Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1063: How Could There Be a Path to Immortality in This World? (71) — Combat Power 5.5

When Song Haoran walked into the ruins of the sacrificial altar, he saw a faint glow flickering from within.

He frowned and quickly approached, lifting a nearby boulder.

Hmm… when did my strength increase again?

Surprised by the sudden surge in strength, Song Haoran felt as if his power had grown out of nowhere. He easily lifted a boulder that looked like it weighed several hundred pounds with just one hand.

He frowned again. Could it have something to do with that giant arm that appeared from the badge right before he passed out?

There was no time to dwell on it. As he removed the boulder, he discovered what had been buried beneath—likely something originally hidden within the altar.

Now revealed due to the altar’s collapse.

“Another coffin?”

To his surprise, when he cleared the surrounding rubble, he found a stone coffin hidden deep within the altar. The material was strange—glowing faintly like a luminous pearl.

Clicking his tongue and narrowing his eyes, Song Haoran reached out and slowly pushed the coffin lid open—inside lay a woman.At first glance, he was struck by her beauty.

She looked no older than twenty, dressed in luxurious ancient robes, with a breathtakingly beautiful face. Song Haoran stared for a moment, visibly stunned.

He circled the coffin, carefully observing the woman. Eventually, he reached out and gently grasped her wrist.

Her skin felt real and soft, as if she were merely sleeping… but there was no pulse.

He checked for breath—nothing.

She had likely been dead for countless years, yet her body remained intact, just like in life.

Song Haoran had seen so-called incorruptible corpses before, but those were due to environmental factors. They turned into dry husks, completely different from this.

At that moment, a pearl clasped in the woman’s hands caught his attention.

Curious, he took the pearl and examined it in his palm.

But he couldn’t make anything of it.

Just then, the woman’s fingers twitched slightly—Song Haoran immediately stood and watched her warily.

She slowly opened her eyes… a hint of panic appeared in them, as if searching for something—her gaze quickly locked onto the pearl in his hand.

Suddenly, she lunged from the coffin, reaching for him.

Song Haoran was shocked but not afraid. However, when she got close, her expression changed.

Her lips moved, trying to speak, but her voice was rough and unintelligible—her vocal cords likely hadn’t been used in ages.

She stepped forward again, looking anxious—but suddenly collapsed.

“Huh?”

Frowning, Song Haoran saw her fall to the ground, motionless. After a moment’s hesitation, he helped her sit up, only to realize she had lost consciousness again.

“Why is her body so cold…”

Her skin felt like ice. A thin layer of frost had formed between her brows.

Thinking quickly, he stuffed the pearl back into her hands. Gradually, her body began to warm up again.

“Master Song… who is this woman?”

A Song family fighter hobbled over, using a submachine gun as a crutch.

“Found her under the altar,” Song Haoran replied plainly. “I don’t know either… for now, keep her with us. And don’t tell anyone about her.”

“Got it.”

Song Haoran asked, “How’s the search going?”

The fighter responded, “Nine dead, sixteen seriously injured, the rest lightly wounded… Suzuki-kai's lost a lot, only about ten made it out. Suzuki Yuichi and Suzuki Chun Xin were found too though they’re unconscious. We also found many others—those who were originally trapped in the crystals… What should we do?”

“Notify the outside team,” Song Haoran ordered. “Evacuate everyone from here first.”

As he spoke, Song Haoran took off his combat uniform and draped it over the mysterious woman, then carried her in his arms. “Let’s go!”

——

They encountered no further danger on the way out.

They retrieved Mu Xianghua’s body and spent over two hours making it through the secret passage.

Outside, the Li family had already withdrawn, likely regrouping in a nearby town. However, they had left a few behind to wait—just in case.

Though the Li family had pulled out mid-mission, at least they left someone behind. A token gesture of goodwill.

Still, Song Haoran had strictly ordered that no one speak of what happened in the tomb. The Li family’s attempts to inquire were blocked. As for the remaining Suzuki-kai members, they also stayed quiet after some "friendly encouragement" from the Song family fighters.

“Since Young Master Song is safe, we’ll be heading back first.”

The few Li family veterans had no choice but to retreat. Although the Song and Suzuki-kai members looked battered, they were still armed—and more than a dozen Song family fighters had remained behind.

After the Li family left, Song Haoran ordered his men to retrieve everyone still inside the tomb.

Then, carrying the mysterious woman, he entered a tent alone.

He had no intention of taking advantage of her—he was just curious about her identity.

Every time he removed the strange pearl from her hand, she would show signs of pain even while unconscious… she seemed inseparable from it.

By dawn, the Song family and Suzuki-kai had evacuated everyone from the tomb.

A young Song fighter came in to report: Suzuki Chun Xin and Suzuki Yuichi had regained consciousness. But after waking, they knocked out their Suzuki-kai caretakers and fled.

“Stay here. Get two people to guard the tent. Don’t let anyone else in.”

After giving instructions, Song Haoran stepped out to check the situation.

——

A dozen kilometers away, 'Suzuki Chun Xin' was now enduring the murderous glare of “Suzuki Yuichi.”

'Suzuki Chun Xin' could only chuckle awkwardly, then sighed. “Come on, Brother Ren Zhen, this isn’t my fault… Besides, we made it out alive, didn’t we? We escaped from the remnant soul of an ancient god! That’s enough to brag about in the Demon World for centuries!”

“Hmph!” 'Suzuki Yuichi' snorted coldly.

So bitter…

The original power of Yin Wolf Star had been right in front of him, only to be reabsorbed into Zi Xing’s body. After all that effort, they ended up with nothing.

“…Well, not exactly nothing,” 'Suzuki Chun Xin' muttered. “At least that mysterious powerhouse didn’t lie to us.”

Since waking up, Ba Qi and Ren Zhen both felt themselves grow weak again—the feeling of power surging through them had vanished. However, compared to before they entered the tomb, their condition had still improved significantly.

Just as the mysterious powerful being had said, this was their reward for escorting it—restoration of strength at a reduced rate.

But clearly, the strength remaining in their bodies was less than the initially promised 70% reduction—it seemed closer to an 80% reduction.

Ba Qi guessed it might be because some members of the Song family had died in the tomb.

That mysterious being really was stingy, calculating everything precisely… What a miser. Still, this was exactly why Ba Qi and Ren Zhen left the moment they woke up.

They didn’t believe that being would restore their power for free if it wasn’t secretly watching everything.

“Don’t try to fool me,” ‘Suzuki Yuichi’ snorted coldly. “In the end, you swallowed part of the remnant soul’s divinity, didn’t you? I want half of it!”

“Brother Ren Zhen, I nearly died for that!”

“Hmph.” ‘Suzuki Yuichi’ sneered. “We live and die together, share blessings and burdens—remember?”

“You... what are you trying to do?” Ba Qi suddenly had a bad feeling.

Unfortunately, that feeling quickly became reality. Ba Qi felt like his soul was being grilled over a fire, breaking into a cold sweat from the pain. “Damn it! You’re really ruthless—hurting yourself too?! Stop, stop! I’ll share it! I’ll share it with you!!”

“Good brother indeed,” ‘Suzuki Yuichi’ chuckled coldly. “Ba Qi, don’t forget—half.”

Screw you!

Ba Qi glared at him, extremely reluctant, then opened his mouth and spat out a glowing golden orb, tossing it toward Ren Zhen.

Without hesitation, Ren Zhen swallowed it whole. “Now what?”

Ba Qi rubbed his forehead and muttered, “If we don’t absorb the divinity and someone attacks us, we could lose it. Let’s find a place to properly absorb it. With this divine power, at least we won’t be targeted by the world’s will. We’re half-official now... As for the remnant soul, it probably escaped, but still contains a huge amount of divinity. Very tempting.”

“Don’t forget that mysterious being… That divinity might’ve already fallen into its hands,” Ren Zhen poured cold water on the moment. “Do you really think it was protecting those mortals? Obviously, it was after the remnant soul!”

“Ugh, you ambitionless slacker!” Ba Qi snorted. “Forget about the divinity for now… Don’t you want to reclaim the source of your Yin Wolf Star? We now know where your former host is—you really don’t want to plan something?”

Ren Zhen stayed silent for a while, then nodded.

The two unlucky brothers gradually disappeared into a forest path bathed in the light of sunrise.

———

In a dark cave, the man in the bronze mask coughed a few times before clutching his chest and struggling to sit up.

Hope rushed over to help.

Once upright, the masked man shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m not dead yet.”

Hope nodded, then sat back down alone, hugging his knees against the cave wall.

The masked man glanced at him. When he first found Hope, he was like this—leaning silently behind the Dragon-Sealing Stone in a sealed cave, lifelessly staring out.

He sighed and walked to the crystal coffin, which Hope had also relocated. After a long silence, he muttered, “Maybe this is fate…”

“You planning to give up?” Hope suddenly looked up.

The masked man shook his head. “I’ve prepared too long for this… Resurrection is only one part. Failure here doesn’t mean final failure. I just want him to see the era that belongs to us.”

He gently closed the crystal coffin and said in a deep voice, “I had you move the people from the Daoist Association and Demon Association to avoid interference while setting the seven Jade Dragon Pillars… We nearly had them all, but now those who were supposed to be sacrifices have escaped… We need new ones. Otherwise, the final formation won’t have enough power.”

“They already know what you’re planning.” Hope shook her head. “It won’t be so easy to capture them now—not like when they were fighting over the Edict.”

“The first Jade Dragon Pillar is already in place. Stopping now would mean losing everything…” The masked man looked at Hope. “No matter the cost, I will open the breach in Earth’s spiritual energy!”

He then sat cross-legged, needing to recover quickly if he wanted to act again.

———

Penglai Treasure Vault, somewhere.

Da Zhe picked up a stone and tossed it casually ahead—before him stood a stone forest.

Though many stone pillars had collapsed, curiously, the broken pieces were slowly regenerating.

“This forest can make people lose their way,” Wang Hu commented. After being thrown here, he’d circled back after a short walk. “Boss Luo, you all better be careful.”

Luo Qiu nodded, watching the self-repairing stone forest curiously. It was quite a sight—like time was reversing.

“It’s been self-repairing for a while,” Da Zhe returned and said. “Judging by how damaged it was, the battle here must’ve been intense.”

“Can we estimate the power levels involved?” Luo Qiu asked You Ye.

“It’s already done, Master,” You Ye suddenly said.

“Done? What do you mean?” Luo Qiu asked curiously.

She flipped her palm, revealing a plain black-rimmed pair of glasses.

Miss Maid smiled softly. “Didn’t you say before that quantifying supernatural power would be useful? So I tried it. This is the first prototype.”

“You really made it?” Luo Qiu was intrigued and immediately put on the glasses like a curious child.

“There’s a button on the side frame,” You Ye added.

Luo Qiu pressed it and looked at his maid. She said softly, “Using a normal adult male as a baseline value of 5, this measures exposed internal energy. Weapon enhancements are added too… It’s not perfectly accurate, and it can’t detect everything just yet.”

56,000,000.

That was the number Luo Qiu saw on You Ye.

“So this is just a baseline reading, not her full strength after unleashing her power?” Luo Qiu nodded.

“It will recalculate during power surges,” You Ye said. “This is just the first version. I’ll work on the second soon.”

“This is already fascinating.” Luo Qiu smiled.

What started as a passing comment back in South America had now become a working prototype. It was simple, functional, and quite to his liking.

With the black-rimmed glasses on, Luo Qiu’s scholarly aura seemed even stronger.

Wang Hu looked baffled—he hadn’t understood a word of Luo Qiu and You Ye’s conversation and could only frown.

Luo Qiu glanced at him: 3,736,900.

Then turned to Da Zhe: 27,691,000.

Finally, Luo Qiu extended his palm and looked at it through the black-rimmed glasses. On the lens, a small number slowly appeared:

5.5

“Hm…”

Well… at least it's 0.5 more, right?

Luo Qiu consoled himself.

(End of Chapter)