Chapter 2941: Today

Unwilling to accept her fate as cannon fodder, Annalise had struck out on her own to forge a path to survival.

The Primordial Moon had been enraged by this and had ruthlessly struck her down.

His trip to the Bottom Layer of the Dream seemed to have provided a relatively clear picture of the fall of the Progenitor of the Blood Clan.

And it all seemed perfectly logical.

After all, in any culture, heresy was undeniably a grave crime.

Annalise hadn't just been playing petty tricks. She had directly molded the "Offspring" into the Blood Nova, fully posturing to create a second moon—and she had actually pulled it off.

Judging from the Red Moon's performance since he first encountered it, its power consisted of almost exactly two parts.

The authority belonging to Tilanqi, and Annalise's Blood Nova.

As for the Primordial Moon, a clear lineage could be traced from it to the First Generation Dark Moon, and finally to the Witch.

It was almost certain that the former power of the Moon God was now wielded by the Dark Moon Pope, Nelgria.

And the moon in the Bookstore World was essentially stitched together from the Mother of Gospel's noble daughter and the authority of the Offspring.

It was a smooth transition, but frankly, Fu Qian didn't care much about the grudges and dramatic affairs entwined in it. History shouldn't be studied just for the sake of studying; one had to draw experience and wisdom from those who came before.

Throughout this entire span of the Chronicles of the Moon, what interested Fu Qian the most was actually how Annalise had managed to commit that grave crime in the first place.

"Discovering the concept of the Offspring in the Bottom Layer of the Dream, and then carving it with the Law." Perhaps the harvest from Insight had explained it clearly enough.

But in Fu Qian's eyes, actually pulling that off required a staggering level of technical skill.

How could a concretized physical manifestation of authority be found directly in the Bottom Layer of the Dream?

And how did Annalise know she could use the Law to carve it?

Let alone a halfway-ascended higher entity like her, even a top-tier player like Blazing Rainbow would find it exceedingly difficult to accomplish.

...

The sea of mind?

Applying a simple process of elimination, Annalise's only exceptional trait seemed to be her affinity with this special location.

And the King of Nightmares—who had very likely been digested by the Primordial Moon—was known as the one closest to the sea of mind among the natural-born higher entities.

Did the combination of these two factors give Annalise an intuition that surpassed that of a standard higher entity? If so, the Primordial Moon's ruthless crackdown made a lot more sense.

And the position this special place—the sea of mind—held within the entire supernatural system became increasingly subtle. It extended far beyond just the Bookstore World.

Back in Laerdin, when he had traversed the Nightmare Aggregate alongside the Witch, one of the locations had been a dried-up sea. There had even been a suit of bloodstained armor.

Based on his exchange of insights with the Witch at the time, they had guessed that it might be a destroyed sea of mind.

The armor had been the remnant of a ritual utilizing a certain property of the sea of mind.

Could it be this exact same property?

Just like how Annalise had found the "Offspring," had the owner of that armor also been using it to search for something?

It sounded like he was going off on a tangent, but this was definitely no waste of brain cells.

He couldn't forget the Hongmen banquet he was about to attend.

For years, the Night Watchers had striven to protect weak humans with an almost draconian attitude, which had inevitably bred a great deal of misunderstanding.

Right here in Shangjing, there was a bloody example.

His excellency Ambor had merely caused minor casualties, having acted as cautiously and submissively as a meek young bride throughout the entire affair, yet the dignified demigod had still lost his life over it. Could the Night Watchers' peculiar code of conduct be tied to this characteristic of the sea of mind?

If so, how did they know about it?

Or, even if they didn't know, what was the driving force compelling them to unwittingly and silently safeguard the sea of mind?

Each of these derived questions provided strong guidance for his impending words and actions at the banquet, making them highly worthy of being a core research topic.

"...you saw the Progenitor of the Blood Clan?"

Unfortunately, Chief Yuan obviously thought the Progenitor was the main focal point, and she was utterly shocked in that moment.

"I saw her. Many of her, in fact," Fu Qian said. He recalled the scene by the sea and nodded.

...

Many?

Precisely because she knew Professor Fu didn't spout nonsense on crucial matters, Yuan Shan fell into a stunned silence at what she had just heard.

"Annalise actually hasn't fallen yet?" Proving his steady and experienced nature, Henry only now looked over, appearing somewhat surprised.

Prior to this, the Old Man had been so entirely focused on studying Yuan Shan's pile of vomit that one couldn't help but draw associations to his true form.

"Strictly speaking, she'd be considered a living corpse. By the way, how do you define 'falling'?" he asked.

Henry's explanation could seemingly be taken to represent the consensus among the Night Watchers' higher-ups.

And while Fu Qian was reporting his experiences truthfully, he was also focusing on certain fundamental concepts.

"It is very difficult for higher entities to truly die. Their existence is already a part of the fundamental supernatural rules, and they do not rely on human cognition."

This broad concept didn't seem to be overly taboo. The Old Man hesitated for only a moment before sharing the internal intelligence of the premier supernatural organization.

"Even if they suffer catastrophic destruction, they will gradually recover over the long years—but this only applies to Ancient Higher Beings. This is also the fundamental difference between the old ones and New Gods."

...

When New Gods died, their fall was absolute, but the old ones could return time and time again?

Just as he had thought. The Night Watchers' knowledge reserves were truly dependable.

Through the Old Man's sharing, Fu Qian instantly synthesized and understood the definitions he had heard previously.

Sure enough, this "new" label didn't just refer to a lack of seniority.

Was dying without truly perishing a privilege reserved for the Heavenly Dragon Gods?

"So you knew that Annalise isn't a Natural-Born Deity?" he asked.

That made the Old Man's earlier surprise perfectly understandable.

"Of course. That was never a secret to begin with, and she has always been treated as a special case. But I recommend you ask about the rest after we get there," Old Man Henry said, confirming Fu Qian's assumption before abruptly changing the subject to finalize their itinerary. "So, when are you prepared to head out? I need to make some minor preparations."

"You're coming along?"

Yuan Shan had the biggest reaction at that moment. She looked over in disbelief, clearly not expecting her teacher to wade this deeply into murky waters.

"You aren't coming along?" Henry simply glanced at her.

"That's different. This falls under my jurisdiction..." Yuan Shan's momentum plummeted at once as she offered a quiet defense.

"I appreciate the effort from both of you—how about today?" It sounded like the master and apprentice in front of him had both already made up their minds to accompany him to the Hongmen banquet. Sighing inwardly, Fu Qian didn't rush to refuse them, simply offering a calm proposal instead.

Today?

Almost thinking she had misheard, Yuan Shan instinctively looked up at the sky, as if calculating how much time was left in the day.

"How are you feeling?" Fu Qian asked.

Yuan Shan immediately snapped her gaze back down, staring in shock at Serana, who had just appeared in the doorway.