A World Worth Protecting

The news that Wang Baole was given the right to choose his vice mayors spread. The various political forces had also guessed the important role Wang Baole was going to play in the process, and their guesses were confirmed after some checking with their sources on Mars.

Two names from the four Dao Colleges and the military had been confirmed, which left the political forces with two remaining openings to fight over. The competition became intense.

It was then that Jin Duoming came looking for him. Wang Baole thought Jin Duoming would use the agreement between the both of them to get himself a vice mayor’s position in the new city zone. However, the strange thing was, Jin Duoming didn’t mention a single word of their initial agreement.

“Brother Baole, I’m here on behalf of my father. We, the Trilunaris Corporation, are willing to sponsor the resources Mayor Wang requires for the construction of the new city!

“Our master has spoken. Regardless of the size of your stronghold, we will provide you half the resources you need!”

“There is only one condition, I get to be a vice mayor.” Jin Duoming glanced around inside Wang Baole’s residence, as if he was trying to catch a look of the donkey. He spoke casually, as if he couldn’t care less if he did become the new city zone’s vice mayor in the end.

After failing to find the donkey, Jin Duoming coughed. He strayed from the main topic of their conversation, leaned towards Wang Baole, and whispered.

“Brother, I did some research. Your donkey should be some sort of mutated beast. There’s a great chance of it rebelling against you and consuming you in the future. There were instances of people rearing such beasts in the past. I’ve reconsidered the matter and decided I want to buy it over. That’s right, where has it gone?” Jin Duoming blinked. He knew no one in hell would believe a single word he had just said.

After Wang Baole brought the donkey along for the trial, it was the donkey instead of Wang Baole that had become extremely famous. There was nobody in the entire Federation who hadn’t heard of the donkey. It was clear that there had been great public attention garnered during the live stream of the trial. The adorable behavior the donkey had displayed, as well as its intelligence and cute physical appearance, had all been captured on screen.

The value of the beast spiked as well. There were people on Earth who had offered high prices to buy over the donkey!

Wang Baole had been busy with gathering resources for the new city zone and hadn’t been following such news. However, he did hear something regarding the matter. He gave Jin Duoming a side glance and had half a mind to ignore what he had just said. However, it would be rude, considering their friendship. In order to maintain the cordial relationship between them, he coughed instead and said.

“The donkey? I didn’t bring it back. It should still be inside the Divine Armament Catacombs.”

Jin Duoming froze when he heard that.

“What? You didn’t bring it back?”

“Yup. I promised that I would let it eat for three whole days if I became the new mayor. You must know that the Eternal Fortress that I built during the trial suffered great damage and was on the verge of collapse. The city structures of the other candidates were also severely damaged. There was little point in recycling them. I need to clean out the area as well before I can build the new city zone…

“It should have cleaned out the entire area by now!”

Jin Duoming immediately lowered his head and turned his voice transmission ring on. He pressed a few buttons and suddenly, a screen was projected from the voice transmission ring. On the screen was the location of the trial at the Divine Armament Catacombs. The area had been transformed…

It was no longer a mess. Everything seemed to have been cleaned out. One could see a donkey prancing about happily, wagging its tail and munching happily on a damaged page of a book.

Regardless of how damaged it was, it still spanned thousands of feet. However, it shrank steadily as the donkey munched at it…

Jin Duoming gasped at the sight, and his eyes were filled with shock. The donkey’s capacity to eat had once again exceeded his wildest imagination. It was as if he had been kicked by a donkey in the head, as there was no other reason to explain why he had reconsidered buying the donkey… If he did buy it and brought it home, the donkey was likely going to eat him out of house and home…

“Since Brother Jin likes the donkey so much, let’s start discussing how much to sell it for.” Wang Baole patted Jin Duoming on the shoulder and grinned at him.

“Brother Baole, I, Jin Duoming, am not the sort to snatch a beloved possession from someone. I’ll never covet the donkey. That’s right, I still have a date with Li Yi. I’ll be taking my leave now,” Jin Duoming said seriously and left in haste. He was terrified of Wang Baole mentioning the subject again, as well as the consequences of him becoming impulsive…

Wang Baole sighed as he saw Jin Duoming off. His spirits were high. He welcomed the idea of Jin Duoming coming on board, especially the wealth of the Trilunaris Corporation and the overpowering promise to provide half of the resources required regardless of the scale of his city construction. It reminded Wang Baole of when he had first stepped foot into the Federation Capital and received the Spirit Card with limitless credit from Zhao Yameng’s family…

<em>I’m starting to miss our Yameng.</em> Wang Baole shut his eyes. The image of Bunny surfaced in his mind. As he stared at her in his mind, he soon felt as if something was missing. The image of Zhao Yameng slowly appeared next to Bunny.

*It’s a pity I couldn’t transfer her over to Mars. Else, with Zhao Yameng and Zhuo Yifan here, the Adonis Association would be able to take over the whole Martian planet. We still don’t have enough members in the Adonis Association though. Wang Baole sighed. He started considering who should fill the last opening for vice mayorship. *

He kept thinking, then suddenly, he thought of Lin Tianhao.

Even though he had recommended Lin Tianhao to become the dean of the Dao Mountain Mist Academy, he started thinking about how well Lin Tianhao followed his orders and how powerful his father was. He considered adding him as a member of the Adonis Association.

<em>I can’t have my enemies fill the positions of my vice mayors. Li Yi and Kong Dao definitely won’t cooperate with me. Jin Duoming’s just interested in being around Li Yi, so who knows how much help and support I can get from him during critical moments…</em> Wang Baole’s caution grew as he thought further. He realized that he couldn’t allow his vice mayors a chance to gang up on him. He couldn’t lose sight of that possibility while trying to get as many resources as possible for his new city zone.

He immediately realized that he needed an ally as one of his vice mayors. After some thought, Wang Baole didn’t hesitate as he sent a voice transmission to Lin Tianhao. He told Lin Tianhao that he intended to recommend him as a vice mayor. Lin Tianhao hadn’t yet recovered from his shock of becoming the dean of the academy before he was stunned again by what Wang Baole told him. Emotions of joy and extreme excitement flashed across his face.

“Dean, I…”

“Tianhao, do a good job. Remember what I told you before? I, Wang Baole, will never forget my friends. As long as I get a promotion, I’ll pull you along as well. At first, I wanted you to take over my position in the academy, but I’ve since given it greater thought. With the capabilities you have, you should be standing on a greater stage so that you have a chance to showcase your abilities!

“Tianhao, I’ve given you this stage! Let both of us build and realize our dreams in the New Mars Region!”

Wang Baole spoke with passion. Lin Tianhao shook with excitement, and his brain was buzzing. He didn’t know what else to say. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him!

Lin Tianhao took in a few deep breaths, then said, “I… I have to inform my father!”

“Go!” Wang Baole was pleased with the outcome. He wanted Lin You to know that he was a man who knew how to return a favor with a favor. He knew that the more he groomed and pulled Lin Tianhao up the ranks, the greater the alliance between himself and Lin You would grow!

It was a reassuring thing to have such an experienced and cunning man with elevated status and authority as an ally. He needed only to handle the matter of Lin Tianhao properly.

Wang Baole grew pleased with his deepening understanding of what he had learned from the high officials’ autobiographies. Lin Tianhao ended the transmission with him and excitedly sent a voice transmission to his father.

Lin You simply smiled faintly when he found out about the matter. His eyes were colored with deep satisfaction and approval. He hadn’t told Lin Tianhao, but he made a gamble when he decided to stop his son from participating as a candidate for mayorship!

He had gambled on Wang Baole’s success. Once Wang Baole became the mayor, he might not immediately decide to promote Lin Tianhao and transfer him to his city zone, but as he started work in the foreign environment, he would start to consider pulling familiar people over and placing them as deputies in his office.

When that time came, the only person he would and could think of would be Lin Tianhao!

Even if he made a losing bet, he would still push for Wang Baole to become a vice mayor. Lin Tianhao would still become the dean of the Dao Mountain Mist Academy.

He would win either way. This was where Lin You showcased his full cunning!

Lin You had another virtue… he never treated anyone as an idiot. Even though he felt that Wang Baole hadn’t yet seen through what he was trying to do, he knew that as Wang Baole became exposed to more situations and gathered more experience, he would soon realize what had been going on all along. It wouldn’t be to Lin Tianhao’s advantage if he were made to come to that realization then.

That was why Lin You decided to make full use of the experience he had accumulated. Now that Wang Baole had reached a critical stage in his career, Lin You was going to give him… an intensive lesson!

He was confident that the advice he was going to give Wang Baole would resolve any tensions between them. Even if Wang Baole realized what he had been up to all along, he wouldn’t carry any unhappiness or displeasure towards him or Lin Tianhao!

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