Lord of Enigma

"Hahaha… Cough, cough."

"I've won!"

On the cold ground surface, Tang Qi beamed radiantly as he held the carcass of the dog that had its head blown apart.

He had taken a gamble earlier.

With his normal human body constitution, it was impossible for him to fight a monstrous mad dog when he was being pursued, especially on a one-on-one basis and with his bare fists.

But if he had a supernatural gun, it would be a different matter altogether.

In the end, at the price of his arm getting bitten, he successfully unsealed Blood Python No.1 and blew the head of that dog apart at the very last moment.

Feeling the carcass in his arms gradually turning cold, Tang Qi struggled to his feet. He didn't check on his wounded arm immediately. Instead, he looked at the mighty gun in his other hand.

Within his vision, that unique interface that had already changed appeared.

[Mysterious Object: Blood Python No.1]

[Status: Restored]

[Information Fragment 1: This is a weapon that has accompanied its original owner through war. In an unexpected incident, it shot a Demonic Cave Dragon dead. After coming into contact with the blood of the demonic dragon, it gained the supernatural power — Dragon Might (Artificial)]

[Information Fragment 2: Its basic attributes are Explosion and Armor Penetration. Bullets may be modified to include different provisional attributes.]

"This is awesome stuff!"

Even though Tang Qi was just a newbie that had only just stepped into the realm of the supernatural, he still possessed the basic ability to recognize something good when he saw one.

Especially with the help of his special ability "Omniscience", all information pertaining to this supernatural gun was revealed before his eyes. This was definitely a weapon that could allow Tang Qi's combat ability to increase dramatically in an instant.

This was evident from the dead body of the Visage Canine of Bronx in his hands.

"Eh?"

Tang Qi had only just shifted his attention to the carcass of the monster when he noticed right away that the mad-dog carcass that was now in a complete mess had suddenly started to decompose.

The body covered in warts shriveled up bit by bit, just like a deflating balloon. A huge rotting patch appeared, and its flesh fell apart, followed by the bones which turned from a ghastly white to a pitch-black color. Then, it actually disintegrated and scattered like dust with the breeze.

A blurry soul that looked like it was wailing rose from the place where the carcass disappeared. It was the drug addict that Tang Qi had killed.

The moment he saw Tang Qi, he reacted as though he was looking at a fearsome natural enemy. An even more hateful look came over his twisted face. Letting out a scream, he turned to escape.

Unfortunately, it was exactly at this point that a pale hand reached out and closed around his neck.

Without waiting for him to open his mouth to scream, pale golden flames suddenly erupted within Tang Qi's palm with a boom.

The drug addict's vengeful spirit started to melt rapidly the moment it came into contact with the flames, like snow under the burning sun. His limbs flailed as he struggled desperately, yet he couldn't last beyond even a second and turned into ashes subsequently.

All of a sudden, within Tang Qi's mind, it seemed as if he could see a little stream that was formed completely from golden specks of light. It converged in his palm and flowed into that mysterious dimension covered in fog.

A shudder went through Tang Qi, and an incredibly warm sensation enveloped him. What accompanied that sensation was endless strength that flowed throughout his entire body.

By right, this bout of pursuit and counterattack should have exhausted all of Tang Qi's strength.

But right now, other than the vaguely throbbing pain from his arm, Tang Qi didn't feel worn out at all. In fact, he felt like he had never been in better condition.

"This feeling…?"

Tang Qi slowly got up. He suddenly closed his eyes and entered his subconscious before quickly exiting and looking at himself again.

True enough, what he saw was what he had expected.

The Skill section had changed again.

However, this time around, what had changed was the Golden Furnace Meditation Method.

There was an additional bracket at an area that was originally empty. Within the bracket were the words "Elementary, 0.01% progress".

"The Meditation Method has entered an elementary stage too," Tang Qi muttered passively as he took in the feeling of the abundant spiritual energy in his mind, a look of joy surfacing on the corners of Tang Qi's lips.

At this point, he suddenly somewhat understood how to decrypt the Golden Furnace Meditation Method.

The sun was the golden furnace, and souls the one and only fuel.

Perhaps he had found the correct path to cultivating this meditation method?

Tang Qi vaguely came to understand something, but he still had some doubts about it.

However, this place wasn't an ideal place to be contemplating. Tang Qi removed his jacket and wrapped it around his badly wounded arm. His eyes swept across the ground that should have been in a mess.

Because the monster's carcass had disintegrated, other than some black ash, there were only six yellowish-orange bullet shells and a few drops of Tang Qi's blood there.

Even though it was late at night, this was a remote area. Moreover, since there wasn't anything like dead bodies here, he didn't need to worry about having to explain anything even if anyone were to pass by.

However, going by the principle that it was better to be safe than sorry, Tang Qi still took the time to clean up the scene.

He picked up the bullet shells and put them away in the box together with Blood Python No.1. Then, he kicked some soil over and wiped away the blood.

After ensuring that nothing was out of place, Tang Qi turned and left in the direction of his home.

The moment he returned to his little brick house, Tang Qi used a rather strange method to treat his arm. He used strong liquor to disinfect the wound in a rough manner before spreading medicinal herbs over it. Neither the original nor the current Tang Qi possessed such knowledge. Evidently, this came from Old Morgan, the Saha Continent aboriginal.

After swallowing half his soul, Tang Qi had also obtained some bits of knowledge.

After settling everything, Tang Qi didn't cultivate the Golden Furnace Meditation Method that had already entered the elementary stage, nor did he fiddle with Blood Python No.1, the supernatural weapon that he had just obtained.

Instead, he walked briskly to the first floor and entered that cramped storage room. He dragged out a pile of old newspapers and another pile of magazines and other periodicals. The one at the top happened to be dated the day before.

Tang Qi carried these periodicals that gave off the smell of printing ink to the study and started flipping through them quickly.

His focus was different from normal people. He neither looked at political news nor commercial information.

Instead, he specially went to look for news of bizarre and strange occurrences, as well as the dubious urban legends in the tiny columns of the periodicals. If not, then he went straight to looking at tragic cases that sounded extremely grisly.

On April 29 of year 102 of the Condor calendar, a creature that looked like a snow monster appeared at the Ghana Snow Mountains, a famous tourist destination in the Federation. A giant covered from head to toe in snow and ice darted out from the depths of the snow mountains and snatched a child away from a tourist couple before escaping.

On April 30, a street in the central region of Saint Condor Nest, the biggest city, collapsed. A creature suspected to be a mermaid appeared in the sewers. According to the official statement released, some kind of marine creature had accidentally entered the sewers.

On the same day in Kathar City, the second-largest city, members of a heretical cult tried to set themselves on fire under the holy statue of the Lord of Thorns. They were stopped by the police but before they were arrested, all the members of the heretical cult mysteriously disappeared.

On May 1, a serial killer appeared on Route 5 of the Federation. He killed more than ten people in succession as he went down the highway. Marks resembling demonic runes were left at the crime scenes.

…

As he flipped through more and more of this type of news, Tang Qi's brows drew tighter and tighter. That vague guess at the bottom of his heart gradually became clearer and clearer.

Towards the end, Tang Qi was no longer satisfied with looking at just the Condor Federation. He directly expanded the scope of his search to the entire Blue Star.

An exponential increase in related news bombarded Tang Qi.

On April 30 of year 102, in the nation of Franconia, a member of the Europa Federation, a blood mist suddenly erupted in an old castle in the countryside. It dissipated only in the wee hours of the next day. All living things within the area enveloped by the blood mist were found dead.

On May 1, in the south region of the Great Atlan Ocean, a passing cruise ship was overturned by what was suspected to be a sea monster in the shape of a giant octopus. Most of the people on board died, while the remaining few survivors went mad.

On May 2, in the depths of the Eritrea ocean, bizarre and fearsome roars were detected. A ferocious battle among monsters seemed to be taking place in the far depths of the ocean. A day later, a large expanse of the central region of the ocean turned blood-red.

On April 28, in the Siren Ocean, a brilliant light pillar suddenly burst out of the ocean. The light pillar pierced through the ocean and even temporarily lit up a good half of the marine trench. Within the light pillar, a pair of phantom wings could vaguely be seen. Many people maintained that it was highly likely to be a sign from God.

This might be the "Wings of Liberty" that the Condor Federation had lost several hundred years ago. It was said that the Federation government had already organized a team of scientists and religious-studies experts to head there to carry out an investigation and search for it.

…