Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

What happened afterward was classified as top secret. All that was known was that the British Empire suffered an extremely heavy, crippling blow—approximately 100,000 square kilometers of its homeland were abandoned, and the files of millions of people were deleted, as if they had never existed. Dictionaries were also revised, and some obscure words were permanently banned. Following all this, an eerie silence prevailed throughout the Western political landscape.

All the major European powers turned a blind eye to what was happening on British soil, neither taking advantage of the chaos nor adding insult to injury. Yet, large-scale military mobilizations occurred simultaneously in every nation—war had broken out on the continent, and most people were unaware of the specific conflict waged by these armies. All that was known was that many soldiers died each month, their records were cancelled, and their battlefields were isolated. Then, at the end of the same year, when the war seemed to be easing, the Papacy in Rome and the Protestant Church in England mysteriously reconciled, and under the call of this reorganized Papacy, formed an extremely elite joint army, stationing it in two different locations around the world.

The first place is the uninhabited border area of ​​mainland Britain.

The second place is the area surrounding the ruins of Cairo.

They were given the authority to completely level any unusual areas that appeared in either location, or anything deemed 'incomprehensible' by the local commanders.

......................................................

"That's all I've gleaned from their minds. Uh... I think perhaps we should be a little more lenient with these poor soldiers? After all, they... well, I guess so."

Half a minute ago, Zhang Jie's mental scan detected this army. Then, at Chu Xuan's instruction, he displayed the strength of a top-tier mental controller in the Reincarnation World—a power built from the limits of the third-tier gene lock and a multitude of advanced enhancements—without actually killing them. He used a wide-range mental lash to stun the entire marching mortal army from several kilometers away. What followed immediately was the intelligence gathering time.

Then, when he used his telekinesis to fly over with several people, and while directly reading the mind of the unconscious officer, he shared all the information he had gleaned with the rest of the Central Continent team, the entire Reincarnation Squad was met with an extremely strange silence at that moment—a few seconds later, the silence turned into awkwardness, and all the awkward gazes were directed at Alice.

“I…” Alice’s lips twitched. “I don’t think this blame should be placed on me. First of all, we had no other choice at the time. Without that knowledge, we would probably have been wiped out. Secondly… those Vatican idiots who took things recklessly and ended up reporting a bomb are the ones who should really be held responsible for this.”

She looked at Zhang Jie, then at Zheng Zha, and then said with some dissatisfaction, "Hey! Isn't it reasonable for the person who didn't win to have to pay the price for the foolish suicide of an irrelevant person? Why are you looking at me with such a strange gaze?"

“No one is asking you to take responsibility.” Zheng Zha sighed softly. “The one who should take responsibility is me, and our entire team. Although at the time there was indeed no other way, and we were able to win thanks to your decision, Margot Lloyd. But… this disaster was ultimately caused by us. And ordinary people in this world… should not be involved in such an undeserved disaster.”

“I feel it’s necessary for us to deal with these disasters caused by our actions.” His tone was full of sincerity. Undoubtedly, this stemmed from his heartfelt goodwill; he genuinely wanted to do something for the people of this world.

However, Alice's face suddenly turned cold.

“Half of our team members haven’t been resurrected yet,” she said calmly. “And we only have one month. In this month, there’s not much we can actually do. At the very least, we might not be able to complete the main storylines of The Mummy 2 and 3. And if we don’t complete those storylines, we won’t have enough points to resurrect our fallen comrades.”

"So, are you sure you want to waste our precious time on these completely unrelated people who are just asking for trouble and have fallen into this disaster? Is that how I understand it?"

"This matter is not unrelated to us; they are just a group of ordinary people—"

“Them what?” Alice interrupted him. “Because they are ordinary people, so they must be pitied? Because they are weak, so they must be pitied? Because they are ordinary, they are right; because they are weak, they are right… What exactly is in your head, Zheng Zha? The ritual is long over. You are no longer ‘Pangu,’ no longer ‘Zhuanxu,’ no longer the ‘Human Emperor in the Ritual.’ And you, it seems, haven’t yet extricated yourself from this role-playing?”

"You should recognize the reality of the situation, Captain. Your excessive 'pity' should be directed at your poor, still-unresurrected teammates, not at those... ignorant fools who believe in the bullshit doctrines of the Church." Her tone was cold, and... full of imposing authority.

Zheng Zha frowned, his fist clenching and unclenching slightly. Then he slowly clenched and unclenched again. After repeating this several times, he finally let out a long, helpless sigh.

“Sorry,” he said with a wry smile, scratching his head as he explained to the witches. “I was… a little off just now. I kept feeling like I was responsible for every living person, that I should do something for them… I’m much better now. Sorry, Margot Lloyd, I’ll try to get back to normal.”

"Phew, I thought we were about to have a fight. Looks like it was just a false alarm." Zhang Jie patted Zheng Zha's shoulder lightly, then smiled at the others. "What did you all go through? What rituals, the Human Emperor, and all that... It sounds intriguing. How about we find a place to sit down and eat something, then we can share our experiences. Let me tell you, the feeling of waiting to be resurrected from the brink of death is incredibly strange. Don't be surprised when I tell you about it later."

“Talking at the dinner table is a good idea,” Chu Xuan suddenly said. He had been walking around the unconscious soldiers and officers, occasionally bending down to pick up things. Now it seemed he had made a lot of progress—“I just discovered something interesting, and it gives us a basic plan for our actions in this world. We can talk about it over dinner later.”

He said this. And since even Chu Xuan agreed, this resolution would inevitably be passed.

So ten minutes later...

Under Chu Xuan's command, Zheng Zha dismantled and carried the entire resurrection altar. The weight of these mere few hundred tons of stone was only a slight strain on him at this moment; he could even carry the resurrection altar and run at full speed across the ruins of Cairo. And he did just that.

Zhang Jie's mental lash was quite forceful; while not lethal to ordinary people, it would certainly keep them awake for at least three hours. Naturally, against this anxious backdrop, after losing communication with the frontline troops, the artillery in the rear launched a barrage of shells at the predetermined location of the temple ruins around the seventh minute. By the time this bombardment ended, presumably little would remain of the ruins.

With a three-kilometer distance difference, if they were lucky, no one in that unit would be killed by the shockwave. But if they were unlucky... well, that would just be their own bad luck.

In short, this matter was no longer relevant to the Zhongzhou team at this moment. About half an hour later, when the surrounding environment changed from dry wasteland to an oasis and the Nile River appeared before everyone's eyes, Zheng Zha was finally able to stop carrying things—he jumped straight into the river for a bath, and while he cooled himself down, the others set up a temporary camp using the altar's location.

The traditional Chinese-style dinner and chat activity began five minutes later.

..........................................

"...In short, that's roughly it. We finally completed the 'Severing the Connection Between Heaven and Earth' ritual in the last few seconds, keeping that quasi-saint outside Earth in the world of Death. Then the story ended, and the three of us returned to the Main God Space." Zheng Zha spent about half an hour explaining his and his companions' experiences in these worlds. He then let out a soft breath, picked up a bottle of ice water from the carpet at the dinner party, and drank it all in one gulp.

"So, how was it? A truly epic journey, huh?" He asked, letting out a satisfying breath after finishing his ice water. His gaze fell on Chu Xuan and Zhang Jie.

Chu Xuan didn't say anything, but Zhang Jie chuckled.

“That was truly a remarkable battle, Zheng Zha, absolutely remarkable.” He lit a cigarette, took a satisfying drag, and then suddenly said to Zheng Zha, “But your current situation is very dangerous, Zheng Zha. Very dangerous. The gene lock enhancement provided by the Main God isn’t without its side effects. Lower tiers are manageable, but the higher the tier… the greater the flaws. And directly enhancing from tier three to tier four…” He shook his head. “The resulting flaws are simply fatal.”

“…I know.” Zheng Zha smiled bitterly. “I noticed it when I was talking to Margot Lloyd just now. I felt a little… restless inside. But even though I knew it, I couldn’t…stop myself.”

"Sigh." Zhang Jie sighed softly. "There's always a price to pay for quick success. Even if you take it one step at a time, the transition from the third to the fourth tier is a very difficult hurdle. The fact that the God of Genes helped you break through this barrier seems like a favor, but in reality... it's not a good thing for you."

"With your current mental strength, once you unlock the fourth-tier gene lock, you will inevitably fall into inner demons. However, since you have not fallen into the demonic path and have no experience in transitioning from the third to the fourth tier, once you fall into inner demons, you will not be able to escape on your own. You will fight in the state of inner demons until you are killed, or until there are no more living beings around you to kill."

"...Is exhaustion the only solution?"

“It’s very difficult for someone at the fourth level to exhaust themselves,” Zhang Jie continued, shaking his head. “If you’ve never understood the energy system, that’s fine. But once you know how to extract energy from the air and how to construct molecular engineering within your body to complete mass-energy conversion… exhausting yourself is simply impossible. Unless someone at a higher level beats you to exhaustion and knocks you down from the fourth level to the third level.”

"The only thing you can do is suppress this power and the urge to advance, and then... try to take it one step at a time." Zhang Jie suddenly deflated and said helplessly, "Forget it, it's impossible. You have to fight desperately everywhere in the cycle of reincarnation. With your personality, you will always encounter situations where you need to go all out. And once you let go... it's hard to say what will happen next."

The two were agonizing over their decision, while on the other side, the witches were amusing themselves by sticking together... well, they were only holding hands, their bodies weren't quite touching. So, conversation between the women was possible, at least Ming Yanwei didn't feel neglected. While the ladies chatted about skin, wrinkles around the eyes, bust size, weight, and other utterly meaningless topics, the Overlord, sitting on the other side of the carpet, felt quite awkward.

First, he couldn't participate in the ladies' conversation. Second, he wasn't familiar with Zheng Zha and the others; they weren't even nodding acquaintances. Third, Chu Xuan, the only person he could talk to, seemed to be deep in thought. So, all he could do now was pick up his glass, listen to his teammates ramble on about whatever came to mind, and chug down water mixed with alcohol. Fortunately, he was a seasoned mercenary, and he wasn't entirely without a solution for this situation…

He decided to consume more alcohol.

Just then, Chu Xuan, who had initially suggested a dinner but had remained silent, suddenly spoke up. His words immediately drew everyone's attention.

"The general action plan is ready, Zheng Zha. Your problem can actually be solved in this world." He looked at Zheng Zha, who was staring at him in astonishment, and casually tossed him a few wanted posters with his portrait on them.

"I found the wanted posters for the male and female protagonists of this world on the officer just now. The charges are crimes against humanity and heresy, and the requirement for the arrest is to leave them alive. And they are currently in Egypt."

Do you know what this means?

..........................................

Daily cultivation...

Should I set up a bounty to motivate myself?

Section 8 - You're not playing by the rules!?

"Does that mean... uh," Zheng Zha scratched his head, saying uncertainly, "they were very lucky?"

“I apologize, it was my mistake to have expectations of your thinking abilities. This will be the last time.” Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses, his gaze naturally shifting away from Zheng Zha. “First of all, crimes against humanity are a type of war crime. This concept was first raised in August 1920 when the Allied Powers signed the Treaty of Turkey—this crime was also frequently used to try war criminals after World War II. In other words, this is not a crime that an ordinary person could commit. To be branded with this crime, one must at least have the ability to instigate a war.”

"So, in this era, in this world, how does one initiate a war?" he posed the question, then immediately answered it himself. "There are three conditions that need to be met. First, there must be an army capable of fighting. Second, there must be the minimum resources to start a war. Third, there must be a slogan, or a pretext, to ignite the war."

"In the Mummy, O'Connor and Evelyn actually possess these latent elements. One of them is a reincarnated Chosen Champion, and the other is a reincarnated Divine Servant Princess. Even before they awakened, they possessed hidden powers such as using artifacts and commanding mummy guards. If the story had unfolded normally, their true nature would have remained dormant until the end of the film trilogy. However, due to the remnants of the war with Indiana, those hidden within them should have been activated."

His gaze shifted to Alice, who immediately realized the meaning he was trying to convey.

"The Taiyin Corpse Dissection and Metamorphosis Record... Is it the hounds of those time and space? I see. The Papacy's lackeys hiding outside the battlefield should have taken O'Connor and Evelyn, the survivors from the temple, with them after we left this world. And after that ritual was initiated on British soil, as key participants, they are very likely to have been involved."

Alice gently tapped her forehead, pondering. She tried to piece together any clues from the memories she had just acquired.

"No, perhaps they initiated the ritual; at least, given Evelyn's personality, she's absolutely capable of doing such a thing. But whatever the cause, the result must be that they defeated or were influenced by the Time Hounds. As a result, the essence of their past lives, which was already overflowing within them, surfaced... No wonder they were able to escape Britain from the pursuit of the two most powerful forces in the world, Britain and the Papacy. Is it because they have now returned to their past lives?"

“Partially correct, but not enough.” Chu Xuan nodded slightly. “I just reviewed the information you sent me about the Time-Space Hounds. Coupled with the order from the British army to capture them alive, it can be confirmed that their living existence possesses a value that they do not possess when dead. Furthermore, the army of this era clearly knows the destructive power you displayed in your decisive battle with the Indian team, yet they still only send this kind of army, which may be strong to mortals but is utterly vulnerable to reincarnators, to monitor this place—from these many pieces of evidence, we can draw the conclusion.”

"The Time Hounds have been stopped. They may have caused great destruction, but they should no longer exist in this world. The spoils obtained from defeating them should be obtained by the male and female protagonists who have returned to their past lives. They escaped from the British military government by relying on the spoils from the Time Hounds and the powers they have gained after returning to their past lives, and in the process of escaping, they started a war."

"Their army might be tomb guardians, but that's unlikely. More probable is a necromancer legion like Imhotep or the Dragon Emperor. Being in a foreign land, their offensive is probably not very strong. Therefore, they chose a strategy of retreat and withdrawal rather than direct confrontation. Their goal is likely to return to Egypt. What they plan to do after returning is currently uncertain. Perhaps they simply want to find a place to live in seclusion, or perhaps they want to form a legion for revenge. The latter is more likely."

"Therefore, the purpose of this legion stationed near the Cairo ruins is actually only to guard against O'Connor and Evelyn summoning the undead in Cairo. We don't need to pay attention to them, and they don't actually pose a hindrance to us."

"The dragon-slaying hero turned into the dragon... So this is the story that awaits us." Alice curled her lip, then looked at Zheng Zha, her nose twitching slightly. "See? Now there's enough reason to prove that I don't need to take the blame for this world's problems. If you want to settle scores, go find O'Connor and Evelyn... But I think, as the ones who have been on the run, perhaps their position isn't that of the perpetrators. Because in the intelligence Zhang Jie provided, I didn't seem to see any civilians being attacked outside of mainland Britain; from beginning to end, it was always the army hunting them down."

She said that.

Zheng Zha was already dumbfounded.

He looked at the two wanted posters in his hand, then at Chu Xuan, then at the wanted posters again, his face filled with disbelief.

[Holy crap, just two wanted posters and they got such detailed information, and it even makes a lot of sense. Looks like spending those 8,000 points was totally worth it!]

"Uh..." Zheng Zha's tongue froze. Although he understood the current situation, understanding didn't mean he knew what to do. He hesitated for a while before tentatively asking, "Then... we don't need to do anything. We can just start the second part's plot? But how do we find that bracelet..."

Chu Xuan glanced at him without any emotion.

"The folly of mortals. I no longer expect anything of wisdom to exist in your brain—I should have made myself clear just now, O'Connor and Evelyn have been reincarnated as their past selves. And as past selves, they naturally know where to draw power. The Spear of Judgment and the Bracelet of Death were things they wielded in their past lives, so they will inevitably seek to seize these treasures."

“I can’t pinpoint the exact location of the Death Bracelet, but the collapse of that location would stir up the Nile. This means the burial site is along the Nile. And from the officer’s memories, I know they arrived in Egypt around these last few days, while also dealing with pursuers—so, what we need to do is actually quite simple.” He tilted his head, looking at Patchouli. “Has your satellite been deployed?”

“It’s ready to go.” Patchouli smiled, pulling up a screen beside her that displayed a satellite map covering the entire country. “The data has been synchronized to the personal terminal Alice gave you, and the corresponding program has been written. It will alert you whenever there are any suspicious changes in terrain or water level along the Nile River.”

“Very good.” Chu Xuan nodded and looked at Zhang Jie. “Then, after the prompt appears, the task of using mental power to scan and confirm on-site will be handed over to you. Of course, if you can use your mental power to directly scan the entire one million square kilometers of Cairo’s territory or the 6,670-kilometer-long Nile River basin—that would be even better.”

“Uh… I can manage to confirm it in person, but the last two…” Zhang Jie scratched his head, somewhat troubled. “A wide-area mental scan can’t detect such fine details…”

“It’s alright, achieving the first point is enough.” Chu Xuan waved his hand, then looked at Patchouli. “We need a flying vehicle that can carry us quickly and also transport the resurrection altar. How long will it take to build?”

“The Great Library is temporarily unavailable, and most of our machine minions were exhausted in the previous world. I also cannot use ritual magic in the Apocalyptic environment, so the construction period may be quite long—I detected a colonial town with a small garrison sixteen kilometers away. I should be able to obtain some existing semi-finished resources there as the basic framework for the vehicle. The time required to complete the entire project is approximately one hour.” Patchouli calculated the time and then gave a rough estimate.

“No problem, it’s within the margin of error.” Chu Xuan’s gaze then turned to Alice. “Then the weaponry is your responsibility. Please prepare a pair of powerful pistols for me. Kamparovsky needs some heavy firepower to suppress the enemy at close to medium range. Ming Yanwei—” He glanced at the Eastern woman who had already changed into a combat uniform and was carrying a compound bow on her back. “The bow and arrow are indeed very suitable for you, so I won’t interfere in that regard.”

Alice gave a soft "hmm" to indicate that she understood.

So Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses.

"That's settled then. I still have some documents to read. If we haven't been able to detect the collapse of the ruins and the changes in the Nile River by the time Patchouli's aircraft is completed, then we'll have a new plan of action. Until then, everyone, please complete your assigned tasks."

He said this and went to find a place to sit down, then continued to read the information recorded on the personal terminal Alice had given him. It was only then that Zheng Zha, who had been waiting for his instructions, seemed to wake from a dream, and began to shout loudly with some dissatisfaction.

"Hey! What about me? You all have things to do, am I just supposed to stand here like this?" He pounded his chest hard, making a 'thump thump' sound. "I'm the best fighter, you have to find me something to do!"

Chu Xuan stopped and turned to look at him, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

"You... just tidy up the blanket and clean up the trash and food scraps on it." He added before Zheng Zha was about to go berserk: "Don't overthink it. You are an important fighting force. There may be a fierce battle later. We will need your strength then—you just need to conserve your energy."

So Zheng Zha, who was about to go berserk, became quiet and well-behaved again.

..............................

There's one more period later.

Section Nine: It is impossible for people to understand each other!

Soon, under Chu Xuan's direction and assignments, everyone sprang into action. Except for one person who was tasked with slacking off—he only needed a slap to clean up the food residue—everyone else did their assigned work.

Chu Xuan continued reviewing the numerous documents the witches had given him, while Zhang Jie focused his attention, conducting a general surveillance and scan of the surroundings, waiting for signals from the background program running on the terminal. Meanwhile, Patchouli deployed a gravity field and optical shield that operated without any preparatory rituals, and flew directly towards the colonial town sixteen kilometers away—she would modify the vehicles there and clear out the armory's stockpile.

Everyone had their own things to do, and Alice was no exception. At her signal, Ba Wang and Ming Yanwei followed her to a place a little further away from the picnic lawn, inside a natural cave near the water along the Nile River.

She patted herself lightly on the shoulder, and in the next moment, a dozen or so small flying puppets floated out of her shadow. The puppets held various tools in their hands, some complex, some simple, some just spinning chainsaws or syringes filled with an unknown, wriggling liquid. Some flickered with faint sparks and were surrounded by hazy light and shadow.

“I’m sorry, I can’t use ritual magic in this place for the time being, so I can only resort to a rather crude physical modification for now. Of course, if you two decide to stay in the ranks of those without combat capabilities for a while longer, then it’s perfectly acceptable to postpone the enhancements until we reach the pyramid of Anubis—there’s nothing shameful about that, since Chu Xuan is planning to have his enhancements done there,” Alice said softly, her gaze sweeping over the two of them.

—Without a doubt, it was a look akin to that of a butcher eyeing a lamb. When her gaze fell upon Ba Wang and Ming Yanwei's bodies, their subconscious instincts couldn't help but send out danger signals, causing them to tremble slightly.

"Uh... is this dangerous?" Overlord asked tentatively, looking hesitantly at the messy tools the puppets were holding. "I think it might hurt a little if they touch you."

“It hurts a lot, it hurts terribly, not just a little,” Alice corrected. “During the enhancement process, you need to stay conscious, and the nerves in all areas need to remain active so that your brain can quickly master the operation of the enhanced muscle groups. Of course, if you have unlocked your genetic potential, it's not a difficult task, and it can be done smoothly even with anesthesia. But if you haven't… and the enhancement is completed without being fully conscious, your brain will experience a severe disconnect from your newly enhanced body in a short period of time.”