Chapter 969: More Monstrous Than A Monster Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales Translated by XephiZ Edited by Aelryinth Mayor Lauren hurried over. He was astonished when he witnessed the scene before him! In his eyes, the students of the national teams were basically going to get themselves killed by going to the boat. The Red Ornaments Guild was a bunch of savage and cruel Mages. With the number of Advanced Mages they had, they could easily wipe out the group of students. However, what he saw was Casso trapped inside a cage of light, covered in wounds and bruises with a defeated look. The Casso he knew was always holding his head up and conceited. Even the government army did not dare to meddle in his business. But now, Casso was a miserable prisoner! “Mayor Lauren, you have made the stupidest decision in your whole life, listen to this,” Oleena turned on the recording pen. The recording pen played a conversation between Casso and his subordinate. Casso unashamedly admitted that he had no intention of taking care of the sea monsters. He would leave immediately after stealing all their money! Mayor Lauren was stunned. The truth was, he did think of it as a possibility, but he had no other way of dealing with the sea monsters when the season arrived! “Working with them is only going to make things worse. Casualties are going to be inestimable. Mayor Lauren, I hope you will reflect on this. The sea monsters are scary, but I believe if the whole city stands together and put in some effort, it’s still possible to drive the sea monsters away. However, once you cooperated with these bandits, no one in the city will ever trust you again. When these cowardly bandits ran away, the ones that would suffer are still your people!” Oleena told Lauren seriously. Mayor Lauren let out a long sigh. As a matter of fact, the situation was not totally bad news to him. Mayor Lauren was not only worried about the sea monsters, he was afraid that the Red Ornaments Guild would stir up trouble while the city was under attack by the sea monsters. He did not have enough men to deal with the sea monsters and the Red Ornaments Guild simultaneously. Now that the leader of the Red Ornaments Guild had been arrested, even though a few members of the Red Ornaments Guild had escaped, they were most likely lost and leaderless, meaning that the city could focus on the sea monsters. “I know what I should do. I will give the order and take out the remaining members of the Red Ornaments Guild, to serve the people justice,” said Lauren. Oleena nodded. She had investigated the matter, and found out that Lauren was indeed forced to compromise due to the circumstances. He was sincerely concerned about the well-being of the city. In such an undeveloped country, they could not just find someone else to replace him as mayor. Lauren would retain his position, as long as he did not end up like the Red Ornaments Guild... “Don’t worry, the Sacred Hall of Liberty will provide assistance; we will send interns here to fend off the sea monsters at times. Now that the Red Ornaments Guild’s president has been arrested, I believe many Hunters are willing to come and hunt down the remaining members of the Red Ornaments Guild. They will be willing to fight the sea monsters,” Oleena told him. —— The news about the leader of the Red Ornaments Guild being caught spread fairly quickly. It was absolutely shocking to the other countries in the Caribbean. As soon as their leader was caught, the members of the Red Ornaments Guild immediately suffered the consequences. Countless Hunters set out to arrest them in exchange for the bounties on their heads. The operation was scarily efficient. The government did not need to do much, they simply sealed off the important escape routes, and the members of the Red Ornaments Guild had nowhere to run to. — The villagers of Sweetgrass Village returned to their home. They had also received the shocking news. The chief and the little girl Jenny burst into tears. The timid villagers who were waiting to be dominated by the bandits were dumbfounded, too. They finally cried out in joy after a long time. The young man from the East had really defeated the Red Ornaments Guild! He managed to take down the malignant tumor that had been robbing over the Caribbean for so many years. It was unbelievable! They wanted to express their gratitude to Mo Fan, but unfortunately, Mo Fan was not willing to come back to receive their gratitude. The villagers who once said unpleasant words to Mo Fan felt guilty and ashamed. It was lucky that Jenny went up and asked the young man for help. Otherwise, they would have lost their chance to become free. Without the Red Ornaments Guild around, they could easily manage Sweetgrass Village and earn enough money to hire mercenaries to protect the village. Even without the support from the government, they would be able to protect themselves, and even contribute by taking out the sea monsters! The Red Ornaments Guild was a great threat to the whole city. The surrounding towns and villages suffered from extreme poverty. It was the main reason why they were helpless against the sea monsters. Once their economy recovered, they would no longer be afraid of the sea monsters. Everyone could contribute to hiring more Mages... Mayor Lauren had not predicted this outcome. Ever since he was put in charge of the city, he had lived in fear of the Red Ornaments Guild. The government was more like a puppet that was forced to act according to the Red Ornaments Guild’s mood! It was just as Oleena had said; the sea monsters were not as scary as they had imagined. With everyone working together, they would surely overcome the difficulty! —— Meanwhile, Mo Fan was extremely unhappy about one thing; he was unable to share the bounty since it was the Sacred Hall Mages that had arrested Casso. As for his reward, Oleena personally wrote a letter to the International Magic Association and explained the situation in detail. After the report, the Chinese team stood out among the three national teams. The Dark Noble Mantle was allocated to Mo Fan, while the others were given some other rewards. The Japanese team was frustrated. They initially had the greatest chance of winning by having the intel, but they did not expect it to end up like this. They were obviously not convinced of the result. However, it did not matter what they felt. The initial plan only asked the three national teams to weaken the Red Ornaments Guild by taking out some of their members. They never thought the students would be able to uproot the entire organization, since that involved taking down their leader, Casso! The Magic Associations were well aware of how tough the guy was. To their surprise, they ended up arresting Casso and helping the Sacred Hall Mages to accomplish their mission, returning peace to the Caribbean Sea. It was obviously a lot better than what they had hoped for. How could the Chinese team not grab the limelight among the national teams? The Dark Noble Mantle arrived when the team reached Mexico. Mo Fan was fairly excited about it. It was said that a Forbidden Mage used the piece of magic equipment when he was younger. It must be something precious... —— After crossing the Caribbean Sea, the vast land of North America opened up to the team. Their view extended to a gradually sinking arc to the horizon, like they were looking at completely flat waters. The only difference was, the majority of the land in South America was dark brown. “Mo Fan, why were you interested in Sweetgrass Village back then? Did you realize something was strange about Oni?” Jiang Shaoxu asked when the thought suddenly crossed her mind. “I initially thought I could find something I’m looking for there, but I realized that it wasn’t,” answered Mo Fan. Mo Fan only went to the village because the Essence Orb was glowing. In the end, the Essence Orb was reacting because of an old tree in the village, but it did not contain any absorbable energy. Mo Fan got all excited for nothing. “How mysterious! Speaking of which, now that we’ve completed the mission, it means that someone in the team will be disqualified. Zhao Manyan, are you the one?” Jiang Shaoxu looked at Zhao Manyan curiously. “Are you kidding me? I’m definitely not the weakest on the team!” Zhao Manyan straightened his chest and said. “Mmm, that wooden clapper did make you a lot stronger. I barely survived thanks to it,” Mo Fan agreed. The wooden clapper was extremely powerful. Its most intuitive use as the yellow runes that were able to double the strength of Zhao Manyan’s defensive spells. Not many Advanced Spells were able to penetrate Zhao Manyan’s defense without outstanding damage. “If you aren’t the one being disqualified, who’s it going to be then?” Jiang Shaoxu pondered. “See, someone is panicking more than me,” Zhao Manyan said, smiling and looking at Li Kaifeng not far ahead of them. “Him? But I thought he’s fine still?” “He’s in a similar spot to Guan Yu, but Guan Yu has an outstanding weapon. Li Kaifeng doesn’t have that advantage, so I think he’s most likely the one that will be disqualified. I heard Li Kaifeng has a powerful background, but his own strength is important, too,” Zhao Manyan judged. —— After arriving in Mexico, the team rested at Bangersha City. As they made their way to Mexico’s Training Hall, the advisors would meet with the team with a new member, and they would disqualify a member on the current team. No one knew who the person would be. Mo Fan was not worried at all. He had the least chance of being disqualified from the team. He was the greatest contributor in the competition between the three national teams, and he was a lot stronger than the average members on the team. He was fairly excited, mainly because he would be seeing Mu Ningxue soon. After arriving in Bangersha City, Mu Ningxue sent him a text telling him that she was on the plane flying to North America with the advisors. When Mo Fan remembered Mu Ningxue’s cold, unapproachable face, elegant as a painting; her outstanding bust, her alluring legs under sexy stockings, he immediately ‘stiffened’. His days without his first wife had been rather lonely! —– “Duels?” “The advisors want us to fight one another?” The members of the national team received the news when they were resting at the inn. Since the members were equivalently strong this time, it was quite difficult to make the decision, so the advisors simply came up with the easiest way possible, by letting the members duel one another. However, only six members needed to take part in the duels. Mo Fan was not on the list, so it was none of his business. Besides, even if he was on the list, anyone that drew Mo Fan as their opponent would immediately forfeit the duel. There were two people that the members of the team were unwilling to stumble into as their opponent: the first one was Ai Jiangtu, and the other one was Mo Fan. There was no way they could beat them, especially after how Mo Fan had fought against Casso. The only comment everyone had for him was that he was more monstrous than a monster!.