"Alright, I'll arrange that," the middle-aged man responded, "So after our people go there, should we focus on the girl and the one using the cards? I see that the one named Qing Chen seems to be just an ordinary person, not needing much attention,"
He Jinqiu contemplated, "We can lower the attention level, but we should not completely disregard him; he has already proven his ferocity on Laojun Mountain. It would be frightening if such a person suddenly became a Transcendent one day,"
"Understood," said the middle-aged man.
"Also," He Jinqiu's gaze swept over everyone present, "guard tonight's secrets well. That Mr. Zheng must also have placed many people in Kyushu."
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In the quiet of late night, Qing Chen, drenched in sweat, finished his training, with sweat dripping from his chin to the ground.
He had now crossed the vast divide between Ordinary People and Transcendents, reaching the Peak of E-Class. Ordinary training no longer sufficed for his needs, and he must purchase heavier weights.
Qing Chen was still not quite clear on how the Inner World judged levels; he estimated his current strength to be about five times that of a normal adult.
That's why the assassin that night could not draw his gun, no matter how he tried, under Qing Chen's grip.
To this, Qing Chen was quite satisfied.
The only downside was that his True Qi recovered slowly; it might take a whole day to replenish what he used in one battle.
Qing Chen looked at the transparent Taboo object, ACE-019, Puppeteer, on his wrist.
In the battle yesterday, this Taboo played a major role; without it, he wouldn't have been able to handle the situation so effortlessly.
But at this moment, Qing Chen suddenly noticed something odd about the Puppeteer.
Its normally smooth end had now split slightly, by 13 centimeters.
The split looked like hair that had not been cared for a long time, Qing Chen pondered—perhaps he had worn out the Puppeteer?
This surprised Qing Chen; after all, it was a Taboo object that defied rules, how could it be damaged after just one battle?!
With this in mind, Qing Chen was more inclined toward another speculation: could it be that he had killed someone last night, thus satisfying other containment conditions for Puppeteer, like controlling more people?
But he hadn't offered those people as a sacrifice to the Puppeteer; could it be that the Puppeteer had absorbed the souls of those assassins on its own?
Qing Chen examined the Puppeteer closely; its original length was 50 meters, and now the 13 centimeter split was hardly noticeable.
But as the saying goes, many a little makes a mickle; one day, this split would be long enough to control a second person.
Controlling one person might not seem terrifying.
But what if he could control three, four, or ten? Then his individual power would reach a qualitative change!
Qing Chen calculated that, generally in warfare, if individual abilities are equal, having three times the manpower of the enemy can create an overwhelming advantage.
This principle fully applies even in ordinary combat.
If he could control two more Transcendents of the same level, then he could easily overpower any enemy of the same level.
If he could control ten more, facing C-Class Experts like Cao Wei or Qing Huai would not be so difficult.
At least when the opponent was severely injured, he could swarm them and erode their stamina with precision micromanagement.
Micromanagement, Qing Chen was familiar with.
Wait, Qing Chen was startled!
When Uncle Li Dong mentioned the Puppeteer, he hadn't elaborated in detail, only mentioned that it was a rather evil Taboo that required the sacrifice of five people each month to continue using.
But if that were all, then the Puppeteer wouldn't really be considered evil; in the era of the Inner World when human life was insignificant, killing five people didn't even qualify as evil.
So, this Taboo object seemed to have other hidden details.
Now Qing Chen had also discovered new containment conditions for the Puppeteer, and he realized he was subconsciously thinking about what he could achieve by controlling more people.
Yet he hadn't first considered how many people he needed to kill to unlock the next ability of the Puppeteer!
Qing Chen set aside the idea of quickly enhancing the Puppeteer, as he had promised Uncle Li Dong to maintain his true nature.
Of course, he wouldn't let off those who deserved death.
At that moment, Qing Chen thought of another issue: if the Puppeteer had a second stage of containment power, might other Taboo objects also have them?
If so, what would the Devil's Stamp look like in its second stage?
In the morning, Qing Chen was hardly awake when he heard knocking at his door.
He opened his eyes to answer it, only to see Yang Yang standing outside, "Is there something you need?"
"It's time to go to school," Yang Yang said calmly.
"Well, if you're going to school, just go. Why wake me up?" Qing Chen muttered, glancing at the time, "Also, isn't it too early? It's only 6:50 AM!"
"I want to eat the local breakfast in Los Angeles, but if I wander too far, I'll get lost and be late for school," Yang Yang explained, "So you take me there, this meal is on me."
Qing Chen hesitated, "Alright then, spicy soup, rice noodles, buns—what do you want to eat?"
He asked as he went back inside to wash up.
"I want all of them," Yang Yang strutted into the room following him.
"You're not planning to wake me up for breakfast every morning, are you?" Qing Chen wondered.
"That depends on when I get tired of it," Yang Yang sat on the sofa, patiently waiting for Qing Chen.