Chapter 2204: New Secret Manual
Zu An was a bit confused. He'd thought that he would only have the six hundred thousand from sending all of those people over the river earlier, and was surprised to find out how much he actually had.
Mi Li spoke in his mind just then. “Did you forget how many times you saved the world? Not only did you prevent the massacre of countless millions of living beings, you also prevented the world from falling into the hands of the alien monsters. That's where most of your virtue came from. There's also another portion of virtue that was given by that individual. Now that you're the underworld emperor, if you didn’t have any virtue to use that book with, that would really be quite laughable.”
Zu An immediately became happy. “Big sis empress, you woke up?”
“Shush, every single word and action you make is currently being watched by millions of departed spirits,” Mi Li reminded him.
“That’s a simple enough matter to take care of.” With a thought, Zu An ended the ‘live stream’. He felt as if he could control everything in the underworld right now.
When they saw the projection in the sky disappear, millions of souls sighed, feeling as if they wanted to continue. The headless ghost in Tragedy City muttered to himself, “Brother Zu really is amazing. Sigh, he’s nothing like me, who turned into a headless ghost...”
The woman under the Bridge of Helplessness bit her lip. Several times, she'd felt the urge to seek out the person on the display, but divine light had flickered around her and prevented her from leaving every time.
...
Meanwhile, Mi Li replied to Zu An, “How could I keep sleeping after you experienced something so big? It’s just that it wasn’t too convenient for me to go out earlier.”
Zu An was startled. He began, “Are you worried about the Necro...”
Mi Li hurriedly stopped him. “Watch what you say. You’re not in that special space anymore and don’t have any protection. If you mention any beings that are too strong, you’ll bring a disaster upon yourself.”
Zu An was getting a bit annoyed. “I’ve already become the underworld emperor, and yet I still can’t talk about those names?”
Mi Li explained, “To a certain degree, your current status is a bit... disjointed. Your position is extremely high, but your strength hasn't grown at a similar rate. Of course, you don’t need to worry. You’ve become the underworld emperor, and once the source of this world grows bigger, you can also go to other worlds. With your aptitude, you should be able to grow rapidly.”
Zu An nodded. Indeed, he didn’t feel the suppression of the world’s source anymore. His cultivation was currently growing rapidly.
“Right, I seem to have sensed that this underworld’s world is a bit...” Zu An thought for a bit, and then he found the words. “...a bit incomplete. It’s almost as if this world is incomplete.”
Mi Li nodded. “That’s right. There are other underworlds across the realms. If you merge those world fragments, not only can you make the entire underworld more complete, it will also increase your strength as well.”
Zu An asked, “Do those worlds have other underworld emperors?”
Mi Li shook her head. “They don’t. You’ve obtained the Netherworld Book of Life and Death, so you're the sole sovereign of the underworld. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other underworld deities.” Zu An nodded. He had more or less sensed that this world was actually severely damaged. It didn’t have the five ghost emperors, the ten Kings of Hell, the Underworld Judge, or even the Black and White Guards of Impermanence. What he had seen before was only an illusion in the Necropolis Emperor’s trial. Those probably belonged to the complete underworld of a certain moment in time many, many years ago. When he recalled the pair of White and Black Guards of Impermanence, Ox Head, and Horse Face whom he had gotten along with, who could very well have long since vanished into the great river of history, he couldn't help but sigh.
“Wait, why do you even know about these things?” Zu An suddenly realized something.
“I know a lot of things. I also know that your Keyboard System obtained a new secret manual. Are you going to take it in?” Mi Li suddenly asked.
Zu An was stunned. Then, he quickly examined himself. Sure enough, he saw the F8 key flickering. There was a message saying:
New secret manual detected. Do you want to absorb it?
Zu An was a bit stunned, asking, “You even know about this?”
Mi Li harrumphed. “The two of us are bound by a soul contract. We live and die together. Is it really all that strange for me to know about these things?”
Zu An was getting a bit frustrated. “But you have so many secrets that I don’t know about. I feel as if I’m losing out here.”
There was a bit of amusement in Mi Li’s voice as she said, “You’ll know in the future.”
Zu An looked at the flickering F8 key. He felt a bit hesitant. “What if I end up losing this underworld authority when this Netherworld Book of Life and Death is absorbed by the keyboard?”
“Don’t worry, that won’t affect your underworld authority,” Mi Li replied.
Zu An asked, “How do you know for sure?”
“I just do. Now it just depends on whether you trust me or not,” Mi Li said with a frown.
Zu An smiled and said, “If my beautiful master said it, then of course I have to believe her.”
“Just say 'master'! Why are you adding 'beautiful'? Look at how cheeky you're being.” Even though Mi Li was scolding him, she sounded a bit proud; it was unclear whether that was because of the world ‘beautiful’ or ‘master’.
“Okay, beautiful master.” Zu An absorbed the manual as soon as he spoke. Soon after, the Netherworld Book of Life and Death turned into a stream of light and entered the F8 key. Only a small image of it remained on the key.
At the same time, a voice came from the Keyboard System.
New secret manual collected. New function unlocked: Skill System!
From today forth, as long as you have encountered the object or being you wish to learn a skill from, you can use a certain amount of Rage points to immediately learn it.
Please note: The required amount of Rage points corresponds to the skill’s grade and quality. The stronger the skill, the higher the amount of Rage points needed. Some skills might need an astronomical amount of Rage points.
Of course, if you already possess some lower-level versions of the skill or other necessary foundations, the required Rage points will decrease substantially.
When he saw the system’s message, Zu An's breath quickened. This new system was pretty overpowered! He could actually learn new skills just from coming into contact with them! After all, there were many skills that would require one to cultivate one's entire life to comprehend. If a system like this existed, wasn’t it just a cheat? Even though he knew that it was limited by the Rage system, he wasn’t too bothered. After all, there were no free lunches in this world. If he could learn some skills just from spending Rage points, that was still worth it.
“Judging from how you’re acting, it seems you’ve received something good, right?” Mi Li asked.
“Our souls are connected, right? You should already know,” Zu An said in annoyance.
Mi Li harrumphed. “I’m not monitoring every single thing about you every second. Earlier, I investigated a bit more because of how important that matter was. I normally don't bother with your random affairs. Otherwise, if I had to watch you spend your time with your lovers, wouldn’t I need to constantly scrub my eyeballs?”
This woman’s tongue is getting sharper and sharper...
“You’re right, I’ve gotten something pretty good.” Zu An was worried that she would sense what he had just thought and immediately said, “I didn’t expect this underworld trip to also take places in an unknown region. That means I’ve already collected six secret manuals. I wonder what will happen once I collect them all.”
An ordinary person likely wouldn't even be able to gather a single one in their entire lives, and yet he had managed to collect six in just a few years, which was practically unheard of. But Zu An still felt that it was too slow.
It seems I need to speed things up a bit from now on.
“You’ll naturally know when the time comes. Since you’re fine now, you should hurry and go back so that nothing ends up happening to your body. I’m going back to continue my cultivation too.” Mi Li did some stretching, then returned to the bed she had carefully arranged.
When he remembered that Shang Liuyu was still guarding him, Zu An also became a bit worried. After all, there were too many powerful beings in the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons. He wondered if Shang Liuyu was in danger. As for himself, he wasn’t that worried. He had already become the underworld emperor, so even if he died, this was his territory to begin with. Of course, he still liked being alive better, and didn’t want to continue as a mere soul.
He owned the Netherworld Book of Life and Death and could come and go from the underworld at will, so returning to the human world was easy enough. With just a thought, a vortex of light appeared in front of him. As long as he stepped through, he would return to the cliff inside the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons.
Just as he raised his leg, however, he suddenly stopped in midair. He frowned.
Wait, did I forget about something?
For some reason, he suddenly felt a sense of unease, thinking that if he left now, he would miss out on something precious. His foot stopped in midair just like that. He began to recall everything that had just happened.
With his current cultivation, this kind of feeling definitely wouldn't be for no reason. There was definitely something he had forgotten. He began to retrace his steps starting from the arena and didn’t let a single detail go.
When he reached the moment before he had jumped off the cliff into the abyss, he suddenly thought of something. Back then, the Necropolis Emperor's giant statue had said, “There is someone who shares great karma with you tied to the Naihe Oblivion River.”