Let’s not mention Beifeng’s affairs. They could only be matters that would blind you. After everyone else left, I had Beifeng stay behind as he was the only person who knew the true purpose of the mission.
The fewer the people who knew secrets, the better. Schemes would no longer be useful if they were exposed.
“The Great Stone Sculptor failed to become the next Earth Elemental God? Excellent job.”
I nodded when I heard Beifeng tell me this. Making Ainslo fail to become the next Earth Elemental God was the true objective of this “treasure-hunting” team I sent to the Earth Elemental Plane.
In normal situations, it would take several tens of thousands of years for the Earth Elemental Throne to gather enough earth element on its own to repair itself. If I wanted to fix it faster, I would need to give it lots of money, resources and materials—such as the God Equipment of Earth.
“…Why does this feel like a damned Chinese MMORPG with how much money it wants me to spend? Thankfully, I’m not one of the unlucky players. I’m the power in the shadows.”
I hadn’t intended on caring about the Earth Elemental Throne, as it would require far too many resources to fix, and it could fix itself on its own. However, plenty of others were interested in repairing it as it was related to the solidity of the seals on the Titan Giants.
“Since others are foolish enough to foot the bill, I suppose I could participate.”
All I needed to do was act as the intermediary, taking the Mage Country and Dragon World’s emissaries to the Earth Elemental Plane to check out the situation. Then, as everyone stared at the destroyed Earth Elemental Throne in astonishment, not knowing how it was destroyed, I would list a long, long list of resources I required to fix it, and then wait for these two major clients to prepare them.
As for whether or not I would take a kickback for myself… if I told you that I was perfectly clean and that I took nothing on the side, would you believe me?
Of course, in order to show that I would be there with everyone through thick and thin, I made some contributions as well. For instance, I gave out most of the Elemental Throne shards that I received previously from Beifeng, which were leftovers from Frigidwinter Earth.
However, the true reason fixing the Earth Elemental went so quickly was because with Ainslo leading the other Earth Elemental Lords, they managed to reach an accord—at least on the surface. They stopped their internal conflicts and pooled their resources together, hoping for the birth of a new Earth Elemental God.
I had no idea what conditions and promises Ainslo gave the other Lords in order to have them all support her in becoming the next Earth Elemental God. The end result was that the Lords opened up their treasure vaults and donated an uncountable amount of top-quality earth element items. The large number of top-quality earth element items helped rebuild the Earth Elemental Throne.
“Ten days ago, a gigantic earth element pillar of light started to form, and now, the earth element in all the planes is decreasing at a furious pace. The Earth Elemental Throne is about to form.”
With so many factions unhesitatingly investing so many resources, the Earth Elemental Throne was successfully restored. However, this hastily reassembled version was much weaker than the previous Throne, which had eons of time to accumulate. Any Earth Elemental God that ascended using this Throne would be the weakest of the four Elemental Gods for a long, long time to come… But when considering how strong Emordilorcan was even when he was seriously injured to the point of death, the “weakest” Elemental God, when in their home Elemental Plane, would still be on par with a powerful God.
“Since we have to have a new Earth Elemental God, it would be best for me if a stupid and weak one ascends rather than Ainslo.”
Beifeng was the only one who knew this secret mission of mine. I didn’t personally go to the Earth Elemental Plane in order to avoid suspicion falling upon me. If something happened, everyone else would surely make me take the blame… although I indeed deserved to take the blame. For some reason, I would repeatedly feel as if my reputation was becoming more demonic every day. Everyone kept saying “it’s that demon Roland’s fault.”
As for why I refused to allow the Great Stone Sculptor to ascend to Godhood? She was supposed to be my ally, you ask? Although I signed various contracts with her, I learned more every day about her astonishing ambition and factional strength. As she was the Stone Mother, she was once the leader of the anti-Emordilorcan Earth Elemental Lord alliance. Many of her children were powerful Lords in their own right. Other Lords left the Earth Elemental Plane in order to escape the dangers of internal conflict, but not her. No matter how the internal conflicts turned out, she would still be the final victor.
This was also why she was, by far, the most active and aggressive Earth Elemental Lord who attacked Emordilorcan. After all, if he perished, Ainslo, who had been the second most powerful existence in the Earth Elemental Plane for tens of thousands of years, would naturally become the new Earth Elemental God.
The real reason she came to the mortal plane was to gather information on the other planes. In fact, she was even here to obtain more information on me, as I defeated Emordilorcan. This was not something she needed to know if she was simply content with staying put in the Earth Elemental Plane.
Without a doubt, her goal wasn’t simple. It wasn’t confined to just the Earth Elemental Plane. As for her relationship with Beifeng… ever since he discovered her ambition and true nature, this relationship became nothing more than acting on his side.
Later, I discovered that she also secretly maintained contact with the lower planes. Any so-called contracts I had with her couldn’t possibly be depended upon to restrain her. If the Great Stone Sculptor really ascended to Godhood, this ambitious Stone Mother would likely become a new trouble for me.
“I don’t care who it is that ascends to Godhood, as long as it’s not her. Even a rock or a worm will be better for us.”
The wondrous Beifeng was the only candidate who could carry out this secret mission. Judging from the current situation, not only did he accomplish this task, Ainslo didn’t even notice what he did. In fact, she still treated Beifeng as her trustworthy ally.
“How did you do it? After the Earth Elemental Throne reformed itself, it should have automatically selected the most appropriate Earth Elemental Lord to become the new Earth Elemental God. How did you twist this natural law?”
The Earth Elemental Throne was a nonliving object, after all. It was the incarnation of the dimensional will. It would only select the most powerful Earth Elemental Lord to become the new Earth Elemental God. Of course, the prerequisite would be that the Lord in question was willing to become a God.
However, how would a nonliving object like the Throne possibly calculate things? My guess was that it would most likely simply find the Lord with the highest density and quality of earth element.
Beifeng Herault smiled in such a seemingly honest manner. It was difficult to guess that he had just made his lover suffer… well, one of his lovers. By the way, if one thought about how many lovers he had, Beifeng should be the mortal enemy of all men, someone to be hunted down. Yet not a single person envied his main character type of harem status.
“…All I did was make it so that another existence was judged as the most appropriate next Earth Elemental God. For instance, by giving the God Equipment of Earth to a certain Earth Elemental Lord.”
I was rather surprised about this. I had only recently learned about the God Equipment of Earth. How on earth did Beifeng obtain it? It was already quite something that his companions didn’t beat him up—would they really listen to his orders and help him obtain such an item?
“…The God Equipment of Earth? Wasn’t that in the Wind Elemental Plane? Oh, I get it now. Camdian!”
Beifeng nodded with a proud look on his face. He felt that he did a beautiful job this time. All he did was talk, and he accomplished something so major.
Some things didn’t need to be said out loud. As Camdian was the Wind Elemental God, he would forever be natural enemies with the earth element. He wouldn’t want to see a new mortal enemy even more dangerous than Emordilocan appearing. Since the secondary goal of this excursion was to obtain the God Equipment of Wind from the Earth Elemental Plane, it was only natural that he helped to retrieve the God Equipment of Earth from the Wind Elemental Plane in exchange. He would be more than happy to make Ainslo lose her opportunity.
“Basically, when the Earth Elemental Throne was reestablished, it automatically chose the Earth Elemental Lord who possessed the God Equipment of Earth, making Ainslo miss her opportunity. Right, who did you choose?”
“One of the Earth Elemental Lords with the highest amount of earth element. Not only that, he’s also one of the least dangerous Lords to us.”
I was surprised to hear Beifeng’s words.
“Who could that be?”
“Little Sandy.”
“Who’s that? I don’t know any Earth Elemental Lords by that name.”
“Didn’t you say that a worm or a rock would be fine? Your wish is my command. You’ve met Little Sandy before in the past. He’s the one who ate the Earth Elemental Throne.”
“That Sand Worm King!! You dared to do such a thing!”
Indeed, nothing could be better for me than for that Sand Worm to ascend to Godhood. Sand Worms were pure natives of the Earth Elemental Plane that typically wouldn’t consider leaving their plane. They were also very low in Intelligence, making them no threat at all.
“How did you do it?”
“Little Sandy previously devoured a large amount of Earth Elemental Throne shards. I then had him swallow the God Equipment of Earth. Plus, a Sand Worm King like him has an astonishing amount of earth element to begin with. That was all part of why he was selected. If only you were there to see it. All the other Earth Elemental Lords had such looks of despair when Little Sandy suddenly popped out of the ground and the Throne selected him to be the next God.”
“Nobody suspected that you meddled?”
“Of course not. I’m always careful when doing any deed. Everyone knows that Sand Worm Kings have astonishing amounts of earth element. I then told everyone about how he devoured the Earth Elemental Throne, so they all believed that he just got coincidentally lucky.”
“Excellent job. If your lover Ainslo became the Earth Elemental God, you would have benefited significantly. I’ll find a chance to make up for your losses.”
“No need. Little Sandy is my lover as well.”
Alright then, as I stared as his brilliant, thick-skulled smile, I considered about how he had definitely achieved great things for me and did my very best to restrain my urge to shoot him into the sky with a goblin cannon.
“…Well done. Take a few days off for a vacation. I still have other missions for you afterwards. By the way, why did you all return so late with everyone blaming you if your secret mission wasn’t exposed?”
“Well—uh—Little Sandy came to me for a celebration. He wanted to start a nest of his own children. I also needed to console the pitiful Ainslo, so we all had fun together, which wasted a lot of time…”
The Sand Worm King wanted his own children? They all had fun together? Alright then, it was a mistake for me to ask. It was torture for me to even imagine the scene. It would seem that the Earth Elemental Plane, one of the foundational pillars of the all planes, would perhaps become Beifeng’s nest, with countless of his descendants taking over that entire world. Just imagining this made me terrified. I mentally decided to never visit the Earth Elemental Plane again.
And so I angrily shouted at him.
“…I’ve changed my mind! I’m going to give you a great task right now. Go to the Eternal Thunder tribe here and act as my ambassador. Yep, they all have your favorite: beastmen heads. You can play with them however you want. Just get as far away from me as possible!”