My starting summon is a small skeleton - Chapter 440: 437 transactions

Chapter 440: 437 transactions

“The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Indeed, compared to those who show themselves openly, we who watch from behind are certainly more prudent.”

The man in the black robe, or should I say, the First Envoy of the Zero Organization, Zhang Chen, was fiddling with the fragment in his hand, squinting his eyes and smiling with pleasure.

At this moment, he once again felt that his decision to avoid the direct conflict when Lu Wu previously targeted the Zero Organization was absolutely correct.

Although with his power, he could have easily killed Lu Wu with a slap.

But if it weren’t for that decision, he wouldn’t have been able to acquire this freshly refined, soft-looking Gate Fragment.

While Zhang Chen was pleased with himself, an old voice came from nearby, “But you’ve exposed yourself now, haven’t you?”

If Lu Wu were here, he would have recognized that the old voice belonged to Tie Xiong, who had once freeloaded at his place and was the very person Lu Wu was most urgently searching for at the moment.

Tie Xiong, looking at Zhang Chen who was fondling the fragment and shaking his head, said, “I think your previous decision was indeed correct, but this time you were a bit impulsive!

Even somewhat risky!”

“For such a fragment, it’s worth the risk and worth exposing myself,” Zhang Chen replied, narrowing his eyes.

“Lu Wu has been acting very strangely lately, and you didn’t see how he played around with the elders from Elder Mountain.

Listen to my advice, return the fragment and keep hiding for now; just avoid making waves for a while.”

Isn’t it said that avarice leads to peril.

Faced with Tie Xiong’s suggestion, Zhang Chen decisively chose to refuse!

“That’s really unnecessary. The Elder Council is the Elder Council; I am myself.

Their being manipulated by Lu Wu is their own problem. Whatever tricks Lu Wu has are useless against me.

No tricks are a match for absolute power!”

“Besides, I might have exposed myself, but as long as Lu Wu doesn’t know that I’m the one who acted and can’t trace it back to me, I’m essentially still hidden. As long as I don’t stir up any trouble next, he can’t do anything to me!”

Seeing this, Tie Xiong realized that Zhang Chen had firmly decided not to hand over the Gate Fragment and didn’t bother to say more, simply getting up to leave.

“Old Tie, where are you planning to go?”

“I feel it’s not safe here anymore, and I’m planning to relocate somewhere else to avoid Lu Wu finding me,” Tie Xiong replied candidly.

“That’s really unnecessary!”

Zhang Chen frowned, pocketed the Gate Fragment, and walked a few steps, “Old Tie, just rest assured and stay here; he is not going to find this place!”

Tie Xiong glanced at Zhang Chen’s movement and showed a sneer, “What? You’re not planning to let me leave?”

The chilly tone made Zhang Chen pause.

Zhang Chen had to admit that he indeed harbored the thought of stopping Tie Xiong from leaving, to be more precise, he was coveting the Gate Fragment in Tie Xiong’s possession.

But at that moment, hearing Tie Xiong’s words and seeing his expression, Zhang Chen ultimately chickened out.

“Where did that come from? If you could say such a thing, I can only respectfully see you off, Brother Tie.”

Tie Xiong couldn’t care less.

He snorted as a response and then quickly stood up and left.

He had a premonition that this “Old Tie” would likely be in trouble soon and that this place would likely be exposed.

Meanwhile, on Zhang Chen’s part, after seeing off Tie Xiong, his expression became solemn.

It was clear that he wasn’t as calm or confident as he appeared.

After this move, he was somewhat nervous, especially after Tie Xiong’s departure; he felt even more that this place might not be safe.

“Although I am not afraid of that young brat Lu Wu, trouble is still something to be avoided as much as possible!”

Zhang Chen said and then also left.

His departure covered tens of thousands of miles.

Leaving the base, he crossed several Secret Realms and finally stopped in a Secret Realm that Zhang Chen felt was the most concealed, even a place only known to him.

After settling down, Zhang Chen was still busy.

He busied himself for most of the day and only then felt completely at ease.

Looking at all his preparations, Zhang Chen proudly said, “I’ve hidden so far and made so many preparations; not even Lu Wu, perhaps not even the Zeroer could find me easily, right?”

“Yeah, that does seem a bit difficult!”

Suddenly, Lu Wu’s voice rang out, causing Zhang Chen to shudder, his face showing an incredulous expression.

He stiffly turned his head around.

As he turned, Zhang Chen saw a young man standing behind him, a handsome young man with a bright smile, who, at the moment Zhang Chen turned, also reached out to wave at him, “Hey, hello there!”

Hello my ass!

Seeing Lu Wu in that instant, Zhang Chen split in shock.

He couldn’t comprehend how, despite his efforts to hide so far away, Lu Wu managed to track him down.

Zhang Chen snapped back to reality, “The fragment? Is there something wrong with the fragment?”

“Isn’t that obviously the case?” Lu Wu replied with a light chuckle.

“But I thoroughly checked it; I didn’t find any tricks on the fragment!”

“All the energy in the fragment is mine; what tricks do I need to play?”

Ah, that was why Lu Wu dared to use the fragment as bait.

During the refinement of the fragment, Lu Wu had been providing energy, while Fei Yinghao was merely a substitute performing spiritual refinement for Lu Wu.

After the refinement, all the energy within the entire fragment belonged to Lu Wu.

Lu Wu’s control over the fragment reached over ninety-five percent.

That was also the reason why Lu Wu didn’t bring the fragment back himself.

With such control, whoever possessed the fragment, without eliminating Lu Wu’s energy, wouldn’t be able to use it and would instead be continually located by Lu Wu.

Thus, Lu Wu wasn’t in a hurry to retrieve the fragment but let Little Golden Dragon leisurely carry it around.

Lu Wu wanted to see if he could use this fragment to lure out those hidden in the background, specifically Tie Xiong.

As the one who had given the Gate Fragment to Dudu, Tie Xiong had always been the primary target in Lu Wu’s notebook.

He wouldn’t miss any opportunity to capture Tie Xiong, not only to avenge Dudu and uncover the truth but also to obtain the fragment that Dudu had used previously.

Because Lu Wu couldn’t guarantee that the fragment he had refined would be able to revive Dudu, he set his sights on that very fragment after refining this one.

Ultimately, he did manage to lure someone, but it turned out not to be Tie Xiong, which somewhat disappointed Lu Wu.

“Looking at you enveloped in evil energy, you must be from the Zero Organization, and if I’m not mistaken, you’re the First Envoy, right?

So let me ask you, do you know where Tie Xiong is?”

Lu Wu merely asked casually, not expecting the other party to nod resolutely: “Yes, I do!”

This straightforward response left Lu Wu somewhat unresponsive.

What made Lu Wu even more unresponsive was Zhang Chen’s subsequent behavior.

As soon as he uttered ‘I do,’ Zhang Chen, who had just looked incredulous and somewhat panicked, cracked a smile.

“How about we make a deal?”

Lu Wu was startled, then his lips curled into a smile.

“It seems things are getting interesting, alright, tell me, what kind of deal?”

“It’s simple, you give me the fragment, and I’ll give you Tie Xiong’s location.”

With that, Zhang Chen took out a device: “I’ve already tampered with him earlier, and now you can track him down with this device in your hand, you can confirm it first if you don’t believe me.”

As he spoke, Zhang Chen tossed the device in his hand toward Lu Wu.

Lu Wu’s eyes lit up, and he caught the device thrown at him, playing with it in his hand while a mocking smile appeared on his lips: “It seems you’ve been prepared to betray your teammates from the start, huh?”

“Let me correct that, we’re not exactly teammates, more like acquaintances.

Besides, selling him out is something you wanted to see, isn’t it?”

“That’s also true!”

“Alright, no more nonsense, you better check the device now, and if there’s no problem, let’s start the deal!”

“How do I check it?”

“Input energy into it, you don’t need me to teach you that, do you?”

“Oh, got it!”

Lu Wu nodded his head and injected energy into the device immediately.

Once Lu Wu input his energy, Zhang Chen’s eyes lit up, seizing the opportunity to initiate his prepared setup.

“Whoosh!”

The opponent moved quickly, and before Lu Wu could even react, Zhang Chen’s preparation had already been activated.

The device in Lu Wu’s hand sprouted black vines that tightly bound him, and at the same time, Zhang Chen grabbed a Gate Fragment at his feet and pressed it against the ground.

As the Gate Fragment was pressed onto the ground, energy from the fragment began flowing into Lu Wu’s body.

“Done!”

Zhang Chen’s face lit up with joy.

By this time, Lu Wu had also seemed to realize.

“It looks like you knew about the Gate Fragment from the start, you staying so far away wasn’t to avoid me, but to buy time to set up this trap, right?”

Zhang Chen grinned: “After all, I’ve lived for over a century, seen plenty of plotting and scheming, especially surviving under the Zero Organization, my living environment is much harsher than the Elder Mountain with those old guys.

They’ve been comfortable for decades not knowing the dangers of machinations, I survived by relying on them.”

“So, I saw through your little fishing trick at a glance.”

Lu Wu shook his head: “Since you saw through it, why did you still fall for it?”

“Of course, because I was confident I could swallow the bait you threw!

Just look, hasn’t everything gone according to my plan?”

Zhang Chen smirked, a smile of masterful control on his face: “The moment I got the fragment, I knew, the fragment in your possession, you could not only know my location but even possibly my actions.”

“So from the moment you got the fragment, you’ve been acting all along, right?

Pretending to be blinded by self-interest, overconfident and foolish, all to lower my guard to the fullest and carry out this operation?”

Zhang Chen nodded his head: “The self-interest wasn’t feigned, it was real greed, but the rest was pretty accurate.”

Lu Wu smirked: “So what’s your plan next? To kill me?”

“No no no, I don’t have the time for that, nor the courage, after all, I’m not sure whether the one before me is a clone or the real you, and I don’t want to offend you.”

“You’ve done all this, and you still don’t want to offend me?”

“I just wanted to ensure the maximum safety of the deal, the device I gave you is real, it can indeed track down Tie Xiong, as for my actions, it was just to clear your energy from the fragment.

Might be a bit drastic, but you agreed to our deal earlier, didn’t you?”

Lu Wu just smirked and said nothing, and Zhang Chen didn’t waste more words but focused fully on the task.

Three minutes later, Zhang Chen successfully extracted the energy belonging to Lu Wu from the fragment.

“Done! Mr. Lu, our deal is considered complete now, the binds on your body will release automatically in five minutes, I’ll take my leave first.”

Having said that, Zhang Chen collected the fragment, and without waiting for Lu Wu’s response, he turned and ran.

Lu Wu, however, remained bound in place, silently watching Zhang Chen departing.

What Lu Wu didn’t know was that this scene had been observed by an individual, well, more precisely, an angel.

Unquestionably, that angel was Ilya’s old father.

He had just come over from the Holy Sect Alliance, relying on forbidden power to track down Lu Wu and witnessing this scene.

Watching Lu Wu bound and immobile.

Watching the bait Lu Wu threw easily swallowed by someone else, even spitting out the hook, the old father suddenly felt this young man was perhaps not so formidable after all.

The tricks played by others were much sharper than Lu Wu’s.

Additionally, as an observer with a God’s view, the old father thought he was much smarter than Lu Wu, he knew from the start there was something off about that Zhang Chen, and if he were in Lu Wu’s place, he would have certainly slapped Zhang Chen down right from the start, and everything would be settled, what a scene that would be.

Thinking this way, the old father suddenly felt superior.

“My wife always says our father and daughter are not very smart, she’s defaming us.

Ilya might have been a bit foolish, but I think I do alright!

Thḭ𝙨 ςhȺp𝕥ҽr 𝚤𝓈 pο𝑠†𝗲ⅾ b𝙮 𝒦𝚒†є𝑛𝖔ⱽᥱ𝓁

Certainly better than that lad below.”

Thinking again about Lu Wu’s maneuvers in the Holy Sect Alliance, the old father suddenly thought maybe he could do it too.

While the old father was feeling somewhat smug in his God’s view, the bindings on Lu Wu’s hands suddenly released, and a smile appeared on Lu Wu’s previously silent face, the device he was holding “cracked” and shattered.

“These old foxes are indeed a bit tougher to deal with than the Elder Mountain, to catch a big fish, one needs to up the stakes continuously, hope this time the stakes I’ve raised are enough to lure that one in as well!”

As he spoke, Lu Wu’s figure disappeared from the somewhat puzzled old father’s eyes…