"Everyone, line up nicely. No need to rush or push. Anyone can get a free slap."
White Snake spread its arms wide, gesturing like it was directing traffic.
Under White Snake's direction, warriors moved the petrified rebels and citizens to the city center, lining them up in two long rows. Then, White Snake spat in its hands, clapped them together firmly, and nodded at Linto.
"Just watch this."
White Snake began to run.
A series of sharp slaps rang out, like firecrackers on Chinese New Year. As it ran past, discs popped out. The warriors following behind quickly caught them, sealed them in black bags, and marked them accordingly for later return to their owners.
The warriors stored the memory-sealed bags together in a safe. A specialized memory reading facility had already been set up behind them, staffed by fifty legal experts. They would write corresponding recommendations based on the memories they read.
To ensure fairness, Linto had written a "command" into the minds of these fifty legal experts:
They were required to enforce the law impartially and, after reviewing all the memories, forget the content they had seen.
At the same time, a reconnaissance team from the Land of Wind was formed to investigate the backgrounds of those killed by the rebels, to determine if they were wicked villains or innocent victims.
After confirming the memories of the killers and the information of the deceased, complex discussions and sentencing might follow, and the entire process could take a very long time.
After all, it involved the lives of tens of thousands of people and their families, so being extremely careful was never too much.
In this entire operation, Linto's job was to extract memories and release everyone from their petrified state. The rest would be left to the professionals from the Water and Wind countries.
The petrification process for ordinary people was not severe. With Linto's control over natural forces, it only took one morning to restore everyone to normal.
Numerous medical personnel entered, examining everyone's physical condition one by one.
Linto left the space to the doctors and walked out of the temporary tents set up on the street.
Due to the city-wide unrest, the signing of the agreement between Linto and the Daimyo of the Land of Wind was postponed to the afternoon, with still an hour or two until it began.
Linto stood at an intersection, looking left and right at the chaotic city, and sighed softly.
Rasa was using his gold dust to hold up a collapsing building, while Gaara stood nearby, wanting to help with his sand, but was scolded by Rasa not to make things worse.
Grandma Chiyo manipulated her puppets, and Kakashi summoned his ninja dogs, searching the city for citizens not yet rescued.
Everyone was busy, except for Amber, who didn't know how to help.
He was good at only two things in his life:
Fishing and killing.
But in this desert city, neither skill was immediately useful. Amber could only walk slowly, looking to see if anyone needed his help.
Passing through a small alley, Amber spotted a little girl dragging a sack.
She looked about seven or eight years old, with pigtails, wearing a dirty dress. The sack in her hands looked almost as big as her. She was squatting on the ground, picking up scraps of meat and putting them into the sack.
Amber walked over, picked up a few pieces of meat, and saw them shimmering with iridescent colors. He then looked at the gasoline flowing on the ground and a Molotov cocktail thrown nearby. He shook his head and tossed the meat scraps away.
"Little girl, this meat has gasoline on it, you can't eat it."
The little girl slowly raised her head, her eyes empty as she looked at Amber's smile, then at the meat scraps thrown into the gutter. Her young voice held little emotion:
"That's my mother."
Amber froze on the spot, his smile frozen on his face, wishing he could slap himself.
"I... this..."
The little girl looked down again to pick up meat, and said in comfort,
"Uncle, it's okay, Mom broke into many pieces."
"I'll keep looking."
Amber clutched his chest.
"I... I really deserve to die!"
Just then, a purple vine wrapped around the meat scraps that had fallen into the gutter. Using it as an anchor point, Hermit Purple's causality ability spread outwards, finding all the bones, flesh, and skin within a dozen meters.
Soon, a dismembered corpse appeared.
Half of its face was destroyed, but from the remaining half, one could still see the gentleness in its eyebrows and eyes.
The little girl, whose eyes were empty, as if she had forgotten her sadness, her gaze vacant, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and the sadness deep in her eyes surged like a dam breaking.
She fell onto her mother's remains and wailed.
Yes, she was just a six-year-old child, how could she understand suppressing grief?
It was just that what she had seen before were only scattered pieces of meat, and she hadn't really grasped the concept of "death."
Linto walked to the roadside and waved. A patrolling warrior hurried over, bowed, and saluted.
Linto pointed to the crying girl and sighed,
"Take care of her."
"Yes."
After the little girl was looked after, Linto and Amber left the alley. All the way, Amber clenched his fists tightly. After a long silence, he asked,
"Lord Linto, can't we... really go and kill the mastermind?"
Linto paused for half a second, then smiled, "Who told you we can't?"
"Huh?"
Now it was Amber's turn to be stunned.
Kurosaki, Mukade, and Monk Hoichi - these three were not weak, but they were not strong either. In all aspects, their power and intelligence were lacking. It was impossible for them to have caused this disaster that affected the entire city of Warsaw.
Everyone knew that the financial consortium was behind it.
But now that Tokugawa Shingen had surrendered, they would have to perpetually extract concessions from the consortium. Amber had previously thought they could only let the main culprits go for now and pursue them at a more opportune time later.
"The reason we couldn't punish the consortium in the past was because they were like cockroaches, hiding in dark corners. It would take too much effort to find them. But now—"
Linto looked at the Daimyo's mansion on the mountainside.
"Since he wants to surrender, he needs to offer a token of his loyalty, doesn't he?"
Given Tokugawa Shingen's deep control over the Land of Wind, finding the mastermind would not be difficult.
"Moreover..."
Linto thought of the little girl he had just seen, carrying a sack and searching for her mother's body.
"We can wait, but sorrow cannot wait."
Time would not erase grief and anger; it would cool them, solidify them, and eventually turn them into a dark, rotten knot in the heart, forever occupying a corner of the soul.
After lunch, the negotiations began.
Linto, Rasa, Grandma Chiyo, and others sat on one side of the long table, while Tokugawa Shingen and the Grand Minister sat on the other, carefully reviewing the agreement drafted by Oda Ieyasu.
The content of the agreement generally included the following points:
Recognition of the independence of Goryeo City.
Reparations for the war of aggression by the Sky Ninja Corps.
Reduction of bilateral tariffs.
Addition of lectures on awakening ideology within the campuses of the Land of Wind.
These four points were the major ones. In addition to these, there were a multitude of minor clauses concerning surrounding city concessions, consular jurisdiction, exclusive resource extraction, financial and monetary regulation, and so on.
Of course, there was also the matter of finding and publicly judging the mastermind who caused the disaster in Goryeo City and Warsaw City.
It wasn't just Tokugawa Shingen himself; even Linto, looking at these clauses, sometimes felt they were too overbearing.
The Grand Minister's face turned flushed, his blood pressure soaring. His hand holding the agreement trembled. If you gave him a ladle, he could go to the cafeteria and pretend to be the server.
He looked at Tokugawa Shingen next to him tremblingly, his voice choked with sobs, saying:
"My lord, we cannot... at least we must change it..."
"I agree to all of the above."
Tokugawa Shingen said, "But I'd like to add one more item."
"Which item?"
"I'll give you another city, Wanmi City, which is three hundred and seventy miles from Goryeo City."
Hearing this, the Grand Minister immediately became anxious.
"My lord, absolutely not!"
Tokugawa Shingen ignored his old minister, and smiled at Linto:
"This city is very wealthy, Mr. Linto. you've traveled a long way, how can I not let you have some startup capital?"
Rasa, sitting beside Linto, said quietly, "Wanmi City is the largest casino in the Land of Wind. Gambling, pornography, and entertainment industries flourish there.
Tens of thousands of tourists come every day to spend their fortunes, dreaming of becoming rich, and then leave with nothing left.
However, in terms of wealth... Wanmi City is indeed very wealthy."
Tokugawa Shingen picked up his pen.
"I wonder, Mr. Linto, this city, do you dare to take it?"
Linto also picked up his pen.
"Take it, why wouldn't I."
The two looked at each other and smiled, each with their own thoughts, and signed the agreement.
Linto pushed the signed agreement over.
The Grand Minister took it, his old face drained of all color.
Linto looked at Tokugawa Shingen. The latter did not push the agreement over, but slowly stood up. The smile on his face faded, replaced by an immense solemnity.
He bowed deeply, raised the agreement over his head with both hands, and across the table, with an extremely humble attitude, presented it to Linto.
Linto quietly looked at Tokugawa Shingen, reached out and took the agreement, and the system prompt he hadn't heard for a long time reappeared:
"Triggered world deviation, obtained 1000 soul fragments, obtained 1 star core of ascension."
As expected, it had arrived.
Linto had initially thought he would receive a star core of ascension after taking Goryeo City, but until Goryeo City stabilized, he did not receive any system notification.
Now, it seemed, this piece of paper was the key to truly changing the world line.
Thirty minutes later, Tokugawa Shingen stood by the window. The Grand Minister was icing his forehead and asked weakly,
"My lord, I agree with your assessment to stall for time and wait for a new turning point, but... Wanmi City, that's one of the Land of Wind's largest sources of tax revenue!"
Tokugawa Shingen watched the retreating figures of Linto and his party.
"I am investing."
"Investing?"
"Wanmi City only has gambling, pornography, and entertainment industries. Apart from these, there are no other industries that can develop in that barren land.
In other words, for Linto to maximize the city's value, he must keep it as it is."
Tokugawa Shingen chuckled:
"On a white t-shirt, the collar and sleeves are the first to get dirty."
"The desert sun is fierce, and the beauties of Wanmi City are lush. I'd like to see if Linto will get dirty."