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Chapter 348: Ten Flowers

This was an exceptionally grave problem. After having savored the benefits of Spirit Qi, no one was willing to return to the past. Even ordinary people, who had gained relatively little in the Spirit Qi era, shared the same sentiment.

Because in this new era, at the very least, everyone harbored hope. As long as they steeled their hearts and converted all their assets into Contribution Points, exchanging them for small amounts of longevity-extending spiritual materials or potions wasn't a huge issue. Relying on these items, they could live an additional ten to twenty years.

Of course, not many were willing to make such an all-or-nothing choice. As long as their bodies were still sound and their age wasn't too advanced, they wouldn't choose such a desperate path, for in this society, living without money was a true suffering.

"After that mysterious world vanished, the Spirit Qi levels dropped another notch, but the rampaging Spirit Devourer virus also suddenly disappeared at the same time. There must be some connection here," Chen Bo murmured to himself, seated at the Speaker's desk in Ziliu Sea, examining the documents in his hand.

"What happened to that fellow, the Disciple of the Crimson World, who spread this thing? Did he really perish together with Bai Mo?"

...

His intuition told him that things weren't so simple. One question after another emerged, but due to a lack of intelligence, Chen Bo couldn't draw many useful conclusions.

"According to the analysts' speculation, it's likely due to the continuous increase in the number of superhumans, leading to excessive Spirit Qi consumption on Earth. And as the Spirit Qi concentration decreases, it will probably become increasingly difficult for superhumans to achieve breakthroughs. Some data from grassroots surveys also corroborate this hypothesis."

Chen Bo had originally planned to make a breakthrough some time ago, but the sudden appearance of Red Radiance, the Spirit Devourer, the Disciple of the Crimson World, and a series of other events disrupted his plans. Always one to play it safe, he would never risk breaking through to the Chemosynthesis stage unless his life was directly threatened.

"Although the Spirit Energy Research Institute has successfully conducted secret, small-scale Spirit Qi replication experiments, neither the efficiency nor the cost is acceptable. Without a breakthrough, the Moon might become a new relocation site for redundant Ability Users..."

"Knock, knock, knock." Just as Chen Bo was deep in thought, a knock sounded at his office door.

"Speaker Chen, this is the latest report from the Clearing Center. There are several confidential files inside. For reasons of secrecy, the relevant discoverers have been temporarily invited to the Special Combat Department's guesthouse for isolation."

"Mithril, Dark Spirit Rice, basic Wizard Transformation..." The multiple glaring "Top Secret" stamps on the outside of the files caused the secretary beside him to instinctively turn away.

"Ms. Chen also handed over all the materials she handled related to the experimental facility to us, in exchange for a promise not to pursue the matter further," Chen Bo's chief secretary stated.

"Given that person's character, she couldn't possibly have access to the true core content. As long as she can hand over the keys, it doesn't matter," Chen Bo replied.

"Understood." Secretary Wang nodded.

She was in quite a good mood herself, for in order to facilitate this deal, the other party had secretly slipped her an astonishingly large intermediary fee, for acting as the go-between to connect her with Chen Bo.

Just before the liquidation process of the experimental facility began, Chen Xi, bringing all the documents she had handled over the past few years—including records of material ingress and egress, statistical reports from external laboratories, and a hefty stack of other items—approached Chen Bo's chief secretary and secretly reached this verbal agreement.

Over these seven or eight years, the money flowing through the accounts of the Tianqing experimental facility alone amounted to hundreds of billions annually. Faced with such an astronomical sum, even if Chen Xi had handled it in the most conservative manner, she still netted enough money to last ten lifetimes.

Now that her backer had fallen, to avoid becoming a target of public resentment, she could only preserve herself through this method. Of course, there was also a certain someone's tacit approval behind it.

"Don't let it happen again." Just as Secretary Wang was lost in pleasant fantasies, a single sentence from Chen Bo yanked her back to the cold reality.

"You are my secretary, but only my secretary. You don't need to make decisions for me." Chen Bo was quite displeased with his subordinate's overstepping behavior, reporting to him only after taking a bribe.

"Yes! Such a thing will absolutely never happen again!" Secretary Wang, whose eyes had been clouded by the large bribe, finally remembered the source of her authority.

"A true case of losing a lot by coveting a little..." After leaving the office, she furrowed her brows. "My impression score with him just dropped."

Daily facing Chen Bo, the most prominent single male in all of Huaxia, Secretary Wang also had her own little schemes. A secretary was, after all, just a secretary, but a wife was an entirely different concept.

Rewind to a few days prior.

"What happened at the experimental facility?" Chen Xi, who had temporarily left the experimental facility before the world-shaking battle, saw a stream of light fly towards her. Upon landing, the stream of light transformed into an orb of light, gradually revealing Bai Mo's silhouette.

"You've been with me for ten years now, haven't you?" Bai Mo ignored Chen Xi's question and spoke to himself.

Upon hearing this, she detected an unsettling undertone. Hua Qing beside her had a similar thought. The two exchanged a glance, then continued to watch the luminous figure before them.

"Yes, ten years, counting from our first meeting."

"Time is short. This is my last gift to the two of you." No sooner had Bai Mo's voice fallen than an exquisitely crafted box materialized at the center of the light orb.

The box opened automatically, revealing two wrist-watch-like objects inside. The watches had no hour, minute, or second hands, only ten flowers intricately outlined by runes. Below the watches lay a piece of paper and several keys.

"What do you mean by this?" Hearing the words "last gift," they clearly harbored some ominous premonitions.

Bai Mo didn't explain immediately. He merely willed the two watches onto their wrists. As they settled, the original watch bodies transformed into an extremely complex runic pattern, the ten flowers perfectly circling their wrists.

As the runes formed, both felt a peculiar, ineffable change occurring within their bodies.

"I hope you will never have a need to use it," he said then, a baffling remark.

"The paper holds the highest access password to the experimental facility's database, and those keys are for opening the core experimental product warehouse. Without using these to open it, the self-destruct system will immediately activate. Hand them all over. This is my final mission to you..." Having spoken, the orb of light dispersed like scattering fireflies, quickly vanishing without a trace.