All Things Are Contracts

Chapter 240: Drawing the Tiger Away from the Mountain

“The Millennium Tower, that’s the giant tower reaching to the sky. Why is he building this tower?” Zhanyue asked.

“Sigh, you might not believe this. The Sand Dune King simply wants to build a tall tower, one that will be recorded in history and become legendary, unprecedented and unmatched. That’s all,” the Desert Worm Clan member explained.

“All this effort just to build a wonder?” Zhanyue wanted to cry out that wonders ruin nations.

“Building the Millennium Tower requires a vast amount of manpower and resources. The Desert Worm Clan, the Sand-Armored Giant Clan, the Sand Dune Clan, and many smaller surrounding Clans have all been enslaved by him, including his own Sand Dune Clanspeople. He spares no one. As for the sand, stone, and wood needed for construction, it all comes from this oasis. Do you know? This oasis used to be ten times its current size. But the edges have all turned to desert. If this continues, it will soon disappear into the desert,” the Worm Clansman lamented deeply. The Sand Dune King was clearly mad.

Zhanyue asked, puzzled, “Haven’t you all thought about uniting to resist? After all, if so many people could unite, he might not be able to handle it.”

The Worm Clansman smiled bitterly, “You’re thinking too simply. That villain somehow mastered the golden scepter, and then gained the power to control the disaster beast. In a very short time, he killed the Sand-Armored Giant Clan’s ancestor who tried to resist, and captured and imprisoned our Worm Clan’s matriarch. Did you see the spiders on everyone’s faces in the oasis? Those are our matriarch’s soul-devouring spiders. He controls our matriarch, and through her power, controls everyone else.

Free individuals like me are extremely rare, and it’s only thanks to our ability to live underground in the desert, rarely needing to come to the surface. He’s already formidable, and with the golden scepter and the disaster beast, plus controlling our matriarch and countless strong individuals as his enforcers, how can we resist? Everyone is ultimately forced to build this meaningless tower for him.”

“I see. Do you know what those disaster beasts are?” Yunyao interjected.

“We don’t know the origins of those disaster beasts either. They’re incredibly greedy, eating everything except sand. If you fall among them, not even bones will remain. I personally saw the Sand-Armored Giant Clan’s ancestor devoured completely, and that was a Sand-Armored Giant with terrifying defense,” the worm shuddered, recalling that horrific scene.

The sand worm hurriedly replied, “Well, not entirely invincible.”

“Tell us, what’s your real purpose here? You didn’t come just to answer our questions, did you?” Zhanyue narrowed his eyes at the large worm.

“Uh…” the worm confessed honestly, “I saw from underground that you two are extraordinarily powerful. Those two Sand-Armored Giants were no match for you. And you managed to escape from the disaster beast. So you are the key to breaking this situation. If you could sneak into the castle and rescue our matriarch, letting her remove the insect techniques cast on everyone, then you could unite everyone to fight against him, instead of facing him while being forced to fight against everyone else.”

Zhanyue and Yunyao exchanged a glance and nodded. The worm was telling the truth. It had come to them voluntarily to save its matriarch.

“Can’t you get close to the castle?” Zhanyue asked.

“No, I once tried to burrow under the castle while he was supervising the Millennium Tower’s construction, but I failed. The disaster beast fish school guards the entire area under the castle, while the surface is guarded by experts from the three Clans,” the worm explained.

Zhanyue and Yunyao listened intently to the sand worm’s explanation. They understood that to rescue the Worm Clan’s matriarch and break free from the Sand Dune King’s control, they needed to plan carefully and devise a perfect strategy to avoid alerting their enemies.

“Do you have any plan?” Zhanyue asked.

“What about you?” Yunyao countered.

They looked at each other and said in unison, “Draw the tiger away from the mountain!”

Yunyao continued, “The so-called experts from the Sand-Armored Giant Clan and other Clans aren’t much of a concern, but there’s still the disaster beast and the Sand Dune King himself. It won’t be easy to lure all the castle’s defensive forces out, and they stopped chasing us at the oasis’s edge, seeming quite cautious.”

“So we can’t leave the oasis, we’ll have to engage them here,” Zhanyue pondered for a moment, then suggested, “I have an idea, but it requires perfect coordination between us.”

“Go on,” Yunyao said without hesitation.

The two humans and the worm discussed for a long time, finally settling on a plan.

As night fell, work on the tower didn’t cease, with people from various Clans still busy. Zhanyue initially wanted to burn down the Millennium Tower, but there were too many people on it. It would be counterproductive, even in this virtual world, as every action could affect subsequent developments.

Instead, Zhanyue set fire to the trees around the tower, with flames threatening to spread towards it.

“Fire! Fire!” The people below shouted in panic, creating chaos. Soon after, the castle gates opened, and several powerful experts rushed out to control the situation and stop the fire.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Zhanyue and Yunyao approached the castle gates again.

“What, you thought a simple fire would lure me away?” This time, the Sand Dune King quickly appeared before them. “This time, I won’t let you escape.”

He raised his scepter high, and with a rustling sound from the ground, the disaster beast fish school flew out towards the pair.

“This time, Zhanyue will deal with the disaster beast alone.” The Silver Moon Armor was already on his body. The terrifying Three Talents Wondrous Fire continuously devoured one disaster beast after another. To hold back these beasts, Zhanyue was using all his trump cards. But these disaster beasts would revive after falling to the sand, making them seemingly endless.

Meanwhile, Yunyao engaged the Sand Dune King. Her sword clashed with the golden scepter, sending her flying back. She could clearly feel the power of laws at work. This golden scepter truly had the essence of a divine artifact, unfortunately in enemy hands.

“Again!” Spreading her wings, Yunyao once more faced off against the Sand Dune King.

“I just remembered, you’re celestial beings, right? The legendary beings who will eliminate the disaster beast and save people from calamity. I can’t let you interfere with my plans!” The Sand Dune King’s strength was extraordinary, each strike swift and decisive, every collision shaking Yunyao to her core.

“Hmph!” A plan formed in Yunyao’s mind. She swung her sword, not at the Sand Dune King, but towards the massive Millennium Tower. If this strike landed, it would likely collapse the tower, causing countless deaths. Yunyao wasn’t cruel; she was certain the Sand Dune King cared more about these lives and the nearly-completed Millennium Tower than she did.

“Damn you!” The Sand Dune King flew in front of the sword energy, taking the hit directly.

While the battle raged above, below, the worm was carrying a purple piece of wood in its mouth, burrowing towards the castle underground. It might not succeed alone, but what it carried was actually Zhanyue’s external avatar.