Chapter 242: Chapter 9: Spirit Summoning Association
"What the hell? Who took this picture?"
Just as Su Zhou was staring at the meme with a contorted expression, Shao Qiming quickly sent over a link. Su Zhou clicked on it, and his face instantly darkened even more. "I’m floored! What kind of people are these? Who photoshopped this? And so fast, too!"
The link led to a discussion thread that was, as it happened, all about him.
[Image]
[So you’re Aquaman?]
The image was a shot of Su Zhou warning the black Sea Serpent.
[Image]
[Su Zhou: I can talk to fish.]
The image was a shot of Su Zhou waving his hand to dismiss the crowd of "seafood."
[Image]
[I control lightning in the deep sea! I strike down my allies and protect my enemies!]
The image was a picture of Su Zhou summoning lightning during the Holy Ascension Selection Test, seamlessly photoshopped into a school of fish with a newly added trident in his hand.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Su Zhou saw that Shao Shuangyue had also just sent him a meme.
[Su Haiwang, so awe-inspiring!]
’Actually, if you ignore the text, these pictures are pretty cool,’ Su Zhou thought. The image showed him standing in the middle of the ocean as numerous Sea Beasts gradually dispersed.
"It’s over."
In that instant, Su Zhou, who was all too familiar with internet culture, knew his fate. His face turned ashen. ’Looks like I’ll never live down this "talking to fish" meme.’
「Meanwhile.」
Deep beneath the Celestial Capital, inside the Dao Yi Celestial Secret Calculation Center.
The Artifice Sage, who was communicating with multiple entities simultaneously, was in a virtual conference hall, calmly recounting his recent conversation with Su Zhou.
[He found the Dragon King’s corpse—sooner than we expected.]
"Six months ago, when we and the American Federation jointly scanned all the world’s oceans, we had already discovered that Dragon King’s corpse... but we never imagined a Flood Dragon would actually be gestating there. This is indeed crucial information."
A digital window flickered, and an aged voice replied, tinged with anxiety, "Without the protection of the Order Array, the development of Demon Beasts in the ocean might be much faster than we anticipated. And a Flood Dragon that has obtained the Dragon King’s inheritance is clearly different from the Demon Kings of the past. It is not a member of ’human civilization,’ but a pure Spirit Monster, a true demon."
"That’s not important. If it decides to cause trouble, we’ll just kill it." Another digital window flickered as a slightly younger voice calmly replied, "More importantly, did Su Zhou show any interest in the Dragon King’s inheritance?"
[No. He reported it on his own initiative. And during his report, his interest in the origin of the ’Demon Race’ was far greater than his interest in the ’Dragon King’s inheritance’.]
"I see." Another, similarly aged voice spoke. If Su Zhou could have heard it, he would have recognized it as the voice of the Daoist Saint, Zhang Qingyun. "It seems our hypothesis was correct. He does indeed possess another powerful inheritance. Neither the Thunder Marsh Inheritance nor the Dragon King’s inheritance may be more refined or powerful than his own."
"Perhaps it comes from his bloodline. The ’Mimic Dao’ path’s mastery over the root of one’s bloodline far surpasses other paths. They do indeed have the ability to hide knowledge and inheritances within genes, to be reawakened along with the bloodline."
Another voice chimed in with a guess, expressing undisguised optimism about Su Zhou. "Compared to such minor details, this incident alone shows that Su Zhou’s character is flawless. He might be a bit impulsive, but that is the prerogative of the young."
The vast majority of the voices did not object, tacitly agreeing with this assessment. The Artifice Sage then displayed various data points from Su Zhou’s past before the numerous windows.
Among them were records of a younger Su Zhou dragging Shao Qiming through various major haunted houses.
There were also records of Su Zhou exploring seventeen dangerous locations by himself and returning safely.
Even details like how many supernatural magazines Su Zhou had bought throughout his childhood, his general conduct, his teachers’ evaluations, and his physical examination data and academic records since kindergarten were all displayed.
Even expunged records—such as the time a young Su Zhou had broken the limbs of several human traffickers and criminals, incidents that Father Su and the Shao Family had worked together to wipe clean—were brought to light once more.
But clearly, no one cared about such things or considered them blemishes on his record. For a Transcendent, this could even be considered a virtue.
[Countless pieces of evidence indicate that he is indeed the most suitable candidate. This holds true for his Talent, moral character, personality, and both his IQ and Emotional Quotient. Even after we granted him professor-level clearance, Su Zhou has not used this authority to take any sensitive actions during this time. He is extremely cautious.]
The Artifice Sage summarized: [This temperament doesn’t even match his usually impulsive personality. There is reason to believe that his impulsiveness might also be a protective shell, and that he possesses a more sensitive and cautious inner self than what he shows on the surface.]
"So, there’s no need to continue testing him?" the younger voice asked as its digital window flickered.
[No. It’s not a test.] The Artifice Sage corrected the terminology. [As fellow members of the Extraordinary Tier, we are not in a position to test him. In fact, this is a collaboration. Just now, I entrusted Professor Su with using his bloodline’s power to suppress the Sea Beasts in the South Sea that might become frenzied during the potential Spiritual Qi Burst, to prevent them from rioting and going berserk.]
[He was more than willing.]
And indeed, a more-than-willing Su Zhou had already changed his clothes and was now walking along a main road beside the beach, wearing sunglasses.
On one side stood a dense jungle of reinforced concrete, and on the other lay an azure sea, blue sky, and golden beach. The sights of nature and civilization blended together in perfect harmony.
However, Su Zhou wasn’t admiring this harmonious scenery. He had his head tilted back, gazing at a sky that appeared to be completely empty.
Beneath his sunglasses, his cyan-purple vertical pupils shone with Spiritual Light. He stared at the black rifts crisscrossing the cosmos high above, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly as if in anticipation, waiting.
「The far reaches of the South Sea.」
Aboard an unremarkable freighter.
"According to the Prophecy, the second wave of the Spiritual Qi Burst will begin within three days."
A Southeast Asian man, dressed as a sailor but without any signs of having performed hard labor, spoke into a special communicator. "Has the medicine mixed with the ’Celestial God Factor’ not yet affected the minimum threshold of people?"
The man’s appearance was rather plain, with small eyes like two black beans. But his voice carried a Majesty that far surpassed that of an ordinary person—an authority not gained simply from holding a high position for a long time, but a pressure that emanated from the very essence of his Soul.
"Leader, not yet," a somewhat weary voice replied from the other end of the line. The sound of a ship’s engine could be heard in the background, suggesting the speaker was at sea. "The Zhengguo Government has caught on to the chaos in the ’Spirit Awakening Medicine’ market and is cracking down hard, confiscating all types of ’Spirit Awakening Medicine.’ Although the organization’s drugs are still circulating, their spread is far slower than it was initially. The good news, however, is that they haven’t discovered the organization’s secret and are just treating it as a crackdown on ordinary counterfeit medicine. Meanwhile, the South Sea Countries’ defenses are not as strict, and we have already reached the threshold there."
"Hmph, that will have to do. As for Zhengguo, since the number of affected humans is insufficient, just dump the remaining stock into the sea. See if we can convert some Sea Beasts. Every little bit helps."
The man’s voice held a trace of displeasure. "The plans for Zhengguo are never smooth. It was the same with the Celestial God Factor experiment in the Hungry Ghost Realm in Southern Zhengguo last time... But no matter. If I include the ’Celestial God Factor’ stockpiled since the beginning of the Spiritual Energy Revival, I at least have enough materials for my own advancement."
"May the Celestial God descend upon you," the voice on the other end immediately said, fawning over him. The flattered man’s tone softened slightly. "And may the Celestial God descend upon you as well."
The Spirit Summoning Association.
Full name: the ’Celestial God Descent Association.’
A Mysterious Organization that advocates for the ’Unity of Man and God’ and ’Leap Evolution.’
It is said that this organization has mastered the power of the Ancient Gods, is capable of summoning the power of Great Beings from beyond the Void to descend, and can unify with this power to become Divine Beings in the present world, thereby gaining immortality and wielding infinite Authority.
The organization’s existence could be traced back thousands of years. The reason it had survived to this day was that its propaganda was not entirely baseless boasting—in fact, a large part of it was true.
"After the Spiritual Energy Revival, indeterminate numbers of the ’Celestial God’s Favored Clan’ will be born randomly across the world. The ’Celestial God Factor’ extracted from their bodies is the foundation for ’Divinization.’"
Hanging up, the man narrowed his eyes, which were already so small they now seemed to disappear completely. He gazed at the distant coastline and muttered to himself, "It’s just that the types of ’Celestial God’s Favored Clan’ that descend each time are random, and the effects of each type of Celestial God Factor are not interchangeable."
"To accumulate enough Celestial God Factor for advancement, one must cultivate and guide them artificially."
At this thought, the Southeast Asian man smiled, but his smile held no warmth. Instead, it exuded a sinister, terrifying, and ruthlessly cold aura.
"Just like planting crops."
BOOM! Spiritual Light flashed. In an instant, his body transformed into an intangible form. Icy Spiritual Qi began to spread outwards as flesh and blood melted away from the man’s body, leaving only a pale skeleton engraved with countless Runes. A cold Spiritual Fire burned within the skeleton’s eye sockets, faintly releasing a halo of light powerful enough to shake the Soul.
He looked like a skeletal Evil Ghost that had walked straight out of the Netherworld, yet he carried a faint, barely perceptible hint of the sacred.
On the freighter, none of the sailors reacted to the man’s transformation. Their gazes were vacant, as if they were being controlled. From the backs of their heads, long threads of Spirit Body extended, converging in the hands of the Southeast Asian man, who had now become a skeletal Ghost King. They were just like the strings of a puppet.
In the freighter’s cargo hold, numerous corpses were piled up haphazardly. Before their deaths, they had used their own blood, mixed with various secret spiritual materials, to draw a massive and complex mysterious Array.
Number nine on the global Extraordinary wanted list, one of the seven Leaders of the Spirit Summoning Association, codenamed [Shepherd of Spirits].
The freighter, now a ghost ship, sailed slowly and silently across the high seas.
It, too, was waiting in anticipation for something.
