Living in the Doomsday and Becoming an Immortal Alone
Chapter 352 - 174: Her Twenty-Seven Years

Chapter 352: Chapter 174: Her Twenty-Seven Years

Shen Qionglin’s life had three turning points, occurring respectively at age seven, fourteen, and twenty-one, which also concealed many secrets of the Spiritual Ability City.

Wang Jixuan divided his observations into three parts.

Nothing else, the information about Spirit Cultivators in Shen Qionglin’s memory gave him a sense of having reaped enormous benefits.

Returning to Shen Qionglin’s story.

Shen Qionglin arrived at Iron Wall Castle at the age of twenty-one, where she had already lived for more than six years.

She was exiled by the Six Elders.

Before her exile, Shen Qionglin was a special-class researcher who could directly interface with the Six Elders, holding three major projects in her hands:

Research to improve the survival rate of infusions;

Development of Spiritual Ability Mecha;

Exploration of the mysterious symbol usage by Spirit Cultivators.

Logically, a researcher as important as her, also called a prodigy among prodigies by the Six Elders, should have been treasured by the Spiritual Ability City.

But, during her twenty-first year, when she was at the height of her career, she encountered a series of severe setbacks.

The resources of the Spiritual Ability City were limited, and since Shen Qionglin took her share, other research teams inevitably received less.

Different research teams were tied to different Level Ability Users, even to powers of SS Level Spirit Ability Users;

While the Six Elders had been trapped in the Silent Ball for fifty years, even in the Spiritual Ability City, there were many things beyond their reach.

The protection of the Six Elders quickly became ineffective.

The first to encounter trouble was Shen Qionglin’s mother.

Her mother was kidnapped, and the kidnappers demanded that Shen Qionglin ingest a drug that could impair normal human cognitive abilities.

Shen Qionglin chose to refuse.

Because she clearly understood that once she lost her research ability, her value; the fate awaiting her, her mother, her sister, and brother would be even more miserable.

The end result was that her mother was killed, her body stripped of clothing and thrown outside Shen Qionglin’s secret laboratory.

Shen Qionglin looked at her mother’s body, silently took off her lab coat, and didn’t say a word.

Some researchers used this incident to viciously attack Shen Qionglin for "losing her humanity," "never considering her own mother’s safety," and further extended the attack to demand that the laboratory where Shen Qionglin worked suspend her to undergo ethical scrutiny.

From then on, Shen Qionglin began to treat the laboratory as her home, cutting off all external communications.

In the empty laboratory, a lonely light would always shine in a corner late into the night.

When tired, her petite body leaned against the chair, staring blankly into the light-polluted sky outside the window.

Her mother’s case eventually ended unresolved.

The Spiritual Ability Supervision Team placed the blame on three or four thugs from the slums, closing the case as such.

In the following months, the harassment continued relentlessly.

Shen Qionglin minimized her outings as much as possible, but every action she took was under the watch of her enemies.

Powers at the level of the Six Elders intervened a few times, but each time, they could only quiet the malevolent spirits for a few days before the relentless attacks resumed.

Her sister’s family was ’demoted’ and expelled from Energy City.

Her brother was mistakenly sent into a Spiritual Ability infusion experiment, barely survived, and ended up as a disabled Spiritual Ability User.

Shen Qionglin arrived soon after, looking at her brother who had been tortured into a shadow of his former self.

Still, she didn’t say a word.

Months later, Shen Qionglin completed her current stage of tasks as scheduled, her spirit on the verge of collapse.

One of the Six Elders’ conversation with her became the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

"Is this the Spiritual Ability Mecha you created?"

"Qionglin, do you know? We humans face a situation of certain death, and the path that you and the other twelve research teams are on is to find a way to survive in this inevitable end."

"Your current direction is wrong, the Spiritual Ability Mecha just superficially leverages Spiritual Energy from the air, other teams have already begun to harness the Power of the Crystal Core."

"Spirit Cultivators are in a contest with us, offering only a bit of needed technology bit by bit, like squeezing toothpaste, in exchange for more souls from us, to recover their power."

"You must adjust your route now; your early experiments were perfect, reducing the death rate of infusion experiments. Now, out of every one hundred and twenty-one clones, a Spiritual Ability User is born. So, what’s the problem with using these cloned Ability Users for experiments? Qionglin, what matters more, your pointless persistence or the fate of humanity?"

"If we could grasp the secret of how Spirit Cultivators inspire Ability Users, we could defeat the Blade Beasts, we could throw off the shackles they have placed on us."

"Qionglin, come over here; let grandpa talk to you properly..."

"I’m sorry."

Shen Qionglin took two steps back, frowned at the old man in the robe before her, and said in a low voice:

"My value should lie in scientific research; I hope you can respect my basic dignity."

The old man gave a forced smile, "Do you know how much effort I’ve spent to protect you?"

"Isn’t that your problem? The exalted Six Elders are rulers, but you can’t even ensure your orders are carried out. Is watching my mother’s naked body what you call protection?"

Shen Qionglin’s emotions fluctuated, and her gaze sharpened.

The old man sighed, "Your research results are too dazzling; many people view you as a monster."

"Yes, I am a monster," Shen Qionglin said softly, "but even a monster should not use its kin for biological experiments."

"The cloned Spiritual Ability Users are not your kin; you are human!"

"What about you? As an SS Level Spiritual Ability User, are you human, or a monster?"

"Go back. I don’t want to communicate with you anymore; you are just one of the many lead researchers from a dozen teams."