Naming Technique of the Night

In the cabin of Luo Shen Building, the fragrance of tea leaves fluttered through the air. That extraordinary aroma, like a faint jasmine scent, burrowed directly into Qing Chen's nostrils. However, it seemed that Qing's shadow had no intention of pouring Qing Chen a cup as well, probably because this tea from Taboo Land was too precious. "You drink tea nonstop every day, how do you find so many tea leaves from Taboo Land, do you go pick them regularly?" Qing Chen asked curiously. "No need, just plant them outside," Qing's shadow replied nonchalantly. "Hmm?" Qing Chen hesitated, "Can tea leaves from Taboo Land grow outside too?" "Of course, they can," Qing's shadow glanced at him, "if you irrigate them with the blood of Transcendents. With so many Transcendents and Genetic Warriors opposing Qing's Family every day, killing a couple of them is enough." A chill crept up inside Qing Chen. Only then did he realize that a shadow who could ascend by stepping on the skeletons of eight candidates must be ruthless and merciless. Doing something like blood-irrigating tea trees wouldn't be impossible for such a person. At that moment, Qing's shadow chuckled, "Still a child, huh? Believing anything said. The tea leaves aren't irrigated with the blood of Transcendents." Qing Chen breathed a sigh of relief. Qing's shadow then said, "You have to bury an entire Transcendent." Qing Chen: "..." That sounded worse than using their blood for irrigation. "Aren't you afraid of creating another Taboo Land?" Qing Chen didn't understand. "It's fine as long as you don't use those above B-Class," Qing's shadow explained, "and moreover, you have to replace the soil every year." "That could impact the environment," Qing Chen pondered and said. Qing's shadow shook his head, "Do you know how much Taboo Land expands every year?" "I don't." "According to satellite monitoring statistics, the Federation has a total land area of 14.01 million square kilometers, with Taboo Land currently covering 5.17 million square kilometers. All the Taboo Lands put together expand by 45,000 square kilometers every year. This means that if humans don't find a better way to contain Taboo Land, in two hundred years, the entire Federation will be engulfed by it," Qing's shadow spoke leisurely, "You've become a Knight, your life expectancy is already far beyond two hundred years. I might not live to see that day, but you just might." Qing Chen was stunned. He hadn't imagined that Taboo Land covered such a vast area, so immense that it was terrifying even to think about. Qing's shadow continued, "Surprised, aren't you? The Federation now bans the media from reporting these matters, so the public remains completely calm. If they knew that the entire Northwest has turned into Taboo Land, and only one-quarter of the Southwest remains, who knows what they would think." "Isn't there a way to contain it?" Qing Chen asked. "No," Qing's shadow replied, "Years ago, various conglomerates tried all kinds of methods, like cutting down the trees in Taboo Land or bombing it from the air, but doing so only made Taboo Land expand faster. When a group of creatures die there, new ones emerge. You might not believe it, but in that No. 10 Taboo Land that was bombed, creatures from mythology have started to appear." Qing Chen remembered that No. 10 Taboo Land was the place where Knights captured the Dragon Fish. Qing's shadow smiled, "You might not know, on the West Coast of the Forbidden Sea, the scale of their Taboo Land is even more exaggerated than ours. I feel like their days are becoming numbered." Qing Chen thought to himself, wasn't the West Coast of the Forbidden Sea where the Time Traveler from the Beautiful Country crossed through? Because of the existence of the Forbidden Sea, it seemed as though there was no interaction between the civilizations on the two continental plates. However, he'd heard that people from the West Coast would come over in Airships to City No. 7, but the cost was so expensive that very few made the trip. The airspace over the Forbidden Sea wasn't easy to traverse either. Qing's shadow looked at Qing Chen, "So what do you think? Against the expansion speed of 45,000 square kilometers, my mere acre of tea plantation hardly counts for anything, right?" Qing Chen contemplated, and it did seem insignificant by comparison. He didn't want to discuss this issue any further but chose to ask about something else, "Is Qing Zhong dead?" "He's dead," Qing's shadow responded without a hint of emotion in his voice, as if it were a trivial matter. "Was he killed by Qing Wen?" Qing Chen was taken aback. He hadn't expected that a Shadow Candidate would be eliminated so easily. But then he heard Qing's shadow continue, "It wasn't Qing Wen who killed him. After the commotion tonight, suddenly a bunch of people sprang out from nowhere, aiming to assassinate both Qing Wen and Qing Zhong simultaneously. And it didn't seem like an attack on Qing's Family in particular, they just wanted to seize the Taboo items they carried." Qing Chen was astonished. Could it have been a group of Time Travelers responsible for this? This was like treating Qing Zhong and Qing Wen as minor bosses and taking them down! In He Xiaoxiao's group chat on previous returns, indeed many Time Travelers had discussed robbing Shadow Candidates. He himself had planted this seed. However, after so long, Qing Chen hadn't seen any action from the Time Travelers; he thought they had lost their nerve. He hadn't expected someone to actually succeed! "No, that's not right," Qing's shadow paused to think, "Now that I consider it carefully, they probably weren't all together, they just had the same aim. When Qing Zhong died, they were still attacking each other, trying to snatch the Taboo items."