Chapter 39: Another Path

After much thought, a speculation arose in his mind. Chen Chong’s heart stirred sharply. He immediately returned to his bed plank and assumed the meditative posture for sensing qi. Calming his heart and clearing his mind of stray thoughts, he quickly entered a meditative state and began to circulate the faint strand of True Qi that had just been born within him.

After an estimated hour had passed, Chen Chong swiftly stopped his cultivation , then immediately focused his will on the Main God and received feedback:

[Materialization Power Reserve]: 1150 Units

It had silently increased by 2 units compared to before.

It was indeed so!

In that moment, Chen Chong’s heart was filled with surprise and delight!

He still hadn’t figured out the specific principle behind the increase of Materialization Power. All he knew was that back at the base, the Main God’s Materialization Power only grew to varying degrees when his mental reactions were intense due to pain, or when electricity from the shock experiments passed through his body.

And now, he had discovered another path: mental meditation and cultivating the “Ultimate Infinite Qigong” could also increase Materialization Power! Judging by the speed of his nearly eight hours of meditative cultivation, which yielded an increase of 34 points of Materialization Power, the efficiency of this method for growing Materialization Power wasn’t low!

Being able to increase Materialization Power just by meditating on his own, without needing Main God Fragments, was a vital discovery that greatly alleviated Chen Chong’s most pressing need!

“In that case, I don’t need to struggle over it. I’m still short by 340 units. Once I reach 1500 units of Materialization Power, I can translate both the ‘Vajra Indestructible Divine Art’ and the ‘Qi Blast Cannon Fist’!”

Chen Chong opened his eyes, his expression extremely excited:

“And the Muscle and Marrow Cleansing Pill! This item’s effect is to expel bodily impurities and enhance physique and aptitude. It should work on me too. Once I’ve saved a bit more Materialization Power, I’ll exchange for it as well!”

Chen Chong felt a surge of emotion, believing his current situation no longer seemed as difficult as he had imagined.

Rustle, rustle…

Just then, a large amount of noisy clamor suddenly came from the silent night outside the window, snapping him back to reality.

Chen Chong quickly walked to the window and looked out. It was late at night, and there were no electric lights in the room, not even any electrical wires. In the entire Crimson Territory, aside from the dim light of street lamps on a few main roads, the vast majority of low-rise residential buildings were completely dark. From his second-floor vantage point, he vaguely saw dense figures of people emerging from who knew where, walking shoulder-to-shoulder through the streets and alleys, disappearing into one dilapidated house after another, just like a large swarm of worker ants returning home.

“These must be the laborers returning from the various factories.”

Seeing this massive crowd, Chen Chong understood that these were definitely the survivors who worked themselves to the bone for the Blood General, just to earn a mouthful of food. The fact that they only got off work so late at night meant they had to toil over ten hours a day for the Blood General’s factories! One could say they had lost any free time; aside from sleeping, the moment they opened their eyes, they had to work for the Blood General!

He lifted his head and deeply glanced in the direction of the Blood General’s luxurious manor. He could faintly see that it seemed brightly lit there, forming a stark contrast with the pitch-black, dilapidated houses throughout the Territory. There was clearly an electricity supply in this Territory; it was just that these lowest-tier survivors clearly weren’t qualified to use it.

The noisy clamor drew closer and closer. Then Chen Chong saw group after group of figures pouring into the two-story building he was in. Immediately afterward, noisy footsteps and shouts came from the first floor and the second floor where he was, along with the loud curses and scolding of overseer lackeys:

“What’s all this ruckus about? Still full of energy, are you? Go back to your own rooms and sleep obediently! Anyone who can’t get up when the time comes tomorrow will taste my whip!”

The tide of people came quickly and left just as fast. Soon, the large number of figures in the darkness vanished like worker ants returning to their nest, leaving the entire Territory silent once more.

“I wonder what my roommate is like?”

Faint footsteps continued in the hallway and downstairs. Walking back to his own bed, Chen Chong recalled the poorly hidden schadenfreude on the two lackeys’ faces when they brought him to this room, and his heart grew vigilant.

He also noticed another strange thing: now that all the laborers were off work, in the entire building, there were footsteps and shouts downstairs and in the other side of the hallway, but his side of the floor had been completely quiet all along, as if no one lived on his side!

Tap, tap, tap…

Just as Chen Chong was thinking this, the sound of footsteps echoed from his side of the hallway in the darkness. It seemed someone was walking towards his room.

Then, with a creak, the door was pushed open. Expressionless, Chen Chong turned his head to look at the newcomer.

Standing in the doorway was a skinny, bony young man, wearing a dirty and torn leather vest, looking entirely unremarkable. This person, upon pushing open the door and discovering Chen Chong inside the room, immediately revealed a look of shock and strangeness.

“Who are you?”

In the darkness, the skinny man at the doorway asked Chen Chong, his voice hoarse and expression vigilant.

“Didn’t the overseer tell you?”

Using the faint moonlight filtering in from outside, Chen Chong carefully examined the roommate for a moment before withdrawing his gaze. Feeling a vague sense that something was off, he casually said:

“I’m new here and was assigned to live in this room. My name is Chen Chong, what’s yours?”

He had originally thought this room housed some ferocious, evil figure, and that Yin Hu had arranged for him to be here as a boring trick to show him who was boss. However, after actually meeting this mysterious roommate, Chen Chong discovered not only was the other party not an Awakener, but he was also so emaciated he looked like a puff of wind could blow him over. This was completely beyond his expectations.

“My name is…”

The skinny man at the doorway, however, fell silent for a moment and didn’t say his name. Then, as if he hadn’t heard Chen Chong’s words, he walked straight into the room, went to the bed on the other side, lay down, wrapped himself in a thin blanket made from some unknown animal fur, faced the wall, and never paid any more attention to Chen Chong throughout the entire process.

Hmm?

Seeing such an odd reaction from this roommate, Chen Chong frowned and asked again:

“Is it just the two of us living on this side of the hallway? I heard that the rooms next to ours seemed unoccupied. What’s the reason for that?”

Yet what answered him was still the back of a head sticking out from half a fur blanket.

“This person… is a bit strange.”

In the darkness, Chen Chong narrowed his eyes, observing the roommate opposite him for a moment before withdrawing his gaze.

In this absurd and dark world, there were all kinds of people. This roommate of his seemed to be the repressed and silent type. However, since the other party had no intention of communicating with him, he certainly had no plan to curry favor with someone who showed no interest.

In fact, the other party being taciturn and without excess curiosity only brought him benefits, not harm.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Chong didn’t lie down to sleep. Instead, he silently waited. A dozen or so minutes later, when the skinny man on the opposite bed began breathing evenly, Chen Chong immediately sat cross-legged, assumed the posture for the Ultimate Meditation Method, and simultaneously focused his will, returning to a state of emptiness.

Chen Chong had no intention of sleeping. This was because, after his long hours of cultivation during the day, he had discovered that when practicing the meditative cultivation of the “Ultimate Infinite Qigong,” his mind and body were in a state of nurturing and relaxation; he didn’t need to sleep at all.

To him, meditative cultivation was the best form of rest!

He had to admit, in such a profoundly silent, deep night, Chen Chong entered the meditative state much more quickly. The time it took was at least half less compared to entering the state during the day. After entering the meditative state, Chen Chong’s consciousness guided that strand of True Qi, which could only be described as faint, to circulate in a cycle. With each complete cycle through his body’s meridians, the True Qi imperceptibly grew a tiny bit stronger…

Time passed bit by bit, and Chen Chong’s spirit remained immersed in this world of emptiness and silence; circulating the True Qi through its cycle gradually seemed to become an instinct.

However, at some unknown point, a sudden sense of alarm surged from within Chen Chong’s heart, which was fully immersed in cultivation! As if it were an instinctive reaction to a threat, he abruptly opened his eyes!

The moment he opened his eyes, Chen Chong saw that in the darkness directly opposite him, the skinny man who should have been long asleep had sat up. His eyes were glowing with a faint green light, staring directly and intently at him!