Chapter 388: Anomaly
"Isn't a world where effort is always rewarded, rather than relying on connections or bloodlines, far more interesting? All contributions are judged by a cold, impartial system, free from favoritism, corruption, or the wastefulness of those who hold positions without merit, because no one can afford the price of bribing the system," Bai Mo declared in his largely emotionless voice.
Jierkefu said nothing more, merely lowering his head and continuing to fly towards the Huaxia Federation with Zimoyeva, who had remained silent throughout. He himself had personally suppressed several individuals with similar ideas back in Mao-Russia, so he understood the futility of arguing with them. These self-centered individuals would never listen to any opinion other than the force of a fist. It was just that the ones causing trouble before were never strong enough for Jierkefu to reason with them using his fists. Now, he had been reasoned with using a fist, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.
As for Zimoyeva, she had initially believed that Bai Mo would immediately kill them both to vent his anger, especially since she was the one who had personally taken a life. But she hadn't expected him to deviate from the script entirely. His journey all the way to this frigid peninsula base seemed more like a test of his experimental results. After casually resurrecting the two of them, he let them leave. Zimoyeva even suspected that her act of murder might have been part of Bai Mo's calculations. Coupled with the abrupt appearance of the Destiny System within her, these shocking events left the normally taciturn woman completely indifferent to her surroundings. Her eyes vacant, she mechanically followed Bai Mo.
On their way back, a sudden red light cut off their path.
"Something the matter?"
"As a gesture of goodwill for reconciliation, we've decided to hand these over to you." The Crimson World Disciple, who had appeared abruptly before the three, passed a sphere of three-colored light to Bai Mo, then swiftly vanished again.
Bai Mo took the light sphere, gazing with a puzzled expression in the direction the Crimson World Disciple had departed. He felt utterly bewildered.
Contained within the light sphere were insights and understandings of a portion of this world, gleaned from three super-beings from different dimensions. For Earth, which lacked any legacy and was still exploring everything from scratch, this was undoubtedly an exceptionally valuable treasure.
But precisely because of this, Bai Mo, who always viewed things through a lens of conspiracy and never believed in something for nothing, instinctively assumed that whatever was inside harbored malicious intent. He felt that there was still a significant gap between him and information-based lifeforms when it came to manipulating information. One wrong move, and he could easily fall into a trap.
"I believe he'll eventually look at it," in a corner of America, three information-based lifeforms were conversing. Gaia, who had proposed the idea, sounded quite confident. "There are no backdoors inside, you know."
"Let's make a bet: can he last for three hundred years?" Gaia, sounding like a seasoned veteran, even playfully made a wager, as if their current completely passive and beaten state didn't exist. "Perhaps without this gift, he could. But now, it's hard to say."
...
After this brief interlude, Bai Mo and the two continued south, soon reaching the ruins of what was once Tianhai City, now an almost human-free desolation.
"I know you're in there." He sent a mental wave towards a once-iconic skyscraper in the city center.
According to Bai Mo's understanding, after humanity had completely withdrawn from the city, the ruins were occupied by Yu Xi, the Ghost King born in Tianhai. However, unexpectedly, it wasn't Yu Xi that appeared first, but rather countless invisible, weak spirit bodies emerging from every corner.
These spirit bodies frantically fled, desperate to escape Bai Mo, who, like a terrifying sun, radiated immense Spirit Energy. Such unintentional leakage from a powerful Spirit Energy cultivator might be beneficial for the living, as prolonged exposure to low-intensity Spirit Energy radiation made it more likely for people to awaken abilities.
However, for weak spirit bodies, even sunlight could cause them to dissipate like ice and snow, let alone this level of Spirit Energy radiation.
"Can't you restrain yourself?"
Jierkefu clearly felt that after this mental wave appeared, a strange, chilling wind swept through the entire city, dropping the temperature significantly, and he felt as if countless omnipresent eyes were watching him.
"Undead Sky Curtain?" Bai Mo, using his divine sense, discovered that the sky above was, in fact, blocked by an almost completely invisible barrier, allowing less than a tenth of the sunlight to pass through.
Moreover, within this sky curtain, the rate at which the weak spirit bodies dissipated drastically slowed. As long as they didn't get too close to Bai Mo, there was no danger of them completely disappearing within a short time.
"Open the gateway to that world. I know that's why you've come." Without any unnecessary delay, Yu Xi, emanating an aura of power no weaker than a Six Tiers lifeform, materialized from the void.
"The Huaxia Federation actually hid such a powerful anomaly?" Jierkefu was once again shocked. In terms of pure power, Yu Xi could even rival Bai Mo's current avatar. After overcoming its multiple personalities and unifying its body's will, Yu Xi had embarked on a global hunt.
It cautiously sent out avatars to various locations, constantly collecting the souls of the freshly deceased. The weak ones it directly devoured, using them as nourishment to grow stronger, while the relatively powerful ones it slowly trained into dependents, intending to rely on Faith Power to achieve godhood after a long period of accumulation, establishing a divine kingdom belonging to death-based beings, and becoming the progenitor of a new race.
Ten years of upheaval had brought untold casualties. It had forgotten how many souls it had consumed, as there were over five million dependents residing in its Tianhai base alone.
Although the vast majority were still muddled and almost instinctively driven, due to the sheer numbers, nearly a thousand high-level ghosts had regained their sentience.
"This world, after all, isn't suitable for us," Yu Xi's facial features gradually emerged on its blank face, and it spoke with a faint sigh.
No matter how much it protected them, many low-level spirit bodies succumbed to the erosion of time each day, completely dissipating into this world. Even the powerful, sentient ghost beings among its ranks wouldn't exist for more than twenty years in this world. Even Yu Xi itself, if it didn't continuously consume souls to replenish itself, would also disappear and die in two or three hundred years. Hence, it needed a world suitable for anomalies like them.
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