Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 1496
Chapter 1496: Prisoner’s Dilemma
“Ahh!”
Despite the blockage of the crystal suit, the spiritual energy still disappeared into the center of Emperor Phoenix’s eyebrow instantly.
The young emperor immediately began screaming in the most desperate way, as if his brain was exploding only to be stopped by the helmet on the crystal suit. He was apparently in excruciating pain!
Holding his head, he bent his body like a shrimp and was almost writhing on the ground because of the suffering.
The screams, each higher than the last, made all the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector in the area feel their heads were dizzy regardless of their stance!
Although Emperor Phoenix was the youngest one of the ‘top ten experts of the Ancient Sages Sector’, he had demonstrated unbelievable capabilities during the struggle for the throne in the Divine Capital the previous year. His Cultivation might not have been as high as Yan Liren’s or Qi Zhongdao’s, but the gap was not huge. They were approximately at the same level.
Even such an expert had failed to defend against Deity Raincloud’s casual attack. Was it because Deity Raincloud’s Cultivation was unimaginably high, or was it because he had planted a certain barrier in Emperor Phoenix’s body in order to manipulate him as a puppet like Han Baling had said?
The latter appeared to be the more plausible possibility, because when Emperor Phoenix was cramping hard in excruciating pain, the imperial guards around him who should have been loyal to him were merely watching coldly. None of them gave him a hand!
Such a fact made Emperor Phoenix even more devastated. His twisted screams almost sounded like sobbing right now.
“Han Baling!”
Deity Raincloud did not look at the cramping Emperor Phoenix any longer. He shifted the enormous skull of the skeleton to Han Baling and the other rapscallions. The deep red crystal camera was gliding nonstop in the cross dent, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking about.
“Although I cannot bear to watch the Ancient Sages Sector mired in war, and I want to keep the Great Qian Dynasty stable forever, it doesn’t mean that your Ghost Qin, Qi Changsheng’s Heaven Battering Army, and Wan Mingzhu’s White Lotus Cult must be eliminated!
“As long as you pledge loyalty to me obediently, I will certainly figure out a proper solution. I guarantee that all of your subordinates will receive tremendous benefits. As for the few of you, infinite opportunities will be waiting for you in the deities’ realm, which will certain increase your Cultivation and allow you to sprint for the Divinity Transformation Stage!”
“Hehe!” Han Baling looked at Qi Changsheng and Wan Mingzhu and sniffed. He was wearing all kinds of expressions and did not give a reply.
“That goes for everybody here!”
Deity Raincloud turned the skeleton skull to Qi Zhongdao, Ba Xiaoyu, and the other experts of the six major sects behind the Three Saints. He declared thunderously, “It is meaningless to chew on my identity. The fact is obvious that I possess power that is beyond your imagination. I can manipulate the Cloud Qin Gold Statue, and I can offer you tremendous ultimate treasures from the deities’ realm to guide you toward the Divinity Transformation Stage and help you embark on the path of immortality!
“Is it not enough to prove my identity and to convince you to pledge loyalty to me?
“I will give you one last opportunity. Kneel before me right now!
“There are dozens of Cloud Qin Gold Statues here, but no more than twenty of them are intact and functional!
“However… there are a hundred of you here!
“If every Cultivator is given one Cloud Qin Gold Statue, only twenty lucky dogs will be qualified to claim the primeval treasures that can dominate the world and the universe! Whoever kneels down first and pledges loyalty to me sincerely will be rewarded with a Cloud Qin Gold Statue. I will also teach you the corresponding usage and even the way to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage!”
Deity Raincloud’s words were as shocking as thunder.
Fewer than twenty Cloud Qin Gold Statues!
Great secret arts to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage!
For the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector who were struggling and groping in darkness, the temptations were too alluring to resist.
With everything progressing so far, the shrewd elders and leaders of the six major sects had mostly realized that the mysterious person inside the black Cloud Qin Gold Statue was most likely not the senior expert Zhu Cangshui of the Thunderous Qian Hall. Otherwise, his answer would not have been so obscure and ambiguous.
But so what?
Deity Raincloud was not wrong. His identity was not important. What was important was that he had in his possession the powerful treasures from the deities’ realm and that he was aware of the methods to manipulate the Cloud Qin Gold Statues.
Most importantly of all, there were only twenty Cloud Qin Gold Statues at most that could be allotted!
Twenty Cloud Qin Gold Statues for more than a hundred super experts who were all above the peak of the Core Formation Stage, and more people were hiding outside on the warship. Right. There were also the tricky people such as Wang Xi and Master Spiritual Vulture who had not shown up yet. Chances were that they had already been bought by Deity Raincloud and were lurking in the darkness, ready to launch a critical strike at any time!
It was a very simple arithmetic question, but it was also the most complicated conundrum.
“Don’t be tricked!” Sensing the disinclination behind him, Qi Zhongdao grew anxious. “He is trying to divide us. Don’t be fooled! United. We must remain united!”
“Exactly!” Han Baling also gnashed his teeth. “He is definitely not as powerful as he appears to be on the surface. If he was, he would’ve gone on a killing spree and suppressed everybody with brute force. Why would he bother wasting so much time talking to us?
“As long as we stick together, more than a hundred experts above the Core Formation Stage will certainly be enough to defeat a single Cloud Qin Gold Statue!”
The two of them echoed with each other, but the elders and leaders of the six major sects were not moved much.
“Stick together?”
“It’s not so easy!”
“Yes. If more than a hundred experts above the Core Formation Stage are united and charge forward without considering the sacrifices, there might be a slim chance that we can crush Deity Raincloud.”
“But who will lead the charge and be sacrificed first?”
“Besides, just because I don’t surrender doesn’t mean other people won’t. As long as some twenty of the hundred people choose to surrender and cause trouble behind us, there is absolutely no way that we can compete with Deity Raincloud. By then, those who choose to resist will be crushed into smithereens by Deity Raincloud, and those who surrender in advance will probably be rewarded with a Cloud Qin Gold Statue and the secret arts to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage!”
Similar ideas were rolling over inside the eyes of almost every elder and leader of the six major sects.
When they looked at each other, they felt that other people’s eyes were filled with electricity and hooks. Shivering, they thought of a new problem.
“Even if I don’t surrender, and other people do not want to surrender in the beginning, how will they know what I am thinking, and how can they be certain that I will fight to the end?”
“There are only twenty Cloud Qin Gold Statues. The earlier you surrender, the more benefits you will have. As long as the number of traitors reaches a certain threshold, the resistance will be meaningless.”
“Then, when we can’t trust each other, the best option for them is to surrender earlier than I do!”
“I don’t know whether or not they will surrender, and they do not know whether or not I will surrender. Even if we do not want to surrender in the beginning, as soon as we believe that there is a decent likelihood that other people will surrender, we will have no other options except to surrender in advance in order to get the Cloud Qin Gold Statues and the techniques to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage!”
Such thoughts were popping up in the heads of the hundred high-level Cultivators from six major sects at the same time.
The locals of the Ancient Sages Sector were caught in a classic prisoner’s dilemma[1]. Their eyes were all glimmering.
The ambience grew weirder than ever for a moment.
The room looked like a vulnerable high tower that had just been burnt by fire and already reached the brink of collapse. The burnt wood was caught in a weird silence after creaking for a moment.
One tiny breeze at this moment, or even nothing except a wait of one to two seconds, and the high tower would completely collapse!
Boom!
Qi Zhongdao knew the nature of the people of the six major sects. Any words would be useless. Without saying anything, he summoned his spiritual energy and boosted the Heaven Flipping Seal to smash the black-skeleton-like Colossus!
“Heaven Flipping Seal? Hahahaha!”
Deity Raincloud chuckled in amusement. Crimson tides of spiritual energy surged on the surface of the Colossus, and dozens of tentacles extended out of the waves toward the Heaven Flipping Seal, showing absolutely no sign that they were under the influence of the Heaven Flipping Seal!
In the meantime, the thirty-meter-tall Colossus stepped forward heavily. While the world was shaking, the blood red crystal veins wrapped around the slender arms dashed out like hundreds of vipers and darted toward the critical parts all over Qi Zhongdao’s body!
Qi Zhongdao had focused almost all his spiritual energy and soul power on the Heaven Flipping Soul. It was impossible for him to dodge in time.
Yan Liren, however, blinked out from the back. His sword auras spread out into hundreds of electric arcs and slashed toward the blood red crystal veins of the black-skeleton-like Colossus. After a series of crisp collisions, Yan Liren’s sword exploded into the finest powder!
Shua!
The moment when the secret sword exploded, something deep inside Yan Liren’s pupils seemed to have exploded, too, as if his soul had been severely wounded!
The Sword Maniac was still expressionless, but he was biting his lip harder and harder.
“And you, Han Baling. Come on together. Let’s see if I can go on a killing spree today!”
Deity Raincloud grinned hideously. The crimson whips scattered in midair like a hundred vipers drawing dozens of weird curves and arcing behind the round shield where Han Baling was hiding, interweaving into a fatal web instantly!
Despite his enormous body size, Han Baling was not slow at all. The moment that the whips connected with each other, he turned into a gray shadow and jumped out!
The whips did not halt at all after missing the target during the first attack. They took a weird turn and continue darting toward his back.
“Watch out, my lord!”
Seeing that all the space around Han Baling had been locked onto, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator from Ghost Qin was greatly shocked. He lunged forward without caring about anything and was stabbed precisely by the sharp thorns at the front ends of the whips.
The spiritual shield of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator was as fragile as a piece of paper, and the Cultivator from Ghost Qin was immediately riddled with almost ten holes!
[1] The prisoner’s dilemma is a standard example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two completely ‘rational’ individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. See more details on Wikipedia.
