Chapter 558 - 373: The Secret of Spiritual Qi, Those Pasts (Part 2)

Gunshots, explosions, and roars echoed through the night sky.

This was exactly what Old Ghost and his crew wanted. They were the bait, drawing the vast majority of the base's attention.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the base, at a relatively weak defensive point, Wu Liangchen's figure moved like a ghost, silently approaching the high wall.

He bent his knees slightly, muscles tensing in an instant. The next moment, he shot up like a cannonball, effortlessly clearing the electric fence several meters high and landing silently inside the base.

The moment he landed, several patrolling soldiers detected the disturbance, shouting sharp questions as they raised their guns and took aim.

Wu Liangchen wasted no time on words. With a single step, his body blurred into a faint afterimage.

"CRACK! SQUELCH!"

The sounds of shattering bone and sharp objects piercing flesh rang out almost simultaneously. The soldiers didn't even have time to scream before they crumpled to the ground, a bloody hole in their brow or throat where a steel ball had pierced through.

Wu Liangchen didn't pause for a second, charging directly toward the deepest part of the base.

The slaughter had begun.

Wu Liangchen was like an unstoppable blade, carving a bloody path through the heavily defended base toward its core.

Finally, Wu Liangchen stopped before a heavy alloy door.

This was the very heart of the base.

He took a deep breath, the Qi and Blood in his body surging like a raging river.

"BOOM!"

The alloy door caved inward as if struck by a battering ram, then collapsed with an ear-splitting shriek of twisting metal!

Wu Liangchen stepped through the doorway amidst the billowing dust.

To his surprise, the room held no heavily armed guards or cold, scientific instruments. It looked more like an elegant study, with rows of bookshelves lined with various books and the faint aroma of tea hanging in the air.

A figure sat with his back to him at a simple, wooden desk, seemingly enjoying a cup of tea.

He was a very young-looking man, dressed in a clean, white casual outfit, his hair impeccably combed.

His profile was soft, his skin fair. If not for the fact they were in the core of a heavily guarded military base, Wu Liangchen might have mistaken him for an ordinary boy next door.

'This is Number Zero?'

'The mastermind controlling the Dome Group, and perhaps even the entire Alliance government?'

But Wu Liangchen wasn't fooled by the man's appearance. On the contrary, he grew even more vigilant.

Such an anomaly had to mean trouble. He clutched a steel ball, preparing to test the depths of this unnervingly calm man.

Just as Wu Liangchen was about to make his move, the young man slowly raised his head. A faint smile touched his lips, and his gaze was calm and tranquil, as if he had long been expecting Wu Liangchen's arrival.

"Welcome, Wu Liangchen," Number Zero said with a smile, his tone as calm as if he were greeting an old friend. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Wu Liangchen's eyes narrowed. "You knew I was coming?"

"Of course. From the moment you killed Schiller, I knew we would eventually meet," Number Zero said casually, as if discussing the weather.

"You must have learned a few things by now, I imagine. Don't you want to know where Yan Shu went, what the Sea of Fog is all about, and... what really happened all those years ago?"

Wu Liangchen didn't answer, merely staring at him coldly.

Number Zero didn't seem to mind. He continued on his own, "Do you know what the biggest difference is between the world now and the world back then?"

He didn't wait for Wu Liangchen's reply before giving the answer. "It's Spiritual Qi! Back then, even an ordinary person could take the first step into martial arts or even awaken a Spirit Root with just a little training. But now, only those with exceptional talent can barely manage it, and even then, they have to rely on a great deal of blood sacrifice."

At this, Number Zero sneered. "As for Magic... that's just a shoddy substitute, born from the fact that there's no Spiritual Qi anymore."

Wu Liangchen couldn't help but ask, "Then why is there no Spiritual Qi?"

"Good question!" Number Zero clapped in mock appreciation. "Because Spiritual Qi was always an extremely expensive, even luxurious, resource. And so, someone took notice of it."

"Took notice?" Wu Liangchen was taken aback.

"That's right." Number Zero's eyes grew profound. "You think this world is vast, but in their eyes, it's just a tiny puddle. A tiny place that happened to possess a precious resource like Spiritual Qi, which naturally brought it endless disaster."

Wu Liangchen was silent for a moment before speaking slowly. "So... who are these people you're talking about?"

An expression of almost fanatical worship and bone-deep reverence appeared on Number Zero's face, as if he were speaking of some supreme faith.

"They are true Immortals, gods walking the mortal world, invincible beings who surpass the very limits of our comprehension!"

'Immortals? Gods?'

Wu Liangchen's heart skipped a beat.

"As for me," Number Zero said, his gaze returning to Wu Liangchen as the fervor on his face quickly subsided, replaced by his earlier calm.

"I am merely their agent, left behind in this world to handle the trivial matters they can't be bothered with themselves."

"As for the Spiritual Qi, it was sold off by the Masters long ago."

"Sold?" Wu Liangchen's brow furrowed. The word struck him as absurd.

'Spiritual Qi... something like that can be sold like a commodity?'

"Yes, sold." Number Zero nodded, his tone carrying a matter-of-fact cruelty.

"To the Masters, this world and its Spiritual Qi are just another product in their vast trade network. They possess heaven-defying power. They can extract all the Spiritual Qi from a world, package it up, and take it away as easily as we dig ore from the ground."

Number Zero seemed to drift into a distant memory, his gaze becoming hazy. "I don't know how long ago it was. One day, the Masters descended from the heavens without any warning. Then, without a word, they began a slaughter."

"It was a one-sided massacre, a bloody purge. The native experts of this world—the Martial Artists and Qi Refiners who were considered to be at the pinnacle of power at the time—were as fragile as ants before the Masters."

"Rivers of blood flowed, bodies littered the plains, and countless legacies were severed. After that, the Masters went deep into the earth's ley lines and used methods beyond our understanding to completely cut off the source of Spiritual Qi on which this world depended. And then... they drained it."

Wu Liangchen finally understood.

The very foundation of this world had been cut out from under it long ago.

"And me," he said, gesturing to himself, "at the time, I was just an ordinary person struggling to survive the chaos. Maybe it was because I was clever enough to read the situation, or maybe it was just a stroke of luck, but I had some insignificant contact with one of the Masters."

"In the end, I survived and was chosen to be their agent in this world."

Wu Liangchen sneered. "Agent? You're just a watchdog."

Number Zero wasn't angered by this. Instead, he nodded in agreement. "That's right, a watchdog. But there are ranks even among dogs. You have no idea how many people would kill for the chance to be a dog for the Masters."

As he spoke, he held out his hand. A nearly imperceptible but incredibly pure fluctuation of energy coiled around his fingertip.

"This is the perk of being their dog."

"Every year, I receive some dregs of Spiritual Qi from the Masters as a reward. It is by relying on these dregs that I have survived to this day and maintained this youthful appearance."

At last, Wu Liangchen understood. The fate of this world was being manipulated by a group of mysterious "Immortals."

They took as they pleased, plundering the world of its fundamental Spiritual Qi, leaving behind nothing but a broken shell and a population of prisoners kept in the dark.

And the Dome Group, the Alliance government—they were nothing more than lapdogs raised by these "Immortals," tools used to maintain order on this farm.

Wu Liangchen took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart. "If that's the case, then what about the Sea of Fog that separates the continents? Is that also the work of these 'Masters' you speak of?"

"The Sea of Fog?" Number Zero smiled faintly, seemingly unsurprised that Wu Liangchen would ask this question.

"It was originally a unique natural phenomenon caused by the world's spiritual tides. But after the Masters took the Spiritual Qi, they made some... minor modifications to it. It was to better manage the region and prevent 'goods' from different continents from interfering with each other. It became a natural barrier that isolates the continents."

"Then what about Yan Shu?" Wu Liangchen finally asked the question he most wanted to ask.