“The future… has changed again!”
Wu Ming recalled his Phantom Spirit, instantly vanishing and leaving the city at top speed.
“In my memory… Jun Xuanming was supposed to meet the Righteous King several years later, becoming his disciple and gaining many benefits, right?”
“Later, when the Righteous King mysteriously perished, Jun Xuanming took over the greatly expanded Righteous Wanderer Association using his position as a disciple, leveraging this network to create many favorable conditions for unifying the continent in the future. But now, everything has been accelerated…”
Thinking of this, he felt somewhat helpless.
Jun Xuanming indeed inherited all the characteristics of a destined prodigy—possessing an indestructible life force, and after narrowly escaping death, he often gained tremendous benefits, turning misfortunes into blessings.
“Haha… Burn! Burn!”
Just after Wu Ming left, a terrifying explosion erupted in Jushu City. He turned his head and saw massive flames of kings spreading in all directions.
The figure of Chaos King emerged, manipulating the now-huge Flame Spirit King, scattering countless fire meteors across the entire Jushu City before quickly vanishing into the distance.
Behind him were the grim-faced Emerald King and Righteous King, watching helplessly as the once-prosperous Jushu City turned into a raging inferno.
In the Phantom Spirit World, the year 9996 of the Creator God’s Calendar! The Chief Executive of the Forest Alliance was assassinated, and the rebel army officially declared its rebellion, setting Jushu City ablaze with massive casualties and destruction. This event later became known as the “Crimson New Year,” regarded as the starting symbol of the great turmoil across the Flame Continent.
…
Of course, this gradually chaotic continent now barely drew any attention from Wu Ming.
“Here… is where Jia Kongming’s laboratory once stood?”
Hou Yong brushed aside a patch of withered vines, gazing into the deep cave with uncertainty.
“After Lin Ling’s previous investigation and the elimination of several similar locations, only this one remains…”
Compared to Jun Xuanming’s group earlier, Wu Ming had authentic manuscripts of Jia Kongming for comparison, making his search much easier.
“But this Jia Kongming is indeed cunning—he even placed Dark Ink Vines to guard the area… ordinary detection Phantom Spirits couldn’t penetrate their interference to discover the anomaly behind the cliff…”
Sighing, Wu Ming slowly walked inside, followed by Hou Yong and the excited Zuo Linling.
The passage was long, extending deep underground. After opening a massive stone door, Jia Kongming’s laboratory appeared before Wu Ming.
Dry and dusty corridors, resembling an ant colony, with numerous interconnected passages and, of course, prison cells.
Next to some specially designed cells stood plaques recording the Phantom Spirit races imprisoned there, their appearances, and other information.
Even within the cells, remnants of remains could still be seen…
“This scene… why does it remind me so suddenly of those mad scientists from my past life…”
As Wu Ming observed, he silently mused, “Of course… although Jia Kongming was obsessed with Phantom Spirits, from his racial experiments, it’s clear he was no upright gentleman…”
“Master!”
Suddenly, from a nearby passage came Zuo Linling’s delighted cry.
“Hmm?”
Wu Ming immediately moved forward and saw she had found what appeared to be a library. Inside were many shelves, mostly empty, but still filled with large piles of remaining documents.
Though not mature experimental records, these documents were still valuable enough for future researchers.
“Found the archive. Excellent…”
After praising her briefly, Wu Ming’s expression suddenly changed. He rushed forward and stared intently into a dark corner: “Be careful!”
“Danger?”
The later-arriving Hou Yong shouted loudly, his body emitting a summoning glow that transformed into a golden-furred ape. Standing upright with long arms and bulging muscles, it bared its teeth toward the darkness.
This was the Mighty Vajra Ape, an Outstanding Species Phantom Spirit evolved from the Stone Ape.
“Chirp chirp…”
In the darkness, a pair of pea-sized eyes appeared, chirping before suddenly rushing out.
“Hmm?”
Seeing the shadow’s form, Wu Ming expressed surprise and delight: “Book-devouring Rat! Don’t kill it!”
This Phantom Spirit clearly had little offensive power, chased by the juvenile Mighty Vajra Ape with nowhere to run, eventually caught by the tail and effortlessly lifted.
“Book-devouring Rat?”
Zuo Linling’s eyes reflected confusion, clearly never having heard of this Phantom Spirit before.
“It’s a Phantom Spirit from the Netherworld, feeding on books. Most importantly… books it consumes aren’t destroyed but instead thoroughly recorded. With the right methods, we can retrieve them…”
Wu Ming laughed heartily, casually picking up a stack of documents nearby.
Puff!
Dust flew everywhere, and the yellowish ancient papers disintegrated at his shake, crumbling like fluttering butterflies.
“Even the best paper, unless specially treated, can hardly last decades… these documents obviously didn’t receive such treatment…”
Wu Ming softly said: “If we were to slowly organize and restore all these, who knows when we’d finish? But with the Book-devouring Rat, it becomes effortless…”
He held the rat’s tail and pinched its nose gently.
Ding!
The rat’s pea-sized eyes immediately emitted beams of light, displaying a screen filled with book titles.
“This Book-devouring Rat was probably already present during Jia Kongming’s experiments. Most of the books in this archive were likely consumed by it…”
As Wu Ming read through the rows of data, his eyes gleamed brighter and brighter: “Take it along, scan everything once more, and then we’ll leave here for good!”
After the rebels revealed themselves, the Forest Alliance would inevitably grow increasingly chaotic, so Wu Ming naturally wouldn’t choose to stay hidden here.
“Jun Xuanming couldn’t be assassinated outright and instead gained early entry under the Righteous King… making him difficult to deal with now…”
“I must strengthen my own power and intervene when the later King-tier Phantom Spirits, or even Divine Phantom Spirits emerge, ensuring he doesn’t seize the advantage first…”
“Fortunately, I already killed one of his Gold-tier Phantom Spirits, which will significantly delay his progress…”
Even for the Jun family, producing a Gold-tier juvenile Phantom Spirit is extremely difficult!
Moreover, the soul damage caused by the Phantom Spirit’s death would require time to recover. Even if Jun Xuanming had no shortage of soul-repairing artifacts, this loss was still a major setback, requiring substantial rest and recovery.
Wu Ming also recognized his own shortcomings.
“To kill Jun Xuanming and eliminate outside interference, I’ll at least need the strength of a Jun-tier expert… but as I improve, he won’t be idle either. Therefore, for safety, I should aim for the King-tier!”
This plan was merely an attempt.
Although it didn’t directly eliminate Jun Xuanming, Wu Ming was quite satisfied with the results.
“A future Divine Phantom Spirit Master losing one of his Gold-tier contracted Phantom Spirits—this deviation must be on a world scale, right?”
Clearly, even if all his previous actions were combined, their impact might not compare to this single event.
At the very least, the Divine Fate Star had been repeatedly active lately, with occasional ominous premonitions indicating terrifying forces tirelessly calculating his whereabouts.
Had he not been well-prepared, he might have been exposed immediately.
“But… these deviations and the confusion of fate might be enough for my true self to act, right?”
A faint thoughtful smile appeared on Wu Ming’s lips.
His little butterfly had diligently flapped its wings for a year, causing chaos that was now expanding steadily, reaching a threshold suitable for harvesting.
…
In the cosmic star river, countless universes away from the Phantom Spirit World, a vast and boundless purple grand world, forming a stable triple-layered structure with many semi-planes and spaces around it, resembled a giant beast, swallowing astonishing cosmic chaos and transforming it into the purest essence of the world, growing steadily and firmly.
This was the Great Zhou World!
Inside the Wu Family Fortress in Chufeng County, Dinzhou, Great Zhou World.
Wu Ming lazily tended to a newly planted peony in the garden, then spent half a day sipping tea in the bamboo pavilion, his expression leisurely and comfortable.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, his expression shifted slightly, and a calm smile appeared on his lips: “Good… it’s already reached the threshold for the first harvest, huh?”
With a mere thought, Wu Ming instantly vanished and reappeared within the magnificent and grand Main Temple.
His eyes gleamed as he quickly scanned the temple.
As the core building, the Yuanli Pool remained thin and unchanged, maintaining its stable condition—very good.
“The ‘Great Zhou Western Records’ world is also continuously developing… overall, everything is proceeding smoothly…”
Although a year had passed in the Phantom Spirit World, due to the astonishing differences between worlds, only a few days had passed for Wu Ming’s true self here.
This time flow ratio greatly intrigued Wu Ming.
“A day in heaven, a year on earth—that’s the immortal realm!
Currently, the disparity between these two worlds isn’t as exaggerated as that between the immortal realm and the mortal world, but it’s showing signs of convergence.
“Is it caused by the massive differences between worlds…”
Wu Ming arrived at the Grand Luo Hall.
The starry sky flashed by in an instant, and before his eyes, the magnificent scene of the Phantom Spirit World with its azure sun seemed to reappear.
In his perception, the Phantom Spirit World, originally filled with hostility or at least possessing an extremely rigorous defensive mechanism, now showed faint, unexpected vulnerabilities due to the chaos in fate!
“Main Temple, harvest Yuanli!”
As the Main Temple’s master, Wu Ming immediately issued the command.
[Ding! Task established, beginning to capture world trajectory, harvesting…]
The Main Temple roared to life, operating in a way Wu Ming couldn’t comprehend.
Invisible and unfathomable Grand Luo forces, glowing with eternal transcendence, omnipotent and omnipresent, instantly infiltrated the entire Phantom Spirit World!!!
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage