Chapter 40: The Eternal City
“Permission verification passed.”
The heavy gates opened outward to both sides, and the shuttle carried its passengers into the Main City.
The outer perimeter of the Eternal City had been all yellow dirt and gray dust, resembling an uncivilized medieval village where even the latrines were open-air.
Unexpectedly, the Main City featured far more modern technology, with streetlights lining the roads. Bright light spilled from the windows of the castle, suggesting that the rooms inside were fully equipped with appliances. The roads were paved with stone bricks, wide and smooth.
Xiang Nanli perceptively noticed a change.
His built-in internal AI had entered “No Signal” mode.
Xiang Nanli attempted to send a message to his boss, but a red exclamation mark appeared beside the chat box.
Xiang Nanli: [Xiao Zhi!]
[Hello, please check your network settings. I have activated offline mode.]
[Xiao Qing—why is there no signal?!]
[A signal jammer.]
[You won’t suddenly go into hibernation, right?]
Dongfang Qingdi: [I’m not the kind of bargain-bin junk worth twenty thousand credits.]
Hey, what kind of bargain-bin junk costs twenty thousand credits anyway?
The shuttle ascended the mountain along the stone road, leaving the residential district behind as the lights gradually dimmed. Only the warm yellow glow from the circular watchtowers along the road remained lit.
It was a snowy day, and the ground was slick. The shuttle was an old model that slid backward two or three times while climbing the slope, drawing mild grumbles from the contestants on board.
The schedule for this year’s selection trials differed too much from previous years. In particular, the sudden change of venue simply because “a big shot wants to watch” made these underground fighters extremely uncomfortable.
Yet, since the hosts ran the event, no matter how many complaints they harbored, they could only swallow them down.
Dongfang Qingdi sat by the window, eyes closed, quietly sensing the surroundings for a moment.
[The distress signal originated from inside the castle.]
The signal was intermittent.
— This is Apostle III: Gospel No. 1.2.5.
— Damage level: 89%. Requesting assistance.
After a moment’s thought, Dongfang Qingdi retrieved an electronic ID card at random from his database and transmitted an electronic signal back along the same wavelength:
[*Hello, Gospel. I am a scout-type Omnic soldier of the Omnic Legion, ID code ***. Please provide specific intelligence.]
The distress message, unchanged for tens of thousands of years, suddenly altered.
— The Omnic Legion? A soldier?
Gospel struggled to scan the source of the signal.
Machines did not rely on eyes to identify targets, but rather on scanned data. As an Omnic, its method of judgment was slightly more flexible. However, Gospel could currently rely only on data recognition.
It lacked vision, but it had already read Dongfang Qingdi’s identity.
A scout unit under the Glorious Legion of the Omnic Legion—and a model from six hundred years ago at that. Dammit, does Alpha not upgrade hardware for scout units? Cheap bastard. What use was a single scout unit? The moment a signal jammer turned on, it would be rendered directly paralyzed.
Wait, isn’t one active right now?
— Danger… leave…
— Warning, error.
It was evident that this iteration of Gospel was indeed severely damaged. It couldn’t even transmit a clear, coherent distress text.
It was fortunate that Dongfang Qingdi possessed superior components; otherwise, he wouldn’t have even detected an Apostle here.
— Provide me with specific intelligence, Gospel.
Dongfang Qingdi waited for a full two minutes before receiving a new message.
— Inside the Eternal City, the Holy See has used Gene Serum on Mutants, Xenomorphs, and other organisms to breed ‘Holy Spirits’ for eighty years.
— ‘Holy Spirit’ is the Holy See’s collective term for all transcendent monsters. A giant beast resembling a hydra raised by the Eternal City is currently in a critical incubation phase.
— The Holy See possesses a specialized method to control the Holy Spirit. This is core technology of the Holy See; they guard against me and pass intelligence strictly using paper.
— Based on known intelligence, my conjecture is that they will select a human for blood sacrifice. The Holy Spirit is akin to a ‘biological mecha,’ and the chosen person is the ‘pilot.’ A freshly hatched Holy Spirit is still very young; through blood sacrifice, they will fuse together on a physical level, and their mental levels will mutually influence each other.
— The High-Grade Lifeform Selection Trials are designed to choose its pilot.
— I do not wish for the Holy Spirit to hatch. This kind of monster is far more terrifying than Mutants, and it requires continuous feeding on flesh and blood to replenish its energy. Every ordinary person in the Eternal City will become its sustenance.
— Please relay this intelligence to Alpha and have him send immediate reinforcements. Tell him this is a request from Gospel.
— Oh, right. There is also a Holy See Lord-tier Knight in the city.
Having been out of touch for centuries, Gospel No. 1.2.5 clearly lacked a clear understanding of the outside world.
It believed the space fortresses of the Omnic Legion were still hovering in the sky, capable of deploying massive reinforcements in just a few minutes to suppress a mere Holy Spirit with absolute ease.
Gospel felt that although Alpha was insufferable, its mechanical integrity could still be relied upon. Though it had betrayed Xiang Nanli’s original intent in creating it, it still maintained universal humanistic values and would not sit idly by and watch such a disaster unfold.
Unless, over these centuries, Alpha’s personality had undergone another massive shift that Gospel could not comprehend.
Transmitting this message exhausted almost all of Gospel’s remaining energy. It immediately entered hibernation mode.
The ruler of the Eternal City had removed its controllable nuclear fusion battery.
Which generation of City Master had that been? The third or fourth? The City Master had claimed it was far too indecisive, obstructing the development of the Eternal City. Back then, the Eternal City had not yet fallen into slavery.
Fortunately, Gospel had been sharp enough to hide a solar battery to charge itself; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been any different from being dead.
Yet, for its massive body, the energy provided by a single photovoltaic panel was far too minuscule.
…Forget it. Leave the rest to Alpha. Perhaps the next time it woke up, it would be inside the Omnic Legion’s electronic prison.
After reading the message sent by Gospel, Dongfang Qingdi fell into deep thought.
Holy Spirits—Dongfang Qingdi had heard of them inside Donghuang Heavy Industry’s laboratories.
A tipsy employee had once asked their Chief Scientist: “Boss, between our mechanical Crawlers and the ‘Holy Spirits’ created by the Holy See, which one is stronger?”
That scientist, regarded as their bellwether, was still very young—some fifty or sixty years younger than his colleagues. His name was Mo Bai.
He had pushed up his glasses: “It depends on what stage the Holy Spirit is in. When newly born, it’s roughly comparable to a giant Mutant.”
That meant a Level 50 elite monster.
Dongfang Qingdi believed he could handle it. However, there was also a Lord-tier Knight (LV.100) in the city, whose combat capability was roughly equivalent to a Glory-class Omnic.
When battery power dropped to 2%, weapon modules would automatically lock. His current power level sat at 5%, but that was fine—3% was enough power to resolve the current problem. At the very least, it was enough to take Xiang Nanli and escape safely.
Thus, Dongfang Qingdi temporarily contained the anxiety within his heart.
Xiang Nanli was still reading through the reference books copied into his electronic lens when he felt a hand reach over from the side.
“Xiao Qing?” He paused his reading, his expression filled with surprise. “Why are you holding my hand out of nowhere?”
And gripping it so tightly, too.
[Gospel told me that a Mutant-like monster is being raised beneath the Eternal City. The Holy See calls it a ‘Holy Spirit.’ It is currently in the hatching phase and could break out of its shell at any moment.]
[I recently discovered that holding hands improves energy conversion efficiency. There might be a tough battle ahead soon, and I hope to make complete preparations.]
He didn’t look like he was joking.
Xiang Nanli hesitated: “…Then go ahead and hold it.”
He didn’t particularly enjoy physical contact with people.
But Xiao Qing wasn’t a person.
Xiang Nanli felt the metallic structure on his fingers; the energy storage ring fastened over the knuckle felt like a ring.
The imposing gray castle stood atop the mountain peak. The shuttle passed by it without stopping.
The vehicle’s destination lay behind the mountain.
A massive, circular Roman-style colosseum—looking as though it had been carved out and embedded directly into the mountain.
The entire colosseum was brilliantly illuminated, forming a perfect circle when viewed from above. The surrounding Roman stone pillars were reinforced with embedded steel rebar, supporting the sweeping arc of the tall perimeter wall.
At the bottom lay the arena pit, while semi-suspended corridors were constructed along the walls to allow people to watch from above. Even higher up were dedicated VIP rooms fitted with curved, one-way glass, enabling the occupants inside to observe the outside world freely.
“Where did the Eternal City get so much money?” Xiang Nanli couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
This colosseum was beautifully constructed, but its practical use cases were limited.
A contestant beside them offered a friendly explanation: “The City Master isn’t the original owner of the Eternal City. This city has a history of four or five hundred years… the colosseum was built by the people before them.”
To construct such a “miracle” out in the wilderness, the Eternal City back then must have possessed staggering wealth.
The shuttle stopped at the colosseum’s entrance, where a red carpet had unexpectedly been rolled out.
The tournament committee staff appeared to have been waiting for a long time, a layer of white snow dusting their shoulders. His expression was impatient: “Insisting on arriving right on the deadline… whatever, get inside quickly. The opening ceremony has already started. Contestants follow me to the backstage, and the rest head this way and take the elevator to the spectator stands.”
The crowd split naturally into two groups, leaving only Dongfang Qingdi still standing beside Xiang Nanli.
“I withdraw,” he stated directly.
Knowing full well that the Eternal City was unsafe, Dongfang Qingdi could hardly tolerate leaving Xiang Nanli’s side.
From this, it was clear that ignorance was indeed a form of bliss.
The staff member sized him up with an arrogant, harsh glare: “From Gusu City? Fine, but withdrawals can’t be done individually—the whole team has to forfeit together. Call your manager over to sign off and clear out.”
Sirius glanced back at them, his expression filled with confusion.
Yet he uttered no objection. Rhein would never sign off on it.
Dongfang Qingdi’s lips tightened.
In the end, Xiang Nanli spoke up: “Xiao Qing, it’s fine. I’ll just be in the spectator stands.”
He patted Dongfang Qingdi’s back reassuringly.
Xiang Nanli felt that Xiao Qing was acting like an anxious, restless large animal suffering from separation anxiety.
“Sirius is still waiting to win the prize money to buy nutrient paste for his younger siblings… don’t be so willful,” he said in a low voice. “If anything happens, I’ll call you. I’m an adult; we’re not conjoined twins.”
Dongfang Qingdi lowered his head, his long hair falling beside his face. The hand clenched into a fist slowly opened: “Understood.”
