Immortal Paladin

[POV: Tian Mei]

So much remained to be done, and they had so little time to do it.

It had already been a few months since Tian Mei and her party had escaped the ambush Nongmin had prepared for them. It had been their ambush first, technically, but they had somehow managed to get out-ambushed.

Tian Mei doubted that was even a word.

Regardless, they had survived.

Now, under Da Wei's instructions, she found herself standing before a still lake in a place she had never seen before. The surface was perfectly calm, so clear that it reflected the sky without a single ripple.

Above the lake hovered the illusory figure of Da Wei.

“Where are we, Your Holy Majesty?” Tian Mei asked.

“Beats me,” Da Wei replied. “You're the one who found this place.”

Tian Mei stared at him.

That was not exactly reassuring.

Under Da Wei's advisement, she had separated from the rest of her group to pursue something on her own. While she was here, the other Champions should have been preparing their defenses and devising counter-strategies against Nongmin.

There was little time left for hesitation.

Whatever this place was hiding, Da Wei clearly believed it was important.

“I believe in you, Tian Mei,” Da Wei said. “Now, go get us our secret weapon.”

Tian Mei blinked.

“Wait, where are you going⁠—”

And he was gone.

Tian Mei stared at the empty space where his illusion had been. She sighed. Of course. The moment things became troublesome, His Holy Majesty had abandoned her. She turned toward the still lake.

Whatever was waiting for her here, she would find it.

There was no other choice.

…

..

.

[POV: Da Wei]

I couldn't stay with Tian Mei for long.

I would occasionally manifest before her and check on her progress, but I couldn't remain by her side for any extended period. I was already conscious of the Supreme Heart's prying eyes, and Heart should have been just as conscious of mine.

I couldn't leave anything to chance.

If Heart discovered what Tian Mei was trying to accomplish, we'd be screwed. Any chance we had of turning this situation around would become meaningless. So whenever I wasn't with my Champions or checking up on Tian Mei, I spent my time bothering Nongmin.

“Hey, Nongmin. How are you doing?”

Sometimes I spied on his work.

Other times, I tried convincing him to lose.

“This is cheating,” Heart complained, lounging casually on the sofa.

“It doesn't exactly sound convincing coming from you,” I said.

Heart scoffed.

“One of your Champions is tapping into primordial forces that manifest isolation. Tell me how that isn't cheating. You can peep in here whenever you want, while I can't do the same to you. So yeah, this is cheating.”

He pointed a finger at me.

“First, you kidnapped the arbiter, and now this?”

“Dude, shut up.”

I couldn't believe he had the gall to complain about cheating.

Of all people, him.

Still, his words did raise a concern.

There was clearly more to primordial powers than they had let on if one of my Champions could wield a force capable of blocking the perception of a Supreme Being, even when that Supreme Being was only projecting a consciousness here.

Nongmin continued working through his paperwork without even looking up. “I have nothing to hide,” he suddenly said. “After all, regardless of whether you are here or not, this will be my victory.”

Heart grinned. “Heard that, Da Wei? Isn't he great?”

“The same goes for you,” Nongmin remarked.

His brush continued moving across the paper.

“I have found the answer to the conundrum I found myself in. There is no need for me to win or lose. Sometimes, ‘nothing’ is the best outcome of all.”

He finally looked toward me.

“If you still have any sense left in you, Da Wei, then heed my advice. Aim for a tie. Make it so that the bet itself becomes ineffective.”

Heart nodded as if Nongmin had just made the most brilliant argument in the world.

“Sounds reasonable. Cut your losses while you still can. But do you know what that sounds like to me? Weak talk! Ha ha ha! Quit while you still can, Da Wei! Make the pussy move!”

“You know I can't do that,” I said to Nongmin, completely ignoring Heart.

I had already secured the arbiter and created a situation where I couldn't simply lose. After everything I had done to get here, backing down now would be absurd.

There had already been too many losses for the Hollowed World.

Every person we had lost, every life sacrificed, every advantage stripped away from us had brought us to this point. If there was even a possibility of recovering something from all of that, I had to take it. And acquiring the Tower was exactly that.

Nongmin's expression grew more serious.

“That Tower may be a trap.”

I frowned.

“A trap?”

“Yes. You believe acquiring it will turn the situation in your favor, but you have yet to consider what happens afterward. What if the moment you obtain the Tower is the moment the trap is sprung?”

I stared at him.

“Why do you sound so conflicted?”

Stolen story; please report.

Nongmin fell silent. That alone was strange. It wasn't like him. Nongmin was smart and confident. He always seemed to know exactly what he was doing, even when everyone else was stumbling through the dark.

But right now, I wasn't seeing that Nongmin. I was seeing someone hesitating and uncertain. Someone who had already made a decision but wasn't sure whether it had truly been his to make.

Heart suddenly spoke.

“That's because he doesn't know if he's actually here of his own will.”

Nongmin's hand stopped.

Heart's grin faded into something more contemplative.

“Think about it, Da Wei. Nongmin has always been calm because he believes he's the one making the decisions. But what happens when he starts wondering whether his own powers are making those decisions for him?”

I remained silent.

Heart looked toward Nongmin.

“Maybe he's wondering whether he chose to stand by my or your side because he wanted to. Or whether something inside him made that choice for him. That's what's tormenting him. What can I say? The heart is a very fickle thing.”

When it came to Supremacy Traits, even I wasn't confident enough to say whether Nongmin was under the effect of one.

The way I saw it, Heart had simply gaslighted Nongmin so thoroughly that the man had started questioning what he actually wanted and what his role in all of this truly was.

But there was definitely more to it.

There had to be.

It felt like there were layers upon layers of schemes hidden beneath everything that had happened, and I couldn't tell which one belonged to Heart, which one belonged to Nongmin, and which one might have been set in motion by something neither of us understood.

“If it does turn out to be a trap, then I'll take it,” I remarked. “We'll take it. Springing traps has practically become a routine for me by now. So has pulling myself out of them.”

I looked toward Nongmin.

“And if it turns out to be something even I find difficult to escape from, I'll still have you and the others. So don't beat yourself up over the choices you've made. It's not like you.”

Nongmin remained silent.

Heart, however, couldn't resist.

“It would've been more convincing if you yourself knew what you were doing,” he said snidely.

I slowly turned toward him.

“And you.”

I pointed at Heart.

“I am going to get you one day. I promise you that.”

Heart merely grinned.

I had no idea whether he took my threat seriously.

Judging by that expression, probably not.

…

..

.

[POV: Nongmin]

Since Nongmin could no longer even trust himself, he decided to make the choice that carried the least risk.

Aiming for a tie sounded fanciful, perhaps even wishful thinking, but he had never been more certain of anything.

Every time Da Wei's projection visited him, Da Wei had been cooperative whenever Nongmin questioned him. That included the contents of the contract and, more importantly, the conditions surrounding the bet itself.

In the event of a tie, the contract agreement would be rendered null and void.

Ironically, it had been the Supreme Heart who suggested this course of action.

That only made Nongmin's suspicions deeper.

What exactly was Heart trying to accomplish?

The Supreme Heart had spent the entire contest donning the guise of madness and unreasonable behavior. It was consistent with how he had acted throughout the duration of the contest, but Nongmin refused to believe that someone of Heart's caliber had no endgame in mind.

There was always an endgame. Nongmin simply hadn't found it yet. And until he did, he needed to prevent Heart from carrying it out.

The moment the presences of Supreme Heart and Da Wei vanished, Nongmin waited. He remained still for several moments, making absolutely certain that neither consciousness remained nearby.

Only then did he accelerate his plans.

His consciousness spread through the network he had established across the world. One by one, connections formed between his mind and his puppets. His dragoons were no longer limited to the range of his direct control. By linking them to the dragon veins running throughout the world, he had extended his reach considerably.

The entire world had become his nervous system.

He tapped into smaller mechanical units hidden within cities and settlements, then issued his commands.

Assassinations began.

Leaders disappeared from their homes.

Important figures were killed before their guards even realized something was wrong.

Some were slain by tiny machines that had infiltrated their residences. Others died to puppets disguised as servants, merchants, or ordinary civilians. Nongmin did not waste his resources on pointless destruction. He targeted those who maintained the enemy's support network.

Once their leadership was crippled, the Champions would become far easier to deal with. Then his palace shook. Nongmin's eyes narrowed. A tremendous spiritual pressure descended from above.

The ceiling shattered.

Three enormous ships soared into view through the opening, their hulls illuminated by formations as they unleashed a bombardment of projectile spells.

Nongmin recognized those ships immediately. They were his. Except they were no longer under his control. The projectiles rained down upon the palace. Nongmin calmly reached into his pocket dimension. An artifact appeared in his hand. It was a small cube.

With a thought, the cube unfolded.

Its outer shell separated into countless microscopic pieces before rapidly expanding outward. In the blink of an eye, a vast nano-mesh barrier formed around Nongmin.

The bombardment struck.

Explosions swallowed the palace.

The nano-mesh barrier rippled violently under the assault but held firm, dispersing the destructive force across its entire structure. Nongmin looked toward the three ships. He could hazard a guess as to how they had infiltrated his territory without being detected.

it could only be Fan Shi's work. Her abilities were perfectly suited for infiltrating an area while concealing their presence. A figure appeared at the bow of the foremost ship. It was Anna. The Holy Speaker stood there with her harp in hand. Her fingers moved across the strings.

A solemn melody echoed through the ruined palace.

Then Anna raised her voice.

“Summon Holy Spirit!”

The air behind her distorted.

An army poured out.

Holy skeletons descended from the ship in waves, their bones shining with sacred radiance as they flooded the sky. Each one carried the unmistakable presence of an Ezekiel.

Nongmin's eyes narrowed at the sight of accumulated 'Faith' before him.

Anna had clearly spent the past long years acquiring faith and converting it into power. The army continued to descend. Thousands of Ezekiels filled the sky, each possessing the minimum transcendent cultivation of a Legendary Rank.

“You betrayed the Hollowed World and His Holy Majesty.”

Her fingers struck the harp once more.

“Now pay the price.”

Nongmin opened his pocket dimension once more.

The space before him distorted as countless figures emerged from within.

Dragoons.

These were not the ordinary puppets scattered throughout the world. They were elites personally crafted by Nongmin, each one possessing an output comparable to a Tenth Realm cultivator. Their metallic bodies descended upon the battlefield with weapons in hand, immediately engaging the incoming Ezekiels.

Yet even they were overwhelmed.

There were simply too many.

The sky had been flooded with holy skeletons, each one capable of casting divine spells. Sacred light rained down like a storm as the Ezekiels swarmed the Dragoons, tearing apart formations and surrounding individual puppets from every direction.

Nongmin remained calm.

The Dragoons he created had never been consistent in strength. Some were little more than disposable units, while others possessed terrifying combat capabilities. However, their greatest advantage had always been their numbers.

Unfortunately, the same applied to the Ezekiels.

They thrived in numbers.

The nearest Dragoons stationed around the palace began rushing toward the battlefield. More units from beyond the palace followed soon after, converging on the disturbance as Nongmin continuously expanded his network of puppets.

The battle rapidly grew in scale.

Nongmin's eyes settled upon Anna. If he wanted to triumph, he needed to eliminate the Holy Speaker. This was his territory. His home ground. Under normal circumstances, dealing with a group of invading Champions should have been simple. But these Champions had come prepared.

A sharp crack suddenly rang out.

Something struck Nongmin's shoulder. His barrier shattered. The projectile pierced through his defenses and buried itself in his flesh. Nongmin's expression changed. His qi became distorted. At the same moment, countless connections throughout his network abruptly flickered.

Puppets stopped moving. Some froze in place. Others immediately went berserk, attacking whatever happened to be nearby.

Nongmin's mind raced. One second. That was all he needed. He calculated the trajectory of the attack, the distortion of his qi, the interference spreading through his spiritual network, and the source of the disruption.

Then he understood.

The projectile had interfered with his control over his puppets.

Even if it was the Holy Emperor's Judgment Severance, Nongmin had devised numerous methods to maintain control over his creations. He had spent countless years developing redundancies and safeguards specifically to prevent his connection with his puppets from being severed.

Yet whatever he had been shot with had circumvented all of them.

"Unthinkable."

Nongmin immediately poured his will through the network. He seized control. One second passed. That was how long it took him to reassert his authority over the affected puppets. But one second was already too long.

Chains wrapped around his body. A crimson spear burst through his chest. Blood sprayed across the floor. Behind him stood Zhu Shin. The man's mournful eyes met Nongmin's. Nongmin looked down at the spear protruding from his chest before glancing toward Zhu Shin.

“Great job, General.”

The words were spoken without anger.

Before him, Fan Shi held the chains binding his body. She had managed to approach without him noticing.

Nongmin's expression remained calm.

“Your Majesty, please come back to us,” Zhu Shin pleaded.

Ezekiels swarmed around him, their holy weapons raised as they prepared to tear Nongmin apart.

Nongmin looked at the man who had once fought alongside him.

“No.”

His voice was quiet, and then he activated Reflect. The laws around him twisted. The chains wrapped around his body unraveled as though reality itself had reversed their existence. The reflected force surged backward.

Zhu Shin's eyes widened.

The attack struck him head-on. His body exploded. For a brief instant, the mournful expression remained frozen upon his face. Then the Ezekiels around him were swallowed by the resulting shockwave.

Nongmin pulled the spear from his chest, while his other hand seized Fan Shi by her throat. His blood dripped onto the floor. His eyes slowly turned toward Fan Shi. "It's a mistake coming here, but I will play along."