Chapter 169 – Madness VS Madness

“I’m afraid we’ll have trouble taking action, Boss Wolf. Most of these expert teams trying to complete Asura’s commissioned quests come from the various powers, and many of them have Refinement Realm experts among them,” a masked girl with a short stature said as she approached a similarly masked man standing at a corner of Hundred Flow City’s main street. “I’ve also found out why so many experts have gathered here. Asura has seemingly found some items that can allow players to convert their race, and it is currently offering these items up for exchange. Right now, the various powers and independent experts are all trying to earn the Contribution Points necessary to exchange for these items.”

“Race conversion items?” The masked man was a little stunned by this news. “Asura is willing to go as far as to let the various powers freely exchange for such items?”

Race conversion was normally a very troublesome procedure. Even so, many players sought to convert their race. This was because converting to any other race would mean gaining greater combat power than what they would have as a human player.

Normally, if a power were to get its hands on a race conversion item, it would definitely use the item on its own members rather than let outsiders exchange for it. Even the Flower of Seven Sins was no exception.

“Should we proceed with our plans, Boss Wolf?” the masked girl asked.

The Flower of Seven Sins might be powerful, but it still wasn’t an easy task to go up against the Refinement Realm experts of numerous powers.

“I’ll report this to Commander Omen and seek her opinion,” the masked man said after giving the matter some thought. “In the meantime, keep an eye on Asura’s Bronze members.”

“Understood!” the masked girl responded before swiftly disappearing.

After the masked girl left, the masked man promptly contacted Death Omen and informed her about the Asura Mercenary Alliance’s latest development.

“It seems Asura has already prepared a countermeasure for us, Big Sis Omen. I’m afraid we’ll have to suffer much greater losses than anticipated if we choose to continue with our plan…” the masked man said in a low voice.

“It seems Hidden Soul has found a good backer,” Death Omen said, sneering. “However, this Asura Mercenary Alliance simply doesn’t know what kind of existence it has chosen to provoke.”

“Does that mean we will proceed with the plan, Big Sis Omen?” the masked man asked, a hint of excitement appearing in his eyes.

“Of course! Moreover, we’re going to make a big fanfare of it and let everyone know that it is the Flower of Seven Sins’ work!” Death Omen said with a somewhat frenzied smile. “We’ll have to let Hidden Soul know how laughable her backer is!”

“I’ll start making the preparations right away!” the masked man said excitedly. “I’ll let the various powers understand that it’s not in their best interests to accept Asura’s quests!”

“Go ahead. Make sure to let Hidden Soul know that all of her efforts are futile and that she will only be harming whichever power she relies on!” Death Omen said, nodding before hanging up the call.

…

Two hours after Death Omen ended her call with her subordinate, an event that shook the various powers occurred in the Miniature Ancient World.

After several years of silence, the Flower of Seven Sins had finally started to take action again!

The Flower of Seven Sins had dispatched several thousand Refinement Realm experts or above this time to disrupt those who had taken on the Asura Mercenary Alliance’s quests. Not only did these experts annihilate the expert teams of Zero Wing and Witch’s Sin, but they had also decimated over a hundred expert teams belonging to the various powers.

Everyone knew this was the Flower of Seven Sins’ doing because of the Convict Flower left behind on all of the battlefields.

The Convict Flower was a plant the Flower of Seven Sins nurtured. Members of the organization could only collect the Convict Flower when they were out doing a quest on the organization’s behalf. Meanwhile, after completing their quest, members of the organization were required to leave the Convict Flower behind to prove they were responsible for completing the quest.

However, the Flower of Seven Sins’ members typically wouldn’t leave a Convict Flower behind when dealing with normal quests. Typically, they would only do so when taking on high-profile quests.

It had already been several years since anyone had seen the Convict Flower appear.

The last time the Convict Flower appeared was when the Flower of Seven Sins had assassinated a Super Guild’s Great Elder. Meanwhile, the person responsible for carrying out the assassination was Death Omen, the current bearer of the title of Pride. Death Omen had instantly risen to fame after completing that assassination, and there was nothing the Super Guild in question could do to retaliate against her.

After all, Death Omen had already reached Tier 6 back then. Not to mention, the Flower of Seven Sins was an incredibly mysterious organization. Hence, the Super Guild had no choice but to swallow the loss.

Now, the Convict Flower had bloomed once again. It was also obvious who the Convict Flower had bloomed for.

Indeed! It was for the Asura Mercenary Alliance!

“Madness! This is madness! Who the heck is targeting the Asura Mercenary Alliance?!”

“Whoever it is, they must have paid an astronomical price to get the Flower of Seven Sins to make such a huge move.”

“Could it be World Dominators?”

“I doubt World Dominators can afford such a price. I heard that the Flower of Seven Sins had dispatched over 6,000 Refinement Realm experts for the operation this time. That’s probably more than half of the Refinement Realm experts the Flower of Seven Sins has sent to the Miniature Ancient World. How much would it take to get the Flower of Seven Sins to mobilize so many people?”

“I’m thinking that Asura should have long since known that the Flower of Seven Sins would target it. That would explain why Asura would suddenly offer something as tempting as the Lineage Crystal up for exchange.”

“Indeed. That’s the only way Asura can resist the Flower of Seven Sins. However, after this initial attack conducted by the Flower of Seven Sins, the various powers and independent experts will probably start to weigh their options since continuing to take on Asura’s quests would mean going against the Flower of Seven Sins.”

“The Flower of Seven Sins has never failed a job before. I guess Asura’s good days are coming to an end. Even if the mercenary alliance doesn’t face destruction, it will have no choice but to hide in Abyssal Star City.”

For a time, the Miniature Ancient World’s various powers and independent players fervently discussed the matter of the Flower of Seven Sins targeting the Asura Mercenary Alliance.

The scale of the Flower of Seven Sins’ operation this time ranked among the top out of all the operations it had carried out in the past. After all, the Flower of Seven Sins had mobilized over 6,000 Refinement Realm experts against the Asura Mercenary Alliance. Some of the weaker Super Guilds might not even have this many Refinement Realm experts in the Miniature Ancient World.

In other words, the Flower of Seven Sins had mobilized a Super Guild’s worth of Refinement Realm experts against the Asura Mercenary Alliance. The Asura Mercenary Alliance might have the Abyssal Star Primordial City serving as its foundation, but even an existence as powerful as Asura would probably be helpless against so many Refinement Realm experts.

…

Abyssal Star City, Asura Mercenary Alliance’s headquarters:

Currently, four people sat inside the spacious conference room of the headquarters building. They were Hidden Soul, Liu Wusheng, Frenzied Smile, and Shi Feng. Apart from Shi Feng, the others in the room all wore gloomy expressions.

“Everyone, report your situations,” Shi Feng suddenly said.

“According to Asura’s statistics, we have suffered over 20,000 casualties thus far. Of them, over 5,000 are Refinement Realm experts,” Hidden Soul said, gritting her teeth. “Although these members have not uttered any complaints about their deaths, their willingness to continue taking on commissions is very low…”

“It’s not just low. Nobody is even willing to apply to join Asura right now. On the other hand, the number of people applying to withdraw from the alliance has increased significantly,” Liu Wusheng said, shaking his head. “The scale of the Flower of Seven Sins’ operation this time is simply too large. The difference in strength between both sides is also obvious. Moreover, in the case of partnered Guilds like us, the Flower of Seven Sins is even targeting members who aren’t taking on the alliance’s commissions. I’m afraid we’ll have to limit our operations to just Abyssal Star City and its surroundings. We cannot continue operations in the various NPC Cities…”

Hidden Soul’s expression grew even darker when she heard Liu Wusheng’s words.

The scale of the Flower of Seven Sins’ mobilization this time had thoroughly exceeded their expectations. The organization had mobilized at least 70% of its manpower in the Miniature Ancient World against the Asura Mercenary Alliance. The scale of this operation was so absurd that Hidden Soul couldn’t help but wonder if the Flower of Seven Sins had gone crazy.

“What about the Flower of Seven Sins’ losses?” Shi Feng asked.

“The Flower of Seven Sins’ losses?” Frenzied Smile revealed a bitter smile when he heard Shi Feng’s question. “The Flower of Seven Sins has made ample preparations this time. According to my insider information, they’ve suffered only a little over a thousand casualties.”

Compared to the Asura Mercenary Alliance’s losses, the Flower of Seven Sins’ losses was nothing.

“Only a thousand? It seems the Flower of Seven Sins has made quite a profit this time,” Shi Feng calmly stated. “Since the Flower of Seven Sins is willing to splurge to such an extent, we’ll play along with it. Send a notice to everyone in the alliance. From now on, we will be awarding 10,000 Contribution Points to all Common Mount commissions. Rewards for Bronze and Mysterious-Iron Mount commissions will similarly be increased by five times. Let’s see which one of us will last longer!”

So long as the reward was sufficient, there would always be brave people willing to take the risk. This was also the tactic the Greater God’s Domain’s various hegemonic powers had used to deal with him and Zero Wing during his previous life. Both he and Zero Wing had suffered a lot because of this tactic.

Now, Shi Feng didn’t mind letting the Flower of Seven Sins have a taste of this tactic as well.

“Five times?” Hidden Soul couldn’t help but look at Shi Feng as if he had gone crazy. “Guild Leader Black Flame, we’ll run out of Lineage Crystals in no time if you do that!”

It only cost one million Contribution Points to exchange for a Lineage Crystal. However, the various expert teams weren’t just obtaining one Common Mount a day. If an expert team was lucky, it was even possible for them to acquire ten Mounts or more. That would mean a daily income of over 100,000 Contribution Points per expert team. If an expert team got lucky and acquired two or three Bronze Mounts, which would be worth 50,000 Contribution Points after the reward increase, on top of the Common Mounts, it would earn two to three hundred thousand Contribution Points per day.

It should be known that this was only one expert team.

What if there were fifty or sixty of such expert teams?

In that case, Asura would be paying out over fifteen million Contribution Points per day. Moreover, that was before accounting for the other quests Asura offered.

At this rate, Asura would probably run out of Lineage Crystals before mainstream players could reach Level 115 and start making use of Abyssal Star City. At that time, Asura would no longer have any means of resisting the Flower of Seven Sins.

“Aside from that, I have another announcement to make. Asura will also place a bounty on the Flower of Seven Sins’ members from today onward. Refinement Realm experts will be worth 300 points, Flowing Water Realm experts will be worth 1,000 points, Void Realm experts will be worth 3,000 points, and Domain Realm experts will be worth 10,000 points. We need to make the Flower of Seven Sins know that there is a price to pay for targeting us!”