Chapter 612 - 54: What’s With All the Question Marks?

"A moon landing?"

The topic made Shao Qiming’s expression turn a little serious. After all, it was difficult for even a Transcendent to survive in the vacuum of space. If an accident occurred, they could be exiled to the void, left with no choice but to shut down their minds.

But his brow quickly smoothed over as he remembered that Su Zhou was now at the Commander Tier. He could use his Gale Shield Jet to generate thrust like a personal rocket. If the real rocket exploded, couldn’t Su Zhou just turn into one himself and fly back? Commander Tier Cultivators weren’t ordinary people; they weren’t completely helpless in a space accident.

It was hardly appropriate to think about Transcendents with a modern mindset—after all, data analysis showed that those at the Overlord Tier could already travel through space without any difficulty, even faster than modern spaceships.

"Yes, a moon landing. No need to worry too much about safety. If worse comes to worst, we can just use a Teleportation Spell to come back. This is the era of the Spiritual Energy Revival, after all. Space is still dangerous, but ’ordinary dangers’ like that aren’t much of a threat anymore."

The drink in front of Su Zhou was a very traditional osmanthus honey tea. He took a sip, his expression pleased. "Ah, I’ve been to many Otherworlds, but going to the moon is definitely more exciting!"

"From a rational standpoint, that’s true," Shao Qiming agreed.

The topic soon shifted to matters concerning the Continuous Prayer Meeting. Recently, Kroessel had performed several sacrifices to the Holy Snake Spirit using gemstones and precious metals. He had reported the process and materials for these sacrifices to Shao Qiming, so Su Zhou naturally knew about them as well.

"The people in the Continuous Prayer Meeting are pretty rational—at least, the ones who survived are."

Su Zhou had once used a reversed Snake Attachment Skill to see through Kroessel’s eyes and attend one of the Continuous Prayer Meeting’s internal meetings, and this was his conclusion: "They’re all capitalists who wouldn’t be missed if they were killed, just a bunch of ruthless rich folks, but they follow the rules. I guess that’s the difference between the Continuous Prayer Meeting and the Spirit Summoning Association. One has at least a few normal people, while the other is full of lunatics."

"As expected of you, Yara!"

In response to Su Zhou’s praise, Yara—who hadn’t transformed into a hat this time—proudly flicked its tail. "As expected of my organization!"

Daily mutual praise mission: complete.

The world had indeed become very peaceful. There were basically no longer any catalysts for large-scale turmoil on Earth.

The Continuous Prayer Meeting was barely hanging on, and the Spirit Summoning Association was now completely annihilated—some time ago, the European Union Harmony Bureau had ventured deep into the Demon Realm and, in the Central Volcano Zone, captured the last remaining believers of the Spirit Summoning Association who were attempting to trigger the volcano and completely destroy the realm’s ecosystem.

At this point, apart from a thought-virus that could reactivate at any time, all of the Spirit Summoning Association’s footholds in the material world had completely collapsed. Perhaps there were still some members living in anonymity on Earth, but they could essentially be considered nonexistent. Under the joint strike of multiple global powers, they had no chance of ever making a comeback.

Why, even their Leader’s Evil Soul had been eaten by Su Zhou as a snack for his birthday afternoon tea.

And Silent Bornev’s Evil Soul had an extremely bitter, spicy taste.

The so-called spicy flavor is, in essence, not a taste but a sensation of pain. It’s just that exceptionally resilient humans can even come to appreciate this pain, and so, spiciness became part of the human culinary palette.

However, pure, unadulterated spiciness is something most people cannot appreciate. Aromatic spice, savory spice, sweet spice, and umami spice are all ways of making this "pain" delicious. It’s like life—there will always be some pain, but turning that pain into motivation makes it bearable.

Unfortunately, Bornev’s Evil Soul was far from being aromatically spicy. The bitterness shot straight to one’s Soul, and it was viscous and unsettlingly subtle. The moment Su Zhou swallowed the Evil Soul, he frowned, almost comprehending the true meaning of sorrow on the spot.

’So bitter! It’s like a concentrated Huanglian Pill coated in Devil’s Pepper Powder!’

Only when he had finally finished digesting this first Commander Tier Evil Soul did Su Zhou let out a long sigh. "Was Bornev’s whole life steeped in a mood that tasted like this? No wonder the guy had such strong self-destructive tendencies. It wasn’t just because of Dusk’s influence!"

Bornev’s Talent, ’Thoughtless Mind,’ wasn’t actually a very powerful ability. It just allowed Su Zhou to vaguely hear the distinct inner thoughts of people around him when he calmed his mind and thought of nothing. If someone actively concealed their thoughts, Su Zhou couldn’t hear them.

For someone like Bornev, who was naturally passive and had few thoughts of his own, this ability allowed him to hear things very clearly. But for someone like Su Zhou, who had an extremely strong sense of self, it was merely the icing on the cake—not particularly useful.

However, when paired with the appraisal ability of the Evil-Devouring Demon Lord, it could achieve an effect similar to that of a Bi’an of the Dragon Race—the ability to distinguish lies and verify the truth. After all, even if someone concealed their inner thoughts, the "background noise" of their mind would still change. Whether they felt joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, whether they were tense or calm, the sound of their psyche would be slightly different.

And Thoughtless Mind was the perfect tool for listening to these psychic sounds.

"By the way, Azhou."

After everything was settled, before Su Zhou could even speak, Shao Qiming asked curiously, "Have you thought about which Otherworld you’re going to visit next?"

"You killed so many of the Spirit Summoning Association’s Leaders this time, so logically, you should have obtained a large amount of aura from Great Beings... If you got a lot, could you let me know which Great Beings they’re from? I could help you figure out which world would be best for you to visit in the future."

As he said this, the refined young man’s expression held a hint of anticipation.

"I did get quite a few, but... how should I put it? There aren’t many I actually want to visit. For example, the strongest aura I got was from the ’Dusk World.’ What would I do in a godforsaken place like that? For all I know, it could be some wasteland world or the remnants of a black hole."

Su Zhou knew that Shao Qiming had always been very interested in information related to Great Beings. He took a sip of tea and shared the details. "At the Commander Tier, advancement in strength doesn’t really depend on resources anymore. It mainly depends on my own Cultivation and how I reflect on my abilities."

"Once I’ve pushed my Evil-Devouring Demon Lord Divine Techniques to their absolute limit through Deduction, I’ll reach the High-level Commander Tier. Then, I’ll need to think about how to ’break through the limit’ and become an ’Overlord’ in a certain domain. But obviously, that’s something that requires a lot of thought. When I need inspiration, I’ll go to an Otherworld for a change of scenery, but there’s no need for that right now."

"However, I do have a plan. Sometime later, probably around November, I’m planning to return to the Divine Wood World once before the New Year."

As he spoke, Su Zhou smiled and snapped his fingers. He said to his good friend, "This time, since I’ve reached the Commander Tier, I can bring someone with me. Qiming, you also recently advanced to the Extraordinary Tier, so this is the perfect chance for me to take you to see a living Divine Wood. It’ll give you a reference for your Wood Element cultivation!"

"That fella, the Immortal Banyan Tree, is actually pretty easy to talk to. And since I happen to be Its King of Divine Wood, It should give me that much face."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Shao Qiming’s fingers tightened on his teacup unconsciously. He quickly recovered, his expression simply one of joy. "I can go with you?"

"No problem." Su Zhou laughed heartily, not minding at all. "When the time comes, you can witness for yourself just how popular I am in that world! Ah, I always felt that not being able to tell anyone was like wearing brocade robes in the dark. I always wanted to bring along an audience, and now my wish is finally coming true..."

Shao Qiming raised an eyebrow slightly. "You just needed a straight man for your act, didn’t you?"

"Of course not!"

Amid their banter, Su Zhou also took the opportunity to reveal his true plan for exploring Otherworlds.

"Most of the information on Great Beings I got from the Spirit Summoning Association is incomplete and needs to be analyzed. After all, most of them were burned by my Karmic Fire and ended up a bit... incomplete. They didn’t die very peacefully."

As he spoke, Su Zhou said, "So, my idea is, before I finish analyzing what’s missing from that information, to use myself as a positioning Beacon and go to the one Otherworld I have the strongest connection with."

As he spoke, Su Zhou picked up the teacup containing the little red snake—which had, at some unknown point, started soaking in a nearby cup of honeysuckle tea—and held both up proudly. "Namely, Yara’s world."

For a moment, the entire private room fell completely silent, as if hit by a server-wide mute, leaving only two abrupt, massive clouds of emotion rising into the air.

Yara, in the teacup: "?"

Shao Qiming: "?"

Su Zhou: "What, is that not an option? What are all the question marks for?"