Returning to Tri-Branch Slope, Zhou Yi first took a rest for two days.

During this period, people continuously came to his door seeking employment and allegiance.

They were either notorious fugitives, assassins, raiders, or Avengers.

"I excel at infiltration and assassination. I have successfully assassinated a sea lord and twelve alchemists from various organizations, all without leaving a trace. If the company finds certain individuals troublesome, I can make them disappear forever, and my rates are reasonable. Please consider my offer."

...

"I, along with my brothers, greatly admire Mr. Zhou and sincerely hope to offer our service. We specialize in dealing with the Mechanical City, are adept at programming, can forge fake ID cards, and have robbed the dispatch center six times, successfully obtaining Light Seeds three times. We have quite a bit of professional experience in this field."

...

"I have an irreconcilable enmity with Governor Lord Thousand Blades! I beg Mr. Zhou to avenge me. I am willing to offer up my entire fortune, as well as a family heirloom."

...

However, no proper advanced learners from the Dragon Palace came seeking employment.

Zhou Yi was somewhat vexed.

His reputation from the battle at the Dragon Palace had indeed spread, but the direction was somewhat skewed. In the eyes of the denizens of the Forbidden Continent, he seemed more like the leader of an evil force.

"This is what comes of slaying a dragon."

Qin Xie, whose body had largely recovered, said, "On the Forbidden Continent, dragons have a good reputation. Over the years of operating the Dragon Palace, even though it has challenged and accepted challenges from opponents, it always did so gracefully, having powerful strength and seldom facing defeat."

"Normally, in the safe zones, making an opponent concede or maintaining an advantage to a certain degree would automatically result in victory. But this time you outright killed it… It's hard not to make people suspect you came just to finish off the dragon."

Zhou Yi felt that was unreasonable.

The dragon never conceded.

It was still trying to counterattack and struggle, so of course, I could only continue with suppressive firepower.

And the victory determination didn't even kick in.

"So, in the eyes of outsiders, you came to the Dragon Palace just to provoke trouble."

Qin Xie said with schadenfreude, "At least in Zone 7, Segment 16, your notorious name is now known to all."

"Madam Mei also sent congratulations, urging me to tell you, she congratulates you on establishing authority by slaying the dragon."

"..."

Zhou Yi didn't give it much more thought.

What's done is done; let it be.

But Duke Destructive said, "This is actually a good thing on the Forbidden Continent."

"In this place, where mixed characters abound and various dangerous roles appear, having such a fierce reputation makes things much easier. Especially for keeping an electric cat, this will reduce a lot of unnecessary harassment in the future. The dragon serves as an example of what happens to those who offend you."

Zhou Yi's face twitched.

Now the dragon had become a unit of measurement.

But it was, in fact, very strong.

It was mainly because I had inadvertently inflicted heavy damage on the dragon with a first strike of a million Light Seeds, and it had held up for a while under siege before dying.

"There's another important matter."

Duke Destructive said gravely, "Killing a Concept Life, you would claim part of its conceptual sigils. Since you have slain the dragon, you should have obtained part of that power, right?"

Zhou Yi puzzled: "What is that?"

"It's a sort of sigil of certain Consciousness entities."

"When you kill a Concept Life, you seize a part of its Consciousness. However, the most unique aspect of a conceptual feature is that it is interlinked with the Concept Life."

Duke Destructive went on to explain, "Because you have killed a dragon, you now carry the dragon's sigil, and it might seek you out."

"You are now also eligible to compete for the dragon concept."

"Concept Life influences people, and people's cognition, in turn, affects the Concept Life. They are a collective consciousness composed of various consciousness movements, but are led by one Consciousness."

"As the slayer, you will rank very high in the competition."

Zhou Yi's mind stirred: "You're saying... with the conceptual sigil, one can vie for the dominion over a Concept Life entity like the dragon?"

"Exactly!"

"Though the dragon has slid from its peak for a long time, once slain by the Heavenly People, if it recovers, it remains a top-tier Concept Life."

Duke Destructive seemed more excited than Zhou Yi, the Dragon Slayer, and said, "You can try this path too."

Zhou Yi consulted Duke Destructive in detail.

Only then did he begin to understand.

Concept Life entities start off like a mic master, born of a small-scale collective consciousness.

However, as they grow and expand, their Consciousness becomes increasingly vast and complex, drawing on related consciousness from all over the world.

Like a snowball growing larger as it rolls.

Typically, the innermost initial Consciousness leads this motion, serving as the brain, while other Consciousness entities and Consciousness Fragments are like the body.

But killing it once would cause fragmentation and a decrease in strength. As an outside Destroyer, one then absorbs a portion of the central Consciousness, also known as the conceptual sigil.

Possessing the sigil, one could influence that Concept Life.

The more times one kills it, the greater the exerted influence, potentially supplanting its existence.

Zhou Yi suddenly caught on: "So, when the Heavenly People slew the dragon, it was not only to weaken it but also to control it?"

"That's correct."

Duke Destructive's eyes swiveled, "But after the dragon resurrected, it hid in the Forbidden Continent, and the Heavenly People couldn't do anything about it."

Zhou Yi immersed himself in his Memory Core.

Within the spiral world formed by the Black and White Consciousness Key, indeed he found something different.

Floating there was a fragmented glowing emblem.

Zhou Yi focused on it and found it was the two-dimensional dragon tattoo from the dragon's arrival, but only a very small area was lit up; the rest was dim.

He tried to touch this fragment of the emblem.

"Dragon, you can hear my voice, right?"

"..."

Although the other party remained silent, there were still clear fluctuations within the emblem.

"I took Nian Gao with me. Next year, I plan to come again in the spring to recruit people. The talent training at Dragon Palace is very comprehensive, so I'll see you then."

Finally, the other side spoke: "There's something off about you."

"?"

"You are not Concept Life, but you have that guy who can create musical Consciousness."

"That's the mic master, an employee of my company."

"I have observed that you only have B-level strength... why?"

Zhou Yi answered, "It's the power of money. You know, I run a business, so I have a relatively large reserve of Light Seeds."

"No, I mean, why are you only at B-level? This completely defies common sense. Your Consciousness strength is still at B-level, so how can this possibly be in control of a stronger Concept Life... This is just not normal."

So this was the issue.

That was thanks to White Suanni.

Zhou Yi said, "I can't disclose this information."

The dragon's voice came through the mark: "How do you know about my past? Those characteristics and manifestations from the era of gods should be incomprehensible to people nowadays... Are you deeply researching the divine era?"

"A personal interest."

The dragon seemed indifferent to its own death.

It was more curious about Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi took the chance and began a conversation with it.

"There are various theories about the origin of dragons, some say there was once a life form called dragons—truer archetypes that existed before you, while others claim dragons are the end result of various tribes coming together, worshiping and assembling a montage of totems. It's impossible to verify now."

"However, after the initial concept of dragons emerged, in ancient China, dragons represented nobility and royal power; they were also protective deities prayed to for rain, good harvests, and averting disasters."

Zhou Yi spoke of what he had known since he was young.

"But in the region of Ancient Europe, now known as the Western Continent, dragons often represented greed and brutality, being raiders and collectors, leaning more towards that of monsters."

The dragon said, "It seems not much different from now."

"Before I sequestered myself, on the East Continent, it was indeed easier to be peaceful and stable, and I was willing to help the seekers and the weak. They seemed not to fear me too, rather, they were happy to see me."

"When I went to the Western Continent, seeing life sparked an urge to slaughter; the more I saw, the more I wanted to kill, and my desire to slaughter and plunder increased there. It seems the descendants of Old Humans still inherit this part of conceptual cognition."

Zhou Yi thought to himself that it was indeed the case.

This was another example of the saying "oranges born in the south are oranges, and those born in the north are trifoliate oranges."

Eastern Dragons have a divine nature.

Western Dragons bear a more beastial characteristic.

Zhou Yi said, "So, you still can't leave the Forbidden Continent? Are you still being hunted by the Heavenly People?"

"Of course."

A deep voice came through the dragon emblem: "Those folks have never thought of letting me go."

Zhou Yi hesitated, "There are many Concept Lives in this world, why are the Heavenly People so fixated on you? I haven't heard of them paying such close attention and concern to other Concept Lives. Why is that?"

The other side was silent for a moment.

"You are better off not knowing, it will bring you endless trouble."

Zhou Yi thought to himself.

Just by being a human impersonating Heavenly People, if discovered, I'm afraid I would be put on the assassination list.

I need to gather more information about Heavenly People to be able to deal with them in the future.

Zhou Yi decided to take a guess.

"You know their secret."

"..."

"It seems I guessed correctly?"

The dragon indifferently said, "The Heavenly People don't care about most Concept Lives."

"I was killed by them forty-nine times, ending up in the weak state I am now, only able to hide on the Forbidden Continent. Fortunately, Dragon Palace, this enormous Building Life, is with me, helping me train many Dragon's Inheritors, allowing me to have some influence on the outside world."

"The reason for my current plight is that when I was once revered as a god, one of the Heavenly People was my follower."

Zhou Yi was shocked.

That was genuinely messing with the celestial order.

"I know how absurd this sounds, but this is the truth."

"The Heavenly People are different from what the outside world thinks… They do have incredibly powerful strength, a strength so immense that many people cannot even imagine or comprehend. But at the same time, they are very fragile; the fragility I'm talking about is a spiritual one."

The dragon explained, "At least the Heavenly Person I know of, it's quite anxious. Because the Heavenly People are continuously dying and being destroyed, they are unable to reproduce, and the lack of new blood from offsprings makes it difficult for them to replenish and continue. Thus, they need to find suitable lives from this world to transform as their offspring."

This was consistent with what Zhou Yi knew.

"However, this has not been going well."

"The Heavenly Person I know of is also facing imminent death. It chose an extreme method, completely separating its Consciousness from its body and entering into the Great Holy Spirit of this world."

"Through the power and mechanism of the Great Holy Spirit, it merged itself into a Concept Life, initiating a rebirth in this way."

"Because I knew too much, I was hunted. After being reassembled time and again, what I remember has been reduced to just this little bit."

Zhou Yi's heart chilled: "Which Concept Life is the Heavenly Person disguised as?"

"Me."

Zhou Yi was taken aback.

The dragon is a Heavenly Person?!

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