Chapter 2280: An Unbeatable Enemy

Through the old dean’s introduction, Zhang Menglong also basically understood this Guardian organization.

This organization does not have a leader; it only has a Guardian Summit, composed of 14 Dominator peak powerhouses from the four pinnacle organizations. The dean of Saint Song Academy and the four branch deans are also members of this summit.

All combat group members are Dominators, and those below the Dominator level can at most become members of the logistics department. This organization has not been established for long, but within just over a decade, it has spread throughout the entire continent.

Their only mission is to investigate ancient humans who have not yet awakened and find ways to make those Soul Shards disappear completely.

In this process, they often encounter some ancient humans who have already restored part of their power, and upon meeting, it almost invariably results in a battle of the century.

So far, they have found 1,027 places where ancient human Soul Shards are sleeping, of which 102 had already awakened before they were found.

Among the remaining places, they successfully prevented the awakening of 506 ancient humans and completely laid their Remnant Souls to rest; as for the rest, they were rescued and taken away by the ancient human organization.

In the cases of failure, those who went to stop them mostly sacrificed themselves, which is a necessary cost in this process.

To date, the number of human powerhouses who have died trying to stop ancient humans has exceeded hundreds of thousands, including even thousands of Dominator-level powerhouses; the losses on the human camp’s side are indeed severe.

“Alright, I’ll join!” Since there is a ready-made organization, Zhang Menglong can save a lot of energy in building a new organization.

“Great,” the branch dean rejoiced. With Zhang Menglong’s addition, although the organization’s combat power won’t significantly improve, their understanding of ancient humans will certainly advance.

“Let me take you to a place!” The branch dean stood up and said, seeing Zhang Menglong’s confused look, he added, “Our Guardian headquarters!”

The branch dean led Zhang Menglong out of the small room and casually created a Space Wormhole. This heaven-defying means is possessed only by the most extreme part of the Dominator peak.

Zhang Menglong seemed like he simply walked through a door, then arrived at a very special place.

This place seemed like an ancient battlefield, full of pits and hollows, infused with a sense of age.

Most importantly, Zhang Menglong actually felt the aura of ancient humans here!

In the center of this ancient battlefield, stood many buildings entirely inconsistent with the environment, as if forcibly constructed later. Zhang Menglong’s detector scanned, and found that there were hundreds of thousands of people here, among whom tens of thousands possessed Dominator-level strength!

“What is this place? Is this the headquarters of the Guardians?”

“Correct,” the branch dean nodded, “This is also an ancient human cemetery. When we found this place, it held 108 ancient human Soul Shards. We paid a great price to eliminate 102 of them, but 6 were eventually rescued under the resistance of the awakened ancient humans!”

Saying this, the branch dean added, “They are simply devoid of humanity, not even sparing their own kind. The powers of those ancient human Soul Shards we eliminated were directly absorbed by the remaining ones. They actually, in such circumstances, devour their kind to strengthen themselves. This is something we humans would find difficult to do under any circumstances!”

“I’ve seen such things before; it’s not surprising at all,” Zhang Menglong said, “Once an ancient human’s Soul was attached to my body, and later encountered another one, whose first instinct was to devour the ancient human Soul within me.”

“They are extreme individualists, considering their own safety and growth first in any situation, only then considering other matters,” the branch dean said.

“But speaking of this, why choose this place as the headquarters of the Guardians? It seems rather desolate,” Zhang Menglong asked.

“Because many ancient humans fell here, leaving behind extensive traces related to them. We’ve found lots of information and data concerning ancient humans here, and in order to study this information, we established our headquarters here,” the old dean said. “We’ve studied here for 12 years, but have only deciphered 30% of the vast amount of information. Yet even this 30% has brought us significant gains.”

The old dean summoned his portable intelligence system, “We’ve analyzed the basic physical qualities and Soul strength of ancient humans. Their might is beyond our imagination. Look, this is the curve of their Soul strength against Life Levels, and the other one is for us humans; these are theoretical averages.”

At first glance, Zhang Menglong was dumbstruck. Although the starting point is the same, the growth curve for ancient humans is almost exponential. At the Ultimate Life Form peak theoretically, one ancient human’s Soul strength is 80,000 times that of new humans!

“This is the result of the research on some remnants of ancient human DNA,” the old dean continued, “Their bone density is around 63,000 times that of humans of the same level, their power and speed are roughly 12,000 times, their nerve reaction speed is 8,000 times, their external Energy utilization is 3,000 times, and their recovery speed from various bodily damages is 6,800 times!”

These alarming numbers didn’t shock Zhang Menglong much.

Just like that Warcraft, merely possessing an Ancient Human Soul can easily kill a fifth order Dominator with its incomplete body.

The gap in power between the two is at least hundreds or thousands of times.

“They truly are insurmountable adversaries,” the old dean sighed deeply.

“From your current understanding, among ancient humans who have already awakened, what is the strongest level of their strength?” This was the most concerning issue for Zhang Menglong.

“They have probably grown to about Transcender sixth order,” the old dean said, “This era and the era they lived in differ greatly, in both climate and other factors. They lost their own bodies, thus rely on humans’ bodies to restore power, which is very slow. To potentially grow to the Dominator peak, using various means, to recreate an ancient human body.”

“For us, that’s good news,” Zhang Menglong said, “At least it still leaves us quite some time.”

“But although it’s only Transcender sixth order, their strength has already reached the level of our dean at the Saint Song Academy, and even vaguely surpasses the dean!” Mentioning this, the branch dean also felt a headache, “If they grow for a while longer, it will be very difficult for us to contend with them.”

“Is there any way to fight them?” Zhang Menglong asked.

“There is!” the branch dean said, “If we had the power of the Ancient God, our chances of defeating them would be much greater!”