Chapter 1447: Lin Xuan's Secret
Chapter 1447: Lin Xuan's Secret
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
With the addition of True Gods—the Sword Servants and the imperial monsters—the Virtual God battlefield was now a one-sided massacre.
Less than ten minutes later, all the virtual god-level invaders had been annihilated; not a single one had survived.
Lin Huang had already stored the loot and monster corpses from the True God battlefield into his space storage much earlier.
On the Virtual God battlefield, the Hunter Association, Dynasty, and other organizations, as well as the Bug Tribe, were rapidly sorting out the loot.
Dongfang Bai, chief of the Union Government, walked over to Lin Huang.
The expression in his eyes as he gazed at Lin Huang was completely different now.
Before, he had regarded Lin Huang as one of his peers, mainly because Lin Huang was the Emperor of Dynasty. After seeing Lin Huang's true abilities in this last battle, however, Dongfang Bai was now completely in awe of this young man.
Everyone on the third layer of the Abyss Brink knew that if Lin Huang had not been present at this invasion along with the reinforcements and imperial monsters that he had brought with him, the invaders would long since have broken through into the gravel world.
"Emperor Lin, on behalf of the Union Government, I offer our sincere gratitude!" The first words out of Dongfang Bai's mouth were his heartfelt thanks.
"Chief Dongfang, you're most welcome. The gravel world is also my homeland." Lin Huang felt the change in Dongfang Bai's attitude as well and gave him a slight nod.
"Where on earth did these invaders come from?" Dongfang Bai asked this because he had noticed Lin Huang holding up Teng Ran's head to read his memory after Lin Huang had killed him.
"They are from the God Territory—a top grade-4 organization by the name of the Thousand Snake Sect," Lin Huang explained briefly.
"We've killed so many of their people; will there be trouble from them the future?" Dongfang Bai asked, frowning. He was rather worried about this.
"There'll be some trouble, yes." Lin Huang nodded. "As to the specifics of the situation, I'll pay a visit to the Union Government in a few days, and I'll explain it all in detail then. Chief Dongfang, if you could, please help me make an appointment with Chief Jiang—it would be preferable if all the higher levels of the Union Government can be present."
"Of course! If there's anything that the Union Government can assist with, please do let me know." Dongfang Bai nodded quickly.
The two of them chatted for a while; the Virtual God battlefield was finally cleaned up as best as could be done.
The upper tiers of all the various major organizations came over to exchange words with Lin Huang one after the other. After all, Lin Huang had already established himself as the most powerful individual in the gravel world, with Dynasty—one of the organization giants—under his command.
In the wake of this war, Dynasty had faintly overshadowed the Union Government in terms of the limelight.
After Sun Zhuo, the Heretics' Presiding Judge, had greeted Lin Huang, he gathered all his subordinates and departed from the third layer of the Abyss Brink.
When they returned to the second layer of the Abyss Brink, Cao Ya could not help speaking out.
"I feel more and more that that silly girl Xia Yu's failure to pull Lin Huang back into the Heretics last time was a huge mistake!"
"That's true. If Lin Huang were the Heretics' Presiding Judge, it wouldn't be Dynasty in the limelight now, but us Heretics!" Zhou Tong's response was muffled as he inserted his little finger into one nostril.
"Hey, that's enough, you two. Are you so brazen already, to be able to say something like this to my face?" Sun Zhuo's expression was black with anger.
"If Lin Huang was our Presiding Judge, I think we could move our headquarters into that hive. Think about how awesome it would be with millions of virtual god-level bug guards! Not only that, anywhere you wanted to go, you could directly fly over in the hive. No matter where we went, everyone would be envious," Zhou Tong ignored Sun Zhuo, continuing to agree with Cao Ya.
"I think that white-haired imperial monster is incredibly handsome. I'd move my desk opposite him; even if I had to remain in the office every day I'd be more than willing!" After this comment, Cao Ya abruptly turned to look at Sun Zhuo. "I think that you should go get plastic surgery and marry someone from Dynasty. Then you can gift the Heretics to Lin Huang as dowry..."
"F*ck off!" Suddenly Sun Zhuo had the urge to resign from his post of Presiding Judge.
...
On the third layer of the Abyss Brink, following the departure of the contingent from the Union Government, all the various major organizations also departed after they had greeted Lin Huang.
Lin Huang recalled the hive and all the imperial monsters. After the people from Misery left, he returned to Emperor City as well with the people from the Dynasty.
Wu Mo temporarily returned to the floating land.
Lin Xuan followed Lin Huang and returned to the Emperor City.
After requesting Huang Tianfu to help Lin Xuan find a place to stay, Lin Huang, Mr. Fu, and the upper tiers of both Dynasty and Misery held a short video conference.
Lin Huang explained about the Thousand Snake Sect and Myriad Tribe Palace; he also informed everyone present of the potential crisis in a year.
After finding out this information about Myriad Tribe Palace, everyone present—who had been feeling relieved for less than half an hour—suddenly felt twice the amount of pressure from before.
After the meeting, Lin Huang went to look for Lin Xuan at the first possible opportunity.
Because of the war happening previously in the Abyss Brink, there were many questions that he had not asked Lin Xuan. Now, he finally had the time to do so.
"I always assumed that it was either Leib Labs or Shiabelle Studio that cloned you. I didn't expect it to be the Union Government."
"The Union Government obtained gene technology from an ancient ruin more than three hundred years ago. Two years after they completed explorations in those ruins, they set up a genetic laboratory. Later, they obtained related biotechnology from several ruins in succession and trained a large number of biological researchers. Right up until a hundred or so years ago, they obtained cloning technology once again from a nearby ancient ruin. After that, the entire laboratory's work focused on that direction.
"Over the past hundred years or so, they have carried out many cloning experiments in secret. It wasn't until eleven years ago that the technology reached an initial level of advancement sufficient enough to successfully clone cultivators. Eight years ago, they began to use demigod-level samples for cloning experiments. Among these samples were the remains of Mo Kui. I'm one of those clones..."
"The level of security in this sort of laboratory is generally extremely high; it's certainly not inferior to what's used at the Union Government headquarters. How did you escape?" This was the question that had puzzled Lin Huang the most.
"Previously, I'd always thought that I had escaped too. Then I returned to my place of origin, only to discover that I was sent out.
"The reason for this was that the laboratory found that all clones don't have the ability to advance via hunting and killing monsters. Our bodies can't integrate Life Seeds to become transcendent, let alone Life Fire tinder. Hundreds of laboratory staff have spent years on this problem, but none of them were unable to solve it.
"Therefore, someone in the laboratory suggested sending clones into the gravel world to conduct differentiated social observation experiments. They would allow the clones to develop freely and see whether it was possible for them to find a way to evolve.
"Four years ago, they selected a hundred clones just like me and placed them in the gravel world as a social observation experiment.
"Most of these one hundred clones were adopted, but most of them were adopted into ordinary families and didn't become cultivators. Only a few individuals, myself included, were exposed to the Life Power of cultivators. Aside from me, however, the Life Power in the others' bodies quickly dissipated within a year, and they could not assimilate Life Power a second time.
"It was only later that I also discovered that if it weren't for you teaching me Army Attack Tactics, I wouldn't have been able to embark on the path of cultivation. There is only one way that clones can cultivate—that is, you must learn the cultivation method that the parasite body used in its cultivation path to be able to cultivate normally.
"The cultivation path of my parasite body, Mo Kui, was based on Army Attack Tactics, and what you taught me happened to be Army Attack Tactics. So, I became the only cultivator among one hundred cloned individuals.
"However, the Union Government has been continuously keeping me under observation. They also know that you infused me with Life Power, which allowed me to assimilate into a silver-level cultivator. However, due to the short duration of my exposure to Army Attack Tactics, my combat strength never advanced to gold-level, which led them to think that ancient cultivation methods were not that effective. That's why they left me alone.
"Later, the drop of Mo Kui's God Blood that Mr. Fu left behind transferred a lot of Mo Kui's memories to me. At that time, I didn't know that I was a clone. I thought I was Mo Kui, who had been able to regenerate through some means.
"Because of my incomplete memories, as well as too many unanswered questions, I desperately wanted to search for the truth so I left you all...
"After I received Mo Kui's God Blood and left you, I was finally free of the Union Government's surveillance. My combat strength improved every day and my abilities also became more powerful. I also quietly continued to investigate the mystery of my own origins.
"In only half a year, I advanced to virtual god-level. After another six months, I elevated to Virtual God rank-3 and finally located the Union Government's genetic laboratory.
"There, I fought a massive battle with the Virtual God who was in charge of overseeing the place. After I won, I finally learned the truth from the scientific researchers themselves.
"After that, the Union Government contacted me many times to negotiate with me. In the end, Jiang Shan personally came to inform me of the crisis in the gravel world and offered certain terms in exchange to persuade me to cooperate with the subsequent cloning experiments.
"Those few batches of Virtual God clones on the battlefield were all created by them with the information and physical data that I provided..."
After listening to Lin Xuan's experiences over the past few years, Lin Huang was silent for a long time before he stretched out his hand, placing it on Lin Xuan's shoulder. "You've had it rough these past few years.
"What do you plan on doing next?" Lin Huang asked again.
"I don't know. Now that the mystery of my origins has been untangled, I've not much of a purpose anymore." Lin Xuan shook his head and smiled bitterly. "If I have to give a purpose, then maybe it might be advancing to True God."
"Why not go to the great world together with us then?" Lin Huang suggested, "With your current Virtual God rank-9 combat strength, you'll only be able to advance further if you go to the great world.
"Xin Er is also Virtual God rank-9 already, and there's really no need to stay in the gravel world any longer. Our family can be reunited in the great world," Lin Huang continued, "Teacher will also head to the great world with us. You should have a lot of memories of him in your mind, right?"
"Teacher..." Lin Xuan fell silent after hearing this. Of course, he had memories of Mr. Fu. Mr. Fu had adopted Mo Kui from an early age and raised him. To Mo Kui, Mr. Fu was both master and father.
Lin Xuan had previously emphasized that he was Lin Xuan when he met with Mr. Fu in the Abyss Brink, mainly because he did not know how to face Mr. Fu. After all, he was not Mo Kui. Yet, Mo Kui's memories were like Lin Xuan's personal experiences, which made him felt like Mr. Fu was both his master and father.
"Don't think too much about it, just let things develop as they will." Lin Huang also noticed Lin Xuan's struggle. However, he also knew that Mr. Fu had no children, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he thought of Mo Kui as his own since he had raised Mo Kui as an infant. He would inevitably think of Mo Kui when he saw Lin Xuan, who was exactly the same in appearance and temperament.
The relationship between the two would indeed be very awkward.
"I may still need to remain in the gravel world for a month or two. After that, I'll take Xin Er and the others to the great world," Lin Huang continued, "Don't get all knotted up about it, let's just go together. You'll have to go to the great world sometime anyway."
"Alright then," Lin Xuan finally agreed.
After all, he had nothing more to worry about in the gravel world. The only ones who had ties here were Lin Huang and Lin Xin.