Chapter 2932: The Ji Feng Cipher

'There's another expert?'

'Not only did my seniority plummet, but my SAN Value dropped too?'

Listening to the prompt echoing in his ear, Fu Qian deeply felt the heavy toll of this trip.

The true danger of this unprovoked SAN Value reduction wasn't just the single-point loss, but the threat of not even seeing what was causing the deduction—

[SAN Value -1]

Just as he noted the hidden danger, Professor Fu's foresight was validated by another prompt.

Sure enough, this wasn't just a matter of single-digit addition and subtraction, but a continuous drain.

Barely a breath had passed since the first SAN Value drop. The frequency was undeniably high.

All in all—it was fantastic!

It really was the Law. Things seemed to be lining up again.

Silently calculating how long his remaining 153 SAN Value points could hold out, Fu Qian felt a surge of gratification.

The entity specializing in SAN Value attacks, the one who had previously waged a battle of single-digit math against him, was none other than the Third Follower in the Volcano, wasn't it? Although he had just suffered a two-point loss, the concept of "Law sculpting" had faintly been confirmed.

That naturally brought up the connection between the moons and the Law.

Of course, the most important thing was the shocking conclusion that could be deduced from all this—

Could the unique authority of the Law actually sculpt other authorities?

It wasn't the most rigorous theory, since he hadn't seen the original form of the "Offspring" like Annalise had.

But it didn't need to be rigorous; the implication alone was terrifying enough.

Aside from that, it seemed he also knew how old Ji Feng had designated the Ji clan as the Offspring.

According to the Old Doctor, the man hadn't just made a special trip to the Bottom Layer of the Dream; he had even played a trick on him.

In other words, Ji Feng had come into close contact with the Blood Nova.

Perhaps he hadn't been as radical as Fu Qian in earning the label of Annalise's Offspring, but touching upon some of the Offspring's essence wouldn't be surprising.

Under those circumstances, it was entirely conceivable that he had found a way to borrow some power to give himself a private advantage.

As for why Ji Feng would come to the Bottom Layer of the Dream? That was hard to say, but he could guess.

For example, among certain mission rewards, the Warehouse might have given him items or abilities related to this domain.

Alternatively, based on what was already known, Ji Feng had traveled to the Blood Wedding hundreds of years ago for a mission, encountering the Mother of Gospel and witnessing the Dark Moon's handiwork with bloodlines.

In fact, those two possibilities didn't even conflict.

Fu Qian thought of the brass Circlet that Classmate Liushuang had once worn.

That item undoubtedly looked like a spoil from the Blood Wedding mission.

And old Ji Feng's purpose in designing this Offspring connection seemed even less utilitarian than that of the Progenitor of the Blood Clan.

At first glance, it was highly likely meant for the secret message left within the Circlet—a warning to future generations.

The "future generations" here specifically referred to outsiders from the Real World. The Ji clan was merely a kind of decoding tool.

He had even suspected before that the voice in the Circlet might only be audible to Classmate Liushuang because of her special status as the "family head."

...

Regardless of gender or aptitude, the family head's first child would invariably become the next family head. This seemingly extreme inheritance system of the Ji clan was, according to Classmate Liushuang, an absolutely unalterable ancestral rule.

Even if it had already sparked widespread resentment within the family.

At the time, he had felt this Ji clan ancestor was a bit unorthodox. Now, combining it with this artificial Offspring protocol, could it be a clever little trick old Ji Feng specifically added for secrecy?

Unlike Annalise's red eyes, had Ji Feng used the surname and the definition of a family head to hide such a secretive key within the long river of history?

It might sound bizarre, but if he brought in the conceptual building block theory he had grasped earlier in the Sub-Deep Layer of Dreams, he would discover the uncanny parallel of different tunes played with equal skill.

Old Man Ji Feng had merely taken a few special "building blocks" and assembled a key that shared a bloodline connection with himself, using it to decode the cautionary words he left behind.

It wouldn't even be hard to verify. He just needed to find a member of the Ji clan who wasn't the family head and see if they could hear the voice after putting on the Circlet.

Or perhaps, a subtle verification had already been laid out before him all along—the Birthing Axe that both Classmate Liushuang and her Mother had encountered.

He had marveled before that the item displayed a considerable "aggregation effect."

As long as the next family head reached adulthood, they would cross paths with it through various seemingly normal ways, even suffering a wound from it to trigger the birth of the next generation.

That was exactly how Classmate Liushuang had been born.

In short, the concept of the family head had clearly played a role here.

[SAN Value -1]

Of course, all of that was a matter for later.

Amidst another pleasant prompt, Fu Qian confirmed that this round of addition and subtraction truly wasn't going to stop.

And at this rate of decline, he had roughly ten minutes left.

Fortunately, what brought him comfort was that while he couldn't see the channel draining his SAN Value, he could seemingly see where those lost points were going at this very moment—

For the first time since their appearance, the Annalises stopped crawling and lingered in place.

As for why they were lingering?

In a scene similar to when a new Annalise was birthed from the Underground, wounds uniformly appeared beneath all these wave-chasers.

Only this time, no new Annalise was emerging.

On the contrary, Fu Qian clearly saw the Umbilical Cords extending from the wounds connect to the Annalises' bodies once again.

...

Were they trying to revert to infancy?

It was far from being as simple as playing a birth video in reverse. Even without an overly gruesome scene, the distortion of the imagery was severe enough to induce direct physical discomfort.

Of course, Fu Qian wouldn't harbor such meaningless emotions. Instead, he watched with keen interest, even casually making snide remarks.

Mainly, this scene looked far too much like the Annalises, upon being born, had decided the world wasn't as beautiful as they imagined and wanted to return to where they came from.

As for why he believed this change was related to the destination of his SAN Value?

It was very simple. To Professor Fu, he didn't need to understand the underlying logic; as long as there was a change, it had to be related to where his SAN Value was going.

One had to look at problems from a higher perspective. What was wrong with variables automatically linking themselves together?

Furthermore, it was comforting to see that the so-called return to infancy was indeed just a pipe dream.

In his line of sight, the Annalises, once again connected to the Umbilical Cords, were not dragged back into the "Blood Nova."

Instead, at that moment, the Umbilical Cords displayed astonishing arm strength, lifting them up one by one and holding them aloft by the moonlit sea.

All in all, they looked very energetic—was the SAN Value really that nourishing?

Every cause had an effect, and the internal logic here couldn't help but warrant deeper thought. To make a crude connection, it seemed that after swallowing three points of his SAN Value, the Annalises had suddenly become invigorated.

Even logically, there didn't seem to be any flaws, did there?

Elders draining the psychological energy of the youth—wasn't that a fairly common occurrence?

[SAN Value -1]

Of course, now it was four points.