Chapter 431: Biological Information (Two-in-One)

The setting sun slowly withdrew its final ray of light. A dark shadow darted across the street, slipping into a corner concealed by the shadow of a billboard.

Across the way, a solitary streetlamp cast a pale white light, though its glow could not reach very far.

It was as if the surrounding darkness ruthlessly suppressed it, forming a mere sphere of light. At best, a faint halo illuminated a small patch of ground directly beneath the lamp.

This was a park.

Judging by its desolate appearance, few people usually visited.

The dark shadow looked toward the bluestone gate behind the streetlamp. Using the cover of night, it swiftly rushed inside.

It moved with extreme speed. Even without deliberately utilizing weird energy, it resembled a phantom gleam as it darted straight through the gate.

Beyond the entrance, canopies of leaves rustled freely in the wind. The branches bared their fangs and brandished their claws like monsters, attempting to intimidate intruders.

But the shadow did not linger; it walked directly toward the depths.

A faint green light flickered in its hand, illuminating the shapes of countless tiny spores.

Following the direction of these spores, it eventually stopped before a massive cluster of stone steles.

This was the resting place of the nation's fallen soldiers.

Even though this place was called the Peace Heavenly Kingdom.

The establishment and maintenance of peace still required military force.

Once, this nation had been just like the thousands of refugee settlements out in the Wasteland—they could only huddle for warmth, surviving in the narrow margins between various tribes and nations, no different from the rest.

The shadow gazed at the towering forest of steles. Its eyes flashed. Instead of entering directly, it quietly turned a corner and approached a distant patch of bushes.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"

Something seemed to be quivering inside the shrubbery.

The shadow halted its steps, weird energy surging within its palm.

A second later, a two-headed burst-rabbit scurried out from the leaves.

A burst-rabbit. Yes, that was the actual name of this rabbit species.

The shadow retracted its weird energy and slowly continued forward.

Just as it was about to step into the bushes, it suddenly accelerated. Its figure transformed into a phantom gleam and crashed straight into the thicket.

With a heavy thud, it collided with the figure hiding in the bushes.

To its surprise, the figure did not go flying dozens of meters away or shatter into pieces as expected. The person merely stumbled back a few steps and completely withstood the strike.

This made the shadow even more vigilant. Its hands morphed into a pair of sharp claws and slashed forward.

But suddenly, it seemed to sense something. Just before its claws could reach the target, it forcefully halted its right hand.

"Shh, shh, shh."

Across from it, Yan Jing extended a furry paw and pressed it against his lips.

"It's me, Pops."

Papa Rat immediately wanted to step forward and give Yan Jing a sharp rap on the head, but seeing Yan Jing's constantly wagging index finger, he ultimately made no sound.

He naturally hopped onto Yan Jing's shoulder and ruthlessly tugged at the two tufts of fur by his ears. "Where have you been these past few days?!"

"You don't answer my calls! You don't come home!"

Papa Rat tried hard to keep a straight face and put on a fierce look, but Yan Jing merely smiled and placed Papa Rat on top of his head.

"Sorry about that, Pops."

Papa Rat had expected Yan Jing to cheekily talk back to him. He hadn't anticipated an actual apology, which left him slightly stunned.

In the end, he opened his mouth but said nothing else, simply sitting down on Yan Jing's head.

"Where have you been hiding these past few days?" he asked.

Yan Jing chuckled. "I thought you'd first ask if I was the one who caused all this commotion."

"That's my third question."

Papa Rat's expression remained calm.

"I've been hiding with Mr. Luo these past few days."

Yan Jing smiled. "I killed two Seventh Ranks, so I had to let Mr. Luo wipe my ass for me. The two of us discussed things for a while and came up with some ideas."

Papa Rat's face remained impassive. "I thought you'd be sold out by that guy until you didn't even have your underwear left."

"Is your son really that stupid?" Yan Jing laughed.

"You're alright," Papa Rat said flatly. "A little smarter than I thought."

"So the idea you came up with involves the things inside this graveyard?"

"Yes and no," Yan Jing said.

Papa Rat sneered. "Spend enough time with that guy, and you even start speaking in riddles."

Yan Jing smiled. "Pops, thanks to you, Uncle Crocodile should have a great chance of winning this time, right?"

"Perhaps."

Papa Rat raised his head, gazing up at the sky that resembled a pitch-black curtain. "Some things just depend on luck."

"After this is over, you should leave with that guy. Go wherever he goes. Be smart, and stop always trying to play clever little tricks."

"What about you, Pops?" Yan Jing asked.

"Why do you care?" Papa Rat rolled his eyes.

"Actually, I have a plan that can turn danger into safety," Yan Jing said.

"What plan?" Papa Rat cast a sidelong glance at him.

Yan Jing's eyes sparkled. "I set up a treasure here that can attract Quan Dazhong. Once he shows up—"

"You, me, and Mr. Luo will rush out and beat him to death!"

"How about it? Isn't it a peerless plan?"

Before he could finish speaking, Yan Jing took a blow to the head.

Yan Jing looked up in bewilderment, staring at the object in Papa Rat's hand. "Wait, Pops, where did you even pull that newspaper from?"

"Is that the point?" Papa Rat said in exasperation. "The key issue is that we can't directly beat Quan Dazhong to death."

"Why not?" Yan Jing asked directly.

"Let me ask you, why do you want to beat Quan Dazhong to death?" Papa Rat countered.

"Two reasons," Yan Jing stated as if it were obvious. "First, Quan Dazhong wants to kill us and Mr. Luo, so this is self-defense."

"Second, if Quan Dazhong dies, Uncle Crocodile can become president."

"Heh." Papa Rat twitched his lips. "Let's talk about your first reason."

"Even counting you as a Seventh Rank, and that guy as an Eighth Tier, our side only has two Seventh Ranks and one Eighth Tier."

"On the other side, Quan Dazhong is a Seventh Rank with an Eighth-Tier Heavenly Kingdom Weapon. It looks like we have a Seventh Rank advantage, but the crucial factor is the Heavenly Kingdom Weapon in his hands."

"Under the protection of a Heavenly Kingdom Weapon, it's absolutely impossible for us to kill him in an instant."

"And if we don't kill him instantly, the Heavenly Kingdom Guard will descend."

"The Heavenly Kingdom Guard?" Yan Jing said. "You mean the Eighth Tier who protects the president?"

Papa Rat nodded. "Then what we'll face next are the Seventh Ranks and Eighth Tiers of the Four Major Conglomerates. How big do you think our chances of winning are then? Or rather, do you think we'd have any chance of winning at all?"

"Not even with a time-stop ability or something similar?" Yan Jing knew that Papa Rat had seen Luo Sheng use the March of the Moonlight.

Papa Rat shook his head. "Under the protection of Heavenly Kingdom Weapons, out of all the presidents the Heavenly Kingdom has had, only three died violently, and all of them were only Sixth Tiers themselves."

"These Heavenly Kingdom Weapons are seriously impressive..." Yan Jing couldn't help but sigh in awe.

"Second point." Papa Rat held up two fingers. "Do you think that if Quan Dazhong dies violently, Crocodile is guaranteed to be elected?"

"There are still over a dozen days until the general election. Do you think the Four Major Conglomerates would let someone who refuses to follow their orders get elected?"

"And if Uncle Crocodile does follow their orders?" Yan Jing smiled slightly.

"Then Crocodile will very likely become the next Quan Dazhong." Papa Rat sighed.

"In the Peace Heavenly Kingdom, sometimes, this is just how things are."

"You think violence can solve everything, but that saying doesn't refer to ordinary violence. It means..."

"Extraordinary violence."

"If Luo Sheng were a Ninth Tier, then yes, he could dictate exactly who he wants to be the president."

"The gap between the Ninth Tier and the Eighth Tier is that huge?" Yan Jing's eyes widened.

Papa Rat glanced at him and said mildly, "Tenth-Tier entities are known in the Heavenly Kingdom as Divine Envoys."

Divine Envoys.

Only a single word of difference.

Yet it represented the difference between mortals and gods.

"After the Eighth Tier, every subsequent step is a step toward becoming a Deity," Papa Rat sighed. "Although a Ninth Tier isn't equal to a Tenth Tier, it's still a step forward."

"You have to understand, at those later stages, you can't advance just because you want to. You need the people above you to vacate a spot for you."

"It's a quota system?" Yan Jing's eyes bulged like brass bells. A moment later, he muttered, "Then, Pops, based on what you're saying, this problem is unsolvable. If Quan Dazhong doesn't die, he'll keep being the president. But if Quan Dazhong does die, there's a high chance the Four Major Conglomerates still won't let Uncle Crocodile become president."

"Didn't you say you and that guy came up with a plan?" Papa Rat narrowed his tiny eyes, completely filled with distrust.

"Absolutely," Yan Jing nodded. "What I just said was only the rough draft. The real plan is ten thousand times better than that. Ten thousand times, Pops!"

"Heh—" Papa Rat gave a fake smile, then patted Yan Jing on the head. "I don't expect too much from that stupid brain of yours. As long as you remember what I just told you, that's enough."

"Got it, Pops." Yan Jing nodded. He then looked forward, placing his paw to his lips as he whispered, "Pops, I think someone is coming."

Papa Rat's gaze peered past the bushes. Sure enough, he saw a figure appear before the graveyard.

It was a black cat. Its fur was disheveled, and its eyes were blood-red.

It was extremely cautious, inching forward while probing its surroundings with weird energy, tightly gripping a pure white Crystal in its hand.

"Is that Quan Dazhong?" Yan Jing mouthed.

Papa Rat nodded.

"Black cats like this are the biggest bastards," Yan Jing mouthed again.

Papa Rat rolled his eyes at him.

As if they weren't black themselves.

The black cat slowly walked up to the Stele Forest. But just as he was about to step inside, his gaze suddenly flickered, and he looked toward a distant patch of bushes.

Something was wrong.

Quan Dazhong narrowed his eyes. A suspicious glint shone in his pitch-black pupils as he crept toward the thicket.

When he was just a few meters away from the bushes, he extended his claws and gently swiped. The shrubbery instantly cleaved into two halves.

There was nothing behind it.

However, this not only failed to dispel his doubts but made him even more guarded.

Glancing at the Stele Forest before him, he didn't try to enter it again. Instead, he walked in a different direction. The weird energy around his body expanded to maintain a thirty-meter radius, meticulously scanning the environment inch by inch.

Whenever he found a suspicious spot, he completely obliterated that area.

He wasn't afraid of leaving traces, nor did he fear causing a commotion. As long as there were no ambushes lying in wait here, once he found the lifeform controlling the Origin Plant, everything would be his.

Trees fell one after another. Eventually, he stopped in front of a particularly thick and sturdy tree.

All the surrounding trees had already been felled. Only this tree seemed slightly anomalous when his weird energy swept across it earlier.

The weird energy on his claws flickered like flames. A towering dark shadow gradually condensed behind him. In the next instant, it was as if a gigantic beast had brought its claws down from some unknowable height in the sky.

The sheer might of the attack was overwhelmingly vast, yet the moment it landed, the commotion vanished completely, culminating in a soft "snikt."

It sounded like the wind slicing through leaves.

The massive tree before him instantly disintegrated.

Two figures stepped out from behind the trunk.

"I told you, this probably wouldn't stop him." One of the figures shrugged.

Quan Dazhong's face grew exceedingly gloomy. "Who are you?"

"Hey, hey, hey, stop pretending." Song Yanjun laughed and looked at Zeng Chu beside him. "You have to admit, our President Dazhong has quite the acting skills."

Quan Dazhong didn't speak. He only slowly backed away.

He couldn't admit to being Quan Dazhong.

Because Quan Dazhong could not be a bionic species.

The president of the Peace Heavenly Kingdom could be one. The previous president could be, and the next one could be as well.

But Quan Dazhong absolutely could not.

Because he had risen to power specifically by suppressing the bionic species.

At the time, the era demanded someone to liberate the haughty nature buried deep in the bones of the Smart Seeds.

Back then, the Smart Seeds had already had enough of "equality" and "fraternity." The supreme rulers were clearly tyrannical, yet the laws forbade the Smart Seeds from exerting violence against the lower-status bionic species. To those Smart Seeds, this was simply unreasonable.

Therefore, Quan Dazhong appeared.

His emphasis on "returning to the ancient era" and "tracing back the primal origins" prompted the Smart Seeds to genuinely use every means at their disposal to vote for him.

But facing Quan Dazhong's "stubbornness," Song Yanjun burst into loud laughter. "Hey, hey, hey, Old Quan, don't mess around. You're making Mr. Zeng and me look like idiots."

"You don't really think we didn't know about this, do you? Hmm?"

He took out a photograph and held it out in front of Quan Dazhong. "Here, here—take a look at what this is."

Quan Dazhong's dark green eyes landed on the photo and could no longer look away.

It was a slightly yellowed photograph. On it was a black cat in the middle of shedding its human skin.

He was just about to flatly deny it, but unexpectedly, the photograph suddenly glowed with a blue light before projecting a line of text.

"Biometric identification successful."

"Match complete. Quan Dazhong's biological information holds a ninety-one percent match with the organism in front of it."

"Biometric comparison technology—"

Quan Dazhong instinctively blurted out, "Impossible. This requires nearly complete biological inf—"

Before he could finish, he froze. Suddenly, his whole body began to tremble uncontrollably. Fury ignited in his eyes, and he roared at the sky, "Big Rat!!!"

Far away, underground, Papa Rat, who only had his eyes peeking out of the dirt, looked over at Yan Jing, who was similarly buried in the soil. With a calm expression, he said, "He and I used to be—well, you could say we were colleagues."

"Later on, he betrayed me."

"Because he thought he had deleted all biological information related to himself that was over a 70% match. He believed this leverage had completely disappeared from the world."

"But in reality, it hadn't."

"I told you, Pops," Yan Jing nodded, his expression not showing much surprise. "At crucial moments, you still have to rely on me."