Chapter 261

After all, on the surface, the social attributes exhibited by the Alaya Race's representatives are: no interest in power, rare and noble, exceptionally beautiful, and a desire to fall in love with humans.

This setting can be described as having an innate noble physique, with all kinds of buffs stacked to the max.

Furthermore, given all these attributes, they also possess the most crucial key: the key to awakening humanity.

Therefore, no matter how many times the ruling class of the empire changed, the status of the bloodline nobles would always remain unshaken.

This has led to a situation where whoever rises to power in any human race immediately tries to win them over.

Little did they know, they actually had no interest in this little bit of power in human society.

"This form of rule can be maintained for a long time. Every time humanity is wiped out, it is initiated by the Mastermind, Alaya Race has no choice but to cooperate. This is also the reason for their growing dissatisfaction and fear of the Mastermind."

Xu Yuan communicated with Wen Jing in his consciousness.

For the past few days, she has been observing everything around her through his eyes.

The Planet Four is the name used within the Alaya Race; within the empire, this planet is called the Frontier Star.

As its name suggests, it is located on the outermost edge of the Imperial social circle, and its status, in comparison to the Federation, is somewhat like a combination of the School District Planet and the Red Earth Star.

The vast majority of ordinary people in the empire who cannot awaken live on this planet.

The technological level of most of the creations here is much lower than that of the Federation.

The streets were noisy, filled with voices, the clanging of metal, the screeching of machinery, and the rumble of wheels rolling over the cobblestones. Various signs lined the roadside, and occasionally a patrol team in armor would pass by, their boots making a rhythmic thud.

It looks very much like a steampunk style.

However, the energy here is not ordinary coal, but a high-energy fuel ' Raw Ore ' made by the Alaya Race. It is mined by humans in the form of fake vein ore and is also the unified energy source of the empire.

To the outside world, they claimed that the Raw Ore was produced by the overflow of energy from Awakened.

Therefore, the scarcity and impurities of Raw Ore on Frontier Star limit the industrial and technological levels of these planets. In contrast, the purity and quantity of Raw Ore on the other three habitable planets gradually increase, supporting the pinnacle of the empire's technology.

But even the Empire's pinnacle technology is not as modern as the Federation's.

Because the Alaya Civilization's style of governance towards humanity has always tended to maintain the backward productive environment of the feudal era.

Initially, the Alaya Race was considered 'gods' in human society, later it was reduced to 'divine descendants', and finally it became the 'bloodline nobles' we know today.

This is all because the rise of the Mastermind led to the Federation, which directly brought the era to the colonization of star systems. It was inevitable that there would be intersections with this area, so the Alaya Race had to make the Empire improve its technological level, but it still left an influence on cultural traditions.

The most obvious thing is the unique architecture that exists here.

Xu Yuan, the view suddenly opened up before him.

Before them stood a towering palace, distinctly different from ordinary buildings on this planet. Its style was exquisite and magnificent, with a faint aura of energy radiating from it. This was not merely to display its majesty and beauty, but also to serve as one of the energy nodes of the planet's protective shield.

This is the 'Awakening Temple' that the Empire has established on various habitable planets.

At that moment, a group of people gathered not far from the palace, watching an excited middle-aged man.

"My daughter Xier, my Treasure Shell daughter, passed the undercover selection!"

He held up a crumpled piece of paper stamped with the Temple's red seal.

A stir ran through the crowd. Some offered congratulations, some expressed envy, and many more simply craned their necks to look at the piece of paper, as if a second glance would bring them good fortune.

Unlike the Federation, which pulled humanity out of School District Planet, the Empire's awakening selection system was much simpler and more brutal.

The Empire's awakening system was divided into two phases.

The first stage is a potential pre-selection for children who have reached the age of twelve. It is free and mandatory, and all eligible children must participate.

Children who pass the first stage are deemed to have the potential for future awakening and are eligible to enter the second stage, participating in a formal awakening selection process at the age of eighteen.

Of course, this second stage, like the Federation, is merely a qualification for awakening; whether one can successfully awaken in the end is not certain.

Overall, the probability is similar to that of the Federation, fluctuating between 10% and 20%.

Wen Jing asked, "What was tested in the first potential selection?"

"Gene activity," Xu Yuan replied, while simultaneously transmitting the basic data he possessed to her.

After years of exploring patterns, both civilizations have discovered that humans with high genetic activity have a greater chance of achieving a high level of "Wilderness Body" after successfully awakening.

"Gene activity..."

Wen Jing thought of the selection process for the School District Planet, which was essentially a similar situation.

The dual cultivation of literary and martial arts is essentially a selection process for genes with superior physical and intellectual abilities. However, the Empire directly determines life and death through testing, while the Mastermind is relatively 'fair,' giving people a chance to awaken through 'effort.'

"But this opportunity was taken away by them."

The Analysis Personality is currently in seclusion near the black hole, studying the knowledge of the Alaya Race transmitted from the Xu Yuan. Therefore, Wen Jing also learns the truth about the awakening qualification and the Genetic Collapse.

Pure humans have a chance of directly awakening after the age of eighteen.

The reason why the Federation Empire has the qualification to awaken is that all humans are born with a very small portion of their genes that are altered in a way that does not affect their normal life, thus failing to meet the conditions of 'pure human'.

The awakening ritual, on the other hand, involves the two civilizations using technological means to restore the genetic fragments that had been altered to their original state.

In this way, those humans who are capable of awakening will awaken directly.

Throughout history, in both human societies, only those genes that have undergone an 'awakening ritual' are considered human genes in the original sense.

However, this technology is a hidden genetic portal that was embedded early on. The two major civilizations' method of controlling Genetic Collapse is to tamper with the pure human genes of the Awakened and revert them to the 'incorrect version'.

A non-human body cannot support Wilderness Body, and will naturally collapse.

Only by entering the Ancient Wilderness and switching to the Wilderness Body form can one maintain their existence.

This is also why Awakened can avoid death by entering the Ancient Wilderness when facing Genetic Collapse.

"The control over Genetic Collapse has several levels, mainly urging humanity to enter the Ancient Wilderness. Therefore, some Awakened have a buffer period, but when the Mastermind decided to kill me, it directly launched the highest level of collapse. I only survived because of the existence of the Spacetime Amber Clone."

Wen Jing's Creation Personality inexplicably had an idea: perhaps the teacher's Luck Aura had protected her during the first Ancient Wilderness collapse incident.

If she had been attacked before the split, she would have certainly died.

After a pause, Wen Jing withdrew his thoughts and asked Xu Yuan, "Are all the potential targets we're looking for those who didn't pass the gene activity screening?"

"Yes, children who pass the selection process, regardless of their background, will generally be given important training until they turn eighteen, while those who don't pass are basically abandoned," Xu Yuan continued. "However, children who don't pass the preliminary selection can participate again at their own expense; the price is 10,000 credits."

This price is indeed much cheaper than the self-funded awakening price for the children of Federation tycoons, but it is by no means something that ordinary families on the Frontier Star can afford.

"The Alaya Race's surveillance resources are concentrated on Awakened. They don't care about ordinary people; they're just at the basic level. There are loopholes to exploit. If you want to obtain the status of an Awakened in an Empire, the best target is someone like this 'silent descendant' who is over eighteen years old but not qualified to enter the second stage."

Through his gaze, Wen Jing saw a few scattered children standing beside the temple, their expressions blank.

At the age of twelve, he was already able to understand the cruelty of fate.

"The number of people who awaken at their own expense is small, but they still serve as a sample. The Alaya Race won't obstruct them, but they won't pay special attention either," Xu Yuan said. "The next formal awakening selection will be in seven days."

Wen Jing said, "That's about enough. Let's move on to the next step."

"Yes."

After identifying the potential targets, Xu Yuan began to spend money everywhere.

"Have you heard? A member of a bloodline family is traveling around here, and he's incredibly generous, helping people everywhere he goes!"

"Really? Such a good thing? Uh, I'm not trying to say anything bad about the nobleman, I mean he's a distinguished bloodline nobleman... who would talk to someone other than Awakened?"

"Of course it's true! I didn't believe it at first either. Nika from the Plaza Tea House got a thousand credits as a tip for brewing really good tea! A thousand! That's enough for us to work for years without eating or drinking!"

"Excellent, excellent. Although bloodline nobles hold an unapproachable status, they also have different personalities. This gentleman seems quite young, hence his very approachable demeanor."

"Oh my god, where is he now? I'm going to try my luck too."

"Haha, go ahead, but it seems this bloodline nobleman prefers women."

The news quickly spread throughout the surrounding area, but the legendary bloodline nobleman was elusive, 'traveling' to different regions, and those who went to try their luck were not guaranteed to encounter him.

As an Alaya Race, the wealth of the empire was naturally limitless for Xu Yuan.

However, he certainly can't use it indefinitely; he just needs to keep it within a certain limit. As long as he doesn't contact Awakened, his behavior of giving money to ordinary people everywhere won't even attract the attention of faction regulators.

Of course, if it gets noticed, Xu Yuan has also prepared an experimental description of 'enhancing the reputation and influence of human society'.

The main research subjects of the Alaya Race are Awakened, and they conduct all sorts of experiments on them. It's perfectly normal for them to establish a kind-hearted persona.

"You're welcome. Use this money to treat your mother's illness and live a good life."

In the Riverbend District, Xu Yuan spoke gently to the grateful child in front of him through a hood that completely concealed his face.