Weapon seller in the world of magic

Shang Jun furrowed his brows for a moment before becoming calm once again. "Then, you can proceed with whatever formation you have. I won't be admitting defeat."

"Fine, it is your wish…"

Meanwhile, Steve, Fu Sheng, and even the zheng were watching the scene from the shadows, just in case an unexpected immortal or a demigod came to save Shang Jun and attack the soldiers. It was also the final trap laid by Mark.

If no one comes, the war will be over. If someone will come, then, these three would be enough to sort out the situation.

With them keeping an eye on the scene, Mark was enjoying royal delicacies with Song Yue and others in the Western Moon kingdom.

He had eaten those dishes quite often, but today, they tasted better than ever.

Almost 3 months of patience and careful planning without getting suspected as the mastermind is finally coming to an end at the Phoenix Empire. He could see himself finally moving on from the hatred that was deeply rooted in his heart because of an injustice to Lu Zhen.

While he is in the middle of eating, a scroll made of energy suddenly appears in front of his eyes, taking everyone by surprise.

"It's an emergency message," commented the King.

Mark, however, widened his mouth to give out a smile, "It is from Steve. Nothing to worry. I guess he must have a good piece of…"

The scroll opened and letters appeared on it. Mark's face froze in an instant. His hands shivered and his eyes fluttered for a moment.

Everyone turned tense as they saw his expression.

"What happened?" As Song Yue grabbed his shivered arm, Mark gritted his teeth, "that bastard… Shang Jun… He… He… I need to live right now."

Without giving any sort of explanation, Mark opened a portal right in front of everyone and walked into it, disappearing from their sight.

Half a minute ago, at the imperial city of Phoenix Empire;

As soon as Lt. Zhou made his move by clashing his spear with Bai Xun's fist, eight spiky pillars, each atleast a hundred meters long, erupted from the ground before getting connected to each other by a wall of golden energy and encompassing the entire city of 324 sq. km of area.

Even his own allies were shocked by this move. Not even Bai Xun expected it. His battle with Lt. Zhou was momentarily stopped and they stared at the golden ceiling.

"What technique is this?" Lt. Wang, the other 8-circle realm warrior exclaimed. "It's a trap."

Shang Jun's words then echoed in the surroundings, "I can't commit suicide to escape but that doesn't mean I can't order my friends to kill me. Since I'm going to die anyways, I will leave nothing behind for that dear cousin of mine to rule. You have like 13 more seconds to live."

"Your Majesty…" Bai Xun's voice roared like a clap of thunder as the high-quality semi-divine grade bow appeared in his hands, almost making the warriors trapped shiver. It was probably the first time he had ever been enraged by the Emperor's actions. "You actually planned on committing such a crime against humanity. Release it right now."

Shang Jun cast a side-long glance at the Supreme Commander with a calm expression, "Sorry but the die has been cast. There is no stopping what's to come."

"You…" He conjured an energy arrow using all of his ether energy between his fingertips and aimed at the ceiling. However, just as he drew it back, strange energy was released from the pillars.

"This…" Steve, who was watching it, tried to make his move.

However, his hand was grabbed by the zheng before creating a barrier over the three of them. Fu Sheng wanted to go ahead and warn his subordinates but the attack from this ancient formation laid beforehand was faster than what Shang Jun even claimed earlier.

In just a matter of seconds, demigod-level energy was released by the pillars, turning everything into dust.

Apart from Steve, Fu Sheng, and the zheng, everything was disintegrated into dust.

As Mark walked out of the portal, he found himself on flat ground.

There are no buildings, no palace, no trees, no people, and not even the lakes. The entire imperial city transformed into a flat barren land.

"System, where am I?" He couldn't help but ask.

*Ding! Imperial City, Phoenix Empire.

"So, Steve was telling the truth? That darned motherfuc*er…" He could only curse out loud in frustration, and momentarily direct his intense hatred against the system. "You heartless parasite, you didn't even give me any notification or quest or anything when such a big thing happened here. Millions of people vanished out of thin air…"

*Ding! You have already been warned, Host. Don't blame the system for your incompetence.

"You warned me? When?" he roared in his head.

*Ding! 37 days ago

After sending the reply, the system further opened the Quest panel on its own to show the emergency quest that was modified, six weeks ago.

Emergency Quest: Stop the Undertaking

Description: The Church of Doom is planning to sacrifice 10 million lives and use their souls to resurrect their founder. Multiple formations were launched all over the Vermillion Bird continent. Stop the ritual by killing the current Supreme Pontiff before the resurrection happens.

Sacrifices so far: 9,495,677

Estimate time limit: 12 days

Reward: Battle Android (Rank-9)

"Hmm?" Mark instantly frowned as he looked at the details, which changed a lot from the original quest that supposedly targeted Western Moon, and the reward of Rank-7 Android was promised.

"I believe the reward has been changed from what I remember," Mark responded with a comment. He saw the modified quest a few weeks ago too but the reward wasn't changed. Hence, he didn't try to complete the quest and focused on the civil war.

The system gave its reasoning for that too.

*Ding! The Supreme Pontiff's strength has increased to the true demigod realm in the meantime (equivalent to 10.5 stats). Hence, the upgrade in reward.

"Then, why didn't you inform me?" As Mark blamed the system once again, the latter sent a stark reply.

*Ding! If not for the fact that the Host ignored the mission because of the reward that the host deemed not worth enough, millions of lives wouldn't have been lost. Emergency Quests are termed Emergency Quests because they need to be completed as soon as possible.

Mark couldn't help but stay silent as he was scolded by the system for being lazy and greedy for putting rewards above the lives of people.

Deep inside, he also knew that while he was angry that so many lives vanished in an instant due to his negligence, he was also deeply disappointed that his plans had gone awry. There's also the fact that his store was gone in the incident.

Now, unless he catches Shang Jun, he can never reveal his connection to this civil war.

In the end, he only let out a long sigh, "Fine, it's my mistake. Atleast, help me find that bastard."

The system obliged his request right away. For the first time, the system created a quest after Mark asked it.

*Ding! Emergency Quest has been triggered.

Quest: Capture Shang Jun

Description: Shang Jun has committed a crime against humanity, killing millions of innocents without any motive or reasoning. Capture Shang Jun and punish him for his sins with the Divine Throne.

Reward: Memory Erasure Card (One time use).

"Memory Erasure card?" Mark didn't expect there to be a reward for it too.