Talking to the boss

The darkness enveloping Bai Jingshen's mind slowly receded. The first thing he felt was a massive headache. He knew he had put too much strain on his mind. It would be better to not use his treasure for a while. Carefully analyzing his situation, he was glad he felt his body again. Thinking about it, his physical condition seemed to be better than ever. His core energy was unusually lively as it strengthened every part of his body. A small amount of it spread through his skin, giving him some passive defense. Concentrating for a bit, he estimated his physical strength alone had already reached the 4th stage of Qi Gathering and was still increasing. He involuntarily left out a moan as he turned to the side, before groaning because of his headache.

Suddenly Bai Jingshen was startled as a light giggle sounded next to him. The former emperor felt embarrassed as he slowly opened his eyes. After blinking a few times to push his drowsiness away, the young man closely observed the beautiful figure sitting on a chair not far from him. He noticed the slightly relieved look in his bosses' clear, surprisingly silver eyes.

Once again, he was confused why this woman seemed so interested in him. He could only reevaluate the title of a potential scholar in his mind. Therefore Bai Jingshen made the decision to take this opportunity more seriously and learn more about the work of scholars.

However, looking behind Elena the young man saw Sam lying in a bed too, so at least the young woman didn't seem to show him alone some preferential treatment.

Bai Jingshen observed his boss a little more since she didn't start the conversation. The beautiful woman was seriously looking at a holographic document shown by her bracelet. Her tight fitting, black armor gracefully highlighted her toned body. Her slender legs were crossed, with one dangling in the air. Maybe she didn't notice this herself, judging from the frown on her smooth head. Her healthy, light red lips were tightly pressed together, clearly showing some worry.

The former emperor couldn't hold himself back from murmuring:

"Not a bad sight to wake up to."

For a split second Elena's neck threatened to show some redness. However, as someone dealing with difficult situations on a daily basis she wouldn't blush like an unexperienced girl. Elena turned off her bracelet and looked at Bai Jingshen with a calm face. For a split second though, the young man could have sworn that a playful smile graced her perfect lips. It quickly vanished however, as Elena fake coughed once before speaking:

"Good morning to you too. Since you are healthy enough to joke around, I assume you are fit for an interrogation."

"Did you wait here for me to wake up the whole time so you could interrogate me?"

"Don't think too highly of yourself! The machine you are still connected to naturally informed us about your condition."

Bai Jingshen took a look to the other side. He smiled slightly as he realized, that him waking up like this seemed to be a reoccurring scene already. Maybe he really overestimated himself. Fortunately he didn't know, that Elena had almost been drowning in worry. She just found the man that her constitution singled out as the bearer of her biggest opportunity. Shortly after she already almost lost him. Even with maturity way beyond her age she wasn't able to keep calm in that situation.

Fortunately, Bai Jingshen was still alive. Elena thought back to the fighting scene she had seen before continuing to talk:

"Now. Let me apologize first. Our protector routinely checked the surroundings every few minutes, but we only noticed you when you were already unconscious. We did our own investigations but couldn't clear all our doubts. Could you tell me what happened in the forest please?"

"Sure. After hunting a few weaker beasts we were attacked by something Sam called a Red-Striped Tree Stalker. After a dangerous fight and with the help of the emergency deice, we were able to defeat it. During the fight it already showed strange abilities, as its fur turned black, and it contaminated its surroundings. Suddenly a black shadow separated from the dead beast and shot into my body. It tried to posses my body, but maybe it was already weakened from the fight, so it lost to my will in the end. My guess is that the shadow can't exist on its own, because it gradually dissolved without a body."

Elena mulled over the provided information. She noticed some obvious loopholes in Bai Jingshen's explanation. However, she didn't pry into his secrets after the elven trials, so she certainly wouldn't start now. She recalled the document form earlier on her bracelet and told her AI to add the new information. With the speed of a Gene Activation Realm cultivator, she read the document again in seconds, before nodding her head and asking Bai Jingshen again:

"So, the shadow is mast likely the source of contamination. Have you found anything out about it?"

"Yes. It seemingly likes to toy with its victims. It is maybe not fully sane and uses fear as a method of attack. Therefore, it told me quite a bit about itself. This shadow called itself Grato-Nox, King of plagues. He seemed to have possessed an old friend, Chief Instructor Spike. By the way, what happened to him?"

At the mention of Spike, Bai Jingshen could see Elena's fists tightening. It seemed this man brought her a lot of trouble.

"After what happened we naturally started investigating this case. Spike Sr. was imprisoned in New Haven City, but a cloaked figure helped him escape. The Major responsible for this prison thought he was untouchable, but we managed to capture and interrogated him. It seems your opponent Lehno of Ellshire did his best to set Spike free. After Spike used the chaos to escape to the New World, we haven't heard anything from him or his team. I can't imagine how we didn't detect this Grato-Nox."

Bai Jingshen's let his anger free reign for a second. Until now this Lehno had a one sided hatred against Bai Jingshen, but today it became a life and death feud. However, this wasn't the former emperor's first enemy, and it wouldn't be his last.

As he calmed down, he realized he almost missed a small detail from Elena's explanation. It seemed highly likely that this young woman possessed more influence than the Ellshire family, or else it wouldn't have been so easy to get her hand on the Major. Bai Jingshen couldn't help but think about the protector. This man was most likely stronger than the top fighter in the republic's noble family. He suddenly understood that Elena was hiding a few things herself. Those didn't play a role now however, so Bai Jingshen continued their conversation:

"There are so many ways of hiding. Who knows how this guy did it. It would be more important to find out who this Grato-Nox is. Have you heard his name before?"

Elena thought about her answer for a while before coming to a decision. Meanwhile Bai Jingshen had to hold back a chuckle as he suddenly noticed Sam pretending to sleep.

"Normally we would gradually introduce our recruits to facts about the New World, but I guess you can take it.

As you already know the New World is just like its name says a world that just came into existence. I don't know if anyone has a concrete number, but it shouldn't exist more than a few thousand years. In comparison our Rising Force World is more than ten billion years old.

However, this world already feels quite developed, right? This is the case because the New World has devoured other worlds during its growth. From what we know, those worlds were already at the end of their existence or were even already destroyed. However some vestiges of those worlds managed to stay intact and integrated into the New World. That is how the elven sprit water came to be for example. On top of that some extraordinary beings survived too, for example the stone golems.

Those traces of other worlds mostly become secret realms, which are waiting to be discovered. Some general information about other worlds can be accessed, especially if you become a scholar. Therefore, I have heard of Grato-Nox before. He was a god-like being in a world of magic. All kinds of races lived there and he… single-handedly brought half of them to extinction before they managed to stop him.

From what you told me, he shouldn't be at full power yet. I will have to inform the scholar's tower, but I won't mention your name. I hope someone will take this seriously and find Grato-Nox before he recovers."

Right now, Bai Jingshen almost felt his head spinning. This world was way more complicated than he assumed. After sorting this information in his mind however, he felt his blood boiling again. He couldn't wait to go out there and explore. Who knew how many secrets were waiting for him to uncover? Once again, he was annoyed at his own weakness. He had to quickly cultivate now, before looting the treasures of several civilizations!