Dr. Kulun struggled for a moment before calming down, his eyes shooting daggers at Qi Ze.
"Why can you alter your own memories? In theory, that should be absolutely impossible." Even at this moment, he maintained the explorer's spirit of a scientist, speaking slowly. "The basic process of memory is composed of four stages: encoding, retention, recall, and recognition. Encoding is like recording, relying on the eyes and ears to store what is seen and heard in the brain. This process is real and objective, unable to be falsified. And it is precisely this stage of memory that I extracted. Recall and recognition are the source of a person's subjective judgments about memory. The same event, after different recalls and recognitions, will produce different conclusions. But I don't need those conclusions; I only trust what a person has seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears."
He pressed his face against the invisible wall of isolation, demanding, "A hypnotist can alter someone's judgment, even forcibly implant a memory, but if one directly breaches the brain and retrieves the imagery from gray brain cells, there would be no possibility of fabrication. Why can you do it? Why?"
His eyes were bloodshot, his demeanor deranged, as if he wanted to charge out of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Disk and dissect Qi Ze's brain to see.
Qi Ze sat in a soft sofa, his knuckles tapping on the table irregularly, appearing utterly unconcerned. He waited until Dr. Kulun's soul began to twist in fury before he spoke softly, "There is a sentence I've always wanted to give you â when faced with unknown forces, it's necessary to maintain a sense of reverence. When I first arrived in the Black Eye Galaxy, I dared not even speak, feigning deafness and dumbness for three months before beginning to interact with the outside world. Then I remained hidden for two years. I earnestly understood this world, explored this world, and never once looked down on it because of the so-called distinction between higher and lower planes. Yet, in the face of the unknown, you chose the most foolish method, reaching blindly into the pitch-black darkness. How did you know whether hiding in the darkness was a gentle rabbit or a man-eating beast? As far as I know, you merely come from a second-class plane, not first-class or even super-class. What arrogant capital do you have?"
Qi Ze laughed sarcastically, "You're like a high school graduate, always bullied by peers, who goes to junior high, elementary school, or even kindergarten to flex his muscles. Are you worthy of being called a strong person? Stop joking, will you? You're nothing but a disgusting scum."
The proud Dr. Kulun was infuriated by these words. He roared and slammed against the invisible cage, but deep down, he was trembling. Qi Ze's words were like a sharp blade, slicing through the beautiful facade he draped over himself, revealing the filth and ugliness beneath. His powerful mental world was fiercely shattered by these words. If he couldn't crush Qi Ze beneath his feet, he would forever be unable to escape the sense of defeat and shame, turning into a cowardly wimp.
But did he have a chance to turn the tables? The answer was negative.
"Kirkbo will certainly kill you! You're going to hell!" he bellowed at Qi Ze.
"Can't win yourself, so you snivel and seek help? You're more of a sissy than Cassio." Qi Ze tilted his head to look at him, the words steeped in humiliation capable of instantly killing someone on the spot. "Kirkbo is the spatial ability user? I remember, it was he who helped you capture me. He's indeed a high-level expert, but with your strength, you couldn't command him like a dog, could you? But he seemed to listen to you? Let me guess, did you drug him? No, he doesn't seem like it, so you used your body to bribe him?"
Seeing Dr. Kulun's face contorted beyond recognition, Qi Ze clapped and sighed, "Indeed, you used your body. Dr. Kulun, you're more despicable than I imagined. How can I consider you an opponent? It's a great insult to me!"
Dr. Kulun's entire soul was about to dissipate from fury, unable to utter a single word of rebuttal beyond his crazed roars. His pride and self-esteem were shattered by Qi Ze's words, ground into dust underfoot. Even if he fled this place and found a new body to resurrect, he could never escape the wound Qi Ze left in his heart.
Watching the soul, twisted like a rope, howling incessantly, Cassio showed a sympathetic expression. Fortunately, this man was already dead; otherwise, Qi Ze would have to humiliate him to death again.
"By the way, can you extract his memories?" Qi Ze looked at the old king.
The old king said in a tone of reverence, "I don't dare hide this from Master Qi, we do indeed have such technology, but it can only be used on living beings. This is a spirit essence, so we have no way to proceed."
"Then gather all the scientists of the Galaxy and let them work together to find a solution. Everyone is suffering from the infected, so they should join forces to find a solution. At a time when life and death are at stake, the so-called cultural barriers, racial barriers, and ideological distinctions should all be broken."
"You're absolutely right. I'll immediately call all countries and request that they seek a solution together." The old king spoke ingratiatingly, "After dinner, I had an earnest conversation with General Yan, and a preliminary cooperation plan has been reached. Our Kurt Empire will join forces with the Huaxia Empire to deal with the pirate army that Mu Feixing has gathered. From now on, we will be the closest of partners and the most loyal of allies."
"Thank you for your generous assistance." Qi Ze wasn't skilled in such formal talk, stowed away Dr. Kulun, and nodded, "Then we'll take our leave. Good night."
"Good night, don't rush off." The old king hurriedly stood up to see them off.
Reaching the door, Qi Ze seemed to recall something and took Yan Junyu's hand to kiss it, smiling, "Forgot to tell you, General Yan and I are now partners, hoping for your blessing."
"Oh, what a wonderful piece of news! My dear child, you two will certainly be forever happy." The old king praised with a passionate tone, repeatedly making eye signals to his dumbfounded son.
Cassio came back to his senses from the shock. He glanced at Yan Junyu, who was somewhat surprised yet somewhat excited, and accidentally spoke the truth, "General Yan, you're truly the bravest person in the world." He actually dared to marry a big devil.
"I think I'm the luckiest person in the world." Yan Junyu said solemnly.
The two held hands and returned to the villa.
Qi Ze took out the soul-snatching pearl and stood in front of the boundary marker, summoning Kirkbo. He had not previously obtained the name of this spatial ability user, so he could not capture the other's soul. Now, with Dr. Kulun's testimony, it was naturally much easier. After calling five or six times, the boundary marker did not react. He was certain, "The boundary marker is very weak and cannot yet refine so many life essences. Even Mu Feixing's life essence is still there, so Kirkbo's life essence would not have been consumed. Without a doubt, he's still alive."
Yan Junyu agreed, "Spatial ability users can travel to extremely distant places in an instant; it's normal for him to have escaped this calamity."
"Hmm, he will definitely seek revenge for Dr. Kulun; we'll just wait for him to come to us." Qi Ze took out the soul pearl and pondered, "My Ghost-Faced Spider still lacks a spirit essence. I had originally intended to refine Dr. Kulun's soul, but his resolve is too poor, not worth using. This Kirkbo would be better."
"I can't guarantee that I can definitely overcome him," Yan Junyu kissed the boy's cheek and said firmly, "but I will protect you with my life."
"I will also do my utmost to protect you." Qi Ze said, his face blushing.
"I believe that you've always been doing so." Yan Junyu smiled gently â
A massive battleship hovered in space, all indicators extinguished, looking like a pitch-black tomb. But in reality, it was indeed a tomb, and Kirkbo was the sole mourner. He held Dr. Kulun's body for three days, then washed his body, arranged his remains, and placed him in a coffin.
He had completely lost his direction and drive, wandering around in a daze, like a living dead man. He wanted to avenge Dr. Kulun, but Qi Ze was long gone, not even a trace of ashes to be found. Right, there was still Yan Junyu! If it weren't for him killing Cooper, Dr. Kulun would never have died so easily in the vortex.
Thinking up to this point, Kirkbo immediately controlled the battleship to head for the Aiken planet. That was Yan Junyu's home planet; he would certainly appear there. On the way, he gazed into space on the screen, lost in thought. After about one or two days, the destination was in sight, but a video call came through on Mu Feixing's dedicated line.
"Who are you? Why can you invade my communication channel?" Kirkbo glared at the little girl appearing on the screen.
"I'm Lord Jacob, the top hacker in the Black Eye Galaxy." The little girl puffed up her chest and said arrogantly, "Wait, my boss wants to talk to you."
Even a three or four-year-old child could invade his battleship; Kirkbo could no longer underestimate anyone in the Black Eye Galaxy. He stared intently at the screen and then suddenly changed in expression, "Qi Ze! You're not dead!" In an instant, he understood everything. That memory chip was simply a forgery by Qi Ze! The self-destruction was a fake! Qi Ze had been hiding somewhere, waiting for Dr. Kulun to walk to his own death. No wonder in the last few days, Dr. Kulun's body had rapidly wasted away, his complexion always revealing an ashen hue that foretold decay.
"You plotted to kill Dr. Kulun!" He spoke word by word, "You will pay the price!"
"Is that so?" Qi Ze sat cross-legged, smiling faintly, "But before that, I will make you all pay the price first. You shouldn't have come here, and you shouldn't have provoked me. Look at who this is." He pointed with two fingers, lifting the ban on the Yin-Yang Five Elements Disk, and a soul essence was released. It was Dr. Kulun, yet it did not quite resemble him. He was unnaturally thin, his facial features displaced, his eyes bloodshot, like a projection that had emerged from a funhouse mirror, his entire being shrouded in a sense of absurdity and distortion.
Kirkbo could no longer maintain his outward calm, gritting his teeth and saying, "You actually imprisoned his soul! Wait, I will tear your flesh off piece by piece to feed the dogs!"
"The hostage is still in my hands, and you dare to threaten me in my face. Do you not care about Dr. Kulun's safety at all?" Qi Ze extracted a pure wooden element with his left hand and a pure fire element with his right. With both hands joined, he gently rubbed them together, blending the two elements into a Wood's Fire, which he placed into the Wood's cell of the Five Elements Disk. Then he synthesized Earth's Fire, Water's Fire, Metal's Fire, and so on, lighting up the five cells of the Five Elements Disk.
The Five Elements Disk, which had originally only served to imprison, instantly transformed into a hell. The Five Elements Fire climbed onto Dr. Kulun's body, burning him to ashes. But as the Five Elements were complementary and antagonistic to each other and cycled, they generated a force of rebirth, reconstructing Dr. Kulun's already scattered soul and then making it suffer the burning again.
Once, twice, three times... In the short span of a few minutes, Kirkbo could no longer count how many torments Dr. Kulun had endured. Initially, he would still roar and struggle, using the most vicious language to curse Qi Ze. But as time went on, he grew weaker, and his face gradually revealed a numb expression.
Compared to the screams of agony, this numbness made Kirkbo more afraid. He was well aware that to truly destroy a person, one must first destroy their will â and that was exactly what Qi Ze was doing. How could he be so vicious, so cruel!
Fury filled his heart, but Kirkbo dared not show it anymore. He closed his eyes and said in a defeated tone, "As long as you release Dr. Kulun, I'm willing to agree to any of your conditions."
"I want the antidote for the T virus, including samples and formulas." If not for the fact that the countries had not yet found a way to extract Dr. Kulun's memories, Qi Ze wouldn't have directly traded with Kirkbo. In the realm of souls, the Black Eye Galaxy was still a blank slate. Those scientists had no idea what to do with Dr. Kulun.
"Agreed." Kirkbo nodded without hesitation, "As soon as you return the doctor to me, I'll hand over the antidote to you."
"Tomorrow at noon, 12 o'clock, see you then." Qi Ze sent over a set of coordinates â
The next day, Kirkbo arrived at the designated coordinates on time. It was a planet on the verge of annihilation, with a very thin atmosphere. The scorching light baked the earth, causing water sources to evaporate, soil to become sandy, and all that could be seen was a desolate wasteland.
After the battleship landed, Kirkbo walked out and yelled, "Qi Ze, I'm here! Here's the antidote." He shook the chip in his hand while vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
"Long time no see, Kirkbo." Qi Ze emerged from a sand dune, accompanied by Yan Junyu.
"Long time no see. How shall we conduct the transaction?" Kirkbo's tone was calm.
"You hand over the chip and the sample to me first. After I verify their authenticity, I'll return Dr. Kulun to you." Sensing Kirkbo's dissatisfied expression, Qi Ze laughed coldly, "The hostage is in my hands; you have no right to choose. You can choose not to transact; it's all the same to me. You should know that I also come from another plane and don't care what happens to the Black Eye Galaxy."
Kirkbo of course knew how ruthless people like Qi Ze were. And judging by his methods, he absolutely came from a higher plane; if the Black Eye Galaxy were to be destroyed, he could easily set up a new base elsewhere.
"Here." Kirkbo threw the chip and the sample over.
Qi Ze transmitted the chip's contents to Ming Rui, who then forwarded them to the laboratories of various countries, allowing the most authoritative scientists to judge the authenticity of the formula. This was destined to be a very long process. From noon until evening, and from evening until sunset, it was only then that a message came back confirming it.
"What's the verdict, didn't I lie to you?" Kirkbo stared intently at the two of them.
"That's right." Qi Ze nodded.
"Where's the doctor?"
"Here you go."
Qi Ze threw over a small glass bottle, and Kirkbo caught it to see that it indeed contained Dr. Kulun's soul.
"Thank you. But I have a favor to ask." Kirkbo smiled sinisterly, "Since you've obtained the soul, please find another body for the doctor to revive. I know you can do it."
"Why do you think I would help you?" Qi Ze raised an eyebrow.
"Because I hold your life and death in my hands." Kirkbo waved his hand, and the surroundings instantly transformed from a desert into a starry sky. The stars seemed close enough to touch, yet were unreachable. Qi Ze and Yan Junyu showed expressions of shock, then held onto each other's arms to prevent falling from the sky.
"You're already useless, self-destruct." Kirkbo pointed at Yan Junyu, his tone as if he were a king. But in the next second, Yan Junyu actually did self-destruct, blood and organs splattering Qi Ze's face.
"What did you do to him? You devil!" Qi Ze yelled in a miserable state, then took out another porcelain bottle from the Interspatial Button, angrily saying, "You thought I'd hand Dr. Kulun over to you? Wake up! What you have in your hand is just a fake!"
"Give me the doctor back." Kirkbo only said this calmly. In the midst of his rage, Qi Ze involuntarily walked over and presented the porcelain bottle. He couldn't control himself at all. His mind wanted to resist, but his body was controlled by an unknown force. This force came from Kirkbo, and his words had absolute authority in this expanse of starry sky.
"Why is this happening?" Qi Ze displayed a flustered expression for the first time.
"Because this is my domain. What I say will come true, and what I do will succeed. You're just an ant; I can make you live and also make you die. Here, you have no right to choose." Kirkbo carefully held the porcelain bottle and commanded, "I want you to immediately revive the doctor."
In the midst of his panic, Qi Ze suddenly laughed coldly, mocking, "Since you're the sovereign of this domain and what you say will come true, why don't you just say 'Doctor, revive'? Wouldn't that be simpler?"
That was something only a god-level spatial ability user could achieve, but Kirkbo would never tell Qi Ze. He longed to tear the other apart with his own hands but had to spare his life. If the doctor could come back to life, he would have countless methods to make Qi Ze beg for life and not get death!
"I want you to immediately revive the doctor!" He ordered again, but he found that Qi Ze turned into a phantom and disappeared, while the porcelain bottle was detonated, instantly shattering the domain. The starry sky shattered into pieces that turned into particles and scattered, and the surroundings were still an endless desert. Chilly gusts of wind blew from all directions.
Kirkbo erected a spatial barrier to block the blast's force. He knew Qi Ze was full of tricks, so he had already made all preparations, but he didn't understand why those illusions were so realistic that they managed to deceive his holy level perception. The doctor still didn't return to his side, and instead, he exposed his final trump card, resulting in a miserable defeat in the first round of the confrontation.
Kirkbo's chest was continuously filled with suppressed anger, and as he looked around in panic, his mind was in chaos. When he set off for the Black Eye Galaxy, he could never have imagined what he would encounter or fall into such a desperate situation. He had lost his beloved doctor, as well as his pride and confidence.
"Qi Ze, show yourself! Qi Ze..." He was like a blind beast, charging wildly through the desert.
Qi Ze and Yan Junyu stood on a high sand dune, watching the man who had fallen into madness.
"The timing isn't ripe, it still needs more refining." Qi Ze pondered, "If you could evolve to have a Demon Resistant Body, I would definitely let you face him head-on. But you haven't, so the odds of winning are only around thirty percent. You've seen it for yourself; his spatial domain is simply invincible, making you die if he wants you to die, without any hesitation. I'll first extinguish his arrogant spirit, disrupt his mind, and exhaust his energy. Then, I'll let you go down, improving the chances of victory to about fifty percent. But that's still too low, so I'll refine Dr. Kulun here, letting his screams repeatedly disrupt him. At that point, he will certainly want to bypass you and attack me. With divided attention, his combat power will inevitably plunge even further. You just need to be cautious in your response to win."
After saying this, he took out the Yin-Yang Five Elements Disk and started setting up an array. An outer attacking formation and an inner defensive formation would ensure that Kirkbo would suffer greatly but have no way to break through.
Yan Junyu looked at him for a long time and praised, "Dear, you're really devious."
"Thank you for the compliment." Qi Ze took the opportunity to instruct, "As long as someone is alive, everything is possible. Once dead, all is over. In a battle against others, survival is the first priority, and winning or losing is secondary. If you can win, then fight; if you can't, run. There's nothing shameful about that. If you can't even run away, and you have to fight, use any means necessary to wear down the other party. That's the principle of 'take advantage of their illness to finish them off.'"
"Your experience seems quite rich?" Yan Junyu couldn't help chuckling.
"After being hunted for so long, these truths just came to light." Qi Ze's eyes dimmed slightly.
Yan Junyu hastily pulled him into his arms, kissed his soft hair, and comforted, "Don't think about the past. From now on, I'll protect you. If you want me to fight, I'll fight. If you want me to run, I'll run. We'll live well together and stay together for a long time."
"Mmm." Qi Ze's heart was full of warmth. Seeing Kirkbo kneeling on the sand, panting heavily and seemingly exhausted, he said, "Then go down and fight him."
"At your command." Yan Junyu smiled and kissed the boy's eyelids and lips.
Purple vines spread across the sky, attacking Kirkbo. Kirkbo rapidly retreated, simultaneously summoning a new domain and his symbiotic beast, entangling with Yan Junyu in battle. He had initially really lost control, but he quickly calmed down. The wild charges afterward were all for show. He had deeply realized the cunning and malevolence of Qi Ze, so how could he be led by the nose?
But just as he activated his domain, Qi Ze began torturing Dr. Kulun on the sand dune opposite, the screams getting louder and louder, severely interfering with Kirkbo. If one wanted to maintain a domain, they had to intensely concentrate their mental energy and mobilize a large amount of abilities. But now, every time Dr. Kulun screamed, Kirkbo's mental energy dissipated, his abilities' extraction was intermittent and unpredictable, and soon it caused his domain to waver.