Chapter 628: Birth of the Battle God
Meng Chao and Lu Siya exchanged a glance.
Neither of them expected that the Dragon City before the Survival Committee was created would have had such a secret.
So, this was how the ancient ruins was discovered.
“There are two main reasons behind why Blood Alliance was created,” A’Ji continued. “First, it’s to work together to stop all other people from touching the ancient ruins and ensure that there will be no superhumans aside from those belonging to Blood Alliance. This would help Blood Alliance in its quest to take full control of Dragon City in the apocalypse, and from there, they could create a brand new civilization with Blood Alliance members at its center.
“Second, and most importantly, Blood Alliance could capture a lot of innocent citizens to either tempt or coerce them into carrying out new exploration attempts in the ancient ruins.
“Most of the innocent citizens didn’t end up well. It’s just like I said, they either died untimely deaths or turned into monstrous existences because they ran into some mysterious power that humans couldn’t withstand in the depths of the ruins.
“There were only a few lucky ones who obtained supernatural power.
“But they were alone and had no weapons. How could they fight against the Blood Alliance members who were waiting for them? Even if they had gained great power and could control fire and water or had super fast regeneration abilities, the moment they left the ancient ruins, they were captured by the armed Blood Alliance members.
“Then, the Blood Alliance members would filter out the new superhumans.
“If they shared the same interests as them, they would have to go through a series of tests. They had to slaughter a large number of innocent citizens, which was called the Blood Oath and was the proof of allegiance for robbers of ancient times. With this method, the leaders could twist the new people’s personalities and destroy their humanity. After the ceremony, the new superhumans naturally become new members of Blood Alliance.
“But there were a few who retained their humanity after they lived through the dangers of the ancient ruins and awakened to supernatural abilities. They did not want to kill innocent people and didn’t manage to pass Blood Alliance’s test. Some of them were believed to be too wild and untameable and too resistant, so they were dangerous to the alliance.
“Such people were sent into the ancient ruins once more. They had to carry out more and more dangerous explorations or stay locked in research labs where they had to withstand torture worse than death.
“I remember that my sister— No, Saber Jin Wanhao’s sister, Lei Zongchao, and I belonged to the second group.”
A’Ji’s eyelids began twitching viciously.
A fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
He did not notice that he was trembling slightly, as if he was immersed in a nightmare that he could not forget even if he was torn to shreds.
“I’ve already forgotten what sort of terrifying torture Saber Jin Wanhao went through in Blood Alliance’s lab,” A’Ji said airily. “All I have are fragmented memories. I only remember blurry bits and pieces.
“When it came to the research regarding the ancient ruins, Blood Alliance used innocent lives brazenly, so their research progress was very fast.
“They found that some people have really strong immunity and adaptability to the ancient viruses in the ruins and the zombie virus that was common in the Other World. Even if they were infected by around eighteen viruses, they didn’t die. They still retained their human form and mind. At most, they went through small changes, such as their eye turning silver or their teeth becoming much sharper.
“Some people were very suited to the environment in the ancient ruins. When others touched the will-o’-the-wisps, they burst into flames, but when these lucky souls could absorb the will-o’-the-wisps and turn them into spirit energy to be stored in their bodies.
“Others’ souls were sucked into the profound and unfathomable runic symbols on the wall, so they forgot about eating and drinking for days and nights until they died. But some lucky few were enlightened after they entered a meditative state and thought about the runic symbols as they stared at them. They just needed to meditate for a few hours, or at most one day and night, and they got to understand amazing skills from the ancient civilization.
“Others were torn to shreds by demonic creatures infected by the ancient viruses while exploring the complicated underground maze, but these lucky souls could slaughter their way out of a sea of corpses. They also unlocked new spirit energy martial arts in their battle, and their fighting strength just kept on increasing.
“Naturally, Blood Alliance wanted to figure out why those lucky people were special.
“Just what was it that made these lucky people different from normal people?
“Jin Wanhao’s sister, Lei Zongchao, and I were among those lucky people.
“Heh. ‘Lucky people’. These words are so ironic. When we managed to escape from the ancient ruins by sheer chance, what awaited us wasn’t a bright future, but Blood Alliance’s lab. We had to face the chilling experiment machines and pain so great that we felt like we were being cut to pieces.
“Sometimes, the people from Blood Alliance made multiple wounds on our bodies to test the gene medicine they created and how fast we would heal.
“Sometimes, they locked us up with demonic creatures infected by the ancient viruses so that we would help them explore brand new ways to fight against them.
“Sometimes, they forced us to practice those mysterious and unidentified runic symbols so that we would create really dangerous spirit energy magnetic fields in our bodies.
“There were plenty of other things, too, but I… I can’t remember…”
Thick veins appeared on A’Ji’s head.
They were like raging aquatic dragons that bound his head tightly, and his skull made cracking sounds as he remembered great pain.
“That’s enough.” Meng Chao quickly went forward. Two spirit tattoos appeared on his palms, and he used gentle spirit energy fluctuations to calm down A’Ji’s violently twitching brain.
“If you can’t remember them, it’s fine. There are some things that are better left forgotten,” Meng Chao comforted him.
He believed that what A’Ji told him was the truth, because he and A’Ji went through the same thing. To a certain degree, both of them were “reborn”.
When he had just returned to the past, he could not remember most of the details about Dragon City’s struggles and destruction in his previous life.
That included how he lived his entire life as a Ghost Assassin while he was filled with hate and rage.
The self-defense system of the human brain automatically blocked those painful and unbearable memories, and up to this day, he still could not remember them fully.
There were plenty of things that were best forgotten forever.
If he remembered them completely, his mind might get burned to a crisp.
A’Ji should be going through the same thing.
His brain belonged to a proper nine-year-old child.
If all the pain Saber Jin Wanhao went through surged into this young brain, his brain cells might die right away.
The gears in Meng Chao’s mind worked quickly, and he understood why Saber Jin Wanhao gained a brand new personality known as A’Ji after he regained his youth.
Because being Saber Jin Wanhao was just too painful and full of suffering.
If he were Saber Jin Wanhao, he would have to face the reality that his sister and he were captured by Blood Alliance and forced to enter the ancient ruins to explore the place, but even after they faced great danger and lived, they didn’t have an easy time. They were turned into research subjects and subjected to endless torture.”
But as a bystander, what he had to face was only “Saber Jin Wanhao and his sister were captured by Blood Alliance.”
These two types of pain were on completely different levels.
A’Ji instinctively removed himself from being Saber Jin Wanhao. When he mentioned his sister, he also referred to her as Jin Wanhao’s sister, because he wanted to distance himself from the pain.
When Meng Chao realized this, he sighed and said, “You don’t have to focus on the details. Why don’t you tell us what happened next?”
“Then…” A’Ji’s eyes roved about, and he was finally able to stop trembling. “Many people were tortured to death by Blood Alliance, but a small number managed to live through the repeated cycle of exploration attempts and inhumane experiments. Not only did they not die, they also obtained greater power.
“I was not the strongest among those people.
“Lei Zongchao’s immunity toward the ancient virus and the viruses of the Other World, resistance toward crystal radiation, absorbability of spirit energy, comprehensive ability of the ancient runic symbols, and instincts during critical moments were all ten times better than mine.
“I might be loath to accept it, but I have to admit that he’s a natural born martial arts genius. No, he’s a legend of martial arts!
“But no matter how strong he was, there was someone even stronger than he was, and that was Jin Wanhao’s sister.”
“It’s the girl who appeared from the Vortex’s bubbles after it died?” Meng Chao asked.
“That’s right. It’s her. It has been decades since I saw her, but she’s still the same as back then. I could recognize her right away…”
A’Ji focused his mind and continued, “Lei Zongchao, my sister, and I were the iron triangle among the research subjects as the strongest people. We were, thus, forced to venture deeper into the ancient ruins, where we ran into plenty of dangerous situations and had to save one another.
“When we returned to the lab, we had to go through the most brutal of tortures. We held each other’s hands tightly and sensed each other’s heartbeats and body temperature. When our blood fused together, we had the courage to continue living.
“We were in distress together, and we stuck together through life and death. Hmph, so it was only par for the course that our affections for each other grew!”
“Hang on.” Meng Chao raised a hand. “Why do I feel that when you mentioned your relationship with your sister and Lei Zongchao growing tighter, you became exasperated. Your expression is also saying that the treasure you were taking care of was taken away by some uncouth lout?”
“Does it?” A’Ji’s expression was a little stiff. After being silent for a while, he said in slight embarrassment and anger, “I just didn’t expect that during those hellish times, Lei Zongchao would actually be in the mood to… date my sister! He stole her away from me!”
“Um…” Meng Chao understood now.
Even though A’Ji was only nine years old right now, the real Saber Jin Wanhao had gone through his seventieth birthday not too long ago.
If he were to perform some calculations, half a century ago, when he, his sister, and Lei Zongchao were in Blood Alliance’s hands, he would have been even younger than Meng Chao. He should have been around sixteen.
That was the time when children were full of life and vigor.
In an environment where they constantly faced the threat of death, humans had stronger emotions, and the desire to reproduce would also become very strong.
Lei Zongchao falling in love with Jin Wanhao’s sister was something bound to happen.