86: Chapter 85 Alliance History

The airship sped through the clouds for an entire day.

Lin Mo curled up in the cabin, sleeping like a dead pig.

Qin Lan wandered over to him several times wanting to talk, but seeing his eyes closed, she silently swallowed her words.

Regarding the Bloodline Secret Realm, Qin Lan had already ordered the intelligence department to begin wrapping things up.

Information from an undercover agent revealed that the head of the Lin family had been ousted, and the entire family was now tied to crosses and being roasted over fires.

In the afternoon of the second day, the airship entered the outskirts of the Great Desolation.

Lin Mo was awakened by a strange smell.

It was the smell of something burning.

It was scorched, with an indescribable, cloying sweetness.

He walked out onto the deck.

Outside the porthole, the airship was passing over a grayish-brown wasteland camp.

The camp was massive, covering at least dozens of square kilometers, surrounded by towering metal walls lined with dense magic turrets.

On the open ground inside the walls, dozens of people in uniform gray work clothes were dumping things from handcarts into a massive pit.

Lin Mo looked closer and saw that it was actually a dense pile of corpses.

Heaps of human corpses, so thin they were unrecognizable, almost reduced to skeletons.

Hundreds were already piled at the bottom of the pit, like a mountain of pale bones.

Some people poured oil inside, while others held long-handled torches and threw them into the pit.

Boom—!

Flames shot into the sky, and thick black smoke rose dozens of meters high.

As the cold wind blew across the deck, the stench of burning flesh hit him right in the face.

Lin Mo's brow furrowed.

He watched for a few seconds before turning to ask Qin Lan, who was standing nearby:

"What's going on down there?"

"This is the Third Mining Area Base of the Ling Consortium own."

Qin Lan leaned against the railing, her voice sounding distant.

"About three hundred thousand people live in this godforsaken place. They're all commoners, or low-level professionals without any background."

"Where did all these people come from?"

"Most of them were born and raised in the territories of the Great Families and The Consortium."

Qin Lan's gaze drifted over the black smoke below.

"They are born into slavery, spending their whole lives mining ore, moving raw materials, and doing hard labor."

"When they're worked to death, they're dragged out and burned like trash, and then a new batch is brought in to replace them."

The airship continued forward.

The camp was soon left behind, but the burnt smell lingered in the air for a long time before dissipating.

After about ten minutes, Qin Lan spoke again.

"Do you know anything about how the Alliance was established?"

"I know a little bit."

Lin Mo turned to look at her.

For once, Qin Lan wore a very complex expression.

It wasn't anger or sadness; it was more like a weariness from being weighed down by something for a long time.

"Three hundred years ago, there was no such thing as the Alliance in this world."

"The entirety of human society was carved up by dozens of top-tier Great Families and Consortiums."

"Resources, dungeons, secret realms, and Class Advancement Sanctuaries were all monopolized by them."

"Commoners only had two paths: either squeeze their way in to become their lapdogs, or be like those people down there—consumables for a lifetime."

Lin Mo's eyes flickered slightly.

The Alliance was established 120 years ago; history books didn't mention what happened before that.

He casually followed up, "And then?"

"Later, the Dragon King rose."

Qin Lan looked toward the hazy gray horizon.

"The Dragon King was an absolute monster."

"By his own strength, he single-handedly slaughtered twelve super families and established the Dragon Temple, becoming the strongest power on the continent."

"Unfortunately, the dragon slayer eventually became the dragon himself."

"He was greedier and more brutal than the families. He would slaughter cities and destroy nations over a single disagreement, viewing all people in the world as mere ants."

"The remaining major powers were forced to band together to fight a world-shattering final battle against the Dragon King."

"In the end, the Dragon King was defeated, and The Consortium was heavily weakened."

"It was also then that the first Alliance Leader took advantage of the families' recovery period to start from scratch, spending forty years building the prototype of the Alliance."

"120 years ago, the Alliance was officially established under the current Alliance Leader."

"The Alliance was founded to liberate humanity, so it was naturally incompatible with the Great Families. Thus, the war began."

"Did they win?" Lin Mo asked.

"Barely, I suppose."

Qin Lan paused for a moment.

The war back then was too tragic, making it difficult to judge winners and losers.

Qin Lan's tone paused again.

"Even though the Alliance had the advantage, it was also severely weakened."

"In the end, there was no choice but to sign a non-interference treaty with the remaining old-guard Great Families."

"The Great Families cannot interfere with those who have already been liberated, and the Alliance gave up on the humans still under the control of the Great Families."

Lin Mo understood.

"So those people—"

He glanced back toward the direction of the Ling Consortium base, which had already disappeared from view.

"The Alliance can only watch for now."

Qin Lan shook her head.

"But—"

Qin Lan suddenly lowered her voice and leaned half a step closer.

"We won't have to wait long."

Lin Mo glanced at her.

"In recent years, the Great Families and Consortiums have become increasingly restless."

Qin Lan's voice was so low that only the two of them could hear.

"They are secretly stockpiling massive amounts of strategic materials, buying prohibited war items from the black market, and have even begun infiltrating and planting moles within the Alliance."

"What happened with the Zhang family is just the tip of the iceberg."

"And as for the Alliance—"

Qin Lan looked into Lin Mo's eyes.

"We are almost ready too."

"Maybe in 5 years, 3 years, or even 3 months, or tomorrow..."

Lin Mo's heart jolted.

What Qin Lan meant was that the war between the Alliance and the Great Families could break out at any moment.

Qin Lan continued:

"And your appearance will likely be the fuse for this."

"You alone, in one hour, produced perfect-quality equipment and potions that exceeded the Zhang family's monthly production capacity."

"Paper cannot wrap fire; the truth will come out."

"No Great Family is willing to watch the Alliance grow stronger so rapidly."

She didn't finish her sentence.

But Lin Mo understood.

The current relationship between the Alliance and the Great Families was already delicate.

And Lin Mo's appearance directly shattered that balance.

Inside the airship, Shen Yuntang walked out and said with a smile.

"Telling you this is so you can be mentally prepared."

"But you don't need to worry too much. The Alliance has been preparing for all these years and has many hidden trump cards."

When she said the Alliance had a way to solve the logistics problem that day, she wasn't just being stubborn.

It was because the Alliance indeed had a way to eliminate the Zhang family long ago. They only kept them around on the surface because they had other plans for them.

"You just need to focus on increasing your strength; leave the rest to us."

She pointed ahead.

"Four thousand kilometers ahead is the Trial Tower in the core area of the Great Desolation."

Lin Mo didn't ask anything else. He leaned back against the railing, watching the ground below change from grayish-brown to deep black.

The monsters on the wasteland became denser, and their levels higher.

He even saw a monster the size of a small mountain moving slowly in a distant canyon, the level indicator above its head flashing deep red numbers—LV. 673.

The airship did not slow down, flying directly past it.

Another two hours passed.

Shen Yuntang's voice came from the front: "We're here."

The professionals who had come along for the Third-Rank all looked up blankly.

On the horizon ahead of the airship, a cylindrical pillar rose from the center of the earth, piercing straight into the clouds.

No, it wasn't a pillar.

Looking closer, they realized it was a tower made of many layers.

A giant tower, completely pitch-black, with its surface covered in dark red runes.

The tower was at least two hundred meters wide, extending straight up from the ground.

The top of the tower disappeared above the thick clouds, with no end in sight.

The dark red runes flowed slowly across the tower's surface, like the blood vessels of some living creature.

A massive stone gate was embedded at the base of the tower.

Lin Mo did a rough count of the layers.

At least a hundred layers.

And there was no way to tell how many more layers were above the clouds.

"This is the Third-Rank Trial Tower."

Shen Yuntang stood beside everyone, her voice carrying a hint of awe.

"Unlike the First and Second Advancement, the Third-Rank Trial Tower isn't divided into difficulty levels; it's a pure stage-clearing system."

"Each floor has independent trial content, with the difficulty increasing layer by layer, up to a maximum of 1000 floors."

"How high you can climb determines what level of talent advancement you'll receive after your Third-Rank."

The professionals preparing for their Third-Rank suddenly gasped.

"Holy crap! That's so high!!"

"The record for Monarch-class professionals with Mythical Grade talents in the Alliance... I remember it was 125 floors, right?"

"Has anyone in the world ever reached the top floor?"

Lin Mo withdrew his gaze and looked at Shen Yuntang.

"Has anyone ever reached the top floor?"

Shen Yuntang narrowed her eyes.

"Yes."

"The highest recorded climb in the Alliance belongs to the Dragon King."

"He reached the 1000th floor."

The professionals preparing for their Third-Rank gasped again.

"Holy crap! That's insane!"

"As expected of the legendary Dragon King! Truly terrifying!"

Lin Mo looked at the black tower piercing the sky, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

1000 floors, huh?

He wondered how many floors he could climb.

The airship began to descend.