Chapter 183: Chapter 183: A Meteorological Change, Following the Climate to Devour Yin Energy
「Ten days into the limited-time event: the Death of Cold Energy.」
The concentration of Cold Energy had dropped by thirty-three percent. Barring any surprises, the remaining sixty-six percent would continue to decrease over the next twenty days.
As for the missing one percent, perhaps it represented a final sliver of hope.
Even so, the number of survivors had been reduced by nearly half.
The casualties among the Cold Energy Monsters were impossible to calculate; after all, Qi Suian could only see the number of survivors through the Doomsday Game.
Qi Suian discovered that this wasn’t a simple recession of Cold Energy. It was more like something was devouring and absorbing it.
The original recession of Cold Energy had been like a receding tide, a gradual loss that manifested as aging in humans and beasts alike.
It certainly had an effect, but it was a subtle, silent one—the kind you only notice when you happen to look in the mirror one day and spot the first gray hairs at your temples.
This time, however, was different. It was more like someone was violently skinning them alive and pulling out their tendons. The process was so brutal that it caused the deaths of the survivors, who simply couldn’t withstand such a violent ravaging.
[Based on data monitoring from recent days, a...]
The Smart Brain had provided Qi Suian with a massive number of reports, working nonstop for the past ten days.
For Qi Suian, finding the source early meant he might be able to turn it into a fortuitous opportunity.
Even if it wasn’t an opportunity, that was fine. He could use the intensity of this disaster to better plan his next moves.
If it proved too dangerous, Qi Suian could always abandon his plan for the protagonist among this batch of survivors and just flee.
After all, the Taiyin Red Blood Stone was already in his possession. Once the protagonist left the Cold Winter World, the effect of their protagonist halo would surely diminish.
It wouldn’t be too late to kill them then.
"Wait a minute. Is there a detailed report for this weather data?" Qi Suian suddenly paused, his eyes fixed on one of the data sets provided by the Smart Brain.
This particular data set seemed rather odd.
Qi Suian pulled up a previous weather report for comparison and discovered a strange change.
’It seems... something is migrating along with the weather patterns.’ Qi Suian confirmed his suspicion as he compared more data.
[Compilation complete. The latest weather data report has been presented.]
A deluge of data appeared. Qi Suian carefully analyzed and compared each piece, soon tracing a trajectory across the global climate map.
’If I’m not mistaken, this is our culprit.’
’It’s the source of the limited-time event, the Death of Cold Energy.’
Qi Suian, however, was pondering something else entirely: how to make it stronger.
That’s right. Qi Suian wasn’t thinking about how to kill it, but how to make it even more powerful.
The reason was simple: it could help him wipe out all the survivors.
Furthermore, if he were to deal with it, the limited-time event would end immediately.
Then, regardless of the outcome, all living survivors would likely be issued a New World Pass.
In the end, Qi Suian would be the one losing out.
Qi Suian could do without the protagonist’s halo, but the protagonist himself had to die. Otherwise, if that person grew stronger, he, the violator, would be the one to suffer.
Even though the protagonist’s halo would lose its home-field advantage after leaving the Cold Winter World...
But for Qi Suian, the protagonist wasn’t important, and the protagonist’s halo wasn’t important. What was important was that *neither* of them existed.
He himself was a protagonist with a protagonist’s halo; he knew just how absurd their growth could be.
He had gone from a sickly weakling to his current level of strength—a feat most people could never achieve in a lifetime.
[Perhaps it would be more suitable for the Melting Furnace.]
The Smart Brain offered a suggestion.
"Definitely. It would be worth at least two evolutions!" How could Qi Suian not know its value as fuel?
[If possible, you should choose to kill the protagonist first, then eliminate this special creature.]
[There is no need to fixate on wiping out all the survivors.]
[Without the protagonist to guide them, the probability of the other survivors posing a threat to you is extremely low.]
[It would be better to focus on controlling the variables.]
The Smart Brain was offering another line of thinking: as long as everyone else was weaker than him, his life wouldn’t be in danger.
"I understand your thinking. Capture one survivor and control them, ensuring they have no chance of turning the tables. Then the Doomsday Game most likely won’t add any new survivors."
"But that’s just a guess, on both our parts."
"Besides, even if we succeeded, so what? Without pressure, where would the motivation come from?"
"Without the growth spurred by a protagonist’s halo, how are you and I supposed to improve?"
"Every time stronger survivors are brought in, it is indeed a threat to us. But on the flip side, with the help of a protagonist’s halo, we can also grow stronger, faster."
"From ancient martial arts to Cold Energy, without the survivors’ Extraordinary systems, do you think the two of us could have reached this level of strength in such a short time?"
"It was the twin engines of new knowledge and constant pressure, aided by the protagonist’s halo, that gave me my current strength. It’s not because I’m some monstrous genius."
Qi Suian was very clear-eyed about himself. He relied on luck, and he had his cheats. There was no point in deceiving himself that his success was all due to hard work.
Even though his efforts had certainly helped a great deal, hard work alone didn’t guarantee a payoff.
After all, if hard work was truly all it took, the richest man in the world would be a diligent farmer with his ox, donkey, and mule.
Qi Suian, of course, disliked challenges and danger. If he could, he would go back to being a million-a-year archaeologist at the Watchman Morning Company.
No zombies, no extreme temperatures. Just a healthy, ordinary life—marry, have children, and live peacefully, free of disasters and disease.
He didn’t care about becoming Extraordinary or achieving long life. His identity as a Transmigrator who was reborn from birth wasn’t a mark of ambition; it just meant he had lived an extra life and knew how precious the word ’ordinary’ truly was.
But death and the apocalypse were always at his heels. If he didn’t get stronger, he would die.
"The day I grow complacent," Qi Suian said calmly, "will be the day I die."
He didn’t have the power to escape the Doomsday Game.
And he had no way to stop himself from being sent to one Doomsday World after another.
Bound by the Doomsday Game, he never believed he could remain invincible forever. He might just die in some random Doomsday World.
That was why he needed enough pressure to keep himself sharp, to do everything in his power to live as long as possible.
Qi Suian had no grand ambitions. He simply wanted to live.
He didn’t entertain fantasies like ’I will be supreme across all heavens and myriad worlds’ or ’I will take control of the Doomsday Game.’
Such thoughts were clearly unrealistic.
So it was better to be pragmatic.
[You have a unique perspective on death.]
"It’s simple. I’ve died too many times and don’t want to die again," Qi Suian said with a faint smile. "As the saying goes: ’A commoner takes up his sword to conquer the world; is this not the Mandate of Heaven? Fate is decreed by the heavens; what good is even a master physician?’ "
He wasn’t afraid of death, but he didn’t want to die.
"So, what about the special lifeform’s trajectory and behavioral logic model? Have you finished the analysis?" Qi Suian brought the conversation back on topic.
[Trajectory analysis is complete. Insufficient data for the logic model; it has not yet been fully constructed.]
The Smart Brain quickly projected the trajectory for Qi Suian.
The entire planet appeared as a three-dimensional model, overlaid with a dense web of data and graphics.
Qi Suian could understand it, however. With the Smart Brain providing real-time deductions and analysis, combined with the knowledge he had been cramming, he was no expert, but he was no longer a layman either.
’It will circle the entire planet within a month, using the planet’s own natural cycles to completely devour all the Cold Energy.’
’It’s not just being spoon-fed; it doesn’t even have to chew or swallow. It just opens its mouth and the food goes right in.’
’Worthy of a special lifeform that could trigger the Doomsday Game to start a New World Pass event. It truly is something else.’
Qi Suian had roughly analyzed the entity’s situation through the model.
So now he was back to thinking about how to strengthen it.
But after thinking it over, he realized that with his current knowledge, he had no way of making it stronger.
"If that won’t work, we’ll just follow it from a distance and observe. Maybe we’ll find something else of value."
If he couldn’t strengthen it, so be it. But the idea of wiping out the survivors remained.
He just didn’t have a plan for it yet. He would have to see how things developed on the ground.
[I would not advise that. The risk is too great.]
[It is currently unknown if the special lifeform possesses self-awareness.]
[If it does not, it may still possess certain operational logics. If it were to judge you as an enemy and attack, that would not be a good thing.]
[Based on the logical reaction analysis from the model, its power far surpasses a Venerable-grade Cold Energy Monster. The Twelve Venerables might not even be its match.]
’Those words... why do they sound so familiar...’ Hearing this, Qi Suian quickly made the connection. Weren’t those the exact words spoken by the Tiger Roar Daoist?
’It... it couldn’t be the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, could it? The spiritual consciousness of the Taiyin Red Blood Stone?’
The thought wouldn’t have occurred to Qi Suian before, but he couldn’t deny the resemblance.
This left Qi Suian at a loss for words.
Then, Qi Suian immediately went back to comparing the data.
’A long, serpentine form... a Red Dragon!’
At first, Qi Suian had assumed it was formless. Now, it seemed...
It wasn’t that it lacked a form, but that its form was indistinct, part of a greater whole.
’So instead of acting as the protagonist’s spirit mentor, it came out to destroy the world? Could it be they had a falling out?’
’In that case, if I go and intercept it, isn’t that basically NTR-ing the protagonist?’
Hiss... ’Why must one protagonist make things so difficult for another?’ Qi Suian couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.
This was just his guess, of course. He had no actual evidence.
’Just because it’s long and serpentine doesn’t mean it’s a Red Dragon. What if it’s just a giant noodle?’
No one could say for sure.
’But if following it really leads me to the protagonist, then maybe my own protagonist’s halo is helping me out.’
"Smart Brain, let’s tail it from a distance. Do our best not to get discovered." Qi Suian actually placed a great deal of importance on these strange flashes of insight.
That was why he’d always wanted to find an intuition-based ability.
Intuition and luck. If not the best combination, they were certainly a perfectly harmonious pair.
Especially when one’s luck was strong, intuition became an incredibly useful tool.
