Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Brains and Brawn, Not Just One

Qiao Anping laughed, shifting everyone’s attention to himself to protect his niece, “Venerable One, you’re so straightforward, the same as me. This comment might have sounded a little inappropriate, but it is the truth. According to your rating system, how’s my strength?”

Vigilante A said, “Principal Qiao has limitless potential, strong explosive force. You’re a Pond-level powerhouse. I can’t tell you the exact depth that you have, but if we have fought each other, it would be a few days before a result could be determined.”

Everyone was stunned as if it was their first time meeting Qiao Anping. Everyone knew Principal Qiao was strong, but he had always hidden his powers as well as his past as a combatant, so no one really knew how strong he was.

Now that the famed Vigilante A said that about him, it was more of a confirmation that he was strong.

Someone whispered, “I heard when Principal Qiao was still a team leader years ago, he had joined the Dark Tournament, he even got himself a title and a huge sum of money. Too bad it was all confiscated because he broke a rule or something. He didn’t eat for a few days after that…”

Qiao Anping was joyous until he heard the whispers, his face darkened and said, “Quiet, listen to Vigilante A’s ratings. You thought you were improving fast, but you all know how much of a difference there is between Bucket-level, Cutlery-level and the Pond-level. It wasn’t just about working hard…”

As he finished, he realized his niece’s face darken as well…

Vigilante A continued his ratings and identified a few other Basin-levels and Bucket-levels, but no Cutlery-level. Xie Dong was indeed the weakest of them all.

Elder Hai and Elder Xu exchanged glances and shook their heads. They were old enough and no longer have the competitiveness, so they would not need Vigilante A to rate them. After all, the rating system does sound somewhat childish.

However, in comparison, it was really more effective. It was intuitive enough for people to understand. Rather than the ratings of Grades A, B, C, and D, Qiao Anping’s Pond-level rating was evidently much more powerful than the Basin-levels and Bucket-levels.

As for Cutlery-levels like Xie Dong, it really was a tragedy…

Many people only knew that Grade A powerhouses were almost overpowered and extremely rare. In many nations with a huge population, there were only a few of them. China has more than a dozen and could easily be the strongest, and a few of them were even Descended Ones.

However, as Principal Qiao had said, would people be able to achieve Grade A with just hard work and time?

Without some sort of breakthrough and enlightenment, without a suitable cultivation method, and only collecting strength with breathing Vitality, it was impossible.

Elder Hai said, “With the previous examples, we have a general idea of how the rating system works. In your opinion, what level is the king cobra demon?”

Vigilante A replied, “It is on the top of the Pond-level. If it could take another step ahead, it would’ve been a Lake-level powerhouse, no one in this world could beat it.”

All of the people were stunned silent. The lake Vigilante A referred to was probably the ones commonly referenced, like Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Weishan Lake, and others. It was easy to see the differences between a pond and these lakes.

How many ponds does it take to fill up a normal lake?

Qiao Anping knew exactly how big of a difference it was. He gasped and said, “If it advanced in rank, just how strong would it get? The four of us Pond-level powerhouses including you, me, Elder Hai, and Principal Xu would probably not be able to take even a fraction of it.”

Qiao Anping subconsciously used Vigilante A’s rating system. Both Elder Hai and Elder Xu were Grade-A powerhouses, just older than Qiao Anping himself and not on the battlefield as much.

As he had said, it was not the most polite of names, but it was much easier to visualize than the Truth Department’s grading system.

The people with influence would hold the power to set up a rating system, this was true in any sector of the human population, including the parents’ right to name their children…

Vigilante A nodded and said, “That was why I came here so hurriedly. We need to discuss the strategy to vanquish this demon to prevent future chaos when there’s no longer anyone to stop it.”

Fang Ning was slightly confused. He did not teach the System to say that, so he interrupted the System, “Wow, I did not think you would say something like that. I’m impressed. I thought you were only trying to farm experience points.”

The System replied, “Of course I’m not only farming for experience points.”

Fang Ning said, “Oh, you’re a hero-based system after all, so you would think about the other people and the stability of the society.”

The System said, “Aside from the experience points, I want to gain reputation, materials, ingredients, and armors. I’m pretty sure I would be getting a Legendary Armor after vanquishing it…”

Fang Ning ran out of quips, “Just… forget about it. Killing it does help stabilize the society though, at least it would be so in the Land of Heritage. That way, the Truth Department would be able to keep training people to keep the order on the outside.”

On that subject, Fang Ning was completely in line with the Truth Department’s vision, or he would not have asked the Truth Department to help.

People started recovering from the shock. ‘Lake-level’ was a much nicer name than ‘Pond-level’ or ‘Bucket-level’. It seemed only by getting stronger can they be matched with better names.

Elder Hai collected his thoughts and decided soon after, “As you were saying, the demon would be unstoppable if we let it advance further. We’ll follow your advice and focus fire on it. Hopefully, we can kill it in the Land of Heritage before its advancement, we won’t hold back even if we’d lose all our assets here.”

Elder Hai suddenly appeared militaristic. He was one who could make up his mind in desperate times, understanding the danger of an unparalleled powerhouse. The enemy was in the Land of Heritage, what if it went outside to spread chaos? If no one could win against it with physical strength, would they bombard their own home with nuclear weapons? How many places would they be willing to bomb before the enemy was struck down?

Currently, the king cobra demon was controlling the beasts to charge at the remote herb base, giving them time to prepare and vanquish it once and for all.

Hearing his decision, Fang Ning was satisfied, ‘Wow, Sir System’s rating system was a little uncouth-sounding, but the effect was really good.’

‘After rating, these higher-ups immediately realized how terrifying the king cobra is and make the decision to vanquish it immediately.’

‘If the king cobra was described as Grade-A going into Grade-S, I don’t think it would be as powerful as this.’

‘How huge is the gap between a Grade-A and Grade-S? They probably thought that they only need around eight Grade-As to fight against it…’

Fang Ning told the System, “Strategy ‘Assemble the Forces, Bully the Weak’ is done, what we’ll do next is to strike it where defenses are required, lure it into traps, and surround it with nets…” 1 The System said, “Speak a human language…”

Fang Ning said, “You don’t need to understand human language, just follow what I tell you to do…”

Fang Ning followed up with what was needed to be done.

Sir System did not understand anything, so it could not improvise anymore. It could only relay Fang Ning’s plan verbatim, and Elder Hai just kept nodding.

At this point, all middle and high-ranking personnel were in the control center, but only Vigilante A’s stately voice was echoing in the hall.

One by one, his strategies impressed them. Not only was Vigilante A’s martial arts masterful, he was also as wise as any of the living philosophers in the world.

Elder Hai quietly listened to all the instructions before started giving out orders.

***************

A few hours later, in a valley in the Land of Heritage.

Woods surrounded the area with plenty of tall trees, but none of them could be seen in the valley, barring a few weeds growing against all odds that formed a striking contrast with the woods.

The men from the Truth Department were all hidden in the woods nearby, looking down at the valley.

Vigilante A and the three Elders were standing next to each other as Vigilante A showed a yellow cloth to the other three.

Elder Hai read the words on it and passed the cloth on to the other two while he observed the valley.

He nodded after a while, “That’s right. The area is barren, a sign of a dimensional portal. The dimensional disturbances are strong over there, normal plants can’t grow well.”

He behaved as if he was listening to something before turning to Vigilante A, “Venerable One, our staff back in the headquarter base just reported that the beasts turned around and heading here, just as you have predicted.”

Qiao Anping was impressed, “Sir, you have both brains and brawn, unlike me. I would never have come up with plans like this.”

Principal Xu stood aside, nodding, smiling, but he did not say a word.

In fact, he had not said anything since the appearance of Vigilante A, thinking about an important question.

With Vigilante A’s wisdom, intelligence, and martial arts abilities, he could easily become a formidable opponent. Fortunately, he only focused on cultivating and ridding the world of evil, ultimately becoming a huge ally.

However, many powerhouses did not like being in their system, this was confirmed in the interview during the new year’s celebration.

There was only so much that can be done with announcing the Interim Measures for the Administration of Extraordinaires and employing Maniac Ren’s suggestions.

After all, as time passes, the Descended Ones would slowly recover their strength, becoming more and more powerful. They each have their own system to cultivate, not needing the knowledge in the Truth Department and were able to receive and teach disciples on their own, as well as establishing their own sect. If Vigilante A changed his mind one day and decided to establish his own sect, he could have founded a really strong competitor, would the Truth Department siege his place? That would cause a turn in public opinion.

It would be better to allow them a place to show off their power. In that case, aside from managing the powerhouses, it would be easier to manage their cultivation progress. The key was that Truth Department must be hidden to avoid a direct clash with the powerhouses.

The Dark Tournament that Vigilante A had mentioned would be a useful tool. He had studied it for a long time and decided that it could easily be moved into the nation. No matter the East or the West, it would be wasteful not to assimilate good practice.

Principal Xu made up his mind to organize that as soon as possible.

The Truth Department had not had anyone to lead them, so they could only use the method in which they were most confident. With the experience they’ve gained training athletes, they would focus their efforts on consolidating the Extraordinaires the same way.

Now that other people had done the Dark Tournament for over a decade, it looked like it had gotten a good result, so the Truth Department could just use the same format to assemble the Extraordinaires who were not in the system. With that set up, the Aristocratic Cultivation Club by Institute for Special Training could be put to good use.