Divine Beast Creator

Although speaking words of dismay, Qi Realm Dou Yanlan still helped to retrieve Feng En’s life experience. This time, they also sensed something amiss, which was that Feng En’s death was actually related to the Calamity Ritual.

In the records, it was noted that he died due to the Calamity Ritual, but now they all understood that this was likely not a simple accident; very likely, the calamity was triggered by him.

But even so, Qi Realm Dou Yanlan did not consider this something worthy of attention, for although everyone who entered the Qi Realm has a Soul Projection, this is hardly different from the dream-based contamination.

"Quite impressive, but understandable; to be able to set up such a research institute, one must have some skill."

Feng Yuan commented while reviewing the data, and Veronia was also looking at the documents, but Veronia didn’t see anything wrong with them.

"What’s impressive about it?"

From Feng En’s life, Veronia didn’t see much outstanding; at least, on the surface, he was just a competent doctor. Saying he was incredibly skilled wasn’t without similar people existing.

"He actually discovered Soul Projections and even tried to completely eliminate them. Moreover, the records on this document confirm my speculation, which is that Soul Projections are completely uncontrollable by the host."

Although he didn’t finish reading the data, Feng Yuan had already obtained the answer to what he wanted to confirm, and Veronia, puzzled, looked at Feng Yuan without understanding his meaning.

Before Qi Realm Dou Yanlan could ask, Feng Yuan explained

"In the deepest part of the Qi Realm, what we saw might be only a part of the Soul Projection. Or perhaps, most Soul Projections are highly autonomous, and those strongest among them possess the ability to initiate the Calamity Ritual."

Saying this, Feng Yuan glanced at Qi Realm Dou Yanlan, who happened to fit this standard too. Of course, this was just one aspect. After pondering for a moment, Feng Yuan said

"Although the deepest Soul Projection of Qi Realm exists relying on the Main World, undeniably, by what we have seen and heard, there, it seems like there exists a civilization no less scaled than the Main World. In other words, that place can also be called the Shadow Country. Currently, only a few would initiate a Calamity Ritual invasion against the Main World."

"But this doesn’t mean they couldn’t all come forth, and most importantly, the pollution happens subtly. Perhaps not until the last moment would one realize they have been polluted."

"Everyone becomes untrustworthy?"

Upon considering a possibility, Qi Realm Dou Yanlan’s face turned sour. Nodding, Feng Yuan said

"In Feng En’s data, I saw records where his Soul Projection disguised as Feng En multiple times. And though in their records this was seen as Feng En having mental issues, incorporating the element of Soul Projection actually better explains these transformations, doesn’t it?"

"This..."

After reviewing the information pointed out by Feng Yuan, Qi Realm Dou Yanlan had to admit Feng Yuan was right. And this is the most troublesome aspect: when the Soul Projection could disguise its identity at any moment to infiltrate and cause destruction, what could they do?

At present, considering their technological capacity, they’re entirely powerless against it.

"The key issue is that the technological development in your timeline is too peculiar, overly reliant on scholar owls, and them, being Spirit Beasts, are actually... somewhat naive."

After a moment of thought, Feng Yuan revealed this greatest risk. Rather than saying naive, it’s more like Spirit Beasts generally don’t have complex minds, yet this presents the greatest threat.

Normally this is a good thing as everyone can mutually trust each other. However, now, with Soul Projections that can disguise and sneak in at any time, it becomes much easier for them to undermine technology.

And because technological development overly relies on scholar owls, the consequence is humans find it hard to fully comprehend existing technology, leading to an inability to self-inspect whether there are hidden dangers within.

However, a problem arises: Soul Projections can arbitrarily replace anyone, including scholar owls. If relying on scholar owls to investigate, who can ascertain there’s no chance of being misdirected?

"Your immediate priority likely is to find a way to detect Soul Projections. At least, current detection methods should be ineffective against them."

Feng Yuan didn’t elaborate further, noting Qi Realm Dou Yanlan’s drastic change in expression, aware they realized the risk involved and resolving it might not be easy.

Due to excessive trust in scholar owls, technological development almost entirely adopts the results from scholar owls. As for thoroughly understanding them?

Humans are indeed working on it, but progress far lags behind the research speed of scholar owls.

"And it’s not just that. Previously, it seemed correct. The Qi Realm lies between the dream world and Illusionary Domain, while also displaying characteristics akin to Abyssal Corrosion. This also means post-character peculiarity will exhibit different Attribute changes, and of course, this applies to Spirit Beasts—regarding humans..."

Pausing suddenly, Feng Yuan looked up at Qi Realm Dou Yanlan, saying

"I don’t know if you have movies here, Qi Realm can in a certain sense achieve mass production of villainous evil doctors. Unless you closely monitor every research personnel, yet you know this is essentially impossible."

"Although there’s no evidence, over-reliance on Qi Realm’s power might be one reason for the outbreak of Calamity Ritual. Look, here, Feng En’s behavior also proves he seemed aware of this issue, only then it was too late."

Qi Realm Dou Yanlan hadn’t expected Feng Yuan to identify so many problems. Considering something, she looked at Feng Yuan asking

"Then, wouldn’t the expedition teams frequently entering and exiting the Qi Realm..."

"Not necessarily, pollution and post-utilization pollution aren’t quite the same. At least the characteristics exhibited by Feng En and that woman were an excessive closeness to Qi Realm. Just these types..."

"I hope to review the record of Calamity Ritual of Reska City, especially whether unknown buildings appeared or unknown architectural manifestations."

Feng Yuan wasn’t sure if Qi Realm Dou Yanlan could obtain these documents, but this didn’t significantly impact him, since it was merely to confirm one of his speculations. Even without confirmation, it wouldn’t greatly affect.

"Do you mean, under certain conditions, creations made in the Qi Realm could manifest into the Main World?"

Veronia incredulously looked at Feng Yuan, who didn’t explicitly state this but had hinted enough for Veronia to understand.

With a slight nod, Feng Yuan said

"That’s correct. You still remember the research institute ruins we saw in the depths? If that was slowly falling from the shallow layer, according to normal logic, it would be increasingly damaged losing parts of its structure during the process."

"That the structure at the deepest layer is so intact suggests it was certainly larger in scale when at the shallow layer. Of course, it might have always been there, but that seems unlikely."

"The deep and shallow layer structure suggests that it’s unlikely the initial appearance was at the depths, and Feng En initially didn’t sense any issues—clearly the environment then wasn’t the deep layer."

Initially unaware that the dream-like research institute was in the Qi Realm, if the surrounding environment were too eerie, Feng En couldn’t have completely failed to sense it, unless there’s specialized disguise structure.

But doing so would be better to construct in the shallow layer, since the shallow layer environment is almost indistinguishable from the Main World, and entering from the Main World into the shallow layer is far more convenient than entering directly into the depths.

"But that seems to have no significant relevance; even appearing in our world shouldn’t largely impact the Calamity Ritual."

Qi Realm Dou Yanlan didn’t initially grasp Feng Yuan’s meaning. Smiling mildly, Feng Yuan looked at Veronia saying

"Did you figure it out?"

"Hmm-hmm, though it hasn’t appeared yet, if the research institute could manifest in the Main World, then a larger structure’s appearance isn’t impossible either."

"Considering Nightmare Reawakening Disaster, however, isn’t a good sign. You’re worried under specific conditions this manifestation might lead to Qi Realm structures replacing Main World environment?"

"Pretty much, what I fear is restructuring. Because within these documents, it faintly indicates the Qi Realm possesses the ability to reorganize material structures of its Timeline, though this doesn’t really affect us."

Nodding, Feng Yuan said, and his lack of concern is simple: there’s no way the Main World Qi Realm could have this capacity, as it overlaps with many Divine Beasts’ rule Authorities. With Divine Beasts managing these rules, the Qi Realm can’t possibly invoke their power unless Qi Realm’s Authority overrides the Divine Beasts.