Lord of Prayer

Chapter 212: Chapter 160: Rebirth (Part 2)

Zhou Chen said calmly, “How do you know these things aren’t real? The Star Association often sends shills online to control the narrative and prevent too many Extraordinary incidents from affecting public morale.

“For example, that story about the hospital’s non-existent eighteenth basement floor? It’s highly likely there’s a Room in the Crack beneath the hospital—probably a place some unscrupulous doctors use to store smuggled organs.

“The blinking portrait could be a source contaminated by mental pollution, the ghost bus to the Netherworld is probably an uncontained, unknown Forbidden Object, and the Slit-mouthed Woman might just be a costumed psychopath—that one’s a specialty from Yingzhou. As for this Vampire…”

He clicked on the post. The original poster was a woman who had met a handsome member of the Blood Race while out having fun at a bar. He’d sweet-talked her until she was completely smitten, toyed with her for three days, and then scammed her out of all her money. So, she posted a bounty on the man and wrote a long-winded tirade tearing into the Blood Race.

With Zhou Chen’s years of experience online, the post screamed ’authentic.’ The accuracy of her long-winded rant was another matter, but at least he now had a lead on the Blood Race.

“’Rebirth Bar?’ I’ve heard of that place. One of my brothers often hangs out there with other rich kids. The owner is a big deal in Hong City’s underworld,” Li Xiye said.

“Can you contact your brother and ask about the rules at Rebirth Bar? I want to meet the owner. By the way, tell him I’m a Quasi-Alchemist. I just haven’t taken the registration exam yet.”

“You’re an Alchemist, too?” Li Xiye’s expression was one of surprise. “In that case, could you help me customize my motorcycle?”

“Easy enough.”

“Thanks! I’ll contact him for you right now!” Li Xiye excitedly pulled out her phone and called her brother.

Meanwhile, Zhou Chen found the original poster who put out the bounty on the Blood Race member. He told her he was taking the job and asked for more details about the man.

The woman was clearly furious. She had already drawn a sketch and told him the man’s name was Liu Sheng. He apparently hung out with a crowd of rich kids and frequented several popular bars.

After gathering enough information, Zhou Chen closed the chat window and went back to refreshing the forum. Suddenly, his eyes caught a few keywords that thoroughly piqued his interest.

The new post’s title read: *Someone in Hong City Is Researching an Eternal Life Machine! My Instruments Detected an Immense Energy Fluctuation—the Immortality Experiment May Have Succeeded!*

But as soon as he clicked on it, the newly-published post was deleted by an administrator and became inaccessible.

’Eternal Life Machine… An immense energy fluctuation…’

Immortality! An immense energy fluctuation!

These two keywords made Zhou Chen stroke his chin, lost in thought.

—Immortality.

To the terminally ill and elderly rich, immortality was undoubtedly the ultimate desire. They would do anything for a healthy body. If someone claimed they could grant them eternal life, they would likely trade their entire fortunes for it without a second thought.

Yet, so-called immortality was nothing but a scam from start to finish. Nothing could last forever against the Erosion of time—unless one became one of the Gods, a being who could amend the Rules. But for ordinary people, that was simply impossible.

Even so, countless people still pursued immortality like moths to a flame.

It was just like all the anti-scam publicity. Despite the massive effort, a considerable number of people still stubbornly got duped. They would fight to send money to con artists even while being physically restrained by officials; they were just that obstinate.

—All because the prize was too great, large enough to make people abandon all reason and take the gamble.

The post claimed someone in Hong City was researching an Eternal Life Machine and might have succeeded, because the poster’s instruments had detected an immense energy fluctuation. This implied the energy must have been so massive that it could make someone believe the fanciful Immortality Experiment had actually worked.

An energy of that magnitude should be enough to tear through space and even time.

Of course, this was just Zhou Chen’s speculation. He couldn’t be certain, as it was only a single post title of unverifiable authenticity. Still, he filed it away as a potential lead.

With that in mind, he searched online for keywords like “Eternal Life Machine,” but all he found were useless junk websites and content-farm articles.

After scrolling through posts for a while longer without any luck, Zhou Chen feigned resting with his eyes closed, while he was actually contemplating how to make a wish to find a clue.

’I wish to find a clue about my current time travel.’

A mote of starlight bloomed within the Wish Bottle and floated out—this was the wish-power he had earned from saving Li Xiye and the others.

The mote of starlight transformed into a map. But unlike before, several markers now appeared on it, scattered across various locations in Hong City.

“This…”

Zhou Chen was dumbfounded. ’This is just like a video game quest. I have to complete side quests to gather clues before I can unlock the main story.’

There were five markers in total. One of them, located right on top of him, was marked as ’found’ before it gradually dimmed and vanished.

He opened his eyes, glanced around, and saw a conspicuous glow on Li Xiye’s body slowly fading away.

’Is the Li Xiye of this era connected to my time travel?’

“Zhou Chen, my brother said he wants to meet you at Rebirth Bar tonight. The owner will be there, too,” Li Xiye said, turning her head to look at him.

“Alright.” Zhou Chen snapped out of his thoughts and nodded, knowing his status as a Quasi-Alchemist must have piqued her brother’s interest.

Alchemists were even rarer than Ascenders. Even a major corporate family like the Li Clan only had connections with a handful of them. And that handful wasn’t exclusive to their family; they maintained cooperative relationships with many other clans and organizations.

If a family could produce an Alchemist of its own, its status would instantly skyrocket.

This just went to show how valuable Alchemists were.

The same was true for Blacksmiths.

Anyone who could forge Extraordinary Armaments was a hot commodity no matter where they went.

“My brother wants me to go with you tonight.” Li Xiye thought for a moment. “So, should we have Doggy drive us? Or I could give you a ride on my motorcycle. Or you could drive, and I’ll ride on the back?”

“Doggy’s driving, of course!” Zhou Chen declared without hesitation.

’Who could say no to a husky that can drive a car?’

·

「Nightfall.」

A black luxury car cruised down the road. Zhou Chen sat in the back, watching the husky in the driver’s seat expertly operate an auxiliary device to drive. Combined with the loud, thumping music playing inside, he felt like the whole scene was taking a bizarre turn.

The dog’s driving was incredible, even smoother than a seasoned pro’s. It even insisted on barking loudly while showing Zhou Chen a drift around a corner. Seeing its practiced form, Zhou Chen suspected the dog had snuck out for joyrides more than a few times.

’Even I can’t drift like that!’

Li Xiye sat in the passenger seat, gazing at the nightscape outside the window, lost in thought.

Just then, the roar of engines echoed, and headlights flared in the rearview mirror. Several bikers in full gear revved their engines and zoomed up alongside them, waving at the car. They seemed completely unfazed by the sight of a husky at the wheel.

Li Xiye rolled down her window and waved back. The riders nodded, then gunned their engines and sped off.

“Don’t you go racing them,” Li Xiye said, stopping the husky’s impulse to compete with the bikers.

The husky let out a disappointed whine, saddened by the missed opportunity to race.

After rolling the window back up, Li Xiye smiled at Zhou Chen in the backseat. “Those are some friends from the Hong City Motorcycle Club. I’m a senior member. There aren’t many people in all of Hong City with better riding skills than me, so they all call me Big Sis, even though I’m actually younger than most of them…”

Zhou Chen: “…”

’So you’re in a biker gang!’