Qi Ze's consciousness woke up, but he left his body limp, thus avoiding detection by Mu Feixing and the others.
He should have realized that just as he could travel from the Qianyuan Continent to the Black Eye Galaxy, others could also breach the dimensional barrier and come here. The rumored second-class civilizations, first-class civilizations, and even super-class civilizations were likely classified based on their power systems and technological development.
The person who captured him hailed from a higher civilizationâa spatial ability user with strength somewhere between the Soul Departure and Soul Division stages. Even on the Qianyuan Continent, such an individual would be a dominant force. He seemed to have detected the formation outside the warehouse early on, so he remained hidden and set a trap at the warehouse entrance. Once the target appeared, he activated his ability and teleported them to Mu Feixing's territory.
Qi Ze never expected that the spatial ability users of this world could be so powerful, able to transport him out of the Empire across hundreds of light-years. He calmly surveyed his surroundings; it seemed to be a laboratoryâclean, spacious, and bright. Dr. Kulun was handsome and elegant, albeit with a peculiar accent.
A tall man followed him closely, apparently a top expert based on his aura. Qi Ze had been abducted and rendered unconscious by him. If it had been any other strong figure in the Black Eye Galaxy, they wouldn't have succeeded so easily.
Mu Feixing's body had become much more solid, indicating that he hadn't held back in plundering others' abilities and soul power recently. Mu Ran and Mu Yang stood beside him, respectful.
Qi Ze had originally intended to probe these people further, but Dr. Kulun was very cautious, never mentioning his background. However, Qi Ze did manage to ascertain one thing: these people had captured him merely to plunder his memories. This was far more vicious than stealing someone's inheritance; one could guess what fate awaited those whose memories were stolenâthey would either go mad, become fools, or face a dead end.
For reasons unknown, Qi Ze couldn't tap into the spiritual energy in his dantian; even though he was awake, he could only blink and speak, utterly lacking the strength to resist. Mu Feixing had clearly exerted great effort to capture him, and his efforts had proven fruitful.
What should he do? Waiting for rescue was no different from waiting to die; he had no choice but to fight to the bitter end. Qi Ze immediately consolidated his memories, sealing away the parts he shouldn't reveal and leaving only a small portion. This portion had been revised and processed multiple times to ensure it had considerable "exploitation value."
When his head was fitted with a helmet and his body covered with wires, he woke up in time, first looking shocked, then glaring at Mu Feixing with bloodshot eyes. "You're still alive?"
"Thanks to you," Mu Feixing said, hovering inside a holographic screen. Despite his formidable soul power, he was ultimately a prisoner confined within the network, not free to move about. Mu Ran and Mu Yang wasted no words, saying directly, "Dr. Kulun, we can start. This guy has many tricks up his sleeve; we can't let him turn the tables."
"No one can turn the tables on me," Dr. Kulun said, bending down to kiss the pale lips of the boy lying there. Affectionately, he added, "Don't be afraid, little thing. It'll hurt a bit, but it'll be over soon."
"What do you want?" Qi Ze asked, knowing the answer.
"We just want something from your body," Dr. Kulun said as he adjusted the equipment.
In the Qianyuan Continent, there was a forbidden technique called "Soul Search," also designed to steal others' memories. Qi Ze had never experienced having his soul searched, but he imagined it felt similar to now. A massive force repeatedly attacked his sea of consciousness; although it hadn't broken through the restraints yet, it was only a matter of time before it would surge in.
His sect, his father, the vast Qianyuan Continentâall the good and bad memories flashed before his eyes. Even if Qi Ze had no lingering affection for his past, he would never allow others to touch this privacy. Moreover, his mind stored countless methods of artifact refining, which he couldn't let Mu Feixing get his hands on.
With that thought, he didn't hesitate, flipping his palm and secretly taking something out. Then he pushed his golden core to its limits, preparing to self-destruct. The wires attached to his skin seemed to have monitoring capabilities and immediately sounded a sharp alarm. Kulun wasn't concerned and continued to increase the machine's power, but the spatial ability user pulled him away immediately.
Just as the word "be careful" left his mouth, the boy lying on the experimental table exploded. Fortunately, the protective barrier activated in time, cushioning most of the energy. Dr. Kulun was unharmed in the arms of the tall man. Mu Feixing's projection flickered for only a moment, also undamaged, except Mu Ran and Mu Yang were severely injured, now unconscious.
The lab staff was accustomed to such situations and immediately came to clean up the mess and treat the injured.
"Shit!" Dr. Kulun cursed angrily. "Didn't I tell you to inject him with anesthetics? Why could he still explode? Useless!"
The tall man lowered his head in acknowledgment, not daring to refute despite being several major realms above Dr. Kulun. Mu Feixing discerned some insights, guessing, "The force within him is quite peculiar. Just restraining his body isn't enough; his soul must also be restrained."
"If that's true, it's interesting," Dr. Kulun said, laughing suddenly. His unpredictable mood swings were eerie. He kicked aside scattered machine parts and walked to where the experimental table once stood, now marked only by a charred area, chuckling lightly. "Looks like his soul is very strong, capable of shedding its current body. By the way, can you see him? Where is he?" As he spoke, he took out a pair of glasses, put them on, and began searching the lab.
"I haven't sensed his soul aura," Mu Feixing mused. "Perhaps his soul was also blown away. Just after leaving the body, souls are very fragile. Some dissipate instantly, while others linger for a period, ranging from months to just a few days. As far as I know, I'm the only soul in the world that has survived the longest."
This was clearly meant to highlight his own prowess, but Dr. Kulun showed no reaction, instead growing impatient. He kicked away the damaged equipment, found the round helmet, and extracted a chip from its port, sighing, "Not enough time or intensity. We probably didn't get much memory. Kirkbo, dispose of this trash." He pointed at the blackened spot on the ground.
Kirkbo was the spatial ability user. With a wave of his arm, the ashes that resembled the remains of the youth vanished, and the debris was cleared away, leaving the lab as pristine as before, save for the missing equipment.
The staff inserted the chip into a computer and began reading its contents. For the first half hour, nothing appeared on the screen, only a suffocating, lengthy darkness. If not for the time display in the lower left corner, Dr. Kulun might have assumed the chip was broken. Leaning back, he finally saw a brilliant red flame, seemingly an explosion. The exact location and individuals were blurred, but it was clear the explosion was devastating, nearly leveling several mountains. The fire was sucked into a spiral-shaped black hole, and the scene abruptly shifted to a primitive forest, towering trees, ferocious beasts, and large raindrops...
"This is Neptune," Mu Feixing's eyes lit up. "These beasts only live on Neptune. Qi Ze encountered a spaceship crash en route to Neptune, crashing in the forest and being saved by Yan Junyu."
"That explosion didn't look like a plane crash!" Dr. Kulun stated confidently. "That vortex was probably a wormhole, accidentally bringing him to the Black Eye Galaxy. He truly comes from another world; I wonder what level of civilization his homeland is."
"The civilization level should be high; many of his methods are things I've never seen."
As they spoke, Yan Junyu appeared on the screen, rescuing Qi Ze just as he was about to be devoured by a beast, taking him to the hospital for treatment. What followed was a boring school life. In nearly two years, Qi Ze displayed no abnormalities. He was like the most ordinary carbon-based being, humble and weak, with almost no presence. He occasionally spied on Yan Junyu, stopping him multiple times to stammer out confessions, only to be firmly rejected each time.
Mu Feixing showed a look of disgust, clearly uninterested in these mundane details. What he wanted wasn't this boring memory but techniques related to forging. Since being trapped by Qi Ze and nearly losing his soul, he vaguely felt that what he had always pursued might be in the hands of this person.
Qi Ze effortlessly drained the soul power he had accumulated for hundreds of years using a strange patternâa feat Mu Feixing wanted to accomplish but had never been able to achieve. He couldn't help but wonder: since Qi Ze could absorb souls, did he already possess the method to revive the dead?
No matter how vast the digital world was, it couldn't compare to the reality of the physical world. Being a wandering spirit wasn't what Mu Feixing desired; his original plan was to be resurrected in a flesh-and-blood body. When his power reached a certain strength, he tried attacking Yan Junyu and seizing his body but failed. Plundering power and seizing a body were vastly different in difficulty.
Fortunately, he met Qi Ze and glimpsed hope. While he indulged in his wild thoughts, Dr. Kulun suppressed his annoyance. He could already preliminarily determine that the memory extraction had failed. The boy's background, origins, growth process, and family's secret techniques weren't recorded on the chip, precisely the information he wanted most. If not for the possibility of relevant information appearing later, he would have smashed the screen and left long ago.
"Fast forward, fast forward, fast forward..." he kept ordering, and the staff kept adjusting until this tranquil life changed. Yan Junyu was attacked by a Long-necked Dragon, and Qi Ze seemed to have foreseen it. Before the news reached the school, he called on Ouyang Ye to rescue him. The deformed cockpit was opened, revealing Yan Junyu's battered corpse in a pool of blood. He stared at the scene, seemingly stunned.
Mu Feixing was also stunned, whispering in disbelief, "Yan Junyu was dead at the time? Then who is this person now?" His heart pounded violently, no longer allowing himself to be distracted as he stared intently at the screen.
Dr. Kulun became focused, enlarging the screen to avoid missing any details. Qi Ze hid Yan Junyu's corpse and brought it back to school. He told Ouyang Ye that he could revive Yan Junyu, then locked himself in the basement and carved a massive, complex, and ingenious pattern in the swimming pool before infusing it with energy liquid.
Two months later, the pattern was finally completed. He placed Yan Junyu's corpse in the pool and embedded nine energy stones into the indentations of the pattern. This embedding wasn't random but followed a certain pattern, though neither Mu Feixing nor Dr. Kulun could explain what it was. Even the extraordinary spatial ability user struggled to understand it.
After the nine energy stones were arranged, the pattern burst into dazzling light. Yan Junyu's corpse visibly regenerated veins, muscles, nerves, and skin. He lay motionless at the bottom of the pool, his complexion pale, without breath. Several lightning conductors extended from the roof into the pool, channeling the sudden external lightning into the energy liquid.
Purple electric light illuminated the entire basement, causing Yan Junyu's corpse to sway slightly under the electrical strikes. Suddenly, bubbles emerged from his nostrils and floated to the surface. After a few minutes, the bubbles increased in number, forming a chain. Undoubtedly, this was a sign of Yan Junyu's restored breathing.
The electric light persisted for a short while longer. Qi Ze jumped into the pool, carrying the unconscious Yan Junyu to shore, entrusting him to Li Yu to take away. The case of the "missing Young Master Yan," which had dragged on for months, ended mysteriously. Even Yan Junyu couldn't explain where he went or what happened after the attack. But he had a vague feeling; his attitude towards Qi Ze underwent a fundamental change. He began approaching him, protecting him, and eventually brought him to the Imperial Star.
The video stopped abruptly as Qi Ze stepped into the Imperial Academy. No matter how they adjusted it, the screen only showed static. But this was enough for Mu Feixing and Dr. Kulun; they had obtained what they most desired.
"There really is a method to revive the dead in this world!" Mu Feixing's expression was dazed.
"But you need to find a suitable corpse first," Dr. Kulun said excitedly. "Great, my interstellar journey hasn't been in vain. Even in my country, resurrection is still a myth. Do you know this person? I must bring him here for an experiment. Whether his abilities have degraded, whether his gene chain is as stable as ever, and whether his body has any lingering effectsâthese are all things I must understand. Kirkbo, my dear Kirkbo, you must bring him to me."
The tall man nodded in acknowledgment but didn't act immediately. He never underestimated anyone; before making a capture, he had to formulate a meticulous plan. Like the previous youth, if he hadn't been sufficiently cautious, sensing the environment around him with his mental power, he might have fallen into the trap set by the target. Fortunately, his realm was several layers higher than the youth's, allowing him to successfully bring him back.
Mu Feixing was also interested in Yan Junyu, but he cared most about the content on the chip, so he negotiated, "Dr. Kulun, I've helped you find the way to immortality. Will you honor your promise?"
"Well," Dr. Kulun smiled and nodded. "You're the perfect test subject. Of course, I'll help you be resurrected. Tell me your requirements for the new body, and I'll try my best to meet them."
Mu Feixing's remains were preserved in the Imperial Museum, with excellent preservation measures. They could be retrieved at any time. But he wasn't satisfied with his own aptitude, so he decisively said, "I want the body of the third prince of the Kurt Empire, Cassio Kurt."
Dr. Kulun was intrigued. "Oh? What's special about him?"
"On the surface, he's just a leisurely royal, but in reality, he's just broken through to the 4S rank. His ability is dark in nature, quite unique. If Yan Junyu hadn't lost his ability, I actually preferred his bodyâhe's over thirty years younger than Cassio." Mu Feixing, who could freely traverse the network, knew many secrets. Prince Cassio could hide well, but he couldn't escape Mu Feixing's scrutiny.
"My dear Cassio, let me see who you really are," Dr. Kulun said, opening his computer and easily hacking into the Kurt Empire's network, thoroughly investigating the prince.
"Among the younger generation, his aptitude should be the best. Unfortunately, you destroyed Yan Junyu; otherwise, I could have allowed you to enter his body," Dr. Kulun didn't doubt the content on the chip. Mouths could lie, but the information stored in the mind couldn't. Even if it was vague, piecing together the memory fragments could restore the truth. Qi Ze's memories matched reality, and the mystery surrounding Yan Junyu's disappearance could be logically explained here.
Dr. Kulun was suspicious, but he was also extremely arrogant. He would doubt the people and events around him but wouldn't doubt his own technology and methods.
"Kirkbo, see this person? I want him too, dead or alive," he said, pointing to Prince Cassio's photo.
"As you wish, my lord," the man bowed slightly and disappearedâ
Qi Ze didn't know how long he had been in the darkness. When he thought he would be trapped in this dimensional space for years, perhaps decades, a ray of sunlight shone down. He saw ruins everywhere, collapsed buildings, and thick smoke columns. It seemed a war had taken place here, with no living beings, only bloodshed.
There was a designated garbage storage area in the personal space of the foreign man. Once it was full, he would randomly throw it away in some location. Qi Ze mixed among this pile of "lucky" garbage, allowing him to see the light again. Now, he was just a pile of ashes, confirming that no one was around before slowly hardening together to form a little charcoal man.
The little man stretched his arms and kicked his legs, seemingly struggling to adapt to his current height. He sidestepped a brick, climbed onto a pile of rubble, and stumbled for a long time before finding an abandoned house to shelter in. Through the crack in the door, he saw creatures with bone spines and tails, half-human, half-lizard, climbing over buildings engulfed in thick smoke. Their sense of smell was keen; they quickly discovered any survivors, then rushed over in a frenzy, tearing and devouring them.
The attacks of ability users couldn't harm them. They rampaged across this land, turning it into a river of blood and littering it with corpses.
The little charcoal man silently watched this scene, only descending into the basement when the sky grew dim, arranging a simple isolation formation with broken stones. He lay at the center of the array, a faint golden glow emanating from his abdomen, slowly spreading to envelop him. About ten minutes later, what lay on the ground was no longer a little charcoal man but the naked Qi Ze. He took out a set of clothes from his Qiankun Bag and put them on, then rearranged the isolation formation with black crystal before sitting down to meditate.
Although Artificers had low combat values, they had countless means to preserve their lives. Thoroughly killing them wasn't an easy task. The explosion earlier was just a substitute puppet. Qi Ze cast an illusion spell, attaching himself to the ashes to escape the calamity. After barely restoring his Golden Core stage cultivation, if he were casually killed again, he wouldn't have the face to meet his father in the netherworld. He wondered about Yan Junyu's current situation.
Thinking about it wouldn't help. Qi Ze fully immersed himself in meditation, unknowingly enduring the night. The next day, he climbed to the first floor to search for clues, trying to determine where he was. The walls were adorned with many pictures of the owner, backgrounds ranging from cities, forests, oceans, to the Empire's aerial garden. It seemed he was still in the Black Eye Galaxy, not another dimension.
But how to explain those human-like, beast-like monsters? The Black Eye Galaxy didn't have such creatures. Qi Ze recalled Dr. Kulun and had a vague suspicion. He put on a hooded robe with concealment properties and cautiously went out. The streets were piled with discarded vehiclesâflying cars, sky trams, flying saucers, etc. The signs on both sides of the shops used an extremely unfamiliar script. Qi Ze seriously recalled for a moment but had no memory of it and had to give up.
Several monsters ran past him, moving very quickly. Immediately following was another one, engaging in battle with the ones ahead. Roaring, swallowing, and colliding sounds intertwined, turning the silent street into a noisy scene. Qi Ze stood on high rubble, expressionless, watching this unfold. Having witnessed the cruel battles and various demonic creatures in the Cultivation World, he wasn't scared, but he wouldn't rashly rush up to provoke them either.
These monsters possessed a Demon Resistant Body. Regardless of Qi Ze's current Golden Core stage cultivation, even Soul Departure, Soul Division, or Unity stage practitioners would have to weigh their options carefully before acting. He silently leapt off the rubble and ran toward areas with intact buildings, hearing fighting sounds along the way and pausing to investigate.
The spatial ability user who abducted him was battling a group of people. A handsome man with silver hair was tightly protected by several soldiers. He was gravely wounded, his clothes stained with large and small patches of blood, hardly intact anywhere. But he pushed away those beside him, roaring, "I told you to leave, didn't you hear me? Go, quickly go, don't worry about me!"
But these words had no effect on his loyal subordinates, only driving them to act more recklessly. In mere minutes, the ground was strewn with bodies. The foreign man seemed to be toying with them, coalescing many spatial fragments and slicing them into skeletons one by one.
Qi Ze was filled with hatred and revulsion. His figure flickered, arriving beside the handsome man, spreading his robe to wrap him in his arms, then swiftly escaping. If his enemy wanted to kill someone, he would insist on saving them.