My Weekly Refreshing Mentor Spirit-Chapter 275 - 259: Heart Stealer

Xue Ding suddenly felt that the abstract behavioral patterns of the Dragon Race might even be a type of collective unconsciousness. If he were a biologist, carefully studying the cultural transformation of the Dragon Race from their return home, and the impact of long migration on the entire species, he might be able to win a Nobel Prize.

However, there was no time for that now. An elder, upon seeing Xue Ding, immediately rushed over. After understanding the situation, he fell silent.

"What's wrong? Is there some difficulty?" Xue Ding asked.

"No, Prince, if your description is accurate, we seem to have recorded this enemy race before. Our ancestors once traded with them." The words of the Dragon Race elder made Xue Ding pause, then a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"I need the corresponding intelligence and information."

"Sure, I'll go get the relevant records right away." The elder ran off quickly, making Xue Ding feel a bit embarrassed.

What's going on? He thought he could just find a dragon here to help him look through the data, but in just a few days, it was like the whole Dragon Race had undergone a massive change, suddenly behaving more like a dog race from a behavioral standpoint.

At the same time, they seemed overly enthusiastic, now acting like they were his subordinates.

Xue Ding couldn't quite understand, so he decided not to think too much about it and just take things one step at a time. After all, he wasn't a god and couldn't predict all the outcomes. If the Dragon Race wanted to become abstract, silly youths, he couldn't stop them.

Soon, the elder returned, carrying a large bundle of thick scrolls on his back.

"Prince, Prince, I found it. Here is the information about the 'Divine King' race." The Dragon Race handed over a large pile of scrolls to Xue Ding, then quickly found one to say, "There's a detailed record here."

Xue Ding opened the scroll.

Inside, it recorded a special creature called the "Heart Stealer." These are non-corporeal, pure soul-body beings, seemingly from a planet that has long been apocalyptic.

The apocalyptic planet is entirely unsuitable for any life. Yet, civilization continues there, embodied by the Heart Stealers.

These creatures are somewhat like traditional "ghosts," having no physical form, no gender, and lacking any typical biological functions and desires. They drift across the planet's surface like spirits.

Their racial traits allow them to effortlessly invade living bodies, silently infiltrating the deepest parts of a soul, slowly consuming it over years or even decades.

Thus, once they have fully consumed a soul, they are no longer what they once were but rather a hybrid of multiple souls. They even forget their original Heart Stealer identity, perhaps only realizing their true nature when instinct is triggered, thus evading most detections.

Back in the day, the Dragon Race ancestors worked alongside this race, and ancestors even developed magic to fend off such entities from entering their bodies.

Conveniently, such magic is included in these scrolls.

"Qiankun Heart Inquiry Technique?" Xue Ding looked at the magic name silently, then suspiciously stared at the Dragon Race elder opposite him.

"Uh, the name isn't important. We've named it all kinds of weird things in the past." The elder seemed embarrassed, turning his head.

Xue Ding opened the magic and burst into laughter.

The principle of this magic is simple, overly so: to beat up one's nature.

Yes, just keep beating up one's nature, like the people in that abstract beast girl world who continuously beat up their worse sides. This magic essentially forces a division into "id, ego, superego," then incessantly beats them until a result is achieved...

Because beating one's former self is essentially self-analysis, but for the Heart Stealers, it feels like a senseless thrashing, akin to an assault.

So this move is brutally effective against the Heart Stealers. Though Dragon Race ancestors only tested it once, it proved overwhelmingly successful.

Xue Ding: "..."

This bizarre magic inventory shows that Dragon Race ancestors have done quite a few odd things over the millions of years.

Then came the introduction to the Heart Stealer's world.

It was a planet that once had a brilliant civilization. However, the civilization was destroyed, plunging the world into an apocalypse, where the species struggled to survive.

After countless years, they gradually evolved into the form of "Heart Stealers" that don't rely on physical bodies to survive, resembling ghosts, turning the entire planet into a Ghostly Realm. As energy beings, they transformed the place into a world unsuitable for carbon-based life.

Any other lifeform that comes here feels like entering the Underworld, as numerous Heart Stealers invade their soul level, manifesting as countless nightmares overnight and a growing sense of dissociation from their behaviors and temperament.

After reviewing a series of intelligence reports, Xue Ding roughly understood the nature of the enemy.

In other words, Heart Stealers, after possession, have already shed their original nature, transforming into a fusion of multiple souls.

Thus, people of this race often act as servants and undercover agents on other planets.

Even the World Consciousness won't notice the intrusion, nor realize the complete replacement unless there's a special protection mechanism in place.

This thing acts on the level of soul energy, rather than a material replacement.

Therefore, even if the World Consciousness notices it, it would only see an ordinary person's soul energy significantly increased, with nothing else out of the ordinary.

Xue Dili took a deep breath.

The entire Cosmos hosts all sorts of strange races. The body of someone like Senior Olivia, a Mimic Demon, resembles a slime that can transform into any appearance.

Then there are these Heart Stealers, which are a ghost-like race.

If this thing enters a normal civilized world, wouldn't it be akin to a "Pseudo-man Invasion" or a "Weird Revival" scenario?

Xue Dili was quite astounded.

Soon enough, Xue Dili recorded the intelligence received and didn't stay long.

He immediately returned to the Main World and logged into the World Consciousness account to try things out.

The tricky part about Heart Stealers is their ability to invade when one is unprepared, but after knowing the intelligence, one can set up a corresponding firewall to easily intercept the Heart Stealers.

For instance, if the limit for Blue Star creatures is Tier Zero peak, Xue Dili could set it so that all soul energies over Tier One are displayed.

In the next moment, the entire world was left with only a few dim spots of light, and those Tier One and above souls Xue Dili looked at were all familiar to him.

Hmm, at least there's no such thing in his hometown.

However, just as Xue Dili was about to leave, he surprisingly found a more complex and intricate code within his mother's code.

Unlike Xue Dili's simple filtering of soul magnitude, his mother's code included a whole set of complex schemes for soul filtering, anomaly detection, and anomaly selection, containing tens of thousands of dense instructions. Any individual not conforming to this anomaly detection would be struck by a one-hundred-billion-volt thunder.

Xue Dili: "..."

This is odd; why does the World Consciousness have such a complex detection mechanism inside it?

Could it be that Blue Star once suffered an invasion by these creatures?

Xue Dili felt a slight chill down his spine.

So at least for a period, this thing attempted to invade Blue Star, but once his mother detected it, she set up a series of detection and attack mechanisms. Realizing it hit a brick wall, this thing no longer considered this planet.

Thus, this detection mechanism was permanently retained, hidden in the deepest part of the code, and used as a layer of firewall.

But what if his mother hadn't detected it back then...

Xue Dili saw the final line of code: Extinction events...

Trigger all volcanic eruptions and initiate an extinction-level biological annihilation until the anomaly disappears.

Thinking about this, Xue Dili closed his eyes. His mother might not give the enemy any hope and instead would destroy son without remorse, cleansing all species, and if anomalies persisted, cleansing again.

Again and again, elbowing the biosphere until it is devoid of anomalies, ending the biological annihilation.

Xue Dili: "..."

Alright, this method is simple and brutal, yet effective.

Possibly, among several extinction events on the geological layer, one was due to such an invasion, forcing his mother to start elbowing the entire world.

Upon seeing this, Xue Dili was relieved; having a super reliable World Consciousness is indeed beneficial, as at least if there's a problem, it truly addresses it, avoiding any home theft scenario.

Meanwhile, a world like the Angel's is just a facade. That world even waited until Heart Stealers reached the Divine Realm and planted Divine Wood to realize something was amiss.

With everything clear in mind, Xue Dili became spirited. He's no longer without intelligence, now becoming a semi-intelligent Xue Dili.

Regarding the Heart Stealer's racial talent for possession, could Xue Dili achieve it?

Absolutely, easily.

Xue Dili could do it even more effortlessly, even substituting himself for someone in another world without possession.

This is the capability the Modifier can achieve: altering his identity to a native's, preferably completing an identity replacement with an existing native, using their ID to move quietly, secretly browsing the net.