"I'm Simba! The Great Simba! Wang Zhong's life coach, buddy, aka best friend!" Simba loudly protested and solemnly reaffirmed his identity.
"Hello." Scarlet smiled happily and said, "You are really cute."
"Of course!" After being praised by a pretty lady, Simba's round nose instantly turned into a pointed nose. "I am the handsome, invincible, and intelligent Simba! Let's give each other a warm hug!"
He rushed passionately towards Scarlet, with every intention to jump into her arms. Although Teacher Lan Daier was very beautiful, Scarlet was also very cute. It would definitely be very comfortable to be in her arms, but he was only halfway there when he got grabbed by a huge hand.
This little pervert… Wang Zhong directly yanked him aside and chided him fiercely. "Behave yourself, or you can forget about visiting the hot spring today. You can stay here and play with the sand."
Blissful Hot Spring was a new project recently launched by Sister Hong. It was just a dozen miles east of Katchirda City. It was originally an underground nest of sand scorpions with naturally warm groundwater. Now, the sand scorpions had been wiped out, and their underground lair had also been transformed into a magnificent new hot spring attraction. It had a huge transparent glazed roof and movable floors. After pulling open the thick curtains, one would be able to clearly appreciate the feeling of being in the desert through the transparent glass.
Katchirda City still prided itself on its title: the city that never sleeps. There were many entertainment projects; many of which were novel things that the people of Tutankhamun would never have imagined, and they were extremely luxurious.
One could only imagine the feeling of bathing or even swimming in warm, fresh water, which was ten thousand times more precious than gold in the desert. For the poor, it was not simply a problem of limited imagination; if they had caught sight of it, they might want to gouge out their eyeballs as they would feel that they had committed a sin that would stay with them their entire life.
However, the nobles liked it. Although Tutankhamun was poor, the nobles were not poor. What they lacked was just imagination. The hot spring was just one of Sister Hong's projects, and there were many others. These things that Sister Hong came up with attracted a large number of nobles in Tutankhamun and gained a very high reputation among the mainstream circles of the nearby towns. They were even gradually dominating all the popular trends of the Tutankhamun Empire.
It could be seen that the place had just been built and had yet to begin operations. When everyone arrived, except for a group of waiters who were still training for their duties, there was no one else. It was exactly what Scarlet wanted. Compared to noisy scenes, she preferred the tranquility of being alone with Wang Zhong.
Both of them had been sticking to each other like glue almost all the time for the past few days. They were giving out newlywed-couple vibes, and everyone could sense it. Even when they had to ride on camels for sightseeing, they definitely would not ride two different ones.
As Sister Hong, Gong Yi, and the others watched them, they were truly happy for Wang Zhong. The point of living was not to endlessly participate in battle. Everyone had to have people who they wanted to defend and protect in their lives. Initially, Sister Hong and the others had already lost the will to live, but fate brought them together; since then, they had found a reason and a goal to live for again. And all this was brought about by this little guy, Wang Zhong.
"This is young love. It's nice." Looking at the backs of the two who were leaning close to each other and moving at a slow pace, Gong Yi couldn't help but sigh at himself.
"You are rather young too." Sister Hong nudged him with her elbow and asked, "Would you like to ride with me for kicks?"
"Umm, well, I think it can be done!" Gong Yi coughed lightly but unexpectedly got an eye-roll.
"You actually hesitated back there!"
Gong Yi quickly explained, "That wasn't hesitation. I was trying to be reserved!"
"You're a man! Reserved, my foot!" Sister Hong laughed, raised her whip in her hand, and charged forward on her camel, leaving a stunned Gong Yi behind. "It's not like nobody wants me. How dare you hesitate! Bye, I'm leaving you alone!"
Gong Yi was filled with regret. Why did he try to put on airs?
...…
Earth, the Zhao Family's conference hall.
For the Zhao Family, today should have been one of the most lively times of the year for them. Major decisions on power distributions, as well as their profit allocations, were supposed to be made today.
However, instead of happily participating in discussions like in previous years, dozens of family elders, including the head of the family, sat at the conference table with dark and gloomy faces.
It was time for the conference to start, but there were still two empty seats at the table. They belonged to Zhao Yuanchang and Zhao Yuanyi, the two elders who were in charge of the Zhao Family's intelligence and underground forces. At this time, the head of the Zhao Family looked at the two empty seats with a cold expression on his face. If looks could kill, whoever got stared at by him would be dead.
They were his two most powerful assistants and could be considered his right-hand men. However, these two family elders, who could be considered the backbone of the family, had both met with mishaps! One was dead, and the other was missing!
"Who is it! Zhao Yuanyi died after being poisoned, and Zhao Yuanchang has disappeared for three days. I want to know who is targeting us! Now!"
His anger was directed at the other family elders.
At the conference table, everyone looked at each other without saying a word. No one dared to take a stand at this time, and no one knew what happened either. With the death of Zhao Yuanyi, who was responsible for family intelligence, it could be said that the Zhao Family was now half-blind in the Federation! Even if he immediately promoted Zhao Yuanyi's deputy head, the Zhao Family's reaction to many important events would be slower than others'!
Furthermore, the disappearance of Zhao Yuanchang also caused a complete halt in the Zhao Family's underground operations, affecting their profits. In this gray area, it was impossible for their operations to recover immediately even if they got someone to take over. A huge portion of the Zhao Family's illegal funds were supplied by underground forces controlled by Zhao Yuanchang. Compared to the assassination of Zhao Yuanyi, Zhao Yuanchang's disappearance was a more serious matter to the head of the Zhao Family. After all, living people couldn't keep their mouths shut, and that didn't bode well for their family. Only the dead could keep secrets.
On the surface, the remaining Assassins were behind these, but the problem was that even when the Assassins had yet to collapse, they weren't a match for the Zhao Family. How could it be possible that the remaining ones had the ability to carry these out?
"Investigate! I need to know who it is!" However, the head of the Zhao Family was destined to not get an answer.
...…
At this moment, in the secret underground base in Martial Emperor City, Ma Dong was hugging Milami tightly and kissing her. They had just got up from the bed. Both of them met up a little too frequently, and although no one was willing to admit it, their bodies clearly reflected their feelings for each other. They weren't able to control themselves; it was as though they were each other's drug.
They struck while the iron was hot. Relying on Emily's terrifying assassination ability and working together with Kaiser's assassins, the Zhao Family's impenetrable shell was finally cracked open by him, and he successfully assassinated Zhao Yuanyi, making the Zhao family blind. Now that they had taken Zhao Yuanchang captive, the family was in great chaos. Zhao Yuanchang knew many deep secrets of the Zhao Family which were meant to stay buried, and they were frantically trying to cover them up. At this time, the more actions they took, the more mistakes they made.
After Milami and his efforts to sabotage the Zhao Family, although they still seemed powerful and unaffected on the surface, in fact, they were already riddled with wounds.
Ma Dong grabbed Milami's slender waist tightly. He really liked the way her body moved as he held onto her waist. It was as though he finally took control of it, but it could escape his grasp at any time. He liked the feeling he got from this because this was the real thing. Having experienced so many things, nothing could make Ma Dong feel better than this.
Milami reached out and hugged Ma Dong's head while her eyes revealed a spurious expression. "Don't be complacent. No matter how slow the Zhao Family is, they should have noticed by now. It's unknown whether the Stuart Clan will protect us. We can't do nothing and await our doom. Don't tell me you're willing to continue living in darkness for the rest of your life?"
A slight smile seemingly formed on Ma Dong's face. He picked up the half-finished glass of whiskey beside him and took a big sip. "Spill. What do you have to propose?"
Milami gave him a charming smile and said, "We will need Wang Zhong's help for this."
Ma Dong froze slightly, and Milami smiled. "Why do you seem so wary at the mention of Wang Zhong? I'm jealous now."
Ma Dong squeezed Milami's huge boobs with a smile; they seemed to have gotten bigger recently. "Don't go off-topic."
"Based on the latest news I received, Wang Zhong seems to be living a good life. There is a special occupation in the Holy Land called 'dimensional merchant', and one would have a special status. If you can get it, then the Zhao Family won't be able to touch you that easily.
Ma Dong paused for a while before he nodded. The more he knew, the more he felt that the landscape here on Earth was too small. Even the 10 Great Families were actually subject to the Holy Land. If they wanted to make a comeback on Earth, they had to depend on the Holy Land.
"I have to discuss this matter with Wang Zhong."
Becoming a dimensional merchant was definitely not an easy task. Wang Zhong had mentioned this before, but he said that he still needed more time. However, Ma Dong was planning to discuss this matter with Wang Zhong. Instead, he wanted to know why Milami mentioned it. Maybe Carolyn or Solomon was up to something?
...…
It was said that everyone's view would change according to their current state. In the past, when Wang Zhong was traveling in the desert, even if there was nothing but air, he could feel that the air was filled with various elements that could be refined or used for cultivation. But now, Wang Zhong realized that he had already spotted several couples. For example, several recruits training under Reynolds, as well as several maids and cooks in the City Lord's Palace, were already attached, and last but not least, there was definitely something happening between Sister Hong and Gong Yi. To be honest, Wang Zhong suddenly felt that his former self was a little slow in this regard. The best example was how he failed to notice the romantic ambiguity between Sister Hong and Gong Yi, which was now clearly very obvious; he had even assumed that they only thought of each other as best buddies.
In this hot desert, with love in the air, Wang Zhong felt that he had somewhat evolved in an unusual way…
It was as though his life suddenly became complete. As his soul transformed, even the entire world seemed to have become clearer.
For the past few days, both of them had constantly been displaying their affection for each other in public, to the extent that Simba couldn't stand them. Previously, Ma Dong and Milami also did the same, but it seemed that whatever they did was nothing compared to Wang Zhong and Scarlet. Both of them rarely flirted with words publicly, but their actions spoke for them. They were constantly holding hands as they walked, looking at each other with loving eyes during meals, and whispering into each other's ears. It didn't stop there; even when one of them had to go to the toilet, the other would always wait outside so that they could feel the existence of each other at any time.
"You guys are too much. Where will you guys draw the line? I think you two won't even need a toilet door anymore in two days' time!" Simba yelled at them. They were seriously overdoing it and making him feel bad about being single. He needed to protest.
He started to think about Teacher Lan Daier. If she could be like that with him, how nice would it be? Just as expected, Wang Zhong retaliated with words. "Please conduct yourself with dignity, Mr. Single Clown!"
Conduct—Conduct himself with dignity…! Simba almost puked out a mouthful of blood… He couldn't talk back to that.
After four days of doing nothing other than enjoying themselves, Mu Zi finally returned. He appeared rather worn out from his journey as he had rushed back from the other side of Tutankhamun.
This time, he was supposed to embark on a long journey based on Aiolos's advice. Mu Zi had reached the peak of the Heroic Soul Stage a long time ago, but he had yet to show any signs of breaking through to the Heavenly Soul Stage. Aiolos felt that Mu Zi was actually already very strong in terms of strength and realm; thus, the problem definitely wasn't his ability or standard. It was probably because he lacked practical experience. As such, Mu Zi had originally planned to spend some time in the capital of Tutankhamun, but since Wang Zhong needed him, he naturally rushed back immediately.
Naturally, Mu Zi was elated to see Wang Zhong. However, when Wang Zhong specifically introduced Scarlet as his girlfriend, Mu Zi clearly seemed a little shy. Other than Sister Hong, Mu Zi had never spoken to other girls as long as he could remember, let alone a girl as beautiful as Scarlet.
Scarlet was very happy; being in love made her look like she was glowing. Mu Zi didn't really dare to look at her. In fact, Scarlet was very curious about him as she had never heard Wang Zhong praise anyone like he did Mu Zi.
Wang Zhong could sense Mu Zi's embarrassment, and he couldn't help but laugh. His brother had really been alone for far too long. "Mu Zi, do you want to join me in the Holy Land?"
Wang Zhong directly expressed his intentions. Since the Holy City Army had specially allowed him to recruit members, he had to make full use of it. Moreover, this recruitment power could cross many boundaries, and it was also a loophole in the system. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, let alone joining the Holy City Army or the Dimensional Hostel, even if he wanted to take Mu Zi to the Holy City, it would be extremely difficult. After all, neither he nor the Wanderlust Team was qualified to recommend talents to enter the Holy Land, let alone Mu Zi, a Tutankhamun who belonged neither to the Federation nor the Empire.
Wang Zhong first gave Mu Zi a brief introduction to the Holy Battle and the situation in the Holy City, and then said, "This time, for this war, the Holy City has prepared loads of rewards for soldiers. Of course, you may not care about this, but the challenges we would face in this Holy Battle is definitely a rare opportunity for us to gain experience. We can all gain more insights into new things, including aliens who are completely different from us human beings. The most important thing is, it's time for you to see the world and integrate into it. Your incompatibility with the world may be the reason for your bottleneck in the Heroic Soul Stage."
It could be seen that Mu Zi was very tempted to do so, but he was also a little hesitant.
"Come with me. You can make many good friends."
"I'm mainly worried about…" Mu Zi was mainly worried about his physical condition.
Wang Zhong understood what Mu Zi was worried about, but he didn't care about it. He laughed and said, "The Dimensional World is not the real world. Your so-called bad luck should also change. Anyway, I think my luck and life have become better ever since I met you. Also, we even went to a few secret realms together. Didn't all of them go smoothly for us? Maybe I can offset some of your bad luck? I'm a really lucky guy! The Holy Land had been blessed by the Holy Saint Teacher in the past. You won't be able to spread your bad luck there!"
It didn't take long to convince him. In fact, Mu Zi had always been interested in joining the Holy Land. Not to mention cultivation, each and every novel item was a temptation to Mu Zi, especially those space bracelets that Wang Zhong had bought for him, those delicious foods, etc. Furthermore, it was said that the Holy Land had unlimited cola…