You’re Playing with Fire, Kid

Hearing Skye’s words, Old Wang nodded with a smile.

Afterlife called the "Obelisk" the "Diviner," and the day chosen for suitable candidates to use the Obelisk was called the "Day of Prophecy."

This day was not a holiday. Afterlife had its own selection process. Only once the selection was complete, the candidates had been mentally prepared, and the logistical arrangements were in place would they choose an auspicious day to use the Obelisk.

Afterlife had existed for many years and controlled a vast amount of resources. Every year, if not a thousand, then at least eight hundred people lined up to use the Obelisk. Most were descendants of awakened individuals, people whose ancestors had connections going back eighteen generations.

Under normal circumstances, the selection was conducted among those people.

There were too few Obelisks to accommodate too many people, so there was no need to seek candidates from outside. This was also one way to ensure that Afterlife was not exposed to the outside world.

Old Wang had suddenly proposed letting several people of his choosing skip the selection process and use the Obelisk directly. Naturally, that broke the rules and met with resistance from all of Afterlife.

Of course, the Obelisks were controlled by the Council of Elders. Although Afterlife claimed that everyone was equal, the Council of Elders actually held tremendous power. As long as they could be persuaded, there would be no problem.

As an ancient fixture and the leader of Afterlife, Jia Ying had offered warm companionship to every Inhuman whose genes had been awakened through the Obelisk during their loneliest and most helpless moments. That bond was practically equivalent to being a second parent. Everyone in Afterlife was her child.

Her favorability toward Old Wang was through the roof, and she strongly supported him. With the utterly loyal Gordon, the less-than-utterly-loyal Lincoln, and the newly joined Skye, persuading the Council of Elders would not be a problem.

But Old Wang had never expected it to happen so quickly.

His mother-in-law was really pulling her weight!

"Very good. We’ll go to Afterlife tomorrow."

Afterlife was very important.

In Old Wang’s Shengun Bureau blueprint, Inhumans were a force that could not be ignored, and Afterlife had long been planned as one of the five major bases. Old Wang intended to use Afterlife as a springboard, bringing all the Inhumans on Earth, and even the Inhumans on the Moon, onto his war chariot and making them a sacred, inseparable part of the Shengun Bureau.

And everything would begin tomorrow.

After some thought, Old Wang decided to bring Afterlife a small gift.

No one could fault him for bringing gifts. After all, he was taking someone else’s slot, so it was necessary to improve their opinion of him.

Even if he could not raise it to reverence or worship, he should at least get them to friendly or neutral rather than their current indifferent, hostile state.

Afterlife had its own rules. It did not communicate with the outside world, ensuring that it remained unknown to outsiders.

Out of respect for others, Old Wang did not intend to change that. There was no need to bring high-tech products over; they did not lack them—

Those who could establish ties with Afterlife were basically old clans that had existed for centuries or even millennia. They helped one another and had deep foundations. Many held power and influence in the outside world and were already familiar with high-tech products, so such things held little appeal.

Because it had been built by Chinese people and was located within China, everything from Afterlife’s architectural style to its customs had been passed down from Chinese culture. Images of divine dragons and phoenixes could be seen everywhere.

Inhumans had genetic defects. Although their average lifespan exceeded a hundred years, most had weaker immune systems than ordinary humans and fell ill easily. Naturally, Old Wang would start from that angle.

Simmons was an authority in biochemistry. Combined with her recent research into the Winter Soldier, Captain America, the Immortal Dragon Dragon Bone, and Azeroth’s flora and fauna, she had achieved breakthroughs capable of shocking the world. Producing some medicine to improve immunity would not be a problem.

Old Wang had never been interested in cramming at the last minute.

Ever since he had made contact with Afterlife, he had asked Simmons to study Skye and Jia Ying’s bodies and work with Carl to invent several medicines.

They were finally coming in handy.

Early the next morning, Old Wang opened a portal and brought Skye to Afterlife.

The orange portal vanished. With a ripple through space, Gordon appeared before Old Wang.

Blind Monk wore a blank expression. He had no fondness for the man who had once taken away the person he loved and left him outside, anxiously watching for more than ten days. He said coldly:

"Follow me."

The moment he spoke, he vanished again.

Old Wang smiled faintly. His psychic power spread over Afterlife, tracking the spatial fluctuation as he took Skye’s hand and walked forward at an unhurried pace.

Modern life moved too fast. The soul often could not keep up with the body. Old Wang felt that people should slow down, just like this.

Gordon’s actions did not make him unhappy. He simply wanted to take a walk.

Afterlife was vast and sparsely populated. It looked like a small settlement, but there were many hidden places deep in the mountains—caves, dense forests, even snow caverns.

Afterlife concealed many secrets, and Jia Ying alone knew most of them.

After Gordon appeared, his special ability allowed him to learn some of them as well. But the one who knew the most was actually Old Wang.

No Inhuman had ever possessed psychic power as strong as his. Nothing could escape his sight.

After walking for a full hour, they finally arrived before an isolated building and saw Gordon standing at the entrance, along with Lincoln, whose expression was complicated.

Ever since learning about Old Wang and Skye’s relationship, Lincoln had not looked well. He could only turn grief and indignation into motivation, spending every day studying and training his electrical abilities. When there was trouble, he got struck by lightning; when there was none, he touched live wires. The charge accumulating inside him grew ever greater, and the longer he saw Old Wang, the more it seemed on the verge of erupting.

"Lincoln!" Gordon hurriedly rebuked him.

Although he stood on the same side as Lincoln—one pining for the mother, the other for the daughter, with the women they loved becoming someone else’s wife and girlfriend—Gordon had lived more than a decade longer and was far more mature. He knew this was not the time to cause trouble.

There might be no chance at all, but being able to remain beside the person you loved was still a kind of blessing. Lincoln, cherish what you have! Don’t drag me down and make me lose even my chance to be a backup!

The problem was that emotions suppressed to the limit needed an outlet. The same went for the overloaded electric charge, or it would easily harm his body.

In this situation, it was no longer up to Lincoln!

Gordon frowned and wanted to take Lincoln away.

But first, lightning was shooting from Lincoln’s entire body, so Gordon did not dare approach him, and his Inhuman ability required physical contact to teleport.

Second, Wang the Fatty in front of them really did deserve a beating…

"Wang…" Skye tugged Old Wang’s sleeve and tilted her head, asking with her eyes:

Do you want me to make a move?

Old Wang gave her hand a light tug in return, rejecting the idea with the faint upward curve of his lips:

No need.

Noticing their little exchange, Lincoln had originally planned to restrain himself, restrain himself, and restrain himself again. But how could he restrain himself now?

An enormous amount of electric charge gathered inside him. Dense, tiny bolts of lightning covered his body and the surrounding space, like electric snakes slithering through the air. He had a hint of a miniature Thor about him, though he was N levels below the real Thor.

"Don’t make trouble."

From dozens of meters away, Old Wang glanced at him, then continued forward with Skye.

His footsteps were strange.

At first, they were fast, each step falling in rhythm with Lincoln’s heartbeat.

Then they grew slower and slower, and Lincoln’s heartbeat slowed with them.

Second by second, the distance between them narrowed. Lincoln’s heartbeat returned to a normal pace, his ragged breathing gradually eased, and his anger and hatred toward Old Wang became less intense. Yet the lightning around his body did not diminish in the slightest.

As the saying went, once the arrow was on the string, it had to be fired. He had accumulated too much charge for it to remain under his control.

"You’re playing with fire… no, this is even scarier than playing with fire. You’re playing with electricity!"

A trace of pity appeared in Old Wang’s eyes.

There was never any shortage of people who could recognize beauty. My Skye is so beautiful and so graceful; there are plenty of people who like her. It would be strange if no one did. She doesn’t lack you in particular, so why put yourself through this?

Let me tell everyone: the big update spree starts tomorrow. Update spree, update spree, update spree. Important things must be said three times.