Chapter 92: Corrupted Consciousness Invasion, Follower Evolution
Three days later, Su Chen finished packing. Driven by Sun Tai in a hover car, he was sent near the spaceport in the city center.
The usually empty area echoing with wind sounds was now filled with crowds: Inspector Guards responsible for outer perimeter security, high-level city officials coming to join the excitement, their juniors, and talents carefully selected from South Wind Academy.
There were only three quotas to enter the Court of Justice.
But Ying Feng had not only the Court of Justice, but also the Carving Institute, Crafting Department, emergency cultivation academy, and various research institutions.
It was just that those who came out of them could not touch positions like City Lord or Minister of major institutions, but as mid-level management, it was no problem.
Therefore, there were fully ten to twenty people heading to Ying Feng this time. At Yuan Chenyang’s request, Yang Yan simply took them all along.
In the central position was a spaceship, its dark silver hull gleaming with cold ghostly light in the afterglow of the artificial sun. The streamlined hull surface was etched with some kind of engraving, and the gangway was already lowered.
Clang— A transport forklift carried a metal box onto the spaceship, which contained the Heituo Statue. Su Chen instinctively dodged a bit.
Behind were the crowd’s luggage. Su Chen saw his own luggage, originally just a small box with some clothes, but now there was an additional half-person-high metal box.
He couldn’t help looking toward Yuan Chenyang in the distance, who gave an imperceptible nod.
“Junior Brother Su…” Zhang Hongbo walked over, seemingly having waited a long time, followed by the visibly excited Zhang Hengyu and the complex-faced Zhang Yunqing.
“Senior Brother…” Su Chen was also somewhat speechless. He was now of the same generation as Zhang Hongbo, but calling him Senior Brother was indeed quite strange.
They had met a few times during this period, and the other insisted on him calling it that way.
“Call him Martial Uncle…” Zhang Hongbo turned his head with a smile.
“Uncle Su…” Zhang Hengyu was somewhat embarrassed.
“Su… Uncle…” Zhang Yunqing was even more so, feeling a bit more annoyed at Zhang Hongbo in her heart.
“When we arrive at Ying Feng, I hope Junior Brother can take good care of my two unworthy children.” Zhang Hongbo said sincerely: “If there’s anything inconsiderate, feel free to discipline them on my behalf.”
Zhang Yunqing glared at her father. What kind of talk was this?
Jiang Rong had just walked nearby when he heard Zhang Hongbo’s words, full of speechlessness, and in the end could only call out “Little Brother Su”.
Chaos, chaos, all fucking chaos.
Su Chen helplessly responded: “Minister Jiang…”
Jiang He’s father—this was his first time seeing him.
The young people farther away kept looking over here frequently. Some of them had met Su Chen at that banquet and now couldn’t help but have all sorts of thoughts.
Among them, some people’s fathers could only stand at the edge of the small group centered on Su Chen.
“Old Xia really isn’t going back with you?” Yuan Chenyang was chatting with Yang Yan and handed over a metal box.
“Old Xia has other matters.” Yang Yan said vaguely, took the box, opened it, and saw it was the Holy Word Stone, along with a stack of deciphered information.
Yuan Chenyang hesitated: “On the road, there shouldn’t be any problems, right?”
“Don’t worry.” Yang Yan was somewhat displeased: “We’re taking the official route, which Ying Feng clears twice a year. On the way here, Old Xia even cleared it extra once.”
“Even if there are some mutants that don’t know any better, I can handle them.”
“I’m just asking.” Yuan Chenyang explained, looked toward Su Chen, then toward Bai Fengxi.
These two people together were worth more than his life and fortune.
“You’ve only deciphered 30%?” Yang Yan flipped through the information and couldn’t help frowning.
Yuan Chenyang shook his head: “What resources do we have here? We don’t even have a proper profession translator. Being able to decipher this much is already good.”
He reminded again: “When it’s fully deciphered, don’t forget to send a copy to South Wind.”
Yang Yan closed the box and handed it to Gu Bing: “Get it yourself from the Translation Department. I don’t want to deal with those guys.”
The crowd boarded one after another. Even Zhang Hongbo got on the ship, surprising Su Chen.
“I’m heading to the ruins for rotation, just along the way.” Zhang Hongbo explained.
“The ruins…” Su Chen suddenly realized, quite curious about this ruins.
Zhang Hongbo noticed his curiosity and explained: “It’s not something you can explore yet. Preliminary estimate is it’s a fourth-order ruins, possibly even fifth-order. After the initial outbreak period passes, Ying Feng will send people over.”
He further explained that ruins classification was simple and crude: whatever the highest order of danger appeared was the order of the ruins.
Su Chen couldn’t help furrowing his brow: “Fourth-order, even fifth-order—can South Wind hold up?”
Zhang Hongbo shook his head: “Just don’t explore deep. After ruins appear, there’s a period of instability when quite a few ruin creatures might come out, but most aren’t dangerous.”
Before boarding the spaceship, Su Chen saw Hu Xiang standing at the edge, seeming to want to squeeze forward but hesitating.
Su Chen nodded to him, indicating he remembered the Mist Nightmare Pearl matter. Hu Xiang’s expression eased, and he gave a deep bow from afar.
Gu Bing had already arranged rooms for them. This spaceship wasn’t a dedicated transport ship, so there weren’t many rooms on board.
Mostly two or three people per room. Only Yang Yan, Gu Bing, Su Chen, and Bai Fengxi got exclusive personal rooms.
As for the temporary passenger Zhang Hongbo, he didn’t need to sleep anyway, and it wouldn’t be many days.
Buzz–
The cabin door closed, the spaceship’s tail thrusters burst with pale purple glow, the anti-gravity device released visible gravity waves, shaking up the surrounding dust.
Yuan Chenyang couldn’t help squinting his eyes, watching the spaceship disappear into the mist.
……
“Ying Feng, Tian Qing, Lie Yang, Yuan Du four cities, jointly ruling Crimson Thunder Star… Ying Feng’s strength should be first… Governs 125 cities, Elder Council jointly governs Ying Feng affairs…”
“The Court of Justice is divided into Inner Court and Outer Court, all professionals, totaling no less than ten thousand…”
In the room, Su Chen lay on the bed, flipping through the virtual screen in front of him. The journey on the spaceship was extremely boring, with no gravity chamber, so he could only meditate.
In the extra time, he looked at information from the ship’s repository, learning much knowledge he previously couldn’t access.
“Crimson Thunder Star… should be this planet. Besides Ying Feng, there are three megacities. Already aware it’s a planet, perhaps more than that…”
“Due to the mist’s appearance, everything was isolated, burying the past.” Su Chen couldn’t help speculating. “Then, the current civilization began excavating the past, reproducing technology, so everything I see seems strange.”
Every time he accessed a new repository or met new high-levels, what he wanted most was to query the mist’s origin.
In this spaceship’s repository from Ying Feng, Su Chen finally had some clues: “…Ying Feng was founded 1,400 years ago, not meaning the mist appeared then, just that revival happened here 1,400 years ago…”
“But Ying Feng was very weak before, gradually developing. The subordinate cities often faced dangers until 20 years ago, when Qiong Guang, i.e., the artificial sun, was invented, gaining large-scale mist isolation ability, then booming…”
“I’m just bronze. Mix some qualifications in Ying Feng’s Inspection Department, then come back to be a section chief or something…”
Bored, Du Yu, who came to chat with him, leaned on the chair and said casually.
He was Du Jingming’s son; the two had met at the banquet before.
“But Zhang Hengyu is definitely aiming for City Lord position. His dad stepped down, but the foundation is still there…” Du Yu kept chattering:
“He’s changed a lot now. Used to be lone wolf, ignoring everyone. Now he’s talkative and starting to win people over.”
Su Chen’s expression was odd. He figured Zhang Hengyu was purely pent up from being stuck competing with him at the sub-bureau.
“Brother Su, I heard your teacher is that famous Killing Star.” Du Yu lowered his voice. “And her purpose in taking students isn’t pure.”
“Where’d that come from?” Su Chen frowned at him.
Du Yu explained: “News from the Trade Repository side. They travel between cities often, well-informed. Before, no one here was connected to that Chief Judge, so no one paid attention.”
“Aren’t you her student now? I’ve heard quite a bit lately.”
“Rumors.” Su Chen shook his head, not caring.
“I think so too.” Du Yu agreed deeply. “That Chief Judge seems pretty approachable.”
Su Chen gave him a wry look, listening to his rambling. Much news between cities didn’t circulate, only Trade Repository people could access it.
“Heard this batch for Court of Justice has some big shot.”
Finally, Du Yu said mysteriously, “Exclusive info, from Qinghu City. They even issued a Blockade Order locally.”
“Issued a Blockade Order, and you still know?” Su Chen side-eyed him.
Du Yu was a bit embarrassed and explained: “Trade Repository guys said it.”
“Not important. Point is, this batch has an Ink Jade Talent guy.”
“Ink Jade?” Su Chen was surprised. Ink Jade was above Crimson Gold.
“Real or fake?” Su Chen couldn’t help doubting. “Normally even Crimson Gold Talent is rare; two or three a year causes a stir.”
“An Ink Jade this year?”
“Probably real?” Seeing Su Chen doubt, Du Yu lost confidence, hemming and hawing without certainty.
“But…” He changed tone. “He might become Chief Judge, one of the Elder Council members, ruling Ying Feng’s rise and fall.”
“You say, how come the gap between people is bigger than between people and pigs?”
Su Chen shook his head, too lazy to hear his chatter, continued flipping the virtual screen, but pondered inwardly.
Ink Jade, huh. Probably need to find another profession like scholar and sage to reach that level.
……
In the spaceship’s bottom hold, several accompanying Inspector Guards stood around the metal box. All temporarily dispatched from South Wind City; soon after arriving at Ying Feng, they’d return with the trade team.
Thud!
One of them’s expression shifted slightly, suddenly turning to look at the metal box behind him, shocked and uncertain.
His action drew others’ attention. They raised guns, alerting: “Zhao Hong, what’s up?”
“Didn’t you hear?” Zhao Hong asked hesitantly. “A light sound.”
The other three looked at each other and shook heads. “Didn’t hear.”
“Am I too tense?” Zhao Hong doubted himself, pondered a while, walked to the metal box, and listened against it.
“What’s wrong? No issue?”
Seeing him motionless for long, a nearby guard asked.
“Nothing.” Zhao Hong shook his head: “Maybe I’m mentally fatigued. Gonna wash my face.”
“Mm, we’ll watch here.” The others agreed.
“Thanks for the trouble.” Zhao Hong thanked them, slung his gun to the left, and went up the ladder.
“To notice such an interesting thing. Not Strange God, yet can devour my power.” A wisp of black light flashed in Zhao Hong’s pupils. “Let’s see what you really are.”
…
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Knocking sounded. Su Chen rubbed his eyes, guessing it was Du Yu, Little Zhang, or Old Bai…
“You’re…” Opening the door, Su Chen was quite surprised. Standing before him was actually an Inspector Guard.
“The Inspector Guard in charge of watching the metal box?” Su Chen recalled. “Why come find me suddenly?”
But the other didn’t speak, just stared fixedly at him.
Suddenly… Su Chen’s brows tightened. He saw a wisp of black flash abruptly in the other’s pupils.
He thought “not good,” before reacting, layered voices faintly came to his ears.
“…Very ordinary body, nothing special… How can such a body devour my power…”
“What the hell is this!?”
The voice suddenly shouted in shock, like discovering something inconceivable.
In Su Chen’s vision, the panel emerged, jumping with massive information—
【Detected Corrupted Consciousness invasion, taming in progress…】
【Taming successful, obtained pure Heituo faith power, forcibly infusing into follower, follower crying out can’t take it…】
【Follower evolved to—Fanatic Follower: Elite among followers, can borrow Strange God’s Power to strengthen self, can disguise: Heituo Fanatic Follower】
【Fanatic Follower crying out can’t take it…】
【Fanatic Follower evolved to—Priest: Can host various Strange God rituals, even simple communication with Strange God. Can disguise: Heituo Priest】
