As geniuses that had stood out among the hundred million people to break through to the Third Realm, the nine of them were naturally prideful. However, they also knew very well that such pride was nothing to boast about in front of the Tiger King.

In terms of combat power, they were still his juniors.

It was only when one reached a stage like theirs that one would understand how incredible it was for someone to possess strength as great as his in the current world.

All of them couldn't help but feel hints of reverence.

Meeting him and, in the most ideal situation, spar with him—or rather, have the other party give them a few pointers; this was something that they had longed for since they were in the Second Realm.

Even now, that desire hadn't weakened at all. On the contrary, it had even become stronger.

w.a.n.g Hu's calm and serene gaze s.h.i.+fted over, and he secretly nodded—they were indeed all geniuses!

As expected of China, the king of cheats. Every one of the nine boasted strong auras and solid foundations. They were likely all Third Realm cultivators that had gone through at least three rounds of metamorphosis.

While he couldn't be sure about their concrete level of strength yet, they were definitely no weaker than the Guis that had died by his hand.

Most importantly, they were evidently not all the Third Realm cultivators that China had.

Considering how many mystic realms and top-secret zones there were in China, wouldn't they leave behind Third Realm cultivators to stand guard over them? Would they all come over to a.s.sist North Korea?

That was impossible.

It had only been fewer than two years since the appearance of the first Third Realm cultivator, yet more than ten—or even more than twenty—Third Realm cultivators had appeared by now.

A rate like that was simply fearsome.

If one were to compare that to the Guis and the Huis, they would realize that the 100-odd—or 200 to 300—Third Realm clansmen they had were actually nothing.

China would probably surpa.s.s them in quant.i.ty before long.

Of course, it was still rather tough for China to surpa.s.s them in quality at the moment, though.

These thoughts flashed past his mind. Then, w.a.n.g Hu commented aloofly, “Not bad.”

Zhang Jianye's smile widened a little, while elation also flashed across the nine cultivators' faces.

“Since all of you are here, I'll make a move first,” said w.a.n.g Hu straightforwardly after s.h.i.+fting his gaze back to Zhang Jianye.

Zhang Jianye's countenance immediately became stern and serious. He said seriously, “Is Your Excellency not staying longer?”

“These invaders have suffered quite a significant loss. They likely won't carry out any large-scale invasion anymore. It's pointless for me to stay here any longer. I'll return and wait for news from you instead,” replied w.a.n.g Hu dispa.s.sionately.

Zhang Jianye didn't keep w.a.n.g Hu anymore. He nodded heavily and promised, “Alright. Don't worry, Your Excellency. We definitely won't let you down.”

w.a.n.g Hu nodded. Then, he transformed into a streak of golden light that shot into the distance.

As Zhang Jianye and the others watched the golden light disappear into the distance, their expressions turned even graver.

“Keep watch over this world pa.s.sage properly. If invaders come again, and if they are very strong, focus on stalling for time and wait for the Tiger King's arrival.”

The nine cultivators behind him nodded and responded affirmatively. They were naturally no fools. There weren't that many Third Realm cultivators in the country at the moment either. Every one of them was precious.

Unless absolutely necessary, be it the country or themselves, none of them wanted to risk their lives here, of course.

Of course, all of them knew that the possibility of a second round of invaders was very low. After all, the other party wasn't stupid.

Zhang Jianye nodded at them before turning and leaving. It was time that he met Kim Hyangmyeong and the others.

w.a.n.g Hu had no interest in watching the storm that was about to take place among the North Korean senior officials. He was even less interested in taking part in it.

About twenty minutes or so later, he returned to Tiger King's Cave.

In the hall, Di Baijun, Old Second, Jun Wen, Ling Shuang, and Su Ling were all present.

With mainly Old Second and Jun Wen taking charge, they were discussing the matter that w.a.n.g Hu had instructed Di Baijun to do before he left—the plan about taking over new territory.

“My lord.”

At the sight of w.a.n.g Hu's return, Old Second and the others immediately bowed and greeted him—in other words, lowering their heads to express their respect and deference toward him.

A small smile also formed on Di Baijun's lips before she immediately suppressed it.

w.a.n.g Hu made a sound of acknowledgment, walked straight over, and took his seat.

He exchanged a look with Silly Girl and gave her a comforting look to indicate that everything had gone smoothly.

Only then did he turn to Old Second and the others.

“Which point of the discussion are you at now?”

“My lord, we've already roughly drafted the plan. We only need to slowly fill in the concrete details now,” replied w.a.n.g Liang fairly happily.

After all, they had suddenly gained a pretty large plot of land to their territory. Of course, he would be elated.

On top of that, compared to their current territory, there was even something different about the new territory.

Their current territory was just something that China had given them in exchange for their defense against invading animals. It was still China's, both in name and in truth. Both the tigers and China were allowed to use it.

However, the territory that they would soon gain was different. It was only China's in name—after all, spiritual energy was involved here, so there was nothing to be done about it; in truth, however, it belonged to them, the tigers. Even China wasn't allowed to use it.

One could say that this plot of land was a territory that truly belonged to them, just like these 50 square kilometers of land around the Tiger King's Cave.

How could they possibly not be delighted, then?

w.a.n.g Hu nodded and said with fairly great interest, “Tell me about it.”

“Understood,” replied w.a.n.g Liang. Then, he began to talk about the plan.

w.a.n.g Hu listened closely to what he said, which included which region they intended to take, what kind of changes they were going to make to the territory so that it would become more a suitable habitat for the tigers, and so on.

He nodded inwardly once in a while. The proposed plan was pretty good and had also generally taken everything into consideration.

“My lord, we estimate that, with just a few years of modifications, we'll be able to support approximately 8,000 tigers in our total territories,” concluded w.a.n.g Liang at the end.

Excitement shone in his eyes, as well as in the eyes of Jun Wen next to him.

Eight thousand tigers—this meant that the tigers' combat power would improve by leaps and bounds very soon.

w.a.n.g Hu also revealed a bit of a smile. He said, “Refine the concrete details as much as you can. We can start once we get the territory.”

“Understood,” answered w.a.n.g Liang and Jun Wen immediately.

After dismissing them, w.a.n.g Hu brought Silly Girl with him and returned to the room.

He hadn't even taken a seat when he took the initiative to smile and say, “China has already started to take action. I've also understood a lot more about that alternate world. They likely won't invade again in the near future, so I came back to wait for further news. All we need to do next is to just wait and see what happens.”

Di Baijun naturally didn't have any objections. After thinking for a moment, she asked, “How long will it take?”

“It's hard to say, but it'll likely take only a few months at the most. After all, it isn't easy to migrate that many people away either,” replied an unsure w.a.n.g Hu.

Di Baijun nodded slightly to indicate that she had understood.

w.a.n.g Hu and Di Baijun quietly watched subsequent events unfold in Tiger King's Cave after that.

As expected, a great uproar went through the whole of the outside world within the short span of a day.

The North Korea incident astounded the world and also gave the world a rude awakening.

Small and medium countries teamed up with one another again, their att.i.tudes and momentum now a great deal stronger and more forceful than what they had been a year ago.

They wanted a solution.

'We mustn't sit and wait to die.'

This one sentence spread madly from the Internet to real life, and then to world conferences, becoming a phrase uttered by billions of people.

They promoted the sentence furiously on the Internet and in real life.

It was as though the many countries in the world, which had already become somewhat like fallen leaves drifting in the storm during the last one year or so, had gone mad this time. It seemed like they were determined to burn their boats and stake everything on the line this time.

Two days later, demonstrations and protesting voices could be seen and heard in every part of the world.

For a while, it was as though the fourth world war was about to start.

No one was able to remain calm about this, including the high and mighty big countries. All of them showed fairly strong signs of being overwrought.

Even in the case of North Korea who was situated in the center of the storm. While it seemed like they had ridden out the storm this time, they were even less able to find peace.

“We cannot stay in this country anymore. That world pa.s.sage is still here. Our country has no means of guaranteeing our safety at all. We may lose our home and our country any moment.”

“That's right. We should go to China. That's the safest country on Earth. Even the invincible Tiger King is there as well.”

“Who in the world doesn't want to go to China at this point? So many billionaires want to immigrate there, but there's no way around it. It's too difficult to immigrate to China.”

“A difficult process is still better than just waiting to die. I'm going there even if I have to be an illegal immigrant. We can't just wait to die here.”

“Why aren't we Chinese citizens? Why didn't our country straight up merge with China in the past? If we had, we wouldn't even need to worry about these things now.”

“What's the use of saying such things? You might as well let our government discuss with China and see how they can resolve our safety issues.”

More and more of such voices started to appear on the Internet as well as in real life. Under life-threatening circ.u.mstances, not a single person didn't yearn to be part of China.

At last, amid the public clamor for 'We want to pet.i.tion the government to discuss with China and resolve our safety issues', more and more people somehow started to walk toward the North Korean legislature to pressure them. Subsequently, it evolved into a demonstration.

“We want a solution! We don't want to wait to die!”

“We want a solution! We don't want to wait to die!”

More and more demonstrations started to take place in Gyeongmyeong and other North Korean cities. The fear in the air acc.u.mulating little by little also became stronger and stronger.

As though a volcano, it constantly built up. n.o.body knew when it would erupt or how destructive it would be.

Ten days later, in the leader's office in Gyeongmyeong, Kim Hyangmyeong and Zhang Jianye were watching videos of the demonstrations together. Kim Hyangmyeong had a powerless and bleak expression on his face.

On the other hand, Zhang Jianye was calm and serene as though he had expected this a long time ago.

“We're more or less done,” Suddenly, Zhang Jianye spoke. Although his voice was calm and flat, it also carried an air that brooked no dispute. “We can begin now.”

Kim Hyangmyeong stared blankly for a moment. Then, he frowned and said, “So soon? I feel that the people's emotions haven't built up enough yet.”

Zhang Jianye shook his head and said with great certainty, “It's enough. We'll just need Leader Kim and the others to suffer a little after this, and it'll do.

“We need to hurry up and confirm, putting an end to all these as quickly as possible.”

Kim Hyangmyeong was silent for a moment. He more or less understood Zhang Jianye's intentions.

He wanted to confirm and end everything as quickly as possible so that the other big countries wouldn't have any chance of intervention at all, thereby eliminating all uncertain factors.

Additionally, time was also very tight for China at the moment. They needed to race against the clock to develop their own country. They didn't have that much spare time to spend on North Korea.

Even though he understood all these, it naturally didn't feel good at all.

After staying silent for two minutes, he nodded and said, “Alright. We'll start tomorrow.”

A small smile formed on Zhang Jianye's face, and an amicable look appeared in his eyes.

Kim Hyangmyeong felt resigned. If it was possible, who would take the initiative to integrate their own country into another?

However, there was nothing he could do. They couldn't protect the country. If this went on, only death would await them.

Only by merging with China would they survive.

It was precisely because he had come to deeply realize this, as well as the millions of lives—or perhaps even more than that—at stake at that time, that Kim Hyangmyeong had no choice but to agree to what Dong Pingtao said.

He didn't have a second option.

Since they had already decided to merge with China, then he would have to take the future merger into consideration in his actions.

The most important thing was to dispel the people's resistance to the idea. Otherwise, if they harbored such resistance, the ones who would suffer in the end would still be themselves.

It was only by letting the people beg for it themselves would they be able to dispel their resistance, and only by doing so would they be able to prevent the Chinese from developing a sense of antipathy toward North Koreans.

Kim Hyangmyeong ultimately understood the Chinese citizens very well.

As long as they had a good att.i.tude and sincerely wished to be part of China, the Chinese citizens would be very kind and generous toward them.

This was also one of the reasons why he was willing to merge North Korea with China.

China's strong sense of inclusivity was something that no other country in the world possessed.

He believed that as long as they were sincere, worked hard to contribute to China, and truly saw themselves as Chinese citizens; China would be able to embrace them and allow them to become real Chinese citizens.

Thus, he mustn't reject Zhang Jianye's request.

Besides, his request wasn't an unreasonable one.

The next day, just as the whole world was in an uproar, Kim Hyangmyeong led the senior officials of North Korea and did something that astonished and caught the whole world's attention.

He did a live broadcast to all the citizens of North Korea.

At 12 noon, all the television channels, Internet live streams, broadcasts, and every other communication facility in North Korea featured him and his voice.

Even some television channels and streaming platforms in China were also connected to the live broadcast.

Innumerable people were watching him.

“h.e.l.lo, the people of North Korea. I am Kim Hyangmyeong, the leader of this country. Today, I would like to seek everyone's approval on something.

“Before I do so, I also want to apologize to all of you. In the Gyeongmyeong disaster that took place 11 days ago, a total of 118,923 civilians and 13,856 military policemen were killed.

“I am deeply sorry about this. The nation didn't manage to protect them.”

As he spoke, he bowed deeply.

The innumerable people watching and listening were all silent. There were all sorts of emotions in them, with the majority being a sense of overwhelming powerlessness and fear.

More than ten seconds later, Kim Hyangmyeong straightened his back. The grief and sorrow in his expression were suppressed and replaced with determination and seriousness.

“The past pains us greatly, but what matters the most is still the present and the lives and safety of more than 30 million citizens.

“The world has changed. The whole world is filled with perils everywhere these days. n.o.body knows whether a world pa.s.sage will appear somewhere tomorrow or not… or whether there will be cruel and savage invaders or not.

“This time, we've managed to ride out the disaster thanks to China, but what about next time?

“Where does the future of our 30 million North Korean citizens lie?”