333: Chapter 326 The spaceship construction is progressing well; Immortal Xu inspects the site.

The lady soon received a robe, which Dumbledore had commissioned the Royal Family to deliver.

When gifting it, the staff relayed that since the lady herself possessed no magic, most of the robe's functions would be unusable, though some small gadgets would still work.

As for what those "small gadgets" specifically were, the staff stated that Mr. Dumbledore particularly emphasized she should try them out slowly for herself, as a surprise.

On the Blue Star of today, any event related to the transcendent would never lack popularity; media outlets of any significant scale from every country flocked like cats smelling fish.

The magic competition held on the outskirts of London was no exception.

Not only were there reporters sent by private companies, but those belonging to various governments were there as well. Thus, a photo of a lucky lady with an Owl perched on her head wearing a robe spread across the globe in just a few hours.

The moment they received the news, powerful figures in various countries couldn't help but feel tempted.

Previous transcendent items were all in official hands, such as the Ying Country Royal Family, Huaxia, and America.

While private factions had some power of their own, attempting to oppose the state machinery was pure suicide.

Therefore, people in certain gray areas didn't dare harbor crooked thoughts.

But this time was different.

The lady's personal information was placed on some people's desks within an hour.

An ordinary family, an ordinary career, ordinary relatives.

With their power, dealing with her could only be described as "easy."

However, these people did not act immediately, instead hesitating in their offices and homes.

Dumbledore hadn't shown his face since the competition ended, having likely returned to Hogwarts.

The students and professors from the three Magic Schools who came to Blue Star for the competition also entered King's Cross Station after enjoying themselves in London.

Naturally, they didn't say they would protect the lady.

Under this premise, it stood to reason that since the transcendent beings had left, now was the best time to strike. If they stole the robe and hid in a remote farm, they might evade the pursuit of the transcendent.

But this plan was simply too dangerous. What if the transcendent had the ability to track the robe?

It didn't even need to be precise; as long as they identified the general area and Dumbledore threw a boulder like the one outside London, one would be crushed to death even if they dug a hole to hide.

So they held back for now and sent people to contact the lady, hoping to purchase the robe through a legitimate transaction.

The price offered was very sincere, enough for the lady's entire family to immediately live a luxurious life, and as long as they didn't gamble, they would be worry-free for the rest of their lives.

However, the lady refused, saying she wanted to keep the robe for her recently born granddaughter as a birthday gift.

Repeated negotiations were always met with rejection, and some people's patience ran out.

They felt that offering to buy it was already very gentle of them. How dare you refuse? Are you looking for death?

Some might think they were foolish.

After all, Huaxia, Ying Country, and America hadn't made a single move. Who did you think you were to try and seize it by force?

But upon careful analysis, it wasn't hard to understand.

Habit is a terrifying thing.

When a person becomes accustomed to certain behaviors and maintains them long-term, it creates an illusion—that this is just how The World is.

Like someone caught without a helmet who breaks out into a conflict with the police on the street.

An ordinary person would certainly be dumbfounded: Are you crazy?

It's a matter of a few dozen yuan; why insist on making a scene that lands you in detention for days or even gets you sentenced?

Yet for the person involved, in her mind, no one usually contradicts her; her relatives, lover, and children all obey her.

This leads her to believe that in her world, obeying her is the norm, the truth, and how things should be, regardless of who it is.

Well, then comes the much-anticipated "regret chair" segment.

The power of those in the gray areas was the same.

Someone couldn't help but use violence and sent people to steal the lady's robe that night.

Fortunately, they still had a trace of awe for the transcendent and didn't dare hurt anyone.

Because the process was exceptionally smooth and met no resistance, this group happily boarded a plane to return home with the robe.

As they sat on the plane, they joked with each other that the transcendent didn't care about humans at all, let alone a lady being robbed.

They also mocked Ying Country's security forces, as they had easily carried the robe onto the plane.

However, they soon understood why Ying Country didn't set up checkpoints at the airport and let them leave freely.

The group returned to their lair and were just about to hold a celebratory banquet when a hunched old man found them.

The process was simple: the old man threw a fireball, and the entire villa was instantly leveled, with everyone inside vaporized by the heat.

It was quite good; it even saved the subsequent cremation process, though no one had the courage to collect their remains anyway.

The robe returned to the lady's hands an hour later. A group of people hiding in the shadows was terrified, clutching their pounding chests and feeling lucky that they had been slow to act.

They could forget about seizing it by force, yet they truly hoped to obtain that robe. What to do? Buy it.

Things returned to the starting point.

A group of burly men in black suits, who usually lived on the edge of a knife and walked the line of death—practically the spokesmen for "fierce," "cruel," and "cold-blooded"—were now all running to the lady's door, sitting obediently on the rug.

As soon as the lady came out, they hurriedly squeezed out stiff smiles and followed behind her, incessantly talking about the generous terms offered by their bosses.

After receiving the report from her subordinates and confirming the lady's safety was guaranteed, the Queen stopped paying attention to the matter. She summoned Suleiman and the Prime Minister to her palace to discuss the spaceship construction.

Suleiman and the Prime Minister stated that they had already put all their effort into pushing it forward.

Besides mobilizing the country's top workers, ensuring sufficient resources in all aspects, and giving the green light to all procedures, the two of them had even set up beds in the workshop, eating and living on-site.

The Queen knew what they said was true and that they were indeed very focused, but it wasn't enough.

The two asked for the reason in some confusion.

“Huaxia's spaceship construction progress is already halfway through. You should understand what losing the initiative means.”

This intelligence had been revealed by Dumbledore.

After hearing this, they fell silent.

As leaders of the Kingdom, they certainly knew how terrible it was to have a competitor seize the lead.

Perhaps some thought, what does it matter if we're a year or six months late? Could it actually kill someone?

In fact, people dying was actually trivial, because the consequences were more serious.

Suppose Huaxia landed on the Moon Star first; they would build a Moon Star base first, obtain the second batch of transcendent materials first, and so on...

One step slow means every step is slow.

Speed is precious in war, and the same applies to the competition between nations.

The Queen looked at the two frowning men and described the next goals.

First, except for necessary infrastructure and military maintenance, all other power would be invested. In extreme cases, military spending could also be cut.

In any case, with Hogwarts around, there was no need to worry about national defense.

In short, the Queen didn't insist on being faster than Huaxia, but at least they couldn't be slower—or at least not by too much.

Considering Huaxia started the plan first, launching a month late was the Queen's bottom line.

Suleiman and the Prime Minister stood up with solemn expressions and walked out of the palace with slightly hurried steps.

At the same time, Mr. Gao, who had finished "recovering from injuries," also found Neo and informed him that the lunar landing projects of Huaxia and Ying Country were progressing rapidly.

Mr. Gao had mentioned it slightly before, and Neo also took it very seriously, mobilizing almost all the power at his disposal to push it forward.

Now hearing that the two countries were exerting almost all their effort, he realized the situation seemed more serious than he had imagined.

Neo also hoped to speed up, but unfortunately, America was not ruled by him alone.

Besides him and his allies, America had several rival families of the same level.

With the addition of transcendent prestige, he already had a tendency to pull away from his rivals, but it would take time.

After all, Mr. Gao had only connected with him recently, and public support had only been for two months, unlike Huaxia and Ying Country, which had been at it for over a year.

Mr. Gao smiled and said, “Don't worry, leave it to me.”

The next day, the leadership of the rival families all mysteriously disappeared overnight.

Neo, who was well-prepared, quickly took over their industries and controlled public opinion.

The method was simple: throw out some scandals of popular celebrities and create some friction at the border, and the public's attention was easily drawn away.

The slightly lesser families in America had the ability to expose it, but the problem was that they didn't dare.

To be able to eliminate several top families with a flip of a hand without making a sound, the identity of the culprit didn't need to be guessed.

In this way, the downfall of the massive families didn't even cause much of a stir on the internet or in print media.

Neo, who had successfully taken control of most of America, did not drive the small families to extinction. Instead, after promising them benefits, he unified their forces and sped up the construction of the spaceship, striving to catch up with the progress of Huaxia and Ying Country.

Russia saw the actions of the three countries.

Others were rushing to finish their work, while they were still in a daze about where the orders were and how to take them. How could this be allowed?

The President was worried sick. After searching London for another day without finding the burly man, he hurried back to his country and ran to the entrance of Seventeen with his Aide.

Uh, that is, the big-bellied wine barrel placed in the middle of the bar hall.

Farid had been guarding the bar recently. He was aware of outside trends through his Mobile Phone, but the news released by other countries was clearly missing something.

Naturally, he knew nothing about the spaceship project.

Seeing the President come in with a gust of wind, he thought there was some emergency and immediately crawled up from the bed placed in the corner of the wall.

After a brief exchange between the two, Farid learned the reason, and his heart couldn't help but sink.

Tevan had been enrolled in Seventeen for several months. Although he guarded the wooden barrel day and night, he couldn't be sure if Tevan had come out in the interim.

Tevan, like other transcendent beings, could teleport and turn invisible.

Even if he walked out of the wooden barrel right in front of him, Farid wouldn't see him.

The President's hope of seeing the burly man through Tevan had probably failed.

After hearing Farid's reply, although the President had already prepared himself mentally for failure before coming, he still sighed deeply.

Risk sending someone into Seventeen?

Glancing at the deep pupils, the President shook his head and gave up on the somewhat reckless idea.

Setting aside the high probability that his people wouldn't be able to get in, even if they succeeded, it would incur the owner's resentment.

No one likes a guest who rushes into their house without permission; that's called a thief.

The President returned to the Kremlin Palace dejectedly.

However, he didn't need to be overly worried, as Zhang Mu was already pondering how to launch the spaceship project on the Russian side.

The prototype plan in his mind still needed time to be perfected. During this interval, he flew back to the cave base by the South Sea to inspect what stage Huaxia's spaceship construction had reached.

The "halfway progress" he told the Queen and Neo was just nonsense he made up to create anxiety; he hadn't even gone to see the real situation yet.

Just as he reached the coast, Huaxia's second batch of exchange materials happened to arrive. He appeared and collected them into "The World," then couldn't be bothered to find a corner to hide. He simply used the excuse of delivering materials and walked into the cave base openly.

Hearing that Immortal Xu had arrived in person, the Director hurriedly came out of his bedroom to receive him.

Since he was already at the door, Zhang Mu was in no hurry to go to the underground workshop. He first went to the cafeteria for a meal with the Director and Yue Ruo.

The two were initially a bit worried that Immortal Xu wouldn't be used to "mortal food."

Zhang Mu, however, felt that the cafeteria lady's skills were very exquisite. Combined with his status as an Immortal, her hands didn't shake when serving him, the portions were generous, and it was quite wonderful.

It was just that sitting at the dining table, he could always feel gazes surreptitiously sizing him up from all around, which slightly affected his appetite.

However, he had appeared in his transcendent form many times and was always the focus wherever he went. He was used to being peeked at and overcame it in a few seconds, enjoying a hearty meal with gusto.

The three of them stood up and took the elevator to the underground workshop. The Director chatted with him for a while and hesitantly asked if the Mountain Gate had anything that could restore youth.

Zhang Mu raised an eyebrow, knowing that several of them were envious of the Queen.

Lifespan, the long-cherished wish of humanity.

Whether ordinary people, social elites, or even ancient emperors, they all craved to extend their lives.

The only difference between the three is that the latter, due to the limitations of their era, would act foolishly in their pursuit. The former two are relatively more objective and can calmly accept the fact that regaining youth is impossible.

This doesn't mean they've given up; they are just certain that modern technology is still far from fulfilling that wish.

But now that the transcendent has emerged, and with the Queen as a living example, their minds naturally became active.

Zhang Mu fell silent for a moment and looked at the uneasy Director.

The Director was startled, inwardly blaming himself for being too rash and speaking without thinking twice.

Fortunately, what "Immortal Xu" said was not the reprimand he expected.

“The means exist, yet they cannot be lightly given.”

“I understand that.” The Director sighed in relief, his head nodding like a chicken pecking rice. “We will offer a sufficient price.”

“Not so.” Immortal Xu smiled and shook his head. “Moreover, you cannot provide the things that Xu requires.”

This... was true.

The Director was somewhat embarrassed. He was used to having the backing of the state and subconsciously made a confident promise, forgetting that the entire Blue Star combined might not be able to gather what a transcendent being wanted.

Yue Ruo on the side blinked and asked: “Then why can't you just give it freely?”

“It must be planned slowly.” The elevator door happened to open, and Immortal Xu walked out, saying, “Giving it to you suddenly might cause chaos.”

The Director and Yue Ruo exchanged a look, thinking that Immortal Xu was being very tactful.

Returning to youth, how tempting is that?

Who could say their will wouldn't waver in the slightest under such temptation?

One might not even hesitate to sell their own soul.

“Then we will wait until Immortal Xu deems it appropriate to give it.” The Director followed out of the elevator.

“Indeed.”

The three walked along the corridor built against the wall and soon reached the workshop, which was buzzing with activity.