[Just like the previous chapter, I would advise you to wait for the next one before reading. The next one comes when I wake up in a while]
The first draft of the Resurgence of Life project was a digital file with more than 11 thousand pages.
It was something that Fan Lin had spent three months on and had against all odd, prepared an awfully long and accurate detailed report for his first ever assignment approval.
11734 pages that were filled with pictures, maps, design drafts, sketches, location information, their population density, estimated profit of each place, estimated time spent on each task, required assistance, required permissions, the geographical native flora and hundreds of others related information of nearly 55364 sites that he wanted to replant.
The moment she had seen the number of pages on the file followed by the tiny font and the digital file, she had ordered Fan Lin to create a smaller, much simpler physical file since it was easier to spiritually scan it and know its content without much effort.
That however couldn't be done on a digitised file and the only way was to read it manually. Which Elder had the free time to stare at a display screen for 11000+ pages?
Fan Lin followed her words and given the summarized file the next. That same file was read by her and then was further submitted to the Elder council who had used that file as the basis on establishing the importance of Fan Lin's Boundless Soul ring and their future plans.
Whereas the Resurgence of Life, the plan for why the physical file was created, was already given the green signal before their meeting by Qiangu Dongfeng who had done it after realising the potential benefits it could offer him.
The Resurgence of Life project was thus ready to be implemented. Fan Lin had taken his job as its overseer and completer. Not even a day later, Fan Lin had shown them unprecedented results and they had left the whole project on his shoulders, content with their decisions.
But one thing was pretty much ignored by all of them. The afterwards that he had left in his file:
(Once again, I have already attested and attached all the documents regarding this project in the file that was submitted to the Vice President, Leng Yaozhu on xx/xx)
This also applied to the Vice President Leng Yaozhu who hadn't even submitted or read the first digital file that Fan Lin had given her.
There was no reason to. Fan Lin had provided the summaried version of the file to her without any delay.
Along with the fact that whatever he did will all be recorded by the various other officials, there was no need to read the lengthy and time consuming files on the future estimates and unnecessary information on the replantion areas when she can just get the live updates in the present from her secretary or anyone involved in it.
The digital file still remained with her, tossed aside into a corner of her storage guide and forgotten for eternity
That would have been its destiny until she received a call from the maker of the file to read it.
Leng Yaozhu recalled her conversation with Fan Lin and his weird tone. She took out her digital drive and began to check the page that he had told her.
'Third last page, second paragraph.'
She was the Vice President of the Spirit Pagoda, a rank 98 Hyper Douluo and a Four World Battle Armourer whereas Fan Lin was just a small subordinate of a project group, not even a Soul Douluo, or had any considerable cultivation feats after losing his previous skills.
She had an understanding of Fan Lin of her own and in her knowledge, he would rather avoid soiling their work relationship than letting his ego run amok. He, as he previously was, wouldn't have insulted her upfront.
Something unknown had changed in him after the battle of the Spirit Soul Tower once again.
'Does the Spirit Soul Tower produce some weird reactions in his mutated martial soul? That could be a weird scenario that Worth's studying.'
It could be that he was angry/mad at either Qiangu Dongfeng or the Spirit Pagoda for whatever promises that Qiangu Dongfeng had broken, or...
He had lost his mind by either suffering from mental demons or spiritual damage and was wasting her time.
'Time to see what he wanted me to see.'
She thought as the page refreshed to the page number 11731. She quick read the whole paragraph within a glance.
'- I hate technology at times like this. Due to my spiritual power, I am able to take in vast amounts of information from the physical material within just a few seconds but the same couldn't be applied to the tabs or tech screens. -'
(This is all just one paragraph and she just speed read it in many parts.)
'- The tech screens, to be mainly blamed, are the ones that I hate the most since their refresh rate never keep up with my senses(eyes) and I had to slow down my senses to fully grasp the data that is displayed on them. This has wasted a lot of my precious time, more so when I am already on a tight enough schedule that I had been multitasking for a while. -'
'- I wish I could spiritually scan through the net or something, that would have granted me enough knowledge to eviscerate the plans in half. At least one good thing is that I don't have to attend classes in Shrek anymore. Shrek is going to be destroyed in a while anyways. I wonder if I can free some time to vent my frustrations before I start the next part of the plan. -'
'- Things seem to be finally going my way at last. -'
"..?"
'So Shrek is going to be destroyed? Hmph!'
Leng Yaozhu felt amused by her own thoughts as her disbelief began to rise the more she thought about it.
"Is this supposed to be a joke?"
"Whatever. I gave him a chance, he failed. He thinks that I can't restrain his freedom and show him his place just because he is young? Well the future will tell then."
Leng Yaozhu put aside the display drive and began to focus on her task.
Twenty minutes later.
"How can I trust you?"
She asked him. Twenty minutes were a lot of time for a Hyper Douluo like her and as much as she didn't want to admit, she still couldn't forget that person and in the off chance that this had even a 1/100 chance of happening, she would still try to stop it.
_ Then what about the safety of your beloved? _
Hence, this accounted for 99 percentage the reason why she had called him. The rest of the one percent was when she began to seriously think about his actions and words till now.
As she had began to wonder what his aim could be on revealing this big of a news; how did he even know of this was another point of consideration as well.
She discovered that Fan Lin's actual motive for leaving Shrek could be attributed to this piece of information but she could be wrong as well or he may have more than one reason for leaving Shrek as well.
When she thought about his words a few more times, a major revelation came to the front that Fan Lin knew about her younger years and most likely about Qiangu Dongfeng and the others as well. He must have a information source and that source should be an insider from the Pagoda.
Because knowing about this wasn't a small feat as it was a private matter that happened more than a century ago and none of them had spread any information regarding.
The only ones who knew were members of the Spirit Pagoda of that time and that time was quite a long ago.
(Nearly two to be precise)
Most of the people outside didn't even completely know that Yun Ming's wife was Ya Li and Qiangu Dongfeng was a rejected piece.
So Fan Lin being able to find that meant that he had a good information provider or an insider from the Spirit Pagoda(probably an Elder) was helping him in secret.
That also raises the scenario of Fan Lin having more backers than she had previously thought.
This definitely takes him out of the no background orphan that he previously was thought as and added just a bit of credibility to his words.
She could trust a fellow Elder.
But as previously stated, this added credibility was just a part of the 1 percent. That was all it was, would be, because no matter how good Fan Lin's information background was or how much he was valued by the others, it didn't matter.
All that mattered was that he had been disrespectful to her when his strength didn't match his status, and he will pay the price if all this turns out to be mere waste of her time.
Otherwise Fan Lin hit the jackpot if he could provide her with something that she could use to help 'him'.
....
"How can I trust you?" [Leng Yaozhu]
{You are the Vice President. Check it yourself.}
'What do I check? The future?' [Leng Yaozhu]
"I still don't trust you." [Leng Yaozhu]
{You don't need to. I just told you what would happen. Your choice on how you plan to proceed. You are a smart person, you can find it out anyways or your position might have not come from your capability after all.}
'How did this kid suddenly became so hateful? Wasn't he a rude but nice, obedient boy before?' [Leng Yaozhu]
She thought as she continued the conversation while trying to pry for more information.
"This is baseless and absurd. You can't expect me to believe anything you write." [Leng Yaozhu]
{Then allow me to give you the proof but before that, help me with the favour that I want right now.}
'There's no free lunch.'
"The credibility of your words first." [Leng Yaozhu]
{Page 6639, second paragraph, last line. That's my credibility.}
'Huh, in the same file?'
*some seconds of silence as she browsed to the required page*
'- I am the Mysterious Death -'
'???'
She read the sentence again and her mind went blank at the epiphany of what it meant. Countless thoughts rose in her mind as she tried to link the words with the past records but she couldn't find any clue or a indication that linked him with the mysterious death phenomenon that had been haunting the general populace.
There was no evidence that he was the one. But then if he was revealing himself as the one, and to the Vice President of the Spirit Pagoda as well, did he have a death wish?
Surely she would not take it as a holy matter and crown him the king of light. SHE WOULD CHOP HIS HEAD OFF!
"You have a death wish?" [Leng Yaozhu]
Her confusion was so apparent at the situation that she even asked him because his actions were suicidal.
{Same file, 13th page by the end, 3rd paragraph 4th line.}
All she got though was a calm reply that was as uninterested a person could be regarding something.
"You never read the file seriously. That's some dedication to your work I presume."
She went to the directed page as his voice taunted her yet again but she was not the in mood to pay it any heed. This was a serious matter.
It was one of a mass slaughter with more than 200000 deaths on its name.
'- Year xx month 9, I had once again destroyed five of the 'special' research facilities of 'unknown' affiliation, location being singhi town, canglin city, dongsang pass, rivertown valley and shangshou mountain city. I wonder how long they can continue at this rate? -'
'- Leng Yaozhu, what would you say? The pictures, address and general location are written on the same page. Feel free to check. -'
Leng Yaozhu glanced at the calendar on her desk.
Year xx month 11 day 1.
'How does he plan on benefitting from this?'
*silence*
"The dates don't match." [Leng Yaozhu]
She stated after a small memory check but her trust on his claim had increased and that wasn't a good thing for him. So why was doing this?
{Of course it wouldn't, I had to push forward my plan because I have to do some other things.}
He nonchalantly replied as if what he had revealed was as mere as a name of fruit he liked to eat everytime.
"Like the replantion." [Leng Yaozhu]
Leng Yaozhu asked while reading the files because for some reason he had filled it with lots of information about himself.
{Yeah but other important things as well.}
{Now that we have come to this, just read the whole file seriously from the middle and you will have a clear answer to my credibility because I can't change the past, can I?}
"I am reading it, although from the beginning. You just made the biggest mistake of your life." [Leng Yaozhu]
'You think I would just ignore something like this after you had revealed everything to me?'
'Did he really injure his brain in the Spirit Soul Tower?'
{11734 pages in total, you sure you would be finished by the time I reach the Spirit Pagoda.}
He calmly commented. It wasn't a question though and his calmness was starting to annoy her.
"I don't need to read it all. I will just skim through the important bits and get to you."
{You should read carefully. Take your time, I will wait.}
And weirdly enough he was being proactive on making her read the file now.
'Suspicious! Is mysterious death controlling him and making him the scapegoat?'
As many possibilities began to unwhirl in her mind, she said what she had thought.
"You have no other choice."
{I do.}
His calm voice reverberated as he cut the call.
'Is he trying to feign calmness?'
She thought as she began to sped through the entire project as fast as the screen refresh rate allowed her to.
'- You should have been urged by me if you are ever reading this. That means that you know about me and all. Truthfully, that means I am choosing the easy way. I failed it seems. -' [Page 321, para 4 line 2]
'- I realised that as we grow stronger, technology seems to become an enemy of ours. My spiritual power was ineffective in increasing my work pace. My handwriting is nine times faster than typing. Perhaps the technology of now just isn't made for people above the Soul Saint level. -' [Page 399 para 19 line 4]
'- So I decided to use this weaknesses, or should I say avertness, to the digital data of the stronger beings and add this backup just in case. You seem like a trustful person so you keep it. -' [Page 627 para 3 line 1]
'- I am not an Evil Soul Master. You could be worry free of that. Neither I am bad... or good. I don't particularly like humans. And at my core, I don't care about good or bad(despite the fact that I have only killed bad people). So I wouldn't ask you to blindly trust me. You don't need to worry about me betraying you though as I keep my words. Always -' [Page 711 para 1 line 17]
'- Apparently I have killed over 470k by now. That's a lot of bad guys.-' [Page 779 para 9 line 1]
'- The following are the list of places that I want to visit in this world. I also need to visit the other two continents for the land inspection. Weirdly enough, I phrased it like the other continents are out of this world. -' [Page 1145 para 6 line 1]
'- I shouldn't write jokes in these. -' [Page 1146 para 5 line 3]
'- I was also the child killer. How time passes. -' [ page 1179 Header]
'- I saw your work report of the past 70 years and I can say you aren't that different from Qiangu Dongfeng, except you are female and had a basic cowardice against using extreme measures. Not kind at all. Selfish even(?) -' [Page 1790 Para 28 line 13]
'- I ate for the first time since my Spirit Soul Towers challenge. If I still had my skills, maybe I wouldn't have joined the Spirit Pagoda. I would have still left Shrek. There was nothing that it could help me with. -' [Page 3397 para 2 line 4]
'- I don't like when people that are close to me die. I am selfish in that regard. He killed him. I want to know why. I want to know why he joined him. People change due to their circumstances. I want to know why -' [6654 para 11 line 5]
'- Now that I think about it, I have included a lot of unnecessary details into this file. I wonder if I bored you with this information. Maybe you don't want/need to know all this. Maybe I had found some good blackmail material against you and gotten you to follow me in one fell swoop. As for charisma and such, I don't trust on me having any of that. Let's stick to the efficienct and old method. -' [Page 8864 para 5 line 2]
'- Nearly two months have passed since I began typing this project data. Yet I have only included less than a third of my doings in detail. I have to either skimp on the others or I won't be able to meet the deadline that I have set.-' [Page 8897 para 4 line three]
'- Apparently Spirit Pagoda is quite proactive in helping the candidates for the Spiriters(the chosen four that fight for the position of the President). Should I send my name for the qualification, they still haven't realized that I have lost my skills. -' [Page 9001 para 9 ]
'- Negative. Let's keep on this plan and we will focus on other things. I have to convince my current partner into helping me first. They* are quite paranoid. -' [Page 9321 last para last line]
(Used as a neutral gender pronoun since he didn't want to clarify the gender of the partner he had mentioned here.)
'- Onto the other hand, I am quite interested in the prospects on what the sales of the custard apple pie will procure me in the long run. I went to the researchers to get the verification for my new ring. I have to submit the complete file in two days. -' [9999 Para 9 line 9]
'- I wonder how much changes I would have gone through if I am ever thinking of peace. I need some more time to consider my appetite and future directions. -' [10834 para 3 line 6]
'If you are ever reading this and then thinking that just because you know what I have done you can stop me... Then you are gravely mistaken but I won't correct your mistake. I actually do want to know how I would act if everything went awry. -' [Second Last page]
'- I am what you named the Mysterious Death. I have also went by my previous alias as the Child Killer(which made it sound like I killed children). I don't kill until I don't want to. I have a small goal that I must accomplish. -' [Second Last page]
'- Worry not though, if I succeeded, no humans will be harmed, every being would be at peace and harmony. You would be happy. I would be dead. Everything will move on. -' [Second Last page]
'- But in some case that I am not able to fulfill my small goal, I will choose the easiest way and end humanity as a whole, even if I die or after I die. You can't stop me. Death doesn't faze me, I just have far more important things to do alive. I promise you that if you align with me, I will stop the killings(if any were happening), or anything you want from the following. -' [Second Last page]
' - Solution to world hunger. -'
' - Information regarding Shrek's destruction -'
'- Qiangu Dongfeng's plans regarding Gu Yue(Your disciple) -'
'- The actual abilities of my Boundless ring -'
'- How to move on -'
'- Choose any two from this as a beginners trust building pack and we can start our relationship anew. You will get what you want and so will I (I always get what I want) -' [Second Last page]
Leng Yaozhu silently moved on the last page of the Resurgence of Life project.
'- I am pleased to make your acquaintance. Have you ever tried Apple pies? They aren't as great as I thought they would be. Maybe I have an adult's palette. -'
She looked at the last page and destroyed the file along with the display drive.
*sigh*
She had finished reading the file and it was overwhelming, to say the least. Filled with information about the replantion of the land, his killings from his child Killer days to the mysterious death phenomenon and additional ones that no one even knew of, followed by nearly 1000 pages worth of recipes, some tid bits about himself, data on the related plants that he was going to plant and lastly about herself.
All of that mixed and mashed in the 11374 pages where except for the replantion data, everything else was disjointed and intentionally scattered here and there.
(The above '- lines -' were his tidbits that she had focused on)
And surprisingly, there weren't as much information about him than she had anticipated with the way he had written it. Even after reading the file, and knowing about the incident, she had no idea on how they transpired as he hadn't accounted that. Or in other words, he had purposefully left them out.
She knew about his actual replantion plan though but she didn't know about his poisons or vials.
Gu Yue didn't know about the data in the file but she knew about his vials.
Both of them were completely unaware of the things that they had wanted to know.
But that was a matter that won't be mentioned again as no one would would even think of finding this information from them.
To Leng Yaozhu, she now possessed vast information but it was pretty much useless as well because she couldn't share it to anyone else. At least, for a while.