Meng Chao had been observing A’Ji quietly.
He noticed that as A’Ji told his story, his expression and demeanor changed rapidly.
At some points, he was like an experienced member of society who had ruled over his territory for decades.
At other times, he was like an ambitious person who had retracted his claws and was plotting something.
Yet at other times, he was like a warrior filled with passion and indignation.
While in the end, he turned into a mischievous boy from Leprosy Village.
His demeanor changed seamlessly, which made it look like he was switching personalities like someone suffering from multiple personality disorder.
Yes, multiple personality disorder, this was the first impression Meng Chao had as he listened to A’Ji’s story.
He would not foolishly believe everything A’Ji said about Underground Emperor Jin Wanhao’s personality having disappeared without a trace when he regained his youth.
Jin Wanhao did not die completely.
Instead, he turned into memories that were implanted in the boy’s brain like a seed. When the time was ripe, they would definitely take root and grow.
This was Meng Chao’s personal experience.
After he returned from the apocalypse, he felt that there were two personalities in his brain.
One of them was a young adult in his early twenties. He was at the prime of his life, full of passion, and occasionally a little foolish and naive.
The other was an undead, fragmented spirit who had lived through its life as a Ghost Assassin and was badly wounded by the flames of the apocalypse.
Both personalities clashed against each other. Sometimes, this caused him to display different demeanors, thoughts, and ways of doing things.
A’Ji should be going through the same thing, right?
However, this was not the time for him to wonder whether the boy in front of him was A’Ji or Jin Wanhao.
Even if he were the ambitious and devious Underground Emperor Jin Wanhao, he had never stepped over the limits of humanity. Instead, he had secretly executed almost one hundred human scum who were infamous on the bounty list.
Meng Chao believed that the families of the victims would definitely beat drums and put on banners to thank Jin Wanhao once they learned that those human scums were tortured to death by Jin Wanhao, or rather, A’Ji.
Besides, A’Ji was a nine-year-old genius martial artist who could execute Celestial Tyrant’s Star Shattering Slash. He could definitely increase Dragon City’s chances of victory during the Other World War.
Since all of them had a pleasant time working together in the battle within the lair, Meng Chao still hoped that he could protect and guide A’Ji so that he would sincerely serve the people and walk down the brilliant path of contributing to the civilization.
But there was a crucial thing that he had to understand.
“After you told me these things, I understand all that has happened. Let me just make a statement here. I don’t think that you’ve committed any crime that deserves the death penalty,” Meng Chao said. “But I have one final question. I want to know whether Jin Wanhao’s sister is also an X-shaped eye owner.”
A’Ji was silent for a while before he whispered, “Yeah.”
“You mentioned just now that the X-shaped eye owners usually have stronger regenerative abilities compared to normal superhumans. The ones who are luckier even gain all sorts of strange abilities. In any case, it’s easier for them to survive dangerous situations, right?”
Meng Chao pondered over what he had learned. “You also mentioned that this Ms. Jin Qianxi had even better talent than Battle God Lei Zongchao, right?”
“What exactly do you want to ask?” A’Ji became worked up.
“You know where this is going.” Meng Chao sighed. “The abnormal beast research department has been researching the monster civilization for a long time, but even now, the researchers haven’t figured out how the monsters built a civilization that has a strict system, clear distribution of tasks, understands human language and even our societal habits within just a few decades and without external factors helping them. After all, just recently, they were a bunch of ignorant savages of different species, which hunted each other and regarded each other as enemies.
“You must know that humans spent millions of years moving from learning how to strike stones together to make fire to building brilliant civilizations!
“Even the evidence from forensic science showed that monsters aren’t products of natural evolution. Instead, they’re biochemical products modified by some mysterious force. But when Dragon City just transmigrated, these monsters only had brains but no intellect. Yet they managed to traverse the entire path of human evolution within just a few decades? That’s ridiculous. We spent millions of years to reach where we are today.
“Look at the series of schemes the Vortex set up. It had a terrifying degree of knowledge of human habits. Could this be possible without a real human providing guidance to it?”
“I understand. You suspect that my… that Jin Wanhao’s sister isn’t dead but was sent into the wild by Red Dragon River. You also think that she became the leader of the monster civilization… That’s impossible!” A’ji hissed.
“Why not?” Meng Chao asked. “You mentioned just now that she fell into Red Dragon River. You never saw her being eaten by aquatic monsters, and you never found her body.
“Lei Zongchao is the legend of martial arts in Dragon City. If an X-shaped eye owner who is even more talented than Lei Zongchao conquered a land in the wild and became the leader of the monster civilization, it wouldn’t be something far-fetched, would it?”
“B-But…” A’Ji’s expression was one of agitation and frustration. He absolutely did not want to accept this possibility. “If Jin Qianxi became the leader of the monster civilization and turned all the ignorant and brutal monsters into smart abnormal beasts who can communicate with humans, why are they standing against us?”
“Well, I could never figure out why a human would run into the wild to partner with the monsters instead of staying in Dragon City,” Meng Chao said. “But today, after I listened to your story, I suddenly realized that if I were captured by Blood Alliance, bound in shackles, had bombs implanted in me, was forced to explore mysterious ancient ruins, and even if I managed to survive through a stroke of luck, was sent into a lab to be a research subject, and then sent into the ancient ruins again to explore it where I would need to rely on luck AGAIN to survive, and then have this cycle repeat endlessly, there’d be a high chance that I would gain deep hatred for humans and believe that some humans are even more terrifying than monsters.”
“Impossible!” A’Ji flew into a rage. “My sister was a good person! She was someone filled with hope for humanity, just like Lei Zongchao! Even if she went through torture and was left stranded in the wild, she’d never betray humans!”
“Then, how are you going to explain the bubble messenger that appeared from the Vortex’s carcass?” Meng Chao retorted calmly. “The secret of Blood Alliance, the relationship between Jin Wanhao and Jin Qianxi, and even Jin Qianxi’s appearance when she was young are all stuff that outsiders would never know, much less abnormal beasts living in the wild.”
This question hit A’Ji where it hurt.
He blabbered incoherently before he slumped down.
“That’s impossible, Qianxi, there’s no way. How could you?”
His eyes were unfocused as he mumbled under his breath.
In truth, Meng Chao had more proof, which came from the memories from when the Demonic Abyss Eye’s memory cells shattered as it was about to die.
Within them, Meng Chao had seen a human tied to an operating table while going through brutal experiments.
He saw the X-shaped eye emblem on the hilt of the scalpel that belonged to the researcher.
Meng Chao did not understand why the Supernatural Entities and the X-shaped eye would appear together when they were two completely unrelated things.
Now that he thought about it, those should have been Jin Qianxi’s memories.
When she modified the Supernatural Entities and implanted intellect in them, she unintentionally also transferred fragments of some unbearable, but unforgettable memories.
“Alright, we have to immediately report this important information to the Survival Committee so that everyone can be on guard. Our enemy might not be an Apocalyptic Beast, but a human who is just as terrifying as Battle God Lei Zongchao!” Meng Chao said.
A’Ji’s pupils swiftly shrank into two dots.
His muscles became tense, and he instinctively wanted to stop Meng Chao.
Meng Chao stared at him. Killing intent rolled off his body in waves as he said firmly, “I know that you don’t want to see your sister turn into a monster that wreaks havoc in Dragon City nor anyone to hurt her after she turned into a monster.
“But this is important information that concerns Dragon City’s survival. It cannot be hidden. I don’t care whether she is a human, whether she is Jin Qianxi, or whether she has something troubling her that makes her worthy of pity. All I know is that in the past twenty-four hours, thousands of innocent people died horribly in the lair because of the abnormal beast’s scheme. All of them are worthy of pity and being saved, just like Jin Qianxi was in the past!
“Whoever the leader of the monster civilization is, I will do my best to stop them from harming more people!”
A’Ji was intimidated by the abrupt killing intent from Apocalyptic Version Meng Chao. He calmed down and sucked in a deep breath before he said, “I-I get it. I told you before that I’m A’Ji, not Jin Wanhao. Jin Wanhao’s sister has nothing to do with me.
“Besides, that might not be the real Jin Qianxi. Half a century has passed since then. Even if Jin Qianxi is still alive, how could she still be as pretty as when she was young?
“I won’t stop you from sharing this information.
“But Big Brother Chao, could you help me? Think of a lie to remove me from this situation. Don’t let anyone know about me, please?”
“Why?” Meng Chao asked. “If you give your testimony to the Survival Committee and tell them everything that happened in the past, it’ll be a great help for us in our fight against the monster civilization.
“Are you worried about the things in the secret lab being exposed? If what you said is true and all the people who died here are heinous, wanted criminals, I believe that the Survival Committee will treat it as a special case and handle it with special methods.”
“The wanted criminals aren’t a problem. The biggest problem is me. Are you telling me that after I wasted so much breath telling you my story, I haven’t become the greatest and most valuable research subject in Dragon City once more?” A’Ji asked with a glum face.
“I’m a life science miracle that regained his youth! Once word of this spills out, and there’re going to be countless people trying to cut me into pieces to figure out the secret of how I regained my youth!”
