Chapter 169: Chapter 169: It’s Okay If You Don’t Talk, Just Wait to Become Fuel, I Can Still Catch the Next One

Tiger Roar Daoist groggily came to. The moment he opened his eyes, his expression turned vigilant.

He saw an unfamiliar ceiling. Then, his memories flooded back, and he recalled being captured alive by the Iron Armor Man.

He also felt an indescribable pain and a profound heaviness in his body, as if he’d been completely hollowed out, leaving little more than his mind.

"And you are?" a gentle voice asked.

Tiger Roar Daoist struggled to turn his head and saw the Iron Armor Man who had captured him. Noticing he was awake, the man had immediately spoken.

"My fellow Daoists have given me the name Tiger Roar Daoist. If you don’t mind, you may call me that as well." Tiger Roar Daoist wasn’t flustered, nor did he start cursing.

After living for so many years, he still possessed the proper decorum, even after being captured alive.

"That works. But why not just tell me your real name? Is it tied to some secret of yours?" Qi Suian asked casually.

But Tiger Roar Daoist showed no weakness, simply replying, "I’ve lived a long time. Everyone calls me Tiger Roar Daoist, so I’ve forgotten my name."

Qi Suian didn’t press him further on his name and cut straight to the point. "I have a question for you. Whose clone are you?"

"For a human to be a clone of a Cold Energy Monster... or as you call them, a Cold Beast."

At these words, Tiger Roar Daoist fell silent.

Seeing the other man’s silence, Qi Suian took out the core that had been in Tiger Roar Daoist’s abdomen.

"I’ve killed two Venerable-level Cold Energy Monsters, one named Tian Xing and the other Celestial Spirit. So, I know a great deal about the cores of Cold Energy Monsters. I’ve studied them thoroughly."

"This core of yours... only half of it is your own. The other half belongs to someone else. It’s because of this secondary core that you were able to survive the period when the cold energy vanished."

"And for this very reason, although you’ve maintained your peak strength, you can’t fully unleash it."

"Logically, the quality of this core of yours shouldn’t be very high."

"But it’s just the opposite. Half of the core is comparable to that of a Venerable-level Cold Energy Monster."

"The part of the core that’s actually yours is low quality. This means the other half, the part that belongs to someone else, is of astonishingly high quality, and it’s what pulled your low-quality core up to this level."

As Qi Suian spoke, he showed Tiger Roar Daoist his own core, critiquing it.

But Tiger Roar Daoist said nothing, meeting his words with complete silence.

"This structure does have its advantages, though. Even as a clone, it guarantees your independence and autonomy. The downside is that you can’t communicate through the core, which greatly reduces communication efficiency."

"Furthermore, you must be a separate entity that was turned into an avatar, not a true offshoot created by the core’s original owner. It’s more like a form of assimilation."

As Qi Suian continued his explanation, Tiger Roar Daoist’s expression shifted slightly, proving that Qi Suian’s research and data were correct.

"Why don’t you say something? Don’t be so cold. I’m not your simp. If you push me, don’t blame me for being ruthless." Seeing Tiger Roar Daoist remain silent, Qi Suian felt a bit helpless.

The man wasn’t afraid of pain or hardship, suffering or fatigue. He was certainly a tough one.

As for whether he’d respond to a softer approach, Qi Suian had no idea. All he had to offer was the hard and solid approach; he had no soft tactics at his disposal.

"Just who are you?" Tiger Roar Daoist asked icily.

Hearing this question, Qi Suian instantly figured him out.

This man was not a Survivor.

If he were a Survivor, the Doomsday Game would have sent a notification when Qi Suian was still a kilometer away.

The fact that he asked this question meant he didn’t know Qi Suian’s identity.

This meant that everyone like him was no longer human. Otherwise, the Doomsday Game would have registered them as Survivors.

"You’re quite rude, you know? I explained the whole situation before asking my questions, but you say nothing and instead try to pry information from me first."

"You answer my questions first. It won’t be too late for me to tell you who I am after that." Naturally, Qi Suian wasn’t about to reveal his identity.

He was the one trying to get information out of Tiger Roar Daoist, not the other way around.

"What do you want?" Tiger Roar Daoist asked another question, as if he hadn’t understood a word.

Seeing this, Qi Suian simply tore out the man’s heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and so on, casually sorting them into piles.

Without these organs, Tiger Roar Daoist could clearly feel the negative effects on his body intensifying.

"It doesn’t matter if you don’t talk. As long as I keep your core active, I can still use you to test for others like you, no problem."

"Since you survived from the last era, there must be others like you."

"You may be tight-lipped, but someone else is bound to be weak-willed." As he spoke, Qi Suian began to carve away the man’s flesh.

Next would be the destructive experiments.

Since the man was this stubborn and Qi Suian couldn’t break him, he had no more intelligence value—only experimental value.

If he talked, Qi Suian would give him a quick death. If not, it would certainly be a slow one.

If he really stayed stubborn until death, Qi Suian didn’t mind. While he wouldn’t have squeezed out every last drop of value, he would have at least recouped his costs.

Not to mention, he could throw the remains into the Melting Furnace as fuel afterward.

"By doing this, you’re cutting off your own path to survival."

"The Yin energy is like the tide; it ebbs and flows. The Human Race has an inherent flaw and cannot compare to the Cold Beasts."

"No matter how glorious or brilliant you are in this era, once the Yin energy recedes, you will be nothing more than dust in your grave."

"I can see you have outstanding talent. Why not join us and conspire for an eternal legacy?" Tiger Roar Daoist finally spoke, but his first words were an attempt to recruit Qi Suian.

To be honest, a native of the old Cold Winter World might have actually been swayed, but that was no longer possible.

All the natives had been turned into Survivors by the Doomsday Game. An eternal legacy? Simply impossible.

After this whole affair, if they weren’t completely wiped out by Qi Suian, they would all have to move to a new Doomsday World anyway.

Clearly, Tiger Roar Daoist was not a Survivor and knew nothing about this.

Tang Qing had indeed told him a few things, but he hadn’t gone into great detail.

Besides, even Tang Qing himself only had a partial understanding of the Doomsday Game. How could he possibly explain it clearly?

Qi Suian knew so much for two reasons. First, he’d been through it before. Second, he had memories from a past life. Without those, he wouldn’t have had much of an advantage.

"And end up controlled by someone, just like you?" Qi Suian said mockingly. "From your tone, I’m guessing you’re not a clone of one of the Twelve Venerables."

"With their level of power, they aren’t qualified to turn people like you into their avatars."

"So it must be some even more powerful mastermind behind the scenes." Qi Suian immediately analyzed the situation.

Tiger Roar Daoist wasn’t surprised that Qi Suian had managed to guess a part of the truth.

"The so-called Twelve Venerables simply don’t have much conflict with us. Otherwise, the Cold Beasts would be nothing to speak of."

"Even the Cold Beast Ancestral Court would be easy for us to occupy if we wished." Tiger Roar Daoist was implying that this group of Cold Energy Monsters wasn’t even qualified to be their enemy.

"Has anyone ever told you that you’re an obvious liar? Especially when you mix your lies with such blatant bragging." It wasn’t a matter of whether Qi Suian believed him; the man was simply trying to bluff.

His smart-brain wasn’t just for show. It could perform lie detection by analyzing micro-expressions, physiological monitoring, and more. While not 100% accurate, it was at least 70 or 80 percent reliable.

If the man truly had such perfect control, he would be a powerhouse, and he wouldn’t have been captured alive by Qi Suian.

This bunch of holdovers from previous eras was no match for the massive horde of Cold Energy Monsters.

If you were talking about dealing with a single Cold Energy Monster faction, like King Zhen Ao’s, then they would surely win.

But to claim they could take on the entire Cold Energy Monster race, and even have the audacity to say they scorned occupying the Cold Beast Ancestral Court—that was taking the bluff too far.

In this era, it was only because of the Doomsday Game and modern weaponry that the Cold Energy Monsters, who were behind the times, had been beaten so badly. These holdovers could never have accomplished that.

Of course, they were no match for modern humans either.

To say nothing of anything else, a single bullet would leave them either dead or severely wounded.

Didn’t he see that even Celestial Spirit Venerable, a fast runner, had nearly lost his life when faced with firearms?

Tiger Roar Daoist’s core quality was indeed comparable to a Venerable-level Cold Energy Monster’s, but ultimately, half of it wasn’t his, so his actual strength couldn’t compare.

The high quality wasn’t because of him, but because the one who assimilated him possessed that level of quality.

"So, stop beating around the bush. Tell me something I actually want to know," Qi Suian said calmly.

***

On his way back, Tang Qing’s mind was filled with a multitude of thoughts.

At this point, both of his attributes had reached 7 points, the limit of the Taiyin Refining Technique.

If he wanted to get stronger from here on out, he would probably have to rely on the Doomsday Game.

And after his dual attributes reached 7 points, the Doomsday Game issued him two mandatory quests.

The first was to kill the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, which would reward him with one SSS-rank talent activation.

The second was to investigate the source of the cold energy. The reward for this one was a bit confusing: it would upgrade his Survivor status to that of a Law Enforcer.

He could do his best on the second mandatory quest, but the first one made him hesitate.

He was indeed wary and on his guard, but these feelings were all based on speculation without any proof.

If he really had to kill the Taiyin Celestial Monarch, he didn’t think he could get over the hurdle in his own heart.

Judge by actions, not intentions. The man had never explicitly shown any sign of harming him, so Tang Qing couldn’t possibly act on mere suspicion.

But things were different now. The Doomsday Game’s reward was on the table.

SSS-rank. A reward of this quality alone was enough to cause a bloodbath among the entire Survivor population. Even entire nations would get involved for it.

At this stage, the highest-quality reward anyone had reportedly obtained was only D-rank.

But here he was, getting an SSS-rank quest right off the bat. It was clear how immense the difficulty would be.

"What’s wrong? You seem distracted." Dragon Roar Daoist noticed Tang Qing’s state and asked.

"It’s nothing. I was just wondering, how strong is our Teacher, really?" Tang Qing asked.

"Heh heh, you know of the Cold Beast Race’s Twelve Venerables, right?" Dragon Roar Daoist said with a grin. "If all of them attacked at once, they still wouldn’t be a match for Taiyin."