1884 Who Is It?
That was impossible.
When the Blood Alliance was destroyed, Meng Chao had not been born yet.
How could he possibly know an ancient ruin explorer from the Blood Alliance?
Although the dried corpse before him had completely dried out and become unrecognizable, the man’s thick and coa.r.s.e black hair indicated that he was definitely not more than thirty years old when he died.
Meng Chao did not think that he would come across such a “young man” there.
However, his intuition as a Deity Realm fighter told him that the dried corpse was not only someone he knew, but also someone close to him and someone he trusted as well as respected.
“Is he a great man who once went down in history? Is he one of the heroes who saved Dragon City from earthquakes, floods, and zombie tides in the early days of Dragon City’s transmigration? Have I seen his photo in textbooks or popular science videos before?”
Meng Chao shook his head.
He did not think that such a great man or hero would be captured by the Blood Alliance and used as fodder to explore the ancient ruins.
Besides, he might trust and respect these great men, but it was unlikely for him to develop a strong sense of closeness with them.
After a moment of silence, Meng Chao ignited a spirit flame without any temperature on his fingertip.
With his crystal clear finger, he gently touched the corpse’s dry skin.
He discovered that the corpse’s skin was still slightly elastic. It was not dry to the point that it would turn into powder with a light touch.
Meng Chao felt slightly relieved.
He brushed his finger gently across the corpse’s face.
Meng Chao’s spirit energy turned into faint fluorescence and penetrated the corpse’s skin without leaving any holes. He scanned the withered blood vessels and broken nerves below carefully. Soon, he arrived at the skull that was still solid and not too deformed.
It took Meng Chao a minute to scan the corpse’s skull.
After that, he began to create a three-dimensional model in his brain and restore the corpse’s flesh.
The brain cells of Deity Realm warriors were comparable to supercomputers that ran at full power.
The virtual nerves, blood vessels, and muscle fibers crisscrossed and covered the simulated skull layer by layer.
Before long, a young, full, and energetic face appeared in Meng Chao’s mind.
However, the moment Meng Chao identified the owner of the face, it stirred up a storm in his mind.
“This-This is impossible!” Meng Chao was extremely shocked. He subconsciously took half a step back and cried out involuntarily.
Meng Chao’s expression had never been so twistednot when the crevice that led to the ancient city disappeared, not when Battle G.o.d Lei Zongchao’s scarlet afterimages split into two, not when he had a brush with Lu Siya, and not even when he saw the mysterious palace’s pillars that were taller than the Supernatural Tower. It was as if he had seen a ghost.
In a way, the word “ghost” was a fitting description for the current situation.
This was because the three-dimensional scan and reconstruction of facial features told Meng Chao with absolute certainty that the corpse before him was none other than the Battle G.o.d, Lei Zongchao!
Meng Chao stared at the dead man who had died decades ago.
It had been more than half a minute, but he still could not recover from the intense shock and incomparable confusion.
At first, he thought that he had mistaken him for someone else, but that was impossible.
He did not have to retrieve old images of Lei Zongchao from his memory bank and restore them.
As a martial arts legend in Dragon City, Lei Zongchao had been living in the spotlight for the past few decades. Photos and videos of him when he was young were everywhere on the Internet.
Just like many children and teenagers in Dragon City, ever since Meng Chao could remember, his bedroom had been filled with posters of peerless fighters and superhumans.
Lei Zongchao was naturally at the center and the main character among all other main characters.
To put it bluntly, even if Lei Zongchao turned into ashes, Meng Chao would not mistake him for someone else.
That aside, there was a problem.
Meng Chao took a deep breath and muttered in his heart, ‘I’m not a fool. If the corpse before me is the real Lei Zongchao and he died decades ago, then who exactly is the “martial arts legend” that’s been active in Dragon City for the past decades?”
No, perhaps he should not have asked who it was.
The question should be, “What exactly is it?”
Meng Chao turned on his searchlight again and scanned hissurroundings.
The light flames were sometimes dim, sometimes bright, sometimes jumping, and other times as weak as beans.
‘No wonder Battle G.o.d Lei Zongchao stayed here for so long.’
It made sense. Imagine if one came to such a mysterious and unfathomable deep place in the ancient ruins and accidentally discovered their own corpse that had “died decades ago.” Anyone would probably be shocked and even have a mental breakdown.
“Wait, wait. I have to eliminate all possibilities and figure out the ident.i.ty of this corpse.”
The way he handled it was as though it was an unearthed cultural relic that was thousands of years old.
Her fingers were like soft feathers, and he pulled open the back of this mummy’s camouflage uniform millimeter by millimeter. This revealed the back of the head and the skin behind the neck.
Meng Chao’s pupils contracted to the size of two needles.
He could clearly see that there was a barcode pattern tattooed on the back of the corpse’s head and neck. There was also a string of numbers below: 26525819.
“Is he really a young Master Lei?”
Meng Chao did not know whether he should believe his eyes or his memories.
He clearly remembered Lei Zongchao mentioning that the Blood Alliance had tattooed barcodes and serial numbers on the back of their necks decades ago. It was to better manage and control the “elite cannon fodders” who had survived cruel experiments and multiple explorations of the ancient ruins.
Lei Zongchao’s serial number was 26525819!
He would never forget this d*mned number!
There was nothing else on the back of Lei Zongchao’s neck that Meng Chao knew of. There was only a squarish, extremely shallow scar.
Lei Zongchao had told Meng Chao that after the Blood Alliance was destroyed, the first thing he did was use his dagger to sc.r.a.pe off the d*mned bar code and serial number. The skin and flesh on the back of his head came off too.
...
He sc.r.a.ped so hard and wished that he could even sc.r.a.pe off a layer of his bones.
That was how he celebrated his freedom and rebirth.
However, this “mummified version” of Lei Zongchao obviously never lasted until the moment the Blood Alliance was destroyed.
Naturally, there was still a mark of humiliation on the back of his head.