High Above

Ian didn't notice the danger of the 'Bloody Courtyard' at first. After all, this place was too dangerous.

Although it sounds like "you are putting this aside," in fact, he is indeed distracting more energy from possible threats in the real world.

Just now, Ian was still looking for any lurking strange beasts within his precognitive field of vision, or whether there might be a third-level beast king.

You know, the third-level monsters have intelligence that is not inferior to that of humans. Will the third-level alien beasts do the same?

If so, what kind of trap will they set?

But the result was that Ian found nothing... not even a corpse, let alone a strange beast.

Except for the red light, the entire bloody courtyard is very neat and tidy. It can even be said that it is as if a cleaner has been cleaning it every day for thousands of years.

So attracted by this situation that Ian ignored the changes on the side of the virtual realm.

Fortunately, there is Xiou.

"It's almost exactly the same... No wonder this bloody courtyard has always been on red alert. The subspace fragments have overlapped 95% with the material world. It would be weird if we weren't on alert!"

The red-haired dragon girl with the potential to be a virtual dragon frowned at the moment, but her expression was very similar to Ian's expression just now. Her demeanor and temperament were consistent. They were exactly brother and sister: "Ian, this... how many people died here? How can a person become like this?!"

When talking about the latter part, Xio's voice rose slightly. It was astonishing that he was captured by the Gnostic Academy and had to watch a lot of dead souls fighting in the maze of subspace. The PTSD started to attack.

"Did millions of people die in Avak Territory overnight, or millions of people with souls... In addition, there were many souls of the miserable dead in the laboratory. The two were mixed with each other, and with the deliberate guidance of Grand Duke Thorin, so This will cause virtual realms to overlap and subspace mazes to proliferate."

Ian reached out and patted Xiou on the shoulder, and Anfa also hugged Xiou, making the dragon girl calm down a little.

Immediately afterwards, Ian looked around and continued his analysis: "As for here...well...a lot of people died? And for some reason, the spiritual essence here is very abundant...well, the courtyard has basically overlapped with the virtual realm."

At this moment, the young man said with certainty: "There is definitely an entrance to the 'subspace maze' in this third level!"

"But that's not the problem - Anfa, have you Canaan Moore recently sent an army here to explore and die?"

Asking in a deep voice, Ian had already noticed something was wrong.

"No, of course not!" Anfa answered the strange question solemnly: "Except for small-scale exploration, no part of Canaan Moore has sent a team of more than ten people to enter the third level! Even me, last time When we get to the third floor, there are only three people!"

"Understood."

In response, Ian let out a breath and said calmly: "Then, something wonderful happened."

"According to my observations, the number of deaths in the entire Bloody Courtyard in the past year, or the number of 'souls' dissipated here..."

"Over five million!"

Everyone froze in place.

Five...five million?

What a joke!

If we say 500,000 people... No, no, no, 500,000 is too exaggerated... If we say 55,000 people, Anfa may still wonder whether the blood of the Ten Kings of Canaan Moore once sent a small army to A local war was fought here.

This kind of thing has not happened before. In order to compete for valuable ruins and areas, the Ten Kings will never hesitate to shed blood.

The driving force behind the 'Linhai Autonomous Region Unrest' that year was the Blood of the Ten Kings, and it ended in a proxy war. The death toll in that small-scale civil war was as high as 120,000, which was more than the number of deaths in the confrontation with the Cangtian Royal Court in the past hundred years!

But... five million?

This has exceeded the limit of Anfa's imagination by an order of magnitude!

"Wow, Ian, you're kidding, right?"

Ethan is not the kind of person who would doubt Ian. If he says five million, it means five million. Anfa looked solemn, obviously thinking about something.

So in the end, only Xio opened his eyes and said in disbelief: "If five million people really die, then it is indeed true that the virtual realm here is abnormal - but where are the corpses? The corpses for five million people, It’s enough to cover most of the entire bloody courtyard!”

"Even if there were five million people living here during the Skyfall disaster and all of them died, we should still be able to see a lot of corpses now!"

Xio is right. Even if five million people really died, the corpses would pile up into a hill, and the Bloody Courtyard could not be so tidy.

But Ian did not answer Xiou's question directly, but continued to make shocking remarks: "These five million are just a basis. In fact, based on the results of my observations, if there were five people who died here during the disaster, Millions of people, then the distortion of the virtual realm caused by their souls has long since ended, just like the Avak Territory finally returned to normal and the subspace maze was shattered."

"Actually, I'm talking about the past year - there have been souls dissipating here, and the number is quite large. At least hundreds of thousands of souls disappear every month to be able to support this intensity of virtual realm distortion."

At this time, Ian had completely confused the other three people.

"Can……"

Isengard, who believed in Ian the most, couldn't help asking cautiously: "Where are the dead people?"

The white-haired boy looked at his friend and said calmly: "I didn't say that people died. I just said that five million ordinary people's souls disappeared here, and hundreds of thousands of them disappeared every month. It’s just a human soul.”

"The cursed land over Yanjiang doesn't have hundreds of thousands of people dying every month, but that evil land where subspaces overlap still exists, doesn't it?"

"Xu..."

As soon as Ian said this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Anfa also put his hand on his chest, looked around helplessly and said: "Ian, don't scare people next time... It seems that there is actually something in this bloody courtyard. Is there a natural psychic field? Convert the natural source matter into spiritual matter, and then continuously supply it to the local subspace labyrinth... No wonder it can be maintained for such a long time."

"first."

Ian's eyes flashed with silver-blue brilliance. He continued to observe the situation in the entire bloody courtyard and said lightly: "This psychic field is man-made. It should be that the civilization of the previous era needs a large amount of 'spiritual' to enter the virtual realm." Shaped by experiments. If there are no accidents, there should be a Void Realm Machine God Research Institute here."

"Secondly, I didn't say that the souls dissipated here are all unconscious and unconscious spiritual matter transformed from the spiritual field... You can also feel something is wrong, that kind of cold and terrifying feeling, right? This This proves that there are actually quite a few intelligent souls dissipating in this space and time, and then being absorbed by the subspace, distorting the surrounding virtual realm!"

"In the end, people still died, and there were quite a few corpses of hundreds of thousands of people, right?"

Xiou tried his best to revive his brain, which is not difficult for a real dragon... So soon, the real dragon lady raised her head and looked at Ian with a shocked face: "Wait... yes , it’s just an intelligent soul that doesn’t necessarily need a corpse…”

"Yes, Xio, you finally understand that you are indeed very talented in the field of virtual souls."

Ian was quite pleased to hear this. Xio is indeed not stupid, and her mind works very fast whenever necessary.

He raised his head and looked at the ceiling, also looking in the direction of the dusk shelter on the second floor: "I have actually thought about your confusion from the beginning - I also find it strange that hundreds of thousands of souls have been observed recently. Death occurs during this period, and the distortion of the entire virtual realm requires millions of intelligent souls, so where are the corpses and sacrifice sites?"

"As long as it can explain the actual situation, then the most incredible answer is the answer..."

"Everyone, those intelligent souls have no body from the beginning."

Lowering his head, Ian and Isengard looked at each other.

He only said one word, and the blond boy suddenly realized.

【echo】

"Remember?" Ian pointed to the top of his head, his expression calm: "Those alien beasts with special abilities and martial arts... Although I killed them very quickly, there is no doubt that they do have intelligence that is not theirs. techniques.”

"This is obviously the ability of pre-era civilizations to bless them through mechanical transformation... With the modified brains and chips, they can download knowledge into the body, and use the quick-made bodies of alien beasts to communicate with those who have undergone arduous cultivation. Confrontation between human sublime beings - no matter what the outcome is, it is indeed difficult for ordinary humans to fight against alien beasts that are like biological weapons."

"but."

Having said this, Ian raised a finger and said seriously: "If there is such a pre-era civilization system... it does not use the body of an alien beast as a carrier to download information, but uses pure spiritual matter as a material Engraved.”

"What is engraved on it is not martial arts skills, but some memories and thinking algorithms, some human thinking patterns... and some painful memories..."

"So, what happens to these ectoplasms?"

What will happen...

Not to mention Isengard and Xiou, the two relevant people who understood it directly. Even though he was quite insensitive to this aspect, Anfa, who also had an existential crisis caused by the memory of fire, immediately understood what Ian meant.

The elf girl with long emerald hair took a breath: "This is an artificial soul... mass-produce a large number of high-quality sacrificial souls with wisdom and painful memories?!"

The more he spoke, the more horrified he became. Anfa looked at the center of the bloody courtyard in astonishment: "The reason why there is such a huge virtual distortion here is because the instruments of the pre-era civilization have been using spiritual energy that can create a large amount of spiritual matter. The field artificially creates souls with a lot of painful memories, so it can always maintain the existence of the subspace maze?!"

Regarding Anfa's speculation, Ian shook his head slightly: "To be precise, I think it is not a soul, but a kind of 'virtual realm machine god', a kind of soul program. It is just very weak, with only the soul strength of ordinary people. "

"But otherwise, I think you're right."

"Whether it was done by the civilization of the previous era or the later controller of the Alien Research Institute, he had a genius idea - using the method of creating a virtual machine god, using echo, memory download, and an entire spiritual transformation The field creates souls in batches to distort the virtual realm, and then creates a subspace maze to store and cover some things."

"Of course, he might have been doing some experiments, but overall, he was using everything he could."

At this point, Ian asked teasingly: "Anfa, where do you think the entrance to the subspace maze will be?"

And this question requires no answer.

Because Anfa thought of that place in an instant.

"abyss!"

The elf girl clenched her fists: "The abyss where I obtained the source of matter chip - I said there was something wrong there, why was the instrument data so abnormal... But I can also see the virtual realm, I have a dragon soul, why didn't I see the subspace? The door to the maze?”

Ian shook his head: "That is obviously a subspace entrance that requires a 'qualification' test. Anfa, if you don't go in personally and let your dragon soul come into contact with the anchor point, you will definitely not be able to trigger it and open the door of the subspace maze."

"I think having a certain dragon soul and jumping into the abyss are one of the conditions for entering the maze of subspace."

Now that the goal has been determined, there is no need to say more.

Everyone moved towards the ‘abyss’.

Regardless of whether Ian's guess is correct or not, let's take action first.

The Bloody Courtyard is actually not big. The entire Xenogeneic Research Institute actually presents an inverted pyramid structure. The first two-story shelter is the widest and can easily accommodate millions of people. It is a true doomsday shelter.

The research area on the third level is only equivalent to a large urban area, which is a bit narrow compared to the productivity of pre-era civilizations.

The winding streets turned out to be a smooth road in front of Anfa, who had already determined the route. She led everyone forward as quickly as possible.

Along the way, they saw many well-preserved research institutes, namely the 'Dragon Machinery Research Institute', 'Dragon Blood Chimera Research Institute', 'Xenogeneic Research Institute's Third Biological Weapons Research Center'... Obviously, these places are A biological warfare research institute conducted by pre-era civilizations relying on dragon blood.

There are indeed many strange beasts around these research institutes, including semi-mechanized Tyrannosaurus resembling BattleGreymon, giant Dragon Birds with metal wings, and even partially humanoid 'Dragon Soldiers'.

It looks more like a knight covered in insect carapace than a dragon. Only the key places have dragon scales and claws, making it look very powerful.

However, even in the world of Terra, which is getting stronger with each passing day, these biological weapons using the civilization of the previous era are absolutely impossible to defeat the 'sublimated ones' that have been developed for more than a thousand years... because the sublimated ones are Terra. The world's most complete and powerful biological weapon, which embodies the essence of pre-era civilization and many fires.

Without Ian even needing to take action, Anfa and Isengard completely eliminated the group of alien beasts in ten seconds. The process was so simple that it can be described as "drawing the sword, seconds".

"It seems that a large number of alien beasts were mobilized to attack the exploration team before, which consumed the third-level reserve of defensive alien beasts, and even left the nest with no troops to defend it."

Ian analyzed that this is actually normal. After all, this is the real world, and it is not a game to spawn monsters. In an instant, a lot of monsters poured out in a steady stream - after defeating the initial army of alien beasts, in a short time There will be no attacks by alien beasts on the scale before.

After defeating these strange beasts, everyone also entered the institute and searched. Somewhat disappointed but not unexpectedly, they found that there was no storage equipment such as chips inside the institute.

Thinking about it, whether it is the Dark Gold Dragon or the researchers of the previous era civilization, after the disaster of falling from the sky makes it impossible to continue the follow-up research, they will definitely not continue to store the research data in the research institute, but will move it to a safer area.

"I feel a little bit scary..."

Xio stretched out his hand uneasily and touched the empty breeding chambers inside the laboratory. The real dragon girl murmured to herself: "How far has the cooperation between pre-era civilization and real dragons reached? Why do our ancestors of real dragons, those second-generation dragons, Will three generations of true dragons join forces with humans to sign a contract to provide dragon blood as experimental material?"

"I'm sorry, Ian, and Ethan, I'm not blaming you...but I am a real dragon after all. When I see the blood of my family being abused by humans, even to create various biological weapons, I feel... strange a feeling of."

"Um……"

Compared to Isengard, who waved to show that he didn't care and even wanted to comfort Xio, Ian was deep in thought.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at Xio and the training cabin next to him.

——The first generation of true dragons, the ancestor true dragons, are pure space battleships. They are the creators, the tools and partners used by the Star God to transform the universe and observe the civilizations of the galaxies.

——The second generation true dragon has some life characteristics, but overall it is more like a super being like a biological tool than a dragon or a living thing.

——The third generation of true dragons, the generation of Qiang Steel Dragon, has the characteristics of life. The third generation of true dragons bred from the fire species are essentially the result of the optimization of many biological information of the fire species to which they belong. The different but equally powerful postures determine the 'true dragon' in the eyes of the people of Terra. image of.

Then, the fourth generation of true dragons, the generation of the Mountain King... the true dragons even recovered, or in other words, gained the ability to reproduce naturally.

The fifth-generation true dragon Xio is the result of their parents’ birth.

It seems that each generation of true dragons is weaker than the last... but true dragons also unlock their shackles generation after generation... The first three generations of true dragons only have a lifespan of 500, and the fourth generation of true dragons seems to have this shackles as well...

But what about Xiou?

Ian has never heard Xiou complain that he slept in the lair for a hundred years and consumed one-fifth of his life...or else Xiou really doesn't care about this one-fifth of his lifespan. , or else...

"Is the process of the gradual biologicalization of true dragons really studied by the previous generations of true dragons themselves?"

Suddenly speaking, Ian's words immediately attracted the attention of Xio and Anfa: "If we say that these studies that seem cruel and meaningless in your eyes...maybe it was the contract between Terran humans and true dragons. What about the foundation of human beings like you and me who have dragon blood, and the foundation of real dragons that gradually become more like natural creatures?"

"This...could it be said that humans and real dragons back then were mutually beneficial and integrated with each other..."

Hearing this, Xio also thought of this possibility, and she couldn't help but widen her eyes: "Human beings help us true dragons gradually become biological and get rid of their shackles - and true dragons help humans develop the power of sublimation and integrate the blood power of Warcraft?! "

"I see!"

And Isengard, who also has a certain amount of 'dragon blood', and may also have the biological blood of some kind of artificial tool, also figured this out, and couldn't help but sigh: "Yes... the foundation of the sublime may be based on dragon blood." Above that... only the blood of a true dragon can bring together many completely different magical beast organs and those extremely powerful sublimation structures without causing fatal conflicts!"

"Ian said before that the people of Terra are all descendants of dragon blood... and the fact that humans can naturally practice the true dragon bloodline proves this even more!"

"It's just a guess, but I think it's very likely." Ian said in a deep voice. When he was about to reach the place where the abyss was, he looked sideways to the right, and then raised his right hand: "But now, we have to first Competitors solve it.”

"I wonder which fellow from the exploration team has been eavesdropping for so long. Isn't it time to come out?"

After Ian finished speaking, a shrill black light rushed out from the nearby research institute, like lightning, and swooped towards the head of the white-haired boy.

But the closer it got to Ian, the slower the black light became. By the time the black light came within three meters of Ian, it had stopped.

It was a pitch-black tentacle with a surface covered with white frost, resembling an octopus tentacle. However, there was no suction cup on the tentacle, only a colorful flow of black fluid similar to petroleum rolling and flowing.

Ian didn't even draw his sword. He just turned his two fingers into a sword and cut the tentacles in the void a few times. The black tentacles that could run at supersonic speeds shattered into pieces of black jelly-like material, and then burst into pieces. Crushed ice dust.

The next moment, Isengard, who looked unhappy, activated the flame blood column and penetrated the direction where the black tentacles were coming. The black-red flames burned the metal rocks and melted and evaporated all materials in the area.

But this was obviously not enough. Xio snorted coldly. Although her prosthetic body was weak, it could be used as a carrier to release the power of the real dragon's soul. As the dragon girl's emerald green eyes turned into golden lava, a ball of virtual reality appeared. Fire emerged in the center of the area that Isengard had hit before.

That is to say, under the attack of the double flames of the material virtual realm, a figure appeared in the spiritual debris of the broken virtual realm barrier.

"Erge the Thinker?!"

And Anfa exclaimed: "The capital of knowledge, the chief of Qingyue Spire?"

"Why did you come here to attack us?"

The person who came was none other than the leader of the City of Knowledge exploration team, the genius psychic scholar known as the Meditator, Ergo Qingyue.

However, unlike the original impression of the silent and knowledgeable black-haired scholar in everyone's eyes, the Elger who appeared in front of everyone had an extremely monstrous and inhuman aura.

Appearing from the virtual realm, a thin young man with long black waterfall hair floated in the air with an expressionless face.

He wears scholar's robes and has a very androgynous appearance. If it weren't for the fact that the gender had been known for a long time, perhaps everyone would have thought she was a long-haired beauty.

But at this moment, the long black hair behind the beauty was dancing wildly in the windless wind. The long hair, which was originally as fine and long as silk, was twisted together to form the 'black tentacles' that attacked Ian before. Elger's black eyes were flowing. There was an extremely abnormal purple radiance, and a kind of mind-control fluctuation that was so breathtaking that one couldn't help but want to sink into it emanated from it.

Of course, of the people present, one is a prophet, two have dragon souls, and the last one, Isengard, has just awakened the Sunbird bloodline, and the lucid state neural network in his body has been completed. All four of them are immune to ordinary mental attacks.

But even so, the Elger in front of them still gave everyone a feeling of extreme danger.

"wrong."

After a brief moment of surprise, Anfa frowned. She held the 'chip camera' on her chest that was originally used to transmit images but was now used to determine the safety of her life. She said in a deep voice: "Your You don’t have a chip camera on your body, you are not Ergo!”

"What kind of monster are you, why are you pretending to be him?!"

The young man wearing gold-rimmed single-rimmed glasses did not answer Anfa's question. No, rather, from the beginning, there was no one else in Elger's eyes.

At this moment, his eyes were locked tightly on Ian, and that unusual, yet extremely hot gaze made the white-haired boy who was used to being watched by thousands of people, and who could chat and laugh with the fourth-level powerhouse, feel a little strange. Not very comfortable.

Because this is the look that looks at the ‘prey’.

【What exactly are you? 】

At this moment, 'Elger', who had almost never spoken in front of others, spoke. He said in a hoarse, but quite gentle and calm voice: [What are you...an inhuman body, an inhuman body? Soul...what kind of monster are you? Why is there no trace of you in the virtual realm, and why are your fluctuations so different from those of people in this world? 】

【Are you a prophet? But a prophet cannot be like this... There are two completely different shadows behind you...]

【What exactly are you? 】

"Are there many questions?" Ian raised his brows. He was really interested in this strange guy who secretly started to track him and others halfway.

Regardless of whether this person is 'Elger' or not, his strength is undoubted, and Ian has to take action, instead of relying on thoughts to control the source of matter to stop his probing attack.

Isengard and Xio, who has a third-level dragon soul, teamed up to force him out of the virtual realm... This strength is not inferior to Aina or Garr.

And the questions he asked were also very thought-provoking.

Needless to say, there is no need to talk about the non-human body. The body of the Forerunner of Steel is neither human nor sublimated, but the basic template of a new generation of super creatures that surpasses sublimated ones. Ian even removed his own heart. It is so strange. The biological structure cannot indeed be called a human being, or a general sublimated person.

The non-human soul is even simpler - Ian is the founder of the meditation method who can carve his own soul. His soul structure is almost exactly the same as the calculation structure in the silver chip. If I have to say it, his soul is the same as that of a real dragon. Or perhaps the Star God is a little closer, and it is indeed not a human soul.

As for the virtual realm and fluctuations... Ian thought at first that the other party saw his identity as a time traveler, but after thinking about it carefully, hey, he has been at the third level for so long, his mind, light and body are perfect, and there is a person with lower strength than him. How can a person see his light body clearly? And behind, the two completely different shadows are probably the connection between the insect swarm path and the spiritual disaster path in the "Guiding Star" of the Heart Light Body.

After understanding what the other party asked, Ian became interested in the other party - because being able to see this was enough to prove the extraordinaryness of the 'Elger' in front of him. The other party's attainments in the virtual realm and soul are probably not as good as those of a virtual realm dragon like Xio.

Therefore, after Ian carefully used the prediction horizon calculation, he decided to use the silver chip.

——You look at me, and I look at you.

You say I'm not a human being, but I want to see what you are!

Silver light flashed.

Ian saw information that almost exceeded his imagination and shocked him.

[The Beast of Thousand Stars Derived Variant (Elge Qingyue)]

[Fallen Empire·Original Hive Fire Derivative (Semi-Independent Leader Individual)]

[Second energy level·Larva·Core·Semi-independent intelligent creature·Galacer·Psychic awakening]

[This creature is a semi-independent intelligent life derived from the last fire sent by a developed but stagnant hive civilization before it encountered destruction. Its original civilization is approaching the final step of the 'teaching stage', but it cannot accept the universe. True and choose to fall, and usher in the final destruction]

[The fire of this civilization is extremely dangerous and has a strong ability to devour and assimilate. No civilization below the 'teaching stage' can resist its ability to devour and assimilate. However, it is also a fire, and its pursuit of survival should not be denied, so it imposes ' Stasis and ban']

[Body material... Semi-virtual realm creature... Transforming into virtual realm]

[Strength Level: Core]

[Contains source quality: 59527.4692 units of excellence]

[Tip: This creature is a semi-independent intelligent individual. If supervision is required, its core must be blocked]

[Tip: This creature is a member of the Origin Hive and can move in the virtual realm and the material world, but because of this, its material body is equal to the soul itself]

[Warning: This creature is dangerous. If you need to deal with it, please apply for relevant tools]

【……】

The beast of a thousand stars? !

Ian didn't know about the Beast of Thousand Stars, only Sister Yingguang knew about it.