Reverse flow of the Yellow Springs

Chapter 139 Shocking Change
The convoy drove out of the bustling metropolis and into the vast wilderness.

"Just leave like this?"

In the passenger seat, a woman harassed Cheese, saying, "According to the original plan, you'll be away from him for a long time. When you parted, you just hugged him, didn't you say anything? Did you do anything? You're still too young. If it were me, I would have made him walk with his arms around the wall."

As someone with experience, she seemed to sense that Cheese had an urge to express some emotion when she hugged him. But in the end, she chose to remain silent.

“I’m leaving soon, and the outcome is uncertain, so why should I hold him back? Therefore,” Cheese’s gaze shifted, and he softly replied, “I’m more looking forward to our next meeting.”

“Yes, the fact that we met means you’re all still alive.” The woman, Ye Bushou, sighed softly. “Actually, you could have stayed in the giant city. We old folks could have left this to you. You’re too young; there’s no need for you to get involved in such dangerous operations.”

"You're talking nonsense again," Cheese calmly replied. "This is our shared sorrow and wish, so how can we keep letting you carry this burden?"

On the other side, Li Yelai watched the departing convoy until it completely disappeared from sight.

In the cold wind, the warm embrace felt like a dream.

He gently rubbed his still slightly flushed cheeks, then turned and left.

As the first psychic Li Yelai met, Cheese's relationship with Li Yelai evolved from working partners to close friends and neighbors.

Her departure left Li Yelai with a faint sense of melancholy.

But he didn't get sentimental; instead, he wished her well and supported her in achieving her goal.

Afterwards, Li Yelai rushed to the underground research institute.

His psionic armor has been repaired; it's time to accept the Mountain Lord's clone.

Two hours later, after several detours, he finally arrived at the underground research institute.

Unfortunately, he couldn't use his abilities in broad daylight, and he couldn't drive. Traveling was proving to be quite troublesome.

A colleague suggested that Li Yelai learn to drive and get himself a car, so he could travel around more often.

But Li Yelai was a little hesitant. Although he had some savings after becoming a psionicist, he still had the peculiar nature of a vehicle assassin.

One slip and the car's totaled! Oh, Old Ma, Old Ma!
I miss the Thunder Dragon Steed once again.

Li Yelai thought to himself and walked to a factory located in the suburbs of the old city.

After presenting their identification and verifying their identity, they were able to enter successfully.

Then, they took the elevator that went directly to the underground level, fifty meters below.

This place was originally a branch of the Church of the Embers, but it became an official underground shelter during the Fog of Calamity.

After the fog cleared, this area became a research zone for studying insect swarms and the characteristics of extraordinary organisms.

The Nightfall Mountain Lord was thus contained within it.

As the elevator doors opened, a huge research hall came into view, with a faint smell of formaldehyde in the air.

In the center of the hall was a huge transparent glass container filled with blue liquid, in which the corpse of a Forbidden Army Insect was submerged.

The surrounding walls are lined with many laboratories. Through the semi-transparent glass windows, you can see researchers conducting various experiments. Some are dissecting and observing the characteristics of extraordinary organisms, while others are analyzing the genetic structure of organisms.

Here, it seems there is only research and exploration of the unknown, an endless pursuit.

Li Yelai didn't disturb them. Instead, he walked through the lobby and laboratory, and took the elevator again, arriving deeper underground.

The upper echelons only study the corpses of supernatural beings.

Deep underground, in a large room, live supernatural beings are preserved.

Their abilities are all quite unique or precious, requiring further research and observation.

Led by the person in charge, Li Yelai passed through the heavily guarded area and arrived at a large room on this floor.

After verifying my identity information again, I successfully entered the room.

The Nightfall Mountain Lord, bound by chains, is located here.

It remained as majestic and ferocious as ever, lying prostrate in the room like a small mountain. Compared to before, its body seemed a little thinner.

During the fog of disaster, it also encountered swarms of insects and was forced to fight them.

Coupled with the lack of food available to the authorities at the time, it was forced to eat insects, which resulted in poisoning.
After being rescued, it became much more cooperative with humans. Of course, it's possible that it was acting.

Nightfall Mountain Lord sniffed and opened its four tiger eyes to look at Li Yelai.

After a brief moment of surprise, it let out a deep tiger roar.

'You're still alive? When I sensed my clone had perished in battle, I assumed you had too.'

"Just lucky." Li Yelai responded in the language of the virtual beasts: "In the end, we suppressed the insect swarm and defeated the disaster fog."

"I know," Nightfall Lord replied. "Otherwise, you wouldn't even see a hair on my head; you'd have been devoured by the swarm long ago. Now, you're here to claim your clone? What strength do you need?"

"Fourth Awakening." Li Yelai responded. Li Yelai's combat power is stronger than before, and he is no longer far from the fourth awakening. He plans to obtain a fourth awakening Mountain Lord clone.

'Arrogant human, you might be able to suppress a third-awakening clone at second awakening, but you can't suppress a fourth-awakening clone at third awakening! You should know the strength of fourth awakening!'

Nightfall Lord narrowed his eyes: 'Even if you can erase the clone's self-awareness and memories, depriving it of many attack methods, its instincts still exist. When it discovers that its controller is far weaker than itself, it will inevitably retaliate! Can you suppress the Four-Senses Clone?'

It wasn't that it was worried about Li Yelai's safety, but rather that it was genuinely afraid of dying.

Now, it's kept in a government-controlled enclosure, well-fed and cared for—much more comfortable than being the overlord of a restricted area. But it's also well aware that humans treat it well because it's useful to them; if its clone were to kill the government personnel, it would truly be finished.

“Okay.” Li Yelai nodded, and this wasn’t blind confidence. He had fought the War Insects and the Hunting Insects in the Disaster Fog, and his physique was now even stronger. Among the official Awakening Processors, he was definitely among the strongest.

Nightfall Mountain Lord hesitated, not daring to entrust its life to Li Yelai's confidence.

'I have to try it out,' it said.

The person in charge nodded and said, "Okay."

So, one of the chains was unlocked.

Nightfall Mountain Lord twisted its body, its long tail casting a shadow behind it.

The shadow quickly materialized in the room, transforming into a robust, black tiger.

This giant tiger was over three meters tall at the shoulder and over eight meters long. Its enormous size, like a dump truck, was awe-inspiring. Its cold gaze was fixed on Li Yelai, as if assessing its prey.

'This is a clone of me at the fourth level of my awakening power. Back in the day, I was the one who dominated that area.'

Before he could finish speaking, a golden light suddenly flashed.

The divine general's image appeared out of thin air, his enormous hand gripping the tiger's nape, pinning it firmly to the ground.

The giant tiger clone was completely unprepared for this turn of events and was suppressed to the point of being unable to move.

Nightfall Mountain Lord gasped.

It was this very move that brought it down back then!

Therefore, it had no further comments.

Soon, with the intervention of the official personnel, the Mountain Lord's clone of the Four Senses had its memories erased with a single blow. Its eyes revealed a clear-eyed stupidity, and it obediently entered Li Yelai's halberd.

In the fog of disaster, Li Yelai lost almost all of his equipment.

Now, we have gradually upgraded our equipment.

Currently, the only drawback is the mount. This will need to be traded with Black Umbrella again after returning to the Ark.

I don't know if selling information about my own abilities will be enough.

Li Yelai was pondering this when he heard the voice of Nightfall Mountain Lord.

'This is Jing Chong's Dharma form? How could someone at the Third Awakening level possess such an ability? You...'

"Jing Chong?" Li Yelai was a little puzzled, but then he realized what was going on.

This Nightfall Mountain Lord comes from the forbidden zone facing Yaoqing Giant City, the Immortal Ruins!
Moreover, it was captured by the Jing family and used as one of their trump cards for future generations. This is also part of the family's heritage, a way to better cultivate the spiritualists within the family and to prepare the Mountain Lord clones specifically for their use.

During a subsequent transport and transfer, the Mountain King and certain forbidden items were stolen by the Church of Ember.

As for Jing Chong, he should be the Jing family patriarch who later became the Eight Judgments, and Jing Lin's great-grandfather.

The Supreme Martial Lord of Yaoqing Giant City.

"Were you captured by that Jing family patriarch?" Li Yelai asked. He naturally wouldn't tell Shan Jun about his facial makeup abilities. So, he changed the subject.

"I was defeated by Jing Chong. Jing Chong has already become a Supreme Being?" Nightfall Lord asked, puzzled, then sighed, "Yes, I've been imprisoned for a very long time, so long that even my once evenly matched opponents now look up to me. Humanity's growth rate is still too fast for us."

"What a fine match!" Li Yelai quipped. "Your next sentence isn't going to be about how you once challenged the Supreme Martial Venerable, is it?"

The person in charge smiled and nodded upon hearing this.

Shan Jun looked at Li Yelai with a strange expression. The Supreme Martial Lord?
From Li Yelai's conversation, it seemed he wasn't a member of the Jing family? But the scent of blood he carried...

Afterwards, Li Yelai fell silent again when he met Yemu Mountain Lord.

Without asking any more questions, he picked up the large black umbrella and left with the person in charge.

Only after everything had calmed down did Nightfall Mountain Lord whisper aloud.

As an extraordinary being from the Immortal Ruins, Lord Nightfall knows some of the secrets of the Immortal Ruins and also knows why the Jing family suddenly rose to prominence.

Now, Li Yelai's unusual circumstances make it impossible not to make more connections.

'Could it be the divine son of the Jing family?'

If Li Yelai heard this, he would probably slap it twice. What kind of god is as unlucky as it?

The next day, Li Ye went to the treatment department's private hospital.

He plans to visit Xinghuo, Zhongqi, Benlei, and others today.

They were the most seriously injured in the disaster fog, and judging by the time, they should be discharged from the hospital soon.

After studying pure biomass, the official medical standards have been improved once again.

Although limb reconstruction is not yet possible, it's not far off. Benlei's body was severely contorted at the time, but he has received proper medical treatment.

When Li Ye arrived at Xinghuo Hospital, he saw Chongqi and Yingliu.

The heavy cavalry healed its injuries earlier and successfully broke through to the third awakening, but it still had a stern face.

Xinghuo said fearfully, "Sister, you don't seem to have come to visit me, but rather to mourn me. I thought I was lying in a coffin."

Xinghuo's injuries had almost healed, but some scars remained on his body, bearing witness to his bravery at the time.

However, Li Yelai also remembered that this guy had stolen his offerings and ended up getting diarrhea.

So, after meeting, Li Yelai mocked Xinghuo mercilessly.

Xinghuo said indifferently: "You've been out of contact three times in the disaster fog. If the fog hadn't disappeared the third time, I would have had to prepare a third offering for you. Then, I would have stolen another batch after you came back to life!"

"Brother Ye, don't listen to my brother's nonsense. He was devastated when he learned that you had gone missing." Yingliu interjected from the side, "Sister Chongqi also looked sad."

The taciturn heavy cavalryman's face stiffened slightly.

"No, that's not true. I just didn't want to waste the offerings." But Xinghuo stubbornly retorted, "Who knew that Ye Jiang would be doing sit-ups, dying and coming back to life, coming back to life and dying again!"

A warm feeling welled up in Li Yelai's heart, and then he asked, "Are you going to take your third nap?"

"Soon. Combat is the best way to advance. I'm growing rapidly in battles against the Zerg swarm," Starfire replied.

This is not an isolated case. In particular, low-awakening psionicists who experienced the swarm attack during the disaster fog all began to break through after the fog ended.

The Detective and Shadow Stream have both reached their second awakening, the Heavy Cavalry has reached its third awakening, and Starfire is also not far from reaching its third awakening.

Li Yelai's fellow newcomers have all had impressive promotion speeds.

Especially the heavy cavalry, whose promotion speed is closely following Li Yelai's.

The instructor who was training the new recruits was overjoyed, but sadly, he perished in the disaster fog.

The disaster caused heavy losses to humanity, but fortunately, a number of new psionic beings were also born among them.

Today, all branches have been replenished with enough fresh blood.

“Speaking of new recruits, I plan to become an instructor after my third awakening, to mentor them and stabilize my own power,” Xinghuo said.

Li Yelai nodded; he himself dared not mentor newcomers.

He then asked, "Which room is Benlei in? I'm planning to go see him."

Thunderclap was undoubtedly the number one hero in the disaster fog, not only giving advance warning of its arrival but also buying the giant city twenty minutes to evacuate.

Finally, it escaped from underground, revealing the location of the 'Insect Lord'. Although it was the Insect Lord's conspiracy, no one would know this secret.

"He was seriously injured, but the treatment is going very well. He's in the innermost ward on the fourth floor," Yingliu said. "When I passed by just now, I heard his teammates chatting with him, and he seemed to be in a good mood."

Li Yelai smiled and said, "It seems he has recovered very well. Who came to see him?"

"Judging from his voice, he seems to be a Flying Man," Shadowstream recalled. "That should be his codename."

Li Yelai's smile froze. Flying Hero?

That's Thunder's Ranger teammate, Flying Man?

However, apart from their leader, Thunder, all the other members of the Ranger squad have been killed!

Starfire and Shadow Stream hadn't reacted yet.

The heavy cavalrymen's expressions instantly turned serious.

Li Yelai stood up and said, "Notify the branch to evacuate everyone from the hospital!"

(End of this chapter)