Armipotent

Tang Shaoyang kept his mind cool, calm and collected. He quickly realized the invitation to the meeting was about the Tang Empire's subordination to the alliance. Even though none of them did openly say it, the three factions threatened him and the empire indirectly. If he did not join the alliance, that meant they were enemies outside the city, three worlds against one world, three factions against one faction. If the Tang Empire did not agree with the unfavorable conditions, the Tang Empire was making enemies of the alliance.

Tang Shaoyang let out a chuckle. He was so naive to think he could talk his way out to make a friendly relationship with these three factions. He was so naive; the strong did not really care about the weak. The only thing the strong wanted was to take advantage of the weak. They wanted to exploit the Tang Empire in the name of the alliance.

The current situation reminded Tang Shaoyang of when he was still a street thug when he was so helpless when the people above threatened him. The disgusting feeling returned, the feeling where he had to bow his head while suffering. He was put in a situation where he had to agree to those unfavorable conditions.

In the next moment, his smile disappeared, and he looked straight to Redvers. The invitation was not out of goodwill. The federation was meant to humiliate the empire, not to ask for work together, as he thought. The federation wanted to put the empire where the empire was supposed to be as the first timer, as the weaker faction. The meeting was to tell the empire who was the boss in the city.

"Unfortunately.... No, it's not unfortunate, but it's fortunate that I manage to see everyone's true color from the first day." Tang Shaoyang's expression turned somber. "Good to know, and I think this will be the end meeting for our side. We will never agree to such absurd conditions."

Tang Shaoyang stood up and turned around. There was no hesitation for him to make such a decision. As he planned, if things didn't work out for the dimensional tower, he would completely abandon the dimensional tower. He would rather change his focus to something else, no matter how much resource the tower had to offer for them, rather than suffer under these people.

Redvers was surprised by Tang Shaoyang's swift decision. It was out of his calculation that the Tang Empire immediately walked out as soon as the Tang Empire was offered unfavorable conditions. That was not his original plan. The scenario in his mind was that the Tang Empire would try to negotiate the terms. The Tang Empire shared thirty percent of the resources; that was his aim.

"Are you sure about this, Sir Tang Shaoyang? Your decision will not just delay the empire's growth but also make your people suffer." Redvers Scovel tried to speak it out with the Tang Empire. He did not want to miss the free resource from the first timer.

Tang Shaoyang halted his steps and turned his head toward Redvers. "While I was not expecting to be treated like this, I am ready for the worst, and so are my people. As for whether my people will suffer or not, we don't know that yet, no? We will soon find out who will suffer." After saying that, he headed out without giving the others a second look.

At this point, Tang Shaoyang regarded everyone as enemies from now on. Arnor Ollsen was the only one who showed how happy he was and how this turned out. An alliance with the Tang Empire was the last thing he wanted from the meeting, and he had successfully kicked out the Tang Empire from the alliance. He had his own plan for Tang Shaoyang and the Tang Empire.

Redvers furrowed his brow as he did not like the outcome. The Tang Empire now had become a hidden piece that might disrupt his dimensional tower expedition. He did not know how strong Tang Shaoyang was because he could not use any skill, including detection inside the city. He could not measure the gap between them. However, with how defiant and confident Tang Shaoyang was, it further worried him even more.

If this expedition did not go well, he might lose his Prime Minister position. That was the last thing he wanted. 'Since you won't submit, then I will just make you disappear. Getting rid of them might be the only choice right now. Be safe than sorry.'

The meeting continued with just the three factions. During the meeting, none of them mentioned anything about the Tang Empire. The three factions were not bothered by the walkout since they assumed the Tang Empire was a weak force they could ignore.

*** ***

"I was not expecting you to be that aggressive." Zhang Mengyao took a seat and commented. She was talking about the Tang Shaoyang confrontation with the guard and the Giteron Dynasty. "Maybe that's the reason they want to exploit us?" She did not mean to blame Tang Shaoyang for what happened but made a guess why the three factions tried to exploit them.

Tang Shaoyang shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe, but imagine if we appear meek when those guards try to humiliate us? Don't you think we will be treated worse than that?"

The meeting did not go in their favor. However, just like Tang Shaoyang said earlier. It was good to know how the three factions treated them earlier rather than getting stabbed in the back. That was much worse.

Marshal Alton agreed with Tang Shaoyang as the old man nodded in agreement. After returning from the meeting, Tang Shaoyang immediately held another meeting. The meeting was to discuss their next step when the barrier of the starter city disappeared and how they would face the three factions.

"I hope to get information from them about the eleventh floor mechanics, but we fail on that." Tang Shaoyang started the meeting, getting the attention of the others. "We lack information, so we need to get information as much as we can before making our next move." He turned toward Lu An. "I want the Intelligence Division to focus on the eleventh floor for the time being. I want to know what we can get from the eleventh floor, then we will talk about whether it's worth continuing the eleventh floor expedition after considering the risk."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lu An replied instantly. Even though gathering information was his least favorite job, he was ready to execute the task given to him by Tang Shaoyang. The thing he wanted to do the most was to assassinate each member from the other factions one by one after what happened earlier, but he held back. Unless it was an order, he would hold himself back from doing so.

"The second thing we need to do is some tests with how strong the other factions are. With how they treated us earlier, a fight is unavoidable against them, so we need to know how strong they are generally. We need a meticulous plan for this one. I need your ideas on how we will find out the other faction's strength. If they are too strong for us, our only choice is to abandon the dimensional tower."

That was Tang Shaoyang's main concern. He could not just come out and fight them out to measure their strength. He was the strongest individual in the empire, so his way of measuring how strong the three factions might not be accurate for his main force. The power gap between him and the Tarrior was too big for him to test out the other factions personally.

"Third, do you think we need to work together with the other factions for the eleventh floor?" Tang Shaoyang raised the third issue. The factions he was talking about were the ten factions from the earth. He really considered working together with the ten factions to defend against the three enormous factions on the eleventh floor. His main focus was the three worlds from the same city instead of focusing on the other twenty-one worlds on the same floor.