467: Chapter 465 Opening

"Quack! I was wrong, I was wrong..."

Having its neck grabbed by Chu Xuan, its fan-sized wings flapped wildly, and the electric arcs around its body were all retracted as it wailed.

"Master, I'm your loyal little follower, you can't treat me like this!"

"You know you're wrong now?" Chu Xuan's tone was eerie. "I think you have a rebellious streak. I might as well just stew you and eat you."

"Quack! My meat doesn't taste good."

The rooster stuck out its tongue and shouted hoarsely, "Master, I am completely convinced by you, and I promise you, I will never dare to sneak attack you again."

"Just not sneak attacking... so you're still not convinced?" Chu Xuan smiled, applying slight pressure with his palm, immediately causing the rooster's bright red tongue to stick out half a foot long.

The rooster hurriedly cried out indistinctly, "Wait, you've misunderstood! I mean... I'll listen to everything you say from now on. I'm a man of my word. Look, I've already retracted the lightning on my body, which shows I've already submitted to you!"

"I'll give you one chance."

Chu Xuan tossed it aside casually. He had never intended to kill it; after all, he had spent a lot of spirituality value and high-grade life essence to nurture it.

Regardless of that, just considering that it had borne the Lightning Tribulation for him, it was impossible for Chu Xuan to kill the chicken after the work was done. He was just scaring it a moment ago.

The rooster tumbled a few times, its feathers covered in charred dust. It stood up again and shook its body, sending dust flying in all directions.

Chu Xuan raised his hand and waved it lightly, the wind from his palm blowing away the oncoming dust.

Looking closely now, its half-person-tall body, though not as majestic as imagined, was still a very sturdy and magnificent rooster.

"Quack! How is it? Are you jealous of my majestic posture?" As soon as the rooster spoke, it sounded like a duck, using a slightly hoarse and strange tone.

"Hu—cough cough! Boss Chu, to thank you for your contribution to my hatching and to express my respect for you, I can share a Talent for you to use. Although your current life level is a bit low, you can pick one first."

Chu Xuan was somewhat surprised. It could actually share a Talent?

Just based on this point alone, all his expenditures had been earned back.

Chu Xuan pondered slightly. Based on his own conditions and the pros and cons of these three Talents, he finally made a choice and said slowly, "Give me Thousand-Movement Thunder Flash."

"This one won't do." The rooster shook its head and said, "This Talent requires wings to be fully utilized. You have an Innate deficiency. Even if I give it to you, it will be hard for you to make use of it."

Chu Xuan raised an eyebrow. "I don't have claws. Does that mean FastAPI Crack-Sky Thunder Astral Claw won't work either?"

"It should be fine. After all, your two hands can be treated as claws!" The rooster quacked with a mischievous laugh. "This is my strongest single-target killing skill. How about I share this one with you?"

"You should just give me Thunderous Might."

Chu Xuan smiled—amused by the absurdity.

It was said to be a choice of one out of three, but in reality, there was only one he could choose.

He knew the chicken's thoughts. It clearly couldn't beat him, so it wanted to gain some verbal advantage, which was why it did this on purpose.

However, Chu Xuan didn't mind, knowing it was just the other's personality. Under the clear perception of the max-level Heart Bewitchment, Chu Xuan had long since sensed that this rooster bore no ill will toward him.

[You have obtained the Talent from servant Sky-Shattering Thunder Roc: Thunderous Might]

[Divine Ability: Thunderous Might (Uninitiated)]

"Adding the 'Tracing Cause and Effect' obtained in the dream earlier, I now have two Divine Abilities, but I can't use them. I need to Breakthrough for that to be possible..."

Chu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly.

At this moment, a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

"According to the encounter with the out-of-control Dragon Turtle before, when I encounter a weird creature powerful to a certain extent, under the incomparable Gloom Invasion, the strange consciousness in my body will wake up on its own and take control of my body, and it's even highly likely to completely replace me. This is a confirmed fact..."

"And when I woke up from the dream this time, the other consciousness in my body manipulated me to perform a Breakthrough, but because my own consciousness hadn't awakened, the System paused the Breakthrough, which ultimately led to failure. But... could this be something the other party did on purpose? The goal being to make me instinctively resist Breakthroughs..."

"Could it be as Future Tang Zheng said, that after a Breakthrough, when the life level undergoes a transformation, I can further resist the risk of being replaced?"

Chu Xuan lowered his gaze. "Then... are these thoughts I'm having now my own, or are they influenced by that strange consciousness?"

Chu Xuan slowly closed his eyes.

"Regarding this matter, it's pointless for me to ask Future Tang Zheng again. Whether I Breakthrough or not, it could be a trap. However... there is another Breakthrough point!"

A figure immediately appeared in Chu Xuan's mind.

Lin Jie!

This was the confirmed Child of the World.

"Lin Jie's Talent, especially his identity as Yang Yu, is the key to my next step. If I can't get a good solution from them either, then..."

Chu Xuan suddenly opened his eyes. "I will Breakthrough immediately!"

There was one sentence from Future Tang Zheng that Chu Xuan strongly agreed with.

This is a survival race like rowing upstream. Whether it's the descending Specters, other Transcendents, the Resurrection Society, or World Traitors, they will only get stronger and stronger.

Once he stopped moving forward, he would soon lose the initiative. What he would face would be a devastating blow, and by then, he would only be able to hide everywhere, and might not even be able to escape.

Especially when facing powerful Specters, if he couldn't handle them, it was highly likely he would still be replaced by the strange consciousness in his body.

"Instead of being indecisive and waiting to die passively, it's better to forge a path for myself!"

Chu Xuan thought again of the scene when he faced Chen Qing in the dream.

How similar was it to the scene now?

It was because of his distrust of Future Tang Zheng and his repeated attempts to find ironclad evidence that Chen Qing was a monster that led to the final failure.

"Today, I'll find Lin Jie. If I still can't get an answer, I'll Breakthrough immediately!"

Chu Xuan made a decision in his heart and glanced at the time. It was 10:40, and the National Captain Offline Conference had already been underway for over an hour.

"From here to Beijing, if nothing unexpected happens, it will take about three hours. The time on the road is just enough for me to fully restore my health points."

Chu Xuan took a deep breath. Seeing the big rooster sticking its head into the greed tank to drink, he walked over and picked it up.

He checked and found there were still 26 liters of high-grade life essence left inside, estimated to be just over 50 catties. Chu Xuan directly put it into his Exclusive Space.

"Quack! Why are you snatching my wine? You already promised to give it to me. You're not thinking of going back on your word, are you?" the big rooster cried out in surprise.

Chu Xuan patted its head. "Drink it later. Let's go first."

"Where to?"

"Beijing."

The rooster's pair of black eyes darted around. "Then let's hurry. When I was still in the egg, I saw you had a Flying Shuttle."

Chu Xuan said calmly, "The Flying Shuttle is too slow, and it consumes spirituality value."

"I don't understand what you mean." The rooster blinked, looking very innocent.

Chu Xuan smiled without saying a word, just quietly looking at it.

The rooster immediately took two steps back, its face full of vigilance. "What do you want to do?"

"What do you think?"

The smile on Chu Xuan's face deepened as he gently stroked its head and said meaningfully:

"Thousand-Movement Thunder Flash can perform short-distance instantaneous movement, and can also consume a small amount of stamina for long-distance flight. Its current maximum speed is 850 kilometers per hour."

"I knew it..." The rooster grumbled, looking very reluctant, but it still spread its wings and slowly took flight.

"When your life essence is finished, I'll give you some more." Chu Xuan leaped up and stood steadily on the chicken's back.

"That's more like it."

The rooster spread its wings, and immediately thunder light shone. In an instant, it had reached a height of several thousand meters. With another flap of its wings, leaving a few residual electric arcs in the high sky, it carried Chu Xuan through the clouds.

"By the way, I feel a bit empty inside. Have you not given me a name yet?"

"Hmm... I'll call you 'Lightning Chicken' from now on. This name suits you well."

"Quack? How can that be?!"

"How about... Gaga Chicken?"

"No! I am called Sky-Shattering Thunder Roc. If you're willing, you can call me Lord Peng, and I'll call you Boss Chu. We'll each have our own way of addressing the other."

"Heh..."

[You have confirmed the subordinate title: Gaga Chicken · Sky-Shattering · Thunder Roc]

"Quack! You're not being fair. I'm going full speed ahead. Sit tight and don't fall off. I won't be responsible if you fall to your death!!"

"It's fine. You can go a bit faster. I can stay steady."

Thunder boomed as they traveled through the clouds.

Chu Xuan's expression was calm as he sat on the chicken's back. He held the greed tank, which still contained over two hundred liters of high-grade life essence. As he took large gulps, he was completely unmoved by the bitter cold wind coming at him in the high sky.

...

In a certain Dark Place, a bitter cold wind suddenly rose.

"Zhu Zhao, is that you?"

"Chaos, you still like to use this sentence as an opening... Besides me, who else can come here to see you?"

"How is the outside world? How much longer before I can enter the world?"

"Soon. Revelation has planned everything for today. Once the Purifier dies, and after this world becomes a bit more chaotic, you can enter the world with ten thousand Specters."

"Is Revelation really capable? That Debt-Collecting Ghost was one of our few trump cards, yet it was easily dealt with by the Purifier. I'm starting to doubt him..."

"He is now the person chosen by the Dark World. You have no choice but to believe him... Moreover, Baihu has returned from the Cangyun World ahead of schedule and met with Huo Gui. As soon as the Purifier shows his face, they will immediately launch a surprise attack."

"We still have to wait for the Purifier to show his face? Can't Revelation confirm his position?"

"The Purifier is obscured; he can't be calculated. And his phone's GPS has also failed. Either it's being interfered with by The Gloom, or it's been left in an Exclusive Space. We can only wait for him to show up himself..."

"I'm still a bit uneasy. How is Xuanwu? Has he come out of the giant Dark Place in the central region?"

"Still out of contact. Possibly... already dead at the hands of Yang Yu."

"First Yang Yu, then the Purifier. I've been dormant for too long and can't wait any longer..."

"They are all candidates watched by the world. With the current level of Gloom Invasion, you cannot enter the world yet. Otherwise, if you accidentally encounter them, you will be directly obliterated by the rules."

"You're right. As long as I'm here, the Resurrection Society will always exist. One day, we will coexist with the gods and see eternal life."

"It will happen... because Yan Guofa has already become a World Traitor. Having regained his youth, the Purifier will have no way to escape."

"Then I'm relieved. But that old fellow has finally made the most correct choice. He's just a bit of a 'won't release the hawk until he sees the hare' type, which is annoying."

Tap, tap, tap...

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came, followed by a voice full of vigor: "My choices have always been very correct."

This place suddenly fell into a dead silence.

Tap, tap, tap...

Only the sound of footsteps continued to ring out. Then the voice rang out again, letting out a slight laugh: "Chaos, Zhu Zhao, I've finally found you."

...

...

Beijing.

There was no bitter cold wind here, but the weather was gloomy, and a drizzling rain was falling.

The Great Hall was brightly lit.

The National Captain Offline Conference, organized by Minister Liu Fumin, had been underway for the entire morning.

There were a total of over a thousand Night Watchers present, including over two hundred captains from various cities.

Participating in this meeting, besides the Night Watchers, were many civilian Transcendents from all over the country who had come to Beijing.

They each had their own thoughts.

Among them, the number of newly promoted low-Rank Transcendents was the largest, but there was no lack of veteran Transcendents above Rank 5, and even many higher-Rank existences reaching Rank 9 or Rank 10.

All these people had arrived in Beijing and had all been invited in.

This meeting greatly surprised many official Transcendents.

No one could have imagined that there were actually so many high-Rank Transcendents among the civilians.

But during contact and communication, many official Night Watchers discovered that these high-Rank Transcendents were almost all candidates who had long since become "Guardian," and some had even been to other worlds.

Although some individual high-level officials had already had some awareness of this, seeing so many people gathered together in person still left them shocked.

When the meeting began, Minister Liu Fumin was the first to deliver a speech.

First, he affirmed the outstanding contributions made by the city captains in fighting Specters and improving the crisis response capabilities of entire cities. Their selfless dedication and heroic fearlessness were important cornerstones for guarding the peace of the cities.

Second, he severely criticized the inaction of some city Night Watchers, as well as their abuse of power, violations of law and discipline, and even the heinous act of keeping Specters. These behaviors not only exacerbated the spread of Specters but also posed a potential huge threat to the entire social order and must be subjected to the most severe punishment.

Finally, he reiterated the scope of authority and the sacred mission of the Night Watchers. All Night Watchers must always remember this responsibility and strictly abide by discipline...

After Liu Fumin's speech ended, several city captain representatives took the stage one after another to speak, sharing local Gloom incidents and related measures on-site, which sparked heated discussions in the audience.

Among them, the speech by Haicheng captain Zhang Qiang received the most attention.

Because the current Inspector, Chu Xuan, came from Haicheng!

Halfway through the meeting, one person was the first to stand up and cause trouble, interrupting Zhang Qiang's words and saying coldly: "Zhang Qiang, where is Chu Xuan? Why hasn't he shown his face yet?!"

...

...

Today I'll just post one chapter, goodnight everyone~~