celestial Xia now has at least six Daoists on the level of strategic weapons!

What’s more important, analyzing the video of them in action this time, it seems every single one of them has a Magic Weapon capable of absorbing the storm clouds over an entire city!

Do you know what that means? It means this kind of Magic Weapon can be mass-produced!"

The elderly man slammed his hand on the table, his eyes filled with terror.

’If Magic Weapons can be mass-produced... then can these Daoists, who are on par with strategic weapons, also be mass-produced?’

Right now, the rest of the world didn’t even have a single Extraordinary Being comparable to a Celestial Xia Daoist, let alone Magic Weapons. And yet, Celestial Xia could already mass-produce them.

Do you grasp the implications?

This was no longer a matter of being one generation ahead. This was being left so far in the dust you couldn’t even see their taillights. We wouldn’t even know where to begin to catch up!

"And now, to top it all off, a Mi Qi journalist has confirmed the authenticity of the Kabia video. That loose cannon in Huaqi Country couldn’t help but shoot his mouth off again, and Celestial Xia really did have four Daoists appear in public. Now our own citizens are demanding proof."

The elderly man scanned the room. "I’d like to ask all of you: can Gaul, with a history just as long and storied, produce a single Extraordinary Being who can match them?"

The room fell silent.

Just then, a middle-aged man sitting beside the elder spoke up timidly, "Um... why do we need to produce someone like that at all?"

"Hmm?" Everyone froze and turned to look at him.

"We’re an independent nation. Why should we be concerned with their affairs?"

The middle-aged man licked his lips, meeting the gazes from all around the room. "We have never been enemies with Celestial Xia. During the Kabia incident, that Celestial Xia Daoist didn’t even kill Rabio.

If Celestial Xia’s Daoists only act to protect their own people, then we have no reason to worry about them. And if those Daoists really do decide to move against us, worrying will be useless anyway.

In that case, what is there to worry about? If the worst comes to pass, we can just surrender. Celestial Xia is so far from Europe, and besides, we both hail from old revolutionary stock. If you can’t beat them, join them."

The middle-aged man spread his hands. "The ones who should really be worried right now are Huaqi and Mi Qi. The ones who should be scared are Ah San and Sakura Paste. None of them have even reacted, so why are we stressing over it?"

The eyes of everyone in the room, including the elderly man who had been so furious, lit up.

...

As the elderly man from Gaul had said, the ones who should have been worried were Huaqi and Mi Qi.

Meanwhile, in a basement somewhere in eastern Huaqi, Eric was once again sitting at the end of the conference table. He frowned at the arguing group and couldn’t help but interrupt them.

"So, after all that analysis, all you’ve learned is the background of these four Daoists?" Eric had had enough. "Their backgrounds are plastered all over the Celestial Xia internet!"

"The Grand Commander’s question," Eric said, "is whether you can confirm that these people will not take action against Huaqi Country!"

"And how are we supposed to confirm that?" Lawrence rolled his eyes. "March up to the Celestial Master’s Mansion, White Cloud Temple, or Qingcheng Mountain and have them sign a treaty?"

"Give me a break, Eric, this isn’t a hundred years ago!" Lawrence retorted. "The Celestial Xia People across the ocean are not the same as the ones living in our country!"

Rockefeller sighed. "What does the Grand Commander want this time?"

"I don’t know." Eric shook his head. "But the Grand Commander needs confirmation that no matter what we do, they are not allowed to resist."

The others were speechless.

"How rare. He actually remembered to ask us first instead of just posting about it online," Frank couldn’t help but mutter.

"Frank, watch your tone!" Eric glared at him.

Frank just snorted and said nothing more.

It was Rockefeller who spoke. The crisply dressed elder tapped on the table and addressed Eric. "Judging from the two times these Daoists have come to Huaqi Country, my suggestion is this: on the condition that he does not provoke them, it would be best if the Grand Commander didn’t even mention them at all. Just pretend they don’t exist."

...

Besides Gaul and Huaqi, the upper echelons of every country were analyzing the video of the Celestial Xia Daoists, the words of the Celestial Xia spokesperson, and the implications behind it all.

But just like with the launch of the East Wind missile, the flight of the sixth-generation fighter jet, or the aircraft carrier fleet circling Kangaroo Country, the internet was abuzz with discussion, but the true leaders of the world remained silent on the matter.

Even the Huaqi Country Grand Commander, who loved nothing more than to pontificate on world affairs, offered no opinion on the matter. He merely trotted out the Superpower Special Service Bureau again, flashing their logo and declaring that Huaqi’s Supermen could protect Huaqi.

However, the turmoil in the outside world had no effect on Gu Zhao.

’The management of society, the order of nations, the competition between countries—those were all things for the Celestial Xia System to worry about. Our Daluo Palace is only responsible for upholding righteousness and warding off evil, for protecting the people of Celestial Xia, for shielding them from major natural disasters and harm from foreign powers.’

’Now that our cultivation has reached a high level, we are able to protect an entire region and tens of millions of people in the Otherworld. If we can’t even protect our own countrymen, then what’s the point of cultivating Qi or practicing the Dao?’

After a few more pleasant days with Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi, the incident of his public display of power was, in his mind, already over. His main priority now was to find suitable hosts for the eight Thunder Seeds in his Sea of Consciousness.

Early one morning, Gu Zhao drove the two women to their traditional music orchestra. He then looked to the north and smiled leisurely. ’The Talismanic Three Mountains... It’s about time I completed the set.’