Chapter 204: Investigation
"Who exactly was that person?" Luo Bo endlessly sifted through the archives' files, yet a definitive answer remained elusive.
Back then, having gained power from Bai Mo's casual experiment, he relied on his luck, encountering one fortuitous event after another. He survived the death tribulation a month later, swiftly ascending to become a Life Field Stage ability user.
From then on, his life underwent an earth-shattering transformation. In just over two years, he first joined the Dragon Group, becoming an ordinary member. Later, amidst the great tide of mergers, his exceptional strength made him a cornerstone of the Special Combat Department.
Then, during the Tianqing upheaval, he chose the right side, making a splendid transition to become a mid-level cadre within the Huaxia Federation, allowing both himself and his younger sister to live a rather prosperous life.
In less than three years, he transformed from a thief scraping by in the slums to one of the youngest mid-level members in the entire Huaxia Federation. That year, he was seventeen.
"There are a total of twelve Unmelting Realm ability users capable of distorting and devouring light..." Although he didn't feel any of them resembled the mysterious black shadow from back then, Luo Bo silently jotted down their information, intending to eliminate them one by one later. He wasn't willing to let go of any possibility.
Having only recently entered the Unmelting Realm, it wasn't appropriate to overtly investigate powerful individuals of the same rank. Therefore, all his inquiries were conducted discreetly.
Within Tianqing's central archives, various pieces of information gathered from the ability user census were recorded. However, accessing files of different security clearances naturally required different levels of authorization.
Originally, Luo Bo's authorization wasn't sufficient to look up these individuals' data, but with his persistent coaxing and someone higher up favoring him, everything ceased to be an issue.
Luo Bo had too little information remembered about the black shadow, so the difficulty of the investigation was naturally immense, especially since the group he was investigating consisted entirely of individuals at the pinnacle of the Huaxia Federation's power structure, each with a complex background.
"One day, I will find you, and I will repay these five million tenfold."
...
"Well, my little radish, did you find the person you were looking for?" When Luo Bo returned to his office door, a tall, beautiful woman blocked his way, half-jokingly asking.
"Thank you, Sister Zixin, for secretly getting your dad's authorization credentials for me."
"It's nothing, you're not doing anything bad. The old man wouldn't care about such trivial matters." She seized the opportunity to throw a flirtatious glance, startling Luo Bo, who still looked like a young boy. He quickly retreated back into his office.
"Who exactly is this kid trying to find? He doesn't look like he's seeking an enemy. Could it be the person who changed his fate back then?"
As a prime target for co-option, Luo Bo's past had naturally been thoroughly investigated, allowing for more targeted approaches.
As the struggle between the two major factions within the Huaxia Federation intensified, the established forces were clearly a step weaker in martial might compared to the new generation of ability users. However, they possessed far richer social resources, representing the original upper echelons of society.
Ability users like Luo Bo, with no background whatsoever, rising overnight from poverty, naturally became their primary targets for co-option.
By leveraging power, wealth, and seduction simultaneously, they continuously softened these individuals' stances, conceding a portion of benefits to establish shared interests. Then, slowly, through means like marriage alliances, they integrated these people into their own circles, making them members of their community of interests, ultimately achieving a peaceful transition.
So far, this overt strategy had proven quite successful. The peaceful environment within Huaxia provided the conditions for its implementation. Brute force was certainly useful, but it wasn't the only thing that mattered.
The vast majority of people were just ordinary members of the populace before their abilities awakened. After suddenly gaining power, very few could maintain a normal mindset or achieve the strength that comes from having no desires.
As for individuals like Bai Mo, a lone star of calamity with virtually no relatives or friends, they were even rarer.
Through "Madam tactics," or by cultivating relationships with parents and relatives, using those close to them to subtly shift their perspectives, even someone with a heart of stone could be softened, as long as they still cherished someone. There was always a way to make their attitude yield.
Under wave after wave of such soft offensives, most ability users quickly began to change their way of thinking, adapting to the reality of becoming part of the upper class and no longer directly opposing the established elite.
Ultimately, they didn't mind having a few more players at the table. As long as these newcomers played by the rules, their card-playing skills simply couldn't compare to those seasoned old hands who had navigated the gambling world for decades.
What they truly feared were people like Ye Zi, who didn't play by the rules, directly overturned the table and resorted to force, creating a new era through violence; or individuals like Bai Mo, who were impervious to persuasion and extremely self-centered.
To encourage more people to help refine the "Thousand Souls Scripture," Bai Mo simply set a symbolic fee for it—one Contribution Point for full access to the text.
The official data for the Contribution Point system was backed by the full credit of the government. Under Bai Mo's management, there had yet to be any scandals, and very few questioned its credibility.
Because ordinary people could also cultivate the "Thousand Souls Scripture" to subtly enhance their cognitive abilities—and no one wished their mind to run slower—countless parents, yearning for their children to become dragons and phoenixes, began to have their offspring study and practice this secret manual.
This, in turn, sparked an enormous demand for soul-type materials. These materials, originally rarely sought after due to their limited uses, were swiftly bought up, and their prices fluctuated wildly, changing multiple times a day.
Huge profits naturally spurred more people to enter related industries. The known wild soul-type materials were quickly claimed by adventurers as greedy as hyenas.
Even some relatively famous haunted areas were swept clean again and again by adventurers seeking wealth. Driven by immense profit, these frenzied crowds made even ghosts retreat a respectful distance.
After the exploitable wild resources were almost completely depleted, many clever individuals began considering artificial production.
Initially, they focused on places like cemeteries and hospitals, locations that seemed inherently connected to death and souls.
People attempted to cultivate mutated plants in these areas, hoping to obtain useful resources.
Meanwhile, a small number of ability users, relying on their unique Spirit Hubs to perceive or even touch special spiritual entities like ghosts, attempted to capture them to produce the necessary materials.
Regardless, the public release of the "Thousand Souls Scripture" and the immense profits it brought genuinely spurred research in related fields. More and more people began dedicating themselves to exploring methods of soul and mind cultivation.
Of course, Bai Mo, the originator of all this, merely wished to find more laborers to jointly push forward cultivation research at the Thousand Thought and Ten Thousand Thought levels. The side effects this brought were not within his scope of consideration.
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