Shackles of Humanity

After Tuoba Ye left, Luo Kai let out a sigh of relief. He had just used every trick up his sleeve, while the other man clearly hadn’t gone all out. He might have only used fifty or sixty percent of his Power.

If they had really fought, he was still far from being a Body Master’s opponent. At best, he could probably just protect himself. It wouldn’t be like last time against Su Chengbo, when he had been completely powerless to fight back.

The gap between a Martial Artist and a Body Master was simply too vast. Even their fundamental physical structures were different. A Body Master’s body was reforged through an Energy Infusion of external energy. Their bodies were much harder than metal, yet retained the resilience of flesh and blood, allowing them to drastically negate incoming force. Their attacks were even more formidable; a casual strike packed more power than a High-Explosive Bomb. Adding to that their incomparably powerful insight and Perception Power… in his previous life, they would have been considered superhuman, no question.

’To reach his level, I’d have to undergo an Energy Infusion of external energy myself. Evil Energy is too violent, but Water Element Energy might work.’ He even envisioned the result of an Energy Infusion with Water Element Energy. ’Water is the softest thing in the world, so it must be excellent at dissipating external force. It could even move freely under the fiercest and most powerful of forces.’

But he had a faint idea forming in his mind, an idea to gather all the external energies and use them to construct his own true Little Cosmos. The Heaven and Earth Energy was naturally composed of mutually generating and overcoming forces. ’Once my Little Cosmos is fully aligned with the Outer Cosmos, I could convert between all types of energy, achieving the smooth, interconnected Celestial Human Realm.’

However, this path of Cultivation was far too uncertain and ethereal. Right now, he had only mastered the Water Element Energy among the Five Elements. He also had the Evil Energy, which belonged to Chaos Energy. The method for gathering Dark Energy was cruel, and he would definitely never use it. As for the other energies, he had no leads at all.

Luo Kai walked slowly toward the house. Just as Tuoba Ye had said, his current living conditions were terrible. This place was far from human towns. All he had to eat every day was fish, with no seasonings except a tiny bit of sea salt. The food wasn’t a big deal; he was never a picky eater. But he had no clothes, spending his days in a single pair of large shorts patched together from rags. And he was starting to miss the taste of alcohol and cigarettes.

Zilan sensed his return and extended a slender branch, rubbing gently against him. A feeling of affection pulsed from it. A smile appeared on Luo Kai’s face, and he sent back a warm frequency of his own. The man and the plant were like a couple in love. He knew Zilan represented not just itself, but Lu Qing as well.

Genetic entanglement was a magical thing, derived from the concept of quantum entanglement. To put it simply, the two individuals were like a single person. No matter how far apart they were, even if one was at the edge of the Cosmos, they could still transmit information to each other in perfect sync. One could say it transcended the barrier of Space, or that quantum entanglement was part of Space itself, making distance meaningless to it.

Luo Kai sat beside Zilan, watching the sun gradually set with it. A bright moon rose, blanketing Heaven and Earth in a silvery glow. As he watched the full moon ascend, a question suddenly surfaced in his mind. Tuoba Ye had said that the Extraterrestrial Creatures hadn’t appeared for over a century, and he suspected their sudden attack on Li Hong was to save him.

He hadn’t paid it much mind at first, as he had no connection whatsoever with any Extraterrestrial Creatures. But every creature acts for a reason and with a motive. The Extraterrestrial Creatures wouldn’t have attacked Li Hong for no reason. ’If Lu Qing really does carry the will of an Extraterrestrial Creature, could ”she” have been the one to do it?’

Luo Kai couldn’t help but stand up and pace around anxiously for a few steps. Lu Qing’s parting words echoed in his mind. She had asked him if he believed people had a next life. And she had told him to look at the moon more often whenever he thought of her. ’Those two sentences must have a deeper meaning.’

’Could Lu Qing be trying to guide me?’

He didn’t know if people had a next life, but the moon was right above him. ’Could Lu Qing have meant that she’s on the moon?’

...

Tuoba Ye walked to the highway, where a gas-powered car was already waiting for him by the side of the road. He opened the door, got in, grabbed a bottle of beer, and downed it in one go. ”Damn it,” he cursed. ”This goddamn weather is hot as hell. If those guys at the Astronomical Observatory don’t figure something out soon, this whole continent is going to be cooked to a crisp!”

There were two other young men in the car. A young man with glasses sat in the driver’s seat; he didn’t seem to feel the heat at all, looking quite comfortable in the high temperature. The other, cradling a long sniper rifle in the passenger seat, was sweating buckets and fanning himself vigorously with a hand fan.

The man with the glasses adjusted them and looked back, asking, ”Instructor, did you find that Luo Kai?”

Tuoba Ye opened the car window and waved his hand. ”Let’s go. That kid is probably a goddamn acquaintance. He’s not easy to catch. I need to go back and ask around.”

The man with the glasses started the car, sounding a little surprised. ”An acquaintance of yours?”

Tuoba Ye nodded. ”Nine times out of ten, he’s a descendant of the Luo Family. And from the Direct Lineage, at that!”

The young man in the passenger seat exclaimed in shock, ”Ah, a descendant of the Northern Guardian King? Then what’s he doing all the way out here in the remote Xingma Kingdom?”

”I don’t know. The kid’s Body Techniques aren’t from the Luo Family, but the Luo Family’s Fearless Transformation is one of a kind. Damn. I bet none of the Northern Guardian King’s grandsons can compare to that kid.”

Tuoba Ye recalled the scene of his fight with Luo Kai and couldn’t help but marvel. Then he let out a sly chuckle. ”Heh heh, now those old geezers at the Body Technique Association are going to be scratching their heads. Let’s see if they dare to arrest a descendant of the Luo Family!”

Then he muttered to himself, ”Hmm… with talent like that, why would the kid run off to the Xingma Kingdom? Could he have been exiled?”

Both young men remained silent. They naturally didn’t dare to comment on the upper echelons of the Physique Martial Arts Association. Likewise, they didn’t dare to inquire about the affairs of the Northern Guardian King’s family.

The Body Technique Association was responsible for managing the Human Race’s Body Technique Cultivators, making it naturally the most powerful force among the human nations. But there were a few great noble families that even the Body Technique Association didn’t dare to provoke easily. The Luo Family was one of them.

Besides the Royal Clan Qian, the Dongyuan Upper Country had four Top Level families. They were the Northern Luo Clan, the Jingnan Tuoba Clan, the East Sea Xi Clan, and the Yun Clan, founders of Shangjing University.

The ancestors of the four great families were the most important pioneers of Body Techniques. Their descendants later assisted the Royal Clan Qian in unifying the human nations, ending several centuries of civil war on the Eastern Continent. Today, they were the main force leading the Human Race’s armies against the Fierce Beasts.

The Northern Luo Clan commanded the million-strong iron host of the north. They were the backbone of the resistance against the Fierce Beasts of the Northern Icefield.

The Jingnan Tuoba Clan was the dominant power in the Central Fierce Beast Combat Zone. Their Sky Battle Army was world-renowned.

The East Sea Xi Clan’s reputation was not as prominent, but that was only because major conflicts rarely occurred in the coastal waters, and no marine Fierce Beasts had ever invaded the land. However, no one dared to doubt the combat strength of their coastal destroyer fleet.

As for the Yun Clan, the founders of Shangjing University, their influence went without saying. The Yun Clan focused on researching the path of life’s evolution. The clan’s descendants were all first-class master instructors, and countless Body Technique Cultivators were their students.

These four great families controlled nearly half of the Dongyuan Upper Country’s military power, and all of it consisted of elite forces seasoned by years of fighting Fierce Beasts. Moreover, the four families had always maintained very close relationships, with constant intermarriage. They had formed a super-faction. Although the Body Technique Association was powerful, even it did not dare to provoke them lightly.