Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 414 Solve the doubts
However, the situation was indeed critical at the time. Although Alpha kept saying that everyone's experience in the Ruins of Return would not affect the Blue Star Realm, everyone saw that the strangely shaped Demon Lord drew out a lot of blood-red smoke from the puppets that everyone was possessing, and all the members were completely unable to move at that time, and could not even communicate on the network!
This is unprecedented!

Although the retired farmer was directing from a distance and did not experience it firsthand, according to other rabbits who were nearby and were also controlled, they only felt a moment of disorientation, as if they were dreaming, and could not perform any operations on the network—or rather, they were all in a daze and did not realize that they could do anything else!
The first to notice something was wrong were the mess squad in charge of logistics. Led by their squad leader, one of their teams rushed to the logistics battalion's weapons and supplies depot and fired all the homing rocket launchers at the suspected location of the BOSS in the distance. They didn't even report to the retired farmer until after the rockets were fired...

Then, this led to the rapid completion of the entire dungeon.

Of course, Fang Xianyu, who had been watching the whole process, also breathed a sigh of relief. The demon's original method was to extract blood essence and three souls for its own use, but the puppet that Fang Xianyu made... could have its flesh and blood recycled, but its soul was completely absent, which caused the other party to only be able to do useless work.

The terrifying red mist at the time was indeed extracted essence blood, but no matter how much the Demon Lord extracted, Fang Xianyu could recycle it—no matter how powerful you are, can you be more powerful than my system?

The players' stunned silence is easier to understand. Although they control the puppets remotely through their consciousness, they have genuinely cultivated using these puppets' bodies for a long time. The puppets have developed an inseparable connection with them, even feeling somewhat like their own flesh and blood. If the players weren't truly unable to cross into the Void Realm, these puppets might actually have allowed them to continue cultivating as shells, perhaps even achieving immortality. Therefore, due to this close connection with the puppets, certain special attack methods can still affect the players' reactions. This is why some players have occasionally been affected by so-called "debuffs" in the past, and also why they faced the Demon Lord this time.

If this situation were to occur, Fang Xianyu would immediately sever the players' connection to the Guixu Realm, preventing the collective daze or influence from happening. But—that requires energy points! Her energy points are precious! She can't afford to waste them on something that doesn't harm the players at all! All the emotional influence or other harm, ultimately reflected back to the players' true selves in the Blue Star world, would probably be less intense than a nightmare! And if this happened to a true Guixu Realm cultivator, having their essence and three souls extracted, they would have long since become a complete idiot, only able to babble!
Therefore, when asked about the battle with the Demon Lord—if one-sided, quick kills count as a battle—she explained the reason directly, repeatedly mentioning that it would not affect the players' health in the Blue Star world. She even jokingly added, "If you have a newbie in your team who has only been in the game for a few days and doesn't really like cultivating, you'll find that they won't be affected in any similar way, and they won't be trapped like others!"

Elder Lu Ying suddenly realized: "Is it also because of the relationship between the puppet's body and consciousness? The closer or less close the relationship, the more it affects whether or not it suffers mental harm?"

"You could say that, but it's not a psychological injury, just a minor effect, and it only works when they're controlling the puppets. Once they return to Earth, it'll be like a dream, and they can't take anything with them."

Fang Xianyu paused as he spoke, then continued, “Consciousness is a very mysterious thing. In fact, its concept in the Guixu Realm, when placed in the language of flowers, is more like ‘spirit’ than so-called consciousness. If we have to use the concept from modern cultivation novels to explain it, it is more like ‘divine consciousness’—of course, this is not the ‘divine consciousness’ in Buddhism.”

Fang Xianyu rarely discussed the extraordinary nature and related concepts of the Guixu Realm with Lu Ying. Taking this opportunity, Lu Ying hurriedly pressed for an answer: "Spirit? Is it something more spiritual? Do the people on Blue Star have this?" "Something more spiritual... you could say that. As for the people on Blue Star, of course they do. At least among the beings I've encountered, all sentient beings... or rather, living beings, have 'spirits.' That's why I was able to project your spirits into the Guixu Realm, allowing you to control puppets."

"Can it be observed?"

"If it's visual, I'm afraid it won't work. But if you mean 'observation,' perhaps it is possible, because when one's cultivation reaches a certain level and one can control spiritual energy freely, one can perceive it. Hmm... it's hard to describe. Have you ever owned a pet?"

Lu Ying was stunned for a moment upon hearing this. She almost couldn't keep up with Fang Xianyu's train of thought, but she still answered, "I guess you could say I've raised one. When I was little, my grandmother raised a cat, and I often played with it back then."

"Can you still recall the feeling of touching it or embracing it? That warmth, that vibrant life force, the beating of your heart, and the rising and falling of your breath. That's what the 'spirit' feels like. It's alive, even... even frightening, because your own 'spirit' is also alive to you. It controls you, your thoughts, your actions, everything about you, including the actions we're talking about now and the choices we make about what we're talking about. It's all under its control, and it maliciously allows you to be aware of it all."

Just as Lu Ying was feeling a chill run down her spine and her scalp tingling, Fang Xianyu suddenly smiled and comforted her, "But don't worry too much about these things, because this is just the way things are described in the Guixu Realm. On Blue Star... well, it's probably the brain that controls everything? But at least I can be sure that 'spirit' is not the brain; it can't be seen with the eyes. Of course, its location is similar to that of the brain, so calling it 'consciousness' or 'divine sense' is fine; it's just a name."

Fang Xianyu's words of comfort did not have any positive effect. Lu Ying took a few deep breaths before sighing, "This is really hard to accept."

"So, it's best not to overthink things, otherwise you'll just be creating trouble for yourself... At least you gave me a pleasant surprise,"

Seeing Elder Lu Ying's somewhat puzzled look, Fang Xianyu smiled and nodded slightly, saying, "In the Five-Colored Array, firepower coverage is useful. That's good news, isn't it?"