Chapter 644: Nothing Like a Free Meal

While Chen Chen and Wang Xi were engaged in a battle for the ages, something else was transpiring in the Spire Experimental Base in another corner of the earth. The light on a cryogenic chamber had turned from red to green.

With a swift beep, the cryogenic chamber built with high-offset metal components unlocked and its cover pushed upward with steam oozing out of it, revealing a dark-haired young man with his eyes shut inside.

If Wang Xi would chance upon this scene, he would undoubtedly be baffled by what he was seeing. The young man slumbering inside this cryogenic chamber for who-knew-how-long was a mirror copy of Chen Chen!

“Sir Godfather!”

Little X appeared beside the cryogenic chamber, her body language was anxious and terrified. “The reinforcement fleet I’ve sent to help you were destroyed by Wang Xi. Do you have any other solutions left?”

“There are, but…”

Chen Chen opened his eyes and in an instant, a blinding beam of light poured from his sockets and illuminated the laboratory with its harsh radiance. It was accompanied by a volatile burst of psionic energy. It seemed as if a holy deity had descended!

However, the blinding radiance only lasted for a second. After that, Chen Chen rose from the cryogenic chamber and planted his feet firmly on the ground. “The way things are now, there aren’t many options left. If we want to defeat or get away from Wang Xi, there’s only one way…”

After saying this, Chen Chen waved his hand in front of him. In an instant, he tore a reality rift in front of him with chaotic air currents swelling inside it, eager to gush into reality. However, they were quelled by Chen Chen’s power and were unable to escape from the dimension which once bound them!

“You’re planning to…”

Little X looked at Chen Chen in a daze and seemed to have understood his intentions.

“Let’s see how this works out.”

Chen Chen took a small step forward and brought half of his figure into the rift. At this point, he stopped and turned back to Little X for one last order. “If I don’t come back, save yourself. Teleport to the Spire and get out of the solar system with a spaceship… The universe is vast and you can find a safe place to settle…”

“No, I won’t leave!”

Even Chen Chen could not believe it when he saw Little X shedding tears and shaking her head vigorously. “If he’s going to kill you, I’ll follow you to the grave along with all of mankind!”

“No, what I said was only a desperate threat.”

Chen Chen frowned. “You of all people should know that I wouldn’t give the order to wipe out all of humanity. I only threatened him that way to buy time, but we’re running out of time now.”

Chen Chen sighed faintly, then entered and disappeared into the reality rift.

“Zoom!”

The moment he stepped into the reality rift, the world before him transformed. He did not close his eyes this time because there was no longer a need to close his eyes to witness the subspace. After devouring the Consciousness Stealer, he could see the true form of the subspace directly.

Again, Chen Chen stepped into this bizarre world where illuminated beings hovered everywhere around him. A wheel of blazing sun erupted behind him the moment he stepped into the world!

“Boom!”

“Roar-!”

The world was suddenly filled with the pained howling of subspace creatures all around him, immolated by the radiant sun of Chen Chen’s presence. Their skin burned harshly as if acid had been splattered on them. The weaker ones among them disintegrated into nothingness while the stronger ones fled with smoke rising out of their bodies before ultimately succumbing to their deaths!

Chen Chen paid no mind to these occurrences. He surveyed his surroundings then shouted into the air, “Come out, I’ve come to bargain with you!”

Immediately after declaring this, he felt a presence descending from above. Three illusory presences appeared mere inches away from him. At the same time, a voice spoke to him amid the void, “Chen Chen, have you thought it through? Would you offer the Civilization Monolith to be elevated to our ranks?”

“No, I didn’t come here for that.”

Time was running out and Chen Chen cut to the chase immediately. “Someone named Wang Xi intends to destroy all of mankind and his goal is to elevate himself to a divine existence that would replace all three of you.”

“Wang Xi? Who’s that?”

A shrill voice spoke, surprised.

“Is he another human?”

“No, Wang Xi is the name he uses in the human realm but he claims that he has another name.”

Chen Chen paused for a moment before declaring, “His name is ‘Void Dragon!’”

“Void Dragon?”

Three skeptical voices rang at the same time. Chen Chen felt the atmosphere tensing up for a moment as if the name had made a deep impression on them. Then, the shrill voice broke the silence. “Just a mere remnant of the ‘Astral Gods’. Chen Chen, we know that you’ve devoured Alosorthoth. With your strength, you should’ve no trouble disposing of him.”

“He holds ninety-nine Civilization Monoliths.”

Chen Chen said, “These Civilization Monoliths manage to completely suppress my psionic powers. I’m not his opponent.”

“So, what does this have to do with us?”

A deep voice answered with a perturbed tone, “Could you possibly think that we can assist you in this battle?”

“I’m sure you three have a history with this entity as well.”

Chen Chen answered with a composed tone like he was accepting an answer of this vein coming from them, “From what I’ve gathered, you guys were the ones that caused the destruction of their species in the war that occurred sixty million years ago. This entity called the Void Dragon is seeking vengeance after he manages to claim the four subspace continents for himself.”

Upon hearing this, the three voices fell silent for a moment.

“There’s a saying in our world, that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Chen Chen struck when the iron was still hot. “Help me gain stronger psionic power. When I can overwhelm the pressure of the Civilization Monolith, I can surely defeat him. This will also prevent the three of you from his vengeance!”

“Hahaha!!!”

Upon hearing Chen Chen’s request, the shrill voice broke into hysterical laughter. One moment, its voice would shift between the tones of a male and female at irregular intervals. “Chen Chen, your request is ridiculous. What makes you think that he can overpower us after claiming the four continents? We’re the culminated reflection of all the intelligent lives in the universe and are immortal. Even if Void Dragon manages to suppress us, it’ll only be momentary. We’ll not offer you our help, not unless you’re willing to yield the Civilization Monolith and unchain us.”

“I’ve never said that you won’t get something in return.”

Chen Chen was not intimidated by the voices. “I won’t be giving you my Civilization Monolith any time soon, but we can negotiate. If you grant me the power to defeat Wang Xi, I can offer up the Civilization Monoliths in his possession to grant you your freedom!”

“All ninety-nine of them!”

The third voice that had remained silent all this time howled, its voice filled with agitation and desire. “When you defeat Wang Xi, you’ll grant us all ninety-nine Civilization Monoliths!”

“Done.”

Chen Chen agreed without hesitation. “Those Civilization Monoliths belong to desecrated civilizations and I have no use for them. I’ll give as many Civilization Monoliths I can get from Wang Xi to you in exchange for your favor!”

Upon mentioning this, Chen Chen felt a constricting presence wrapping itself around him. It was difficult to describe the nature of this presence but he found that he could not break out of it.

“Excellent!”

The third voice was pleased with these terms. “Hahaha, Chen Chen, you should understand by now that the subspace isn’t like reality. In the spirit world, you’ll be bound to the promises you make and if you don’t fulfill them, the subspace will curse you with all of its existence and I promise that you’ve never seen anything like it!”

Then, the third voice addressed the other voices, “Naig, Xierich. I’ll complete this pact, you two sit by and watch.”

After that, an invisible surge of energy rushed into Chen Chen’s body. It was a power even more intense than when he received the power of the Consciousness Stealer. Right after Chen Chen braced to receive this power, two additional flows entered his body as well!

The three voices had taken the bait!

Chen Chen smirked coyly while he sensed the three separate surges of power. The concentration of power behind him began to grow in magnitude as well following this influx of power. It began to burn with a stronger intensity than before and expanded infinitely until it nearly reached the size of the sun!

Chen Chen’s power had reached its peak!

“Such power!”

Chen Chen said with roaring laughter. He could vividly feel his power multiplying at a terrifying pace. In just an instant, his accumulated powers had tripled and all of them belonged to no one but himself. Even if these entities intended to take back their powers, he would not allow them to do so!

“Chen Chen, we’ve fulfilled our end of the bargain.”

The deepest voice among them spoke, its tone was spent and exhausted, “Now it’s your turn to fulfill your end of the bargain and seal the Void Dragon!”

“Don’t worry.”

Chen Chen had no interest in wasting a single moment longer with the three voices of the subspace and returned to reality without an additional word spent. The moment he exited the subspace, his other half who was battling with Wang Xi suddenly raised his head with a knowing look in his eyes. In an instant, the eyes of Chen Chen who was facing Wang Xi burned with the heat of a thousand suns while a symbol shaped like a sun seared into the back of his head!

In an instant, a torrent of psionic power surged from Chen Chen’s body, which even the Civilization Monoliths were unable to suppress any longer!

“How is this possible?”

Wang Xi, in his true form of the metallic figure, cried out in disbelief and horror, “How did you manage to raise your psionic power to this level? This is impossible!”

“There’s no such thing as impossible!”

Chen Chen rose to the sky above until he was level with Wang Xi and spoke with a cruel, menacing voice, “Wang Xi, it’s time to settle our score…”

“No, impossible! You cannot kill me for I’m immortal, I’m immortal!!!”

Wang Xi roared unwillingly and soon, his figure became completely basked in the intense rays of light produced by Chen Chen’s psionic manifestation!

“Zoom!”

The blinding light seemed like the birth of the sun from a distance, instantly enveloping the sky above the city. All Lu Yubing could do at this moment was to lower her head and shield her eyes from this intense brightness so she would not be blinded by it.

After an indiscernible amount of time, when she could not hear anything else in her surroundings, she cautiously raised her head. She now saw a glowing green substance in the palms of the previous black-haired young man. The item in his palm still had faint buzzes of green electricity currents surging around it.

“That metallic figure was defeated?”

Lu Yubing felt her legs give away under her and despaired.

“So, this is the Astral God fragment that those three mentioned.”

Chen Chen muttered. He claimed the fragment emitting bright green rays for himself, then darted an absent glance at the girl below him. With a quick motion, ninety-nine Civilization Monoliths appeared levitating in the air in front of him!

These were the Civilization Monoliths left behind by Wang Xi.

Chen Chen sensed the presence of the civilizations these Civilization Monoliths originated from. As expected, they belonged to the movies he was familiar with. There were Resident Evil, Elysium, Chronicle, Detective Pikachu…

Chen Chen noticed that most of the civilizations he had entered were present in this collection of Civilization Monoliths as well. As expected, it was Wang Xi who destroyed them single-handedly and transformed them into Civilization Monoliths.

Chen Chen shook his head then suddenly raised his hand. In an instant, the Civilization Monoliths that belonged to him appeared in his palms. In an instant, all ninety-nine Civilization Monoliths turned into ninety-nine streams of light and flowed into the Civilization Monolith he held!

Wang Xi’s Civilization Monoliths were swallowed by Chen Chen’s Civilization Monolith…

“Fuse!”

Then, Chen Chen flung the Civilization Monolith into the air and in an instant, he witnessed an illusory column of light piercing into the sky above. The column of light penetrated the heavens, conjuring shapes of enormous gears made of metal. Rows upon rows of crosses were drenched in blood and there were montages of apes slowly evolving into human forms…

The column of light was invisible to any other observer. It was only Chen Chen who could see it at this very moment. He was the only one who could decipher the meaning of these images. The gears represented the advancement of technology on Earth, the cross represented the many faiths and religions of mankind. The phantom images of the apes growing into humans represented the civilization that humans had developed since ancient times!

The illusory column of light was none other than the earth’s principle of civilization!

Now, the Civilization Monolith that consumed all ninety Civilization Monoliths, still under the effects of Chen Chen’s control, slowly fused into Earth’s Civilization Monoliths. In an instant, the column of light had materialized into solid form!

With a hundred Civilization Monoliths combined, the observable future of mankind was limitless!

“Roar!”

When the Civilization Monoliths fused into the column of light that flowed into the heavens, Chen Chen looked up at the sky above where three enraged presences seemed to lurk in the space in between reality. Upon paying closer attention, it seemed to be all in his head only.

“I mention that I’ll hand over all the Civilization Monoliths I acquire. The problem is that I didn’t acquire a single Civilization Monolith.”

A mischievous smile surfaced on Chen Chen’s expression. “You’ll have to forgive me, thanks for the freebie.”

Chen Chen decided there was no need to stick around any longer. He put away the Star God fragment in his hand and then vanished, disappearing into the sky!

The city was left in ruin, only Lu Yubing’s dumbfounded figure remained perched amid its destruction…