This kind of event, rare for decades, had actually been encountered by Wang Lan. But having already experienced something as extraordinary as opening the Demon World's gate with the Time-Space Gemstone, facing an asteroid collision didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

The volunteer group and the Black Tiger Army both returned to camp for rest and reorganization. Successfully closing two Different Dimensional Spaces should have been an unprecedented victory for the Kingdom of Ice and Snow. But this victory didn't incite an all-out celebration among its citizens.

Two were closed, but three still remained. Unless all five Different Dimensional Spaces were shut down, even a single one could easily destroy the already shattered Kingdom of Ice and Snow.

In the royal palace of the Kingdom of Ice and Snow, King Cain repeatedly urged the Foreign Minister to inquire with the International Security Council about the asteroid's status. All the while, he ceaselessly wiped the copious sweat from his forehead.

Survival was too difficult!

Barely scraping by for twelve years under the fangs and claws of Exotic Beasts, they had scarcely seen a glimmer of hope before an asteroid, like the reaper's call, loomed over the Kingdom of Ice and Snow.

Although the chances of the asteroid falling were only ten percent, and even if it did fall, the odds of it hitting the Kingdom of Ice and Snow were one in tens of thousands. But what if?

"What if" had tormented King Cain for twelve years.

Back then, he also believed that the Kingdom of Ice and Snow would not open a Different Dimensional Space, but it happened nonetheless. At that time, Cain thought that if the Kingdom of Ice and Snow did open a Different Dimensional Space, there would be at most one. But in the end? Six were opened in succession.

Even if he didn't want to believe it, over the years, Cain had always felt that the Kingdom of Ice and Snow must have been cursed by the God of Heaven. Otherwise, why would such bad luck, which hit no other countries, befall the Kingdom of Ice and Snow time and again?

"BANG—" The office door was suddenly thrust open, and Prince Kester rushed into Cain's office with urgent strides.

"Big brother, what are you doing? We've closed two Different Dimensional Spaces. We should push our advantage and close the remaining three. Why are you here listening to the radio? Haven't you seen that the people from Jade Country have already returned to camp to rest?"

"I've seen it. But Kester, don't you know there's an asteroid above our heads?"

"My God, it's a one-in-a-million chance! What are you worried about? Instead of worrying about an asteroid falling from the sky, you should be more concerned about the possibility of Exotic Beasts suddenly breaking free from all the Different Dimensional Spaces. Big brother, go push the people from Jade Country. We can take care of the remaining spaces—Numbers One, Three, and Four—within a week, and our nation can rise from the ashes."

"'The stone in the sky is not the key issue. The biggest problem is… we have no more money.' Cain's face showed bitterness as he spread his hands. 'The Minister of Finance just came to see me, telling me that hiring mercenaries has exhausted all our savings, and there is less than a hundred thousand left in the national treasury.'"

"Out of money?"

"Out of money! After this battle, all one thousand surviving mercenaries have chosen to leave. We must immediately hire a new batch of mercenaries, but we can't even afford to pay one person for a day. If we rely solely on Jade Country's volunteer group... the possibility of successfully closing the three spaces is slim. Wasn't a mercenary the one who discovered the node of Space Two?"

"What about a loan?"

"Most international banks are unwilling to lend to us. Just a moment ago, I secured a loan of one hundred million Green Currency from Citibank in White Eagle Country, using the Kerweite Region's energy mines as collateral."

"That's robbery! Damn it, can't we get a loan from Jade Country?"

"Jade Country doesn't have an international bank, and the loan process takes a long time. The banks in White Eagle Country can transfer the funds within seventy-two hours. This way, we can continue to recruit mercenaries. Moreover, this time the price might have to go up to ten Jade Coins a day."

"'Did you sign the contract?' Kester asked, his gaze as fierce as a bloodthirsty demon, his tone dark."

"Not yet. Their fax will be sent over soon."

"Don't you dare sign!" Kester spoke through gritted teeth.

"Don't sign? If we don't, where will we get the money? With what will we hire Star Martial Warriors?"

"I said don't sign! That is the Kingdom of Ice and Snow's last hope for revival. If you sign it, the Kingdom of Ice and Snow won't have a chance to recover for the next hundred years. A hundred years later, what may be left is only devastation. Don't sign. The Kingdom of Ice and Snow is the inheritance left to us by our ancestors. We can't let it be destroyed in our hands."

Challenged by Kester's questioning and bellow, Cain's expression suddenly became somber.

He slammed the table and stood up fiercely. "If we can't even survive the coming year, what's the point of talking about a hundred years from now? If we don't sign, where will we get the money?"

"I'll figure something out!" Kester said coldly, throwing down those words. He gave Cain a deep look and turned to leave.

「By noon,」 the International Astronomical Observatory gave the authoritative result: in the next three hours, the asteroid would enter the gravitational tug-of-war magnetic field between Sky Blue Star and the moon. It would be crushed into dust by the gravitational forces within the magnetic field.

Upon receiving this outcome, not only the Kingdom of Ice and Snow but the whole world heaved a sigh of relief. An asteroid collision, no matter where it fell, was a cause for global concern. Who knew what it might trigger?

Especially since the Arctic region had a long line of volcanic activity. The Kingdom of Ice and Snow was located on this volcanic range, basking in eternal spring, which created this uniquely beautiful country.

The asteroid crisis was averted, but the volunteer group needed at least three more days of rest to be operational again. Injuries required three days to heal, but what was chiefly lacking was cannon fodder.

This wasn't Jade Country's home turf. There was no reason for the volunteer group to risk their lives in small teams to search for and destroy space nodes. This battle strategy was very risky; it was possible that seven or eight teams could be lost to close a single Different Dimensional Space.

They're not my parents, so why should I try so hard?

Enjoying some rare downtime, Wang Lan followed everyone's habit of engaging in combat training when there was nothing much to do, discussing the techniques of using Star Martial Skills with others. He started with enthusiasm, but after a while, he found it boring again.

Skills that others struggled desperately to master came to Wang Lan as if by instinct. However, if asked to explain how, he could only grasp it intuitively but couldn't put it into words.

It wasn't that Wang Lan was hiding his own shortcomings. He genuinely didn't know how to articulate it. The drawback of adding points had finally emerged: experience gained from adding points couldn't be shared with others. To share it, one would have to use Spiritual Engraving. But Wang Lan wasn't so generous as to selflessly share the skills he had learned with such effort.

Although the process of adding points wasn't hard, the process of earning those skill points was still quite tough.

Even though three Different Dimensional Spaces remained unclosed, they had ultimately achieved a great victory. Thus, tonight's dinner was exceptionally lavish, with each person receiving five pounds of beef. In the Kingdom of Ice and Snow, it was a luxury to eat meat and drink alcohol to one's content. Discipline meant no alcohol, but they truly enjoyed the meat.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP—" Suddenly, his cellphone rang, and Wang Lan's expression changed slightly.

It was a notification from the work cellphone of the Tianjian Bureau. Since arriving in the Kingdom of Ice and Snow, this phone had been basically out of commission, its only function being to check the time.

Wang Lan discreetly pulled out the cellphone, glanced at the message, and silently put it back in his pocket.

Having been in the Kingdom of Ice and Snow for over ten days, the Tianjian Bureau field agent Ming Baiye had mentioned had never contacted Wang Lan, leading him to wonder if the mission had been canceled outright.

After dinner, in the deep quiet of the night, Wang Lan donned a face-changing mask and, relying on his excellent stealth techniques, successfully evaded the camp's sensors and left.

The rendezvous point was in a midnight bar in Ice City. Even though Ice City had reached desperate straits, entertainment still flickered like stars. Especially in the Arctic Ocean region, it seemed as if people lost their purpose to live if they didn't drink alcohol.

Therefore, bars were probably the best-surviving industry among all forms of leisure and entertainment in the Kingdom of Ice and Snow.

Following a pre-arranged script, Wang Lan made contact with the other party quite smoothly. The person, wearing a harmless-looking face, gave Wang Lan a toothy smile.

"I have no name. You may call me Number 31. This face has been surgically altered. The original owner of this face was a foreign affairs steward of the Duanmu Family. He planned to quietly escape from Jade Country through concealed channels, but we apprehended him.

"All the clues and evidence I have gathered will be duplicated and stored in the safe house. If everything goes smoothly and the mission is completed, I will return to my country, and you won't need to do anything. But if something happens to me, you can go to the safe house, retrieve the evidence and clues, and then continue the investigation."

"Is this meeting purely a meet-up, or is there... a mission?"

Wang Lan didn't like the current state of secrecy, which made it seem like he was a spy. Although Wang Lan was indeed a spy, he preferred to operate openly and honorably.

"No mission, but I have some information to pass on to you. The sellers here have finally contacted me. They urgently need to sell twelve tons of Space Stone, pricing it at two hundred million."

"Twelve tons? Have they gone mad?"

"That's why I feel this deal is somewhat unusual, but it is, after all, the best opportunity to make contact with our target. I have a safe house in the Kingdom of Ice and Snow. This is the safe house's address and the key.

Wang Lan solemnly took the envelope the other party handed him. "Need any help?"

"No need. Your job is just to be a backup. There's a high probability that I will complete the mission successfully. I've done missions like this dozens of times; it's second nature to me."

Wang Lan looked deeply at the other person. Even though the face was fake, Wang Lan oddly felt a sort of sacred radiance from him.

"Alright!"

"I'll go first. Have another drink and leave half an hour later," he said, downing the drink in front of him, waving his hand casually, and walking away.

Stepping out of the bar, the alley outside was pitch black. There were neither streetlights nor pedestrians. Wang Lan slowly made his way back to the camp, retracing his steps.

Even in the capital, nighttime Ice City was as dark as deathly silence, its occasional flickering lights unable to illuminate the city.

"BOOM—"

Suddenly, a loud explosion sounded.

Along with the explosion, a strong wave of Star Energy Fluctuation swept through.

Wang Lan furrowed his brow tightly and paused. He had secretly left the camp to engage in espionage; someone in his position really shouldn't meddle. But he still stopped, hesitating.

The intensity of this Star Energy Fluctuation had reached the Star Sea realm. In all of Ice City, there were only a few people with Star Sea realm strength, all closely related to Wang Lan. Was it one of the academy's teachers fighting someone?

After hardly two seconds of hesitation, Wang Lan suddenly leaped forward, his form turning into a streak of light as he rushed toward the direction of the explosion.

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