The Legendary Mechanic, page 883
His core mindset was very simple. If he could not defeat them, join them!
This was not just a temporary plan to save his life but a carefully thought-out plan. Although what he experienced this time threatened his life, when he carefully thought about it, it might just be an incredible opportunity to explore the secrets of the universe.
He already planned to give up the identity of ‘Sorokin’ and was originally planning to go to the secondary dimensions and retire for some time. However, from the way things looked now, the Holy Accord organization might be a better place to go. Not only was there a group of familiar faces, but they also seemed to be carrying out some kind of big plan. Plus, if he stayed there, he could even convince the outside world that he had been revived.
After the initial shock, Sorokin had a strong interest in the Sanctums. Another of his goals was to reduce the number of Beyond Grade As in the universe. Now that he had realized that Beyond Grade As could be revived, he would not be able to sleep and eat well before he figured out how it happened.
At the same time, Sorokin inevitably felt bitter. Originally, he thought most Primordial Ones had disappeared, and he was the only one who had stayed alive till now. Although he never mentioned it, he actually had a sense of superiority in his heart, thinking that he was the only one who got the last laugh among all the Primordial Ones in the same generation.
However, now that he saw a big group of Primordial Ones still alive, his sense of superiority disappeared, and he was left with only bitterness. That was especially so when he thought of how he hid his identity and carefully lived all these years in the past. He could not help but feel jealous and envious of these revivors, which made him even more interested in the Sanctums.
“You want to join the Holy Accord?”
The others were surprised. The expressions on their faces became odd.
You didn’t contribute anything, yet you want to take a bite off our fruit of victory?
Why is your dream so ambitious?
After so many years, how did that cold and powerful Soul Emperor in their memories become so smooth?
Oathkeeper frowned and pondered silently. It seemed like he was having difficulties making a choice.
Seeing this, Sorokin added, “Frankly, I was just planning to retire. If the Holy Accord is willing to accept me, I won’t come empty handed. You guys should know that I’m the owner of the Limitless Financial Group. I can bring Holy Accord a huge amount of funds. You’ll need money no matter what you’re planning, right?”
He had eyes on the secret of reviving through the Sanctums too, so he was willing to pay a high price to join the Holy Accord. If he could also enjoy this privilege, his life would be insured.
Hearing this, Oathkeeper said, “The risk of letting an outsider join us is not controllable. You hid your strength so well, and we don’t know much about you. It’s very tough for us to trust you.”
“I understand your worries, but I’m really sincere. As for what you said about me being an outsider, I don’t think that’s true.” Sorokin smiled. “We all know each other and each other’s personality to a certain extent, we don’t lack the foundation of trust.”
Beiger suddenly shook his head and said, “No, we never hung out and are not close.”
Fu*k you! You even ‘hung’ me to death back then!
Sorokin wanted to cuss but still maintained a smile.
Oathkeeper slowly said, “So many years have passed; you’ve definitely changed your identity more than once. How do we know how much you’ve changed?”
Hearing this, Sorokin became silent, which was rare. Then, he shook his head and said, “Everyone has secrets. No matter what I experienced in the past, I’m just Sorokin now.”
He did not want to expose the information of his other identities. The identities of Soul Emperor and Sorokin were still considered clean, but he had done many not-so-clean things with his other identities. If he shared this information, it would become new leverage. Hence, he refused to say what identities he used before, expressing his firmness to a suitable extent, reminding the opposite party that their positions were equal in this negotiation.
Oathkeeper thought about it, changed the question, and asked, “Let’s put this matter aside first. Let me ask you, you say you can sense Soul Flame, but you have not done it in so many years—why are you suddenly trying to find Soul Flame? We can’t believe what you say if you don’t explain this.”
Sorokin hesitated for a moment and said, “Actually, I’ve come across a very strong enemy. In order to fight him, I have to retrieve Soul Flame and increase my strength as much as possible.”
“Who’s that strong enemy?”
“Black Star!”
As soon as he said that, everyone’s heart shook, but they hastily controlled their expressions and did not expose themselves.
Oathkeeper suppressed the shock in his heart, acted confused, and said, “Black Star? I know this guy. He only rose in the past few decades and seems to be among the strongest in the universe. It’s said that his full strength is unfathomable. How did you get into trouble with him?”
When this was brought up, Sorokin’s expression turned gloomy.
“He figured out my identity and came to blackmail me. I decided not to escalate the issue, accepted his request, and partnered with him in businesses at a loss, hoping to fill his appetite so he won’t expose me. But that *sshole is too much. He took my money and still wanted to expose my identity, plotting against me behind my back. If I don’t teach him a lesson, he’s really going to think I can be easily bullied!”
This time, Sorokin’s rage was not fake but his real emotions. It was as if he could not live with Black Star being alive and would grab tightly onto any opportunity to kill Black Star.
“So, this is why you wanted to abandon your current identity and retire?” Seeing that Sorokin’s expressions were sincere, Oathkeeper pondered.
“That’s right. I don’t want the three Universal Civilizations to pay attention to me. He forced me to abandon the organization I’ve spent years building,” Sorokin said with a hateful tone.
His hostility toward Han Xiao was extremely strong. Earlier, he even thought of threatening to leak their secret to make the Holy Accord organization help him kill Black Star. With such an unexpected and overwhelmingly strong force, he definitely could get Black Star by surprise.
However, after thinking about it carefully, he had given up on this thought. After all, Black Star had the King suit and would not be trapped. Also, threatening them would definitely make Holy Accord unhappy, and they might not let him join them.
Compared to the secret of the Sanctums, dealing with Black Star did not seem that significant. Therefore, Sorokin did not want to lose the opportunity of finding out about the Sanctum because of something less significant. Furthermore, he had already learned a lesson from what happened today—since he chose to be a coward, he should be a total coward!
Hence, Sorokin did not want to make things more complicated. With the big secret of the Holy Accord opportunity, he decided to abandon the plan of targeting Black Star and retired peacefully. Anyway, he felt that he would always get a better opportunity in the future to make Black Star pay for what he did to him.
Oathkeeper narrowed his eyes and suddenly said, “If you’re targeted by Black Star, this is a risk for us too. If we take you in, Black Star might find our location one day by tracking you, leading to us being exposed like today.”
Sorokin quickly said, “That won’t happen. Black Star is not very obsessed with me personally; he just wants my money and assets. You guys don’t know, but that guy is endlessly greedy, domineering, ambitious, slippery, shady, and extremely shameless… His goal is to take over the Limitless Financial Group’s assets.”
Damn, if not because we made contact with Black Star before, we might have really believed in your nonsense.
… But you’re right about him being shameless.
Oathkeeper rolled his eyes in his mind, acted serious, and said, “That’s just your speculation. You can’t ensure Black Star won’t do anything. If you want to join the Holy Accord, it’s best to solve this problem first.”
Sorokin was frustrated inside. He was already planning to cancel this plan, but to his surprise Holy Accord actively wanted to force him to target Black Star instead.
However, from his perspective, Oathkeeper’s worry was totally sensible and logical. Sorokin did not find it strange.
“Honestly, I’m not very confident about fighting Black Star alone. He’s too strong…” Sorokin said with resignation.
Oathkeeper gave him a glare and said, “What, are you asking us to help? Don’t cross the line! If you think you can threaten us just because you have some leverage on your hands, we’ll eliminate you even at the risk of exposing our secret.”
He used a strong and firm attitude so that Sorokin would not suspect Holy Accord and Black Star were connected.
“What do you want to do then?” Sorokin asked. He felt that since Oathkeeper had said so many things, there was no way he was still thinking of resorting to such an extreme solution.
Oathkeeper narrowed his eyes and suddenly said with a gentler tone, “Anyway, you can’t leave now. We have to ensure your original body is in our sights. However, we won’t do anything to you. This is just an insurance measure to prevent you from leaking the secret. As for your request to join the Holy Accord… we’ll have to consider it, weigh the pros and cons.”
The other Holy Accord members all understood Oathkeeper’s intention to take a step back from what he said. They had varied expressions.
“What, are we really going to take him in?” Beiger deliberately acted surprised.
“That is one option. If not, are we really going to let him leak the information?” Oathkeeper turned and glanced at him. He then scanned through everyone and secretly gave them a look. He then turned back to Sorokin and said, “This is my condition. If you don’t accept it, there’s nothing more to talk about.”
Sorokin considered it for a while and realized that he did not have much of a choice. This was already a decent result. Hence, he exhaled and slowly nodded.
“Okay, I agree with your terms. I’m willing to stay under your control temporarily, but you guys can’t secretly set up traps to seal soul energy. Although that doesn’t work much against me, if you guys show signs of doing it, I’ll see it as you guys being insincere about this partnership. I’ll consider our agreement invalid and immediately have my manifestation leak your secret.”
“Okay.” Oathkeeper nodded.
As the two sides came to an agreement, the atmosphere calmed down.
The people approached Sorokin and escorted him toward the Holy Accord’s fleet, planning to monitor this guy every second as a new entertainment other than playing cards.
Sorokin obediently let them take him away. He discreetly wiped away his cold sweat, felt that this experience was like a dream and was glad.
“Luckily, I’m convincing enough to earn a chance…”
After the others went away, Oathkeeper was relieved too. He was also planning to keep Sorokin stable first.
Actually, to Oathkeeper, if Sorokin was sincere about joining them, taking him in was not an issue. They had nothing against each other, plus, they were from the same generation and had common topics, and it would prevent Sorokin from leaking their secret.
Holy Accord was not a subsidiary organization of someone else, so there was actually no need to report to Black Star when recruiting a new member. However, Oathkeeper felt it was still better to tell Black Star about this.
After all, Sorokin and Black Star had conflicts, and Oathkeeper was more on Han Xiao’s side in his heart. To him, the Black Star Army was a more important partner.
Having thought of that, Oathkeeper closed his eyes and secretly used his soul projection to contact Han Xiao.
…
Oathkeeper’s soul projection appeared In Han Xiao’s office and saw the person who was dealing with a pile of documents in his seat right away.
Noticing Oathkeeper’s arrival, Han Xiao looked up and smiled.
“Yo, Oath, what a rare guest.”
Oathkeeper, however, had no intention to chit chat. He said with a deep voice, “Black Star, an emergency situation just happened, and I felt I needed to tell you about it. This might severely impact our plan.”
“Tell me then. I didn’t cover your mouth.” Han Xiao was not nervous at all and joked.
“Just earlier, Sorokin found us…”
Oathkeeper described everything that had happened without leaving any details.
“What? I thought my luck was trash enough. I didn’t think yours would also be not much better.”
Han Xiao laughed right away. He did not expect Sorokin to be so brave to break into this nursing home.
“How are you still laughing!” Oathkeeper was annoyed. “What do you think we should do about this? If you don’t have any suggestion, I’m really going to take him into the Holy Accord!”
“Aiyo, don’t be in such a rush. Isn’t this very easy to solve?” Han Xiao casually waved.
“What ideas do you have?”
“You’ve mistaken the situation, which is understandable given how much it concerns you.” Han Xiao rested his chin on his hands. “You’re worried that he’ll leak your information, but he doesn’t know my connection with you guys. Therefore, in his eyes, leaking your information is only a threat to the Holy Accord organization, not to me. If you think about it from another perspective, you’ll realize that this is good news for me.”
“You’re saying…” Oathkeeper had a rough idea.
“I never had the chance to secretly attack him. Now, however, you guys have helped me to trap the prey and even indirectly created a secret execution ground. Furthermore, Sorokin has no idea that the leverage he has is also effective on me. All it takes is for us to put on a show, and the problem will be solved. This is the reason for our partnership to exist, basically…”
Han Xiao smiled faintly. A Mark of the Underworld on the back of his palm flickered slightly.
“He’s gone.”
Chapter 1243: Holy Accord: We Are Serious About Acting! |
Two days later, in the Holy Accord’s fleet, a group of Primordial Ones sat in a circle around Sorokin, playing cards while keeping an eye on Sorokin at all times to make sure he did not do anything.
Sorokin sat on a small chair in the middle and watched them play cards, giving suggestions from time to time, not acting like an outsider at all.
This time, the door opened. Oathkeeper walked in, and the noise in the room suddenly disappeared. Everyone, including Sorokin, looked over.
Oathkeeper looked around, stopped at Sorokin, and said with a deep voice, “I’ve considered it over the past two days. I’ll accept you into the Holy Accord.”
Joy appeared on Sorokin’s face. Just as he was about to speak, Oathkeeper stopped him and added, “But before that, you have to resolve your conflict with Black Star. I don’t want you to bring problems to the organization.”
Hearing this, Sorokin’s expression turned serious. “What ideas do you have?”
Oathkeeper slowly said, “First, we have to test the risk, which is how persistent Black Star is about killing you. Therefore, we’ll use your location as bait and see if Black Star chases after it.”
“How do we do that exactly?”
Oathkeeper opened the star map, pointed at a transit hub planet in the Ancient Star Desert, and said, “We’ll find a way to spread rumors saying you’ve passed by Planet Deere recently, then set up surveillance to see how Black Star reacts to it. If his men come right away to investigate, it means he’s indeed hunting you. If Black Star invades Planet Deere’s node using Virtual Intrusion, our men will discover it too… To show our sincerity in working together, we’ll share the situation reflected by the surveillance with you.”
Sorokin thought about it for a moment and agreed with this plan. Although he did not think Black Star would be hunting him, faking his whereabouts would not threaten his safety, so he had no objections. Instead, he was quite impressed by how cautious Oathkeeper was. It suited his taste.
From his perspective, he could totally just retire and not do anything, but Holy Accord was not going to agree with that. They were worried Black Star might find them just like he did. Therefore, they actively wanted to remove the hidden threat. He could not make the decision for the Holy Accord, so he could only cooperate.
“If Beiger is really hunting him, what do we do?” Beiger added.
“Then, there’ll only be two ways to solve this problem.” Oathkeeper looked at Sorokin, acted like he was troubled, and said, “Either we erase Black Star, or you fake your death to deceive Black Star.”
“That makes sense,” Beiger added. “Black Star will only give up hunting him if he thinks he’s dead. After all, the dead don’t speak. Anyway, Sorokin knows how to fake his death; he can just do it again.”
Sorokin felt this was logical and nodded. However, thinking about it, he said with a reluctant tone, “But that’s too risky. Black Star knows my identity, so he’ll definitely be wary about me faking my death. I’m worried that if he discovers it, I’ll really be dead…”
Oathkeeper shook his head. “Honestly, that’s even more convincing. We have the Sanctums, so if you really die, we can revive you. Not only will the threat be eliminated that way, but you’ll really become one of us.”
Sorokin laughed awkwardly. “I’d rather pass on that. Plus, he has the Spacetime Amber. I’m worried he might seal me up…”
It sounded like a good plan, but how could he trust the Holy Accord? What if they did not revive him after he died?
Oathkeeper frowned and said with a displeased tone, “This plan has the lowest risk and highest success rate. In the end, you say you want to join the Holy Accord, but you don’t see us as being on your side.”
