Chapter 68: Surge in Spirituality

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Surge in Spirituality

BANG!

There was no splatter of blood and gore as expected. As he fell, Feng Xingyun instead transformed into a brilliant burst of fireworks.

However, Chen Qi wasn’t fooled by the sight. On the contrary, his vigilance rose to an unprecedented level.

According to his research, the Spirituality and Consciousness that players brought into the Dream Duel Arena were not their entirety.

This meant that even if a player was killed here, they wouldn’t die instantly. The most likely outcome was becoming a vegetable.

But for the player, this just delayed their death by a second.

With their Spirituality critically damaged, a player who becomes a vegetable would inevitably lose control of their Card, leading to the Card’s "revival."

So it wasn’t Chen Qi who killed Feng Xingyun, but his Card, the Jack of Diamonds, that killed him.

And if what Felix said was true, the next stage would be the devouring of Spirituality. If so, Chen Qi might just witness the most terrifying existence a Mortal could imagine: a ghost!

...

According to the definition from the Life Sect, anyone possessing Spirituality is by necessity a form of life, and Spirituality must be possessed by life.

Based on this logic, Chen Qi came to a conclusion.

Spirituality only exists as long as life persists!

Once life perishes, Spirituality ceases to exist.

Chen Qi refused to believe the Dream Arena could alter this fundamental aspect of Spirituality. Therefore, to satisfy the condition of "initiating the devouring of Spirituality after a player’s death," there was only one possibility.

The player must transform into another form of life after death!

In other words, the legendary ghost!

The so-called devouring of Spirituality was just a person eating a ghost.

Although Chen Qi found it incredible, this was the truth he had arrived at through deduction.

’The King’s Game is already so unbelievable,’ he thought. ’A player turning into a ghost after death doesn’t seem so impossible, does it?’

...

However, after the fireworks faded, what appeared before Chen Qi was not some hideous ghostly creature, but a regular tetrahedron-shaped gemstone glowing with a seven-colored rainbow light.

If it weren’t twice the size of a Dream gem, Chen Qi might have thought he had just acquired another Dream gem out of thin air.

This gem before him emitted a mysterious fluctuation, but it was completely different from Spirituality.

The fluctuation was very similar to the graffiti outside, but it was also of a higher level.

Based on Chen Qi’s speculation, it seemed more like something left behind after Spirituality had been extinguished.

...

’Damn it, that illiterate Felix!’

’Bullshit devouring of Spirituality. This thing doesn’t have any Spirituality in it at all.’

’I was actually misled by an illiterate!’

It was impossible to describe Chen Qi’s mood at that moment. If Felix dared to appear before him now, he would surely die a very miserable death.

Chen Qi was now quite certain that Felix had never read the "Spirit Realm Declaration."

That old geezer’s understanding and definition of Spirituality were completely different from Chen Qi’s, who had been "educated" and influenced by the World Government.

However, this seemed to be the "norm." People in small kingdoms simply didn’t have access to this kind of knowledge.

If not for the appearance of the King’s Game, the Lanyu Kingdom wouldn’t have even seen the birth of Superpowers.

Even now, after the game had been running for decades, most players knew they possessed power, but not the principles behind it.

Unless some of them, like Jomoya Chris, came from an outside "Coban College."

Even though the latter was just a good-for-nothing who couldn’t achieve a Spirit Awakening, his knowledge and experience completely crushed the bumpkin players of the Lanyu Kingdom.

Tracing it back to its root, wasn’t Chen Qi only qualified to look down on Felix because he had inherited Jomoya’s Magic textbooks?

All he could say was that he had overestimated Felix’s level of education, or rather, underestimated "Jomoya’s legacy."

A systematic body of Extraordinary knowledge, even just the most basic parts, was not as mundane as he had thought.

...

’What a pity. I thought I’d get to witness the "birth of a ghost"!’

’What on earth is this gem?’

Ever since being targeted by the Blood Transformation Saber, Chen Qi had formed some speculations about the true nature of the bloody skull in the chip.

That thing was definitely not a living being, but it wouldn’t be wrong to consider it a ghostly creature from folklore!

Ultimately, Chen Qi’s entire understanding and definition of ghosts came from the folklore of Mortals.

In various folk tales and legends, ghosts differed wildly from one another, so these stories could hardly be taken as gospel.

In any case, that bloody skull was definitely not a "living" ghost!

Chen Qi had originally thought Feng Xingyun would "magically transform into a living ghost" and give him a surprise.

He hadn’t expected it to be a false alarm.

The root of the problem was that he had acquired far too little Extraordinary knowledge!

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be unable to see through to the true nature of this gem!

...

’Although this gem isn’t a Dream gem yet, I can sense that it’s in the process of transforming into one.’

’Once it becomes a Dream gem, it definitely won’t be able to increase my Spirituality.’

’So I have to make a choice, and fast!’

After a moment of thought, Chen Qi grabbed the gem in his hand.

If he were really being asked to eat a ghost, Chen Qi might have hesitated out of fear.

But since this thing wasn’t alive and was something left behind by his own kill, it would be ridiculous to still be terrified of it.

The moment Chen Qi touched the gem, it burst into a flash of light.

"Uh, is that it?"

After the light faded, the gem disappeared, but Chen Qi didn’t feel any major change.

He had thought he would gain some of Feng Xingyun’s memories, or perhaps the knowledge he had learned.

But he got none of that.

Yet, it wasn’t as if there was no change at all.

Chen Qi felt a deep, bone-marrow familiarity with the wind, with the flowing air.

It was as if they were old friends he had known for hundreds of years.

Chen Qi was confident that if he returned to reality, he would become the undisputed master of the Lanyu Kingdom’s weather forecasting world.

If he weren’t so sure he hadn’t gained the ability to control the wind, Chen Qi would have thought he’d acquired Feng Xingyun’s Superpower!

’So what I’ve obtained is actually Feng Xingyun’s cognition of the wind, or rather, his cognition of the Superpower he possessed.’

The essence of Spirituality is cognition. Chen Qi’s cognition of the wind had suddenly soared by a hundredfold, and so his Spirituality naturally soared as well.

Faintly, Chen Qi could now perceive his own physical body.

But he was still a long way from being able to break out of the Dream Arena and return directly to reality.

Perhaps that would only be possible after becoming one of the Awakened.

’I didn’t expect the Dream Duel Arena to have a third function: acquiring information about the abilities of other Cards!’

’The Game Monarch who created all this is a true genius!’

’What a shame it’s now in the hands of Felix. Such a waste of a divine gift!’

If it were possible, Chen Qi really wanted to snatch it all away and take his place, but unfortunately, the original owner would probably not agree.

However, after obtaining so much information, Chen Qi was certain of one thing.

As long as he didn’t tear down Chaotic City, the Game Monarch wouldn’t spare him a second glance even if he tore Felix to shreds.

Who could blame him? That guy had drawn too much of Gutaf’s hatred.

For daring to touch the power of the King’s Game, the fact that he was still alive was already incredible to Chen Qi.

Chen Qi suspected that the only reason Chaotic City hadn’t been forcibly demolished by the Lanyu Kingdom was that it must have received the "protection" of all the game’s High-level Players.

This was a volcano teetering on a fragile balance, destined to erupt sooner or later.

After figuring all this out, Chen Qi lost interest in this place.

In that case, it was time for "an eye for an eye"!