The Divine Soul Tree Seed (continued)

Liu Qingqing's worries were unnecessary. Lin Qingtong did not resist to the death like a revolutionary fighter, nor did she think, "If I just grit my teeth a little more, I can get through this." She answered every question and had a good attitude, which made Chen Xiangduan, who wanted to show his Higher Vehicle interrogation skills, feel quite disappointed. He had a sense of emptiness, as if his opponent had fallen before he even started to exert his strength.

Who is the leader of the Heaven-Defying Society?

"Fushi Qingcang."

"I asked about his real identity."

"I don't know. The organization's rules prohibit members from probing each other's identities, unless they are like Shentu Chuang and me who voluntarily reveal it. Everyone else has some degree of concealment. For example, I only found out that Six-Fingered Formless was one of us before the operation."

"What does he look like?"

"I couldn't see him clearly; his face was a blur. Even if I managed to make out a glimpse of him using my internal energy, I would forget it as soon as I turned away."

What about his height and build?

"He's 1.8 meters tall, build unknown, and he always wears a large black cloak."

How do you usually keep in touch?

"On the 1st, 11th, and 21st of each month, we will enter the Tree Spirit Realm through the Divine Soul Tree Seed for a gathering. Because the Tree Spirit Realm is a spiritual world, everyone can freely change their form and appearance, so it is impossible to recognize someone by their appearance."

"The Divine Soul Tree Seed?"

"A seed from the Tree of Souls, or at least that's what the leader described it as. In my view, it's actually a kind of alternative soul imprint. The leader uses the imprint to pull the consciousness of members into the spiritual space."

Where is this seed?

"I had it parasitizing the surface of my heart, but it seems to have been destroyed in the previous battle."

"If you weren't captured, how do you replenish tree seeds after they're destroyed in battle? This must be quite common, right? Also, how did you initially obtain the tree seeds? They couldn't have just appeared out of thin air in front of you, could they?"

"If this happens, the Nether Lord will contact us and bring a new Divine Soul Tree Seed. This person is elusive and unpredictable; it was through him that I was initially drawn into the Heaven-Defying Society."

"So, besides the leader Fushi Qingcang, only Nether Lord has the list of all the members?"

"There was also a Nether Master. Both of them were agents of the leader, but the Nether Master Underworld was killed by Startling Rainbow Beyond the Heavens while he was in France. Later, it is said that a new Nether Marquis appeared to replace him, but I have never seen him."

Why did you destroy the Eternal Barrier?

"I don't know. I joined the Heaven-Defying Society to gain power. They gave me Metal Cells to continuously strengthen my body, and I completed their missions. As for their purpose, I neither care nor concern myself with it."

"Is it that you don't know, or you don't want to say?"

"What's the point of me hiding it now? You can ask the other members; they might know the truth. Of course, the best way is to capture Nether Lord. As the leader's henchman, he might know the whole truth."

Perhaps because she lost to Liu Qingqing, Lin Qingtong was listless, with a hopeless expression. She answered each question weakly, saying she didn't know the answer directly if she didn't know, without hiding anything or making things up, as if she had already resigned herself to her fate.

As the subject of interrogation, her performance was undoubtedly the best template, saving the interrogators a lot of effort. Of course, to ensure everything went smoothly, Chen Xiangduan still had someone use some kind of spiritual magic to verify the authenticity of the confession, although it ultimately proved to be unnecessary.

Using his identity as a representative of the Heaven's Will Palace, Si Ming also obtained a statement. Upon seeing the section on the Divine Soul Tree Seed, he couldn't help but marvel. "Impressive! No wonder the Mohist Knight Guard's intelligence network, which spans the four seas, hasn't been able to find any trace of the Heaven-Defying Society after investigating for so long. They don't have fixed strongholds, they don't have matching codes, their members don't know each other, and they usually pretend to be ordinary people, so it's impossible to detect anything unusual."

While others need to run an internet cable and have a computer or smartphone to access the internet, Heaven-Defying Society n't even need these external devices. He directly pulls the soul into the spiritual space, so even if the other party is having a gathering right in front of you, you will be completely unaware.

"If the leader of the Heaven-Defying Society isn't lying, this Tree of Souls is equivalent to the World Wide Web, and also a root server. Everyone's consciousness enters the space created by the Tree of Souls to communicate face-to-face. Tsk tsk, such a wonderful thing has been turned into a local area network social system, what a waste."

It's unknown what the maximum capacity of this Tree of Souls is. If it's large enough, or even mass-produced, Sea Continent could leap into the Internet age, and a Internet age without computers. Just thinking about such a future makes Si Ming feel that Sea Continent's technology tree has gone astray.

"Consciousness can manifest directly in the mental world, isn't that equivalent to True Person reality technology? If we take it a step further and master the architecture technology, we might even be able to create True Person reality online games, without needing a game pod or a brain implant, and we could enter anytime, anywhere... Damn, this world doesn't even have widespread personal computers yet!"

Si Ming had reviewed the relevant internal documents and knew that the computer invented by the Mohist Academy of Science was still in the era of second-generation transistor digital machines. Even at the pace of technological development on Earth, it would take another fifty years for personal computers to become widespread. Not to mention that Sea Continent's technology tree had already gone astray, and who knows how many detours it would take along the way.

It should be noted that when the first-generation vacuum tube digital machine was first invented, everyone thought that its calculation speed was too slow, not as fast as the thinking speed of Divine Arts. The second-generation transistor digital machine could not match the calculation speed of Spirit Transformation Grandmaster. Therefore, many people were not optimistic about its future. After all, they invented computers to solve professional mathematical problems, not for popularization.

However, it's too early to think about these things now. The Tree of Souls is a myth. Even if the leader of the Heaven-Defying Society wasn't just talking nonsense, he certainly wouldn't be willing to hand it over to the country.

"A pearl has been hidden in the dust; a good thing has fallen into the hands of someone who doesn't know its value."

Si Ming sighed, then looked down and finished reading the rest of the statement. He found that there wasn't much useful information. Apart from knowing the code names of other important members of the Heaven-Defying Society, Lin Qingtong knew nothing else. She was just a martial arts fanatic and had no interest in anything other than becoming stronger, so she naturally wouldn't bother to collect clues or investigate the identities of other members. Besides, the Heaven-Defying Society's special communication methods greatly increased the difficulty of contacting each other privately.

After reading the entire document, the most valuable information was about the Divine Soul Tree Seed and the Tree of Souls. Si Ming asked in confusion, "Why is there only Lin Qingtong's confession? Weren't there two other prisoners?"

Chen Xiangduan said in a low voice, "That guy named Ji Xun is just a temporary worker, he doesn't even have a formal position, so we can't get any useful information out of him. We can only treat him as an ordinary criminal."

"And what about Mi Haichao? Even if he's weak, he's still a Spirit Transformation Grandmaster. Heaven-Defying Society wouldn't be so extravagant as to treat a Spirit Transformation Grandmaster like a temporary worker?"

Chen Xiangduan and said, "After we thawed Mi Haichao, we found that he was already dead."

"Dead!"

Si Ming initially thought that his Martial Uncle Ling might have accidentally killed someone with a single spear thrust. But then he reconsidered. While Spirit Transformation Grandmaster might be weak in martial arts or not skilled in combat, each of them possessed incredibly strong vitality. Unless their heads exploded or their hearts were pierced, they could live for a long time. How could they be killed so easily? Moreover, Ling Huanxi had released freezing air to immobilize the person. Her freezing air could not only stop bleeding but also prevent the injury from worsening. It could even prolong the life of an ordinary person, let alone Spirit Transformation Grandmaster.

His thoughts raced, Si Ming quickly came up with a possibility. "Is it because of that Divine Soul Tree Seed?"

Chen Xiangduan said, "At present, this is the most likely possibility, but we did not find the so-called Divine Soul Tree Seed on his corpse."

Of the three prisoners captured, Ji Xun was a temporary worker and didn't even qualify for the tree seed. Lin Qingtong was severely injured by Liu Qingqing's ultimate move during the battle. Although her body recovered due to the Metal Cells, the tree seed didn't have the ability to regenerate on its own. Now, the Divine Soul Tree Seed couldn't be found on Mi Haichao's body either, which meant there was no way to investigate, and it was impossible to find someone to study the secrets within.

Suddenly, Si Ming remembered someone and said, "Isn't there also Wei Chunxi? Didn't you find any tree seeds on him?"

Chen Xiangduan retorted, "Why do you think we would announce to the public that this guy is dead?"

Si Ming asked in surprise, "So this guy is actually really dead?"

"No, but he's practically dead. This guy is skilled in medicine and probably doesn't trust the so-called Divine Soul Tree Seed, so he kept a backup plan. Unfortunately, he still couldn't escape his fate and became a vegetable. The reason we've taken so long to take action is to find clues from his memories, which is no easy task."

Si Ming said thoughtfully, "No wonder Remote Heaven Society didn't try to rescue them and easily believed the information we released. The culprits are them, or rather, the leader who calls himself the Fushi Qingcang —he knew exactly what was going on since he did it himself."

Chen Xiangduan waved his hand somewhat irritably and said, "Remote Heaven Society such a method of killing people from a distance to prevent information from leaking, it will be extremely difficult to follow the clues and wipe them out in one fell swoop in the future."