On the Effects of Heaven and Earth Energy Fields on Living Beings

Wang An looked over as Zhang Mingqing introduced them. Although Daoist Mingxin looked to be in his sixties or seventies, his hair was jet-black, his face serene, and his eyes seemed capable of seeing into people's hearts. He dressed plainly, and his Daoist robes were clean, neat, and spotless. Daoist Jingling was younger, around thirty-something, and was a spirited young man.

After he exchanged greetings with the two Daoists of the Jingming Sect, Zhang Mingqing continued by introducing Daoist Baozhen and Daoist Baoyuan of the Lingbao Sect. These two made the others look even more old-fashioned; their expressions had always been cold.

He then introduced Wang An to Master Zhenyi of the Pure Land School, Zen Master Shanji of the Caodong School, and finally Mr. Wang Li of the Jiangyou Wang School.

"All right, now that everyone knows one another, let us move on to today's topic: the effects of Heaven and Earth energy fields on living beings like us."

"Some fellow Daoists still don't know what Heaven and Earth energy fields are, so I'll give a brief introduction."

"You've all successfully taken a class, so you should know about Class Change Stones. Over the past few months, the authorities have observed the areas of strong magnetic interference in the various restricted zones and found that biological activity inside them has become increasingly frequent."

"Some ordinary creatures have even begun to grow stronger, breaking past their normal physiological limits."

"I'm not talking about those mutated creatures. Everyone here should know that they mutated after coming into contact with Class Change Stones."

"Strictly speaking, these mutated creatures are simply ordinary creatures that have taken classes. In essence, they're the same as us class holders."

In the cultivation world, the major schools had discovered that taking certain classes within their schools brought all sorts of bonuses that were highly beneficial to cultivation.

Some powerful major schools had begun organizing people to explore and collect Class Change Stones.

For cultivation-type class holders like them, the only way to obtain them was essentially to take part in an exploration or hire an exploration team and enter with them to take a class.

The state had no exchange channel for Class Change Stones. After all, usable Class Change Stones were already scarce, and resources were better concentrated on training top scientific and technological talent.

"But I'm talking about those ordinary creatures.

"According to information from the authorities, it has been confirmed that they aren't mutated creatures.

"Yet their various stats have already begun to exceed the limits of their species."

Hearing what Zhang Mingqing said, everyone realized how serious the matter was.

All along, no one had thought mutated creatures could threaten human civilization as a whole. There were only so many Class Change Stones.

It was impossible for mutated creatures to appear in groups and form a beast tide; creatures taking dozens of classes were also unlikely.

Even now, there were only a few thousand class holders in the whole world, so there couldn't be too many mutated creatures either.

Moreover, the scattered distribution of the meteorites made the chances of extreme individuals appearing among them far, far lower than among humans. Thus, no one worried that mutated creatures would pose a threat.

If, as Zhang Mingqing said, ordinary creatures had appeared that, for some reason, were beginning to break past their physiological limits and grow stronger,

then the matter was extremely serious. If it continued to spread, it might even threaten civilization's survival.

While everyone was worried, Wang An thought of the monkey guards he had seen in the monkey cave.

And that wisp of Clear Yang Qi, which had been unusually close to living beings.

Perhaps the feng shui energy fields in certain areas had continued to grow stronger, causing them to combine and produce gradually increasing amounts of Heaven and Earth Qi capable of strengthening living beings, leading to the current result.

After thinking of this cause, Wang An breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as he had previously guessed, to attain transcendence, one had to devise one's own transcendent rule runes to counter the physical laws of reality.

Otherwise, a mere accumulation of energy would still be unlikely to reach the scale at which a quantitative change caused a qualitative change. Even if one managed it by luck, one would gradually starve to death from a lack of energy.

That was how rigorous and cruel reality was. Without opposition at the level of laws, attaining transcendence was almost impossible.

Never mind comprehending rule runes with the intelligence of an ordinary creature.

Only those that had taken classes that increased intelligence, reaching or even surpassing human intelligence, had a sliver of a chance.

That was why Wang An had always wiped out such creatures whenever he encountered them.

Given the resources and current conditions of this planet, it could not accommodate a second intelligent species.

When it came to attaining transcendence, a living being's intelligence and the physical laws of reality were two great mountains weighing down on everything in the world.

Only the appearance of Class Change Stones, fragments of rule runes, had given transcendence a sliver of possibility.

Thinking of this, he felt that perhaps he could draw on the qi produced by the combination of these feng shui energy fields, whose effect was similar in that it increased physical attributes.

He could set up nodes to gather Clear Yang Qi and artificially create a qi chamber with an extremely high density of Heaven and Earth Qi.

That way, even if the living beings inside did not absorb Clear Yang Qi, the principles that gradually manifested because of its high concentration would transform their bodies and increase their attributes.

Perhaps this is the key to taking the [Feng Shui Master] class. At that thought, Wang An felt an urge to give it a try.

Seeing everyone's serious, somewhat worried expressions, Zhang Mingqing spoke.

"There's no need to worry. The state has already deployed the military to search these special areas where ordinary creatures have broken past their physiological limits, drive out other creatures, and establish quarantine zones."

"At present, apart from a small number where the uninhabited areas are too vast to search easily, most regions are already under control."

"Research over the past few days has yet to find the cause of these creatures growing stronger and breaking past their physiological limits."

"So the authorities want to look at this from a different perspective, from the perspective of us cultivators. What principle is at work here? Is there anything we haven't discovered?"

"If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to discuss them. Anything that provides insight will be converted into contribution points."

Hearing Zhang Mingqing's words, everyone relaxed and began drawing on the lineages of their respective cultivation practices and their understanding and knowledge of the world, trying to offer a reasonable explanation.

"Who knows? Maybe it's spiritual qi recovery. Wouldn't creatures mutating and growing stronger, and class holders appearing, be perfectly normal?"

The younger Daoist Jingling said this; from the way he spoke, it was clear he had read quite a few novels.

"It's possible, but if it were something like spiritual qi recovery, we cultivators should have been the first to sense this kind of energy appearing between heaven and earth."

Daoist Mingxin immediately exposed his fantasy.

"Perhaps some kind of substance or energy we can't currently detect has gathered in these areas, but it can bond with living beings and continually strengthen them."

Wang An expressed his conjecture in different, more scientific-sounding terms.

Hearing his words, everyone felt they made some sense and nodded.