Chapter 146: Two Choices

What?
Didn't you say it would take a whole day and night!
Wei Cheng and the others could hardly believe their ears.

The man in azure still wore a flushed complexion as if he had been steamed. With a casual flick, he tossed out a stream of white light that expanded to envelop everyone, including Wei Cheng.
"I must still thank you all for buying me enough time. Most importantly, I was not disturbed. I originally thought I would be forced to make three stops and rest three times midway to complete the deployment of the teleportation array, but I never expected your performance to be so exceptional."

With that said, the man in azure waved his hand, effortlessly dismissing Wei Cheng's blazing giant state. With a casual rub, the massive amount of flames gathered in his palm was condensed into a piece of fiery jade. Without even looking, he tossed it to Wei Cheng just like a piece of candy.
"Everyone, I was trapped in this place, so I once asked the Lord of Canggwutong City for help, promising a reward of one thousand golden dragon coins."
"Of course, five hundred of these must be given to the City Lord to thank him for his mediation, and the remaining half naturally belongs to you all."
"However, you also have other choices."
"I know you were sent here on orders, but you may not know much about this underground fiend cave. Getting in is easy, but getting out is virtually impossible."
"Therefore, I can leave this teleportation array behind for you to use for travel, but it is limited to twenty days. After twenty days, the spiritual stones powering the array will be depleted, and it will no longer function."
"Aside from that, this stealth barrier will only last for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense. Please make your decision soon. I await you at the City Lord's Mansion."
"Please!"

The moment the last word fell, Wei Cheng and the others felt a blur before their eyes, and the man in azure had vanished.
Almost simultaneously, tens of thousands of antler-headed fiends outside charged forward furiously, and the blazing giant birds in the sky dived down recklessly.
Yet for some reason, they simply would not approach the white light barrier, acting as if Wei Cheng and the others did not exist at all.
At the same time, a dazzling and immensely massive skill-inheriting stele slowly materialized, suspended precisely at an altitude of one thousand meters.
In addition, the fifth wave of fiends that should have appeared immediately was now completely silent.
Clearly, everything had been tied to the man in azure; with him gone, the aggro value disappeared as well.

So how should they choose?
Everyone looked toward Wei Cheng.
Five hundred golden dragon coins were undoubtedly the best choice, but they feared they wouldn't be able to hold onto them.
Earlier, when Wei Cheng exchanged forty-five golden dragon coins, they had already attracted the covetous eyes of the indigenous people in the city, let alone five hundred.
They feared they would have the life to take them, but no life to spend them.

"Brother Wei, are you confident?"
Bai Han asked in a low voice. What he was asking was not whether they could wipe out the fiend army outside, but whether they could keep those five hundred golden dragon coins.
"No!"
Wei Cheng answered very simply. Then, looking around at the group, he said in a deep voice: "Things have reached this point, so I don't need to hide anything anymore. I believe that within these trial levels, there exist trials who are even more senior than us."
"They might be Earthlings, or perhaps like closed-beta players who entered the trial levels much earlier, or they could even come from other three thousand worlds."
"But no matter what, this implies two things. First, we haven't even stepped out of the novice village yet; second, although we are not enemies, we may very well become ruthlessly competitive rivals in many situations."
"In short, the situation in future trial levels will become extremely complex. Only by accumulating enough advantages in the novice village can we hope to secure a foothold in the future."
"To be specific, for this current stage, we must find every possible way to defend Canggwutong City no matter what!"

Hearing Wei Cheng's words, everyone froze.
Defend Canggwutong City?
Are you kidding me! Not being able to defend Canggwutong City had already become the consensus among everyone!
Apart from striving for a higher clearance evaluation, there was nothing else they could do.
Don't talk to them about fighting to the death without retreating. Believe it or not, the moment the basic clearance conditions were met, a large crowd of people would choose to leave.
This was simply something they could not control.
In fact, even for their own small team, when that moment truly arrived, they would evacuate without the slightest hesitation.
We can live and die with you when there is no way out, but definitely not under these circumstances.

Wei Cheng actually understood this point as well.
Therefore, after a moment of contemplation, he said solemnly: "I used to think about a possibility at the start of the sixth stage—wondering if there would be a stage plot involving a counterattack on Fuyun City. Of course, back then, due to a lack of understanding of the trial mechanics, everyone was just guessing wildly, and I was just guessing blindly too."
"But now, I suddenly wonder: why must we always be led by the trial mechanics? What if we try to correct and change the trial mechanics ourselves?"

Wei Cheng's words left Bai Han, Tang Yuanshan, and Liu Sui dumbfounded. The rest of the group wore expressions that practically said, *Boss, what kind of heavenly scripture are you speaking?*
Stop joking around.
Only the two strategists looked somewhat thoughtful.
Yet Wei Cheng's expression was exceptionally serious.
"I want to try. Right now, we have three choices. First, we leave immediately through the teleportation array, go to Canggwutong City to collect our reward—while this might cause some trouble, it is still the most comfortable option."
"Second, we use the duration of this barrier to prepare ourselves, then slaughter our way out, fight a fierce and dark battle, touch the skill-inheriting stele, and then head back."
"Third, one of us immediately returns to Canggwutong City to summon reinforcements, establishes an outpost base right here, and gradually lowers the difficulty of the Canggwutong City defense battle by continuously wearing down the fiend army. Furthermore, if conditions ripen, we can even attempt a counterattack on Fuyun City!"

As Wei Cheng's voice trailed off, the others were completely dumbfounded, their minds blank.
After a long silence, Bai Han stuttered: "Brother Wei, Big Brother, are you actually losing your mind? Even immortal cultivators can't retake Fuyun City; why on earth should we be able to do it? Don't forget, there's also an ancient supreme fiend named Chiyao or something over there—that's an ultimate supreme infinite boss! At best, we're currently like Level 1 novice grunts going to touch Deathwing. Isn't this a bit—"

Bai Han couldn't continue. Heavens, this was too thrilling, scaring the wits out of him. Putting everything else aside, could the eight of them at their absolute peak defeat that immortal cultivator from earlier?
The answer was no.
And that immortal cultivator had nine companions, yet even they couldn't do it.
Why should they be able to?
The others nodded frantically, too scared to speak. Wei Cheng's idea was far too radical and terrifying.
Even without counterattacking Fuyun City, merely establishing an outpost base in this underground fiend cave was crazy enough.
This was the very stronghold of the fiends!

Yet Wei Cheng merely shook his head and said calmly: "Indeed, if things that immortal cultivators cannot accomplish are attempted by us, why should we succeed? Three hundred years from now, when the alien fiends invade, are we destined to suffer a crushing defeat just the same? Then what does everything we are doing now amount to? Just playing around with you?"
"Immortal cultivators are indeed powerful, but they are not invincible. We are indeed weak, but we are not without our advantages. I don't know what the situation is when alien fiends invade the world of cultivation, but at the very least, it must have been a sudden ambush, coupled with the fact that the upper echelons of the cultivation world didn't take it seriously enough, ultimately leading to a situation that spiraled out of control."
"Therefore, the trial immortals found us Earthlings and made us fight the alien fiends through trials—this is actually a process of knowing both oneself and the enemy."
"Of course, things within this are bound to be much more complex, but it doesn't affect what I mean."
"We must try, we must strive for the initiative, and we must accumulate advantages bit by bit, rather than being pushed passively along by the trial mechanics like puppets!"

Wei Cheng spoke with utmost sincerity. His encounters at the Fortune Pawnshop and the Artifact Pavilion had truly left him completely devoid of a sense of security.

Hearing this, the others finally understood Wei Cheng's concerns.
"This matter is feasible, but we may have to give up some benefits."
Tang Yuanshan, who had maintained a low presence all along, finally spoke. His gaze shifted toward the sky, focusing on the skill-inheriting stele that was stuck mid-air, completely undetectable by the horde of fiends.
That's right, these were benefits that were already within reach, and massive benefits at that. Just think about what they had managed to defeat earlier.
However, once the trial forces of other factions were summoned, could they still proudly declare that these benefits belonged to them—that all of it was theirs?
What if that triggered massive infighting and handed the fiends a free wave of kills?

For a moment, everyone fell silent.