Chapter 10: The Fall Guy
Inside the meteor crater, the chaotic battle among the contractors had ceased. With the space-time power condensates gone, naturally no one continued fighting.
The four factions each occupied an area. The Death Paradise faction and the Sanctuary sect were on the southeast side, the Reincarnation Paradise faction on the west, and the Holy Light Paradise faction's dozens of people were at the center of the crater. It was no exaggeration to say they had been surrounded and beaten.
"It's gone."
A contractor with a severed arm spoke. Among the hundreds of contractors present, there were some highly skilled perception-type individuals, yet none of them detected anything unusual.
Blending into the environment was Bubu Wang's core ability, so it naturally wouldn't be easily discovered. This created the current situation.
The sound of chaotic footsteps came. Nameless Saint and over three hundred contractors from the Apocalypse Paradise faction arrived. As soon as Nameless Saint arrived, a figure appeared behind him, as if hiding in his shadow.
This blurry figure briefly explained things to Nameless Saint, who immediately thought of a possibility. In an instant, a man holding a long blade and his follower appeared in his mind.
Nameless Saint's gaze swept around, and soon he found a familiar figure, who happened to look back at him.
"Made!"
"What is it, Saint?"
A serious-faced old man looked at Nameless Saint. Yes, his name was Made.
"I wasn't calling you."
Nameless Saint's mood was absolutely terrible. During the Strongest Contender Battle, Su Xiao had forced him back, and the healer he had tricked into joining him had become someone else's as soon as the fight started.
After that battle, Nameless Saint was frustrated, but he thought the chances of meeting that enemy again were slim, so his mood quickly improved.
Under the blessing of Murphy's Law, Nameless Saint successfully encountered Su Xiao in the arena. Nameless Saint chose to endure it and directly forfeited.
And now, in the Sixth Rank Strongest Contender Battle, he met Su Xiao again. This gave Nameless Saint the feeling that as long as he didn't die, he would meet this guy again next time.
Thinking of this, Nameless Saint felt melancholic. Although he wasn't afraid of dying in battle, he didn't want to die either.
Just as this thought appeared in Nameless Saint's mind, a plan flashed through his head. He now had over 300 contractors behind him, the Sanctuary sect had about 200, Death Paradise had over 150, and Holy Light Paradise had less than 30. Originally 50, after being surrounded and attacked for a while, nearly half were dead or injured.
Not only that, Nameless Saint clearly knew that their subsequent 400-plus people would arrive within a few minutes. The Sanctuary sect and Death Paradise were in similar situations, and the main force of Holy Light Paradise would arrive even faster.
In other words, within a few minutes, over 1,500 contractors would gather here. Excluding the 200-plus from Reincarnation Paradise, there would be at least 1,300 contractors left.
Among these 1,300 contractors, the Death Paradise faction and the Sanctuary sect were powerful, and Holy Light Paradise had many healing-type contractors.
If these people united to besiege the Reincarnation Paradise faction, victory was certain.
Many thoughts flashed through Nameless Saint's mind. He could confirm that the missing space-time power condensate had been taken by the Reincarnation Paradise faction. Moreover, Reincarnation Paradise often won World Domination Battles. With just one trigger, the other three factions would definitely be willing to unite with their Apocalypse Paradise to besiege Reincarnation Paradise.
An opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He might even use this chance to eliminate his strongest enemy, Reincarnation Paradise's Bai Ye.
Nameless Saint no longer hesitated. He took a deep breath and was about to roar.
"Saint, we got it! Retreat!"
A sharp shout came from behind Nameless Saint. The sound he was about to roar was choked back. His first reaction was that a contractor from another paradise had infiltrated their ranks, but thinking about it, this seemed unlikely. Due to the brand, the aura of each paradise's contractor was slightly different and could be easily sensed.
"The space-time crystal is with the Apocalypse faction. Attack them."
"We got it? Who did it? Show it."
"Here."
A man wearing a hood raised his arm, and in his hand was the space-time power condensate.
"Retreat, we got it."
Before Nameless Saint could give orders, the contractors behind him bolted. Whoever grabbed the space-time power condensate became the target of everyone. If they didn't run, they could only wait to be beaten.
Chaotic running sounds, various abilities whistling through the air, explosions hitting the crowd. Some unlucky contractors were blasted away.
For a moment, the scene was chaotic again. The Apocalypse Paradise faction's hundreds of people quickly scattered, and the Reincarnation Paradise faction also spread out to pursue. The Sanctuary sect and the other two factions did the same.
In this situation, the Apocalypse Paradise faction wouldn't gather together. They had the most people. As long as they scattered, even if pursued, they could outnumber their attackers.
It turned out that this large-scale chase battle was more dangerous than a massive group fight. Some unlucky contractors were surrounded and attacked by multiple factions, quickly turning into bloody corpses.
Watching the battle group push into the distance, the old man's face was full of smiles. As soon as Nameless Saint appeared, the old man judged that the other party was very likely to use this opportunity to unite with the other three factions to besiege them.
The reason the old man had targeted Death Paradise first was precisely because of the current situation. Among the other four factions, no matter which one obtained the space-time power condensate, as long as their main force arrived, the battle would basically be over.
There was more than one space-time power condensate. Fighting hard for this one wasn't worth it, and all five factions knew this.
The only exception was if the Reincarnation Paradise faction obtained the space-time power condensate. Once they got it, they would immediately be besieged, and the other four factions would attack with all their might.
In previous World Domination Battles, Reincarnation Paradise had won too many times. The contractors of the other four factions couldn't help but be wary. If they wanted to win this time, the first thing to do was to find an opportunity to jointly besiege the Reincarnation Paradise faction and eliminate them from the competition.
The chaotic battle stopped after more than ten minutes. On the grassland, after the two large groups of the Apocalypse Paradise faction merged, the contractors of the other factions all retreated. There was no need to continue pursuing. This space-time power condensate now belonged to the Apocalypse Paradise.
A slightly bloody breeze blew. Nameless Saint stood with one foot on the head of a Death Paradise contractor. His palm faced downward, and a compressed flame shot out from his palm, piercing the enemy's heart.
"Who shouted just now?"
Nameless Saint looked around at his fellow contractors. Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Where is the space-time power condensate?"
Nameless Saint's question was still unanswered, and no one produced the space-time power condensate.
"Did we... escape for nothing? Didn't we get the space-time crystal?"
Rainbow Bird's eyes were somewhat confused. After learning that one of their members had obtained the space-time power condensate, she had immediately led the retreat.
"We were set up."
Nameless Saint was like a volcano about to erupt, calm on the surface but hiding violent anger inside.
"I saw it with my own eyes. One of our people was holding the space-time crystal. He was definitely an Apocalypse contractor. How were we set up?"
This question from Rainbow Bird touched on Nameless Saint's blind spot. He also wanted to know how they were set up. It felt like someone had long anticipated the situation when the first space-time crystal was discovered.
Moreover, that person had even found a way to delay the Apocalypse Paradise faction's people. Unless they were the first to discover the space-time crystal, their main force would definitely be the last to arrive. All of this was the result of someone's planning, meant to make the Apocalypse Paradise faction the fall guy.
The previous situation was clearly that the Apocalypse Paradise faction happily took the blame, carrying that big black pot on their backs before scattering and being chased by the other four factions.
What was even more frustrating was that after becoming the fall guy, Nameless Saint couldn't figure out where the problem lay. Had there been a traitor among them?
Nameless Saint dismissed this thought. If there were internal problems, there was no point in fighting.
In reality, this was the old man's plan. He had set up two triggers beforehand. The plan was as follows: