Then let them offer their loyalty!

This was indeed a bit hard for Qiu Tu to imagine...

However, Mu Ye particularly enjoys spreading false information to incite unrest within the enemy ranks.

Therefore, Qiu Tu did not dare to believe this information based on Mu Ye's few words.

He decided to advance to the fifth rank first.

Once we advance to the fifth rank and the "Order Space" opens, we'll know whether what Mu Ye said was true or false.

Thinking this, Qiu Tu, who had just finished grinding the powder, stopped testing Mu Ye.

He put the crystal mortar aside, stretched, and said, "Your Highness, what you've told me is indeed quite tempting."

"But... I don't have many ambitions, I just like a simple life."

"Give me a thatched hut, a small plot of land, a kitten, a puppy, and... 20 girlfriends. That's enough."

"So, I appreciate your kind offer."

After saying that, Qiu Tu put the remaining materials into the Gold-Loving Wallet, closed the wallet, and immediately trapped Mu Ye's defeated howls inside, so they could no longer be heard.

After doing all this, Qiu Tu got up, put the powder into a container, and then lit it next to himself!

After lighting the "Tongtian Incense", Qiu Tu sat cross-legged in the center of the six-pointed star, then closed his eyes, calmed his mind, cleared his mind of distractions, and focused his spirit to connect with the regional central hub and earth vein node of the "New Territories City"!

Perhaps because Qiu Tu had gradually refined all the ley lines during this period, communication became incredibly convenient for him.

So, before long, the leyline nodes in the New Territories area slowly lit up.

And Qiu Tu's "regional central nervous system" began to resonate with it.

The "Heavenly Incense" burned slowly, releasing a faint fragrance reminiscent of locust blossoms. Meanwhile, the six fifth-tier "Boundless Divine Crystals" shattered instantly, turning into a pile of powder...

In that instant, the entire six-pointed star ritual was activated, and a thin layer of mist suddenly filled the entire area...

Qiu Tu closed his eyes, initially waiting quietly. Gradually, he felt his body becoming lighter and lighter, as if he were about to fly...

He knew this was a necessary step in the ceremony, so he continued to wait silently.

And so, I don't know how much time passed, maybe half an hour, maybe several hours.

As Qiu Tu gradually felt his body stop moving, he suddenly found a huge map appearing in front of him.

The rest of the map is shrouded in mist, except for a section on the northwestern edge where the fog has lifted.

Among them, three unconnected areas slowly lit up.

In the darkness, Qiu Tu could sense that those were the three regions he had refined: the New Realm, the Dock Sea, and the Desert.

Immediately afterwards, Qiu Tu felt that he could choose one of them to imprint his soul mark.

There was no need to hesitate about that. Qiu Tu directly chose the New Territories area.

As he made his choice, the next second, the other two areas went out, and the lit New Territories area began to fly rapidly toward Qiu Tu!

--------

Two chapters, 10,000 words each, there's a giveaway for monthly tickets, please vote!

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Chapter 485 Successfully Advancing to the Fifth Rank! (10,000 words, requesting monthly votes)

As the area approached him, Qiu Tu opened his arms, waiting to merge with it and resonate with it!

The area was fast-moving and arrived quickly, so in just an instant, it was right in front of Qiu Tu.

What used to look like just a cookie turned out to be as big as a giant, glowing wall in front of Qiu Tu.

Qiu Tu placed his hand on it.

The hand touches the "wall," and the next second...

"Plop," "Plop," "Plop"...

Qiu Tu felt as if everything around him had been ripped away, and all he could hear was the pounding of his own heart.

In a daze, he felt as if he had become the New Territories, and the New Territories were him...

It seemed as if he flew over the underground base, skimmed across the stream where Larilu bathed, and passed through the ancient tree that Yiyi had transformed into...

He is the wind, the rain, the cloud, and the sun.

It's... the New Territories!

The regional central core slowly melted away during this process, directly absorbed by him, and completely merged with him. In a mysterious way, he seemed to be able to connect with the New Territories and its leyline nodes solely through his own power...

And the power of the New Territories region seems to be layering upon layer upon layer upon him...

He gradually became immersed in it...

......

at the same time.

Just as Qiu Tu was advancing to the fifth-tier Cataclysm, various cities in Dongye Prefecture were also paying close attention to him.

Dongcheng City, Parliament Building. Deputy Speaker's Office.

Unlike the other bright deputy speaker's offices, this office's large windows were covered with two layers of thick curtains, completely blocking out the outside light.

It's noon now, and the sun is shining brightly outside, but the office is still completely dark.

There were no other light sources in the entire office except for a desk lamp placed on the large desk, which emitted a faint glow.

Moreover... the light was dimmed, only illuminating a small area about the size of a palm on the desk.

Yan Chen sat in the shadows behind the desk, only his silhouette vaguely visible...

The atmosphere in the entire office was unusually quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

He sat there quietly for an unknown amount of time. Suddenly, there was a loud knocking in Yan Chen's office.

Yan Chen said in a hoarse voice, "Go in."

The next second, the door was pushed open from the outside. A face as pure as an angel appeared in the doorway.

It was none other than Yan Chen's daughter, Yan Yan.

Entering the office, she closed the door behind her and softly called out to Yan Chen, who was in the shadows, "Dad."

Yan Chen said calmly, "When you're at work, you should use your job title."

Yan Yan's face showed a hint of sadness, but she still called out, "Yes, Speaker Yan."

Yan Chen hummed in agreement, then asked, "How is the situation?"

Yan Yan said, "Qiu Tu... Speaker Qiu went to Langyue City and then entered the Langyue region."

"Because without his approval, our people dare not enter the Langyue area to investigate."

"But... he should have already started advancing by now."

At this point, Yan Yan asked, "Speaker Yan... do you intend to deal with him the way Qiu Tu did to you?"

The "that" that Yan Yan mentioned clearly refers to the time when Qiu Tu interrupted Yan Chen's advancement to the fourth rank and severed Yan Chen's destiny.

However, Yan Chen, who was in the shadows, remained silent for a moment when he heard his daughter say this.

Then he reached out his wrinkled hand from the darkness and picked up a cigarette case from the mahogany desk, using the light from the circle of lamps on the table.

Then he slowly pulled a cigarette from the pack and put it in his mouth.

"Snap! Snap!" The sound of several matches being struck.

The next second, a flame burst forth in the dark office.

Yan Chen lit a cigarette, gently shook the match to extinguish the flame, and then slowly said, "Interrupt? Why interrupt?"

He seemed to be asking a question in return, or perhaps asking himself, "Yan Yan, what happens when an enemy cannot be defeated?"

"We don't necessarily have to be his enemy, do we?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Yan was slightly taken aback, and then asked, "Dad...you don't plan to go against Qiu Tu?"

Yan Chen took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling two plumes of smoke from his nose, and said with a distant gaze, "When he was the deputy minister, I was no match for him when I was the director."

"He's the speaker now, and I'm the deputy speaker. Do you really think... I can outmaneuver him?"

"Moreover, if we put ourselves in his shoes, if our roles had been reversed, I might have done the same thing as him, trying every possible way to pull me down."

"After all... at that time, we had really reached the point where it was a matter of life and death for each other."

"And now..."

At this point, Yan Chen chuckled softly and shook the matchbox.

“I kept a low profile for a few months and noticed that Qiu Tu was about to rise to prominence. The shelter needed an opportunity to check him, so I spent a lot of effort and resources to volunteer myself.”

"No, it's true... I really want to continue fighting with him."

"At most, I just superficially oppose him and put on a show for the higher-ups."

"Privately... he's my superior; whatever he says, I do..."

Upon hearing Yan Chen's words, a hint of disappointment was clearly visible in Yan Yan's eyes, but she managed to conceal it well.

She said, "Speaker, you are right. I was just being too naive."

Yan Chen, who was in the shadows, reached out a hand, waved it casually, and said, "It's nothing, you can go back to keeping an eye on things."

After saying that, Yan Chen said in a hoarse voice, "I made you my secretary this time to give you a transition period and to polish your resume."

"Be prepared, I may assign you a new position at any time."

"Yes, Speaker," Yan Yan replied, her angelic face filled with a sincere smile...

With the office door closing, Yan Chen was once again left alone in the office.

Half of his face was hidden in darkness, while the other half remained completely expressionless...

"Qiu Tu...you deserve to die, you really deserve to die..."

"They even dared to touch my daughter."

"Do you really think I'm a sick cat?!"

Then, thinking back to the clone of his wife that he had inadvertently seen coming out of Qiu Tu's office earlier that day, Yan Chen's eyes even turned bloodshot...

......

at the same time.

Qiming City, Military Headquarters.

A thin, bamboo-like man in a military green uniform with a gold star on his shoulder was staring at the intelligence report in his hand with a grim expression.

The more I looked at him, the angrier he became!

Finally, he slammed the intelligence report onto the table with a fierce motion, "A fifth-tier Cataclysmic being?!"

"How did he manage to advance to the fifth-tier Cataclysm?"

"My brother doesn't even have the resources to advance to a fifth-tier Cataclysm, so why should he!"

The man's expression was sinister, and he looked somewhat fierce. "First, they stole my brother's position as speaker, and then they stole the resources that allowed my brother to advance to the fifth rank. Do they really think our Shao family is just sitting around doing nothing?"

........

at the same time.

In the disaster zone, at the market, snowflakes are falling.

On the dilapidated streets of the market, a thin, malnourished man with needle marks on his arms was pulling a flatbed cart, walking step by step along the dirty and chaotic street.

His wife, disheveled and recently sold into prostitution, sat in the car. She held a child wrapped in a blanket in her arms.

Those were their children who had just frozen to death...

Their eyes were red-rimmed, their expressions were blank, and their faces were streaked with tears...

A figure hurried past them without glancing at them. After all, in the disaster zone, such combinations were all too common, not even surprising.

Arriving at a dilapidated courtyard, a figure gently knocked on the door with three long knocks and two short knocks.

The next second, the door creaked open.