Chapter 1007: Chapter 1007

Following the blond chief of staff, the photographer quickly took his position.

Mayors generally have photos taken when signing bills, and these videos and images are mostly directly posted on the official website of White Jasmine Palace, becoming sources cited by major news agencies.

The photographer set up the camera and aimed it at the elderly man seated behind the desk, then clicked the first shutter.

Scattered dawn light filtered through the ancient glass windows, laying over the elderly man’s graying hair, as well as on the black and white document.

Soon, all nine bills were signed.

"Alright, now these nine bills are all in effect,"

The blond chief of staff took the documents signed by He Ao, sniffed, and looked towards the corner at the crucible, "What’s that scent? It’s quite fragrant."

He Ao smiled, turned his head to glance at the crucible, checking the time, it should be almost ready.

"Is it some kind of herb for restoring injuries?"

The blond chief of staff glanced at He Ao, recalling He Ao’s injury from yesterday, and asked in a low voice.

He Ao replied with a smile.

The blond chief of staff nodded lightly, then quickly left with the photographer, "Then you’re busy, I’ll head out first."

Watching the blond chief of staff leave, He Ao stood up, feeling the painful tearing of the wounds on his body, took out a filter and a silver test tube from the drawer below, and walked over to the crucible.

At this moment, his wristband vibrated, a call came through, it was Mid,

"Mr. Lin En, we’ve received messages from scouts tracking the Kopes Mining Mercenary Corps in the wilderness,

"The mercenary corps, originally running between Dawn City and Yilan City for Kopes Mining, after meeting with a messenger from Kopes Mining headquarters, has set off again, apparently heading towards Yilan City."

Mid looked at He Ao, speaking urgently, "But you don’t need to worry, they don’t have the Evis Space System Mercenary Corps to delay the troops in South City anymore, and Nolanka Group’s Mercenary Corps is still in the city, they can’t pose a major threat to us."

He Ao nodded slightly, "Stay alert."

Mid immediately responded.

He Ao hung up the phone, glanced at the boiling crucible and the countdown timer slowly reaching zero above it.

At the moment the countdown ended, he slowly picked up the boiling crucible.

He poured the lower clear layer from the separation into the secret silver test tube.

After everything was done, He Ao, standing in front of the window, held the test tube containing a red glowing liquid, and looked up at the fading light of dawn outside the window.

The dim light under the dawn sketched the silhouette of the city, and amid that hazy outline, within those high buildings, a gigantic human silhouette was slowly taking shape.

A cold breeze blew from the sky below, as if the footsteps of the Abyss, growing ever closer.

Judging from the ritual knowledge, in no more than a day, the power of the Abyss would fully advent.

Feeling the cooling completion of three Super Memory Marks in his mind, He Ao raised the secret silver test tube in his hand, aiming at that invisible outline in the sky, and drank it all in one gulp.

A power like blazing flames coursed through his throat and esophagus into his stomach, the surging flames instantly burst throughout his body, scorching his flesh, tearing apart his body.

Blood instantly soaked his shirt, then further seeped into his gray silk suit.

The wound that was initially healing suddenly tore open, feeling as though the split flesh was being torched on intense fire; the excruciating pain surged into He Ao’s mind like rising ocean tides.

The wriggling flesh buds on He Ao’s cheeks and arms seemed ready to burst through the skin at any moment.

Mr. Lin En, already weakened by hidden injuries, had already been unable to bear the power of promotion, plus several fierce battles left countless new injuries on his body.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been nearly impossible to complete the promotion with merely the strength from this body.

He Ao, with his tense body, staggered to brace himself on the desk to prevent himself from collapsing, then he activated Super Memory.

A powerful force instantaneously filled his entire body, the flesh buds under his skin were flattened in an instant by the stretched skin.

At the same time, a huge soul power also instantly enveloped his entire body, and then forcefully guided that flame-like power to travel through the energy circuit inside his body.

Time ticked by, under Mr. Lin En’s smooth skin, the flesh buds occasionally wriggled, then were directly flattened by the powerful force.

The scorching flames flowing inside his body gradually disappeared, melting away.

Correspondingly, the originally thin muscles on the elderly man’s body gradually bulged, and fine red radiance seeped from the blood flowing beneath his skin.

Accompanied by a sensation of mild itching, strands of wriggling flesh buds emerged from the already ruptured wounds, intertwining together, slowly stitching up the bleeding wounds.

It was unknown how much time had passed, but not until the bright moon hung high and the brilliant lights illuminated the quiet city did He Ao finally release his palms supporting his body, lean back, and sit down in a chair.

He lifted his hand, looked at his own palm, feeling the pulsating power within, then he opened his personal attribute panel.

[Authority Level: Advanced Player]

[Physical Fitness: 8221 (2619)]

[Skills: Talent Sequence 272: Super Memory (Grade B), Basic Firearms Mastery (Soul Part), Talent Sequence 144: Miracle Scholar (Grade B) (Unusable)]

[Mechanical Modification: None]

[Martial Arts: Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation (Grade B) (Partially Usable)]

[Character Skills: Talent Sequence 168: Legislator (Grade B)]

Physical fitness increased by 2240, it is clear that Legislator is not a combat-oriented talent sequence; such a significant increase in physical fitness should be attributed to the successful completion of the ritual and the contribution of martial arts.

He closed the personal attribute page, He Ao raised his head, and looked out at the night sky through the window.

After advancing to Grade B, there were many methods his body previously couldn’t endure that he could now employ.

"Hello, one at a time, please."

A plump woman, her face lined with fine wrinkles, carrying a large shopping bag, moved along the airship’s aisle and squeezed into a middle seat.

These small airships had nine seats in a row, arranged in groups of three with two aisles.

At this moment, the woman glanced at the surrounding seat numbers, then shifted her body and headed for row 42 on the left.

In this set of three, a thin red-haired girl was already seated by the window.

The woman placed her shopping bag in the overhead compartment, then settled herself beside the red-haired girl.

As people continued to arrive, the airship filled up, the woman played with her bracelet for a while, accompanied by the airship slowly ascending, her bracelet lost network connection, so she put it down and absentmindedly looked around.

This airship was not large, and by now, it was almost fully seated. After scanning around, the plump woman’s gaze returned to the red-haired girl beside her.

The girl had pale skin, a pretty appearance without makeup, which, alongside her flaming red hair, made her cheeks appear even more coldly elegant.

"Miss, are you also going to Yilan?"

The plump woman looked at the red-haired girl with some boredom and struck up a conversation, "Are you from Yilan? Are you here in Dawn City for a visit?"

Upon hearing the plump woman’s attempt to start a conversation, the red-haired girl was slightly startled, then she looked up at the plump woman, hesitated for a moment, and said in a cool voice, "I’m here to study."

"Studying is good, you look underage. Are you here to attend high school?"

The plump woman said with a smile, "Your parents didn’t come with you?"

Hearing this question, the red-haired girl paused again, and she shook her head, "No, I’m by myself."

"Alone, traveling through the wilderness to another city for school?"

The plump woman slightly widened her eyes, her tone also slightly raised, "You are so young, can your parents really bear it?"

The girl responded lightly, turning her head to look out the cabin window at the splendid city gradually disappearing into the night, "He’s very busy with work."

"How can parents be so careless?"

The plump woman seemed a bit angry and couldn’t help but complain.

"Look at me running my mouth,"

Then she realized something, lowered her head, looked at the red-haired girl, and cautioned carefully, "Miss, I shouldn’t have asked these questions. In the future, if someone asks you these questions, you can’t answer so honestly, especially letting people know you’re alone. There are too many bad people in this world."

The red-haired girl looked up at the plump woman beside her and nodded gently.

"Let’s talk about something else,"

The plump woman looked around and whispered,

"Do you know what’s been happening in Yilan City these past few days? The consortium’s army seems to have clashed with the Yilan City Government, and Yilan City has suddenly become a dangerous area. Now we have to take a big detour on our airships, there used to be over ten flights a day, now there are only two or three, and the tickets are still ridiculously expensive."

She smacked her lips lightly, "If I wasn’t worried about my family, I really wouldn’t want to take this airship. These airlines are so heartless."

The red-haired girl looked out at the pitch-black night sky and gently nodded in agreement.

White Jasmine Palace·Mayor’s Office

He Ao lowered his head, looking at the tree-shaped symbol drawn in front of him.

This was a flourishing tree, surrounded by some ’K’ shaped patterns.

Looking at the freshly drawn symbol, He Ao sighed lightly and tossed the piece of paper into the nearby burning brazier.

The ash inside had almost piled up into a small mountain.

He Ao then took another piece of paper from the side, picked up a pen next to him, and dipped it in some transcendent material which the Mayor’s Guard had found in the White Jasmine Palace’s warehouse.

His thought process should be correct; the [Arrogant Person] had succeeded in the same way before.

There might be some issue with the details.

He lifted his hand again and drew a new tree-shaped symbol.

The moment this symbol was successfully drawn, his thoughts stirred, feeling a shift in the keen mystical aura.

Not this one, but almost there.

He tossed the sheet of paper in his hand into the fire basin and continued to elaborate on this thought, drawing a few more sketches.

Eventually, when the sky turned pale with the first light of dawn at the city’s end, he finished the drawing in his hands.

It was a lush giant tree shaped like a ’K’.

Feeling the invisible mystical fluctuations spreading throughout the space, He Ao let out a slight sigh of relief.

Then he raised his hand and with a golden longsword, he sliced his finger, and quickly drew the symbol on his palm using his own blood.

In the misty haze, it seemed as though he could communicate with some ’higher’ existence through this symbol, but whenever he tried to connect, he felt as if a thin fog was entangling the ’existence’ he was trying to reach, preventing a successful link.

It was like dialing a phone that had been turned off; the existence could be pointed to, but not communicated with.

So, this was the situation.

He Ao took a deep breath and opened the character card interface.

[Would you like to spend 7 Exchange Stars to exchange for ’Saint’? (Your currently available Exchange Stars: 7)]

At the beginning of this Copy World, He Ao had 7.5 Exchange Stars; he had spent half a star to exchange for half a day’s use of King of Nightfall, leaving him with only 7 stars now.

If he exchanged for [Saint], he wouldn’t have more Exchange Stars left to exchange for usage time.

But then, contacting the force behind the character card didn’t necessarily require exchanging for the card’s usage time.

He Ao, looking at the card in his field of view portraying a tree branch and a white figure, made his decision.

[You have successfully exchanged for ’Saint’]

Accompanying the purple brilliance covering the card, He Ao looked at the symbol in his palm.

This time, the ’communication’ he attempted had no obstructions; the seemingly dormant ’existence’ was now ’awakened’.

And almost at the moment the communication established, He Ao felt his consciousness connect to a body enveloped in a warm radiance.

That body was sacred and pure, as if formed purely from light.

In that instant, the radiance spreading over the entire body began to squirm, causing the light making up the body to pulsate as well, followed by a tremendous great will descending upon the body through the connection of the light.

Then, almost without pause, this majestic will proceeded directly, descending upon He Ao’s body through the connection between him and the radiant body.

Seeding, breeding, proliferating, expanding, health...

A vast and profound ravings instantly filled He Ao’s mind, with overlapping voices narrating a desire for life.

Twisted contamination seeped out from his mind, spreading over his body, then transforming into a pure white radiance covering his body.

Blood glinting with red radiance swiftly seeped from under He Ao’s skin, staining him blood-red.

Following that, arms, thighs, body, head - all things made of flesh began to violently squirm.

His body seemed on the verge of mutating under the endless ravings into a warped monster obsessed with pursuing life.

However, He Ao’s expression didn’t change; his hand resting on the desk as he activated Super Memory, enhancing the strength of his body.

Then he raised his head, looking forward.

His will connected with the radiant body, also gazing forward, into the depths filled with light.

With his fingers covered in blood resting on the ancient desk, letting the storm-like contamination sweep through his mind, He Ao calmly gazed at the office space before him.

Beyond the endless timespace, at the deepest part of the twisted contamination, in that place filled with radiance, seemingly another eye gently lowered itself, silently watching him.

The two gazes crossed timespace and met, the Elderly sitting behind the desk slowly spoke, his rough, aged voice echoing in the stillness,

"Life Goddess, let’s discuss a deal."