Chapter 993: Victory

“How awful!”

Fang Ning stood among the stone wreckage, seething and lamenting.

This was the first time he had experienced such emotions since the moment he was seized by Sir System!

Although these honest stone people never had much of a presence and were never good with flattery, their diligence helped lay a firm material foundation for Sir System’s invincibility.

Such was always the case with honest people. When it came to giving contributions, theirs would never be obvious, but once they were gone, others would suddenly realize that they could not do without them.

The loss and damages suffered within the vastness of this herb garden still came second. The key was how these Whitestone people, who had worked laboriously over these four years, had to die such pitiful deaths!

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All this while, he always thought the Draconic Arcane Realm was the next safest place to the System Space.

Now, it appeared that when fighting these powerhouses, this type of interspatial equipment was in itself a weakness.

This was because the powerhouses had all the means for space destruction!

It was just like that black ripple before. Wherever it passed, that space would break and shatter, so any interspatial equipment would not be able to withstand it entirely.

In truth, the fact that this Draconic Arcane Realm had not been disintegrated right there and then had already proved the eminence of the System’s products.

He pondered in silence for some time before walking up to the old ginseng.

At that moment, Chong Daqing was leaning over the roots of the old ginseng, wailing weakly, “Old ginseng, you’ve suffered such a sad death. Why couldn’t you wait until after I’ve eaten you to die? This is such a waste!”

Fang Ning was initially filled with grief and indignation, but when he heard this, his feelings became all mixed up.

He inhaled a deep breath to calm his emotions before saying to the great green insect, “It’s not dead yet. The ones you should be mourning for are those stone people who had been taking care of it.”

“Those Whitestones? They’re not dead. Why should I cry over them?” Chong Daqing said matter-of-factly. “Look at the old ginseng, look at how shallow its breathing is. Not to mention how all its leaves are gone, even its body is broken in half. It looks like it’ll soon be dead. We should hurry up and cook it as soup while it’s still alive and fresh. Otherwise, when it rots, it’ll be inedible…”

Fang Ning felt a sudden joy, followed by a surge of concern.

He was going to ask about the actual condition of the stone people when a few green shoots suddenly budded from the roots of the old ginseng buried in the ground.

The green shoots quickly matured into new stems, from which grew a bunch of new leaves.

The leaves on the ginseng swayed back and forth energetically, as if resolutely proving to its master that it was still very much alive.

“See, it’s still alive and well, so stop thinking about making food out of it. It’s better for you to convert your sorrows into appetite and go eat up quickly…” Despite the emotional rollercoaster he had been through, Fang Ning still remembered their actual business. He pointed at the dining table on the hill, signaling for the great green insect to return and replenish its health.

“Ah, what a pity.” Chong Daqing reluctantly crept back to the hill.

The old ginseng’s leaves waved at it spiritedly, seeming to say “farewell”.

Fang Ning then caught up with it and asked, “You said those Whitestone people aren’t dead. How’s that possible?”

“Oh, the stone people all possess a special characteristic. As long as their souls aren’t destroyed, they’ll be able to recover the broken stone pieces of their body. When I was still with my old Dad, this was something I randomly heard from him when he was talking the Upper Realm and all living beings. I specifically kept it in mind because I have to remember the things that shouldn’t be eaten.” As Chong Daqing spoke, it turned its sorrows into appetite and began devouring the dishes.

“I see.” Then, Fang Ning quickly said to Sir System, “In that case, you don’t have to waste the effort to help them reincarnate. After surviving this battle, you can return their souls into the realm.”

“That’s great. I was still worried about losing this bunch of skilled workers and not having anyone to work for me,” Sir System said delightedly.

“Fortunately for us, we have the System Space as our operations base. Otherwise, if the opponent launches another attack, we won’t be able to keep these souls safe and they may really lose their lives then.” Fang Ning heaved a long sigh. “But we can’t just continue being passive by taking attacks like this. We must have an active defense to really stall for time.”

“Wait a moment, I think I’ve detected its weak point. It’s in the system notification,” Sir System suddenly said.

Fang Ning suppressed his simmering emotions and hurriedly looked over the system notification.

System Notification: [Avatar of the Vigorous Spirit Lord—blood giant, activated Space Howl, and attacked the System.]

The System Space experienced minor tremors.

The System’s portable interspatial artifact—Draconic Arcane Realm received fatalistic damage.

The System transferred damage received to follower Chong Daqing.

Chong Daqing received damage 450,000 points.

Treasure “Draconic Arcane Realm” survived.

The blood giant caused spatial damage, was exposed as a divine creature from another world. It experienced rejection from the time and space of this world, and has fallen into an extremely weak state, lasting 30 seconds.]

As Fang Ning was reading through the system notification, Sir System had already taken this opportunity to release an all-out attack!

A long sword materialized and fused with a huge dragon to combine all their abilities before using teleportation to perform a stab!

The closing bloody giant mouth was instantly perforated by the Black Sword, which re-emerged through the back of its neck!

“The curse of time and space is unstoppable!”

Above Black Sword, a spiritual message burst into view.

It seemed like this thing was aware that sound could not travel through outer space.

A great amount of blood spurted out from the giant’s neck.

After enduring such a severe wound, the blood giant did not keel over but fell forward instead, and its gigantic upper body seeped back into the ground.

Unlike the way it had slowly climbed out earlier, its returning speed was almost comparable to that of teleportation.

“What a pity. Seems like we almost killed it just now.” Fang Ning saw this scene and became depressed.

“You wish. How could it be killed so easily?” Sir System collected the large number of blood beads that were scattered all over, leaving none behind, fully displaying its miserly character.

Fang Ning turned to the system notification once more.

[The System used Body-Sword Unity to attack the weakened Blood Giant.

Fatalistic strike!

Crit!

Curse of time and space!

Blessing from the Origin!

Blood Giant received 1,200,000 damage points.

Blood Giant has escaped.

The System gained 440,000,000,000 experience points.

The System defeated an avatar of a god, obtained a massive amount of Universal Fame.

The System received Favor from the Origin of Time and Space!

Available usage: 1 time.

The favorability of the Origin of Time and Space towards Dragon Clan increased immensely, the nurturing speed of Celestial Dragon increased immensely, its characteristics increased, its endowment increased.

Celestial Dragon Form • Complete’s favorability towards the host increased to full points.]

“My goodness. We’ve only defeated it once, and we’re receiving so many benefits?” questioned Fang Ning in disbelief.

“Of course, I gave this my very best and sacrificed so many things. You think that’s easy?” Sir System said agitatedly.

“If only we could farm it a few more times,” Fang Ning could not help saying, “but it’s too bad because that’s definitely impossible. The other party isn’t a mindless NPC, but a most skillful God-level opponent. This time, it staked everything on one throw and did not succeed. Next time, it won’t take that big of a risk and will definitely never expose its weak point again.”

“You’re right about that. We’re almost using up all the cards we have. I think this time we should be able to complete that stupid Heavenly Axiom’s mission. That guy would probably need quite some time to recover,” Sir System said in relief.

“Yes, it wasn’t easy at all. We’ve incurred so much loss. If we hadn’t befriended this blood bull (TN: a literal translation of the term ‘血牛’, which is used to refer to people who sell their blood for a living) Chong Daqing beforehand, aside from escaping, I don’t think there’s anything else we could’ve done,” Fang Ning said in slight distress.

He could not help recalling the few big wars in human history. Those who managed to smile until the end always had an extensive understructure as a basis. Meanwhile, those who did not have enough good cards in their hand would be defeated in battle regardless of how many advantages they had beforehand.

Sir System relied on all the advantages that it had collected regularly. With this, they could take the opportunity that came their way to turn their failure into victory, defeating an almost invincible opponent.

Of course, most importantly, they had the home advantage, just like when the second duke was defeated by the Russians during World War Two. It was not because the second duke had become stupid, but because of the strength of their home advantage.

When he thought of it, he quickly claimed credit for it. “Fortunately, when we were previously in the World of Spirits and Souls, I told you to leave immediately but you refused. Now you should understand that if we hadn’t brought the battle back to our home turf and had allowed the Spirit Lord to attack us in the World of Spirits and Souls, then we would be done for!”

“Hmm, I don’t feel like admitting it, but the fact remains that I’m an honest system. Your contribution is indeed great and of strategic significance,” Sir System admitted.

“Then how will you reward me?” Fang Ning said, realizing he had not received any benefits for a long time.

“Huh, look at you. You should learn from those Whitestone people. They contribute silently and work hard without asking for anything in return. Even in death, they have no complaints. Your ideals are too low,” Sir System lectured.

“Wow, you’ve learned my ways already…” Fang Ning became speechless. “Don’t you dare think that I’ll take the bait.”

“I’m not hoping for you to take the bait. I just want to nudge at your conscience,” Sir System said in annoyance.

“Sorry, but I don’t feel bad about this, so give me my due,” Fang Ning said frankly.

“I’ll give you three days of break. Whatever you do, I won’t interfere,” Sir System promised.

“Ah, now that’s more than I can ask for,” Fang Ning quickly agreed to it. “So that’s decided then since I have some personal matters to deal with too.”