"The source energy world doesn't just have the Cloud Piercer Leaderboard and the Dome Leaderboard. In fact, Azure once had a ranking list of its own. The name of the list was tacky and ordinary: Hope... Slender hope that concerns the future fate of humanity."
Tu Zi had no idea why a Rejector like him, someone outside the legion's direct command, was qualified to be chosen to sit here and listen to the Chief of Staff say these things.
This was already the fourth classified topic touched upon in today's conversation.
The Chief of Staff looked somewhat exhausted. Men of his age were probably prone to fatigue anyway, let alone the fact that he had always been the one responsible for the grueling mental labor.
Rumor had it that the Chief of Staff's degree of fusion was extremely low as well, which meant source energy did very little to nourish and consolidate his vitality. The lowest speculation suggested he might even be below F grade—meaning he could not sense the presence of source energy at all. After all, for nearly twenty years, no one had ever seen him use source energy to nourish his body, nor had he ever reported any source energy consumption.
Yet when the old man's gaze swept over, the latent authority that had weathered all trace over the passage of time still made Tu Zi tense up completely.
No matter how aged the old man seemed, and no matter how amiably he treated people, he was still the one and only Chief of Staff of the Huaxia Sole Witness Legion for more than thirty years.
Among the secrets accessible to Rejectors, the Huaxia purge and assassination unit under Marshal Hua's command, as well as the intelligence departments and other agencies, had always reported solely to the Chief of Staff.
Thus, holding the power over life and death, he was by no means a kindly soul.
...
If the Chief of Staff's degree of fusion truly was below F grade, then an ordinary person who couldn't sense source energy at all had effectively sustained the operations of Huaxia's strongest source energy legion for over thirty years. What was more, across those three-plus decades, he had deftly maintained the delicate balance of the entire source energy world beneath Chen Buer's invincibility.
"I... Reporting, Chief of Staff! Everything I've heard today, I promise not to say a single word about it to anyone." To demonstrate his resolve, Tu Zi even raised his hand.
The Chief of Staff sat across from him and looked at him, his aged face suddenly breaking into an amused smile.
"I never said you couldn't tell anyone," the old man said with a chuckle. "If I didn't want you to speak of it, why would I tell you? Since I chose to tell you, naturally I have observed and considered enough."
*Uh?* Has the legion been watching and taking note of me all this time? Tu Zi wondered in surprise.
"There will come a time when it can be told, and people to whom it can be said," the Chief of Staff continued slowly.
At this, Tu Zi's dazed eyes finally shifted. He felt he roughly understood. Just as he was about to speak and confirm, the Chief of Staff was already carrying on.
"Humanity's slender hope. Twenty years ago, when nine people from Azure, including myself, drew up this list, we excluded Chen Buer. The person ranked first was named Ye Jian... Ten years later, Ye Jian fell to third place."
Ye Jian? That can't be right, can it? Tu Zi wondered inwardly, because Ye Jian's defection from Azure had also been nearly twenty years ago... Hesitating for a moment, he asked, "So, Major General Ye was actually going undercover in Snow Lotus?"
"No, it was pure treason," the Chief of Staff said. "But that didn't stop him from appearing on the list, because this list records humanity's hope, not Azure's."
"Oh." For a moment, Tu Zi didn't know how to follow up.
The Chief of Staff didn't seem inclined to explain further either, continuing, "Ten years ago, the one who replaced Ye Jian at number one was a sixteen-year-old youth. You probably know him too... His name is Pegmont."
When that name dropped, Tu Zi blurted, "Huh?!"
Because his emotional allegiance had always aligned with Stream Vanguard, Tu Zi nearly blurted out: *That brain-damaged clown?!*
Rank one on the Hope List!
Peg Pink!
Just how slender could humanity's hope possibly be? More like there wasn't any hope at all, right?
How could it be him?
Never mind Brother Qingzi or Brother Wu Xu—wasn't Wolf stronger than him?
"For more than eight years after that, Pegmont remained at the very top of that list," the Chief of Staff said, paying no heed to Tu Zi's reaction and talking on.
"Then what about my Brother Qingzi?!" Tu Zi couldn't hold back any longer.
He didn't even bother to ask about the second place that had been missing from the Chief of Staff's narrative all along.
"After his strike at the zenith, because his battle record was so solid, Han Qingyu rose from sixth to second place. Another half year later, when he lost his memory and his strength regressed, he finally, barely managed to replace Pegmont and rank first."
This seemed to imply that even when Han Qingyu had slain Daie with that strike at the zenith, he still couldn't surpass the hope pinned on Pegmont.
Just on what grounds?
Wait, why did Brother Qingzi's rank go up after he lost his memory?
Tu Zi had a forehead full of question marks.
"Do you know why it was Pegmont?" The Chief of Staff didn't seem to intend to explain the matter about Han Qingyu, asking directly.
Tu Zi shook his head.
"Because of his trait," the Chief of Staff said. "For a very long time, we believed Pegmont was the only person who could possibly grow into someone capable of contending with Miwang in humanity's future... His trait is something even he doesn't know about, and we call it 'Invincible in Ignorance.'"
In truth, the complete phrasing should have been: As long as he remains ignorant and fearless, perpetually brainless and conceited, he will one day attain invincibility.
The Chief of Staff felt that was too convoluted and didn't state it in full.
"What does that mean?" Tu Zi tried to understand it on his own. He was naturally clever, so he managed to keep up this time. After a few seconds, he asked tentatively, "As bold as man is, so fruitful is the land?"
"Spot on."
...
Of course, Pegmont's strength also required a process of progression. It was just that this process, aside from source energy and other factors, hinged even more crucially on his own thoughts and convictions.
Naturally, he wasn't so conceited right now that he believed he could defeat or tie with Chen Buer at present.
Yet this didn't hinder his progress at all, because Pegmont currently didn't compare himself to Chen Buer. In his view, Chen Buer belonged to another era, and besides, Chen Buer wouldn't cut him down.
Therefore, whether Chen Buer was strong or how strong he was had nothing to do with Pegmont's own strength for the time being.
Because of this self-evident logic, Chen Buer was not, and for a long time to come would not be, an obstacle to Pegmont's continued growth.
As for the other renowned supers, such as Christine and Bochen... they had basically all beaten Pegmont up.
Toward these people, Pegmont's single-track mindset made him believe without a shred of doubt that they definitely wouldn't kill him. So he went around provoking them and fighting them.
And in truth, he really never got beaten to death, and gradually he began to believe he could parry, could strike back, could hold his own.
The whole world thought this was because those renowned supers had held back, but very few knew that in such circumstances, even if they hadn't held back, they might not have been able to kill Pegmont anyway.
"Therefore, Han Qingyu was Pegmont's only psychological obstacle. Because they were of the same generation, yet Han Qingyu had surpassed him from behind. Pegmont cared deeply about this, while also believing he couldn't beat him—for a period of time, he had even felt he could never possibly surpass him again."
...
A while back, one day Pegmont suddenly felt that he ought to be able to beat the people at the lower end of the Dome Leaderboard. So he went to fight Amugulang... That fight was brutal, but in the end, he won.
Amugulang had fled the one-on-one battlefield on his own accord and was still recovering in bed to this day.
Meanwhile, Pegmont was already bouncing around Antarctica, picking fights and stirring up trouble.
*Wu Xu? If it's Wu Xu, given how much progress I've made lately, I should be able to win, or at least draw,* Pegmont thought to himself on the snow outside the canyon. *Han Qingyu is already crippled... Sigh, if only I could beat him up, how wonderful that would be.*
Chapter 777