Chapter 1028: Fool's Dream, a Life Sequence Pioneered from the Source
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1028: Fool's Dream, a Life Sequence Pioneered from the Source
"Is Xiao Han observing the life sequence?"
"It seems so. The uniqueness of the Ancient Remnant Ice race allows Xiao Han to use the power of the Great Spellbook to reverse-engineer and understand the life sequence," Lucine explained.
Although she hadn't been a member of the original replication project for the Ancient Remnant Ice race, as a witch with significant standing in the field of life research, she had familiarized herself with the entire process of that experiment back then. Naturally, she understood the unique nature of that race.
"What is the purpose of understanding the life sequence?" some witches who didn't quite follow asked.
"If the ultimate goal is to gestate consciousness, does the life sequence play a guiding role in the birth of that consciousness?" another witch questioned.
"I don't know much about the field of life sequences. I only barely know that the racial life sequence is divided into two authorities. Even so, that shouldn't have anything to do with consciousness, right?"
"Maybe the understanding isn't deep enough?"
"Could Xiao Han's line of thinking be too much of a leap?"
As these witches chatted, Lucine spoke up: "Regarding the two major authorities of life sequence differentiation, I've learned a bit about what might relate to consciousness. It involves the Summoning Authority and corresponds to the racial concept. The racial concept itself is related to consciousness, but I don't know exactly how. I've never stepped into that level myself."
At this moment, I heard all the whispered exchanges between these witch sisters. Although they were communicating in a way that wouldn't be too disruptive, one should never underestimate the passive hearing of a Five Senses Body Cultivation practitioner.
I did a simple analysis of their conversation, but the more I listened, the more confused I became.
From their subsequent words, I learned that Sister Lucine had once participated in experiments regarding the creation of life. However, her understanding of life sequences wasn't deep; it remained at a "surface" level of cognition.
"Sister Lucine, if I may ask, did you participate in the primal experiments for new races?" I finally couldn't help but speak up.
Upon hearing me join the conversation, the group of witches suddenly went silent, until a quiet voice broke the awkwardness.
"Eh~ you guys were caught private-chatting by Xiao Han."
"Yes, I did participate in the primal experiments for newborn races, or what was called the Primal Progenitor Cultivation Plan," Lucine replied.
"Primal Progenitor Cultivation Plan..." I made a mental note of the project name and continued, "Then why does it feel like Sister Lucine's understanding of life sequences isn't very deep? Creating a brand-new Primal Progenitor should require pioneering a life sequence, right?"
"Yes, it does require pioneering a brand-new life sequence, but that doesn't mean we understand it thoroughly. On the contrary, Xiao Han... you seem to have a very deep understanding of it. What you're doing now... even we witches are starting to find it hard to follow." Lucine didn't feel much embarrassment; instead, she used the opportunity to question me.
"I see." I nodded, a rough hypothesis forming in my mind. I continued, "After all, I am conducting the Fool's Dream life experiment. To make Fool's Dream a true life form, I must thoroughly understand the life sequence and pioneer one for it. Only then can Fool's Dream become a true life."
"Pioneer a life sequence... for Fool's Dream?"
Hearing my words, Lucine was, as expected, utterly shocked by the statement. And I had just confirmed ninety percent of my suspicion.
"Sister Lucine, was the approach for researching the Primal Progenitor to use existing life as a template to evolve the Primal Progenitor of a new race?"
"...That is indeed the case. The birth of a Primal Progenitor is already extremely difficult nowadays. The constant pioneering of life sequences has made the races in the void incredibly numerous, making the creation of new sequences even harder..."
Lucine began to describe the Primal Progenitor Cultivation Plan she had participated in, and I simply listened.
Now, I understood completely.
The starting point for the birth of an ordinary new race's Primal Progenitor is already "life." What they do is merely interference. But my Fool's Dream doesn't start as life!
She isn't even an ordinary consciousness; she is a concept entirely independent of reality.
Therefore, I have no point of entry. I can only rely on the power of the Holy Relic to actively pioneer a life sequence, exploring it from the very source.
Lucine and the others don't need to thoroughly understand the deep layers of what a life sequence is because they start with a structured life sequence. What they do is evolve new branches on an existing foundation.
But Fool's Dream starts with nothing, so I need to understand everything! At least the most critical concepts—pioneering from nothingness!
Now, I truly realized why Dream State Soul Essence was so highly sought after.
Admittedly, pioneering dream life is fraught with thousands of difficulties, but once all the witches join forces to open a gap, every witch can follow that opening to explore an endless blue ocean!
Previously, I only knew that Dream State Soul Essence was the blue ocean of dream life. Now that I knew the difficulty, I felt a resonance with this "madness."
No wonder even Sister Lucine, when we first met, had intentionally or unintentionally brought up topics related to Dream State Soul Essence and the Nightmare Workshop. It turned out she had been eyeing it for a long time. However, as a steady Academic Witch with deep foundations and long-term accumulation, she had shown immense restraint.
She was so restrained that I hadn't even heard the underlying meaning behind the topic before.
If I had known, I would have just kept Heart Sense active the whole time while interacting with these witch sisters...
The reverse-analysis of the life sequence was extremely time-consuming. It wasn't that the process was inherently difficult, but rather that I needed time to constantly observe whether the racial concept matched the "Consciousness Brand Theory" I had proposed.
If it matched, then all was well. If not, I would have to modify the theory until the hypothesis was proven to be a practical guiding theory. Furthermore, this process required the push of Luck.
Even with the blessing of Luck, certain opportunities were needed to complete the gestation of consciousness.
For this "Ancient Remnant Ice Consciousness Gestation" experiment and the Main World transaction, Dean Mei had specifically moved her secret laboratory for the Qi Observation Art project to the Expansion Realm.
Because the so-called transaction was described very vaguely, no witch knew when, where, or in what form it would take place. Naturally, complete preparations had to be made.
And I supported Dean Mei in doing so.
Once the Qi Observation Art project started, I could use the changes driven by Luck to avoid unnecessary hypotheses and attempts that would waste time and energy.
Time passed slowly. Many witches watched with rapt attention, even though this had already touched upon their blind spots of knowledge. Even Academic Witches had their own strengths and weaknesses; they were quite open-minded about it.
Eventually, a figure arrived. It was Mei Lind, who had barely finished managing the transfer of the Qi Observation Art project.
The subsequent equipment debugging and adaptation to the new environment no longer required her presence for the time being. Thus, she hurried here immediately, her movements very light for fear of creating noise that might disturb the focused atmosphere.
Although she had prepared herself mentally, when Mei Lind saw a group of Transcendent Academic Witches in their professional fields watching what Xiao Han was doing as if they were students, her heart still couldn't remain calm.
As expected, talent is an existence far more unreasonable than concepts like hard work or accumulation.
She stood quietly to the side until I noticed her presence.
"Sister Mei is here." I looked up and caught sight of the familiar figure.
I truly hadn't noticed Dean Mei's arrival. On one hand, I had put all my energy into the consciousness gestation project; on the other hand, as a veteran Transcendent, it was far too easy for Dean Mei to arrive without me noticing.
"Yes~" Seeing me initiate the conversation, Dean Mei immediately stepped forward warmly. "The Qi Observation Art project is almost set up. It's expected to be fully operational by tomorrow at the latest. How is your progress, Xiao Han?"
"I'm on the right track. I'll need to trouble you, Sister Mei, and the other sisters involved in the project for what comes next."
"It's no trouble. They're all quite excited," Dean Mei said with a wave of her hand and a smile.
She wasn't just being polite; it was the truth. Those witches were incredibly enthusiastic about what they were about to do.
One had to understand that the confidentiality level for the witches involved in the Qi Observation Art project was also very high. They knew exactly what they were doing. Any project related to the World Navel was classified.
The confrontation between Transcendents in the Morosen Wasteland was essentially caused indirectly by a leak of information from a Luck experiment. Therefore, conducting the Luck experiment in the Expansion Realm this time was at least more controllable than in the Core World.
More importantly, the Witch Academy held the initiative. The other side didn't know how the witches planned to scheme for the World Navel, nor did they know what other trump cards the witches were hiding!
"Then I'll prepare a bit more today, then rest to adjust my state. I hope everything goes smoothly starting tomorrow," I replied after hearing Dean Mei's words.
...
The Game World.
Upon learning that the Yang Yuehan in the game world was actually just a clone, and that all their efforts and schemes from beginning to end were a joke, the wizard apprentices suffered an extremely severe blow.
After all, just moments ago, they were still dreaming of having their own wizard towers in the Main World. Now, everything had slipped away from them. This gap was truly hard for them to swallow!
However, since it had already happened, and they were all wizard apprentices who had weathered great storms, they quickly adjusted their mental states.
It didn't matter that the bounty for hunting the little witch had fallen through. It was just like before, when their mission was to negotiate with the high-level officials of the game world to exchange for their Terminal of Myriad Worlds. In the end, hadn't the changes in the Main World rendered them unable to do anything?
So, they quickly began to plot for this game world. After all, it was still a world! If they could grasp this world in their hands, it would still be a great achievement.
Of course, this was the only thing they could do now.
It had been a long time since they had sacrificed an entire Underground District to set a trap to kill that little witch. They hadn't been idle.
While an entire Underground District meant nothing to the members of the Game Supreme Council, the impact of so many deaths was far higher than they had anticipated. Originally, the Supreme Councilors felt that sacrificing a low-value Underground District to kill a Calamity Witch was worth it. Even if it brought serious consequences, they were prepared to go all-in under the wizards' incitement.
But they never imagined that, in the end, they wouldn't kill the Calamity Witch, and the impact of the destruction of the entire Underground District would be extraordinarily large.
Now, the Supreme Council's trust in the wizard apprentices had dropped to absolute zero.
However, under the pressure of the witches and their decision to join the Void faction, they couldn't afford to completely break ties with the wizard apprentices. If they pushed the Transcendent wizards to the side of the Transcendent witches as well, their world might be truly beyond saving! The civilization tomb they had once witnessed in the void would be their fate.
But for now, both the Supreme Council and the wizard apprentices needed to cool down. Similarly, they were all harboring their own hidden agendas.
The Councilors wanted to maintain their relationship with the Transcendent wizards, but they couldn't accept wizard apprentices who failed time and time again. Meanwhile, the wizard apprentices were secretly plotting for the entire game world.
And the first thing they thought of was... the Real Protection Association, which currently had the loudest voice in the game world!
And the "Mr. Monroe" they controlled was the nominal spiritual leader of the Real Protection Association. They needed to strengthen this resistance organization until they possessed the power to overthrow this game regime from its roots.
What these wizard apprentices didn't know was that at this moment, "Monroe" was in close contact with the Supreme Councilors.
"Number 11, my time is precious. Although I don't know what kind of fit you and Number 02 have been throwing lately, given the current situation of the world, I don't see any necessity for us to meet privately."
"05, we're meeting through our characters, so don't use the 'busy' excuse. Can't you spare even this much time for a meeting? I have something very important to discuss with you regarding... regarding those wizard apprentices, and... Monroe."
As Number 11 clapped his hands, a figure walked out.
"Monroe? Shouldn't he be the wizards' dog by now?" 05 frowned, looking at the figure with some confusion. "Where did you get the ability to bring him here?"
"Guess~" Number 11 looked at the arriving 05, a faint, imperceptible, and dangerous smile playing at the corners of his mouth.