Feng Qi scrolled through the emails.
From Wei Wei's descriptions, Feng Qi could clearly see the difficulty of rebuilding Winterfell City.
To help with Winterfell's reconstruction, Star City had to send a huge amount of supplies, which had already placed limits on its own development.
The most obvious sign was the suspension of the new city project—Dawn City.
The resources that should have gone into building the new city had been diverted to support the reconstruction of Winterfell.
Originally, this sacrificial timeline's Dawn City construction was supposed to proceed as planned, allowing his future self to review historical records and identify issues and improvements for the city's development.
But the rebuilding of Winterfell couldn't be ignored.
Plans couldn't keep up with changes, and the construction of Dawn City had to be paused.
Yet Feng Qi felt the leadership's decision was the right one.
He continued browsing through the inbox.
132. There's something I've been debating about lately.
Should I clone Mu Qing and recreate Suction Cup?
Maintaining Jian Ji's seal is already a huge drain on resources. If I add Suction Cup to the mix, it'll break the internal balance of the Scarlet Secret Base.
For now, I'm not too worried about the internal cycle breaking down. After all, the Crimson Research Institute is still connected to the outside world and can receive external supplies.
But this isn't a long-term solution.
Once Winterfell's reconstruction is done, the construction of Dawn City will officially begin.
By then, for both security and secrecy, the Crimson Research Institute won't be able to maintain contact with Dawn City. Without a stable internal cycle, the Scarlet Secret Base won't survive long enough for your return.
It's a tough call.
We have to keep the research running, maintain Jian Ji's seal, and possibly raise another Suction Cup… But with resources already tight because of Winterfell, there's no way the base can handle all three.
Right now, I'm leaning toward abandoning the Suction Cup project on this timeline, so we can focus resources on my team's and Lin Ran's research, and on keeping Jian Ji sealed.
Sigh… I'm still on the fence though.
I'll leave the final decision for later.
176. The external ops team brought back some news.
Dawn Academy's Domain Studies program has launched a new course—"Domain Creatures Illustrated War Game," the one you proposed.
Using these illustrated cards, students can learn more about Domain Creatures while adding a bit of fun through strategic battles.
There's even talk of holding competitions in the future to select champions to represent us at the Fate City War Game Tournament.
But that's something for later.
Right now, Star City doesn't have the extra resources to support events like this.
203. Star City recently held a top-level meeting.
The topic was the intel you brought back from the frontlines.
Your report listed many resources that could massively boost Star City's development. The leadership is planning to form an expedition team to gather these resources from the Domain Fields you marked.
Of course, it's called an expedition, but they won't be going too far—just to the Domain Fields you visited early in your God Ascension Challenge.
The focus is on rare and valuable resources.
For example, Void Stones, which are perfect for crafting Spatial Stabilizers. These are vital for advancing Star City's spatial tech.
Or the Lava Fish you discovered in the Flaming Eruption Domain Field, which could be used as test subjects for Star City's spirit beast breeding programs.
However, the team's carrying capacity is limited. They'll only be equipped with one spatial bracelet you left behind. The focus is on the value of the resources, not the quantity.
285 (Important). Lin Ran's condition is getting worse. All his vital signs are failing. His life is hanging on by genetic medicine alone.
Here's an update on HIs research.
He's identified a clear direction for solving the hidden risks of the Faith Development Path.
In earlier experiments, believers who borrowed your innate abilities often suffered from mental pollution, falling into strange states of confusion.
Lin Ran believes this might be because their minds get lost in your Mental Sea during the borrowing process.
The more they borrow, the more burden they take on, until they can no longer pull themselves back out of your Mental Sea.
To help believers return to themselves, the best solution is to create a Mental Guide.
This guide would help believers safely navigate through your Mental Sea and back to their own.
Sounds complicated, right?
To put it simply, they need a "Guide" living in your Mental Sea—someone who can protect the believers and safely lead them out after they borrow your abilities.
So, how do we make this Guide?
Lin Ran and his team proposed a clear direction.
Remember Eternal Spirit?
Back in one of the earlier timelines, you asked Lin Ran to develop a spiritual technique that could make one's consciousness persist forever and grow immensely powerful—to help you resist the Mist Lord's possession.
But after we allied with Old Mist, that technique became obsolete.
Now Lin Ran has picked it back up and continued developing it.
His idea is simple—train someone in Eternal Spirit to create a Guide that can live in your Mental Sea and prevent believers from getting lost.
If this works, the Faith Development Path becomes viable. Even if Mu Yan fails, humanity will at least have another way forward.
As for who should be chosen to serve as the Guide for the Believers, Lin Ran's suggestion was:
Pick one of the sacrificial timelines, and let you become that guide.
In other words, you need to cultivate Eternal Spirit and become the guide for your own followers.
Doing so would mean the death of your physical body on that timeline, but your consciousness would live on forever.
Whether this plan can actually work still needs to be tested by Lin Ran, but his body is deteriorating day by day—he won't last much longer.
The last time I spoke with him, he said that while he still had time, he'd thoroughly lay out the future research direction for his team, so that even after he's gone, they can continue refining the Eternal Spirit project based on his plans.
311. The construction and planning of Dawn City have recently restarted.
How long the project will take is completely unknown. Most likely, this timeline's version of Dawn City won't meet your ideal vision and will only serve as a reference for the next timeline.
According to the external ops team's reports, Star City has decided to start gradually relocating its population to Dawn City in twenty years to support the city's continued construction and development.
All of Star City's future focus will slowly shift toward Dawn City.
I can already picture it. In just a few hundred years, Star City will become a ghost town.
Those of us hiding here in the underground base will remain cut off from the surface world forever.
Honestly, I don't really mind.
Aside from not being able to see the sun, moon, and stars, or feel the breeze when opening a window, or look out at that old locust tree, this place isn't much different from the surface Scarlet Base.
The only downside might be the food.
But hey, after so many updates across multiple timelines, the nutrient paste actually tastes amazing now!
Over 300 flavors to choose from!
Of course, it still gets old after a while.
I'm probably the unluckiest one. By the time the others get tired of it, they'll likely have passed on.
But me? I'll still be here, holding strong.
I might not be one of humanity's Top Ten Martial Gods, but if there were a ranking for the Top Ten Longevity Gods, I'd definitely be in the Top Three in human history.
335. Jian Ji's mental fluctuations have changed recently, and I'm really worried about it.
Just a few days ago, the seal monitoring officer reported Jian Ji's latest status during a meeting.
The data shows that Jian Ji's once stable mental fluctuations are now starting to show irregularities—not a good sign for us.
These fluctuations might mean that Jian Ji's consciousness is slowly recovering from the crushing effects of the negative emotions and is on the verge of breaking free from his mental prison.
Our research into the mental domain is still very limited, so we can't provide a definite analysis of Jian Ji's condition.
All we can do is hope this is just a normal fluctuation and won't lead to Jian Ji's full recovery.
Regardless, since there's a risk, we've already discussed contingency plans in our meetings.
The final plan is to disguise Room 1303, where Jian Ji is sealed, to ensure that even if he wakes up, he won't realize the Scarlet Secret Base exists.
The plan goes like this:
First, we'll remodel the layout of Jian Ji's room and dig a tunnel in the ceiling leading directly to the surface.
Then we'll reinforce the room's walls with special material that blocks consciousness perception, and strengthen and disguise the door connecting to the base.
If the sealing fails and Jian Ji wakes up, even if he expands his perception, he won't detect the base. The tunnel to the surface will mislead him into thinking he's just sealed in a random underground chamber, and he'll naturally follow the tunnel to the surface.
This way, even if Jian Ji wakes up, the Scarlet Secret Base can still be preserved.
This base holds your brain, the life's work of Lin Ran, myself, and all the other researchers. It's far too important to lose.
This is the best way to minimize losses if the worst happens.
357. Lin Ran is gone. I didn't attend the funeral, of course.
I hate goodbyes the most!
376. Star City's relocation has begun, starting with the Eastern District, gradually moving the entire population to Dawn City.
Construction on Dawn City is still ongoing.
Right now, relocation and construction are happening side by side. We'll be going fully into hiding soon.
By the time you wake up, you'll probably still see the ruins of Star City.
But if you look west, you might just see a thriving new city.
Maybe this time, humanity's future won't end in an apocalypse.
Also, the Dawn Army has officially merged with Winterfell City, now renamed the Winterfell Dawn Army.
The grudges between the older generations have finally been resolved.
Winterfell's development has brought many benefits to Star City, especially the priority access to rare spiritual resources.
The only problem is that the rate of Domain Field appearances seems to be speeding up.
The roads connecting Winterfell and Star City are gradually being blocked by newly emerging Domain Fields, which could eventually cut off contact between the two cities.
But with advancements in spatial technology, this problem seems solvable.
The future development plan for Dawn City includes building two stable spatial teleportation arrays.
One will connect to Mist City, and the other to Winterfell.
By then, even if Domain Fields block the physical routes, we'll still have instant, stable connections through the teleportation arrays.
400. Lately, Jian Ji's mental fluctuations have been showing up more and more frequently.
From our observations, it's clear Jian Ji's consciousness is struggling to break free from its mental prison.
It feels like his awakening is inevitable.
On this timeline, we paid a heavy price to defeat Jian Ji. How could I possibly let him slip away just like that?
If Jian Ji is destined to break free, then we have to find a way to kill him.
If you don't kill Jian Ji, the collapse of Winterfell will keep repeating endlessly.
So I had the idea of planting a tracking chip inside Jian Ji's body, ensuring that even if he escapes, your future self can hunt him down.
(By then, you could seek out Old Mist's help and use the tracking chip to lock onto Jian Ji's location. With Old Mist's strength, crushing Jian Ji should be child's play.)
But getting the chip inside Jian Ji without him noticing is a huge headache.
With his level of strength, detecting a foreign object in his body would be effortless.
I've been racking my brain trying to figure this out.
421. Hahaha, I, the great beauty, really am a genius. I came up with a perfect plan.
Remember the Lan Pi Clan?
They have these tiny black orbs that can lock onto the position of miracle items. We managed to collect three on this timeline.
I tested them on Jian Ji's enhancement gemstone and found they can indeed track it.
But the tracking range is pretty limited. At least, inside the secret base, we can't test long-distance tracking.
Judging by the signal strength changes, I estimate the tracking range is about 30 kilometers.
That's clearly not enough for you to locate Jian Ji if he escapes.
The key is, we can develop a signal amplifier for the black orb to boost its range.
But there are two problems we need to solve:
First, we need to accurately capture the signal from the enhancement gemstone to avoid locking onto the wrong miracle item.
This one's actually easy.
Different miracle items give off different signals when tracked by the black orb. All we have to do is record Jian Ji's specific signal and program it into the amplifier.
Second, how do we boost the orb's tracking range?
That's still in the experimental stage.
I've never seen material like the black orb before. Our plan is to build an external amplification device around the orb to magnify its tracking effect.
Right now, we've achieved a tenfold increase, but in my opinion, that's still not enough.
It's going to be a long research project and the secret base's primary focus for the future.
By the way, moving all tech development to the Crimson Research Institute back then was seriously a stroke of genius. If not for the tech division's efforts, my idea wouldn't have stood a chance.
The tech team's working overtime every single day, racing against the clock.
598. The dedicated tracking device for Jian Ji is finally complete.
It's stored in Room 1302.
If Jian Ji ever really breaks free, make sure you grab Old Mist and start the hunt.
845. Recently, Jian Ji's mental fluctuation readings have been climbing higher and higher. I'm guessing he's getting really close to breaking out.
I'm honestly worried something bad's going to happen.
Here's hoping everything goes smoothly.
My time's just about up too. I've already implanted all of this timeline's research results deep in your brain. You can have the version of me in the main timeline extract them later.
(That includes Xiao You's memories.)
…
After reading through Wei Wei's final messages,
Feng Qi pictured Wei Wei's white hair, standing in front of a mirror, sighing about how her beauty was fading.
That woman always stayed so optimistic, no matter what setbacks she faced. She could always smile through them.
Yet she'd never stop fussing and grumbling about getting old.
Letting out a knowing smile, he turned and walked toward Room 1303.
The emails didn't say whether Jian Ji had actually broken free or not.
To be more precise, according to Wei Wei, Jian Ji never broke out before she died.
But whether Jian Ji had escaped by now was still a complete unknown.
Standing at the door to Room 1303, Feng Qi reached out and swiped the electronic lock. Instantly, the voice of the security system rang out:
"Highest-level clearance: Feng Qi!"
The red light on the lock switched to green.
As the heavy door slowly opened, Feng Qi found a dirt passageway behind it, with another door at the far end.
It was clearly designed to isolate Room 1303 from the rest of the Scarlet Secret Base, meant to ensure the base's safety.
Feng Qi stepped forward to the far door, took a deep breath, and placed his hand on the isolation gate.
Killing Jian Ji to earn a huge boost in bloodline evolution points was just a bonus.
The real reason was that Jian Ji's death would bring endless benefits to the future, securing Winterfell City as a true ally.
As the isolation door slowly creaked open, countless possibilities ran through Feng Qi's mind.
One thing was certain—if Jian Ji had broken free, he would hunt him down, just like Wei Wei had suggested. He had to finish this once and for all.
As long as Jian Ji lived, he could never have peace of mind.
Just as Feng Qi held his breath, ready to face whatever awaited him,
that familiar lazy voice echoed in his mind:
"Seriously, your brain must've really gotten scrambled by those overlapping memories. Did you forget what my ability is? You couldn't have just asked me instead of going through all this?"
Hearing the sarcastic tone, Feng Qi suddenly remembered.
He had Narrator!
Narrator's power was scanning. To him, this wall that blocked all normal senses meant nothing.
There was no need to open the door at all—he could just ask Narrator and get the answer.
Feng Qi's hand froze mid-push. He asked in his heart:
"Ah Bai, did Jian Ji escape or not?"
"Dude, you're already halfway through opening the door. What's the point of asking now? You really gonna stop if I tell you?"
Feng Qi: …
Right now, he had only one thought.
Yep, Narrator's still the same old jerk.