Chapter 561: An Immortal Descends, I Shall Lay an Ambush

Wu Liangchen carefully put away the secret manual.

He decided to study it more closely later to see if he could reduce its Life Fire consumption.

After all, gathering over forty thousand wisps of Life Fire was no easy task, even for someone of Wu Liangchen’s current power.

Afterward, Wu Liangchen began searching the study for the base’s central control hub. ‘Since Number Zero could lord over this place, he must have had a convenient way to control it.’

Sure enough, behind an inconspicuous section of wall, he found a hidden control panel. It was covered in various complex buttons and indicator lights. After a brief study, Wu Liangchen roughly understood its operational logic and, without hesitation, pressed several key buttons.

“RUMBLE—”

The base’s seemingly indestructible perimeter defense systems—the electric fences, automated turrets, and more—all blared with piercing alarms at the same time before losing power, slumping like defanged beasts.

Old Ghost and his men, who were engaged in a fierce firefight with the defenders on the base’s perimeter, were startled at first. They thought the enemy had deployed some kind of weapon of mass destruction. But they soon discovered that the defensive fortifications that had been giving them so much trouble had all gone silent.

“What’s happening?” a Starfire member asked in astonishment, staring at the deactivated electric fence ahead.

Old Ghost was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up with wild joy. “It’s Mr. Wu! Mr. Wu must have succeeded! He’s taken control of the base’s defense systems!”

“Brothers, the defense systems are down! Charge! Kill every last one of these bastards!” Old Ghost roared, raising his arm, his voice hoarse with excitement.

“Kill!”

The morale of the Starfire Organization members soared. They surged like a tide into the now-defenseless interior of the base.

The modified soldiers and armed personnel of the Dome Corporation, who had been mounting a last-ditch defense from behind their fortifications, were suddenly caught between a rock and a hard place.

Having lost their tactical advantage, how could they possibly be a match for the fearless members of Starfire? Besides, they still had to contend with experts like Jian Yi and Alina.

For a time, the sounds of gunfire, explosions, and screams filled the base.

Just half an hour later, the battle was nearing its end. The remaining defenders were cornered into a tiny area and were ultimately wiped out under the relentless assault of Old Ghost and his men.

The entire military base had completely changed hands.

When Wu Liangchen emerged from underground, Old Ghost was already directing his people to clear the battlefield and tend to the wounded. He immediately hurried over upon seeing Wu Liangchen.

“Mr. Wu, the base is completely under our control,” Old Ghost said, his face beaming with the joy of victory.

Wu Liangchen nodded. “What’s the situation in Zhongjing now?”

“The chaos is still ongoing. Many people are taking the opportunity to smash, grab, and loot. Years of pent-up public resentment have erupted all at once, and things are getting out of control.”

Wu Liangchen pondered for a moment, then said, “I’ll leave this matter for you to handle. Jian Yi, Master Jie Nian, you two will assist him.”

Jian Yi, cradling his sword, gave a curt nod, as concise as ever.

Master Jie Nian put his palms together. “It is my duty.”

After delegating the clean-up, Wu Liangchen dove into the top-secret files left behind by Number Zero. The information was as vast as an ocean, recording the core secrets of the Dome Corporation, and even the entire Alliance government, for the past hundred years.

The more he read, the deeper Wu Liangchen’s brows furrowed.

Just as he had suspected, the fundamental reason Number Zero had relentlessly pushed human experimentation, even going so far as to establish massive research institutions, was to solve the side effects caused by Spiritual Qi residue.

While the Spiritual Qi residue allowed him to maintain his strength and youth, the impure energies contained within were also constantly eroding his body and mind. He was trying to find a way—through genetic modification, pharmaceutical concoctions, and other methods—to perfectly absorb Spiritual Qi without suffering from its backlash.

Unfortunately, even up to his death, his research never achieved a breakthrough.

Besides the data on human experimentation, Wu Liangchen also discovered an even more crucial classified file. This document detailed the Dome Corporation’s most important mission: to guard the Array located deep underground.

This Array was the key to how Those Masters had severed this world’s Spirit Vein and were continuously siphoning away its Spiritual Qi.

What made Wu Liangchen’s heart sink even further was the file’s mention that, over the years, these individuals had descended upon this world more than once.

And they no longer arrived by piloting Starships as they did initially. This was because the starry sky was too vast; even a Starship could not traverse such endless distances in a short time.

Instead, they had built a small Teleportation Array next to the main Array.

“A Teleportation Array…” Wu Liangchen’s eyes narrowed.

This explained why Number Zero had been so brazenly confident before his death, boasting that “the Masters” would soon descend.

‘So, they left a backdoor.’

After finishing his review of the files, Wu Liangchen decided to investigate the underground Array himself. He took a top-secret elevator within the base and descended into the depths of the earth.

The elevator descended continuously, passing through layers of rock and even a layer of magma. Strangely, despite the all-melting heat outside, the temperature inside the elevator remained comfortable.

When the elevator finally stopped, it was more than a hundred thousand meters deep underground.

The elevator doors slid open slowly, and the scene that appeared before Wu Liangchen left him utterly stunned.

It was an impossibly vast subterranean cavern, so wide that he could not see its edges.