"It seems the plan is going well." In a corner of the banquet, several Third Rule Agents witnessed the farce unfold and couldn’t help but smile slightly.
"Our investigation was indeed correct, a man capable of resisting Li Aozi’s formidable charm is rare, except for soone like Liu Wein’s new assistant, who is a Red Arrow Empire fanatic, almost no one can confront Li Aozi head-on."
The entire sche was straightforward and crude: find Liu Wein’s new assistant, a retainer of the Houjo Clan, tell him that Li Aozi is an elite of the Red Arrow Empire, offer so small benefits, and Liu Wein’s new assistant would happily go and make trouble for Li Aozi.
However, that was not enough.
His Excellency the President’s order was to use soone else to eliminate Li Aozi by having the People of Sky Ring do the job. Stirring the pot like this was far from sufficient.
After all, Li Aozi was there as an invitee. As soone currently rebelling against imperialism, he had to maintain his image. It was impossible for him to strike back in the host’s territory.
"Reputation is a shackle. The better soone’s reputation and public image, the less they can afford to make mistakes. Without caring for maintenance, even a slight misstep will lead to public condemnation – this is also the principle behind killing with kindness."
The Third Rule Agency’s intelligence capability was very strong. They had long collected evidence of the shady dealings between Sky Ring and Li Aozi, as well as proof of their deliberate support for Grante’s independence. However, given the current international situation, no matter what Frost Plated said, it would be wrong. It was better to keep this secret weapon to use against Sky Ring when necessary.
"Although that is the rationale," an agent couldn’t help but complain, "We don’t often find such a good pawn like Liu Wein. We spent a lot of effort to dig up this useful guy. When it cos to anything against Red Arrow, he’s furiously enthusiastic, almost needs no further push. And now we’re about to use him up..."
"It’s not just this guy we’re consuming." At this point, a colleague also felt a bit distressed, "To take down Li Aozi, we’ve mobilized many people and even called in that person from Frost Plated headquarters."
"As long as we succeed in provoking him, the situation will improve." The colleagues consoled each other: "Li Aozi’s existence is a factor that will never be stable for us, Frost Plated People. This guy directly threatens our survival."
"Whether politically, internationally, in colonies, or militarily, we have already suffered heavy losses. We must retaliate. Not only that, according to His Excellency the President’s requirents, we must also ruin Li Aozi’s reputation to weaken the Grantians’ will to resist."
When it ca to the issue of patriotism, the agents bowed their heads, each with a serious and earnest expression:
"White Frost Plating Clothes, red blood on the ground."
"With our support, ensuring Liu Wein gives Li Aozi a hard blow in the bet is already a done deal."
"Yes, and based on our profiling of Li Aozi and the psychological assessnt conducted by a Spirit dium, Li Aozi’s personality is irritable and he is very concerned about his personal interests. He definitely won’t be able to swallow this insult. Next, we just need to repeat similar provocations a few tis, and Li Aozi will sooner or later lose his temper."
"Haha, by that ti, how could the People of Sky Ring, who are hosting the event, just watch Li Aozi make a scene at their festivity? Given their usual character, they will definitely let a Gamma Rank Samurai directly punish Li Aozi – just wait and watch the show."
The thod was not brilliant, and the routine was not complex. However, throughout history, the simpler the conspiracy, the higher the success rate. Even the most basic assassination thod could be just walking up in broad daylight and shooting the target in the back with a shotgun. The target would die no matter what.
Often, the facts were such, executing the plan was always more important than planning the strategy, and doing subtraction always reduced the chance of error more than doing addition.
As for whether Liu Wein, who accepted this arrangent, was a fool? No, he wasn’t. It was just that his hatred for Red Arrow far outweighed any feelings of being used by Frost Plated.
’Poor beauty, but who told you to be a dog of the Red Arrow Empire? Bla yourself for choosing Red Arrow as your country!’
Liu Wein glanced at the directory of master craftsn in his hand. Without much effort, he selected the exhibits from those masters. Although the rules of their competition had already been heard by the public, not everyone was willing to join their nonsense. So craftsn who disapproved of their behavior refused to lend their exhibits, forcing Liu Wein to promise to buy them instead.
After so selection, Liu Wein found that he did not gain much advantage. Among the ten exhibits he chose, he had to commit to purchasing four of them to get his hands on them.
Even so, each of these exhibits was a masterpiece, with a magnificent appearance and a strong reputation, making them expensive.
Sure enough, before presenting them to the judges, Frost Plated had dostic experts appraise them, and the total value of these ten items was at least thirty million Derby. Considering the inflated prices at the Nine Dragons Gathering, even conservatively calculating, it was more than 1.9 billion Derby.
This was no small amount. The value added by famous craftsn was truly terrifying. Even Liu Wein, a retainer of the Houjo Clan, was quite shocked by this figure. It was equivalent to the cost of a heavy combat aircraft, while these exhibits were essentially so cold weapons.
At this point, the terrifying number made Liu Wein hesitate and a thought crossed his mind: If he lost, and Li Aozi really made him buy all these, how many lifetis would it take to repay?
But he quickly dismissed this thought and shook his head.
How could that be possible? With such value, it was certain he would win.
To reinforce his confidence, he turned his head and glanced at Li Aozi, who was nearby, and couldn’t help but laugh.
"Look at him, he actually picked two nobodies, three disheartened middle-aged n, and a newcor who only beca famous this year. Not a single famous craftsman. Is he here to make a joke? With this, he hopes to beat the exhibits I have ticulously selected? It’s simply ridiculous!"
He couldn’t help but sneer out loud. In fact, it wasn’t just him; many people began to point and talk about Li Aozi’s choices.
No matter how they looked, Li Aozi didn’t seem knowledgeable. He neither used instrunts for testing nor tried them out, and he didn’t even know how to select famous craftsn. He just took a look and accepted.
Li Aozi ignored everyone’s opinions.
In other people’s eyes, he was making a ss.
In reality, he was indeed making a ss.
From the mont this clueless fool ca to provoke him, it was clear that Li Aozi had no intention of letting him have his way. Due to the Effect of the Aura of Goodwill, the other party wouldn’t fight him. But continually being nauseated like this made Li Aozi very unhappy.
Without even using the Eye of Truth, Li Aozi walked straight to an unremarkable new bladesmith, casually picked up a short knife, weighed it, and saw that it looked okay, then directly put it into the shopping cart. The craftsman didn’t even get a chance to react. Seeing Li Aozi’s attitude, the craftsman cautiously reminded him: "Do you want to reconsider? It may not be that good..."
"Have so confidence in your product."
—Actually, Li Aozi had not even looked at the craftsmanship of the knife, but saying this made Liu Wein’s face darken.
It was Liu Wein who had been touting ’defending the dignity of Sky Ring,’ but now Li Aozi’s words sounded more amicable than his own.
"But so what? Reputation can’t cover your inevitable failure."
Liu Wein snorted coldly.
There were a few players at the scene mingling under the guise of volunteers. Upon witnessing the farce, so players imdiately made sharp comnts:
"What kind of brainless plot developnt is this? I can already guess the rest of the plot, Li Aozi will definitely use the Eye of Truth to identify everything at a glance, playing the fool to beat the experts."
"Although my dear Li Aozi does look good, this plot is just dumb. How about bringing in a beautiful auctioneer who falls in love with Li Aozi at first sight? That would make it even juicier."
"Li Aozi! With Arcane Aura, three stages! Don’t bully the young and poor, or the middle-aged and poor, or the elderly and poor—respect the dead! Man, this kid is truly terrifying, cannot let him live long."
"If the ga developers can’t write plots, they ought to stop. I can tolerate little or no storyline, but I can’t stand this brainless plot. If I wanted to see such a plot, why would I pay to play this ga? This consus the quality of ’Starry Abyss.’
Li Aozi took a few more steps and found a sowhat famous bladesmith.
He specifically sought out this middle-aged bladesmith nad Honda Isshin, a burly man with a yellowish face. Li Aozi, without saying a word, directly pointed at a katana on display with a pitch-black scabbard, a white binding, and a deep purple hollow knife crossguard, saying:
"This Demon Blade ’Slay the Heavenly Thunder’—I want it."
Honda Isshin didn’t hesitate much. Although his exhibition booth had lots of visitors, few were willing buyers. As soone prepared to buy this blade ca forward, he was happy.
The Demon Blade "Slay the Heavenly Thunder" was quite famous, believed to be able to ’slay heavenly thunder.’ This magical blade had a history of several centuries. However, despite its long history, the blade’s price never went up and it never sold. One reason was that the blade contained certain radioactive minerals, giving it a ’demonic nature’ that could harm its owner. So, many ca just for the show and never intended to buy it.
When the Third Rule Agent saw Li Aozi buy the blade, he calmly said: "1.3 million Derby."
This price was quite low. With the weapon choices in Li Aozi’s shopping cart so far, their total value was less than six million Derby, and this blade was already the most valuable one.
Now, Li Aozi had only one slot left, and the defeat seed inevitable.
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