Across Deep Space: Four Men and a Play

Chapter 163 Prophet Li - The 'Secret' of the Duke's Mansion.

On the other side, Mo Yuanming was very happy to hear the news of Xia Jiumeng's upgrade after finishing his work.

After arranging the remaining work, he immediately went to find Xia Jiumeng.

"Knock down."

"Enter."

Mo Yuanming looked at the young lady whom he had not seen for a long time with a dazed look in his eyes for a moment. His previous serious yet somewhat childish face gradually merged with the current cool but imposing figure.

"Congratulations, Miss, on upgrading your abilities."

"Thank you." Xia Jiumeng smiled. "What brings you here today?"

This guy always finds things to do for himself. Doesn’t he have something to deal with again?

"Miss, I do have something to report to you." Mo Yuanming smiled.

Xia Jiumeng: She just knew it.

"what's up?"

"Regarding the Duke's secrets, since the young lady has survived this ordeal, I think now is the time to tell her everything."

This piqued Xia Jiumeng's interest. "Confidential? What kind?"

Mo Yuanming looked around and said, "Miss, if you are interested, why not come with me to take a look?"

"Okay." Xia Jiumeng immediately put down what he was doing and stood up.

Mo Yuanming made a gesture of invitation.

As soon as Xia Jiumeng nodded in agreement, Li Shen immediately turned into a cat and ran out from behind the screen on the side to catch up.

Mo Yuanming paused, this cat...

Xia Jiumeng bent down and picked up the cat. "Can't I take him with me?"

It seems that Mo Yuanming had suspected Li Shen's unusual behavior last time when he and he tried to stop him from going to Longcheng.

But it doesn’t matter, who in this world would have thought that cats could turn into humans, haha.

Mo Yuanming sighed slightly. It was nothing, just a low-level exotic beast. It was not a problem.

"No, Miss, please feel free to do as you please."

Mo Yuanming took Xia Jiumeng to the largest master bedroom in the Duke's castle, which was the room where the old duke once lived.

It is called the master bedroom, but in fact it is several hundred square meters, and even has a separate study, balcony garden swimming pool, and wine bar. It is no different from a luxuriously decorated house, except that it does not have a kitchen.

Mo Yuanming brought Xia Jiumeng to a huge photo mounted on the wall of the study and stopped. "Miss, we're here."

A gorgeous relief photo frame extends from the wall, and the photo shows a handsome middle-aged man holding a little girl of seven or eight years old and smiling happily.

This is a photo of father and daughter.

But, Mo Yuanming wouldn't bring her to see this, right?

As if he saw her confusion, he smiled and pressed the wall at the edge of the photo frame, and a very subtle sound of mechanical gears turning was heard.

The huge mural embedded in the wall also opened from the middle, revealing an elevator.

"Downstairs." Mo Yuanming said as he entered the elevator first.

Xia Jiumeng also followed. As soon as they walked in, the mural behind them closed automatically, fitting so tightly that it seemed as if it had never moved at all.

The elevator went straight down and finally stopped after a few minutes. When the door was opened, there was a spacious and deep passage with a retro wall lamp on the side that was glowing faintly.

At the end of the passage there is a huge, thick metal door and two fully armed guards.

"Captain Mo, Miss."

The two guards looked at the approaching person and saluted quickly.

"Yeah." Xia Jiumeng and Mo Yuanming nodded slightly.

"Open the door, I'll take the young lady in."

"Yes!"

After Mo Yuanming verified the information, the two guards also followed suit.

[Verification passed. 】

The heavy metal door slowly rose up, revealing the scene inside.

There was a gem-inlaid display stand in the middle of the spacious space, with a pink-blue sea urchin-shaped crystal core suspended in it. Surrounding it were several half-human-high cylinders, each with a few diamond-shaped or triangular cores, but they looked a little dim.

Xia Jiumeng looked carefully and found that there seemed to be very light pink and blue lines on the cores, which could not be seen without careful observation.

"What is this?" Xia Jiumeng looked at Mo Yuanming in confusion.

"This is the core matrix." Mo Yuanming said, looking in the direction of the core.

"Core matrix?" She looked at the cores and felt that they looked very familiar.

She seemed to have seen this scene before.

A strange thought flashed through her mind, but it flashed so quickly that she didn't even have time to catch it.

"Yes, this core matrix is used to nourish the etheric core."

"The ether core is extremely special. It contains infinite power, but unlike other cores, it remains active even after being removed and will dissipate as its activity diminishes. Therefore, it requires the matrix to nourish it."

Otherwise, the performance will end up disappearing gorgeously on the spot with a "pop".

Because of the special nature of the ether core and the powerful energy contained within it, no one wants it to disappear, so someone developed this method.

Use the property of the ether core to absorb abnormal energy and other core forces to maintain the activity in the ether and prevent it from dissipating.

Ether is special and precious, and it is very expensive to maintain. Even if ordinary people have it, they cannot keep it.

The ether in the entire Philos can be counted on two hands, and most of it is controlled by various royal families or top forces, who are not only rich but also powerful.

Mosta is also very special as one of the top five countries, as their country has two.

In addition to the Duke's Palace, the royal family also has an ether. The power extracted from it contains a violent factor, which can be made into a special potion to temporarily increase attack power and damage, and is used in the royal army.

However, the aftereffects are also very severe. After the effect wears off, you will be weak for more than a month and unable to use any supernatural powers.

The ether in the Duke's Mansion has another ability besides increasing the core level as known to the outside world, which is amplification.

The core energy upgraded by ether will be more flexible and easier to absorb, speeding up the upgrade of superpowers without any side effects.

It is equivalent to a purification effect.

Although wild cores can be absorbed, there will be some impurities. Excessive use will lead to accumulation of impurities. The mildest consequence is a downgrade in supernatural powers, and the most serious consequence may be mutation.

Fortunately, there are now reduction drugs that can remove some impurities from the body through regular injections and maintain the level below danger.

This potion was discovered by the First Queen before the Great Chaos. It was found on the core plasma wall. Although it is rare, each person can have a few.

Unless the core is absorbed in large quantities without restraint to enhance the ability, the human body can slowly metabolize impurities during normal upgrades.

The impurities in the average person's body on Philos now do not exceed 40%, and normal mutations have not occurred for many years.

"So this is the secret of the Duke's Mansion?" Xia Jiumeng didn't catch the strange feeling and didn't think about it anymore.

He raised his eyebrows as he looked at the core in front of him.

Although ether cores are rare, according to her understanding during this period, many people know that the Duke's Mansion has ether, even the royal family knows it.

"Of course more than that."

Mo Yuanming smiled mysteriously, "Miss, aren't you curious why the royal family, knowing that the ether is in the Duke's Mansion, didn't try to get it, but instead turned a blind eye?"

"Oh?"

"Because no one but you can control this core."

Speaking of this, Mo Yuanming also found it very magical.

When the old duke knew that he was dying, the royal family was also ready to take action. At that time, the old duke directly invited the royal family over and let the royal family get close to the core.

And tell them that this core cannot be used. The royal family has sent batches of people over the past six months, and even people from other forces are mixed in with them. When the old duke found out, he did not stop them and even made it easier for them.

The result was that not only could the core not extract energy, it even resisted anyone approaching and began to dissipate.

It's just a piece of junk with nothing but good looks.

After exploring it, everyone found it strange and boring.

Strange because it's ether, boring because it's a piece of 'junk' that's completely empty and has no substance.

But after everyone gave up on the core, the old duke took the core and the young lady to the former king's study and stayed there for a night.

After returning the next day, he sent people to build this secret room and placed the core here.

The royal family also announced that the title, which was originally non-inheritable, would be allowed to be inherited by the next generation after they completed the trial after reaching adulthood because of the old duke's special contribution to the kingdom.

He and his brother were brought here at that time and learned the secret. However, in just one year, his brother's level soared like a rocket and he successfully entered the selection of the Zongheng team and became its core and even one of the captains.

And he stayed here to protect the Duke's Mansion and the young lady.

Xia Jiumeng was also shocked and curious when she heard Mo Yuanming's slow arrival.

This core can recognize people?

"bump!"

"Uh."

Mo Yuanming looked at Xia Jiumeng's disbelief and took a few steps forward to prove it. He reached out to take the core, but he didn't expect that the originally quiet core suddenly exploded with a powerful force in the next moment and directly knocked him out.

"Mo Yuanming?" Xia Jiumeng was startled.

"Miss, don't worry, I'm fine." Mo Yuanming was hit against the wall by the force, leaving a hole in the extremely dense wall.

When I touched my chest, it was slightly sunken.

Broken ribs.

He took a deep breath, endured the pain in his body and stood up.

"No one but you can get close to this core. You can try."

Xia Jiumeng pursed her lips and looked at the quiet core not far away. The violent energy that was emitted just now seemed like an illusion. Not only did it disappear without a trace, but when she looked over, she even felt a faint sense of gentle kindness.

Simply outrageous.

How could she sense kindness in a core?

After hearing what Mo Yuanming said, she subconsciously wanted to try it, but Li Shen in her arms couldn't help but meow.

"It's okay." Xia Jiumeng touched Li Shen's head and put him on the ground.

"I'll be careful."

She was also curious about what this thing was, so she used her supernatural power to condense a protective shield on her body and approached it carefully.

But until he touched the core, there was no movement, let alone being knocked away like Mo Yuanming.

Xia Jiumeng “?”

Just... you touched it like this?

Does this thing really recognize people?

Looking at the crystal in the palm of her hand, Xia Jiumeng could even feel pleasure?

Xia Jiumeng used resonance for some unknown reason. The core vibrated slightly and emitted a bright pink light. The lines connecting it to other cores suddenly became much thicker. The next moment, with a "puff" sound, a smaller diamond-shaped core was spit out.

That’s right, vomiting.

Suddenly, a crack opened up in the middle of the ether core and a smaller light green diamond-shaped core fell out, just like a person spitting something out of his mouth.

After spitting out this core, the ether core did not change at all, but the cores at the top of the surrounding cylinders all turned into powder and disappeared.

Mo Yuanming ignored the pain when he saw this scene and hurried forward, "Miss, can you let me test this core?"

He asked, pointing at the pale green diamond-shaped core.

Xia Jiumeng nodded and said, "Okay." and handed the core to him.

Li Shen also curiously circled around Xia Jiumeng twice. He could clearly sense the powerful force of this core, which was even not inferior to Asta's core in its heyday - 'Creation', as well as the trace of consciousness contained in it.

It is peaceful and quiet, without any aggression, yet there is a subtle sense of oppression that cannot be ignored.

But, isn't that level of power the power of God?

Why would there be another one?

Is it true, as Jiu Meng said, that God is actually just another more powerful existence beyond the cognition of this world?

[Detecting....] Mo Yuanming turned on the portable detector the moment he received the core.

[Test completed]

[Core: Wood

Level: 55

Purity: 100

Grade: S

Mo Yuanming's eyes widened instantly. Purity 100? ???

Or S-level?