He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 105 Immortal Spirit - Life Exchange

This personal inspection was a spur-of-the-moment decision, so Ai didn't make much preparation and just rushed over.

Among the group that remained at the fox den, the unlucky Ronan was casually dragged away by Ai to be a laborer, and on the way, they also went to the "Silent Sanctuary" which had just been approved.

The organization's predecessor was the Moon Bar, which Ai had visited once. Since a lucky guy who had received special care from the fox took over the place, he has shown remarkable abilities. Not only has he made rapid progress in his studies in the mystical field, but he has also quickly established his authority within the organization.

He is now a member of the Grey Court Priority Sequence.

The Silent One, Connor.

Then, this makeshift team of three strolled all the way to the sealed-off area—to complete this memorable meeting. After all, this was actually the first time that Ai, as an envoy and the highest leader of Gray Court, had appeared outside the Fox Den on "official business" and personally visited a subordinate organization.

There have been many speculations about why the messenger never shows himself, but the correct answer has never been found.

The real reason is that the messenger himself is a lazy dog.

"Before you arrived, Boss—" Ankasha briefly explained the research process, "these samples arrived overnight, and at the same time, I received an urgent request from headquarters, so I worked through the night to complete the preliminary observation report."

Ai listened intently while scanning her surroundings with interest, while Ankasha continued, "According to information obtained by Ronan's assistant through mysterious means, I have confirmed that their aphasia symptoms, based on the standards set forth by the Second Supreme Law, mean they are undoubtedly unable to pass the language registration test in Hallownest, which means—"

He paused abruptly, met Ai's half-closed gaze for a second, then took a deep breath: "These guys—they might not be human anymore."

"————" Ai didn't react much, and Jia En and Ronan also looked like it was a matter of course — only Connor's silent eyes showed a bit of confusion.

"After all, to be a human being—you still need to meet certain conditions."

The fox chuckled twice, shook its head, and said in a low voice, "These guys can't even speak human language anymore."

—The significance of "language" in the field of mysticism is extremely important. Almost all "symbolic symbols" require "language" as a medium for anchoring. Without the process of linguistic representation, the mystical castle built by humankind would collapse instantly.

Surrounded by gray matter, Ai and her group slowly walked into the current site of the control department—which was actually still in the rough stage. Even the extension of Gray Court had not yet been built into any landmark buildings, only a temporarily defined empty area—after all, the current manpower was still on the front line suppressing those stubborn exiles, and the construction of infrastructure might not be able to begin until the suburbs were unified.

Following Ankasha's guidance, the group stepped onto a designated flat area. The fog covering them dissipated, and a platform composed of gray mist slowly rose until it reached a height from which they could overlook the entire sealed-off area. Now, everyone could see the group of people imprisoned inside—beings declared "inhuman."

Ai tilted her head, and in the center of her azure pupils, a tiny white dot was faintly visible. In the passage of her gaze, the power of the white beak followed the traces of these souls.

His gaze grew increasingly deep, a cryptic smile playing on his lips, and his voice, without any deliberate attempt to lower it, said: "Interesting."

Ronan and Connor were also quietly observing the scene before them.

Despite being subjected to forced confinement, what's puzzling is that these individuals didn't exhibit any signs of tension. They appeared—joyful, an eerily joyful joy—the edge of the gray fog was already littered with people, attempting to cross this invisible barrier by playing Jenga, but clearly failing.

This is clearly not the reaction a normal person would have when they are caught.

On the other side, Ankasha further explained his findings in a low voice: "I conducted many basic tests on them, including multidimensional intelligence assessments and behavioral analysis—their behavior was very strange, much like what they did in that alley workshop, and most of it was not intuitive."

Ai nodded. He had read Mia's initial observation report. These "Bottom Nesters" discovered in the workshop had joined forces to kill the workshop owner—but had not taken over the workshop's operations.

They simply ransacked the entire warehouse, some finding flammable materials and setting them ablaze, then dancing in the fire until they were burned to a crisp; others tried to devour all the organic matter—including drinking engine oil and tearing apart the workshop owner's corpse; still others stuffed their shoes into soup cans and then watched the scene with maniacal laughter.

—Everything they did was as incomprehensible as madness.

"It does seem a bit like a pseudo-human." Ai recalled a widely circulated urban legend and chuckled mischievously, "Twisted supernatural life forms that disguise themselves as humans to create fear and mental pollution—tsk, that matches up, interesting indeed—"

"In other words, we have basically confirmed their inhuman nature; now we still need to find the entity that replaced them."

Ronan said gravely, "The replacement of a snake that is not a snake wouldn't be so gentle—a possessed being? A dead soul? Neither seems quite right—"

What lies beneath those human shells?

Ai tilted her head and fell into deep thought.

This world is incredibly complex and fraught with danger.

In the process of exploring the "Grand Gift Pool," humanity discovers that it is not alone on this stage—the existence of the "Fantasy Species" is the most powerful proof.

These fantastical species, which do not conform to any evolutionary theory, have been occupying a place in the nest for who knows when. The origin of the first fantastical species is unknown. What humans know is that these life forms, which conform to the "large group intelligence model," are a species that can "communicate" and "coexist."

—This is immense good fortune.

Therefore, beings such as halflings, elves, fairies, and vampires were classified as "fantasy species." After a long period of coexistence, they even achieved fusion with the "animistic race," gained the right of pardon, and officially became residents of the present world.

However, not all "alien species" are as easy to talk to as "fantasy species".

The most straightforward example is worms, but of course, there are many more than just worms.

"No one can imagine how to live as equals with other races—especially when these aliens possess enough power to destroy us. We must ensure that our living space in this world belongs only to us, and is not shared with these incomprehensible monsters—"

—Therefore, we must eliminate this threat from the very bottom up.

With the survival of humanity as the primary measure, this is one of the three core treaties proposed by the "Survival Committee" in the Nest, and it is engraved in the Holy Nest Supreme Law of the Origin of the Sky.

"Unipolar Human Rights Act"

Seeing Ai's silent expression, Ankasha sighed and continued, "There may be bad people in the human community, there may be heinous criminals and madmen. But at least they can communicate. Even the most wicked can understand the beliefs of others and the rules of conduct that others follow."

The person he was explaining to seemed more like Connor.

"But those guys are different."

Ankasha took a deep breath and pointed downwards: "Those monsters outside the scope of the Human Rights Act—they are utterly incapable of empathy with anything outside themselves. They may be programmed life forms, obsessive beings, embodiments of pure instinct or divinity, indescribable mysteries. Anything outside themselves appears as a featureless resemblance to something else, and since they cannot communicate with each other, they don't even have a concrete definition of life—humanity, in their eyes, may just be a chaotic cloud of electronics, an equally incomprehensible fog."

—Our self-proclaimed noble reason and soul may be more trivial than dust in the eyes of those things.

"These kinds of life forms, unable to communicate or coexist, are categorized as 'different species' by the nest—the people living in the nest have all been told that such non-human beings are generally distinguished by only two criteria: 'the dead' and 'those not yet dead.'"

They may also possess "intelligence," but their interpretations of "the principles of wisdom" are vastly different—as distinct as humans, insects, inorganic matter, and computer programs. Even their behavioral patterns and logical systems are questions that can only be explored, making it impossible for them to resonate with each other emotionally and rationally.

—They have absolutely no possibility of mutual understanding with humans.

"As you can see."

Ankasha said in a deep voice, "Of these bottom-nest people who appeared out of nowhere, the only thing that can be considered original is probably their outer shell. Nobody knows what kind of alien nest is inside."

Clearly, among the people present, Connor appeared the most confused. After all, of the remaining four, two had positions within the Foundation and had studied the basics of mysticism, the third had conducted related research at a large corporation, and Garen seemed to have gained some understanding of the alien species while working as Ankasha's assistant.

Only Connor knew almost nothing about it—having been an ordinary person for over twenty years, he had indeed heard the name "alien"—sometimes when think tanks sent out mass messages, they would add a standard warning like "Beware of alien infiltration, rewards for reporting," but this concept had no reference point in his mind.

"These are the mutants?"

He frowned at the group of people imprisoned in the giant glass vessel, and said with a frown, "They look exactly like us, perhaps only outwardly—but—I just find it strange that their inhuman nature can be determined solely through the analysis of their language?"

"It's not just 'merely'."

Ronan interjected, "As a proper Foundation apprentice, he's the most qualified to speak on this topic. 'Language' is the obstacle we set up for the aliens. Before this defense was built, Hallownest was like a sieve—full of inhuman beings. It was far more chaotic than it is now—of course, that's just what I've heard."

Ai smiled and confirmed, "The Foundation did indeed put in the effort—regarding the screening for alien species."

The "language system" of a single world is already imprinted on the foundation of society and civilization. It is a completely solidified cognitive scale that will never undergo large-scale changes in the short term.

To put it simply: In the "Supreme Laws" formulated by the "Sustainability Committee", the essential definition of "human identity" includes two most basic standards: "reproductive ability" and "language".

Initially, Hallownest attempted to categorize and statistically analyze all sexual characteristics for unified management—however, there are countless bestial sexual characteristics; even among the most diverse groups of cats and dogs, there are hundreds or thousands of species, with extreme control groups such as tigers and sand cats, hyenas and fennec foxes.

If we were to forcibly classify them according to class, order, and species at this level of detail...

It's obvious that the intermediate process is complicated and the workload is ridiculously large. Regardless of how much hair those office workers will lose, this method of differentiation does not solve any problems.

Finally, the Foundation established the two key criteria mentioned above for determining whether intelligent life can be identified as "alien"—just as some civilizations use "primitive skulls" as an indicator to determine whether a creature that looks like a human is truly human, or whether something has replaced the contents of its shell.

Fertility is somewhat difficult to verify, so Hallownest relies more on "language" as a reference standard. Through the power of the Hume Tree and the Think Tank, as well as the power of the Dome itself, the Foundation has also erected an invisible "giant wall" in the concept of species.

Like antivirus software, it performs a registry search on "Sexuality: Language"—this wall can filter out and isolate those who are not human, completely eliminating "alien species" from the "Hall of Nest Animists".

"Law: Different species cannot learn and master human languages."

This is an early warning mechanism that overlays the underlying concept of "humanity," and it is also one of Hallownest's "Great Mysteries of Permanence."

"The Wall of True Spirit Registration"

"Therefore, anyone who can't speak our language is a different species."

Connor uttered a stunned sound, then suddenly realized what was happening, while Ai, standing to the side, murmured softly.

"It's still a bit hard to see clearly."

He clapped his hands lightly, and the gray mist gathered in front of him. "Open up one-way passage to me. I need to get closer and take a look—be careful not to let them out."

"Boss?" Connor was taken aback at first, then stood quietly to the side.

On the other side, Ankasha didn't react much, while Jia En gazed at him with admiration. Ronan—this guy stared at the fox for a long time, but in the end, he couldn't come up with anything. He could only sigh and say, "I was going to tell you to be careful, but considering you even took down something like a snake that isn't a snake, this little guy—should be easier to deal with than an insect?"

He tested Ai's confidence, after all, Ronan, who was in the core group, knew the fox's true strength - although the cheat codes he was using were getting bigger and bigger, and now it was a bit hard to understand, but he definitely hadn't broken through the second stage yet.

When dealing with "alien species," you can never be too cautious.

"A small matter."

Ai waved his hand, and then the gray mist enveloped him and carried him into the sealed-off area. As soon as he firmly stepped into this gray-shrouded area, the mist passage behind him quickly closed.

"Let me see what you're made of—"

Upon closer contact, Ai slowly walked to the center of this group of "alien beings"—his approach and actions did not seem to attract much attention. A strange individual who suddenly appeared and began to act seemed to be "not included in their thought process" to them.

"What if it's like this?"

So, he silently spread his arms, and the radiance that had been concealed before burst forth from his eyes.

Like lighting a dazzling lamp in the pitch-black night, countless overlapping shadows cast almost scorching gazes upon Ai—under the expanding gravitational pull, all eyes within the shielded zone locked onto Ai at the same moment—

—From my dreams—you who came from my dreams!

Neither of them spoke, yet a certain vibration rippled outwards, resonating with the passion within them and evoking waves of "meaning" that could be translated.

—I have seen that radiance! The light flowing from the end of Arcadia—the Butterfly Child from the palace, it must be to guide us!

—Can we go home now?

—Arcadia—Palace, sob sob, we've finally found our way back—

—Messenger, messenger, let me have a lick!

—Light! It's light!!!!

~endendendendend—

The vibrations were chaotic and disorderly, with no regard for order or sequence. It was as if countless voices were simultaneously whispering in her ear, driving Ai Yiren crazy.

He took a step back with a look of disgust, silently casting a secret spell called Wind Barrier, suppressing the figures rushing towards him against the gray screen.

.

-really.

The fox made its judgment.

-moth.

"Oh—" Little White, who had been AFK for half a day, finally came out to make his presence known. "These guys—I think I vaguely remember them?"

"You're like a robot," Ai couldn't help but complain.

"Stop arguing, stop arguing. Didn't I sleep too hard and mess up my brain? — I remember now, those annoying bastards, those guys who are always chasing after the glow — along with that big moth, they're all no good."

"But how did I end up here? —|"

Xiao Bai was also a little confused: "Their kingdom was built very close to the Radiance. That collapse of the pure white should have completely destroyed that place, after all, it was a disaster that almost brought the Radiance to its knees."

Get to the point.

"These are Celestials, the things inside those shells," Xiaobai finally said bluntly. "Favored by the Moth's Criterion, innate mysterious life forms, and of course, a group of guys that Radiance hates."

"Fairy Spirit—" Ai frowned, "This doesn't look like it at all—"

"Oh, I forgot to mention, the Fairy Spirits are actually a very large clan—with many internal subcategories, like the 'Fairy' subspecies, which seems to be recognized as a fantasy species by the Nest."

Xiao Bai added leisurely, "But unfortunately, the alien species in front of you is the most vicious type among the immortal spirits. Let me think, what's it called—"

"Change lives."

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