Chapter 827: The Beginning of Matters

Deng deng deng, the floor slightly shook, and in the distance, figures wearing night vision gear, akin to human weapons, swiftly moved toward them.

Wu Youming mumbled with his lips, finally gritting his teeth and saying, “First, get us out of here. We don’t have time to talk now.”

“Good, those who understand the situation are the wise ones,” Meng Qi smiled. His left hand shot forward, flashing with silver arcs, splitting into two, transforming into two arms grabbing Wu Youming and Nan Gong Chong by their necks. Then, his left arm remained in place while his body dissolved, dragging a residual shadow, and lunged toward the opposite side like a massive lightning bolt slicing straight ahead.

Zi!

Meng Qi, the “human lightning,” passed through four guards who had no time to react. Their hair stood upright, their skin charred, and tiny electric arcs continuously jumped across their metallic exoskeletons.

Thud! The sound of their collapse was nearly simultaneous. Meng Qi’s body reassembled in its original position, gathering momentum as he lowered his shoulder and forcefully rammed into the right outer wall.

Kuangdang!

The building shook, as if hit by an earthquake. From the point where Meng Qi’s shoulder touched the wall as the center, cracks rapidly spread outward.

At the same time, electric sparks with zi sounds scattered in large quantities from the contact point, like a gushing galaxy, melting everything remaining after the cracks with high temperature, creating a big hole.

Under circumstances where the laws differ greatly, making it difficult to invoke the power of the external world, without electricity, half of the defense and isolation was gone!

Meng Qi pressed his right hand and pulled Wu Youming and Nan Gong Chong out of the building, his feet stepping continuously, descending floor by floor as if walking on flat ground.

Suddenly, a majestic phoenix entered Meng Qi’s pupils, and a white, powerful fist came straight toward him.

Realizing the shaking of the building, the Empress instantly understood the enemy’s plan. She also smashed through the outer wall, moving along the smooth floors by grabbing, pressing, or stepping, like a flying bird, chasing up swiftly.

The other guards and experts either didn’t understand the situation or had lost the assistance of monitoring, and temporarily couldn’t open the sturdy windows of the outer wall. They were simply too late to intercept. The automatic defense systems set up on the outer wall couldn’t be activated due to a complete power outage.

Honglong! Meng Qi’s empty right hand waved, deflecting the Empress’s fist. His right foot lashed out like a whip, precisely meeting the silent kick from her left foot. Explosions of air currents left “shattered” marks on the black wall.

Honglong honglong honglong! Their speed was extremely fast. Even though they couldn’t invoke the power of the external world, and even though they needed to constantly switch which part of their body was used to maintain balance on the outer wall, they exchanged more than twenty punches and kicks within a single breath. The air was filled with residual shadows, the sound of air bursts continuous, the outer wall became pitted and scarred, occasionally pieces fell off.

Both of their Yuan Shen were powerful. At this level of rapid combat, there was no issue of being unable to react. Palms, fingers, fists, and feet always managed to block the opponent’s attack just in time, simple yet full of charm, without any hesitation, embodying the ultimate simplicity of the Dao, directly targeting the opponent’s weakness, compensating for their own hidden dangers, and maintaining the balance of their bodies hanging outside the wall.

The Empress remained calm, her punches and kicks wide and open, without the slightest eagerness to win, as if she had forgotten the troubles of failure and success.

This was the headquarters of Cangqiong Game Company, filled with many experts, and the power supply was about to be restored. At that time, even enemies with wings would find it hard to escape!

Peng! The two fists collided, leaving craters-like marks on the outer wall from the shockwave.

Suddenly, electric currents spread over, and Meng Qi took the initiative to change tactics.

But the Empress’s left hand lost its flesh-and-blood sensation, transforming into a highly concentrated flame, wrapping around the electric current, burning back.

Just like Meng Qi using electric currents to create a body, her body was also formed by absorbing flame energy from the reactor, maintaining combat strength beyond the ordinary.

Pengpengpeng! The two resembled a thunder god and a fire man, exchanging blows, with lightning darting and flames flying, and air bursts like thunderclaps, shattering one outer window after another.

The deep black wall was filled with marks of electric strikes and fire burns, sometimes concave, sometimes cracked, presenting the image of a dangerous building. On the ground, the lawn was ignited by scattered flames or electric arcs, quickly turning into a sea of fire, with smoke gradually spreading.

At this moment, when they were still four or five floors above the ground, Meng Qi used his left hand to throw Wu Youming and Nan Gong Chong outward, penetrating the smoke, causing the guards who had started aiming and the experts attempting to sneak out to lose their lock. To find them again, they were blocked by the smoke, hazy and vague.

The smoke was deliberately created by Meng Qi himself! His eyes deep and dark, his right hand raised, surrounded by electric lights, pressing down the Empress’s right foot made of flames.

When Nan Gong Chong was thrown out, he was scared half to death, but upon landing, he felt steady, the force perfectly counteracting, surprisingly without any recoil.

Honglong! Meng Qi and the Empress unleashed their full strength in a single strike, their right feet colliding mid-air, momentarily frozen, the air burst directly indenting and completely breaking the nearby outer wall.

Each of them bore some injuries, one igniting sparks of flames with the sea of fire behind, and the other surrounded by darting electric arcs, enveloped in a forest of lightning, each sustaining some damage.

Suddenly, Meng Qi opened his mouth, unleashing a thunderous roar from the void, a sound that shook the heart. At the same time, the Empress let out a shriek. The two had the same idea, their sounds canceling each other out, each experiencing slight dizziness.

Immediately after, the Empress’s right hand moved like a pipa player playing in reverse, as if manipulating invisible threads, directly pulling and binding the Yuan Shen. Meng Qi, on the other hand, struck down with his left palm, ethereal and drifting, questioning the heart, changing with the heart, hard to grasp, hard to stop, as if one were receiving a sudden blow.

Pa! The left palm and right hand collided, not making a big sound. Both of them involuntarily paused for half a beat, their eyes slightly dazed.

However, Meng Qi recovered quicker than the Empress. His body suddenly disintegrated, transforming into streams of silvery-white electric current flowing downward along the deep black outer wall like waves, extremely fast.

The Empress wanted to chase but had already lost her lock, with only residual electric currents radiating in all directions.

Smoke curled, beginning to envelop the lower floors.

“His Yuan Shen is not as strong as mine, but his grasp of details, his control over mind and spirit, is slightly better than mine…” The Empress stood on the indentation of the outer wall, hovering in mid-air, her clothes fluttering in the wind, assessing the enemy’s situation.

She did not rashly pursue. Once leaving the scope of Cangqiong Tower, it would be easy to be noticed by the “watchers” in the sky, drawing attention from the national authorities. It would be better to “abide by laws and disciplines.”

Currently, it was necessary to mobilize the resources of the game company in the political, commercial, and police circles!

…

Nan Gong Chong and Wu Youming had not yet calmed their frightened hearts when streams of electric current converged, re-forming a familiar figure.

“Let’s go back to the city first,” Meng Qi pointed to the flying car parked beside them.

Nan Gong Chong dazedly drove his own car, while Meng Qi and Wu Youming sat in the back row, looking at each other.

“Mr. Wu, you can now tell us what you know,” Meng Qi said calmly.

Wu Youming’s expression changed, and he sighed deeply, “The ‘Heishan Laoyao’ game is based on a real world, a different world that does not share the cosmic structure of planets, stars, and galaxies.”

“You feel about the same as the Empress, you should also have come from the Heishan Laoyao world, right? I never thought, never thought that someone could come here without our help…”

His eyes were a mix of guesswork, disbelief, and a sense of defeat and discouragement that Meng Qi could not understand.

“A real world?” Nan Gong Chong was shocked.

Meng Qi’s expression did not change at all, “How did it originally start?”

“The Boss somehow got a strange fragment, like a crystal, shimmering with a rainbow-like glow, beautiful as a dream. But inside the fragment, it was hazy, as if there were layers of mist. When held in the hand, it felt weightless,” Wu Youming recalled the appearance of the fragment. “Everyone who touched this fragment would dream of stories from the Heishan Laoyao world. Everything started from there.”

“After years of attempts, we used virtual reality technology to form a stable connection with the fragment, creating one ‘virtual scenario’ like the Heishan Laoyao world after another. But it wasn’t perfect, so we packaged it as a game and widely promoted it, letting players explore and improve it for us. After ten years, with the help of gradually perfected data, we finally figured out the secret of the fragment and could use a specially made virtual reality device to send human souls into the fragment world, forming a body.”

Nan Gong Chong suddenly understood, “Uncle, the ten-year anniversary edition allows people to truly enter the ‘Heishan Laoyao’ world?”

“Yes, its simulation device is directly connected to the company’s core equipment,” Wu Youming affirmed. “You’re not the first to try. Core team members have already started trying. There, we can’t be killed, can infinitely resurrect, and can even reverse time within limits. It’s simply the ruler of that world, the primordial god, the Tathagata, or even God!”

As he spoke, he looked at Meng Qi, filled with confusion and bewilderment. How could there be someone from the Heishan Laoyao world who could cross the barrier in reverse without the “God’s” help?

It turned out his sense of defeat and discouragement came from the fact that Meng Qi’s appearance shattered their own sense of being “God”…

Meng Qi nodded slightly.

Wu Youming continued, “During this process, someone had an idea: could the powerful beings from the Heishan Laoyao world penetrate the barrier in reverse? After continuous attempts, the ‘Empress,’ who had reached a cooperation agreement with us, was the first to succeed. Her Yuan Shen descended through the device and absorbed energy to re-form her body. After that, things went smoothly. We learned to directly use the substances that constitute the human body to create new bodies.”

“A group of elites descended, unbeatable in close combat, absolute assassins. The company’s senior management gradually developed ambitions for their own world.”

Meng Qi listened silently and raised three fingers, “Three questions.”

“First, when your group enters the Heishan Laoyao world, whose time reversal takes precedence? Surely not everyone acting independently, reversing different times? Or is there a regional range limit?”

“There is a regional range limit. If they are too close, one side will show signs of body instability,” Wu Youming answered while thinking. “There are also other restrictions, but we haven’t yet summarized the rules.”

“Second, when you all entered the Heishan Laoyao world and formed bodies through the connection, who developed this technology?” Creating something out of nothing was a feat even Dharma Bodies couldn’t accomplish, so how could Meng Qi not have questions?

Wu Youming looked confused, “Didn’t we just naturally succeed?”

“Third, what about the Boss who took out the fragment?” Meng Qi slightly frowned.

Wu Youming was even more perplexed, “He, he disappeared after entering the Heishan Laoyao world.”

Meng Qi lightly tapped his left hand with his right fingers and suddenly asked, “Do you know that you’re already dead?”

“I, I…” Wu Youming’s face showed terror as he covered his head, groaning in pain, “I know.”

“Uncle!” Nan Gong Chong wanted to help him but was stopped by Meng Qi, who gestured for him to give Wu some quiet time.

“The secret of Cangqiong Game Company is huge, and they’re temporarily too afraid to chase us, but we must be wary of them using other channels of power,” Meng Qi reminded. “We must strike first.”

“How do we strike first?” Nan Gong Chong asked in astonishment.

“Expose their secrets,” Meng Qi said confidently.

“But, but without any evidence, who would believe such a fantastical story?” Nan Gong Chong thought of his own desperate questions on the forum before and the mocking and joking responses from others.

“Of course there is,” Meng Qi smiled slightly, taking out a miniature video camera and playing the footage. It showed the group entering Cangqiong Game Company and him fighting the Empress on the outer wall of the building dozens of meters high, exchanging punches and kicks, electric sparks crackling, and flames growing.

Seeing this cinematic scene, Nan Gong Chong opened his mouth wide, “You, where did you get the video camera?”

“From your house,” Meng Qi said casually.

“Ahh? But I didn’t see you recording!” Nan Gong Chong was both surprised and puzzled.

Meng Qi turned off the video camera and said offhandedly, “Old man has a built-in electromagnetic recording function. What I see is what I get.”

This device was placed on the flying car. The final spectacular fight was the part it recorded, while the previous footage was all injected by Meng Qi just now.

Seeing the game boss casually talking about recording, electromagnetic terms, and holding his own equipment, Nan Gong Chong once again felt a surreal and dreamlike sense of absurd dislocation.

Was there anything he didn’t know how to do?