Novels online

Chapter 463: The Gamble

Relying on an extremely vague perception, Seres could vaguely sense some of its surroundings, but it was clearly completely bewildered by the information it had gathered.

"Is that... a human?" An intense feeling of weakness plagued it, leaving Seres with only that one thought. At the same time, it discovered that its body was completely unresponsive, seemingly unable to move an inch.

Completely oblivious to its circumstances, it was unwilling to initiate any conflict at this moment, and thus decided to enter a state of deep hibernation, feigning death.

...

The human discovered by Seres was none other than An Na, who had been absconding with Ling Tian's corpse.

All along the way, she had been agonizing over one question: should she, or should she not, lay hands on the corpse?

Although she had resolved herself earlier, to pay any price for power and revenge for her sister, when it truly came time to take a knife to Ling Tian's corpse, An Na still faltered.

Regardless of whether the one to be eaten was her lover or not, cannibalism was simply not something a normal person could accept.

An Na was now faced with such a difficult choice. If she could consume Ling Tian, whose entire body was a treasure, she estimated that she could at least break through to the Third Tier within half a year, effectively saving over a decade of cultivation time.

Back then, most of the superhumans who embarked on the path of cultivation during the Spirit River Autumn outbreak only took less than a year to manifest their own Life Fields, stepping into what was now considered the Third Tier.

Yet, merely a decade or so later, people painfully realized that given the current state of Spirit Qi, if one didn't have various precious spirit materials to aid cultivation, and merely relied on cultivation methods to refine Spirit Qi, it would, on average, take over five years to cultivate from the First Tier to the Second Tier.

For the countless people desiring power and longer lifespans, Earth was simply too small. The amount of spirit materials produced couldn't possibly support the cultivation of so many people, which directly led to all sorts of spirit materials being driven to exorbitant prices.

The vast majority of them possessed only a basic cultivation method, issued by the state as part of general education, which already constituted their entire cultivation foundation.

Spirit materials, priced in the hundreds of thousands or millions at every turn, were otherwise just a pipe dream, unless one sold their house and abandoned everything to take a gamble.

Especially after the Land of White gained control of the Big Four Mystical Realms, other nations instantly lost four of their most crucial spirit material production sites, and the price of spirit materials soared even higher.

The extremely tight supply of spirit materials finally forced nations to implement control over related resources, prohibiting the outflow of most resources. Even the clandestine black markets were suppressed to the point of near death, forced into hiding.

"If I don't eat it myself, but instead sell Ling Tian's flesh, I'll easily be targeted..."

An Na, hidden in a small hut, began calmly pondering her future.

If she were to sell Ling Tian's flesh as spirit materials, as only a First Tier, it would be difficult for her to evade strict surveillance, and the matter would surely be exposed in the end.

Thinking of the consequences of exposure, An Na couldn't help but shiver.

"How will you choose?" A faint, ethereal figure floated in the sky, silently observing the pensive An Na.

That figure was precisely one of Bai Mo's avatars. Before Yisisi left, he had secretly tampered with Seres, stealing a wisp of its will, and casually stuffing it into Ling Tian's headless corpse.

What had just awakened was, in reality, merely a sliver of its consciousness. As for Seres's main body, it had naturally been taken back to the Zerg base by Yisisi.

...

Bai Mo wanted Seres to participate in a gamble, and the stake was its life.

If An Na ultimately decided to spare Ling Tian's corpse, allowing him to rest in peace, then this wisp of will attached to the corpse would have the chance to slowly revive after the Zerg Overlord regained control of Seres's main body, then spend decades gradually absorbing the corpse's nutrients until it was reborn.

However, if An Na decided to eat Ling Tian, making him a resource for her advancement, then this wisp of Seres's will would, along with its host, become her sustenance.

Everything depended on An Na's single thought, or perhaps, on Bai Mo's single thought, the one who designed this gamble.

Whether Seres was willing to admit it or not, it was the true culprit behind the deaths of countless high-ranking officials back then, indirectly rendering immense service to the first generation of superhumans in their ascent to power.

Therefore, Bai Mo, as the beneficiary, also took a perverse pleasure in giving it a sliver of hope, allowing a girl who hated it to, in a way, decide its life or death.

Of course, An Na herself was completely unaware of this. She had no idea that she had suddenly become the judge of the very enemy who had killed her sister and haunted her day and night.

"..."

After half a minute of struggle, and with a heavy sigh, An Na made her decision.

"I need power!"

She tightly closed her eyes, swallowed hard, and with difficulty, picked up the knife in her hand.

An Na carefully lifted the corpse from the canvas bag where it had been hidden, then extremely gently placed it onto the table.

Ling Tian, who had been a Fifth Tier during his life, had undergone significant non-human transformation. Even after being dead for a long time, his surface remained as smooth and lustrous as jade, showing no signs of decay whatsoever.

It wasn't because she was worried about the corpse reanimating, but simply a reverence for a work of art, for something beautiful.

Even without a head, Ling Tian's corpse was still completely a beautiful sculpture!

During his life, Ling Tian had intentionally controlled his appearance, making himself look no different from an ordinary person.

A Fifth Tier existence had already begun the first metamorphosis of their body, undergoing a sublimation of their life essence. He was no exception.

But in order to better integrate into society, or out of reluctance to part with their original appearance, they would often use Spirit Arts to maintain their normal outward appearance.

Only after death, with the Spirit Arts' effect gone, did the non-human parts reappear. His body, like mutton-fat white jade, was Ling Tian's true form.

Holding the knife in her hand, An Na felt completely at a loss as to where to begin. One reason was that she was stunned by the beauty of this work of art.

The other reason was that, having always been taken care of, she rarely cooked herself. She couldn't even butcher a chicken, let alone carve a human.

Where to cut, how to extract the flesh, how to avoid the bones — all of these were intricate knowledge. Without professional dissection experience, it truly wasn't easy to do well.

"Creak, creak..."

After much agonizing thought, she finally decided to just pick a spot and start based on instinct. However, she found that the knife in her hand couldn't cut Ling Tian at all. The blade groaned under the strain, yet not a single scratch appeared on the corpse's surface.

A Fifth Tier life form, even as a corpse, still proved to be too much for a mere kitchen knife.