108: Chapter 108 The Council of Light

...

"Good afternoon, please have a seat."

Inside the luxurious room, Lin Fang snapped out of his thoughts and smiled at the three of them. "Today is a great day. To celebrate, I have prepared a small gift for the three of you."

At Lin Fang's gesture, Noah, William, and Salifu saw three cups of water placed on the table. These cups were even made of disposable plastic, appearing incredibly cheap.

Normally, these three, who received top-tier treatment wherever they went, would never touch anything served in such cheap containers. But at this moment, their eyes were glued to those three cups of water as if they were looking at the most precious treasures in the world.

A blue capsule was bobbing up and down in the water; its color was as gorgeous and eternal as the ocean.

"Immortality..." William James's voice was a bit dry. Having witnessed the magic of this capsule, he could no longer contain himself. He stepped forward in two strides and downed the cup of water, greedily licking the remaining droplets from his fingers, fearing that even a tiny drop of potentially medicinal water might reduce the efficacy.

A cool sensation slid down William James's throat into his stomach, but in the next second, it turned into a warm torrent, washing over every aging cell.

"Heh..." The tall old man let out a non-human gasp, his expression twisting as if in pain yet also as if enjoying the ultimate pleasure of the mortal world.

Noah's reaction was even more exaggerated than William James's.

Watching this scene, Salifu Ryder stood frozen in place. As the only one of the three who hadn't taken the capsule yet, his gaze shifted back and forth between William and Noah, his face filled with suspicion and uncertainty.

Was there some kind of new drug in the cup?

Salifu had never taken an Immortality Capsule and didn't know its effects. A week ago, he had been suffering miserably from late-stage pancreatic cancer when a mysterious person suddenly appeared at his private nursing home and promised to cure him.

The condition was to join an organization called the Bright Council. According to the mysterious person, this organization had existed since the time of Alexander the Great, and Alexander himself was one of its members. Thus, after Alexander's death, his empire continued for hundreds of years with the Council's help.

This organization was older and more mysterious than most nations' histories, composed of a group of scholars pursuing the truth.

Now, this organization had awakened once more from its long history, and its spokesperson was selecting suitable members from all over the world.

And Salifu was one of their targets.

Salifu swore that the security of his residence was world-class, but that night, not a single bodyguard or alarm had detected the mysterious person. Salifu still remembered that the young man, who appeared in the room like a ghost, only gave him one look, and he felt as if he had fallen into a netherworld vortex before losing consciousness.

When he woke up again, Salifu found himself lying in bed, and the pain that had troubled him for many days had mostly disappeared. To his shock, subsequent tests by doctors showed that the cancer cells in his body were receding at an alarming rate.

If it weren't for a note with an address in his pocket, Salifu would have thought it was a hallucination before his death.

"Your Excellency Chairman, thank you for your generosity."

Noah finished sucking the last trace of water from the plastic cup and put it down, still wanting more. In a hundred years, he had never felt that water was so sweet.

Another two years added. What was two plus two plus two again?

Calculating the result, Noah's face turned ruddy. This was something he had previously desired but couldn't obtain. If this continued, he could become a rock that existed eternally in the world, resisting the erosion of time.

Noah turned his head and saw Salifu still hesitating, looking at the water cup with uncertainty. His old eyes immediately darted around. "Salifu, how about you let me drink your cup of water? I'm a bit thirsty."

As he spoke, Noah secretly noticed that Lin Fang remained unmoved, which further strengthened his resolve.

"Just give it to me, Salifu. What are you hesitating for? It's just a cup of water. Don't you love drinking? In exchange, I can give you a bottle of my precious Macallan 1926."

"Of course, Excellency Noah."

The well-traveled Salifu was certainly no fool. On the contrary, he was an extremely shrewd man. Salifu knew that this cup of water or the capsule inside was extraordinary, but gaining the friendship of an established financial tycoon suited him better.

Besides, how precious could a cup of water be?

"Wait!—"

William suddenly thrust his hand between the two of them, his eyes burning. "Salifu, give me this cup of water. Didn't you often listen to my stories when you were a child? Now, I invite you to be a guest at my manor tonight."

"William, you damn fellow, get lost," Noah's face changed drastically, a dangerous light flashing in his eyes.

He was just about to succeed.

"Don't say that; I'm old and need it too," William refused to budge an inch, even reaching out to snatch the cup away.

Noah stopped him, slapping William's hand away, so angry that his cane almost fell.

"Bullshit! I'm ten years older than you..."

Watching the old men start to argue and expose each other's shortcomings, Salifu could hardly believe his eyes. They were legends of Wall Street, yet now they were scuffling like two old men fighting over discounted eggs at a wet market.

What magic did this cup of water possess?

It wasn't until the two in the dispute accidentally blurted out the effect of the capsule in the water that the farce stopped. Noah and William glanced at each other reproachfully and sat down sullenly.

They realized they wouldn't be able to get this Immortality Capsule.

The usually steady Salifu now revealed a gaze like a jackal's, filled with desire.

"Excellency Noah, are you saying that this capsule can reverse aging and extend lifespan?"

"You're right. One capsule can increase one's lifespan by two years." Noah knew he couldn't hide it and spoke plainly.

*Hiss—*

Salifu's eyes were fixed on the blue capsule in the cup. He should have realized it sooner; only something like this would make the two old men lose their composure. Looking now, William's originally gray hair seemed to have a few strands emitting a dark, glossy sheen. The medical technology behind the Council had actually reached such a level!

Salifu remembered his terminal illness that had been easily cured, and he became even more certain that the Council possessed scientific technology far beyond that of the entire Earth.

Setting aside any thoughts of fooling around, Salifu no longer had any intention of leaving this organization.

"Your Excellency Chairman, may I take it with me?"

Suppressing the urge to drink it right then and there, Salifu Ryder spoke to Lin Fang in a respectful tone. He saw a greater value in it; if it could be done, the Ryder family would stand at the pinnacle of the world in one fell swoop.

"I will not interfere with where this gift goes."

Lin Fang spoke indifferently. The manufacturing process for this capsule was incredibly complex. Without the raw materials for the Gene Optimization Agent, the probability of modern science replicating it was zero.