A single girl couldn’t just be put in Wang Daolong's room. He had a principle of not being too close with women.
Note: Being close doesn’t count.
After weighing his options, Wang Daolong decided to move a folding chair from his room, wiped it down quickly, and then awkwardly grabbed the girl by her neck, lifting her up and placing her in the chair to let her recover at the door for a bit.
Just as Wang Daolong was tidying up, Zheng Shiduo strolled over with his hands behind his back.
When he saw the scene at the door, he froze for a moment, then gave Wang Daolong a surprised look.
Zheng Shiduo wiggled his eyebrows and said, “Xiao Zhengzheng, you’re naughty!”
“Neighbor, she fainted from blood loss, it has nothing to do with me, don’t spread rumors.”
Wang Daolong glared at Zheng Shiduo, “Why aren’t you resting in the dorm? Aren’t you supposed to be fighting underground later?”
Zheng Shiduo shrugged, “The couple of Chishe and Shenhai went down, so I have to stay here to protect you and Wu Man... though I’m not really sure who’s protecting whom.”
Wang Daolong sighed, “Of course, it’s you protecting me. I’m in pretty bad shape.”
“Alright!” Zheng Shiduo clapped his hands, “I’ll make the bed for the big boss!”
“Stop! Stand right there!”
Wang Daolong raised his voice, glaring at Zheng Shiduo, “Don’t touch my sheets! I don’t want to have to trade universal credits for new ones later!”
Zheng Shiduo sniffled, looking all wronged, “This is gender discrimination! I can be very helpful too.”
“Don’t make me kick you in such a beautiful place.”
“Got it! You keep doing your thing!”
Zheng Shiduo laughed heartily and quickly ran off.
Wang Daolong shook his head, worried that Zheng Shiduo might influence Wu Man in a bad way. However, Wu Man had her own trauma, and leaving her alone with Wan Xiaoqi could make her uncomfortable. She felt more at ease with Zheng Shiduo.
Zheng Shiduo might be a bit strange, but he was serious when it came to important matters.
Wu Man was seen as very significant by the military.
If you think about it... Zheng Shiduo liked to be passive... well, Wang Daolong admitted he just couldn’t understand that.
He glanced at the short-haired girl slumped in the chair, shook his head, and continued with his chores.
By the time he was almost done, the girl had woken up.
She was hiding at the door, only her eyes visible, and with a slightly strained voice from being nervous, she called out, “Um, um...”
“Hmm?”
Wang Daolong turned around with a smile, “It’s fine, no need to thank me.”
“Thank you... I’ll help you move the chair back...”
“No need, I’ll do it myself. You should go rest,” Wang Daolong smiled and refused, “Since we’re neighbors, please take care of each other later.”
“Okay, okay! I’ll go back now, thank you! Sorry for the trouble!”
The girl said softly, turning and running back to her dorm.
Wang Daolong soon heard a couple of loud noises—one was her slamming the door, and the other sounded like she bumped into something.
Since the next door was a girl’s room, Wang Daolong made sure to avoid peeking into her privacy with his spiritual sense.
—This building housed many young girls, and most of the caregivers were women.
Wang Daolong brought the folding chair back, cleaned it up a bit, closed the door, and prepared to sit comfortably on the balcony.
The light here came from natural sunlight, and later he could also absorb some sunlight to burn away the demonic energy in his body.
Just as he set up the area, his communicator vibrated gently.
Ling Tong sent a photo.
A group of researchers in white coats were gathered, discussing how to repair Ling Tong’s mechanical arm;
Ling Tong looked very relaxed, her long black hair cascading down, curled up in a hanging basket. Her unmade-up face was delicate, and her long legs perfectly filled her tight jeans. She was holding a romance novel with her slender, robotic arms, focused on reading.
Who took this photo?
[Ling Tong: Shh, it’s Wan Jie. Here’s a picture of my Tong Tong, please take a look.]
Wang Daolong almost laughed out loud.
[Wang Zheng: Captain Zhou is also in the group.]
[Ling Tong: Don’t worry, Young Master Zhou is selectively blind... If the commander sees me, I’ll use some tricks to delete the record.]
[Zhou Zhengde: Folks, who understands? After going to prison, I suddenly became nearly blind without glasses!]
Wang Daolong scrolled through the photo, a bit lost in thought.
He was considering whether to add a couple’s aspect to his heart-refining practice.
One concern was that emotional entanglements were a major source of inner demons. Many talented seniors in the cultivation world struggled because of emotional issues.
Being in a relationship can’t always be sweet; there will be arguments and disagreements, which can affect emotions.
Another challenge was that he had to wait until he reached the Golden Core stage... cough, for that kind of couple’s relationship... he wasn’t sure when he would reach Golden Core in an environment with thin spiritual energy. What if it took ten or eight years? Should he expect the girl to only have a pure emotional relationship until then?
In their cultivation world, dating, meeting friends, and close relationships happened once every few years, and that was fine.
But in this world, under the pressure of uncertainty, everyone was quite eager...
‘Don’t overthink it; who knows what will happen in the future?’
Going with the flow, not forcing things, and following one’s heart without crossing boundaries was the essence of heart cultivation.
Wang Daolong took a deep breath, silently reciting a calming mantra, and soon began to meditate.
He needed to meditate now to heal his soul’s injuries.
...
At eight in the evening.
Wang Daolong appeared in a construction site wrapped in blue canvas.
The main building was already topped off, everywhere was a cement color. On the second floor, Uncle Tai was controlling a construction robot to break through several walls, creating a spacious workshop with various instruments, equipment, and large stoves already arranged.
In the corner, there were two rows of boxes for Ling Tong’s parts.
When Wang Daolong arrived, Shen Hai, Zheng Shiduo, and Wu Man were playing video games, having a great time.
There was also someone who shouldn’t be there.
The military commander of Fortress 76, Dongfang Zhenghong.
Under Uncle Tai’s invitation, everyone gathered around a barbecue grill, next to which were skewers of pre-prepared beast meat.
Wan Xiaoqi gave up the best grilling spot, excitedly shouting, “Chef Wang is here!”
“Hahaha!” Uncle Tai laughed heartily, “As soon as I heard you were grilling beast meat, the commander came over to try it!”
“This stuff isn’t easy to digest, everyone shouldn’t eat too much. Xiao Qi, prepare more vegetables.”
Wang Daolong walked over with a smile, sitting right next to Dongfang Zhenghong, not bothering with any formalities, and skillfully started grilling meat and removing negative energy.
Before long, the whole floor was filled with delicious smells, and everyone was eating with greasy mouths.
“This is so satisfying!”
Dongfang Zhenghong exclaimed while biting into a piece of grilled beast meat. “We humans can finally fight back! In a physical way!”
Shen Hai asked curiously, “What’s the principle behind this? Why have we tried so many times to turn beast meat into food but it exploded, and eating it raw caused problems, making animals go crazy?”
Dongfang Zhenghong added, “The Thirteenth Institute even experimented on humans, and they went crazy too.”
“It’s very simple; it’s the power of the soul.”
Wang Daolong tried to express it gently: “Beasts are powerful because they have a system that’s different from our technology, and technological weapons can’t fully deal with them.
“As for why they appear here and why they slaughter humans, I can’t answer that... but luckily Shen Hai is here.”
“Hmm? Is there a problem?”
Shen Hai perked up after a day of fighting.
Wang Daolong asked, “In the underground beast lair, is there a type of glowing crystal?”
“Yes, many,” Shen Hai replied, “But these crystals don’t contain spiritual energy; they seem to be a special kind of ore. We also found that when beasts face danger, they consciously destroy these crystals to avoid being captured by us.”
Wang Daolong asked, “Can you get me some? I want to study them.”
“Sure, we’ll try to mine them, but they explode upon contact.”
“Take your time; that’s for future research.”
Wang Daolong handed out some grilled beast meat and grilled some vegetables for himself.
He couldn’t overindulge now; he needed to heal his soul’s injuries first.
“Commander, how’s the situation on the front lines?”
“It’s basically stable now.”
Dongfang Zhenghong said briefly: “After the young king bug died, most of the surrounding beast groups retreated. Everyone achieved great results this time. If it weren’t for the commander’s order not to expand our territory recklessly, we might have pushed our defenses outward.
“Additionally, we’ve explored all the details of the underground lair. We didn’t find any external passages, only a route to an external C district mine that’s already half blocked... so where did this young king bug come from? This is something we must clarify next.”
Wang Daolong praised, “This commander truly has exceptional insight.”
“Of course,” Uncle Tai said with a smile, “the commander is the strongest human I’ve ever seen.”
Dongfang Zhenghong cleared his throat and explained his purpose.
He said, “Wang Zheng, I know you might be busy, but I was wondering if you could meet with the commander secretly if there’s a chance later?”
“I probably can’t go to the front lines recently,” Wang Daolong answered cautiously.
He needed time to heal and cultivate.
Now that he had created such a laid-back environment, he didn’t want to break it voluntarily.
Dongfang Zhenghong immediately said, “No problem, the commander might secretly come here later. Zhengde has been praising you over there.”
Uncle Tai widened his eyes, “Is there really a need to praise? That’s just recounting specific achievements!”
Everyone chuckled.
Wang Daolong said, “What I’m most worried about now is that the things I bring out might be discovered by the Thirteenth Institute.”
“That won’t happen for now.”
Dongfang Zhenghong said seriously: “If it were another war zone, the possibility would be high.
“But in our D5... the commander has a complete team here, thanks to long-term management.
“Just like me, half a student of the commander, there are nearly a thousand of us spread throughout the D5 military system.
“Although the Thirteenth Institute is trying to infiltrate, they still hesitate when facing the commander.”
Shen Hai added, “The commander must divide life and death with those SS-level spiritual beings. This spiritual rebellion against humanity from fifty years ago needs to come to an end.”
Zheng Shiduo sighed, “No matter the era, humans are always fighting among themselves.”
“This isn’t actually human infighting.”
Dongfang Zhenghong corrected him: “If you look at the overall situation, the main theme of the war has always been between humans and beasts. Now, spiritual beings have effectively become a third-party force based on the human world, trying to control the remaining human forces.
“Us old-timers who are responsible for commanding local battlefields often think about a question.
“If the City of Spiritual Energy becomes the de facto capital of humanity, what will the spiritual beings do?
“I’ve always been confused because I don’t understand why they try to control every fortress and every human. If they succeed, what will they do next? They have been pushing to undermine the fortress governors, like the former biological minister, Kong Nu.
“The fortress governors are elected by the representatives of the entire population. Although it’s just the upper city voting, governors don’t just manage the fortress; they represent the collective will of the fortress, participating in the joint governing council of the battle zones and comprehensive battle zones.
“The council for the Central Basin battle zone is called the Central Basin Joint Governing Council, and the D5 comprehensive battle zone has the D5 Governing Representative Assembly.
“The former decides the allocation of regional resources, while the latter determines whether the human front will counterattack or shrink, decides whether the battle zone will enter an expansion or contraction cycle, and allocates population and builds new fortresses as reserves or to expand the population, etc.
“Although what everyone often interacts with are these two levels of military command centers, it’s because we are in a war era, and all resources are prioritized for military allocation.
“The governors themselves, along with the representative assembly they form, are the current political form of humanity.
“What the City of Spiritual Energy wants to build is essentially a spiritual empire that commands all humans to obey their orders.”
Zheng Shiduo muttered quietly, “What else could it be? The desire to rule all humanity.”
“This desire actually comes with the immense pressure from the beasts,” Shen Hai shook his head, “I think the SS-level spiritual beings in the City of Spiritual Energy have other plans.”
Wang Daolong said softly, “It’s possible they want to promote themselves.”
Everyone looked puzzled, and Dongfang Zhenghong seemed to be pondering.
Wan Xiaoqi asked, “Promote? Isn’t the energy level of spiritual beings fixed?”
“I can’t be sure, but... can you answer me one question? How old are the SS-level spiritual beings? Do they look old when they last appeared?”
Zheng Shiduo immediately said, “They’re at least in their nineties to over a hundred years old. Now that you mention it, some SS-level spiritual beings who have appeared in recent years don’t look old at all, and a couple of women look like young girls. Everyone says they must have drunk beast blood to stay youthful.”
Oh no.
Wang Daolong sighed inwardly.
As he suspected, there must be high-level spiritual beings who have preliminarily mastered the use of energy and likely embarked on their own path of cultivation...
He also wondered if there were any geniuses among them.
However, Wang Daolong certainly wouldn’t dare to provoke them now; he was only at the early stage of the Gathering Spirit realm, and honestly cultivating was the right path.
Uncle Tai asked curiously, “Why the sudden question, Teacher Wang...”
Just as Wang Daolong was about to answer.
Woo—woo—
A long and low alarm sounded from Dongfang Zhenghong’s wristwatch.
Dongfang Zhenghong immediately tapped his watch twice.
“Commander! Air raid alarm! A missile was launched from the vicinity of Fortress 82, heading towards us! The expected landing point is twenty-five kilometers northwest of Fortress 76 in the desert!”
Dongfang Zhenghong’s face turned pale.
“Shoot it down.”
“Yes!”
(End of Chapter)