Divine Beast Creator

Attracting Feng Yuan’s attention was naturally not this strange remnant of a stele. To him, it’s not unusual for peculiar things to manifest here, but what piqued his curiosity was the surge of special energy on the stele.

As he approached, Feng Yuan noticed that the stele was severely damaged. However, judging by the remaining parts, it seemed that the stele was originally engraved with numerous designs.

"The floral patterns and the base pattern, along with the characters – is this a tombstone? But these characters..."

Observing the stele, Feng Yuan spoke with some puzzlement. The energy surging on the stele was very peculiar; it felt different from both the Death Series and Ghost Series energy. Yet, the stele appeared like a luxurious tombstone, albeit only about one-third of the bottom remained, making it difficult to discern its original content.

"Can’t make out what the characters are at all."

Due to the extensive damage, Veronia merely glanced and moved on, for the remaining fragments could correspond to many characters, making it impossible to guess the original content.

What puzzled Veronia was why Feng Yuan was interested in this remnant. Even though its appearance here was odd, this area itself had always been strange.

"You’re not thinking of taking this thing, are you? No matter how you think about it, it’s not useful."

Seeing Feng Yuan still inspecting and even scratching at the stele, Veronia spoke curiously. Feng Yuan looked at Veronia with confusion and said,

"Didn’t you sense the energy above?"

"What energy? None."

With a few strands of bewilderment, Veronia answered instinctively, but soon realized that if it were Qi Chen or others, it might be considered a hallucination; Feng Yuan’s case was different...

"Looks like this thing is quite special. Oh well, if I can’t move it, let’s leave it be."

After trying, Feng Yuan found that despite its damaged state, it seemed as though welded to the earth, impossible to move. He decided to ignore it.

For some reason, he had a feeling that he might encounter this thing again.

"Did a large-scale spatial collapse occur in the Qi Realm? What exactly did they do?"

Receiving urgent investigation data, Qi Realm Dou Yanlan was astonished. Although no conclusive report was formed yet, her prolonged presence here allowed her to deduce from the data what had transpired.

Their equipment was meant to cause minor disturbances in the spatial barrier for entering deeper layers, but Feng Yuan’s arrival directly triggered a spatial collapse, which puzzled her.

Concerning whether this would cause trouble for them? Not likely; while there are dangers in the Deep Layer of the Qi Realm, they won’t seep into the shallow layers, much less escape the Qi Realm.

Still, she couldn’t fathom why Feng Yuan chose to act this way, especially since she had already lent them equipment.

"We don’t know what they’re doing, but yet another city has succumbed to the outbreak. How have they not figured out what causes the outbreaks yet?"

Shiyin, while complaining, casually tossed the data to Qi Realm Dou Yanlan. Compared to issues within the Qi Realm, she was more worried about the outbreaks, as these could threaten civilians, unlike the Qi Realm.

The eerie forest seemed like Ghost Series Spirit Beasts could emerge at any moment, but that was merely an illusion. Feng Yuan and the others wandered for quite a while without encountering anything resembling life.

"Is the Qi Realm layer too shallow? Doesn’t seem dangerous."

Scanning his surroundings, Feng Yuan said puzzled, as the data from Qi Realm Dou Yanlan indicated that within the Qi Realm, safety was a concern; yet they had descended several layers without trouble - something felt off.

"Should be like this; according to their claims, special resources exist in the deep layer of the Qi Realm, but we have not seen such things here."

Dou Yanlan thought before speaking; at first, she was tense as the Qi Realm felt unsettling, yet as exploration continued, she found seemingly nothing.

"Shall we delve deeper? Fine, get ready and continue forward."

With a sigh, Feng Yuan decided to push deeper, hoping to find something different, for their investigation yielded little beyond a few broken steles, with no other changes evident.

"Advance further and we reach the deep layers, supposedly; yet the shallow layers should also contain certain things absent here—could my damage have caused this?"

These investigation results puzzled Veronia because data wouldn’t lie, and Qi Realm Dou Yanlan had no reason to provide false intel, which would be pointless and anger Feng Yuan.

This difference might stem from their unique entry to the shallow layers, as Veronia practically shattered much of the shallow Qi Realm, temporarily merging regions together.

Veronia can’t be certain if this led to the discrepancies with the data since this isn’t the Main World, where the power of Divine Beasts holds less sway.

Transforming back to the Crystal Queen form, after familiar actions, spatial collapse did not occur; Feng Yuan grimly said to Tamur,

"Did you see clearly?"

"World Barrier, suddenly upgraded to a World Barrier."

Tamur said calmly, while it’s not a Space Divine Beast, its unique Era Divine Beast nature made it highly sensitive during Mythical Era protective shielding.

Besides, not only Tamur but Veronia also sensed the sudden change; as an attack neared contact, the fragile Spatial Barrier was suddenly reinforced into a World Barrier, which a casual strike from Veronia naturally couldn’t penetrate.

This occurrence could stem from many possibilities.

"Can we only use vibrational methods?"

Perplexed, maintaining the Crystal Queen form, Veronia started wide-reaching vibrations in the space, but the vanished World Barrier reappeared, nullifying its efforts.

"Not necessarily the reason; narrow your range, break into several spatial layers instead of causing large-scale spatial collapse."

Feng Yuan contemplated before advising; he felt unlikely that only selective equipment was usable due to eerie mental interference akin to the Main World’s unique space.

This led him to investigate the Qi Realm, deeming it more suspicious than elsewhere.

At least, those attacking Qi Chen likely originate here, but now, knowing the Qi Realm’s truth, Feng Yuan sensed something amiss. Why would those entities, possibly not even humans, target Qi Chen?

Was it because this world’s Qi Chen died in the Qi Realm? It seemed odd.

With the emerging World Barrier, Feng Yuan’s suspicions deepened; the Qi Realm wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed and couldn’t possess a World Barrier.

The presence of such indicates a definite tie to the Main Timeline, perhaps a direct link to the unique space.

Otherwise, a World Barrier’s protection wouldn’t manifest.

Though Veronia recognized this, it paid no mind to pursuing World Barrier breach as prompted by Feng Yuan to adapt its attack strategy.

This time, targeting a handful, amid shattering sounds, the sky descended into a blood night.

A scarlet full moon hung overhead, with blood-hued stars dotted upon a night resembling a dirty rag, atypical of an ordinary night sky appearing black amidst mixed colors as if all dyes blended together.

Under the blood-colored night, the forest finally crossed the line; even falling from a shallow Qi Realm, the plants began to mutate.

"Watch out!"

Seeing the trees twist, wilt, and slowly move, Qi Chen yelled to warn Feng Yuan, but the changes around were already noted, without which Feng Yuan would find odd.

A World Barrier’s emergence signifies more than restraining Veronia from widespread harm but also denotes the deep layer below, while not truly the deep layers of the entire Qi Realm, yet the deepest humans here could reach.

"Trees aren’t switching but transforming; does spatial fall directly replace original space, or..."

Noticing his surroundings alter, Feng Yuan vaguely sensed something, yet remained uncertain, perhaps requiring further proof to confirm his thoughts’ veracity.