This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 416: All Beings Are Equal

Chapter 416: Chapter 416: All Beings Are Equal

Seeing Chen Ke run out of the room, Xu Jing hurriedly followed, her blue eyes instantly capturing the silhouette of a man.

The quiet corridor echoed with crisp footsteps; at the same time, they also heard the clanking of heavy chains swinging.

"Do you hear that? Something is being pulled up," Xu Jing said, not stopping her pace.

Chen Ke was unclear about what those guards were up to, but judging by their full retreat, their countermeasures were likely about to unfold.

If there was an underground structure beneath this basement, it wouldn’t be hard to understand—after all, burying things was a universal concept for hiding objects.

As they spoke, the man had stopped running and instead halted in a room.

Chen Ke pushed the door open and looked at the man inside—it was indeed Jacob.

Xu Jing entered through another door, and the two of them, one in front and one behind, blocked all of Jacob’s escape routes.

Upon entering the room, an unpleasant medicinal smell hit them; Jacob stood beside a bed, making the sign of the cross on his chest as if praying for someone.

Chen Ke intended to confront Jacob, but upon entering the room, he noticed that there were more beds than in the other rooms, and they were smaller.

He lifted the blanket on the bed next to him, and the corpse of a child came into view, the child’s malnourished body as thin as a little monkey.

A blood-drawing tube was inserted into a swollen pustule on his chest, the other end not connected to a bottle—apparently, the blood collection was completed, and the bottle had been taken away.

Apart from Jacob, no other human shapes were visible in the room—they were all dead.

"I’ve told you not to play tricks," Xu Jing said to Jacob.

"We’re too late," Jacob murmured under his breath, his mood not good.

"This room is full of children, all dead," Chen Ke said. He once again used his Spiritual Vision to scan the surroundings; no human shapes were visible in the adjacent rooms.

They had been so focused on Jacob earlier that they hadn’t noticed the oddity of this cluster of rooms, and besides, under Spiritual Vision, all human shapes overlapped and were difficult to distinguish.

"Many children have gone missing; it turns out they were all brought here," Jacob shook his head.

"You know what’s down there, and if you’d told us from the start, we might have been able to help you," Xu Jing said coldly.

"You don’t look like trustworthy people to me," Jacob replied.

"You’re no different, and we gave you a chance," Xu Jing said.

Jacob glanced at the gun in Xu Jing’s hand; he had never seen such a thing before but knew it must be a dangerous weapon.

"Jacob, tell me everything you know about what’s beneath this place," Chen Ke said.

"And then I get to die, right?" Jacob asked.

"If the information you give is valuable, we might let you off," Xu Jing said, glancing at Chen Ke, her eyes implying "kill him after he talks."

"If I find you stalling for time, I might shoot you while you’re talking," Chen Ke said.

Jacob spread his hands and said, "I’m sorry for using you, but I wouldn’t have been able to get in here without you as bait."

He briefly revealed his purpose; it turned out that Jacob was the leader of a thieves’ guild in Langdon City, secretly aiding the poor workers oppressed by factory owners.

It was well-known that in 19th-century Langdon, workers had no rights to speak of.

Dying on assembly lines, working unprotected in front of boilers, becoming disabled by workplace accidents and then abandoned by factories, earning wages that barely covered the next day’s expenses, working over 10 hours a day—this was the fate of a 19th-century worker.

Child labor was even more tragic; some families, to solve their livelihood issues, would send their children to factories where they received only a quarter of the wages and had to do the work of adults at a very young age.

Furthermore, factory owners would send people to lure orphans into their factories as free child laborers. They were locked in factories, unpaid, and worked up to 12 hours a day.

Jacob’s guild targeted factories that imprisoned orphans, rescuing many and incorporating them into their ranks.

"But these children are mysteriously disappearing. I’ve been investigating for a long time and found out they were being taken to the academy," Jacob said.

"So you don’t know what’s really happening down here?" Xu Jing asked.

"I don’t care what they want to do. I just want to destroy them," Jacob replied.

"This is a revolution that will impact the entire world; we are entering a new era, and Langdon is the center of this change. Your guild can’t bring them down..." Chen Ke shook his head.

He had seen the future, more than 100 years later, not much more respectable than 19th-century Langdon.

"I don’t understand what you’re saying, but under hidden blades, all beings are equal," Jacob said.

If killing a few capitalists would change the times, then things would be simple, but the world did not operate that way.

At that moment, the sound of thick iron chains rolling again reached them. Chen Ke could feel the noise coming from both above and below, indicating that some kind of transmission mechanism was buried in the walls of the space, powered by the chains.

"My business down here is done; if there’s nothing else..." Jacob began to shuffle his feet, moving toward the doorway.

Xu Jing eyed Chen Ke, seeming to have changed her mind, and stepped aside slightly to let Jacob leave the room.

After Jacob left, Chen Ke spread his hands and asked, "Why the sudden decision to let him go?"

"We can’t kill him. He has touched the Transcendent..." Xu Jing replied.

Chen Ke understood what Xu Jing meant; having glimpsed what was beneath the academy, Jacob’s actions might play an important part in the history of the Transcendent.

"Do you think he’s connected to the Divine Descent Sect?" Chen Ke inquired.

"This reality hasn’t seen the Divine Descent Sect yet, but I don’t think Jacob will touch the origins of this organization. However, I believe he will have his place in the future. Let’s keep going and see," Xu Jing said.

Chen Ke had no comment and let Xu Jing say what she wanted; he was simply there to help and wanted to finish this journey quickly to get what he sought.

The two left the room, and whether it was an illusion or not, the already silent environment seemed to grow even quieter.

"Let’s go in the direction they fled and see what’s really there," Xu Jing whispered, as if to match the changing ambiance.

Chen Ke nodded, and they moved deeper into the underground space, their footsteps bouncing off the walls and seeming overly noisy.

The subterranean space was larger than they had imagined, and after a lengthy walk, they finally saw a pair of large wooden doors at the end.

The door was not fully closed; a breeze blew through the crack, stirring Xu Jing’s hair, and an old voice floated out from inside.

"Come in, come quickly, you must have many questions."