LightReader

Chapter 15 - Chapter 14: Long Life Diary 1

On this day, Zhang Zhi went up the mountain to tell his second brother the good news.

Unfortunately, the second brother left a letter and had already gone traveling, leaving the house empty.

The things happening to Zhang Zhi were naturally known to Zhu Zhengwei.

Although initially surprised, he quickly understood the reasoning behind it.

His college classmates of the same generation lived as NPCs in this world, and upon their death, their souls dissipated, becoming a cloud server. Naturally, highly energetic "Qi" could be sensed during this dispersal.

"Second brother has gone traveling but will return in the future."

Zhang Zhi looked at the sky, increasingly filled with awe and immense dread.

Only when certain people die does Qi dissipate.

And these people almost all have the characteristic of being born around the same time as the second brother.

He recalled the mythical birth scene of "Heaven above, Earth below, only I reign supreme," and he had his suspicions.

It must have been infused with the Spiritual Qi of a "Divine Spirit" being born into the world, giving that generation of babies such a unique constitution, very special, impregnated with Qi that dissipates upon their death.

This is the entry opportunity for one to sense Qi.

However, should there be malicious individuals intent on killing them to seize Qi, it would surely lead to a great catastrophe!

"What on earth is the divine nature of my elder brother, that even babies born in the same period are like this?"

Zhang Zhi couldn't help but say, "If ill-intentioned people kill them to steal Qi, what can be done?"

What Zhang Zhi perceived, Zhu Zhengwei also perceived.

But he trusted his third brother, who was reliable and wouldn't use this as a pretext to commit evil and kill those NPC miners everywhere.

And even if a big problem occurred and people started killing to eat Qi, the NPC classmates in dreams, once dead, would continue to mine for him and provide cloud computing power, which was irrelevant!

Fifty-four years old.

Zhang Zhi was indeed not one to adhere rigidly to conventions; this year, he started cultivating the Qi Eating Skill.

With the passage of time, he waited bitterly for those fifty people to pass away, attended their ceremonies one by one, absorbed their dissipating Qi, and eventually opened the door to the Qi Eating Skill, able to sense the Qi of Heaven and Earth.

In fact, his Qi now exceeds Zhu Zhengwei's by several tens of times in grandeur.

Because he absorbed the Qi of over fifty people, he instantly became a big shot in the cryptocurrency circle.

Of course, he isn't selfish; after these years of testing his character, he tentatively taught a few favored students, but unfortunately, although they were smart and sharp, they had no talent in this regard.

"Teacher, you have cultivated the Immortal Skill."

Zhang Zhi's disciples knew that in these ten years, the teacher hadn't aged. He had even become younger, maintaining the appearance of a forty-year-old, perhaps having entered that mysterious door.

The teacher visited his elder brother on the mountain every year, a scene observed by them.

They even secretly envied it, and couldn't help but go to the mountain privately to visit, only to find that the strange man had long gone traveling.

...

...

In the library.

Various English books are neatly arranged here.

At this time, a scholarly middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a Zhongshan suit, was reading a book in the sunlight,

"In the year 1793, Consby first announced the description associated with hemophilia."

"In the year 1823, Scorren first discovered the real cause of hemophilia and named it hereditary coagulation disorder."

"In the year 1939, American doctor Caspar Blinckhous discovered that most hemophilia could be supplemented with a certain coagulation factor in the plasma, which is now known as factor VIII."

Zhang Zhi continued to read.

Hemophilia, superstitious parents thought it was a curse.

But it was actually a genetic disease.

Over the years, Zhang Zhi kept studying this disease, and sent his favored students away, for this matter is better researched alone.

He simultaneously began studying the principles of the Qi Eating Skill, researching his own body.

From the clothes of his second brother as a child, he discovered his second brother's bloodstains, and after studying them, found a kind of mysterious power circulating within, continuously flowing.

Apart from his second brother, those unique human groups who dissipate "Qi" upon death also possess this mysterious power, albeit much weaker than in his second brother.

They all have "Qi" on them.

"Qi, in essence, is not breath; it is a kind of soul factor, soul energy."

However, poring over the books collected over the years, Zhang Zhi finally felt some confusion, discovering the contradictions of this world.

The civilization previously developed so rapidly, with continuous contributions from various scientists, but since 1999, from the moment of the second brother's birth, world civilization began to stagnate in some way.

Why?

Why is this happening?

He raised doubts for the first time about the existence of this world.

Over the years, he had already discovered anomalies, poured his efforts into building academies, and educated others, yet couldn't resist the current of civilization's regression.

He clearly felt:

the world is reverting to an agrarian society.

Sixty years old.

Zhang Zhi noticed that as he aged, his former prized students also grew old, and gradually looked at him with a sense of envy.

He knew this look well, just like when he envied his second brother back in the day.

He sent these students away to other places to teach, gradually fading the teacher-student relationship.

He simultaneously felt loneliness, and somewhat understood the loneliness of his second brother.

It was a feeling of not fitting in with others, some things can only be explored alone.

Eighty years old.

In these twenty years, he continued researching and followed the path his second brother once took.

He almost went up the mountain every year to see if his second brother had returned from traveling.

His elder brother's daughter also passed away from old age, leaving two boys, both with illnesses.

On this day, Zhang Zhi heard of the passing of his most valued student, Zheng Linshou, one of the three praised by his second brother back then, the one most specialized in chemistry under him.

He was among the few students who looked at him with sincere yearning rather than those eyes of jealousy and desire, but he still distanced himself from them.

Zhang Zhi was silent for a few seconds, extricated himself from the laboratory, and went to the student's home.

He saw the remains of this withered old man, the grieving family, and a letter he left for him.

The letters were filled with desires and longing for himself, hoping to follow by his side once more.

The last sentence read,

"Teacher, all these years, I have been dreaming, dreaming as if there was a next life, a past life... You said, if there is an afterlife, would I meet you again as your disciple?"

Zhang Zhi fell completely silent, his eyes slightly moist.

He looked at the remains and suddenly sensed something,

"Does he have Qi?"

Ninety years old.

The laboratory was filled with test tubes and glass bottles containing reagents and various liquids.

Here lies the remnants of modern society.

This is the final struggle of technological civilization.

Everything in the world of Zhang Zhi revealed one message: human civilization is collapsing.

The machines and devices here, if one is damaged, there isn't another; no place left to produce them.

"No, the blood culture failed."

"Qi, combined with blood cell factors, there should be a method to treat this hemophilia."

Zhang Zhi discovered a way to treat hemophilia through research, improving the anti-hemophilic globulin in the plasma, storing Qi in this special blood, circulating it throughout the body.

"Qi is soul energy, in the brain, it only strengthens the mind."

"But if this soul energy flows through the body with the blood, circulating with the meridians, it might strengthen the body?"

Zhang Zhi was shocked, as if seeing a mysterious path unfolding before him.

This brand-new path.

Second Brother said he was born with innate knowledge, a deity born to eat Qi, presumably long embarked on this journey, cultivating the mind, and nurturing the body, both complementing, is the true Qi Eating Skill.

He himself was just beginning.

"Is this Second Brother's cultivation method? That power is truly enviable." He gazed into the distance; even a trace of this mysterious power just catching up to Second Brother's footsteps filled him with deep dread and trembling.

"Physically strong, an incredibly terrifying strength of flesh and body."

"Unfortunately, though I've found a direction, achieving it is still a challenge."

...

A hundred years old.

Over the years, the first group and the second batch of server miners who came in were secretly absorbed by him, Qi Eating a hundred people.

Zhang Zhi felt the Spirit Skill study maturing, his power expanding rapidly, spiritual power breaking free from certain constraints, the whole world suddenly clear.

"Is this it?"

He opened his hand, and a book floated in front of him.

Feeling an invisible, intangible spiritual power tentacle extending with his mind, grasping the book, "Am I... Qi Manipulating?"

Hahahaha!

He suddenly laughed, picked up the book, and wrote fervently, "Second Brother gave me 'On the Enlightenment of Qi-Eating Creatures', he encompasses all living beings, but I cover mere mortals, paving the way for them."

He thought for a while, and wrote a beginning.

First Chapter of 'On the Theory of Qi and the Enlightenment of the People'.

.

A hundred and ten years old.

Zhang Zhi noticed the students in the entire academy looking at him with increasingly different eyes.

He was too old himself,

And yet retained enough youthfulness.

Greed, plunder, dread, desire, all kinds of gazes intertwined, causing his heart to fall silent again.

One by one, old acquaintances passed away, this place seemed to have nothing worth lingering for, and he didn't have enough power to resist that greed.

He clearly understood, he ultimately only grasped the first chapter, nurturing the mind, without having researched the Divine Factor, to let the blood circulate "Qi" and throughout the body, ultimately, he was just a mortal with some unique abilities, someone could easily kill him from close quarters.

He suddenly had a strong feeling that he should depart.

At that moment, he vaguely understood why his brother chose to wander far.

There was nothing left to cling to.

He chose to feign death and escape, leaving his research's 'First Chapter' as bait.

On that day, the entire academy was filled with wailing.

Zhang Zhi disguised himself as a hunchbacked old man cleaning toilets and left.

He abandoned all the vast wealth accumulated in his life, countless students, endless glory.

He felt if he continued researching in the laboratory, he would never figure out the second chapter, he needed to practice it, labor through hardships, travel the world to comprehend the second chapter.

Wuwuwu!

The world mourned the passing of Mr. Zhang Da, using his favorite Nietzsche phrases to praise him, but all this seemed to Zhang Zhi as if it was a eulogy for himself:

[Whoever shall make man resound, must long remain deeply silent.]

[Whoever shall ignite lightning, must long wander like a cloud.]

[My time has not yet come, some are born only after death.]

Loud voices pierced through the school, tearing the sky apart.

That year, he feigned death and escaped, already at the age of 112.

"He..." Zhang Zhi, while leaving the campus, thought of that man with a tear mole, finding him again, the world might finally unveil the truth in the mist.

I too shall embark on that long journey, seeking that man named Divine Spirit, the elder brother I grew up with, to ask and understand.

Having absorbed the Qi of over a hundred people, how much of my lifespan remains?

He didn't know.

But he would use the remainder of his life to tread mountains and rivers.

He vaguely felt a great endeavor awaited him, like the legendary phoenix, enduring hardships and worldly flames, to be reborn from fire, discovering the stagnant truth of this world.

He looked towards the azure sky, as if hearing the God of Destiny whispering softly in his ear:

Come, Zhang Zhi, I'm waiting for you there!

More Chapters