Page 940

"You’ve hidden yourself quite deeply..."

Ao Zhen looked at that still gentle and scholarly face, her eyes both cold and complex.

Among the Four Seas Dragon Kings, the Nanhai Dragon King was the most amiable. In her childhood memories, he especially valued the younger members, always proclaiming a certain phrase: Children are the future hope of our race; no matter how well we treat them, it is only right and proper...

Compared to elders who feared the younger generation’s grasp for power, in particular her own father, he was the ideal elder she dreamed of.

Yet this time, she had not seen a single junior member from the Southern Sea, which brought to mind something Chen Qing once said.

Reincarnators can only have offspring with other Reincarnators—it’s a sad truth because the children born can only be Reincarnators; there are no exceptions.

Which meant that this gentle elder, in fact, didn’t have any descendants...

So where exactly did all those of the Imperial Clan from the Southern Sea come from?

Looking back now, the juniors from the Southern Sea always seemed so happy, which gave her a hair-raising feeling—everything she had seen... was it all fake?

"There was no way around it... who made my kin too dangerous," the Nanhai Dragon King said with a smile.

His voice was still gentle, but at this moment it did not have an old feel to it; instead, it was very young, seemingly even younger than Chen Qing.

Which was even more terrifying.

Being an ancient being close to King Level, she knew some secrets—that all creatures cannot have longevity, that they all would age with the years, and a simple way to gauge someone’s power was to look at their aged state.

For example, for King Level life forms, a billion years was a standard; after this period, they would enter into an age of decline.

For lower-level life forms, youth might manifest as a fledgling, possibly signifying a lack of experience, among other issues, but for higher-level life forms, it was different.

The younger they appeared, the more formidable they tended to be!

The Nanhai Dragon King was the oldest in terms of age, and records indicated he had lived through two Eras. Logically, he should be in his twilight years, yet looking so young—what did that represent?

It could only mean one thing: his actual power was far beyond King Level!

Only those Venerable Ones standing at the pinnacle could live through two Eras without Reincarnation and still appear so youthful.

Among the Four Seas, was the most amicable and least competitive Old Dragon King actually a monster at the Venerable Level?

And also a Reincarnator...

He didn’t kill her, not because of the connection to her Dragon Clan, but because he wanted...

"Chen Qing?" Ao Zhen stared intently at the other party.

"Previously, I thought you, girl, though talented, didn’t really grasp the principle of concealing one’s edge; not too bright. But now, it seems you’ve grown quite a bit."

"Why?" Ao Zhen struggled to raise her head and asked, "Aren’t you hiding to evade those Venerables? Why target Chen Qing?"

"Because the fruit is ripe..." The Dragon King said with a smile that was not quite a smile: "When the fruit is ripe, you must pick it before it rots!"

---------------------------------------------------

"Lord, it’s right there."

Chen Qing and the soldier leading the way quickly found the location of that so-called tribe.

This island is endowed with such abundant resources that its civilization is surprisingly underdeveloped—a resource trap is indeed not a trivial matter.

Like many primitive tribes, wooden structures and thatched roofs are common here. Of course, the white people within the tribe almost resemble primitives, except for a few elders who wear silk from Jiangnan. Most people are clad in crude clothing made from animal skins.

This has led to many Western Reincarnators arriving on the island and ranting angrily, claiming that the game’s designers were insulting white people; with the intelligence of white people, it’s impossible for them to degenerate to such a state.

Chen Qing felt rather targeted by this, as this game was initially tailored for an Eastern audience, without any Western faces at all.

But overseas designs always prompt some to link it to the actual global situation, thus turning the appearance of the islands closer to the West Sea increasingly Westernized.

It’s also a common shortcut taken by graphic artists, but they just design appearances. What the people are really like is determined by data-driven life calculations. The Human Race that’s introduced is fully modeled on reality, with no adjustments to intelligence based on skin color.

The fact is... in such an environment, it’s easy for unprogressive tribal races to emerge, leading to civilizational stagnation mainly because life is too comfortable.

Of course, seeing these white-faced people living like a slaughtered Race always felt strange to Chen Qing.

But stranger still were the bizarre conditions within the tribe.

Throughout the tribe, the pungent smell of medicine was pervasive, with the Witch Doctors still using ancient herbs for treatment. Guided by the soldiers, Chen Qing saw quite a few people on the brink of death.

Said to be dying, they should have already been dead.

Especially two of them, whose bodies were so decomposed they were riddled with holes, oozing pus and stench, and covered with herbs that did nothing. They were said to have suffered such injuries from falling off a cliff.

Their faces half gone, yet damn it, they were still alive...

Chen Qing took one look and knew, there was a bug here!

In the lands of the Divine Path Sect, when people die their Spiritual Bodies do not immediately get absorbed into Hell, but disembodied, they have space to move around in the Mortal World.

Without the Divine Path Sect, when people die, they get absorbed into the Yin Yang realm immediately, with no special pathway to return to the Mortal World, and even if they do return, without a special container, they would be absorbed back.

But what if it’s a Divine Path country with a malfunctioning Hell Ruler?

Without the balancing effect of Hell Ruler, upon death, people’s Spiritual Bodies would get absorbed into the Yin Yang realm immediately.

But without a Yin Yang realm here, the Spiritual Bodies would be bounced back, and once dead, they cannot stay in the body, will be pulled away again, but without the Path of Yin Yang, they are returned once more.

After several times, the Spiritual Body can only forcibly stay in the person’s body, resulting in the current situation.

The body is clearly dead, yet there’s still consciousness.

"Master..." Wei Gongcheng spoke from behind, his expression grave. As the Lord of the Hell, the moment he arrived here, he sensed that the Hell Ruler here... had been isolated by some force.

The situation was more serious than imagined. Initially, it was thought that merely Hell Ruler’s staff were suppressed, yet now, it appeared that the entire Hell Ruler was cut off!

What kind of power was this?

Not to mention Wei Gongcheng couldn’t think of it, even Chen Qing was at a loss. The appearance of Hell Ruler was a unique rule of the Divine Path Sect, and this was the first time he heard that such a rule could suppress itself.

But now that Hell Ruler is isolated, he also couldn’t enter, and for a moment didn’t know where to start.

Suddenly, a baby’s cry broke Chen Qing’s contemplation, offering a glimmer of insight as he looked towards Wei Gongcheng.

Wei Gongcheng was also astute and immediately understood what Chen Qing was thinking. That group of Westerners was the only clue. He took out a backup list and said, "The locations of those Reincarnators’ reincarnation are all recorded, let me check... Hmm, there are five people in this tribe!"

"Find them first..." A sense of urgency rose in Chen Qing’s heart.

In theory, those fellows have only reincarnated for half a year and would only be around six months old by now; they shouldn’t be capable of doing much.

But an inner conviction told him that someone among them had done something terrible.

If he doesn’t find the clues soon, he...

will face the greatest crisis of his life!