Could the Black Death Emperor himself actually be the Fated One?
As soon as this theory was put forward, Jasper Xiao was instantly dumbfounded—he was completely floored by this wild idea. Honestly, not just him—even Jack Young himself went silent for a moment after saying it. The two stared at each other, wide-eyed for ages, before suddenly bursting into laughter.
Hahaha! Your imagination is truly grand and magnificent—impressive, impressive!
Heh, sometimes I’m amazed by my own ability to come up with nonsense.
Yeah, right—the White Night phenomenon only appeared this April. Even if the Black Death Emperor had something weird going on, he’s already missed out by eighteen hundred years. And forget the timeline for a second, let’s just talk about the basics—a Fated One has to at least be alive, right? Even if there was once life in that jade, it’s been dead for almost two thousand years. What’s it gonna do, come back as a zombie?
Looks like my recent run-ins with that blockhead have really stretched my imagination to the max—hahaha!
—But, even though they were joking around, neither of them slacked off on the job. In perfect sync, both activated their scrutinizing vision. Golden and silver beams shot straight into the crystal coffin, scanning the ancient corpse inside. Their faces looked relaxed, but their eyes swept over every inch like searchlights, leaving no corner unchecked. After a thorough inspection, whew—turns out it was just nerves, no sign of any dimensional rift.
Jack Young let out a sigh of relief, then casually tossed out another question that even made himself perk up: "Hey, do you think the Black Death Emperor could still be alive?"
Uh… Jasper Xiao’s face immediately fell. "Why do you always have to come up with even wilder theories? In a totally sealed environment like this, even if he had some skills, even if he was as tough as a cockroach, eighteen hundred years locked up would’ve killed him for sure."
"Totally sealed? Not necessarily." Jack Young quickly raised his hand to signal, and after the professor nodded, he stood up and called out, "Professor, I’ve got a question—if the outer layer of this wrapping material is so strong, then how did the crack in the Black Death Emperor’s forehead appear? How deep is it—did it go through the outer layer?"
Professor He shot Jack Young a surprised look. "Sir, you have excellent eyesight. Even from this distance, with all the glare off the glass, you still spotted that crack. You're absolutely right, let me explain." He pointed, and the big screen behind him zoomed in for a close-up: "The Black Death Emperor's body has only one crack, right here. It split open on its own when we opened the coffin. The crack is less than three millimeters deep—according to our measurements, it hasn't gone through the outer shell. If there really was someone inside..."
"Got it, thanks, Professor." Jack nodded his thanks and sat back down, whispering to Jasper Xiao, "So it's really airtight."
"Feel better now? Even if it’s some legendary cryogenic hibernation, it’s not like you can go two thousand years without oxygen. What kind of creature could survive that?" Jasper Xiao chuckled. "You know, I just thought—if someone snatched a Black Grimoire from The Mummy universe, maybe you could summon a beast. Imagine having an ancient emperor as your familiar. Never mind if he can fight—the street cred alone would be off the charts!"
"You’ve got a wild imagination, but honestly, it might just work. Hey, if the World Observation Bureau forum ever opens up a trading platform, maybe we really could score a Black Grimoire or Golden Grimoire!" Jack’s own mind started whirring. Setting up a trading platform for Chosen Ones could be a solid idea. Resource swaps, info sharing—finally, Chosen Ones wouldn’t be scattered loners but more like comrades in arms.
Jack had plenty of resources, and as he leveled up, he’d outgrow a bunch of them. If they could trade, maybe he’d get some unexpected gains. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy, but he made a mental note to run it by Jonathan later, see if he had any bright ideas.
"Let’s put a pin in the summoning beast idea. We can come back to it later."
After that, nothing at the exhibition really caught Jack and Jasper’s eye, but the crowd was buzzing with excitement, firing off questions left and right. That little girl even jumped up to ask a few. Clearly, she was thrilled. Jack glanced at her burly dad, Lei Zhen, and saw him smiling softly at his excited daughter. On that tough, slightly down-and-out face, that faint smile was surprisingly touching.
Sharing her joy, sharing her sorrow—his heart tugged along, completely out of his control and with no freedom at all, like a kite caught on a string. That’s love.
Looks like this tough guy really treasures his little girl.
Soon, the exhibition reached its final stage—a special step not usually part of the official program: up-close viewing. One by one, the audience jumped up and crowded onto the stage, circling the crystal coffin from every angle, checking it out from top to bottom. Even the calmest folks couldn’t resist joining the fun, and of course, Jack and Jasper went up too.
But Jack wasn’t just there for the excitement. He couldn’t shake a sense of unease, so he carefully inspected the coffin from every angle, activating all his senses. Sight, sound, even touch—he pressed his hand to the glass and sent subtle vibrations through it. The thick, custom glass might as well have been air. When it came to sensing life force, Jack was even better than the fancy tech.
After a moment, Jack let his hand drop and gave Jasper a self-deprecating smile. "I’m just being paranoid—there’s no sign of life at all."
Eighteen hundred years—no one could survive that, not even a regular person, let alone a Chosen One. Even with some supernatural powers, even those ultimate creations from the Pacific World who’d mastered the Meat Pill path couldn’t last that long. Forget eighteen hundred years.
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No way—there’s absolutely no living person in that jade!
Unless... Jack’s mind raced, considering a possibility, but then he shook his head with a wry smile—what was with him lately, getting all paranoid? It was just a spur-of-the-moment exhibition visit. Time to move on; he had real business to take care of.
"Let’s go." Jack headed out first, Jasper hustling to keep up. He whispered, "You looked a little off back there. Did you think of some weird new theory again?"
"Yeah, I did come up with something pretty far-fetched." Jack thought it over, then decided to share his crazy idea: "The only way the Black Death Emperor could still be alive is if someone else was eating, drinking, and breathing for him."
"Breathing for him? How would that even work? Your brain’s gone off the rails!" Jasper burst out laughing.
Jack laughed too, but... that wild theory actually had some precedent. Thinking back, thanks to Queen Yang’s feast on Misty Peak, he’d earned the nickname ‘Immortal’ in the Smokepot Slave Gang.
When they reached the exhibition hall entrance, Jack suddenly felt a strange, uneasy tremor in his heart. He frowned and glanced back one last time. Inside the crystal coffin, the peculiar jade-wrapped corpse stood silent, the layer of jade sealing it off from the world.
Suddenly, Jack’s vision blurred—he thought he saw wisps of black energy leaking from the Black Death Emperor’s brow, slipping through the glass and floating into the hall. "What the—!" He snapped his eyes wide open, but on closer inspection, there was nothing there.
"What’s going on?!" Jack’s brow furrowed. That black mist felt ominous. He triggered his Dreamsea Remnant ability and checked his memory, but found no trace of black mist or anything unusual in his vision. The crack on the Black Death Emperor’s forehead was perfectly normal.
"Weird, was that just a hallucination?" Jack’s gaze grew serious. "But why would I hallucinate?"
"What’s up?" Jasper finally noticed something was off. "Ever since we walked in, you’ve seemed a little on edge. Did something happen?"
"I’m not sure... Probably just my inner demons acting up." Today, Jack’s sealed memories kept leaking out, like riding an elevator through floors of yellow nostalgia. Most were happy, sweet memories—should’ve been a good mood all day. But as the memories kept coming, the influence of his inner demons grew. Even in all that sweetness, Jack started feeling a vague sense of dread—his instincts warning him about something.
It’s like the beauty of autumn leaves falling is really a sign that winter’s cold winds are coming.
Jack knew he had to distract himself with different kinds of stimulation to split up the pressure from his inner demons—that’s why he insisted on coming to the exhibition. But now, he realized this random event wasn’t enough to lighten his mental load, so he decided to switch gears. "Let’s go. Forget the little stuff. Fill me in on the current situation in Shanghai—I’ll see what I can do."
Jasper didn’t know the details, but seeing Jack perk up, he nodded. "Sure, I’ve been dying to talk to you. Things have been wild lately—especially stuff about you. We need to go over it in detail!"
They wandered around and found a quiet, safe spot to talk. As soon as Jasper started, he dropped some bombshells—so wild they even caught Jack off guard.
According to stats and estimates from forum busybodies, there are probably at least six hundred Chosen Ones currently gathered in Shanghai. With a population of over ten million, six hundred isn’t much, but for Chosen Ones who’ve always fought solo, the biggest group battle so far was that time in the Pacific World. Six hundred is a number nobody’s ever seen before.
That time, three entrances and three Void Ferries worked together, and twenty-seven Chosen Ones showed up in the Pacific World. And even then—after subtracting those who died right off the bat—just twenty or so people managed to stir up a huge mess in that world. Now, with six hundred Chosen Ones bumping into each other in the same city, even if most are weaklings like those half-grown kids from yesterday, if even a tenth of them are strong, that’s a force you can’t ignore.
And who knows what those six hundred Chosen Ones really plan to do, or how they feel about the so-called Fated One? Plus, with all sorts of regular folks following the scent of drama, things look calm on the surface, but underneath it’s a total mess—like a soap opera with a teacher-student love triangle and a dash of same-sex scandal.
"Six hundred is just a conservative estimate." Jasper pointed. "Look, that tall, skinny guy across the street—he’s got a boundary mark. I’ve run into several Chosen Ones just walking around. The density is insane."
Honestly, from a bird’s-eye view: it’s because Shanghai’s Chosen One density is so high that crowd-pleasing stunts can even work. Like Cobra said, the whole world’s watching Shanghai now, and Zhu Ming just needs to whip up any eye-catching event. With hundreds of Chosen Ones, there’s always someone itching to get involved—high skill, high guts, and way more busybodies than regular people.
"Right now, the hottest thread online about Shanghai is the ‘Fated One.’ Second place? That’s all about you." Jasper pulled up a webpage and slid the tablet over to Jack. "Here, see for yourself!"
Jack looked down—and sure enough, it was a post about him! But in this popular live thread, he wasn’t exactly the hero of the story.
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"‘Live: Grassroots Chosen One Wrecks Rich Guy’s Wedding!’" Jack scrolled through the thread, skimming fast. His face got darker and darker, until he finally slammed his palm on the table and growled, "That bastard! Doesn’t deserve to be called a man!"
"That ‘Steel Body’ guy is way out of line—accusing you of crashing the wedding, painting you like a villain, and even stirring up Chosen Ones to hate you. If I ever find out who Steel Body is, I won’t let him off easy!" Jasper declared. "Don’t be mad. No matter what the forum says, I’ll help clear your name!"
"No." Jack shook his head, eyes dark. "I’m not mad about him slandering me—honestly, it’s not even slander. I wasn’t there to ‘crash the wedding,’ but the truth isn’t that different. I’ll own that. And sure, the post is sensational and cherry-picks details, but the events themselves aren’t made up. I’ll own that too."
"What?!" Jasper was floored by Jack’s response. He looked like a defense lawyer giving a closing argument, only for his client to suddenly plead guilty. Jasper stared, stunned. "Dude, I mean, wedding crashing sounds romantic and all, but it depends on the bride, right? And I don’t know the whole story, so I’ll keep quiet. But seriously, was there some other reason you did what you did in that post?"
"Kind of, but not really. Bottom line, I was just taking back what’s mine! Whether it’s my girlfriend or my memories—if it’s mine, I’m not letting go!"
"What really pisses me off isn’t those petty details. It’s that he actually posted her photo on the Chosen One forum! Who knows what weird powers these Chosen Ones have? Right now, with all eyes on us, posting a full-face photo is basically throwing her into a minefield! No matter his reason, that’s unforgivable!"
Jack’s eyes flashed with thunder as he slammed the table and stood up, storming out.
But right then, Jack’s phone rang. He picked up, squinting as he listened. Jasper had no idea who was calling or what was being said. All he saw was Jack’s face break into a sharp, cold smile. "Oh yeah? Fine. It’s a deal!"
Jack hung up with a snap, his aura even more intense than before.
"What happened? Who was that? What’s going on?"
"It was that ‘Steel Body’ guy!" Jack strode out, bristling with energy. "That bastard—turns out he’s got guts after all. He just challenged me to my face!"