Not only were the Eastern cultivation circles plotting in secret, but the situation on the Western mystic side was not much different.
Qin Jingzhou had certainly revealed his abilities at the time of the Evil God invasion, and had "shown his fangs.” Perhaps quite a few Extraordinaries and forces in the supernatural world had been thoroughly intimidated, choosing to simply lie flat and obey, but the vast majority of forces would still give resistance a try.
After all, there was only one Qin Jingzhou.
No matter how close Ling Jing was to the Divine Transformation Stage, she was still at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage—she could be restrained if some old, well-established powers each sent out a few of their “ancient fossils” to join forces.
Qin Jingzhou was actually hoping the supernatural world wouldn’t back down too easily. If only a few hotheads would jump out, he could have just cause to strike.
Ling Jing could tell what her boyfriend was thinking, and even asked, “Need me to fish for some troublemakers?”
Qin Jingzhou smiled, “I don’t think that’s necessary. This world has experienced many tides of spiritual energy, and sects and powers that have survived until now don’t just have elders to oversee things. There’s a high probability they also have predecessors who ascended to the Spiritual Realm offering protection.”
“Does the current spiritual energy concentration allow them to send out distress signals to their predecessors in the Spiritual Realm now?” she queried.
Qin Jingzhou answered instantly, “Though the consumption is considerable, it is indeed possible.”
Ling Jing gestured towards the sky, “There are plenty of mature Evil Gods out there, watching and waiting… Could they join forces with the local powers?”
“They could. The odds are low, but not zero.”
Ling Jing looped her hand around her boyfriend’s arm. “In that case, I’ll just enjoy the excitement. The bigger the mess, the better.”
They chatted and laughed all the way, until Qin Jingzhou deposited the “obedient and headless” Evil God in the incubation farm that Director Li had arranged.
Qin Jingzhou dealt with the Evil God squatting in its nest, cut off an octopus tentacle and held it in his hand, chatted for a while with the hurriedly arriving Director Li, then flew back home hand in hand with Ling Jing.
Zhang Jiamin and Zhang Qingxing had already watched the live broadcast. Now, seeing Qin Jingzhou bring home this “trophy,” Zhang Qingxing was practically bursting with pride, and even Zhang Jiamin, after a brief bout of melancholy, stepped forward to greet her father with a new “core.”
Upon entering, Qin Jingzhou handed the tentacle to the housekeeper and looked over his two “cheap children”: the original host’s son and daughter, plus the son-in-law, little Ross. After a year of steady Evil God “nutritional therapy” every other day, their bodies and minds had become steadily stronger.
Especially Zhang Qingxing—his mental issues had almost healed on their own.
Qin Jingzhou felt it was time to put some pressure on these children, to teach them a bit of self-preservation. High-powered exoskeletons and combat gloves would be their first test.
While waiting for the supernatural world’s next move, he’d just stay home and teach the kids.
That afternoon, he contacted Director Li again, placed a large materials order, and that evening Director Li personally led a team to deliver the goods, and asked him face to face, “Tell us if you need anything. Whatever you ask, we’ll do.”
Both the authorities and the savvier ordinary people sensed that a storm was on the horizon. Given how arrogant the supernatural world tended to be, it was almost impossible for them to accept, let alone admit, that there was now an ancestor lording over them.
To be blunt, quite a few Extraordinaries would rather be enslaved by Evil Gods than have a fellow human so easily suppress them.
Director Li added, “Before, it seemed like you only had a bit of bad blood with Taiyi Sect. Training regular people and teaching them to hunt Evil God juveniles to strengthen themselves, this didn’t conflict with the supernatural forces. Now it’s different. The organization has placed some people inside various sects, and the news coming back is… not good for you. One on one, there’s not a single supernatural who could match you, but you need to watch out for… them ganging up.” His expression turned anxious. “They don’t play fair, and they might all attack you at once! No matter how good your skills, a kitchen knife can kill!”
Ling Jing folded her arms and laughed out loud, “I can see you’re all getting worried, afraid my boyfriend might run into trouble.”
Director Li sighed, “With the Evil God invasion, everyone’s wised up. No more wishful thinking. Now that spiritual energy has revived to this level, more Evil Gods will keep coming, and they’ll just get stronger and stronger. Without a powerful guardian, ordinary people can’t survive for long, and who knows when they might just turn into Evil God fodder.” He paused and gave a bitter laugh. “You saw it yourselves—when the truly fearsome Evil Gods invaded, just how many supernatural forces actually sheltered ordinary people? Honestly, we were terrified.”
Ling Jing considered this and gave a serious answer, “As far as I know, there are just over a thousand officially registered Extraordinary sects and forces in our country. Of those, at most ten percent would offer some protection—even then, not wholeheartedly. The West probably cares even less about their people, maybe five percent at most.”
Director Li gave another bitter smile, wholeheartedly agreeing. “Our data was… even more pessimistic.” He said, cutting straight to the point, “Relying on those Extraordinaries, who stopped seeing themselves as human long ago, to protect us? We might as well fight for ourselves.”
Ling Jing tilted her head toward her boyfriend. “They’ve got good judgment.”
Qin Jingzhou nodded, expressing approval. “That’s why I’m happy to help them a little more.”
From start to finish, he always thought of himself as a “powerful human being.” He didn’t know if ascending to immortality would change his mentality, but for now he was convinced—he was still a person.
Ling Jing clearly also considered herself “human.”
She wrapped her arm through Qin Jingzhou’s and softly remarked, “Even if my cultivation isn’t high right now, I have a strong intuition—if you practice cultivation and lose your humanity, sooner or later the heart tribulation will teach you a lesson.”
Qin Jingzhou gave a big thumbs-up. “Great insight!”
Ling Jing beamed. “I think so too!”
They had deliberately not used the Communicator during their conversation, so not only did Director Li, standing right in front of them, hear every word, but so did all the staff he’d brought along, and even Zhang Jiamin, her husband, and Zhang Qingxing, who were standing a little further off. Their words lodged not just in everyone’s ears, but in their hearts.
Everyone present looked humble and thoughtful, almost as if they’d been enlightened. Qin Jingzhou saw this and decided to say a few more words. “As I see it, most traditions in this world lean toward the Ruthless Path, both East and West. The Ruthless Path does advance the fastest, but its foundation is weak. One heart tribulation, and they’re dead unless they have a supreme-grade artifact or backers from the Spiritual Realm to protect them. Even if they scrape by and barely make it to the Spiritual Realm, so what? The Spiritual Realm is just as much a jungle where the strong prey on the weak.”
Director Li said solemnly, “I’ll remember that.”
Humanity! You must never lose your humanity!
Everyone had the sudden feeling of “Master, I’ve been so mistaken!”
Once they saw Director Li and his crew off, Qin Jingzhou and Ling Jing returned to their own living room. Right in front of the kids and housekeeper, he finished assembling a set of combat gloves—the same ones he’d demonstrated before, that could shoot out flames on par with a Fireball Spell, thanks to black technology.
Qin Jingzhou checked everything over, then stuffed two spiritual stone batteries into the gloves and handed them to his cheap daughter, Zhang Jiamin.
After about a year of “Evil God nutritional therapy,” Zhang Jiamin had the highest spiritual power, her husband little Ross had the best physical constitution, and Zhang Qingxing… well, his illness had cleared up.
So Zhang Jiamin had to be the very first to try the combat gloves.
She did not disappoint. With full control, she launched a properly sized fireball straight at the opposite wall… then her eyes rolled up and she fainted.
Her husband, little Ross, reacted quickly and caught her. Just then, her father’s girlfriend plucked the fireball from the air as easily as someone grabbing a mosquito and closed her fist around it. The fireball vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed at all.
Qin Jingzhou looked at Ling Jing. “That’s more draining than I expected.”
Ling Jing shook her head. “Jiamin can’t handle it. I’d bet those elite government-trained squads… could only launch one and a half fireballs at best, no more.” She was quick on the uptake, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t visited interstellar worlds before—though her own power level there hadn’t been high. “This is basically the foundation for a mecha ion cannon, right? Only someone who can control even a simple mecha can really be considered able to protect themselves in this world.”
Zhang Qingxing, little Ross, and the housekeeper all started to feel an intense sense of urgency.
Sure, they had a mighty protector watching over them, but they couldn’t count on sticking to his side all the time. What if something happened? They’d need some way to run or defend themselves. It was clear: their powerful guardian was having a hard time designing the most crucial survival gear.
Just then, Zhang Jiamin woke up in her husband’s arms. She’d wanted to feel proud for managing to shoot a fireball, but seeing her father and his girlfriend’s expressions, all her excitement faded.
Qin Jingzhou frowned slightly and made a point of telling his kids and staff, “Ordinary people who have no innate talent for cultivation cannot use cultivators’ methods to strengthen themselves, because the very first step of immortal cultivation is to sense the spiritual energy in the environment and bring it into your body.”
Anyone who can sense and absorb spiritual energy is, by definition, not someone “without cultivation talent.”
Ling Jing chimed in, breaking it down as simply as she could, “I’ve seen the official training methods for the elite squads—they’re already squeezed to the utmost. Even the number of Evil God juveniles consumed for strengthening is maxed out. Which means, for ordinary people currently getting stronger in this world, it will take time yet to reach the bare minimum required to control even a basic mecha. If you want to speed things up… I’m thinking of genetic enhancement serum.”
Qin Jingzhou pinched the bridge of his nose, “I only know two formulas for genetic enhancement serum. The core ingredient for one comes from the Spiritual Realm. The other can be extracted from the Zerg.”
“Forget it.” Ling Jing covered her forehead. “The Zerg are even scarier than Evil Gods. Where Evil Gods rampage, there are always a few survivors left behind. When the Zerg pass, they strip the entire planet down to rock and bone.”
Zhang Qingxing suddenly asked, “Dad, you mean there are all these different worlds out there?”
Qin Jingzhou replied to his cheap son, “The day you can pilot a mecha, you’ll be able to go see for yourself beyond the star systems.”
It wasn’t just Zhang Qingxing—even the practical-minded Zhang Jiamin couldn’t help yearning for what lay beyond, though her vivid daydream lasted less than a minute before the stinging pain in her hand yanked her back to earth.
While Qin Jingzhou pondered how to lower the requirements for using combat gloves, and Ling Jing considered how to make a radiation pool similar to the effects of genetic enhancement serum, the ancestors of Taiyi Sect and three allied sects—those who had ascended and now resided in the Spiritual Realm—sent their replies.
Of the four replies, three ancestors unexpectedly agreed to return home and back up their sect descendants.
Half a month later, Taiyi Sect’s head, grand elder, and the other elite elders and disciples, gathered at an appointed place—just outside the sect’s hidden grounds—to welcome their ascended ancestors home.
You had to hand it to cultivators for their cleverness. None of them believed that their ancestor’s willingness to return was purely out of loving care for the next generation. After all, wasn’t it perfectly natural for them to squeeze outer disciples and ordinary people dry? There was no way their ancestor would be some saint who asked nothing in return.
Yet, as they saw the hidden land’s outlines shimmer and blur, and a figure suddenly appeared outside the hidden boundary—before that figure even fully materialized, one of the grand elders who recognized it broke into tears of joy and rushed forward, falling to his knees and crying out, “Grand Uncle Master! It’s me! Someone’s bullying us! Please stand up for us, Grand Uncle Master!”
The figure was oddly stiff and still distorted, as if fighting against something. Even so, its ethereal voice drifted to everyone’s ears. “Not great, but… passable. Nothing better than nourishing myself with the blood and flesh of my own disciples and descendants when I need to recover…”
Three days later, several official observers assigned to Taiyi Sect realized things were badly amiss and, with permission, ventured a little further in. They were astonished to find that while the buildings of the entire Taiyi Sect remained untouched, not a living being was left. Every creature inside the sect had vanished overnight.
The observers put down their equipment, exchanged worried glances, and couldn’t help but whisper, “We're in deep trouble…”