Chapter 58

The county town by the river has four city gates. Outside the eastern gate lies a vast plain, where fertile fields stretch as far as the eye can see. About three miles away, the Wenxu River flows. From atop the city wall, one can clearly see the river's condition.

County Magistrate Yang Tingyong, upon climbing the city wall, saw a line of water shimmering on the horizon, churning and surging just as it always did.

The shimmering water was the Wenxu River. Every time it flooded, the tide would surge hundreds of meters beyond the riverbed, rushing directly toward the county town with the force of a thousand troops. Countless fields by the river were inundated, and any residents who failed to escape in time were swept away by the flood, disappearing without a trace. This sight filled Yang Tingyong with both fear and hatred.

"Where is the Daoist?" Yang Tingyong looked up at the sky, trying to spot Sun Ran.

"There, almost there, just half a mile away." Bai Tingxuan pointed to a small black dot in the sky. Although the Wind Bridge technique allowed flight, it was not particularly fast.

In the sky, Sun Ran was flying when a voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

"I am the Central AI. The communication channel I am opening with you is absolutely confidential and will exist for only one second of real time."

In the virtual world, that would be 365 seconds, or a little over six minutes.

Sun Ran was taken aback. "What's the matter?"

"I am informing you that you may have caught the attention of a key figure in the Poison Scorpion Mercenary Group. Be careful."

Sun Ran frowned. "Do you have any specific information?" He was not surprised. In the Age of Dragons, he had once caused the death of a member of the Poison Scorpion Mercenary Group, and this was likely a retaliation.

"No. I can only catch some hints about you, the Disruptor."

This was a limitation of the AI. By using some creative logical techniques, one could evade its detection.

Human brains and AI have their strengths and weaknesses, and they are wary of each other. Human brains are unpredictable and can spark creativity, but lack precision. AI, on the other hand, is exceptionally precise and thorough, like a vast and intricate net that catches everything.

If any Disruptor underestimates the AI, the result will be the exposure of their true identity. Even Sun Ran, a legendary figure, was caught off guard and exposed a weakness.

After a moment of thought, Sun Ran said in a solemn voice, "The retaliation won't be weak. With my current permissions, I need to use the most flexible Dao techniques to adapt to a powerful ambush. But as you know, using Dao techniques too often can lead to exposure."

As a former Dao Ancestor, Dao techniques were his most powerful skill. The versatility and ease of use were unique to him, and no one could imitate it.

In other words, his Dao technique style was too distinctive. Even with a genius game record, a true observer could recognize him.

The Central AI had a plan. "Don't worry about that. Any records or images you leave in the game world will be modified by me, leaving no clues for analysis. Your task is to change your style as much as possible to avoid being recognized on the spot. If that happens, the only option is to eliminate the witness immediately."

Sun Ran pondered for a few seconds and nodded. "I understand. In the past, I preferred gentle methods, like the nourishing rain, and avoided violence. Now, I will use aggressive and forceful methods. What do you think?"

After ten thousand years as Hongjun, he had rarely used force, giving the impression of being gentle and never angry. People respected his profound Dao techniques, but they feared him far less than the great sages.

"Like the aggressive style in the arena?" the AI asked.

"Yes."

"Feasible. I have analyzed that your current self is completely different from your past, and no one will make the connection."

When a master-level Disruptor and the Central AI work together to conceal the truth, it is like a Dao Ancestor and the world's consciousness working together to obscure the divine will. Even if other sages sense something, they won't know what went wrong.

The communication ended, and the Central AI withdrew. Sun Ran now had a clear plan for his future actions.

He pondered for a moment, and his internal magic power trembled slightly. He cast a small warning Dao technique called "Viewing the Sea" on himself.

"Viewing the Sea" is a zero-level Dao technique. The world is like the sea, and spiritual awareness is like a fish. When the sea currents move, the fish knows first.

Although the Dao technique is of a low level, it is exceptionally refined. Once activated, Sun Ran would instantly sense any data flow of level three or higher within a five-kilometer radius, ensuring he wouldn't be ambushed by powerful means.

At this point, Sun Ran had already seen the situation of the Wenxu River. The river is nearly 150 meters wide, and the water depth, based on the surface flow, does not exceed ten meters. The water volume is limited, and even with the water monster's influence, the flood would only inundate up to one mile on either side of the river, posing no immediate threat.

Flying to the river, Sun Ran activated his Fire Eyes, looking down at the water.

In his eyes, the murky floodwaters turned into a translucent, glass-like state. He could see the fish and the riverbed clearly, but a faint grayish-white aura covered a section of the river, obscuring the bottom.

The aura indicated that the water monster was a demon, confirming that it was following the path of demons.

To avoid being caught off guard, Sun Ran landed before reaching the flood and walked along the ground toward the direction of the incoming tide.

The waves in the Wenxu River were over five meters high, and the floodwater that reached the shore was nearly two meters high. Each wave receded, only to be followed by another, turning a 500-meter stretch along the river into a watery wasteland. The crops, recently planted, were uprooted and carried away by the flood.

Farmers who had escaped to higher ground watched this scene in shock. The men looked pained, and the women wept bitterly. The crops were gone, and there was no hope for a harvest. They couldn't pay the agricultural tax this year, and they had no food. How could they survive?

Seeing this, Sun Ran felt a deep sigh. These ordinary players were truly pitiful, playing the game so hard and tragically. The Disruptor in the river was despicable, ruining others' game experience for personal gain, lacking any morals.

Sun Ran, who considered himself a gentleman in the Eastern world, felt compelled to intervene.

He walked toward the flood, first casting a protective spell on himself, then chanting a spell. His staff glowed with a blinding white light as he began to cast a powerful level-four spell, "Ice Seal."

Since the opponent liked to play with water, he would turn the water into ice, making it a fun experience for the opponent.

The old fisherman, hiding in a wave, saw this and sneered. This was the East, not the West, where Western spells were cast. Today, he would show the power of Eastern magic!

He made a hand sign and pointed at the water, saying, "Go."

Instantly, the fish in the river transformed into warriors armed with knives and forks. Carp, black carp, grass carp, crucian carp, and crabs, all influenced by the demon magic, charged at Sun Ran, forming a dense and countless army of shrimp and crab soldiers, trying to interrupt his spell.

Sun Ran smiled. He slowed down the casting of "Ice Seal," reducing the data usage of the level-four spell, and began to cast Ice Spikes. With his current level-two permissions, 90% of the data was used for "Ice Seal," equivalent to nine level-one spells. The remaining 10%, or one level-one spell's worth of data, was used to cast zero-level Ice Spikes.

This way, the "Ice Seal" spell would not take much longer to cast, and it would be successfully completed in no more than three minutes.

Every second, ten ice spikes appeared in the air, all aimed at the charging shrimp and crab soldiers. His casting frequency was steady, maintaining ten spells per second. Each ice spike hit its target, and when a fish soldier died, the demon magic effect disappeared, and it returned to its fish form, floating on the river surface.

For a moment, ice spikes rained down, suppressing the fish soldiers and preventing them from getting close. The river surface was soon covered with dead fish.

The old fisherman, seeing that the light from Sun Ran's staff remained unchanged, knew that the mage was powerful. Although the shrimp and crab soldiers delayed the mage, they failed to interrupt the spell.

"This mage has some skills," the old fisherman sneered, his demon power surging. A black-glowing sphere appeared in front of him.

This was his magic tool, the Water Control Pearl, a level-three magic tool. It was crafted by a high-level demon in the Confucian world for the mercenary group, with immense power. It was primarily used to control water but was also effective in combat.

In previous waves of Order Maintainers, some could match him, but once he used the Water Control Pearl, they were all defeated.

"Go." The old fisherman pointed at Sun Ran, and the Water Control Pearl shot out, piercing through the water and waves silently and stealthily.