Chapter 589 - 558: The Realm After Death (1/3)

Chapter 589: Chapter 558: The Realm After Death (1/3)

"What’s wrong, Ian? Why did you suddenly attack?"

Noticing Ian’s movement, Hua’an was the first to fly out of the shop.

She didn’t sense any enemies nearby, so she was puzzled by Ian’s abrupt attack but was nonetheless ready for battle.

After all, Ian’s power of observation through spirit energy was indeed difficult for her to gauge. What if there really were enemies stealthily approaching?

"There’s a surveillance camera over there."

Ian raised his hand and pointed to the area he had just attacked: "Someone has been continuously monitoring us."

Upon taking a closer look, Hua’an nodded in understanding: "Indeed there is. It’s hidden in a bird’s nest under the eaves. I noticed it after you damaged it."

"It seems the bird inside might also be an alchemical creature, specifically used for surveillance."

Ian thought so too, adding a detail: "It’s just that due to some anomaly, the birds are dead now, and only the fixed nest remains for monitoring."

However, now wasn’t the time to discuss this. He continued to lower his head, looking at the ’attached brain corpse’ in his hands.

Frost Butterfly flew over curiously, followed by Hua’an. The two fae gazed inquisitively at the small insect in Ian’s hand.

"Huh."

Unlike Frost Butterfly, who only felt slightly familiar with it, Hua’an had read Ian’s ’South Sea Great Maze Chronicles’ along with Mo Feng.

She immediately recognized that the small insect in the young man’s hand was the ’Brain-Eating Parasite’ he had described many times in his chronicles.

Of course, as a scholar, she also noticed that the Brain-Eating Parasite in Ian’s hand was not as ferocious as it was described in his chronicles, let alone evolved into a huge tapeworm capable of consuming a human brain—this creature was now only the size of a human little fingernail and at full adulthood would at most grow to the size of a human palm, a true ’attached brain.’

"This is the attached brain, as I’ve mentioned before, a biotechnological tool used by the ancestors of the Redwood Natives, a man-made modified form of the Brain-Eating Parasite."

While Ian was still pondering, the Light Bird also suddenly appeared.

Michael observed the small insect seriously, then nodded slightly: "I see, by utilizing biotechnology and combining it with spirit energy modifications... This kind of attached brain, I remember it being mentioned in Master Gossay’s report, it has a ’Spirit Energy Network,’ right?"

"No wonder the Sorin Grand Guild is interested in it."

"Yes."

Ian agreed, but in truth, he was thinking something quite disrespectful.

— This guy really is everywhere... isn’t it time for him to leave?

Ian naturally knew that with Michael by his side, the safety of him and the fae needn’t be a concern.

But based on the careful observations Ian had made along the way, nearly all creatures that could be considered threats in the Avak Domain had already appeared in the open, and any unseen threats would undoubtedly be Michael’s opponents in the future.

Not to mention, it was evident that the other party was about to leave them to confront the powers behind these incidents.

— In other words, given the known information, this old fellow Michael is actually no longer of use!

Moreover, because of Michael’s ubiquitous presence through the Light Bird’s Heart Light Body, Ian often found himself restricted, unable to exert his full strength.

"But it’s not a big problem." Ian thought to himself: "Soon, Michael will definitely have to contend with Fourth Energy Level powers behind other factions, and he likely won’t have the spare capacity to continue monitoring me."

"And that will be my moment to act."

Ian believed that this moment was not far off.

But back to the matter at hand.

"Andor... is likely still alive, right?"

Ian remembered the Elf Pirate Captain, who was also the first person he retraced with ’Retrospection Vision.’

He was a very cooperative elf, skilled at answering questions and staying alive—even though he had once been an enemy to both Ian and Yisen Gard, he was, after all, a mercenary pirate, so there was no need to dwell on that aspect.

Not to mention, the pirate had even given assistance to Shark Shark. Considering that, Ian had no intention of killing him.

However, later on, Andor was taken back to the Imperial Capital by Yisen, serving as a witness to Patrick’s collusion with pirates in an assassination plot... Since then, Ian had no knowledge of his whereabouts.

"I’ll ask Yisen later. After all, concerning the trade routes of Canaan Moore, no one knows better than these group of Elf Pirates."

From Ruishe’s corpse, Ian had obtained plenty of clues and memories.

The story of Miles Rexi, his mother, and Aunt Lydia’s family is just one among the countless tragic tales in Azure City.

Their tragic experiences were known to Ian not because they were ordinary but because ’Miles’ was extraordinary.

Miles had awakened his Spirit Energy and managed to survive and leave Azure City, thus giving Ian the chance to discover all the underlying details through ’Retrospective Vision’.

—But.

What about those whom even Ian’s Retrospective Vision could not see?

Those who would never appear in any story, who just because of an unbearable day turned into corpses on the street, their decayed blood seeping into the ground?

Ian never troubled himself with things he couldn’t see; he never tormented himself for the suffering of others, nor did he consider himself the savior obliged by the heaven’s mandate to help others.

But Ian couldn’t avoid his abilities.

Often, a Prophet is one who can see.

And a Prophet is one who can change.

If that’s the case, perhaps one should change.

Thus, one could change the future he sees.

"Miss Hua’an."

On the way back to the camp, Ian suddenly spoke up and asked Fairy Miss a question, "Does the Terra World have legends of hell or an underworld?"

The words Ian spoke did not actually exist in the common language of Terra but were a ’constructed word’ formed by combining the phrases ’land of the dead’ and ’land of the undead’.

"Isn’t that the Domain of Void?"

But after thinking for a moment, Hua’an understood what Ian meant: "Ah, I know, Ian, you feel very sad too, right? Yes, with so many people dead, if it were me, I would certainly want to let them all live on in another world—this is exactly what the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits and the Retrospection Sect say. It’s their goal."

Saying this, the fairy shook her head regretfully: "But in reality, the Domain of Void is not that powerful. Not to mention that only those at the Second Power Level have ’souls’ to enter the Domain of Void; most people do not meet the criteria."

"Even if they enter the Domain of Void, if they are not Fae or humans like you Ian, who don’t need ’bodies’ as an anchor, they will gradually be eroded by the Domain of Void until they vanish."

"At the Fourth and Fifth Energy Levels, because the souls are too powerful and require an extremely harsh energy environment, it is very difficult to preserve them completely. Even if the Spirit Energy core can persist, the memories and such will be definitely lost—some of the Chosen Ones inherit such pure Spirit Energy cores, which is why they are born with Spirit Energy."

The Fairy Miss’s research on Spirit Energy and souls was very profound and systematic, much like how humans study their own bodies and medicine.

On the road, Hua’an patiently taught Ian about related knowledge and also tried to comfort the young man who indeed didn’t seem to be in a good state: "This is an ancient unsolvable problem. A soul is not an independent existence; it requires the mind and body to maintain it—a part of the whole ’person.’ Even for Fae, the pure Spiritual Body form can only exist in the Fairy Homeland and the Domain of Void. If we wish to persist for a long time in the material world, we must also have a body."

"But time and the Domain of Void will also gradually assimilate us, making the spirits of the Fae increasingly dull, and eventually becoming stale and rotten, finally returning to the natural cycle... thus there is the Fae reincarnation system."

"But humans... after all, are creatures mainly of matter. Your souls are born of the body and imprisoned by the body. If they leave the body, the additional energy required for a long existence is enormous."

"On Terra Continent, even in the Domain of Void, there is no such high-energy region. After all, since the Calamity of Heavenly Fall, the Domain of Void has become tumultuous and fearsome, no longer a refuge for souls."

"So even for a Fifth Energy Level powerhouse, if they lack the life-prolonging materials of the Fifth Energy Level, they cannot exist solely as a soul after the body disintegrates, to maintain their ’memory and reason’ for too long."

"...Thank you, Miss Hua’an." Having heard this, Ian fell silent for a while. Although Hua’an had misunderstood his question, the various pieces of information she provided were very important.

At this moment, because of the observations made along the way and the various Spirit Energy Techniques seen en route, a peculiar speculation emerged in Ian’s mind.

But this conjecture was too incredible, and many key pieces of the puzzle were yet to fit, so it remained only a guess.

—Could it possibly... just possibly.

Whether it’s Artificial Souls, Parasitic Brain Cores, or the Phantom Army... these technologies, which involve the Spirit Wisdom Institute, Fiery Flame Land, and the Sorin Grand Guild, might have a purpose beyond simply ’killing’ people.

Could they view ’death’ as a ’beginning’?

This was a quite far-fetched speculation, but as Hua’an had said, there was no region on the Terra Continent where a soul could stably exist, so Ian didn’t continue to muse over it.

He simply kept the possibility in mind and returned to the camp with the Fairy Misses.

Ian brought back the location of the enemy and secured the key to the Grand Duchy’s technology.

So, after a brief preparation, the Patrol Knight Squad set out.

Marching toward the underground waterways to the north of Azure City.