‘Future of the Li family’ made Li Jialing’s head dizzy again. He felt that he was trapped in an immeasurable maze.
The young man stared at the man who could influence the entire Imperium of True Human Beings in a daze and hesitated. “Can I trust you?”
“Why not?” Li Lingfeng smiled. “After so many inhuman, excruciating modifications, you should know very clearly that if I wanted to interfere with or even control your mind to start a slaughter, it wouldn’t have been any trouble at all. There was no way that you could resist it.
“But I did not do so. For all these years, I have merely been trying to modify your fleshly body, activate the potential of your brain, build up your soul, and nurture the terrible monster deep within your heart. However, I never interfered with your free will.
“If I had been considering you as a common ‘test subject’, why would I bother to raise you in such an exhausting way?
“Come on. Let’s go and meet someone.”
Li Lingfeng led Li Jialing to a clean secret room next to the hall.
The secret room was empty, but it had a mirror that was transparent on one side, which allowed them to observe the people in the hall.
There were also light beams that were more advanced and detailed than the ones in the hall, allowing them to grasp every detail in the Land of Sins.
This was a VIP room of the highest level in Manjusaka that only the big shots on Li Lingfeng’s level were qualified to enjoy.
Through the one-way mirror, Li Jialing looked at the young people of the Li family who were still baffled and suspicious.
He was as ignorant of the situation as them.
“Look at that guy.” Li Lingfeng pointed at a middle-aged man at the front of the hall who was as impeccable as a marmoreal statue. The man was talking with a few influential generals and politicians and brimming with the confidence that everything was under his control. Li Lingfeng asked, “Do you know him?”
“I do,” Li Jialing replied dutifully. “He is Wuying Lan, the owner of this place. He is also the man who has been providing you with all kinds of technology and secret arts to modify me all these years.”
“Exactly. I have been cooperating with him profoundly since decades ago and received a lot of cutting-edge technology from him. Most of the abilities inside your body originated from his laboratory.” Li Lingfeng smiled. “From that point of view, you are the ‘son of Manjusaka’. This place is your real home!”
Li Jialing trembled again. He said softly, “I get it. You personally came to Manjusaka this time not for the trial quests of the new generation of the Li family but for me to receive new modifications.”
“You are truly unbelievably smart, but it is only one of my purposes,” Li Lingfeng said casually. “Now, I’m more interested in talking about the story of Wuying Lan with you because he is really very similar to you.”
Li Jialing was slightly dazed. He simply listened in silence.
“Although Wuying Lan is from the royal family, like you, he is from a branch of the branches,” Li Lingfeng said unhurriedly. “Besides, you should know the awkward situation of the royal family in the Imperium very well. Everybody was so intimidated by the dominance of ‘Blackstar the Great’ Wuying Qi that they worked together to limit the royal prerogatives after his death. Now, even the high and mighty Emperor himself, although not anybody’s puppet, has a lot of restraints and cannot do whatever he wants. The branch that Wuying Lan is from is not worth mentioning at all. He was even less important than the offspring of the four Kurfürst families.
“Besides, the man had congenital deficiencies. He was an abnormal dwarf when he was born.”
“What?” Li Jialing immediately bulged his eyes.
“To appear as he does right now, he has been modified after countless painstaking procedures with the cutting-edge technology of ‘Manjusaka’ after he arrived here.” Li Lingfeng smiled. “You didn’t see this coming, did you? An abnormal curse that should’ve been suffocated the moment he was born survived stubbornly and somehow became the governor of the Martial Meritocrats Sector after killing countless competitors!
“However, when he first took the duty, the Martial Meritocrats Sector was only one of the dozens test bases for large magical equipment and techniques. There was nothing special about it.
“Also, because of hundreds of years of excessive experiments, the place was already murky and messy after all the destruction. The few sinners were all cockroaches and rats drawing their last breath. Those vermin were incapable of testing the quality of the most advanced magical equipment and techniques of the Imperium.
“Therefore, everybody thought that the base would be shut down very soon. The arrival of a ‘dwarf governor’ was the best evidence.
“But little did they know that Wuying Lan really had the capabilities to change the world. He came up with the idea of ‘slaughter streaming’ first. By attracting the most dour and repressed hominoids at the bottom level of the Imperium with the most bloody and exciting videos, he collected the first bucket of gold from them.
“Then, he invested the first bucket of gold into the renovation of the Land of Sins, transforming the place into a top-tier base of trials with adequate facilities, both dangerous and thrilling. With a low price, he attracted the major families, academies, sects, and groups of the Imperium to hold their trials here.
“At that time, many people did not understand the arrangement. You know that the cost of ‘trials’ can be very high. The consumptions during the trials, the timely refilling of the prey after they are butchered, the safety and surveillance… The incessant investment was astronomical. According to the price that Wuying Lan offered, he would not earn any profit at all, and his first bucket of gold would soon be wasted.
“At that time, nobody knew that the focus of Wuying Lan was not profit but connections!
“The trial teams that came there incessantly were all from the most powerful families, sects, and groups of the Imperium. They were certainly led by the big shots of various fields, too.
“Of the new people who participated in the trials, a lot were talented geniuses who would grow into the pillars of their families.
“After gathering those people, Wuying Lan made friends with them and naturally weaved a broad and tensile web of connections.
“If you have connections, you have everything. Wuying Lan received the appreciation of a lot of people, including myself. We invested tremendous resources to help him revive the test base of magical equipment and techniques that was on the brink of bankruptcy. Then, a virtue cycle began. The levels of the trials became higher and higher, and more and more teams came for trials.
“With the freshest ingredients, the laboratory was also able to present the most cutting-edge results in experiments. The influence of ‘slaughter streaming’ grew after each day. Later, he established his own lottery group, which has expanded into a behemoth that covers media, lottery, cutting-edge studies, and many other fields! The dwarf that nobody had any hope in or even knew in the past has become one of the most popular big ghosts in the royal family. Nobody does not know him today. Remarkable. It is truly remarkable!”
After a brief silence, Li Jialing asked in confusion, “Why are you telling me this?”
Li Lingfeng smiled. “It’s simple. Since Wuying Lan is capable of establishing an enormous empire in the media industry from scratch, why can’t you?”
Li Jialing opened his mouth, meaning to ask why Li Lingfeng thought so highly of him.
But he did not ask in the end because he knew that he would not get an answer even if he did.
He was just a chess piece in the guy’s hand, and he was not qualified to know what was on the player’s mind.
“Furthermore,” Li Lingfeng said, “I want you to know that most of the approaches that I modified you through were used by Wuying Lan on himself before. It is even safe to say that, in terms of physical bodies, you are an ‘upgraded version’ of Wuying Lan. As for exactly how much the upgrade is, you will have to ask yourself.
“So, I think that the two of you should try to bond with each other. Chances are that he can answer some of your questions, right?”
Li Jialing’s eyes opened wider and wider. Looking at Wuying Lan not far away and then at his pale, dry hands, he was completely lost in the swirl of confusion.
Li Lingfeng smiled and raised his wrist, planning to call Wuying Lan.
However, a deafening explosion suddenly echoed from the broadcast rune arrays. Hundreds of light beams displayed the horrifying picture of Great Iron City floating and extending eight arms at the same time.
The intimidating aura of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie was almost burning through the light beams!
“Huh?” Li Lingfeng was slightly dazed. “Wuying Le is truly hard to predict sometimes. I did not know that he had crafted such a magnificent monster. The game is finally getting interesting.”
In the hall, ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie’s ultimate form attracted the attention of a lot of attendees.
Some were whispering to each other, some exclaimed in amazement, and some danced in ecstasy because they had wagered on the Fist King’s side.
Wuying Lan, the owner of Manjusaka, smiled casually while holding a wine glass, as if every transformation of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie was under his control and part of the game.
Even Li Lingfeng, the greatest endorser of Manjusaka, did not know the shock in Wuying Lan’s mind right now.
He spoke to two honorable guests for a while with a pleasant smile, asking them to enjoy themselves as much as possible. Then, he left the hall unhurriedly, passed a narrow corridor, and came to the planning and control room of the entire trial.
It was an ocean of crystal processors and light beams. The overwhelming pictures and data were a hundred times more complicated than in the hall. Twelve super crystal processors together with a thousand Immortal Cultivators with amazing computational abilities analyzed and processed without any rest in order to monitor and maintain the most crucial areas in the Land of Sins, including the Battle of Liberty City that was underway.
At this moment, all the cameras had locked onto ‘Great Iron City’.
‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie had revealed his true appearance and was on a killing spree. He had penetrated seven defense lines of Liberty City and butchered more than fifty Immortal Cultivator players. The control center in the City in the Sky was in an utter mess because of the disruption.
“What’s going on?”
Frowning, Wuying Lan asked coldly, “What do you mean by ‘the Fist King has gone out of control’?”
