Divine Beast Creator

"You’ve already figured out what those weird things really are?"

Veronia looked at Feng Yuan in surprise. It hadn’t expected the other party to suddenly say that. As for whether Feng Yuan was joking—that felt pretty unlikely. This was definitely not a good time to crack jokes.

"Yeah. If my guess is right, this should be a very special situation. Kind of similar to the World’s Shadow, but a lot more troublesome than that thing."

Rubbing his brow, Feng Yuan spoke with a headache. If it were just simple shadows, that’d be fine. But these things were nowhere near that simple.

He turned his head to look at Veronia and said,

"Come to think of it, this stuff might be related to your Authority."

"Mm-hmm?"

Hearing that, Veronia seemed to think of something and looked at Feng Yuan in surprise.

"You mean those are all mirror images of real Lives? But that doesn’t add up. If that’s the case, why can’t I sense any issue at all?"

This wasn’t Veronia being arrogant. When it came to its own Authority, Divine Beasts were extremely sensitive. Even if they didn’t know the details, there’d be some vague sense of it. There was no way there’d be zero reaction. Yet from Veronia’s perspective, it truly hadn’t sensed anything.

"I’m not entirely clear on the exact situation yet, but one thing’s certain: those things are shadows of real Lives. No—more than that. Aberrant shadows, or rather, existences that are the reverse side of their originals."

"The best evidence is those One-leaf Foxes with extremely abnormal Attributes and Ultimate Moves. If they’re true mirror existences, it’s normal for Attributes and Ultimate Moves to shift. As for why they all look like Lives, I suspect these things have a dual-aspect nature."

As he spoke, Feng Yuan seemed to realize something, shook his head, and said,

"No, that’s not quite right. If I really have to give an example, it’s like Najia’s two sides being separated. Even if the other side is special, it’s still a part of that individual Life."

"Things of this sort must have some environmental carrier. They can’t just appear out of thin air. This isn’t the same as simple mirror clones—it’s closer to a kind of rules-based aberration."

Looking at Veronia, Feng Yuan paused and said,

"And that Bronze Statue just now was special in that it wasn’t a Life from the main timeline."

"What?!"

It wasn’t just Veronia; the others were shocked as well. Feng Yuan’s earlier explanation had been a bit hard to grasp, so Qi Chen and the rest hadn’t realized how complicated things really were. In their eyes, it was just some shadow-creature type of thing.

But when they heard Feng Yuan say that thing wasn’t a Life from the main timeline, they were genuinely startled. Because whether shadow Lives or something else, they were supposed to be creatures within the Main World. Yet Feng Yuan was telling them these shadows were actually from outside the main timeline!

"Wait. So by what you’re saying, those things should fall under the larger category of ’the reverse side of Life.’ And... those things appeared out of nowhere. If they’re existences from outside the main timeline, how exactly did they bypass all those layers of defense and suddenly show up here?"

Staring at Feng Yuan, not only Veronia but War Qichen and the others couldn’t make sense of what was going on.

"No idea. In theory, with the Temple’s Shelter, whether projections or anything else, they shouldn’t be able to bypass the Temple’s blessing and just pop into the sheltered zone. But these things are doing exactly that..."

"I suspect they’re traveling along some special Domain. Only that way could they sidestep Maomu City’s defense monitoring. Don’t forget, the Temple doesn’t come with a hostile-detection function."

Speaking with a grave expression, Feng Yuan knew what this implied. If they really were bypassing defensive monitoring through special methods, that meant the nations’ defenses had massive loopholes.

"A special Domain? What’s your plan?"

Veronia pondered for a moment instead of acting immediately. Domains within the Main World were numerous, and many lay completely outside its Authority. Ordinary methods couldn’t probe those special Domains at all.

Take the Data Domain for example: while they could affect it to some extent, they couldn’t directly alter the Data Domain’s overall environment, nor could they control the operation of rules within it.

"If it were shadow mirrors and such, that would be very close to my Authority. But I didn’t sense anything earlier, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to find it."

Veronia spoke with an embarrassed look. That was the most troublesome part. Its Authority was arguably the closest among the Divine Beasts to the surface pattern of this stuff. Yet it hadn’t sensed a thing. That meant the Domain they were borrowing had nothing to do with its Authority.

"I caught a faint trace just now. Using that trace, we should be able to follow the path they took to get here. The upper limit is probably the edge of the world—but that’s still better than knowing nothing at all, right?"

His finger slid across the opened Ancient Black Book. Feng Yuan spoke as his gaze swept over the group. Qi Chen hesitated for a moment, then said,

"I’ll go with you. If their target is me, then sticking with you might draw them out again."

"Being bait isn’t that easy. But what you should be thinking is that we act as a team, right?"

War Qichen spoke helplessly, looking at Feng Yuan. Feng Yuan nodded and said,

"This is directly connected to you guys. While Veronia and I could go after them alone, I’d much rather find out why they’re fixated on you."

With a self-mocking smile, War Qichen gazed up at the Starry Sky and said,

"Ha, I’d like to know that too—what virtue or talent I have that made them lock onto me. You’ve already ruled out Yalmorde as a suspect, haven’t you?"

"Yeah. I don’t know the exact details on Yalmorde, but I have a rough grasp of the national data from the War timeline. In terms of full timeline strength, the War timeline and The Imperial Timeline are about on par. It’s just that due to internal conflicts and other factors, individual nations are far weaker than those in The Imperial Timeline."

"Besides, they have no need to go this far. If they really wanted to move against you, they could just do it within the War timeline. Yalmorde is probably just a smokescreen."

Studying Qi Chen, Feng Yuan spoke. Even though he didn’t know the full story yet, Yalmorde’s suspicion was basically off the table. Their operation should have been affected by time correction, and the mastermind who created that time correction was the real enemy behind all this.

"Are we resting for the night, or moving out right now?"

Dou Yanlan, who’d been silent all this time, finally spoke. Feng Yuan traced something on the Dark Ancient Book with his finger as he said,

"We’re leaving now. If we wait, I’m afraid they’ll erase the traces again. Their hit-and-run method is way too weird."

As he spoke, Feng Yuan’s finger suddenly lifted from the Dark Ancient Book and swept through the air. The golden characters seemed to be yanked out of the pages by that motion. In the next second, those golden letters exploded, and the surrounding environment began to change.

The buildings grew old and decrepit, the ground cracked open, and the sky—its stars turned blood red. Gusts of eerie wind blew past, making Feng Yuan inevitably think of scenes from horror movies.

"This is... no, wait! Rather than a Domain, it’s more like a special in-between layer—a spatial interlayer only certain Lives can pass through."

Letting his gaze pass over everyone, Feng Yuan noticed something off. Golden light was constantly streaming out from their bodies; even Veronia wasn’t spared. The glow made them all look like walking light bulbs.

Feng Yuan knew exactly what this meant. Forcing their way into a region that didn’t allow their existence would trigger this phenomenon. It was the power of the Dark Ancient Book protecting them. Otherwise, they’d either be rejected and tossed out of this region, or they’d be assimilated or erased by it.

In fact, the priority level of this rule had already surpassed the Authority Veronia controlled—that was the only reason it was also under the Ancient Book’s Shelter.

"A special interlayer space? Why would it show up here?"

Looking around, Veronia’s thoughts turned to Xiao Ji beside Feng Yuan. Seeing the little one glowing as well, it felt a bit surprised. The environment made it inevitably think of rules related to the Ghost Series and Death Series.

Yet Xiao Ji’s behavior proved that wasn’t the case. Because if its guess were right, Xiao Ji shouldn’t be glowing.

Even though Feng Yuan hadn’t explained it, Veronia could already guess what the light was. Looking at Tamur, Veronia said in amazement,

"This seems to be connected to your rules, doesn’t it?"

Tamur was the only one among them not glowing. However, Tamur shook its body slightly and said,

"Not really. It’s just that the Authority I control is special—independent of conventional rules."

"Then what’s with this space? What exactly is going on here?"

Staring at an environment that looked straight out of a horror movie set, Veronia spoke in confusion.

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