The narrator's theory about the world-ending demon king actually has many coincidental details.
Feng Qi found that he could relate to it.
In addition to the previously mentioned special constitution that gave him the ability to steal talents and erase lives, the narrator also brought up another point.
This point was related to Little Black.
The narrator had once said that Little Black's pursuit of him made no logical sense.
Now, with the available information, it was known that Mo referred to Little Black as the "Collection of Rules." If Little Black was the collection of the world's rule powers, then Little Black's role was likely that of a maintainer of world order.
So, could it be that Little Black knew that Feng Qi was a world destroyer whose memories had been sealed? And to preserve the world order, Little Black had relentlessly hunted him?
Under this assumption, Little Black turned into a savior, and all the seemingly illogical attempts to kill him were actually attempts to destroy the world destroyer, maintaining the normal operation of the world's rules.
And Feng Qi was the real world-ending demon king.
Fortunately, all of this was just the narrator's guess. Feng Qi didn't believe such a melodramatic event would happen to him.
If the great calamity was really about transcendent beings harvesting the breeding ground.
As a transcendent being, it would be absurd for him to enter his own breeding ground to experience new life while wasting time and energy trying to save humanity's future. There must be something wrong with that logic.
Feng Qi didn't dwell on the matter any further.
Instead, he began to follow the method described in the database, starting his cultivation practice according to the illustrated description of the Eternal Spirit technique.
The cultivation method for Eternal Spirit had changed completely from the previous version after being modified during the last sacrifice timeline.
The essence of this technique could be summarized in one sentence.
Blood Shackles, Spiritual Transcendence.
At the start of the cultivation process, one had to view their spiritual consciousness as a self imprisoned by the shackles of the flesh.
Breaking free from these fleshly shackles was the first and most important goal of Eternal Spirit.
If the spiritual consciousness couldn't transcend the body, then the concept of Eternal Spirit wouldn't even exist.
This was also the origin of the technique's name.
Eternal Spirit was truly humanity's first and purest spiritual cultivation method.
The illustrated description provided a detailed explanation of the concepts of the spirit and the body.
The spirit referred to an inner world structured by spiritual power, known as the Sea of Consciousness.
And the spiritual consciousness was the master of the Sea of Consciousness.
Within this space, golden liquid flowed, representing the materialized form of spiritual power, which could be clearly seen from the perspective of the spiritual consciousness.
This was an entirely different system from the body, but it had many similarities.
For instance, when the body moves, it consumes internal blood and energy.
High-intensity exercise leads to physical exhaustion, with insufficient blood energy; every movement essentially consumes energy.
The spiritual realm is similar to the body.
Thinking, learning, fantasizing, casting spells—any conscious action that doesn't require the body's cooperation consumes spiritual power within the Sea of Consciousness.
That's why after intense study, one can feel mentally exhausted.
When a person is anxious, mental fatigue sets in.
The body can be strengthened through exercise, while the consciousness can be enhanced through meditation, increasing the reserves of spiritual energy within the Sea of Consciousness.
The goal of the Eternal Spirit cultivation method was to continuously strengthen the spiritual consciousness, which would inevitably lead to conflicts between the spiritual consciousness and the body.
To use a natural phenomenon as a metaphor: think of a glass bottle filled with water. The water represents the spiritual consciousness, and the glass bottle represents the body.
In the process of cultivating Eternal Spirit, the spiritual consciousness would continue to condense and grow, similar to the process of water turning into ice.
If the body, or the glass bottle, could not withstand the pressure caused by the water turning into ice, the bottle would shatter.
The same would happen to the spiritual consciousness.
If the body's strength couldn't keep up with the growth of the spiritual consciousness, and couldn't continue to support the spiritual consciousness, it would be torn apart.
The ultimate goal of Eternal Spirit was to transcend the shackles of the body and discard the body.
Having experienced the memories of the sacrifice timelines, Feng Qi had already felt what it was like to transcend the body with the spiritual consciousness.
Once the spiritual consciousness transcended the body, the world seen was entirely different from the present one.
Humans perceive the external world entirely through the sensory organs of the body—eyes, nose, ears, and so on.
But once the spiritual consciousness transcended, the perception of the world would change drastically.
The world would transform into a complex structure of countless threads of rules, each representing a fundamental natural element or a natural law.
The natural element's essence referred to the building blocks of the world. For instance, from the perspective of consciousness, the fire element's essence would appear as red threads running through the world.
Feng Qi had once drawn some of the fire element's rule-based power while in a divine body state.
Natural laws referred to the changes that occurred when rule lines interacted.
For example, when water is heated, it turns into steam—this is a natural law.
The fundamental elements and natural laws are like the codex that structures the world, everything operates under established systemic rules. So, from the perspective of consciousness, the world resembles a world created by a programmer's code.
Each string of rule threads in the code has its own predefined meaning.
The world perceived by spiritual consciousness is much more complex than what the naked eye can see, but it is also purer.
The spiritual realm is extremely complex, and it was the mystery that Lin Ran had struggled with in the previous sacrifice timeline.
Based on the information provided in the cultivation method, Feng Qi's thoughts gradually expanded as his consciousness sank into the Sea of Consciousness.
As a sacrifice line, his Sea of Consciousness didn't have vast, endless space or brilliant starry skies. It was just a simple golden ocean, undulating within his Sea of Consciousness world.
His consciousness in the Sea of Consciousness appeared as a translucent, miniature version of himself.
The stronger the mental power, the more solid the spiritual consciousness body would become.
In a meditative cultivation state, the consciousness operates along an established path, and the external world perceived by consciousness gradually unfolds before him.
This process requires the consciousness to continuously digest the information imparted by the world.
As the spiritual consciousness digests the information, it will gradually grow stronger.
This is fundamentally different from body-focused cultivation techniques.
Body cultivation also opens up the consciousness to perception, and in this state, the consciousness can clearly see the spiritual energy particles floating in the air. The consciousness works like a net, continuously capturing the spiritual energy particles and absorbing them into the body, allowing the body to grow under the nourishment of the spiritual energy.
But meditative cultivation only targets the spiritual consciousness, and the spiritual consciousness doesn't require spiritual energy at all.
This mode of cultivation is quite similar to a pre-cataclysm activity.
Before the catastrophe, there was a virtual mining activity in the human world.
The goal was to obtain cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, by performing proof of work or similar computer algorithms.
Meditation works by using the consciousness to process information from the real world, gaining feedback from the rules of the world.
Different spiritual cultivation methods are like different graphics cards.
A good spiritual cultivation method is like a good graphics card, which significantly improves the efficiency of mining.
However, this is just a close metaphor.
Spiritual cultivation is far more complex than mining, as it is a process of deepening the understanding of the world's origin.
In fact, Lin Ran in Eternal Spirit speculated that when spiritual consciousness is cultivated to its extreme, it would merge with the world, becoming a part of the world's rules.
However, whether this speculation is true or not, the existing data cannot provide strong evidence.
Feng Qi didn't give this issue much thought.
His consciousness slowly sank during the meditative cultivation process.
At this point, his sense of time became fuzzy.
Humans perceive time primarily through psychological perception, and the speed at which time passes feels different under different conditions.
For example, when doing something one enjoys, time seems to pass very quickly.
In different environments, the perception of time's speed varies, leading to psychological time that is not evenly spaced.
This is a very objective view of time.
But spiritual consciousness can only perceive the rhythm of the world's operation, without any concept of time.
While in a meditative state, Feng Qi could still perceive the faint mystical energy flowing into his spiritual consciousness body, causing it to slowly grow stronger.
He was not sure how long he had been in the meditative state.
"Boss!"
At that moment, a shout snapped him out of his meditation.
His consciousness quickly returned, and Feng Qi opened his eyes.
Turning his head, he saw Xiao You, who seemed to have just woken up. She sat on the edge of the sofa, rubbing her sleepy eyes and looking at him.
"Boss, Xiao You is hungry."
Looking at the time, Feng Qi realized that four and a half hours had passed without him noticing.
He immediately stood up, walked over to the sofa, picked up Xiao You, and carried her toward the Tiger Soul Restaurant.
…
Over the next few days, Feng Qi spent most of his time either cultivating or holding the highest meetings of Star City.
There were many urgent matters to address at this stage.
The first was how to quickly establish the Star City West Supply Zone.
This sacrifice line didn't have the Silver Moon Clan as a starting resource, so the resource gap in the early stages was significant.
Although the West Supply Zone could rely on support from other cities, the more resources they sent, the more resources would have to be allocated from the West Supply Zone in the future.
Other cities couldn't completely contribute selflessly without considering their own development, giving full support to the construction of the West Supply Zone.
To maintain absolute control over the West Supply Zone, the initial investment in construction had to be substantial. The long-term future couldn't be sacrificed for short-term gains.
During the Star City High Council meeting, someone suggested that they should use resources from other cities for early development and later reduce the share of the resources generated by the West Supply Zone, since the West Supply Zone was located near Star City, making resource theft seemingly easy.
But this approach was clearly not feasible.
The resources produced by frontline domain fields were not entirely counted by Star City.