Crossing the Lesser True Void's boundary and stepping into the first of the two worlds that had been assigned to her for investigation, Han Junqiao acted exceptionally cautiously. Exactly like everyone on her team had agreed to beforehand, she didn't even dare to absorb the ambient Energy, instead relying solely upon her own reserves.

  Like all of Theodore's Subordinates, due to his Dantians' ridiculous size, they pretty much couldn't use up their own Energy without trying their very hardest–and even then, it would be anything but easily achieved.

  'That's strange. Why did that vague trepidation I felt before completely disappear just now?'

  Furrowing her brows, she halted in her tracks and patiently focused on her senses–yet they were all telling her the same thing: Whilst she and the others had originally had to be careful when outside of Krysmidonia's worlds, once she had actually entered, there was no danger to be found whatsoever.

  'Are the defences that they're relying on possibly only directed towards outside threats?'

  After considering a few potential alternatives, this was the explanation that she eventually guessed to be the most likely one to be accurate. However, she felt as if she was missing a crucial detail. Would the Krysmidonites really not guard the insides of their worlds at all, or at the very least their border regions?

  'Something's wrong, I'm sure of it! ... for now, though, I'll keep exploring and see if I can find anything. Then, I'll inform the others.'

  Despite agonizing over this missing link of knowledge, she was unable to peel back the veil of mystery. With no better alternative, she chose to proceed with her mission. And as soon as she did so, a vague feeling of relief spread through her heart –she hadn't even realized how strongly her previous worries had affected her.

  With a small smile on her lips, she finally gazed upon the scenery that lay ahead of her. It was a Plane-type world stretching far into the distance, filled with idyllic greenery, vast bodies of water, and towering mountain ranges. There were the occasionally bigger and smaller settlements here and there, but there was a distinct lack of more high-tech, nature-encroaching buildings. Clearly, this place was somewhat akin to her own home world: Harbouring an 'ancient-style' civilization, as her lover would call it.

  But solely relying upon her own eyesight, that was all that she could tell at first glance. She was initially still a bit hesitant to make use of her perception to scout wide areas in more detail, but considering that her instincts weren't sending her any warnings whatsoever, she eventually chose to take a small peek. After all, what's the harm?

  As she was slowly descending to the ground, an extremely large amount of information flooded her mind, painting a vivid, lifelike picture of the landscape and the society that inhabited it.

  The people here were clearly regular humans, and the style of their buildings was vaguely reminiscent of that of the Han Empire, just a bit less pompous and grandiose. She was also intrigued to find out that everyone appeared to live in harmony with nature, though not to the extent that those Elves, which she had heard about, did. Rather, the present humanity's peaceful coexistence with their surroundings differed significantly. And in some aspects, it was even more extreme!

  Meat and plant product consumption was the norm, but the people's living spaces were nestled securely between the existing geography and fauna. No single hint at a tree ever having been chopped down could be found anywhere, and neither were there any quarries.

  Every building seemed to have been built based solely upon naturally occurring products of people' surroundings: Branches that fell due to old age or weather conditions, stones that had separated from rocky areas due to erosion or seismic activity, et cetera.

  That, in and of itself, was already a bit unusual, and very similar to the Elves. However, where this world differed was when it came to the relationship between humanity and the present livestock plus wildlife.

  Han Junqiao stared wide-eyed as she focused on a butcher shop. Instead of the more brutal sights that she had become used to over the past century, here, the animals were offering themselves up of their own volition!

  A perfectly fine cow trotted into the back of the shop, seemingly fully aware of the fate that awaited it. Yet, it was calm and peaceful, with no hints of resentment or fear in its eyes. It glanced at the one who would slaughter it with compassion in its gaze, and the butcher looked back at it with an almost identical expression. No words were exchanged–after all, they didn't speak the same language–yet, they could still communicate their emotions.

  Watching in silence as the cow passed away and would later be transformed into nutrients for its human neighbours, Han Junqiao was confused. This was not an isolated incident, it was the same worldwide! Whether it be other cows, pigs, birds or fish, they all behaved just like this one cow had.

  'Is it some sort of mind control effect? Or an instinct that has been bred into these animals through generations?'

  Very quickly, she could discard the first of those suspicions, as she could not detect any sort of interference of this kind, no matter how hard she tried. While it was possible that the one responsible for it all was simply too powerful for her to discover, she so far had no indication that an individual like that was present in this world.

  As for the latter option, there was no real way for her to either confirm or deny that it was the case. But from what she could tell, there were no signs of any laboratories focused on researching the animal kingdom.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  'Well... so far, so good. Although some of these discoveries are a bit puzzling, at the very least, there are no significant threats around.'

  Shelving her worries for the time being, a feeling of relaxation spread within her, mollifying her remaining unease almost entirely. Regardless of what was going on, not having been attacked by this point was already a far better outcome than she had feared. And more than that, this world seemed to be a very safe place...

  'Huh? Now that I think about it, isn't it a little bit too peaceful?'

  Her eyes slightly glazing over in bewilderment, she realized that even between individual humans, there was no strife or conflict to be found. There were no arguments, there were no fights, and there were no strained relations of any kind!

  She hadn't immediately picked up on this, as although her perception could spread through vast parts of the world, a short glimpse of it all had only been sufficient to tell her that there was currently nothing untoward occurring. Yet, as the minutes slipped by, this never changed. It became more and more unlikely for this state to be merely a coincidence, which had prompted her to concentrate on the tiny details, seeking an explanation.

  This civilization had no homelessness, not a single orphan, and no divorced families. Everything appeared to follow a pre-established order, with not one element or individual aiming to subvert it. Everyone was equal–both in rights, as well as in opportunities. Medical emergencies would be handled by the community at large, and the victim of such circumstances didn't have to be the sole one to pay the price for their misfortune.

  Many, many more observations of this kind were made, to the point that Han Junqiao felt that what she was looking at... was simply absurd! How could a civilization like this possibly exist!?

  It wasn't even that unwanted elements or unstable individuals were selectively eliminated before they became a problem, thereby resulting in such a utopian society. No, from her significant sample size and the by now close to an hour of observation time, she could be sure that nothing like that was occurring anywhere in this place.

  As for the mystics that she had heard about, there were only a scarce few of them in this world–at least according to her current findings. They were somewhat similar to monks, living in temples far removed from the hustle and bustle of people at large. Due to the absence of any sort of violence, she couldn't exactly witness them in action, merely being able to peer at a few of them during their training.

  From what she could tell, they appeared no different from cultivators, absorbing the Energy in their surroundings. Well, they also engaged in more physical exercises, like many ordinary mortals and semi-cultivators. But that wasn't too unusual, as it could simply be a result of their personal preferences–there weren't enough mystics for her to be entirely sure just yet.

  '... all I can do at this point is to continue my observations. Maybe, I'll find a nice café and blend into the background a bit, treating this not only as work, but also a sort of impromptu holiday.'

  Her smile widening, she felt a bit more of the burden that she had been carrying lifting from her shoulders. Before she knew it, she had already ordered an espresso and was listening in to the various conversations happening around her. With the tricks that she had picked up in the past century, nobody could tell that she was not simply a normal, everyday person. Heck, they pretty much forgot about her entirely the moment that she left their line of sight!

  'What a nice world to live in. They don't appear to have any worries, and everyone is so pleasant and polite with each other!'

  Unknowingly, her default expression had turned rather similar to that of the people around her, and everywhere else in this part of Krysmidonia. There was an atmosphere of joy in every corner and all was harmonious. Still, there was some sort of nagging feeling at the back of her mind, which simply didn't want to disappear no matter how hard she tried to ignore it and enjoy this moment of bliss.

  'If I can't remember it, then it couldn't have been all that important.'

  This was but one of many thoughts with which she had been quelling her doubts, yet when this particular one had finished crossing her mind, she suddenly recalled something that Theodore had once told her.

  According to him, especially when people were trying to tell themselves that what they had forgotten wasn't too important, that was when the alarm bells should begin to ring loudly! After all, this was a subconscious, automatic response of the mind, attempting to deceive the self into a false sense of security. It only triggered when something vital had been lost, and its purpose was to protect the mental state from excessive doubt, guilt, worry, or other disturbances with comforting white lies.

  'This is bad!'

  Jolting to her feet, the continuously suppressed unease within her erupted all at once, causing her to grow pale and stagger backwards, rattling her awake from the delightful fantasy that she had been trapped in.

  Everything had been wrong from the very beginning. Hadn't she agreed that she would give regular updates to the others? And that she would immediately contact them via Kiran's network if anything peculiar was discovered? Why did she either forget about that, or somehow ignore it?!

  There had been many points in time when she had vaguely felt that something was off, but her mind had been unable to properly acknowledge this fact, making excuses to soothe herself with over and over again. It was as if she had been stuck in a mire of overwhelming peace and tranquillity, sinking ever deeper with every passing moment!

  It was only when she recalled that very specific statement of her lover, purely by accident, that her pacified mind was unable to prevent itself from putting two and two together any longer.

  In truth, her instincts had been screaming at her at the top of their lungs all along, and her internal warning bells had been ringing unceasingly–she simply had been unable to hear them!

  'I've got to get out of here as quickly as possible!'

  Dashing out of the café at her top speed, she swiftly shared her discovery and her circumstances in her team's group chat. Her mission was already a failure. Whether or not she had actually been discovered, she absolutely couldn't allow herself to stay here any longer, else she might be fully assimilated into this terrifying place!

  All of a sudden, when she was not too far from the world's boundary, her still-spread out perception caused her to notice a truly eerie development.

  Every single living being, and absurdly enough even the mountains and rivers–even the sky itself–were turning in her direction, a peaceful yet horrifying smile on their lips. Clearly, the geography and the heavens shouldn't have had any facial features, yet the sensation that they conveyed to her was the exact same as that of the innumerable organisms!

  ... and worst of all, right as she stepped into the region bordering the Lesser True Void, she found herself teleported back to the world's centre. With literally everything staring her down.

  Evidently, although she wanted nothing more than to escape, Krysmidonia was clinging to her, refusing to let her go. In this scenario, she was a fly, and this world was a Venus flytrap on universe-level steroids.

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