235: Cosmic energy particles

"What you're saying is, I'm doing this for your own good. Aren't you, as a person—no, wait, as an Artificial Intelligence—lonely here in this deserted city?"

"Not at all. Before, there were over a dozen Artificial Intelligences managing this city, but now they're all gone, and the entire city is mine."

"Hurry up and let go. I need to go patrol my territory."

Xiao Weiqing laughed and said, "I didn't expect you to be so career-minded."

"Of course."

"Let me ask you one more question. What's inside this thing?"

Xiao Weiqing took out the ball of light that dropped after he had just killed the white shadow.

"Universe Energy Particles."

"You call this Universe Energy Particles?"

"What else would it be?"

stidy was a bit puzzled.

"Besides the ones inside those Nether entities, is there anywhere else that has this stuff?"

stidy shook its head. "No. This belongs to Advanced Cultivate resources. I just said this planet has been looted clean."

Xiao Weiqing frowned. It seemed he could only obtain divine charm substance from those white shadows.

"Is there any way to easily kill those things?"

"I don't know. I'm a non-combat Artificial Intelligence."

"How about this: you help me locate those white shadows and come back to tell me, and I'll let you go," Xiao Weiqing said.

"No, I don't have time."

"Why? With them around, it can't be convenient for you to patrol, right?"

stidy replied, "Not at all. They only hunt living organisms; they don't affect my patrolling of the territory."

"You just said those are the obsessions of the warriors. Why not let them return to civilization?"

"That has nothing to do with me."

"How does it have nothing to do with you? Those things are destroying the city."

"Think about it. The city is already this dilapidated. If you let those things run rampant, it probably won't take long before the city is gone. What will you do then? Where will you have a territory to patrol?"

stidy fell silent.

"That seems to make some sense. Every dozen years or so, other living organisms come here, and every time they fight with them, the destruction of the city worsens."

"Exactly. So let me kill them. Once the city doesn't have these things anymore, others won't come again, and the city won't continue to be destroyed."

stidy nodded and added, "But can you do it?"

"Without powerful Mental Energy, it's very hard to harm such entities. In the past, quite a few people went deep into the city center, and none of them came back out."

"The city center?"

"Mm."

"Are there many in the city center?"

stidy replied, "A lot, and they grow tall and big."

"How tall?"

"The biggest ones are probably six or seven meters."

"That big?"

Xiao Weiqing felt a bit intimidated. The four-meter white shadow from just now didn't feel like a pushover.

"It's fine, as long as I don't go to the city center."

"How about this, stidy: just on both sides of this street, help me check where those white shadows are. Remember their locations and tell me."

stidy nodded. "Okay, but you have to wait until I finish patrolling one circle. Our city street structure spreads outward in circles from the center. We are currently in the East 7th Ring."

"Fine, I'll wait here for you."

stidy left. It didn't move slowly and called out from time to time, though it never received a response. Yet, stidy remained tireless.

Xiao Weiqing stayed inside the grocery store, performing Fusion with the Samadhi True Fire.

As for taking the divine charm substance out, that was impossible.

If taken out, one could only get 4 units of divine charm out of 10, but through Fusion with the Samadhi True Fire, it would all be his own.

Two hours passed.

Xiao Weiqing successfully performed Fusion with a few wisps of Samadhi True Fire.

"stidy wouldn't have run off, would it?"

The night in Ede City was extremely quiet, quiet to the point of being eerie. The flickering lights from time to time only added to this atmosphere.

In the distance.

A yellow light flashed by.

"Hum..."

The sound of tires pressing against the road slowly approached.

The yellow light suddenly stopped, shining toward a chaotic grocery store.

"Blue Star person... are you there?"

"Blue Star person..."

stidy sat on a trash can and shouted toward the grocery store.

"My name is Qin Weixiao. Also, don't speak in such a whisper; it's scary in the middle of the night."

"It's late at night; I can't speak loudly, or I'll disturb the neighbors."

Xiao Weiqing: "..."

The trash can shot out a laser beam, which flashed across the wall.

A map of the East 7th Ring streets appeared.

"There are 21 in total."

"Among them, there are 6 three-meter-tall Nether entities and 2 four-meter-tall Nether entities, all marked for you."

Xiao Weiqing carefully observed the map and imprinted it in his mind.

"Thanks."

Seeing that Xiao Weiqing was about to leave, stidy asked, "Are you coming back?"

"Of course."

"Are you leaving?"

"Mm, I'm going to patrol the 6th Ring tomorrow."

"Can't you wait a few days?"

stidy shook its head. "It's underlying logic that I cannot resist. Now that there are no other Artificial Intelligences, I must serve the entire city well."

"Then I'll come find you tomorrow. Leave an address."

"Okay."

A laser flashed by, leaving another map on the wall.

"You can wait for me here."

"Okay."

After saying that, Xiao Weiqing disappeared into the darkness.

...

Inside a large shopping mall, four white shadows glowed with a faint light, floating in the lobby.

Xiao Weiqing was in a corner outside the mall, not going in.

"Go."

Four Fire Owls outlined by Samadhi True Fire flew into the mall.

Silently.

A flash of fire inside the mall.

"Thump... thump..."

A rhythmic sound rang out.

Xiao Weiqing walked into the mall and picked up four energy balls.

"Another 20 units of divine charm obtained."

...

Outside Ede City.

A group of people was hiding in the ruins.

"What do you say?"

"Such a huge city, there must be at least nearly ten thousand Nether entities inside. That's at least one hundred thousand units of divine charm. Should we pull a job?"

"I have no objection. Fan Bai, what do you say?"

Fan Bai said, "Why are you looking at me? Dealing with intangible lifeforms like the Nether entities, my usefulness isn't even as good as a Third Realm Spirit Cultivator."

"Fan Bai, that's nonsense. You're already in the Fifth Realm. Once the Frost Flower Sword comes out, wouldn't you be killing them left and right?"

"Don't flatter me. I'm not yet proficient in using divine charm power. Dealing with Nether entities is too strenuous. I haven't learned any Innate Skill for Mental Energy attacks."

"Really not going?"

Fan Bai said, "Not now. Let's look around the perimeter. Even if we go, we won't go deep."

"Fine, then we won't force you. We're leaving."

The group of 30 people split into two factions.

The remaining five were all from Daxia, led by Fan Bai.

"Brother Bai, are we really not going?"

Fan Bai said, "Of course we're going, but not with them. We only have one Spirit Cultivator, Liu Jing. Being with them would put us at a disadvantage; we'd get sold out without even knowing it."

"This should be the Denier Civilization. There are no Cultivate resources outside the city; only inside the city is there an intangible lifeform called the Nether entity. After killing them, there are divine charm energy balls. Even a random energy ball contains several units of divine charm."

"For Nether entities over four meters in size, the energy balls are comparable to divine charm treasures."

"Let's go, we'll enter the city from a different direction."

Inside the city.

East 7th Ring.

Boom~~~

The violent Samadhi True Fire turned a six-story small building into a sea of flames.

The next second.

The flames suddenly retracted and gradually extinguished.

Xiao Weiqing dug out five energy balls from the ruins. One of them was three inches, the size of a fist. This was dropped by a three-meter-tall Nether entity, and it contained 40 units of divine charm.

After picking up the energy balls, he left immediately; the commotion just now had been too big.

This time he didn't go back; Xiao Weiqing went straight into the 6th Ring, entering the basement agreed upon with stidy in advance, and hid.