He gathered the most powerful mages of the time, forced them to submit with his powerful magic, and made them respect him as their leader. This hall is one of the traces he left behind.

It is said that even at the center of a nuclear explosion, these stone walls would not be damaged, nor would they even heat up. Unfortunately, no one knows how to manufacture them anymore.

Back to the present, the seven people meeting here are renowned giants of the magical world, with high status and deep experience. It is rare for them to gather, but now they have been alarmed by one person.

They have very different styles, ages, and attire: some wear Victorian tailcoats with pocket watches and silver-rimmed monocles; others are wrapped in bathrobes with hair like a haystack; some even wear Alchemy badges, covered in tattoos, like a mafia godfather.

But without exception, they all wore a similar expression—complex, heavy, and faintly anxious.

The seven men rushed over and sat around the round table. None of them said stupid things like— "Hmph! A mere Rep-Man dares to break into our Hermes Society's headquarters? We must make sure he never leaves, and take his [silver coin]!"

The Hermes Society has cultivated and accumulated for eight hundred years on this land of Oxford, with deep foundations. School traditions, forbidden techniques, barrier ley lines, magic artifacts… nothing is missing.

They can even use the very soul of this land, commanding it to fight enemies!

…However, even with all this, fighting against [Master Leipu] still feels like suicide.

"The Demon King is passing through; this is not the time for us to draw our swords and shout."

As expected of a sect passed down by an ancient Demon King, they have a good understanding of how to deal with one.

"The point is to figure out why!"

"Why on earth would [Master Leipu] come to get involved?"

"Uh," the dean of the Blazing Flame Academy couldn't help but speak cautiously, "Is it possible… that he just happened to see Achilles trying to assault Boudica, and intervened based on personal preference?"

The rest of the deans frowned and looked at him like he was an idiot:

"How is that possible?"

"Even if he is a new Demon King, surely he wouldn't act so mindlessly?"

"Too stupid."

"He must have some intention of interfering in The Society's internal affairs to appear here."

"But the problem is, what does he actually want? It couldn't be that after being suspected and guarded against by the Holy See, he wants to rule over us instead?"

After all, no matter how powerful a [Silver Coin Messenger] is, it is difficult to force a large organization to surrender completely.

It is not because they lack force, but because for most Demon Kings, the word "politics" is the most alien thing in the world.

Politics is the art of compromise, the craft of finding balance in the noise of many voices.

However, the more a Messenger can command the [silver coin], the more self-centered they are. They do not compromise, they disdain compromise, and they want to use their own opinions to crush others, and even crush the dissent of the entire world.

From a social perspective, [Silver Coin Messengers] are almost all lunatics—because "madness" is defined by the eyes of others.

That is why they are called Demon Kings.

It is not just about the [sovereign] silver coin; all [Silver Coin Messengers] crave sovereignty, not organizational coordination.

The more self-centered a person is, the less likely they are to engage in politics, and the more they will find politics and managing organizations troublesome. Demon Kings can become charismatic leaders, gathering followers through astonishing personal charm and overwhelming power, forging legendary authority like gods and demons—becoming human gods who assert the Truth!

But administrative management? Institutional construction? Organizational operations?

These houses of cards built by mediocre people will sway with the slightest breeze. Demon Kings are absolutely too lazy to bother managing such things carefully.

…Therefore, this also means that even if a Demon King forces an organization to submit to him, the organization will likely only submit on the surface and be perfunctory at heart.

Once people become an organization, they can immediately turn into rigid stones. This is something even a Demon King cannot help.

If you cannot make the operational level that controls daily operations truly convinced, even if you force a gesture of submission, it is just empty talk. And right now, [Master Leipu]'s actions do not seem to be pursuing such an effect…

What exactly does he want to do?

Just as the seven deans were puzzled,

…The youngest one, the dean of the Unification Academy, suddenly froze, then looked up and said to the others: "…I just received a holographic spell communication."

"From our academy's representative candidate."

"She says [Master Leipu] wants to talk to us."

In an instant, the remaining six deans tightened their expressions.

Some who were leaning back in their chairs immediately sat up straight; some had white knuckles as they gripped their cups; some couldn't help but swallow, their fingers involuntarily adjusting the collars of their robes; others just slowly let out a breath, their eyes filled with deep worry.

These seven deans are master-level (6=5) mages, key figures in the world's largest magical organization, possessing power, wealth, and honor.

Yet now, none of them spoke, only looking at each other with worry.

"Alright, we cannot keep [Master Leipu] waiting."

Finally, the dean of the Original Essence Academy sighed and said,

"Connect it."

The next second, a holographic image appeared in the center of the round table.

This image of light and illusion did nothing to alleviate their unease,

The [Master Leipu] on the hologram was sitting proudly on the altar of a stone church, his posture lazy yet exuding unquestionable pressure.

Apparently, he had "borrowed" a church in Oxford.

"Good evening, deans of the Hermes Society. I am Rep-Man."

Said Qi Xing in the holographic projection.

Beside the projection, the female student from the Unification Academy, Vike, was huddled in the corner, trembling, looking embarrassed, as if she wished she could disappear from the image.

"The night is nice tonight, but unfortunately, while I was taking a walk in Oxford, I saw some very boring things."

Without waiting for the deans to speak, Qi Xing began to criticize, his tone unhurried yet pressing step by step:

"Are you kidding me? Huh? Letting Achilles assault Boudica? Too unimaginative, too lacking in creativity."

"The weak bully the weaker; but the strong should bully the stronger. What kind of trash can such a broken ritual produce? This is not strength; this is weakness."

In an instant, the entire conference hall was silent.

What, what kind of twisted logic is this?!

The seven deans were stunned for a moment.

Could [Master Leipu] really just be passing by, seeing injustice and helping out, and then, like Lu Da, just came to cause trouble because he didn't like Zhen Guanxi? …How could it be such a coincidence?

That said, even if they were full of complaints, no one dared to directly call a Demon King nonsense.

"I see, this is indeed a… very reasonable idea…"

The dean of the Original Essence Academy bit the bullet and spoke, following Qi Xing's words,

"We will definitely improve in the future…"

But Qi Xing didn't give him a chance to finish his nonsense.

Before the dean of the Original Essence Academy could finish those useless words, Qi Xing raised his hand. In an instant, the action in the holographic screen was as real as a physical entity, pressing the air to a standstill.

"Well said—so I decided to come and help you optimize this exam myself."

Even though it was just a 3D image, [Master Leipu] was full of tyrannical force as if he were a physical entity.

"Can a seven-person battle royale temper a stronger person? No! No! No!"

"It will only screen out the rats who are best at hiding, dodging, and betraying! It's no different from involution!"

"The strong must fight the stronger!"

"So I hereby announce—from now on, I will hold a [Great Escape] competition in Oxford!"

The sound of this sentence echoed like thunder, piercing through the stone walls, forcing the seven deans to hold their breath in unison, dumbfounded.

A, a Great Escape!

Too terrifying!

"In the next forty-eight hours, I will beat all seven spirits to their knees!"

"If your seven spirits cannot join forces to fight me, they will never survive, let alone talk about any 'advanced studies'!"

"If your seven spirits join forces and still cannot defeat me, then I… what kind of prize should I snatch? Hmm…"

Thoughtfully rubbing his chin, [Master Leipu] seemed to think for a moment, then slapped his knee.

"Got it! I heard that your Society has a Sanctuary on the moon? If I defeat your seven spirits, let me take a rocket up to see the situation!"

In an instant, not knowing if [Master Leipu] was acting too crazy, all seven deans dared not speak, only complaining in their hearts.

Not following the rules, not seeking anything practical, suddenly coming up with such absurd demands, they couldn't handle it at all.

No one wanted to play along with [Master Leipu], after all, they wouldn't get any benefits even if they cooperated…

…This reaction was already in Qi Xing's expectations.

"You are holding this boring competition just to fight for budget and advanced study opportunities, right?"

Speaking of this, Qi Xing in the projection screen raised his hand and snapped his fingers,

"I really don't understand what kind of bird advanced study opportunities are, but this money—as long as you can beat me, how could you be short of it?"

At first, this made the seven deans feel a little funny.

[Master Leipu], we are seven world-class Hermes schools, the budget we are fighting for is at the level of national budgets.

However, soon, the projection screen switched, and the image suddenly turned to the back of the church.

The sight was breathtaking.

In the silver radiance, the room was filled with heavy silver bricks. They were dense, layered, stacked up to the ceiling, as if a mountain had been built of silver!

Roughly estimated, there was at least over a hundred tons of silver here, almost making the air filled with the coldness and oppression of metal.

And next to these silver bricks, an elegant white-haired woman leaned against the church pillar, a lazy smile on her lips, waving gently toward the projection.

It was Xue Ning.

Count Saint-Germain, one of the most famous great alchemists in the world, one of the Ascended Masters.

This scene alone was enough to make all seven deans stunned.

"You want to fight for budget?"

Qi Xing said,

"Beat me, and over a hundred tons of silver bricks will all belong to you."

"If that's not enough, adding another digit is fine."

…Where did so much silver come from?

Of course, it was refined by Xue Ning. But Qi Xing was not being generous with others' wealth.

The Silver Alchemist, Count Saint-Germain, inherently has the ability to refine base metals into silver. She can refine any lead, tin, iron, or copper into silver, and of course, they are all permanent, real goods.

It's just that the magic power consumption for this technique is too high, and the efficiency of refining into silver is not high.

However, [silver coin] is one-thirtieth of the cosmic authority, which can output infinite energy.

Qi Xing has obtained the [Truth] silver coin and can control it without losing control.

Through Xue Ning to connect the divine power, in an instant, the silver production skyrocketed, increasing wildly, surging up!

Not to mention casually stuffing hundreds of tons of silver to the Hermes Society.

—Now, if Qi Xing were willing, it would be no problem to directly let a country take a step forward and carry out the silverization of its currency.

One of the reasons why the US dollar became an international currency is that the dollar was tied to gold in the early days and later tied to oil.

Now Qi Xing can use infinite silver currency at any time to turn all countries' currencies into waste paper.

Even if he doesn't do anything that complicated, at least he can manipulate global manufacturing and its affiliated stocks, securities, futures, etc., and the financial lifeline of half the world's small mineral-exporting countries. He can set off a monstrous financial tsunami and destroy the international economic order.

This is the true Silver Demon King.

…And there are always smart people who will immediately want to defect to such a Demon King.

Almost instantly, after realizing what this scene meant, the dean of the Alchemy Academy defected: "…I support [Master Leipu]'s idea."

"Hey!"

The Original Essence dean was suddenly furious.

"So what if I am?"

The Alchemy dean said coldly,