Chapter 2930: Confidence and Selfishness

Having red eyes meant being an Offspring of the Blood Clan, regardless of origin or location.

Based on the nursery rhyme, Fu Qian believed his understanding was correct.

This also made First Apostle Herbert's actions suddenly seem much more solemn.

Turning old colleagues into subordinates was common; turning them into Offspring was truly rare. Excellency Annalise's move was utterly domineering.

But that brought up the most important question: how exactly was this domineering feat accomplished?

"Offspring"—a concept intertwined with birth since the dawn of life itself—how could it be "redefined by me"?

The Umbilical Cord?

Yes. For Fu Qian, the question and the answer appeared almost simultaneously.

An element strongly tied to the Offspring undoubtedly had a massive concentration in the Bottom Layer of the Dream.

This remained true even though the writhing wound had closed, and the newest Annalise's Umbilical Cord had gradually ceased bleeding.

But the ceaseless movement beneath his feet continued to solidify the image in Fu Qian's mind—

A sphere made of tangled Umbilical Cords, a nova with blood flowing within. As the core of the Blood Clan Tier 2 advancement ritual, the nursery rhyme even mentioned letting the Offspring embrace it, and it was deliberately hidden in this stable Bottom Layer of the Dream...

The Blood Nova was undoubtedly the most crucial part of Annalise's plan.

This crucial part could essentially be seen as containing two elements—the Umbilical Cord and the spherical shape.

Could he boldly guess, then, that the redefinition of Offspring was accomplished through it?

The Umbilical Cord represented the Offspring, and squeezing it into a sphere represented its distortion.

...

Aside from the Order of Blood—which was specifically verified by Patches and possessed by all Ancient Higher Beings—neither the Primordial Moon nor the later Dark Moon seemed to possess any special authority regarding Offspring.

So this Umbilical Cord seemed to be a little secret belonging exclusively to Annalise, and even a manifestation of breaking free from control.

This also aligned with her fatal disaster...

And one could not forget the previous comparison with the Half-Step Moon.

There was a hidden core point here: Annalise had not only grasped the little secret of the "Offspring," but had even squeezed it into a sphere—a sphere exactly like the moon.

This ultimately induced a specific scenario: a confrontation between the moon and the Blood Nova. In Fu Qian's view, this was the biggest issue of principle. It practically carried the flavor of starting a brand-new faction.

If the Primordial Moon really did want to use Annalise as cannon fodder because of the Long Night, it would find this kind of behavior very hard to tolerate.

That was to say nothing of the blatant heresy of "the Transcendent Tier is no longer confined to faith, and the Long Night will eventually pass."

What? Are you trying to end the Mythological Era?

As expected, those of a different race will surely have differing loyalties.

Fu Qian could easily imagine a few lines the Primordial Moon would use to angrily rebuke Annalise.

Most importantly, those words would be completely justified.

No prayers needed, no loyalty required, and not even an Emblem necessary. One only needed to grow a pair of red eyes to automatically receive the favor of a higher entity?

This was truly striking at the root, and undoubtedly a dimensional strike.

Let alone the Primordial Moon, if any other higher entity knew about this, they probably wouldn't be able to resist taking action either.

...

Of course, Annalise wasn't without her own selfishness. "Defining the Offspring," then "becoming the Progenitor," and stating "the Progenitor is with you"—no matter how one looked at it, this was blatantly establishing an alternative Anchor Point, exactly like what the Red Moon was doing right now.

Yes. The Red Moon relied on a core concept like "Professor Fu's Mother" to define itself. As the "Progenitor" of the entire Blood Clan, wouldn't Annalise be a super-enhanced version of that?

In the latter's clever little scheme, as long as the Blood Clan was not extinguished, wouldn't the Progenitor always have the hope of returning through a Descent?

Do not forget that Annalise was not a Natural-Born Deity. If she died, whether she would enter the Bone Burial Ground was hard to say for certain.

Could she be using this method to grant herself a tenacity similar to that of a Natural-Born Deity?

Motive had always been very important. Although Annalise originated from mortals, compared to giving mortals a boon for no reason, Fu Qian felt it was clearly more logical for a little selfishness to be involved.

After all, as long as she wasn't an idiot, she had to be well aware of the nature of those actions.

Courting death didn't work like this, unless the action itself was a way to fight for a chance at survival.

All in all, under the influence of a lullaby, Annalise's fall finally seemed to have a plausible cause and effect.

Furthermore, looking at the contents of the lullaby, combined with "Annalise looks forward to the Long Night," she surprisingly had a great deal of confidence in the tenacity of humanity.

Just like Su Gao, she believed that this tiny race could ultimately struggle their way out of the Long Night.

Of course, there were still some minor points of doubt, such as why "the Gods fear the Divine Child"? Did the "Order of Blood" refer to simple flesh-and-blood gestation, or was it the authority that Excellency Patches had mentioned?

And most curiously of all: how did Excellency Annalise discover these materials for creating the nova?

One had to realize that the distortion of the Offspring concept didn't seem limited to just the red eyes; it was clearly affecting the entire world, a change similar to that of authority.

For example, a case like the Shangjing Chen Clan clearly benefited from this—

Even if their home had been stolen and their bloodline altered, their Transcendent Tier talents could still be passed down merely by relying on a surname.

...

And then there was the Glove.

Fu Qian looked down at Annalise's Lies, reviewing its true effect.

Giving out a Rose of Lies to let the recipient briefly share your authority—wasn't this a case of different tunes played with equal skill when compared to "redefining the Offspring"?

The Progenitor of the Blood Clan's confidence to pull off such a bold operation seemed to stem from the fact that she truly had the underlying rules of this aspect wrapped around her finger, able to mold them at will.

How exactly had she done it—and then there was what she did to the Red Moon.

In short, directly cursing a higher entity for a thousand years—did the Primordial Moon know you were this incredible?

Of course, looking on the bright side, while the "basic principles of the curse" were still uncertain, there seemed to be a usable train of thought for how to break it.

The final Imprint of the name Annalise, the source of pollution causing the Red Moon's agony, was hidden right here in the Bottom Layer of the Dream, deeply merged with the Blood Nova?

Then, even if he couldn't lock onto it more precisely, as long as he ground this place into dust, wouldn't the Red Moon be freed as well?

Of course, the resulting side effects were also predictable: the legacy system of the Bookstore World would likely face a rather significant challenge.

Besides, without a precise excision, the Red Moon would also suffer more collateral damage, putting its already incredibly fragile state under even more pressure...

Crack, crack—

Fu Qian stretched his neck and wrists, looking as though he was preparing to unleash his fists and feet—though in the next moment, what he opened was his mouth.

Shaking the Blood Collection Bottle in his hand, he poured this side quest item directly into his mouth.