Translator: CinderTL
Tiger Soul Research Institute Headquarters.
Core Zone.
After hanging up the phone, Feng Qi put down his toothbrush.
The Lord of the Mist's encounter in Twilight City had completely exceeded his expectations.
However, the Spirit Energy Clan's mysterious laboratory and the blue-skinned assassins being experimented on didn't prove that the blue-skinned creatures were created by the Spirit Energy Clan.
He suspected the blue-skinned assassins had been caught red-handed by Spirit Energy Clan members while attempting to steal the Holy Spirit Consciousness Repository.
This led to the subsequent experiments and research.
Perhaps the Spirit Energy Clan had also long suffered from these elusive, special lifeforms.
The research might simply be aimed at better countering the blue-skinned assassins' ambushes.
Across multiple timelines, his understanding of the blue-skinned assassins remained limited.
He didn't even know the true origins of this mysterious force.
Pondering the clues related to the blue-skinned assassins, he left the bathroom and sat down on the sofa in his bedroom.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him.
He realized he had overlooked a crucial detail all along.
Across numerous Sacrifice Lines, nearly every one had been targeted by Blue-skinned Assassins. Yet one timeline stood out as an anomaly: the Sacrifice Line where he infiltrated the Technology Research Institute as an undercover agent.
In that timeline, he lived longer than in his current one, surviving at least until the destruction of the Scarlet Research Branch Base in Twilight City.
Yet in that timeline, he never encountered a Blue-skinned Assassin.
This defied all logic.
While some earlier Sacrifice Lines had also lacked Blue-skinned Assassin encounters, those timelines were invariably short-lived. He had died long before the expected time of their appearance, rendering any records irrelevant.
But the Technology Research Institute timeline presented an inexplicable contradiction. No rational explanation could account for the absence of the Blue-skinned Assassins.
As he pondered, he considered various possibilities, but each theory contained significant flaws.
One thing remained certain:
The timing of the Blue-skinned Assassins' appearances varied across timelines, as did their numbers.
It seemed the Blue-skinned Assassin could adapt to changes in the timeline.
However, there was still a pattern.
He could pinpoint a timeframe, roughly six months before or after a specific point in time.
Subsequent assassination attempts followed a similar pattern.
Therefore, he could roughly estimate when the Blue-skinned Assassin would appear in a given timeline.
But the most peculiar aspect of his infiltration into the Technology Research Institute was that he lived to be thirty-seven years old.
In other words, for twenty years after activating the Sacrifice Line, he never encountered the Blue-skinned Assassin's assassination attempts.
This starkly contrasted with his experiences in other Sacrifice Lines.
The Blue-skinned Assassin cared nothing for his location; whenever an opportunity arose, it would materialize and strike.
This anomalous Sacrifice Line made him suspect that the absence of the Blue-skinned Assassin might be connected to the Black Shadow Faction lurking behind the Technology Research Institute.
Yet the Black Shadow Faction seemed primarily focused on the Black Reaper Project, making it unlikely they would create the Blue-skinned Assassin.
As he pondered, two possibilities occurred to him.
First, in the Sacrifice Line timeline, he spent the vast majority of his time within the Technology Research Institute.
Perhaps the Blue-skinned Assassin had appeared, but before it could approach him, the Black Shadow Faction behind the institute discovered it and eliminated it as an intruder.
This might explain why he never encountered the Blue-skinned Assassin in that timeline.
Second, the Blue-skinned Assassin was indeed a specialized lifeform created by the Spirit Energy Clan, specifically designed to carry out missions to collect miracle items.
This hypothesis had a very high degree of credibility.
The monk had previously described the functions of the Holy Spirit Consciousness Repository in detail.
This miracle item could record all the knowledge of the Spirit Energy Clan, ensuring that each generation's knowledge reserves and skills surpassed those of the previous one.
It functioned like a vast network connecting all members of the Spirit Energy Clan, with a central database at its core.
When a new member of the Spirit Energy Clan needed knowledge in a particular area, they simply entered the Holy Spirit Consciousness Repository with their consciousness, clicked "download," and instantly acquired the relevant skills stored in the database.
This included a wealth of creative knowledge.
The Spirit Energy Clan's creative potential was truly terrifying.
It was entirely plausible that they had created blue-skinned creatures specifically to collect miracle items.
To aid these blue-skinned creatures in their task, the Spirit Energy Clan had also crafted small black beads that could locate miracle items.
If this hypothesis held true, the Black Shadow Faction, which had splintered from the Spirit Energy Clan, would undoubtedly be aware of the Blue-skinned Assassins' existence and might even possess methods to counter them.
For instance, Wei Wei had discovered during her research on the Blue-skinned Assassins that they were constantly receiving mysterious external signals.
Perhaps the Black Shadow Faction, having broken away from the Spirit Energy Clan, had developed a way to block these signals.
This could explain why he had never encountered a Blue-skinned Assassin during his years infiltrating the Technology Research Institute.
Both hypotheses suggested that the Blue-skinned Assassins might be weapons created by the Spirit Energy Clan.
However, the exact reasons behind their creation remained unknown to him for now.
For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that the truth was far more complex than it appeared.
He clearly remembered that during the escort mission, the Blue-skinned Assassin had clashed with the Spirit Energy Clan in the canyon, showing no signs of being controlled by them.
However, he couldn't rule out the possibility that this was merely a performance staged by the Spirit Energy Clan for all factions to observe.
Taking a deep breath, he banished these distracting thoughts.
He walked to the wardrobe and retrieved a uniform from the Tiger Soul Research Institute.
After dressing, he stood before the mirror, scrutinizing his reflection.
Today was the day the initial evaluation results for the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice cultivation technique would be released.
In three hours, the public press conference would begin.
Though the Lord of the Mist hadn't explicitly stated it, he knew the Lord of the Mist deeply cared about this publicity.
The Lord of the Mist had even inquired about it during their earlier phone call.
Now that the Sacrifice Line had aligned itself with the Lord of the Mist, he was determined to do everything possible to aid the Lord of the Mist's advancement.
The stronger the Lord of the Mist became, the more influence he would wield, allowing him to gather even more intelligence.
He attached great importance to this press conference.
Fully dressed, he left the room.
The researchers in the core zone remained engrossed in their scientific instruments, paying little attention to his arrival.
In contrast, the Nightshadow Clan members controlled by the Lord of the Mist cast wary glances in his direction, a hint of apprehension in their eyes.
After leaving the core zone, he headed straight to the Tiger Soul Research Institute's cafeteria.
Grabbing a tray, he began selecting his breakfast.
(End of the Chapter)
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