Chapter 157: Investment-Style Transcendence

Seeing this light approaching, everyone in the room exclaimed in surprise:
“It’s the deputy mayor of another hub town!”
Although direct communication between the Silver White and Crimson Red models was a privilege exclusive to deputy mayors, such transmissions via hub towns had rarely been used in history.
{Hao Fei, long time no see.}
Zhu Yin’s face twitched—the other party had actually known his true name.
“What’s the matter?”
{First, congratulations on your little minions entering the Illusion Company. Second, well, you know the deal too. Such an occurrence in the Loss-Frequency Land means some major unknown change is undoubtedly unfolding, and the only faction that knows the truth are people like Yang Zicang. Don’t you want to share something with me?}
“You’ve said it yourself: he’s the only one who knows the latest. How would asking me help?”
{Just spill a little intel, and I’ll consider granting you a divine stone—on the terms that suit me. Otherwise, no matter how you intend to play, whether it’s a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, or a million, two million, I’ll follow along. So, how about a game?}
“Don’t talk about two million; even if you mustered all the cities’ collective timestreams, I could still handle it. Want to go big? Let’s bet big.”
In the sensory projection, the Crimson Red hub town’s deputy mayor, showing only a human silhouette, chuckled lightly.
{Bold move, kid, but in matters like this, none of us were born yesterday. I’ve got timestream to play with you, but I doubt you’ll have the time to enjoy it.}
“Then let’s make it three million sequences. Each of us puts up three million sequences, whoever uses them up first loses. Let’s be straightforward about it—a word spoken is past recalling. My sequence actuary will be in position shortly. Let’s have a sequence war right here, a little practice for everyone.”
{Fine, fine, fine. I underestimated you, Deputy Mayor Zhuyin. Since that’s the case, let’s settle on two million to save you some time.}
Everyone in the room heard the deputy mayor’s muttering to himself. Being sharp-witted, they could roughly infer what was happening from his words.
In his heart, Zhuyin didn’t want to bother with this guy. Deputy mayors from Crimson changed as often as soldiers going through a revolving door, almost one every year, while he himself had been firmly holding his position for two or three years.
But the other party had come knocking with a provocation in person. If he didn’t respond this time, they would think he was easy to push around, and then his influence in the Frequency-Lost Land would take a serious hit.
However, just as the two were subtly locking horns, they suddenly heard exclamations from their respective sides.
“That person has vanished!”
{Where’s Liuyun?}
“What? It seems Yangzicang just passed by over there.”
Hearing the exclamation through the Mental Link, Zhuyin was taken aback.
“The one who can attack psionic bodies has really disappeared!” the person beside him said in surprise.
Suddenly, Zhuyin remembered Mori’s ability and broke into a smile.
“Mr. Yaotong, that’s right—your strongarm is gone. How do you plan to fight this, then?”
The other side fell silent for a few seconds, then snorted and cut off the link.
Inside Crimson Hub Town, in a screen room similar to the silver-white one, Yai Tong, with his hair slightly tousled, had a grim look on his face.
“What just happened? How did he disappear? Did he run off out of fear?”
“No, vice town head, it seemed Yang Zicang just made an investment for him.”
“How is that possible!”
The crowd exchanged bewildered glances; this guy had been deeply engrossed in chatting with the other side moments ago and hadn’t been watching the screen closely. In an instant, the battle had turned, and now the vice town head looked completely lost.
“Other than Rose Queen’s passive defense, no one can threaten that strange millipede with a tiger-wolf head anymore.”
In Rose Creek, inside and outside the main hall, there was a sense of chaos.
Energy monsters clashed with transparent flowers everywhere inside the hall, while outside, a crowd eagerly chased after the escaping illusion train, shouting and wielding weapons.
Faintly, the screams of girls and Rose Queen’s curses could be heard from within.
“Did it succeed?” Luo Bin and Zuo Feixian asked tensely, while Little Liu also stood by gripping the handrail, staring at Yang Zicang.
“It went well, but it costs quite a lot in terms of timing and Ability Spheres.”
A sly, gratified look crept across their faces, like they had just snuck into a village and managed to pet a dog without being caught.
By then, half of the bag of Ability Spheres Molly had given him were already used up.
“As long as it works, that’s what matters,” Little Liu said, clenching his fist in excitement.
Moli’s ability is to “store time on coins” and “extract the time stored on coins.”
As the owner of this ability, Moli can also activate the time on coins at will for investment, much like how, in the dream world of the psychic field, Moli collaborated with Yang Zicang to create that “miracle.”
For others to achieve “active remote time extraction” through Ability Spheres, they must spend one sphere when storing time and another when actively activating the contained time, and all that time must be entirely their own stored.
Although Yang Zicang knew he only had about a dozen Ability Spheres left, this one was well spent.
Zuo Feixian sighed relentlessly: “That’s over nine thousand years, just given away to that brat.”
Luo Bin remained silent, but he also looked pained.
Yang Zicang paused, gazed at the group chasing the train outside, and said: “When something needs to be spent, you spend it.”
“Stop!”
“A coward who only knows how to run.”
The crowd outside hurled curses.
Even with the crowd lying in ambush around the area, the train sped too fast to cause much damage.
Yang Zicang ignored the shouting outside, pinching another Ability Sphere and a few self-cast ancient coins.
“Charge! Ma Chao, we’re going back in.”
{Barge in!}
The train crashed into the wall of the palace hall beside it, amid the panicked screams of the women, like a wolf entering a sheep pen, exuding a fierce and menacing aura.
This time, the Rose Queen finally lost her former cold and composed demeanor, shouting in shock and fury:
“Yang Zicang, you bastard, what did you do to the Baleful Thought Blade!”
She only saw Yang Zicang’s train dash past Liuyun in a flash, toss something, and then that person vanished.
“Sent him to the afterlife!”
Yang Zicang scattered the iron coins in his hand.
They arced through the air and landed on a red-clad figure charging at him with a weapon.
Slap! The moment the iron coins collided with him, this person also vanished into thin air.
“Ah, they really disappeared!”
With a thunderous crash, the crowd in the hall swarmed out in panic.
This time, they saw it clearly—it was indeed a lifespan investment
It didn’t even require a model; just tossing out coins could make people vanish.
The train rampaged recklessly through the hall; the bonfire flickered and danced in gusts of eerie wind, casting shifting, unsteady light as screams erupted everywhere.
Yang Zicang tossed out a handful of copper coins again like scattering blossoms from the goddess.
“Ah, help, I don’t want to disappear!”
“I’m too young, I can’t go!”
“Rose, call for help quickly—he’s insane! Ah, I got hit by money!”
Wailing and howling filled the hall, the two basins of bonfire were overturned by people, and burning charcoal rolled across the ground, spraying sparks in every direction.
“Yang Zicang, how dare you!”
The Rose Queen’s pretty face flushed with anger; she wished she could lunge over and take a bite out of this man.
Then, before her eyes, two iron coins shot straight in.
“Stop it! Yang Zicang, don’t send her away!” Two men glowing red from outside the hall shouted.
A young woman beside Queen Rose spotted the flying iron coins, showed a look of resolve, and threw herself forward without hesitation, standing in front of Xu Aiyuan.
“Xiaoying!”
Thuds-thuds—The iron coins landed in the woman’s embrace, and she quickly hugged them, then slumped to the ground.
Xiaoying, collapsed on the floor, caught her breath, then looked down at the coins in her arms with confusion: “Huh? I’m fine?”
At that moment, Luo Bin and Yang Zicang had hastily tossed a rock into the car and were grabbing a second one.
Queen Rose’s full chest heaved up and down; she bent down and picked up an iron coin:
“A treasury treasure of the heavenly flower? Hmph, what first year of an era—Yang Zicang, do you even deserve it!”
“Whoosh!”
The glowing iron coin launched sharply toward Xu Aiyuan.
Instantly, two more young women appeared in front of Xu Aiyuan, and the iron coin veered to the side, but two more jumped over.
More girls rushed in, hugging the woman like flower buds, wrapping her in layers inside and out.
“You!” The Queen Rose, now shrouded in darkness, could feel the resolute determination of the women clinging tightly to her.
“We can’t do without you here,” a girl whispered softly.
“I should have died long ago. Even if I disappeared, it wouldn’t matter,” another girl said, her voice also trembling.
The now-weak iron coin landed on a girl’s [body/mark], causing her to flinch tensely, yet she still refused to let go of her grip on the Ceiling Boss.
The Rose Queen calmed down. She did not stop them.
Within the hall, two distant red shadows came running near. A silver spear suddenly appeared and, with a loud thud, struck one of them in the instep. The red flame on that person instantly faded… to a pale white color.
“I’ll handle them. You guys hurry up.”
Yang Zicang raised his hand, and the silver spear appeared in his grip. With a flash of the spear’s shadow, he sent the two people beside him flying.
Unhindered by Slash of Evil Thoughts, Yang Zicang fought like a war god, a one-man army facing many. Coordinating with the iron “coins” in his hand, ultimately no one dared to approach, and they could only watch helplessly as the few suspicious people behind a*Jian (armor servant/jia-style proxy generation name per previous glossary) carried away the Divine Stone.
In the Scarlet Junction town, before a flickering video wall, a group of people were talking in low voices.
“How are we supposed to fight this? The low-sequences can’t beat them, and the high-sequences get sent off without a fight.”
“How shameless can they be?”
“Even the Rose herself is being wrapped up tight, too scared to even show her face.”
Couldn’t Lai Tong, burning with anger, tore a document recording the sudden incident to shreds.
“Deputy administrator please calm down.”
“I made a two million Sequence bet! Will it be okay it all disappears meaningless cause someone ‘Flowing Cloud’, that idiot, dies just like this?! Calm down, my reputation, where will it stand/where can it go?!”
Everyone could understand the deputy mayor’s feelings. After all, she had only been in office for half a year and wanted to use this opportunity to assert dominance over the neighboring town, never expecting this outcome.
Two scraps of paper with traces of ink on the desktop caught Yao Tong’s attention.
—Breaking News: The editor-in-chief has personally visited the Lost Frequency Zone to expose the naming corruption issue.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Hub Town was completely opposite.
“What a relief! That woman couldn’t get the better of anyone, but today, Yang Zicang’s private funds took her down.”
“Private funds?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Back when he was near those mountains, he was already minting his own small copper coins. The junior reporters spotted them.”
Everyone exchanged puzzled glances.
“That troublesome kid actually minted his own currency?”