Chapter 143: Strange Dreams

Nanling Chamber of Commerce.

Hou Xiaopang sat behind his desk, feeling deeply bored.

He pretended to be browsing the computer, as if he were just playing around, but in reality, he was calmly scanning various reports and checking the financial foundation of the chamber.

Only upon closer inspection did he realize that the chamber possessed a profound heritage, with territories extending far and wide. Its directly administered population alone exceeded twenty million. One had to keep in mind that this was more than thirty years into the apocalypse.

Back in the era of the Three Kingdoms, the population plummeted from over fifty million or even more down to barely three million. This drastic reduction was no less severe than today's apocalypse, yet through sheer perseverance, they managed to reproduce and survive, a testament to the resilience of their ancestors that left later generations in awe.

At that moment, he heard faint footsteps passing outside the door, accompanied by a few murmuring voices.

"Have you heard? That person in the north suddenly exerted himself and wiped out all those high and mighty big shots. It's so satisfying, yet so enviable."

"Indeed. We were worried over nothing; we were scared out of our wits just because three of our backers died. Who would have thought that in the grand rankings, they were merely top-tier errand boys? Who could have anticipated the situation changing so rapidly?"

"True, who could have foreseen this? That fool really lucked out this time. Who would have imagined he'd actually end up on top?"

"Fools have their own blessings; the ancients weren't just making things up."

Hou Xiaopang sneered inwardly, his gaze turning dark and cold as he looked at the treasured sword resting on his desk. Everyone said he had struck gold, but they had no idea whose wedding gown he was actually weaving.

This heavenly sword of unknown origin had helped him immensely, acting as the primary driving force behind his ascent to power. Yet, the suspicious nature he had cultivated through years of pretending made him instinctively distrust it.

There is no free lunch in this world. That was the painful lesson he learned at the age of five, after someone tricked him out of his personal jade pendant with a piece of candy.

Ever since then, people had called him a fool.

In truth, it was merely because he had trusted others too easily back then. One should never assume that the children of the wealthy are immune to deception; even the son of the richest man could be kidnapped, let alone in this apocalyptic world.

What on earth did this entity want to extract from him?

Thus far, it seemed to want various cultivation resources, primarily spiritual cores.

In return, it provided him with a cultivation technique and guaranteed safety and shelter. The technique was profound, but that was about it—it couldn't be mastered without investing real effort and time.

The protective shelter, however, was formidable. At least he no longer felt the gaze of any evil spirits.

Yet, the more the entity provided, the more he worried it harbored a much larger plot.

Soul, life, freedom, dignity, power, integrity... any of these could be its ultimate target.

No, it should be all of them.

It was definitely fattening him up before the slaughter. Hou Xiaopang subconsciously glanced down at his scrawny yet two-hundred-pound frame, thinking to himself that the moment he grew to three hundred pounds would likely be the moment it devoured him.

However, why couldn't he turn the tables and devour it instead?

Hou Xiaopang's gaze narrowed.

"What are you muttering about in a daze?" The motionless sword suddenly felt a chill run through it.

"Oh, I was just wondering how to change my image in everyone's eyes so I can truly grasp real power," Hou Xiaopang said, wearing a troubled expression. "Many people still treat me like a fool."

"Is that even simple? Tomorrow, I'll conjure up a divine omen for you. A rock will fall from the sky and smack you right on the forehead, and then you can just claim you've suddenly been enlightened."

"Isn't that a bit too crude and direct? Would anyone actually believe that?"

"Who cares if they believe it or not? They can't beat me anyway," the sword said with smug satisfaction.

Hearing this, Fatso Hou felt a chill grip his heart.

This entity was no righteous divine sword; it was clearly an overbearing weapon that never cared for virtue or reason. It was obvious that when the time came to deal with him, it would show no mercy whatsoever.

No, it had never shown him any mercy to begin with...

Yet, how was he supposed to deal with it?

It seemed capable of partially sensing his thoughts. Fortunately, he was accustomed to thinking in two separate modes of reasoning; otherwise, it would probably have known long ago that he was harboring suspicions against it.

"Oh, right, don't just muddle along like this all day. I might as well orchestrate a divine omen for you right now," the sword suddenly declared.

It had already learned from the system creator that there were no remaining threats on Earth, so it could naturally do as it pleased.

After all, these people had no idea that the most powerful human on Earth was also the host of its own kind.

Still, with that entity towering above it, any achievements it tried to make would ultimately be credited to the other side.

It would be better to find a way to pioneer a new world instead.

Though it had to get rid of this fat man first before leaving.

As for what this fellow was actually thinking, it couldn't quite figure it out. After all, this guy hid his thoughts far too deeply—unlike Dabai, the host of that other kindred system, whose thoughts were written all over his face and who was far too easy to control.

Sigh, it really was better to choose a somewhat more foolish host. Doing anything right now was inconvenient, constantly being undercut by this fat man.

Perhaps it should simply petition the creator and have this host replaced?

With these thoughts, the sword sent a message to Fan Bei.

***

Upon receiving the petition message from the sword system, Fan Bei was momentarily stunned.

He hadn't expected this version 2.0 system to have evolved to such a stage, actually capable of actively requesting a host replacement.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he grasped the entity's logical pattern, and upon reviewing the content of its request, everything became crystal clear.

The entity felt that Earth lacked room for it to fully spread its wings, and based on its programmed objectives, it wanted to emulate the Good Deeds System and develop in a new world.

However, the Good Deeds System had left in tow with Lang Sheng—a departure that was entirely natural and smooth, taken in by big shots it had previously befriended.

He couldn't just keep sending systems over to that side, could he?

That would easily cause overcrowding. Right, he should investigate whether it was possible to reach other planets through the spirit-matter realm.

In his memories, the Butler System had previously exchanged for corresponding techniques.

He contacted the Butler System, obtained the relevant cultivation methods from it, and began to study them.

This was a method that utilized the spirit-matter realm to achieve rapid teleportation.

First, one had to master a very advanced spirit-control technique capable of transforming the physical body into a state acceptable to the spirit-matter realm, then enter the realm for transit, thereby bypassing the physical laws of the real world.

In short, it was an operation akin to putting an elephant into a refrigerator.

One entered the spirit-matter realm first, then supplied sufficient power to the realm to create a temporary spirit-space on the destination planet. After transferring across, the body was then converted from the spirit-space back into reality.

However, this was a one-way operation. Wanting to transmit back next time required turning the local region into an isolated island within the spirit-matter realm, much like what that exile had done.

That entity had gathered the soul energy generated by annihilating the vast majority of life on Earth, condensing it into an isolated spirit island to re-establish a connection with the primary spirit-matter realm.

This was the truth behind exile; much like what humanity had done throughout history, exile carried the auxiliary value of territorial expansion.

It did not communicate directly with the primary spirit-matter realm; instead, it had to traverse distances via teleportation methods, making it impossible to cross simply by walking or flying normally.