Chapter 56 Conspiracy versus Conspiracy

"Hello? Ziri? Why are we holding our breath?" Ying followed me and asked why, but I just opened the door and walked in.

This one here is the main reception room. Not only is it very large, it is also connected to a small square-like artificial lawn behind it. When I opened the door and went in, I didn't see the representative. There were only a dozen guards from the Dark Temple standing there. The rest of the guards should have been taken to other rooms by our people. After all, it was impossible for the envoy to bring hundreds of guards and me. negotiation.

The crystal door opposite the room is open, and you can easily see three people standing by the water spring in the middle of the lawn outside. You don't need to guess to know that they are the envoys of the Dark Temple and our reception staff. I glanced around the room and walked towards the lawn. Everyone outside saw me and turned around.

"President." The player in charge of reception ran over when he saw me.

"I'll handle it here, you go out first."

The receiving players nodded and left. I walked to the two envoys and stopped. The two envoys were obviously human in appearance, but their pale faces showed that they were no longer alive. The two undead were a man and a woman. The woman looked average, but the man was quite handsome. Judging from the aura, this man should be the main character, and the woman is probably a follower or assistant.

"Sorry, something has delayed me." Of course you have to be polite if you are late.

The two envoys didn't seem to mind my tardiness and got straight to the point. "Commander Ziri, you are so brave. The destruction of the Dark Temple has not been explained to the temple. Now even the Demon City has been destroyed."

hey-hey! Arni was indeed the same Arni, and only her subordinates could have such an arrogant attitude. "What did the envoy say? Although Essinger was destroyed, it was not what I wanted. Besides, you have also seen that the new Essinger has been basically completed. I don't understand what the temple means."

"Isinger and the Demon City are two different concepts, please don't confuse them. After the original Isinger and the Demon City were completely destroyed, the one you rebuilt is just Isinger, it is no longer the Demon City."

"Huh?" I was stunned by his words. Why does it sound like Essinger and Modu are not the same thing?

The woman said: "Haven't you seen the city layout of Essinger before?"

"I've seen it, what's wrong?"

The female undead suddenly pulled out a scroll from her robe and unfolded it in front of me. The things drawn on the scroll were quite familiar to me. This was an overhead view of the old Essinger before it was destroyed. The woman pulled both sides of the scroll, while the male envoy clicked a few times on the picture with his fingers. The areas that were touched turned into small red dots of light.

He explained: "Do you know what the positions of these light spots represent?"

Yingying and I both went up and took a closer look. "These appear to be the locations of support pillars that run throughout the city."

He nodded and said, "Have you seen these pillars up close before?"

I nodded and waited for him to continue explaining. Who knew that he actually looked at me and said nothing. After waiting for a while, he continued: "Don't you understand?"

Eagle and I both shook our heads.

He seemed very angry and started to draw on the drawing with his fingers. This time he drew many complicated lines, including straight lines and arcs, but these lines all passed through the original points. After he finished painting, he stepped aside so that I could see clearly.

"Spirit Gathering Formation?" Eagle and I shouted almost at the same time.

I finally know why Essinger is called the Magic City. It turns out that the entire city of Essinger is a giant undead transformation array. The everlasting dark cloud above Isinger is not the magic cloud we always thought it was. It is the cloud of death, a cloud of curses composed of powerful resentment.

Now it's finally clear. I understood a lot of things that I couldn't figure out. The last time we went to war with the Light Temple, both the Dark Temple and the Dragon Clan became our allies. The Dragon Clan had to participate because it had a decisive battle with the Light Temple, but the Dark Temple's reaction was quite strange. Although it can be said that the Dark Temple is helping us for profit, but if you think about it carefully, in fact, the Dark Temple had no benefits at all in that battle. Controlling a few more cities is of no benefit to the Dark Temple. In contrast, the investment is larger. Isn't it strange that the Dark Temple is willing to participate in this kind of transaction that is obviously a loss-making business?

At that time, I thought that the Dark Temple wanted to curry favor with us, and Ling was Arni’s sister after all. She was making an emotional investment, so I felt at the time that her behavior was relatively simple and she was just pursuing long-term interests. But now I completely understand that she is indeed pursuing long-term interests, but it is not the interests I thought.

Al Ni had originally planned to have a decisive battle between the two sides in Essinger, so that a large number of creatures would die near Essinger in the end, and Essinger's super soul gathering array could ensure that none of these lost souls could enter heaven. , they will all be turned into undead or into dark energy. For the Black Temple, the more undead there are, the stronger their power becomes. Compared with the Temple of Light needing believers, they need undead and dark energy more. This is the real reason why the Temple of Darkness helps us fight the war.

I said why Al Ni didn't take revenge on me after I blew up the Dark Temple. The system limit time has passed long ago. According to her personality, she shouldn't have been able to avoid trouble with me for so long. Even if there was no direct conflict, she should at least Just give us some tricks. It is now clear that the reason she did not retaliate against me was because she felt she had earned enough this time. I don’t want to worry about petty profits with a coolie like me.

The strong among the strong have their own strong leader. Each mountain is higher than the other. I always thought that I was already a conspirator. Compared with Al Ni, I was like a child playing at home. She has sold them all and is still helping her count the money! In the past, NPCs in online games had too low intelligence and were often tricked by players. In "Zero", NPCs have changed to trick players.

etc. I seem to have been led into a trap again. Why did Al Ni suddenly ask someone to tell me this secret? Because you can't hide it anymore? No, it's not that simple.

Al Ni should know the strategic prediction ability of our guild very well. Although I was tricked by her, it was because she was too cunning. It was not because I was not smart. Besides, Hongyue and Su Mei's IQs were not average. They were such powerful think tanks. Groups should not be counted continuously. As long as Al Ni has any brains, he cannot use the same method to plot against us continuously, so revealing this news is not to plot against me. What is her real purpose...? Is it asking for directions?

Definitely the ground. She was testing my reaction again. She wanted to know if I had fallen to the second force. Arni definitely wanted to get me back under her control. She wanted to test my reaction first. This kind of high-end mind reading is something that cannot be conveyed through a third party. Unless Alni can see my reaction, this plan will be completely meaningless. But how was she going to see my reaction?

Use record magic? Impossible, the reception room is a magic-forbidden space, and magic items cannot be used. Then the only possibility is... I suddenly said silently to the phantom in my heart: "Use your mind's eye to see who is staring at us in the room behind us."

"No."

"No?"

"Yes. None of those people paid attention to us. The only ones looking at us now are these two envoys."

"Envoy?" Got it. This woman is no assistant at all. She is Arni. The temple representative does not need so many people at all. Bringing more guards can be considered a show of force, but bringing a strange assistant is obviously illogical. In fact, the Dark Temple and we know each other very well, and we all know how much we have. The purpose of putting on a show is to scare those who don't know. There is no point in putting on a show between us. So the reason why so many guards came was not because the Dark Temple wanted to show off, but because the goddess was in the team and they had to send more people to ensure safety. Michael is not a legitimate goddess at the Temple of Light yet, so of course she can run around. But Arni's status was unquestionable. She didn't care about it, and it was impossible for the elders and other figures in the temple to let her run out without guards. This is like the emperor in ancient times. Even if he was a martial arts master, the ministers would not let him travel alone.

Al Ni actually dared to come to Isengard. good. Just pretend. Since you want to see my position, let you see enough.

"Commander Ziri?" The male envoy couldn't help but ask after seeing that I hadn't moved for a long time.

"Huh?" I suddenly returned to normal, "The picture on this picture seems to be a very advanced spirit gathering array. No wonder Essinger has always been full of ghosts."

The envoy immediately said: "You just need to understand. The three important cities of the Dark Temple all have similar functions. Now that one of them has been destroyed, there is something wrong with our overall formation. This will seriously affect our development. Regarding this Do you have any clues?"

"I can understand that Essinger was destroyed. This is indeed a loss, but it won't affect the overall development, right? Is it too exaggerated?"

Arni pretended to be an envoy from the land woman and said, "Do you have a map of China?"

"Do you want a big one or a small one?"

"Big ones, they have to be big enough."

"Then come with me."

I took the two of them and Ying to the map room of our guild, although the map on the floor of the conference room was the most detailed and largest. But there are many secrets of our guild marked on it, and it will be troublesome if they see it.

When we walked out of the gate, the guards wanted to follow us. I resisted the guard at the front and said, "You'd better not follow us here."

"We want to protect the safety of the envoy." The leader of the guards replied coldly.

"I know, but this is my territory, and I have the final say on everything. It is absolutely safe here, and you don't have to worry about anything going wrong with your envoys. The place we are going to soon can be considered a confidential warehouse. Are you coming? convenient."

"We have to protect the envoy." The guard didn't give in. Arni and the man in front didn't speak at all, only to laugh at me.

good. Since you want to watch the excitement. Just let you see. I first used a private message to notify Hongyue that Wei Na would come to help, and then suddenly shouted loudly: "I won't do it if I say no. Don't talk nonsense to me. I respect you as envoys and don't be shameless."

My attitude changed too quickly, and these people were a little stunned, but they quickly reacted. The voice of the guard leader also became significantly louder. "The goddess Arni is the common god of our dark forces, and her envoys are her representatives. We must protect the envoys with the belief of protecting the goddess. As the commander of darkness, you should cooperate with our actions."

"You...!" I suddenly realized that I wasn't tall enough and didn't have enough momentum to face this guy. After looking around, he ran to the side and moved a sculpture to the ground, then moved the pedestal in front of this guy and put it down. When I stood on the pedestal, I was much taller than this guy, and then I bent over and cursed condescendingly like an adult scolding a child. "Don't just go to the Temple of the Goddess. Let me tell you. My commander is an honorary commander, and we have no direct relationship. And Isengard is not the property of the Dark Temple. It is mine. Do you understand? Let alone two envoys. , even if Arni himself comes, I have the final say. You are just a little guard commander, but you dare to stand up to me? How many souls do you have that I can take away? Be careful, I will let you return to dust with the fire of life. Return home. When you go back, tell Arni that the goddess here is Veena Oster, the god of chaos and order. The second religion here is Taoism, and you are only the third. Don't treat us like obedient people. , I’m telling you, I’m a bandit!” The guy was completely dumbfounded by my scolding, and even the two envoys behind me stopped moving.

call! After scolding someone, my whole body felt relaxed. Ha ha! It seemed to work well, and everyone in the audience was scolded. I jumped off the stone platform and put it in place, then moved the sculpture back to the platform and put it away. He turned back and patted the two envoys. "let's go."

Although the words I just said were directed at the guards, I was actually scolding Arni who was pretending to be an envoy. The purpose of her coming this time was not for the spirit gathering formation at all. Now that Essinger has her own religion, even rebuilding the Spirit Gathering Array will not bring any benefit to the Dark Temple. She purely wants to see my stance on the Dark Temple. Now I am taking the opportunity of scolding the guard to tell her that we don't take the Dark Temple seriously at all. I have the support of the God of Chaos and Order and the Chinese Heavenly Court. I don't need any dark temple.

Maybe my words were too shocking, neither Arni nor the male envoy responded. I went over and patted them before they came back to their senses. The guard behind thought about it and decided to follow him, but Arni made a gesture with his hand below. He stopped immediately. I saw Arni's little tricks but didn't expose them. What I just said was to stimulate the Dark Temple, but the ultimate goal is to make the Dark Temple come closer. The Temple of Light cannot be stable without the Temple of Darkness. Once the balance is tilted, it will not be easy to right it. I don’t want the balance of power in China that I have worked so hard to maintain to end like this, so now I can safely stimulate Al Ni but never reveal her identity.

"Let's go this way." I led them to continue moving forward, while everyone was thinking about their own thoughts. To be honest, I don't like to always plot against others, but when I'm with Al Ni, if I don't bother plotting against her, she will be plotted against her. There's really no way!

After arriving in the drawing room, I asked the administrator to take a large map of China from the shelf, and then put it on the dedicated map display table. "What were you trying to show me just now? Tell me now?"

Arni said: "Do you know the specific locations of the cities controlled by the Dark Temple?"

I nodded and turned to the administrator and said: "Bring the Dark Temple's power map, I want it in standard scale."

The administrator quickly handed over a piece of transparent glitter paper. I unfolded this transparent paper and covered it on the map. Many red dots were drawn on this transparent paper. They represent the cities controlled by the Dark Temple. In addition to these points, the surrounding areas on the map centered on these points are translucent red. This red area is the sphere of influence.

The male envoy asked: "Is it okay to put some marks on this?"

I nodded: "It's okay, we have a lot of this."

The male envoy used a red pen to draw a large number of lines on the cellophane paper above, just like the top view of Essinger at the beginning. After connecting these points, it turns out to be a magic circle. Moreover, this circle covers almost all of China, including several small countries near our country.

"What kind of magic circle is this?" Eagle asked.

Although it is certain that this is a magic circle. But we are not NPCs, and we basically can’t remember them except for the more distinctive ones like the Spirit Gathering Array, and this one seems to be particularly complicated.

The envoy explained: "This is the anti-soul formation. Like Isinger, all cities in the Dark Temple have hidden soul gathering formations. Except for a few souls with particularly strong willpower, most of the souls absorbed by these formations have been transformed into undead. All are transformed into pure dark energy. These energies will be gradually gathered to this central point through this large array, and then the soul energy will be reversely transformed into complete physical bodies through the soul-reverse array."

I paid attention to the central point, which seemed to be a no-man's land. "Is there any point in transforming a soul into a body?"

"It means a lot." The envoy said: "The flesh bodies shaped by the dark power not only have dark attributes but also belong to real creatures, so they are not afraid of the light power. And because of their special attributes, It can harness almost any form of power."

Eagle said in surprise: "Wouldn't it become a 100% anti-magic creature with all attributes invalid?"

I suddenly remembered that dragons seemed to be soul-to-body creatures, so all dragons' magic resistance was almost full. The dragon egg of the dragon family actually contains a dragon soul, and the long incubation period is just the process of transforming the soul into a physical body. Because the egg contains a complete soul, the dragon basically has memories before it breaks out of its shell. Like Plague and Lucky, they remember a lot about what happened before they hatched.

The Dark Temple wants to convert soul energy into physical bodies in batches, so aren't they equivalent to creating an extremely powerful anti-magic army? After I thought about this meaning, I looked at Arni in surprise. She was actually looking at me with a smile.

"I know you have guessed who I am, so let's not play riddles with each other anymore. Let's be direct." Al Ni snapped her fingers, and a black mist flashed around her body. After the mist dissipated, Al Ni showed her true face. Appeared in front of me.

"Arni?" Ying was so frightened that he took three steps back and sat down on the ground.

"Hey! Why don't you come and say hello to my master when the guests arrive?" Wei Na is really good at getting stuck, and she actually arrived at this critical moment.

"Isn't this the daughter of the expelled Auster family? I didn't expect to start her own business now? She actually learned how to raise a pretty boy." Arni is not a soft persimmon, but this woman is too taciturn!

"Hey! Can you be more careful with what you say?" Al Ni's words just now obviously brought me into it, so why don't I come out and express my opinion.

"Are you kidding? Don't be so stingy?"

"Can you, a stinky yellow-haired girl like you, like the Oster family, be allowed to make random jokes?" Vida actually followed in. He was much hotter-tempered than Vina, and he drew his sword. On the other hand, he was approaching Al Ni.

The male envoy suddenly flicked his sleeve and slid out a rune sword. "Be respectful to the Temple Goddess." This guy has been a personal bodyguard for a long time.

Vader stepped forward and knocked the guy back three steps with one strike of his sword. In the end, Al Ni calmly helped him to stabilize his figure. After all, Wei Da is also Wei Na's younger brother. Xiao Zao must be opened, and his strength is naturally different from before. Vader also knew how to measure his opponent, so he didn't push forward after repelling his opponent with one sword. "Where did this kid come from? Is there no one in the Dark Temple now?"

"Who are you?" the guard pretending to be an envoy asked in surprise.

"I am Vader Oster, commander of the Seventh Army. When I followed Marshal Clark to conquer the country, you didn't know where to look at the gate!"

When it comes to this, Vader is indeed quite capitalal. When I met Clark, he was already working as a blacksmith in the Lost City, but the information I received from Domingo and the Mysterious Force repeatedly confirmed that Clark was once the supreme military commander of the Black Temple, the commander-in-chief. The ten legions of the Dark Temple. Domingue and Vida were both legion commanders at that time, and they were all juniors who followed Clark. After Clark retired, they also became high-level figures, but now Vader is no longer a subordinate of the temple. But in terms of qualifications, he is indeed much older than this guy.