Zhang Yue didn't let Ouyang Ling'er investigate who this "thief" was.
Because when he placed the Desire Source Stone three-piece set, dropped by the God of Desire Wu En, into the guild warehouse, his original purpose was precisely to see who within the guild could truly handle that set, and whoever could, he would directly give it to them.
Just as Zhang Yue had said: Only in the hands of someone who can truly wield them are those things priceless treasures.
Otherwise, they're nothing but a pile of scrap metal.
Whether it was the Desire Source Stone, the Desire God Set, or the Flames of Burning Desire, to bring out the true power of these three treasures, one thing mattered most: Desire.
Only those whose desires burned strong enough were qualified to control them.
And for the one who had stolen the Desire Source Stone, that person had already succeeded halfway.
As for who that person was, Zhang Yue didn't need to know.
He only needed to know this much: whoever that person was, they were destined to become the one who could control the Desire Source Stone set.
———
["But aren't you worried,"] Ouyang Ling'er messaged again, ["that the thief might sell those three things abroad at a high price, and end up arming our enemies?"]
She wasn't asking because she truly believed that.
She just wanted to test whether Zhang Yue already knew who the thief was.
Otherwise, how could he stay so calm in a situation like this?
Zhang Yue replied, ["The thief is someone with level-three guild access in Heavens Hall."]
["Based on that alone, your theory doesn't hold."]
Clearly, Zhang Yue had absolute trust in every member of his guild.
After a pause, Zhang Yue changed the subject, ["So then, what's the other bad piece of news?"]
Ouyang Ling'er froze for a moment before coming back to herself.
She said, ["One of the Ten Great Beasts, codename: Larva, has appeared in the Death Territory of the World 28!"]
Hearing that, Zhang Yue thought for a moment, ["If I remember correctly, that beast already operates in the World 28 by nature, doesn't it? What's so strange about that?"]
But as he spoke, something seemed to dawn on him.
He immediately asked Ouyang Ling'er, ["What world is our guild's main force currently progressing through?"]
Ouyang Ling'er: ["The World 28, the Dark Wormhole!"]
Hearing that, Zhang Yue understood immediately.
Ouyang Ling'er continued, ["Larva has been causing serious danger and losses to our guild members in the World 28. And its attacks are highly targeted, it's like it's specifically hunting members of Heavens Hall! It's been chasing our people all over the world!"]
["Because Larva's strength is far too great, any professional it locks onto has no power to resist. Our guild members can't handle it either…"]
That outcome wasn't surprising at all.
After all, according to Zhang Yue's own judgment, the Ten Great Beasts' combat levels were all at the Emperor rank.
Previously, in the World 45, Zhang Yue had encountered the beast codenamed Emperor, the one wearing the black cloak.
Even with all his strength, Zhang Yue couldn't defeat it.
In the end, Emperor had only retreated because its fusion rate with Kronoslav's body had failed.
And it was worth remembering, Emperor had possessed only an Epic-class professional's body.
But the other nine beasts had all taken over Legendary-class professionals.
That alone proved the other nine were even stronger than Emperor.
So it was easy to imagine: if Zhang Yue himself couldn't handle such an Emperor-level boss, how could ordinary professionals in the World 28 possibly resist?
Even members of Heavens Hall stood no chance.
Still, Zhang Yue wasn't overly worried.
He asked Ouyang Ling'er, ["Do you know why the Ten Great Beasts all stay in the Death Territorys of their worlds?"]
["Because they're afraid of death,"] Ouyang Ling'er was quick to answer.
["They hide in Death Territorys so that higher-world professionals can't enter lower-world Death Territorys to capture them, while the locals are too weak to fight them. That's why the Ten Great Beasts can roam freely and invincible across their worlds."]
["Mm,"] Zhang Yue nodded, ["So I don't need to tell you how to avoid them, do I?"]
["If you can't beat them, don't fight. There's no need to pick a battle."]
Ouyang Ling'er sighed bitterly, ["We understand that in theory, but…"]
["That Larva is extremely cunning! Several of our members have already been captured by it. It's using them as hostages to lure us into the Death Territory!"]
["The ones who've been caught include Ning Tiantian and Mage Sparks Fire…"]
Hearing that, Zhang Yue frowned slightly.
That Larva was actually this cunning.
But even if he wanted to save them, Zhang Yue, currently in the middle of clearing the Forty-Sixth World, couldn't even enter the Death Territory of the World 28.
Just as Zhang Yue was thinking of a solution, Ouyang Ling'er sent another message.
["There's an update!"]
["Mage Sparks Fire says she's discovered the hostages inside one of the Larva's nests in the Death Territory of the World 28!"]
Immediately, Zhang Yue switched to the guild chat interface and, as guild leader, issued a command, ["Those progressing in the World 28, move out for a rescue operation. Priority is saving lives, do NOT engage Larva. Once you rescue the hostages, retreat from the Death Territory immediately!"]
As soon as Zhang Yue sent the message, several quick replies appeared below, ["Received!" "On it!" "Copy that!"]
At the same time, Zhang Yue opened the guild interface, selected the list of guild member IDs in the otherworlds, raised his Demon Contract, and executed the operation one by one according to the list.
The next moment, all members of Heavens Hall received a unified system message.
["Ding~ Professional [Zero] has transferred Energy +10 trillion to you via the [Demon Contract]!"]
The sudden system pop-up left everyone completely stunned.
Most of the professionals currently in the World 28 were around level 150, roughly at Fourth Advancement strength.
For them, even 1 billion Energy was an astronomical figure.
But what Zhang Yue had just given them wasn't 1 billion, it was 10 trillion.
And that wasn't the total distributed among everyone, it was 10 trillion per person.
At their current rate of collecting Energy, that was an amount they couldn't earn in ten lifetimes.
For a moment, everyone was frozen in shock.
After all, Heavens Hall had more than 1,000 members in total.
At 10 trillion each, that meant Zhang Yue had just distributed over 10,000 trillion in Energy.
They all knew their guild leader Zhang Yue had enormous reserves of Energy, but none of them had ever imagined this much.
Of course, what they didn't know was that even this 10,000 trillion was nothing to Zhang Yue, who possessed a total of 120,000 trillion.
While the thousand members of the guild were still in stunned disbelief, Zhang Yue followed up with another group message:
["@everyone This operation must be carried out only under the condition that your own safety is guaranteed. If you encounter anything you can't handle, retreat immediately. Don't try to act tough."]
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