Chapter 658 Five Seconds
"Your Majesty, you're insane!"
"No, I'm not."
"How could the Infinite Origin Stone be a sentient life form!"
"Why couldn't it be?"
"Proof, I want real proof."
Mei Lin, the Seris Empire's Chief Cardinal Counselor and First-Class Imperial Minister, was practically losing his mind.
His once revered Emperor, in his madness to acquire more Infinite Origin Stones, was actually planning to dispatch special forces units for a decapitation strike, aiming to seize the Infinite Origin Stones from the core energy power plants of the other two great nations.
"Proof?" The Emperor casually picked up a quill pen and began to draw on a piece of paper.
The feather, light as nothing, suddenly grew heavy as a thousand tons in his hand.
"Crack!" A few minutes later, as a rough sketch was completed, the high-quality quill in the Emperor's hand finally snapped under the immense pressure.
The paper depicted the back of a person.
"..." Mei Lin already had some ideas forming in his mind.
"Aihal Mei Lin?" A voice emerged from the paper.
A sound that silently pierced directly into the brain, capable of instantly shaking one's very soul, caused even this seasoned Imperial Minister to momentarily lose himself.
He knew that the Empire had recently been secretly striving to use Origin Stones to develop superpowers for humanity, but so far, they had only achieved some highly disadvantageous and largely useless results.
"Who are you?" After regaining a modicum of composure, Mei Lin still asked, feigning ignorance.
"As you can see, I am Bai, and also the master of the Origin Stones."
"Why should we believe you?"
"..."
Bai Mo said nothing further, instead directly injecting a stream of information into the other party's mind.
The Emperor, standing nearby, was already panting slightly.
Maintaining the summoned silhouette of Bai Mo, though not as exaggerated as Lun Qin, still required him to expend a considerable amount of energy, even if it was just a crude sketch.
"As long as we gather sixty percent of the Infinite Origin Stone fragments and bring them together, you can grant us a wish within your capabilities?"
After a moment of silence, Mei Lin processed Bai Mo's meaning.
"Within your capabilities... Hahahahaha!!! Can you fulfill His Majesty's wish for immortality? Can you resurrect the dead?!"
"Mr. Bu Lan Du has already discussed this matter with me." Bu Lan Du was the Emperor's name, yet no one had ever dared to address him as such.
"Mortal souls have their limits. Although his aptitude is quite good, the limit of his soul is only two hundred and fifty years. Without entering the Life Field Stage, he would find it difficult to live beyond two hundred years."
The soul's limit is merely a theoretical value. In reality, due to various unforeseen circumstances, even if the physical body has yet to decay, cultivators generally cannot reach that ultimate lifespan.
"However, I can extend his life by those two hundred years."
"Your Majesty?" Mei Lin looked at the Emperor, whose veins were bulging and whose face was contorted in a ferocious grimace.
"I... am... fine..."
"..."
"He already gave me a deposit," Emperor Bu Lan Du finally managed to articulate a complete sentence with great difficulty. "The Imperial Physicians have examined me, and my current physical condition is even better than an eighteen-year-old lad!"
"Why wouldn't I know!" Mei Lin almost blurted it out, but ultimately held back.
After all, His Majesty was still His Majesty. No matter how close their relationship, the disparity in their status and position did not permit him to speak in such a manner.
"A deposit?"
"He promised that after opening the channel, he would recommend me to an Immortal Dao sect in his world to become a core disciple, setting me on the true path to immortality."
"Opening the channel..." Upon hearing these words, Mei Lin grew even more convinced that Bai Mo was an ill-intentioned invader, fully exploiting His Majesty's weaknesses to entice him into actions that would harm all of humanity.
Due to certain personal lifestyle issues, Emperor Bu Lan Du, though not yet thirty-five, was already severely debilitated. While he appeared robust outwardly, in truth, he frequently relied on the power of certain little blue pills.
During their first contact, Bai Mo had taught him how to use Origin Stones to improve his physical condition. It was from that point onward that the Empire began its research into Origin Stones bestowing superhuman abilities upon humanity.
...
"I can bring your wife back to life." Just as Mei Lin's wariness towards Bai Mo reached its peak, a softly spoken sentence instantly shattered all his defenses.
"Say that again?!!!"
"Bashaka, she can live again." Bai Mo's voice still conveyed not the slightest hint of warmth.
Countess Bashaka had once been the lifelong beloved of Mei Lin, this cardinal counselor, second only to one and above tens of thousands. She had passed away from illness ten years prior. Overwhelmed by a sorrow deeper than a dead heart, he had vowed never to remarry.
Single for ten years, Mei Lin still couldn't forget this woman. But the deceased was gone; no matter how unforgettable, nothing could change that.
He felt it was impossible for him to love anyone else again. Thus, he had transformed the object of his affection into this nation.
Especially after Emperor Bu Lan Du began to immerse himself in cultivation, Mei Lin virtually took his place, managing affairs large and small without a single day of rest throughout the year.
"My current lover is this nation."
...
"You can bring the dead back to life? What's the price?"
Mei Lin didn't believe there could be such a cheap affair in this world. Bringing the dead back to life seemed utterly unreliable.
"A life for a life."
"Whose life?" He worried that Bai Mo would say he could only exchange his own life for his beloved's.
"Anyone."
"..."
Unfortunately, Bai Mo's reply once again defied his expectations.
"Someone who died ten years ago, could he possibly turn back time?" Mei Lin was half-believing, half-doubting.
It was only because the information Bai Mo had just imparted regarding the Origin Stones was so utterly shocking that he chose to temporarily trust the other party.
"One final question: since you are so powerful, capable of setting people on the path to immortality and even resurrecting the dead, why do you need our help?"
Mei Lin posed the most crucial question, one that Lun Qin had also raised previously.
"Close your eyes." Bai Mo chose not to explain with words.
...
"Light! Endless light! Light that swallowed everything!" The moment Mei Lin and Bu Lan Du simultaneously closed their eyes, their imagined consciousness was transported high above Water Blue Star.
But this offered them not the slightest sense of security.
Because the ultimate intense light that erupted from the ground caught up to them in less than 0.1 seconds, and then, there was no 'then'.
When they regained their senses and looked again at Water Blue Star within their spiritual world, they immediately discovered that it had become a living hell.
One-tenth of the entire planet's volume had vanished, as if a giant bite had been brutally torn from an apple. The missing portion had transformed into magma and space dust, drifting aimlessly, while a terrifying wound leading directly to the planet's core was left on its surface.
On Water Blue Star, with the exception of an extremely small number of lucky individuals, everyone else was completely dead, without a single soul remaining. The planet's population had been reduced by ninety-five percent.
"If I don't create a channel, I can still emerge, but I would need five seconds to leave this world. And what happens during those five seconds, you have already witnessed."
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