Chapter 633 - Splitting Up
Chapter 633: Splitting Up
When A’ji heard Lu Siya criticizing Jin Wanhao, he was not angry. He just said, “You’re right. All of the strong people who managed to stand out during the apocalyptic Dragon City are bad people, aside from a handful of crazy people like Lei Zongchao. Jin Wanhao is not a good person either. In fact, he was even more ambitious than the creators of the nine great mega corporations.
“Due to being under the control of Blood Alliance and having a hellish life, after Jin Wanhao regained his freedom, he would not allow any force of power to control his fate again.
“To him, his sister was already dead. Aside from himself and Lei Zongchao, he could depend on no one else. There was only one way for him if he did not want to be controlled by the second Blood Alliance—build a force of power that is even stronger than Blood Alliance and become the lord of Dragon City.
“If heroes who live long enough will see themselves becoming villains, why can’t the villain be me?
“Just like that, Jin Wanhao built Golden Tooth.
“When Golden Tooth was just built, it still had potential to become the strongest force of power in Dragon City.
“After all, after Blood Alliance collapsed, Jin Wanhao was someone who had explored the ancient ruins dozens of times and escaped from it with his body intact. He was also modified by the advanced tech in Blood Alliance. In terms of fighting power, he was one of the few who were second only to Lei Zongchao. He was a special-grade fighter in apocalyptic Dragon City.
“During the battle against Blood Alliance, he also contributed a lot. He had sufficient achievements and connections to attract a large number of people to join his group with their own resources.
“Golden Tooth rose to power quickly on Blood Alliance’s gradually rotting corpse. In just a short half a year, its fame rose to match that of forces of power who had been built years ago.
“But when a poppy gets too tall, it is cut down. Jin Wanhao’s quick rise to power caused the nine forces of power, later known as the nine mega corporations, to be highly wary of him.
“Even though all of them belonged to the anti-Blood Alliance group, the nine forces of power and the research subjects were not united. The relationship between them was very delicate.
“The nine forces of power needed the research subjects to help them fight against the core Blood Alliance members, but they were constantly on guard against us, because we were people who had entered the ancient ruins countless times and withstood inhuman pain day and night. Due to this, our minds were just as twisted as those of Blood Alliance’s core members. We were all monsters in human skin.
“The nine forces of power put those people who were not interested in fame and easily deceived up on a pedestal, like what they did to Battle God Lei Zongchao. They used empty glory and ideals to force them to work like cattle and drain their energy while not getting any authority.
“While when it came to ambitious people who showed their fangs, like Jin Wanhao, the nine forces of power worked together to restrain them. They used every method at their disposal to nip Golden Tooth in the bud.
“Jin Wanhao only had peerless strength since he had spent the first half of his life risking his neck in the ruins as well as being a guinea pig on a research table. To put it bluntly, at that time, he was a brute who had vision, but no methods, courage, but no intellect. How could he then fight against those cunning creators of the mega corporations?
“At that time, zombies and monsters were a common threat for Dragon Citizens. Jin Wanhao could not turn complete enemies against the nine forces and use brute strength to decide the victor.
“When it came to winning people over, controlling public opinion, trading resources, setting each other up, and other soft warfare, Jin Wanhao had no hope in winning.
“Golden Tooth was restrained to a corner of Dragon City by the nine forces and faced a bottleneck in its development. In his agitation, Jin Wanhao remembered Lei Zongchao.
“At that time, Jin Wanhao treated Lei Zongchao as a brother he could entrust his back to. He hoped that both of them could take down the world together. He was even willing to hand over the position of Golden Tooth’s leader to Lei Zongchao.
“As long as Golden Tooth became the strongest sect in Dragon City and suppressed the nine forces to rule over Dragon City, he was fine with it. Unfortunately, Lei Zongchao firmly rejected his kind will.”
Meng Chao and Lu Siya were engrossed by the tale. At that moment, they looked at each other and blurted out at the same time, ” Rejected? Why?”
“Because that idiot thought that power should be distributed evenly so they would balance each other for Dragon City to have a long period of peace,” A’Ji said. “Lei Zongchao told Jin Wanhao that there were two forces of power in Dragon City right then. One of them was simple and crude brute force, and the other was the ability to control the flow of resources and the capital to distribute them.
“If both forces were gathered into one body, it would create a monster that no one could keep in check. This monster would definitely be swallowed by endless desire and ambition. In the end, it would bring about a disaster and even destruction to Dragon City.
“Blood Alliance was destroyed because ambitious and idiotic people tried to have absolute power and all the resources.
“If Lei Zongchao and Jin Wanhao worked together and used brute force to control the flow of resources and their distribution, that would mean gaining absolute authority that no one could keep in check. Even if Golden Tooth could rule over Dragon City for a period of time, it would be no different from Blood Alliance.
“‘Qianxi is resting in heaven. If she finds out that the Blood Alliance she sacrificed her life to defeat was reborn as Golden Tooth in our hands, she will not be able to rest in peace.’ This is what Lei Zongchao told Jin Wanhao. By the way, Jin Qianxi is Jin Wanhao’s sister.
“That’s why Lei Zongchao refused to help Jin Wanhao fight against the nine forces.
“Not only did he refuse, he even turned against Jin Wanhao and tried to convince him to change his beliefs. He felt that even though the masters of the nine forces were not selfless and uncorrupted good people, at the very least, they were logical. They were also skilled in management, so they could bring out the greatest value from all the resources.
“Since the nine forces already controlled most of Dragon City, there was no need for Jin Wanhao to hold onto Golden Tooth to fight against them. He felt that he and Jin Wanhao were just brutes. They only needed to focus on fighting at the frontlines. There was no need for them to get involved in areas they were not familiar with and were not skilled in.
“Based on those words, it was clear that he was already brainwashed by the nine forces and hoped that Jin Wanhao would take the initiative to disband Golden Tooth.
“There was no way Jin Wanhao would agree to such an absurd request, so they naturally parted ways on bad terms.
“Even without Lei Zongchao’s help, Jin Wanhao continued doing things his own way. He fought against the nine forces, and soon, the gang was heavily injured.
“After being set up a few times, his hidden injuries from when he explored the ancient ruins also acted up, which made Jin Wanhao realize that he would never be able to reach Lei Zongchao’s state. He also came to the realization that he could not use unparalleled, absolute strength to suppress Dragon City.
“Jin Wanhao finally accepted the brutal reality. He ended up signing a contract known as the Underground Alliance with the nine forces and ordered to keep Golden Tooth’s influence strictly within the lair. He could also never step a foot outside the lair.
“Jin Wanhao had only hatred for the cunning leaders of the nine forces.
“But what angered him even more was that his best friend, Lei Zongchao, just watched from the side through the series of overt and covert fights. He ignored everything and even acted as the nine forces’ go-between to force Jin Wanhao to sign that humiliating agreement.
“Jin Wanhao felt that he was betrayed. They argued for a time, then stopped being friends. They never contacted each other again.
“Speaking of which, it’s not entirely because of the nine forces’ coercion that Jin Wanhao agreed to stay in the lair and never step out of it.
“He still had a secret weapon in his hands.
“It was a pearl that he unintentionally discovered when he explored the ancient ruins in the past.
“At first glance, the pearl looked like a pebble with an uneven surface and no shine. You’d only sense a strange, cooling sensation when you held it in your hands. You’d also hear fragmented whispers that sound just like the Ancient Ruins’ Summon.
“Jin Wanhao never bothered about it. He just wore that pearl on his body as a talisman.
“Then, during the battle against Blood Alliance, he received a hit on his chest from a Blood Alliance elite. The unstoppable force rammed into the pearl, which shattered the outer layer of the pearl. His blood seeped into the cracks, and through a series of dreams that lasted for dozens of nights, he saw information stored in the pearl.
“It was the secret about regrowing cells and regaining youth.
“This secret made Jin Wanhao ecstatic.
“He wanted to share it with Lei Zongchao, but he didn’t expect that his best friend would cast him aside like a broken tool. In his anger, he decided to go with the flow and agree to the nine forces’ Underground Alliance. He acted as if he had withdrawn from fighting, but in truth, he created the lair into his own kingdom so that he could carry out research to regain his youth without anyone’s knowledge.
“Jin Wanhao felt that there were two major reasons behind his failure.
“First, the explorations in the ancient ruins and the torture as well as research he went through in the lab during his early years left behind too many untreatable wounds. His body might seem strong, but it was a machine full of holes, weak on the inside, and about to fall apart. There was no way he could fight against others like this.
“Second, Lei Zongchao was right. He was a brute with brawns but no brains. He was not as cunning as the leaders of the nine forces. Even if they were in the Other World where everything was ruled by the law of the jungle, there were plenty of things that could only be solved with brains and not the fists.
“After a deep period of reflection, Jin Wanhao decided to retract his claws and research the secret of regaining youth while also learning how to backstab others with a smile, harbor a traitorous heart, control public opinion, and toy with people’s hearts, just like what the leaders of the nine forces had done. He changed himself from a brute to a real gang leader, politician, and even a true ruler.
“Jin Wanhao believed that as long as he was patient and spent decades to learn these tricks as well as accumulate his capital in the dark, there would come a day when he would become even more outstanding than Jin Wanhao of the past after he regained his youth. He would also become more outstanding than the old coots who created the nine mega corporations. At that time, he would naturally use a brand new appearance and method to take Dragon City and his fate into his own hands!
“To a certain extent, Jin Wanhao succeeded. He really regained his youth and gained a new life.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t expect that he would be completely mistaken about the effects of regaining youth to his brain and consciousness. As his brain cells were completely renewed, the consciousness in his old cells also went away in the blink of an eye.
“The new brain cells brought with them a brand new consciousness. And that’s a consciousness that has absolutely nothing to do with Jin Wanhao and no desire to walk down his path and take control of Dragon City. That consciousness is me, A’Ji!”