Chapter 55: Ge Xiaolun: What? Ton was sold?

This was already the second day after the Xiongbinglian officially began their training.

Since the initial phase was still focused on getting new recruits like Liu Chuang and Zhao Xin familiar with the use of dark energy alongside basic physical conditioning, Ge Xiaolun would only join in for the running sessions. For the rest of the time, he would temporarily leave the team to catch up on reading the data he had obtained from Teacher Rui and Ling Feng.

Although Leona held the title of instructor, apart from briefly teaching the Xiongbinglian warriors some basic applications of dark energy, she was more than happy to dump all sorts of trivial matters onto Du Qiangwei, who served as the squad leader.

On the verdant grassland, the gentle breeze was just right.

"Looking for help, huh?"

Seeing Ge Xiaolun's strange look, Leona returned it with an equally curious gaze. "Even though they might make a lot of demands on you, or harbor designs on Earth's sovereignty and interests, you should at least give it a try... Besides, don't you have that sound-proofing ability? Turn it on."

As she spoke, she suddenly gave Ge Xiaolun a slight nudge.

Sound-proofing ability.

She wasn't just speaking blindly here, nor was it something she had learned about just today.

After all, ever since the first day he moved into the Super Academy, Ge Xiaolun and Su Xiaoli had been rooming together.

Yet from that day up until the last couple of nights, she and the rest of the Xiongbinglian warriors had never once heard any strange noises coming from Ge Xiaolun's room.

This was clearly some kind of sound-insulation ability belonging to Ge Xiaolun, rather than the two of them living lives of ascetic purity every single night... She had even mentally pictured just how many corners of that single room their nightly battles had reached.

As for the principle behind it, she wasn't stupid—Anti-Void, obviously.

Hearing this, Ge Xiaolun nodded and flicked his wrist. An invisible, one-way information-shielding layer enveloped both him and Leona.

This was merely a necessary little trick, though the version he deployed at night would also block many other forms of detection.

After all, for one thing, he didn't want either himself or Xiaoli to be abruptly intruded upon by anyone; for another, he didn't want Xiaoli's nightly singing voice to drive the people in the neighboring rooms crazy with frustration.

Right now, however, Leona naturally wanted him to block any potential surveillance from the sky.

"Why do you care about this?"

Ge Xiaolun continued to address Leona's previous point. "If you guys at Leiyang suddenly decide to pull your support, the most you need to do is give me a heads-up in advance."

He hadn't expected Leona to suddenly care about this matter.

Nor did he really wish to bring it up.

After all, for the past two days, he had been deliberately playing the matter down, hoping that everyone would just forget about it entirely.

"But... right now," Leona frowned slightly, thinking for a moment before speaking, "we should consider ourselves allies now, right?"

Ge Xiaolun nodded faintly. "Clearly, ever since the night before yesterday, both of us have viewed it that way."

Although today was the first time Leona had proactively brought up the topic since that night, the two of them had maintained a tacit understanding over the past couple of days.

Hearing his words, Leona's spirits instantly lifted, and the stone that had been weighing on her heart finally dropped into place.

"So, since we're allies, I'm more than happy to see you secure even more outside assistance!" Leona stated candidly.

"Oh, is that so?" Ge Xiaolun finally understood, though he quickly changed the subject. "Still, you don't need to worry about that. I know what I'm doing."

At the moment, he really didn't want to talk about the Angels.

Especially after the night before last—upon a little reflection afterward, he realized that the more brilliant his performance, the more addicted Angel Yan and the others would likely become, perhaps even resorting to peeping at him around the clock.

Just thinking about it made his teeth ache.

Because of this, he hadn't wanted to stir up any trouble over the past two days, fearing that Angel Yan would get hooked and refuse to leave.

***

However, a moment later, Leona hesitated and said, "Then you can probably guess my situation and my objective, right?"

She looked at Ge Xiaolun earnestly, opening her heart to him like never before.

"Powerful officials seizing power, subordinates rebelling against their superiors, supreme authority falling into other hands, a young monarch amid a suspicious nation." Ge Xiaolun looked back at her with equal seriousness. "That's not exactly an unusual script over here on Earth."

He tried to describe the things his current status should afford him to see as objectively as possible.

Hearing his words, Leona's usually sunny expression grew slightly complicated. She took a soft breath and said, "While my situation might not quite qualify as a suspicious nation, everything else you said is spot on."

"To put it bluntly, then, your ultimate goal is to acquire the power that can help you seize control of Leiyang." Ge Xiaolun had no intention of beating around the bush.

Leona's spirits soared; she was growing quite fond of Ge Xiaolun's straightforwardness.

After a brief moment of thought, she suddenly extended her right hand with high-spirited vigor, her burning gaze locked onto Ge Xiaolun. "Then, Power of the Galaxy, are you willing to form an alliance with the Sun of God? Someday in the future, will you help me purge the traitors and restore the righteous order of Leiyang? Before that day comes, I am willing to do everything in my power to assist you and help your Earth survive the coming heavenly tribulation. Here we swear to forge an eternal alliance, never to betray one another."

Her sudden display of solemn devotion brought a look of amused interest to Ge Xiaolun's face.

He genuinely hadn't expected the little sun goddess to have such a severe case of middle-schooler syndrome.

Looking at her fair, slender hand, he smiled, waved dismissively, and said, "I have no interest in alliances."

"Wh—What?!" Leona looked as though she had been struck by lightning, staring at Ge Xiaolun in sheer disbelief.

No matter how she had calculated and anticipated this moment over the past two days, she never could have imagined such an outcome!

Then what on earth was that night before last supposed to mean between her and Ge Xiaolun?

Had she... just been taken advantage of for free?

"It seems you still don't understand me very well," Ge Xiaolun said, finding amusement in her thunderstruck expression as he continued unhurriedly. "Not only do I dislike having my own sovereignty violated, but I also have zero interest in meddling in the sovereign affairs of others."

Leona froze at his words, her expression softening slightly as she looked at him in confusion.

"I actually dislike relationships like 'allies,' which are hard to quantify," Ge Xiaolun smiled as he watched her. "Rather than calling us allies, I'd much prefer to call you a friend."

Perhaps it was due to some of the memories from his past life.

To him, the word "ally" wasn't really a compliment.

"Whatever help you're willing to offer me now, and whatever assistance Leiyang is currently providing to Earth—if the opportunity arises one day, I will repay you, the Sun of God, in the currency of friendship, or through equivalent value."

"If you feel you're getting the short end of the stick, you're welcome to hang around Earth and have fun whenever you like."

Ge Xiaolun shook his head with a smile. "As for an alliance, let's skip it."

Truth be told, he disliked relationships that came with binding constraints, especially moral ones.

Although he didn't hold the concept of allies in high regard, if he did form an alliance, he would certainly honor the agreement.

And that would severely restrict his freedom of action.

Leona stared at him blankly for a moment, then frowned in bewilderment. "Then how are we supposed to help each other... trade?"

As she spoke, a sudden realization seemed to dawn on her, and her eyes widened as she stared at Ge Xiaolun.

Of course she hadn't forgotten about this; it was a method Ge Xiaolun had explicitly proposed to her, and one they had already put into practice.

It was just that her mind probably hadn't truly accepted this approach yet, leading her to subconsciously default to the most common method used between monarchs.

Seeing this, Ge Xiaolun nodded earnestly. "That's right, trade, or equal cooperation."

"Just like our trade for Soton last time."

He smiled at Leona and continued, "We each take what we need, achieving a win-win result... The only difference is that from now on, I will essentially only trade with you, the Sun of God, rather than the Leiyang Civilization behind you, which you cannot control."

Leona nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this, though she quickly frowned again, unable to help herself. "To be honest with you, Xiaolin, if you mean that kind of trade, you'll probably never encounter a windfall like Soton again, and you don't have any other cards left to play in your hand... At this rate, we won't be able to help each other at all."

It wasn't that she disliked trading with Ge Xiaolun; in fact, the transaction involving Soton was still unforgettable to her.

Even though Pan Zhen's utilitarian remarks had been quite a letdown.

She still remembered the immense mutual benefits and the joy of a mutually satisfying outcome.

"Heh, I have no cards left to play?"

Ge Xiaolun let out a chuckle, looking thoroughly amused by her statement. "Leona, with all due respect, you shouldn't be worrying about me. You should be worrying about whether you actually have anything in your possession that you can afford to part with and that is useful enough for us to trade. Besides, to speak with the benefit of hindsight, if you had possessed actual discretionary power over resources last time, I would have traded Soton directly to you. With a peak-tier beast-body war god under your direct command, wouldn't that have instantly given you a voice in Leiyang?"

The Power of the Galaxy had no cards in his hand?

That was quite literally the funniest joke in the entire super-god universe.

Besides, once he managed to shake off Angel Yan, the cards in his hand would only multiply.

"Huh?!"

Leona froze instantly!

She had still been pondering what kind of cards both she and Ge Xiaolun might have, but upon hearing his next sentence, her mind let out a loud bang as everything suddenly clicked into place!

"That's right!"

Leona's large eyes widened into perfect circles. Why hadn't she thought of that angle?

A powerful war god with a peak-tier beast body!

If that had gone directly under her command back then, wouldn't she have...

"Heh," Ge Xiaolun chuckled, shaking his head with a light click of his tongue as he watched her sudden epiphany. "Too bad I didn't realize back then that you didn't have a shred of resource-control authority. It wasted our transaction and let Soton end up as one of Pan Zhen's soldiers. Think about it carefully—what kind of cards do you actually hold as Leiyang's supreme deity, and can you still scrape together anything useful in Leiyang using your status as the Sun God?"

"Well... actually, it's not like I have zero discretionary power," Leona replied, shaking her head slightly. "It's just that I honestly didn't think of doing it that way back then, turning Soton into my own... Besides, Soton didn't end up under Pan Zhen's command either. When I was arguing on a video call with Pan Zhen the night before yesterday, I heard that old guy turned around and sold him off."

As she spoke, a glint flickered in her eyes.

She had to admit, Ge Xiaolun's words had truly opened the door to a brand-new world for her!

It seemed she really ought to give some serious thought to how she could scrape together a few useful assets in Leiyang...

"Oh?" Ge Xiaolun raised an eyebrow, a flicker of interest in his eyes. "Soton got sold?"

Leona paused, instinctively covering her face with her hands. "Yeah."

She was far too embarrassed to mention that they had made a pretty penny off the deal, too.

Ge Xiaolun's gaze brightened slightly. "Sold to who?"