Abel said, “Leo, Mr. Steele is my leader, and he is also the leader of the entire WONDER.”
WONDER Director?
Leo was taken aback.
“Leo, I know you have many questions now, and I have a lot to tell you. Let’s sit down and talk,” Beau gestured towards the coffee table.
After the three of them sat down, Leo couldn’t help but ask, “Mr. Steele, what was that blue liquid you injected into me on that rainy night over three years ago?”
“I don’t know what it’s called,” Beau replied.
Leo was immediately frustrated.
Beau continued, “All I know is that it can activate your Celestial Root gene, allowing you to inherit the path of immortal cultivation.”
“Celestial Root gene? Immortal cultivation? The more I listen, the less I understand,” Leo frowned.
Beau signaled for Abel to explain.
Abel took a sip of tea, looked at Leo, and said, “Leo, on Earth, more than five thousand years ago, there were many Cultivators.”
“You must have heard about the legend of Nuwa mending the sky when you were very young. Nuwa was a Cultivator; she mended the sky by melting stones, but what she really mended was not the sky but a rift in the dimensional planes.”
“Dimensional rift?” This was the second time Leo heard the term “dimension”; the first time was when he killed the Black Poison King.
Abel explained, “The entire universe contains countless dimensional worlds. Earth is just one of the countless worlds in the cosmic river. If one has the ability to tear through space and break through temporal barriers, one can reach another dimensional world.”
Leo digested what Abel had said, then asked, “Abel, you just mentioned that there were many Cultivators on Earth over five thousand years ago. What about now?”
“Now, on Earth, probably only you exist as a Cultivator,” Abel replied.
Leo was astonished: “Only me, how could that be?”
“As per our research, on a certain day five thousand years ago, all the Cultivators on Earth suddenly disappeared without a trace, and the specific reasons are unknown,” said Abel, his eyes filled with doubt.
“They all disappeared?” Leo was taken aback, a gut feeling told him that something extremely terrifying must have happened five thousand years ago.
“No, wait!” Leo suddenly remembered something, “The reason I became a Cultivator is entirely because Mr. Steele injected that blue liquid into me, which means, you can create Cultivators!”
Hearing this, Beau and Abel looked at each other and smiled.
Beau smiled and said, “Leo, as I said earlier, you should be the only Cultivator known in this world. That mysterious blue liquid only works on you because you possess the Celestial Root gene.”
“What is the Celestial Root gene?” Leo felt more and more mystified.
“The Celestial Root gene is a segment of the human genome, which disappeared from the human gene pool along with the disappearance of the Cultivators on Earth five thousand years ago,” Abel explained.
“Whether one has the Celestial Root gene is the prerequisite for becoming a Cultivator. You are lucky, we found the existence of the Celestial Root gene in your genome.”
“How did you know I have the Celestial Root gene in me?” Leo suddenly felt a sense of deep dread.
Abel replied, “WONDER initiated a project thirty years ago, using five years to search for newborns carrying the Celestial Root gene throughout the country, but ultimately the project failed, and we didn’t find any infants carrying the gene.”
“However, a slight reaction of the reagent still brought our attention to one of the infants, and that was you.”
“What is that reagent?”
“The reagent is a red chemical that can detect the presence of the Celestial Root gene in blood. Once the Celestial Root gene is detected, the reagent changes from red to blue. In your blood test, the reagent showed a slight red to blue tendency, therefore WONDER has been tracking you ever since.”
Abel paused, then asked, “Do you still remember, over three years ago, you donated blood once?”
Leo immediately responded, “My blood caused the reagent to completely turn blue?”
“Yes, so on that rainy night, when you were contemplating suicide, Mr. Steele personally came forward to inject you with that blue liquid, activating your Celestial Root gene and making you a Cultivator,” Abel nodded.
Now, the reason Leo became a Cultivator finally became clear.
Leo then asked the next question, “Mr. Steele, Abel, where did you get that blue liquid you injected me with?”
“It was obtained from a secret realm, a total of nine vials, including instructions for the blue liquid. We speculate that it might be a relic from a Cultivation sect during the Earth’s era of Cultivation civilization,” Abel replied.
“Abel, what about the current Martial Cultivators and Espers?” Taking this opportunity, Leo just asked all the questions he had in mind.
“After the disappearance of the Cultivators, some people obtained ancient scriptures left by the Cultivation sects. Through exploration and trials, they eventually became Martial Cultivators. As for Espers, as well as werewolves and the Blood Clan in the West, they are the results of genetic mutations.”
“Since you obtained the nine vials of blue liquid, have you ever experimented by injecting it into people without the Celestial Root gene, and what happened?” Leo curiously asked.
“Of course, we have experimented. People without the Celestial Root gene, if injected with that blue liquid, will immediately die bleeding from all orifices. We have also conducted experiments on animals, and the results were the same.”
Thus, Leo finally understood why he possessed such extraordinary abilities.
The only known Cultivator on Earth, meaning, on the path of Cultivation, Leo would be utterly alone. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
And the once-existing civilization of Cultivation on Earth, what a glorious era it was, Leo couldn’t help but yearn for it.
Beau then said, “We called you here today not only to tell you these things but also to ask for your help with something.”
Leo promptly replied, “Mr. Steele, please don’t say ‘ask.’ The abilities I have are given by you. As long as I am capable, I will not refuse!”
“Then I’ll speak directly,” Beau paused and said, “After the Second World War, although Orientia was defeated, its intention to harm us never died, and it has been covertly and overtly clashing with our country ever since.”
“These clashes include not only military, economic, and cultural fields but also the field of geomancy.”
“geomancy?” Leo was puzzled, “Do the Orientia people also understand geomancy?”
“They not only understand it but are also very proficient. Orientians have a strong learning capacity. They not only learned a lot of the essence of Atrarian geomancy but also through their own understanding and improvements, they finally used geomancy against their own teachers,” Beau nodded.