Chapter 496: The Gift
Five meters, ten meters, fifteen meters, twenty meters...
The people who went about their daily lives in Hanluo City one morning suddenly discovered that in a courtyard belonging to the Lu Family, located in the north of the city, a spire was emerging, ceaselessly "growing" upwards.
The conical body of the spire was silver-white, with a large mass of metallic filaments, tangled like a ball of yarn, suspended above it. Occasionally, crackling sparks would erupt from it, giving off an unmistakable "do not touch, or face the consequences" vibe.
The towering spire, brimming with sci-fi characteristics, was clearly out of place amidst the antique architectural ambiance of its surroundings.
Of course, apart from the Transmigrators who had tucked their tails between their legs and were hiding God knows where, the local, native-born residents had no concept of "sci-fi style." They only felt that the spire looked somewhat strange, unlike any building they had seen before.
In less than ten days, this spire, which had initially only risen slightly above the wall, had soared to a height where it could even rival the city's landmark, Luweifang.
The nearly fifty-meter-tall silver-white colossal tower thus stood silently in the north of Hanluo City, overlooking the ceaseless flow of people below.
However, what truly astounded people was that no one had heard of any bricklayers or tile workers ever visiting that courtyard.
Day and night, they only saw cartloads of materials entering through the back gate, and then empty carts emerging one by one.
The method by which that towering spire was constructed was already beyond the imagination of ordinary people. As for the residual members of the aristocratic Bloodline Houses who might have dimly guessed something, they also chose to turn a blind eye under the Lu Family's "silver bullet" tactic.
Meanwhile, insiders within the Lu Family were tight-lipped about the matter, and even when questioned by their closest kin, they would deflect and talk about other things.
Yet even so, no one dared to approach and satisfy their curiosity.
Because, leaving aside the fact that it belonged to the Lu Family, the "underground emperor" of Hanluo City, the legendary Immortals had too many strange and bizarre items on them. If one's curiosity ran too wild, in these turbulent times, it would be very easy to lose one's life.
...
“Sometimes, I truly feel like you’re not a person at all, but more like an entire nation.”
Lu Yuesheng, who had the fortune of witnessing the entire birth of the towering spire, gazed at the silver structure, whose style was so distinctly sci-fi, and couldn't help but voice her thoughts.
Even she hadn't expected that a single person's effort could, in just a few days, start from scratch and construct a massive, ten-story-tall building.
However, perhaps calling it "one person" wasn't entirely accurate, as there were dozens of identical Bai Mos at the scene, each engaged in different tasks.
Even among the Bloodline users she had encountered, she had never heard of anyone capable of achieving such a feat.
While Divine-tier and Dragon-tier Bloodline transcendents would find it easy to destroy a ten-story tower in a short amount of time, rebuilding another one within ten days was an extremely difficult task.
Not to mention constructing this spire, which had no blueprint to reference, and whose interior was composed of a large number of semiconductors, with an extremely intricate and complex structure.
“Here, have something.” Bai Mo didn't comment on her words. Instead, he had one of his avatars pull out a dazzling, iridescent mass from within its body.
“A Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart?” The term inexplicably popped into her mind, perhaps because it had just been extracted from the heart area of Bai Mo's avatar. The fist-sized anomalous substance, under the control of psychic energy, moved at a slow, steady pace as it floated towards the girl, who was still trying to understand the situation. The avatar that had produced it had already redirected its attention elsewhere.
Bathed in sunlight, it reflected magnificent and captivating colors, appearing quite pleasing to the eye.
However, when the jelly-like anomalous substance floated before her, Lu Yuesheng instinctively took a step back, even though Twilight Fire at her waist had not warned her.
The reason was simple: anything extracted from within a human body simply didn't look like normal stuff.
“What am I supposed to...?” Receiving such a "gift" so abruptly, she was suddenly at a loss.
Normally, she often interacted with Bloodline Ability Users from various factions, and had encountered many experts. But essentially, they were all people with whom one could negotiate, who had desires and needs.
But this Bai Wu Sheng, his thoughts simply couldn't be inferred with ordinary human logic.
“Huh...?” Lu Yuesheng, still hesitating, was suddenly and without warning struck heavily twice by a few specks of sand, almost invisible to the naked eye.
With Twilight Fire's autonomous protection, she naturally suffered no injuries. However, her hand, which had been hesitating, was, due to this unexpected turn of events, pressed directly into the anomalous substance.
“Null Zero System activated. Current personal attribute values: Attack 1.2(10), Defense 0.9(9.5), Evasion 1.1(11.3), Physique 1.4(10.2). Free points: 2...” A voice devoid of emotion, yet sounding exactly like Lu Yuesheng’s own, appeared in her mind.
“This has to be a joke. How can something like this exist, where you just add points to get stronger?!” After hearing the Null Zero System’s self-introduction, she was utterly stunned.
According to the system, as long as she could acquire the points it required, she could bypass all cultivation processes and directly enhance her four-dimensional attributes.
“Is there some catch? A system that’s practically a cheat, and he just hands it to me?” Things were developing too quickly, and Lu Yuesheng was momentarily bewildered. But she was still able to grasp the concept that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
Moreover, she had done nothing to earn it. Throughout the entire construction process of the colossal tower, she hadn't actually helped in any significant way; she had been a spectator almost the entire time. Thus, there was no reason for any gift of gratitude.
The Lu Family's only contribution was to continuously arrange for their subordinates to transport various raw materials needed for construction, cart by cart, from the mine where Bai Mo's avatars were located to the construction site in the courtyard, to satisfy that black hole whose consumption rate even exceeded the transport speed.
Such a minor task alone was entirely unworthy of the Null Zero System's precious value.
...
After opening the personal status panel, she saw a small plus sign in the bottom right corner of the four values: Attack, Defense, Evasion, and Physique, indicating that she could now allocate points to these four attributes.
“Attack, add 1 point!” Despite her thoughts about there being no free lunch, she immediately tested the Null Zero System. In this world where ordinary people were like blades of grass, she truly yearned to possess strength that genuinely belonged to her.
No matter how strong Twilight Fire was, it was still an external object. Its creator, Nanxuan Li, could perhaps recall it with a single thought. The life-saving favor would fade with time, or perhaps one day, those high and mighty figures would completely forget the past.
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