241: Chapter 239 Reconnaissance Squad, On the Move! Ambition

Toby had read a science fiction novel where the author imagined the world was actually a game, and every human was controlled by a corresponding player.

He used to be dismissive of this, as there was absolutely no evidence, not even a shred.

But when he heard the Headmaster tell them to monitor the "calamity," he hoped it was true.

That way, his player could top up game currency and help him slaughter everyone in the upcoming mission, rather than being stepped on like an ant by someone out for a stroll.

Swallowing hard, Toby asked cautiously, "Headmaster, I want to confirm—you're saying we should scout and monitor the movements of the calamity in real-time?"

The Queen hadn't had time to tell them exactly what the calamity was.

When they received the news at Hogwarts, Dumbledore had only mentioned it vaguely.

But from the conversation between the two just now, Toby knew that something the Kingdom's fleet failed to handle was definitely not something the three of them could deal with.

At this moment, he didn't know that the joint fleet composed of three carrier strike groups had been almost completely wiped out.

If he knew, he would probably leave a suicide note before setting off.

"Yes, you heard correctly."

Toby understood there was no room for negotiation in the Headmaster's order and bowed his head in resignation. Leon and Misha clearly didn't understand the gravity of the situation yet, looking at Dumbledore in confusion.

The dining table fell silent for a moment until the Queen finally broke the heavy atmosphere: "Headmaster, isn't it for the five of them to go..."

too dangerous?"

"Not five, but three."

"Huh?" Toby was truly shocked now, even immediately reflecting on whether he had done anything to offend the Headmaster.

The Queen's expression was equally incredulous: "They'll lose their lives!"

"They won't." The old man smiled. "Wino and Klaisi have other missions. Hmm... consider this your winter break homework."

A look of blankness appeared on the Queen's face, something that hadn't happened in decades.

To be honest, she didn't particularly care about the individuals.

Although the three had begun to touch upon magic, in terms of practical application, they could only serve as mascots or symbols of the close relationship between the Kingdom and Hogwarts for now.

If Toby was gone, he could be replaced by a Fubi or an Anbi.

The key problem now was that there was no replaceable Fubi.

Moreover, she needed the three of them and the Wino and Klaisi in Suleiman's hands to balance each other out.

She couldn't understand why the Headmaster would do this.

After much hesitation, the Queen asked with a look of hope, "Headmaster, you will be nearby to protect them, right?"

"Madam, do teachers provide one-on-one tutoring for your Kingdom's students while they are completing their studies?"

"Uh, if one is willing to pay a tutoring fee, a private tutor can be hired."

"Unfortunately, Hogwarts does not have privately run cram schools."

After saying this, he stood up: "Thank you for your hospitality, Madam. I'll take my leave now."

The man vanished on the spot, leaving the others staring at each other.

After a long time, Toby, having accepted reality, asked: "Your Majesty, can you describe in detail what the calamity is?"

Snapping out of her confusion, she recounted the events as briefly as possible.

After hearing her words, Leon's face went blank: "So, the Headmaster wants us to get close to a rock giant that treats aircraft carriers like toys?"

"Brother Leon, it's a Mountain Rock Giant," Misha corrected him in a low voice.

Toby was in a heavy mood and didn't want to deal with the two idiots. He tried to gather as much information as possible before leaving: "Besides being huge, does it have any other special abilities?"

To his mind, if it were just massive, Hogwarts wouldn't have called it a "calamity."

The Queen's answer confirmed his suspicion.

"From the abilities collected so far, the Mountain Rock Giant can manifest rock palms, with both size and location being completely controllable."

"So you're saying we're dead?"

"The Headmaster should have his reasons."

"If I had known this, I should have gotten off the carriage with Wino."

The delicious roast chicken in front of him lost its appeal. He stood up: "Let's go."

"Uh, Toby, shouldn't we see our families first and leave some last words?" Leon said.

"That would only worry them." Misha, who wasn't tall enough, jumped off the wooden chair. "I don't think Grandpa Headmaster would send us to our deaths."

Taking Misha's hand to walk out, Toby scolded Leon: "You're not even as smart as a little girl."

"Yes, yes, I'm the most stu... Hey, wait!"

...

Zhang Mu was on his way back to NH.

Imagining the tragic expressions on their faces as they went to find the Fallen Spirit, he couldn't help but chuckle.

Sending the three of them there wasn't to play tricks on them or for some other purpose.

It was simply because after the previous battle, no one dared to cause trouble anymore, and the big guy was bored, so he brought three people to play with it.

He had instructed it not to hurt them, so there was no need to worry about safety.

As for Wino and Klaisi, Zhang Mu had other uses for them.

While thinking, he arrived over NH and summoned the light gate to enter the world.

He first extracted the information stored in "Senior Brother Zhou's" body.

These past few days, Ye Ming hadn't come to Qingfeng Hall much, but those Academicians had been visiting frequently.

They usually arrived early in the morning, chatted until lunch, and left on time, then returned precisely when the afternoon "shift" started.

Besides asking about the usage of items on the list, they chatted about the history of the Mountain Gate.

It wasn't that they suspected anything; they were just curious.

After all, it would be a lie to say they weren't interested in an organization that had existed for tens of thousands of years.

Zhang Mu had anticipated this. Referring to the history of Blue Star, he had fabricated an inspirational history of the Mountain Gate's development.

There were many flaws, but it wasn't a big problem because it all happened thousands of years ago. Everyone was dead, so naturally, there was no way to verify it.

Disconnecting from the puppet, Zhang Mu pondered whether to first check on how their exchange plan preparations were going and then visit the five people on the peak of the back mountain.

Before the thought even fully formed, he vanished into the void.

...

Small courtyard.

Because there were more people, the originally spacious stone table became a bit crowded. Ye Ming had specifically asked Fellow Daoist Liu for a larger set and placed it in the corner of the courtyard.

The three old men and Ye Ming sat around the table, discussing heatedly.

It was mainly the three of them talking while Ye Ming listened.

"Listen to me, exchange for the floating stone first.

Although that thing isn't very useful on fighter jets, it's definitely suitable for providing power to lunar rockets!"

"I'd say Iron Stone and Flame Crystal are better. Our top priority now is national defense. Only when national defense is stable can we consider other things."

"Who do you think would dare to go to war with us head-on?"

"That's not what I meant. I'm saying we should play it safe!"

"Safe my foot! Don't forget Ying Country also has supernaturals. And that's just what's on the surface—what about what's hidden underwater?"

Seeing the old men's argument getting more heated, with sleeves rolled up as if they were about to fight, Ye Ming closed his eyes in pain.

These people couldn't be scolded or beaten; they could only be coddled.

Over the past few days, the Director, Zhao Qi, and Yue Ruo had all fled to the peak of the back mountain to take refuge.

He had wanted to go too, but someone had to stay behind to look after things.

In the end, the three of them used the excuse "you are the fated one" to leave him here as a punching bag.

Why a punching bag...

"Xiao Ye, you're a reasonable person. Tell us, whose opinion is better?"

"Uh, I think..."

The three old men glared at him, looking quite aggressive.

He looked left and right for a while, then said hesitantly, "How about we wait until the domestic supplies arrive before deciding?"

Since they were about to decide to exchange things for "stones," they naturally had to figure out what was valuable in their own inventory.

The Director had already considered this when he went back to Su City to pick people up.

While waiting for the connecting flight, he had reported to the Old Leader about preparing a batch of rare materials.

There was no need to consider whether the use was widespread or if the actual value was high; as long as it was rare enough, it would do.

Ye Ming estimated that with domestic efficiency, it would arrive in three days at most.

Before that, any discussion was moot.

In case the Hua Country couldn't exchange for many "stones" then, forget about which one to get first—they'd have to find things worth "stones" first.

The old men probably felt his words made sense, so they set aside their argument and went to Qingfeng Hall together.

Ye Ming breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and stood up to walk toward the back mountain.

Better leave quickly, lest they come back and corner him again.

...

Peak of the back mountain.

The three including the Director were sitting cross-legged on the top of a slope, twirling a blade of grass in their hands, watching the five people pacing back and forth in the open space below.

"Xiao Yue, do you think their practice is actually useful or not?"

"How should I know? I don't know how to cultivate."

"Zhao Qi, what about you?"

He turned his face toward the Director, his eyes full of blankness.

Sighing deeply, the Director pushed his face back: "I knew asking you was a waste of breath."

"Then why did you ask?"

"Just because I've got nothing else to do."

"If you've got nothing else to do, go chop wood. Yesterday you said after chopping wood for a few days, your body felt much more comfortable."

"That also requires Immortal Xu's immortal medicine."

The three of them couldn't stand the Academicians' fussing and thought it would be better to go up the mountain to chop trees; it would exercise their bodies and provide some peace and quiet.

Who knew that after Luo Xiling and the other four entered the second stage of cultivation, Immortal Xu stopped sending immortal medicine.

To be precise, he still sent it, but only enough for the five of them, none for the others.

Without the "BUFF" boost, they certainly wouldn't be able to handle chopping wood all day.

After all, they all had ordinary bodies. Although they had been strengthened a bit recently, no qualitative change had occurred.

"How about we ask Immortal Xu for some? He's very generous, so it shouldn't be too difficult, right?" Yue Ruo muttered.

"Sure, who's going?"

The three fell silent.

After a while, Zhao Qi, unable to stand the dead silence, started a new topic: "I wonder how Ye Ming and the others' discussion is going."

"I asked last night, and there hasn't been much progress. It'll probably only move forward once the supplies arrive."

"Hey, do you think if the stone is a kind of energy block, can our machinery use it?"

"If we find a suitable conversion method, it can definitely be used." The Director rubbed his chin. "I asked Academician Sun, and he also said it could be used, but he doesn't recommend it."

"Why?"

"Think about it, the reserves of stones are scarce, right?"

"Yeah."

"Exactly. If an energy source is scarce, even if it's high quality with many benefits, great development prospects, or wide applications, it can't be used for long."

"That's true."

Nodding, Yue Ruo curled her legs and rested her chin on her knees: "And I was saying that in my lifetime, I might see humanity undergo another Industrial Revolution."

"With luck, maybe... Look at Xiao Luo!"

"What happened?!"

The Director, who had been boredly looking at the trees in the distance, suddenly jumped up and looked at the open space below.

Luo Xiling, who had been wandering, had stopped at some point, her eyes closed, her lips moving as if she were murmuring something.

Suddenly, she pressed her index and middle fingers together like a sword and held them high above her head.

Clang—

The moon bright sword held in her hand unsheathed and floated horizontally in front of her.

"Wow! It worked!"

The four people staring blankly nearby were jolted awake by the exclamation and hurriedly gathered around to look at the moon bright sword.

They had seen Immortal Xu try it once before, but that time he was high in the sky, not only far away but also moving very fast, and with the blinding sword qi, they couldn't see what the moon bright sword actually looked like.

"So... such a cool sword!" The little girl among the four had stars in her eyes.

The other three also marveled that it looked much better than the things in their own hands.

After admiring it, they finally remembered the most important thing: "How did this happen?"

Luo Xiling scratched her head and thought hard with a scrunched-up face: "Well... I just thought, didn't the Master say the moon bright sword has a spirit? Maybe if I say some nice things, it might be willing to follow my commands?"

They looked at each other.

"Setting aside whether that's actually the case... even if it's reliable, we can't imitate it, can we?"

The moon bright sword has a spirit because it's a famous sword, but what they were holding were just ordinary iron swords—where would the spirit come from?

Zhang Mu, who was floating above everyone's heads using the Shadow Technique, saw everything and was somewhat amazed.

This unlucky brat is actually a cultivation genius.

Zhang Mu's so-called "cultivating the heart" wasn't actually anything mysterious; he had simply placed a blank Mental Energy Core inside the long sword.

The function of this Core was somewhat similar to an electronic code lock.

Every magician's Mental Energy fluctuations are different. By imprinting one's Mental Energy onto the Core, one can control the switch of the magic Core.

The reason he locked it was that he was worried someone might take his secret manual and actually cultivate something through blind practice.

He didn't want just anyone to be able to call the sword away just by making a standard pose; that would be a joke.

But what if their Mental Energy was too weak to leave an imprint?

Zhang Mu thought of a compromise.

He carved a universal magic circle on the Core, activated it himself, and then opened up the permissions.

This way, the five of them only needed to connect their Mental Energy to the magic circle.

Of course, this wasn't easy for them. A normal magician, even at the Apprentice Level, could do it very easily.

But the five of them hadn't undergone any training and couldn't control their Mental Energy, so they could only let it be passively attracted by the magic circle to slowly establish a connection.

Zhang Mu estimated this process would take at least five days, but he didn't expect Luo Xiling to complete it in two.

If it weren't for the fact that her body showed no signs of cultivation, Zhang Mu would have suspected that there really were hidden supernaturals on Blue Star.

"Tsk, if my teacher met her, I might really have an extra junior sister."

Shaking his head with a wry smile, Zhang Mu didn't disturb them and turned to go to Qingfeng Hall.

At this time, the three old men were gathered in front of the long counter, chatting heatedly with Senior Brother Zhou.

Until he glanced outside the main door—Senior Brother Zhou reminded them that he was about to get off work.

The old men weren't clingy or annoying either, and they turned and went back to the small courtyard briskly.

However, Senior Brother Zhou, who usually went to eat on the dot every day, sat motionlessly behind the counter now, his eyes becoming vacant and dull.

Zhang Mu's figure emerged in the hall, and with a light wave of his hand, the door closed automatically.

"They can really talk. I still have to upgrade the puppet Core."

While grumbling, he took a crystal ball out of his inventory and walked behind the puppet, but the Director's voice suddenly came to his mind.

His figure instantly teleported to the mountain peak, and the Director ran up to him happily: "Immortal Xu, can you send me out for a trip? I estimate the supplies we prepared are about to arrive."