novelslam Chapter 221 The Sigh of Mortal Carriages and Cultivator Privilege Seats
Chapter 221 The Sigh of Mortal Carriages and Cultivator Privilege Seats
Due to the impact of the "mutated blood crow," although the barrier blocked the physical damage, the shockwave caused a brief malfunction in the psionic heating circuit of this section of the carriage.
"Damn it, I'm freezing to death! Where's the train conductor? Are those gods up ahead going to let us freeze to death on the train?!"
A burly man with a fierce face was so cold that his teeth were chattering. He couldn't help but stand up and start cursing at the closed isolation door at the front of the carriage.
"Shh! Are you out of your mind?!" A thin, middle-aged man next to him quickly pulled him back, lowered his voice, and pointed with a terrified look to the miniature surveillance array flashing above their heads. "The soundproof array only protects against the outside; the inside is under 24/7 surveillance. If you curse 'Immortal Master' here, the enforcement team will skin you alive when we get to the station!"
Upon hearing the words "enforcement team," the fierce glint in the burly man's eyes vanished instantly. He shrank back into his seat like a defeated rooster, rubbing his frozen hands repeatedly.
Old Ding wrapped his thin, oil-stained work clothes tighter around himself, clutching the bag of Crimson Blood Spirit Rice to his chest, trying to draw a sliver of warmth from the rice's faint spiritual energy. His prosthetic leg operated even more awkwardly in the low temperature, the hydraulic oil seemingly on the verge of solidifying.
In this thirty-section steel cage, the lives of ordinary people are as worthless as grass.
On the other side of that alloy isolation door engraved with golden runes.
Privileged Carriage No. 5.
The world behind the door was the complete opposite of the ordinary train carriage. There was no pungent stench of sweat, only a faint, refreshing sandalwood scent; there were no cold, hard steel seats, but instead, extremely spacious and comfortable individual sofas covered with the fur of unknown monsters.
The entire carriage floor was even covered with a thick carpet, and the [Constant Temperature Array] precisely controlled the temperature at the most comfortable level of 24 degrees Celsius. In the corner, there were even two extremely exquisite spirit-gathering array plates, continuously releasing gentle spiritual energy into the carriage.
It was so quiet here that not a single train noise could be heard; the perfect soundproof barrier completely blocked out the raging winds from the outside world and the wailing of mortals behind.
A middle-aged man, dressed in a well-tailored bespoke suit and wearing a badge of a senior researcher from the Alliance Academy of Sciences on his chest, was holding a steaming cup of top-grade spiritual tea, admiring the rapidly receding wilderness night view through a huge one-way panoramic floor-to-ceiling window.
He is Wang Mingyuan, the chief expert of life sciences and psionic genetics at the Alliance Academy of Sciences.
On the leather sofa opposite him sat a young cultivator with his eyes closed, resting. He wore an extremely understated yet exceptionally fine dark blue Daoist robe, and an ancient longsword lay across his lap. Although he was merely a Foundation Establishment stage deacon in the Alliance, even a titan like Wang Mingyuan, who held top-tier research resources in the Alliance, showed him a hint of respect in this carriage.
"Deacon Lin, it seems something just hit the barrier?" Wang Mingyuan put down his teacup, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and asked with a hint of worry in his voice.
The young cultivator, known as Deacon Lin, slowly opened his eyes, a hint of indifference and arrogance characteristic of cultivators flashing in them.
"It's just a stupid, mutated blood crow. This kind of lowly beast can't even break through the most basic layer of the [Golden Light Spell]. If it crashes into the train's barrier, it will just turn into a pile of minced meat."
Deacon Lin tapped his fingers lightly on the scabbard, producing a crisp sound. "Professor Wang, there's no need to worry. With this train that combines Kunlun formations with your Academy of Sciences' heavy industry, even if we encounter a small horde of beasts, we can simply run them over."
Wang Mingyuan gave a wry smile: "Deacon Lin, you've been staying in the inner city of the defense line for most of the year, so you may not be aware of the recent ecological changes in the wilderness. The reason I rushed to the satellite city of Suzhou this time is to deal with a batch of new mutated biological samples brought back from the depths of the wilderness."
"These beasts... are evolving too fast."
Wang Mingyuan activated the miniature holographic projection on his wrist, projecting several extremely bloody and blurry photos into mid-air.
"Look, this was discovered last week on the outskirts of the Qinling Mountains. A wolf that was originally less than half a meter long has grown to three meters in size, and its skeleton has undergone a kind of 'psychic crystallization' that we cannot currently analyze. Most terrifyingly, its autopsy section shows that its cerebral cortex is forming grooves and folds that resemble 'thinking'."
"They are no longer just wild beasts that fight based on instinct; they are developing a kind of social intelligence similar to that of humans."
Deacon Lin frowned slightly as he looked at the photos, but quickly relaxed, letting out a cold snort: "So what if they have intelligence? Beasts are still beasts. Before absolute power, they are nothing more than a mobile treasure trove providing refining materials for my cultivation world."
"That being said..."
Wang Mingyuan sighed, his gaze involuntarily drifting to the rear of the carriage, to the isolation door leading to the mortal area.
"For cultivators, they are merely materials. But for mortals who make up 80 percent of the Earth's population, once these monsters reach a certain scale, it will be a one-sided massacre."
"Professor Wang, you have overstepped your bounds."
Deacon Lin's eyes instantly sharpened, and an aura of power belonging to a Foundation Establishment cultivator permeated the carriage, causing Wang Mingyuan's breath to catch in his throat.
"Survival of the fittest. This is the law of nature."
Deacon Lin said coldly, "Mortals have no spiritual roots and cannot absorb spiritual energy, which means they are defective products of the old era abandoned by the Heavenly Dao. The Alliance provides them with spiritual rice and lets them work in factories in exchange for the right to live in this new era, which is already a great act of kindness."
"Do you really expect us cultivators, who bled and sacrificed ourselves in the initial tribulation for the survival of humanity, to act as free babysitters for billions of burdens?"
Wang Mingyuan was rendered speechless by these cold and cruel words. As a top elite among mortals, he knew all too well that this "class theory" was deeply rooted in the cultivator class and had become the underlying logic that maintained this cyber cultivation society.
He opened his mouth as if to refute something, but in the end it turned into a heavy sigh.
"Deacon Lin misunderstands. I'm just worried that if the mortal class completely collapses due to panic and despair, who will maintain the logistical support for the cultivators on the front lines? Who will forge the outer shells for those flying swords?"
Wang Mingyuan picked up his teacup, concealing the deep resentment and madness in his eyes.
He did not tell the proud monk that in the Academy's secret basement, a taboo experiment aimed at breaking down such class barriers had reached its final stage.
He must give mortals the right to once again wield weapons in this world!
……
"Ugh—!"
After an hour and a half of high-speed travel, the G32 psionic train finally emerged from the perilous, dark wilderness.
Ahead, the outline of a city, though far smaller than Shanghai Fortress City, still shrouded in a thick light curtain, appeared on the horizon.
We've arrived at Suzhou's seventh satellite city.
Unlike the strict and orderly layout of the main city, the satellite city is more like a lawless land where all sorts of people gather. It is a gray area where wilderness hunters, low-level rogue cultivators, black market merchants, and countless desperate mortals mingle.
The train pulled into the platform, slowed down, and came to a complete stop.
The train doors opened. Old Ding, dragging his almost frozen body, followed the flow of people out of carriage number 24, which felt like an icebox.
He didn't linger on the platform, nor did he pay any attention to the cheap hotel owners soliciting customers around him. He tightly tied the bag containing the Crimson Blood Spirit Rice to his chest, leaned on his cold mechanical prosthetic leg with one hand, and walked straight out of the station, plunging into the neon-lit, chaotic, and lucrative black market district of Suzhou.
"Top-quality mutated wolf fangs! Only thirty spirit crystal vouchers required!"
"Don't miss out! These discarded talismans from the outer sect of Kunlun are only 10% of their original spiritual power, but sticking them on your door will definitely ward off low-level evil spirits!"
The narrow streets were lined with all sorts of makeshift stalls. The vendors shouted their wares, and the air was thick with the pungent smell of cheap spices and blood.
Old Ding walked past each stall, his eyes scanning the so-called "goods" like a hawk's. He knew all too well that there were more swindlers here than wild beasts in the wilderness, and if he didn't keep his eyes wide open, his few life-saving spirit crystal vouchers would go unnoticed.
Suddenly, he stopped in an extremely inconspicuous and secluded corner.
The stall owner was wearing a tattered black cloak, his entire face hidden in shadow. On the rag in front of him was only one thing—a cheap jade bottle with cracks all over its surface and even covered in black grime.
Although the mouth of the jade bottle was plugged with a wooden stopper, it still faintly exuded an extremely violent and scorching aura!
Old Ding's heart skipped a beat.
That's pure Yang spiritual energy! And the concentration is extremely high; it's definitely not just ordinary discarded herbal dregs!
He suppressed his excitement, limped to the stall, squatted down, and pointed very cautiously at the jade bottle with his right hand, which only had three real fingers left.
"Boss... how much is this?"
From beneath the cloak came an extremely hoarse voice, as if it had been sanded:
"The waste liquid from refining the Blazing Sun Pill. Although it's waste liquid, the violent fire poison and pure yang energy it contains are enough to burn a mutated wild boar to death. If a mortal were to eat it... his internal organs would instantly turn to ashes."
The stall owner slowly raised his head, revealing a pair of eyes that gleamed with cunning and greed. "Old man, are you sure you want to buy this? This is... a deadly thing."