“It wasn’t that hard to find after all—come on, give me an empty bottle.”

As soon as he said this to the dean of the Alchemy Academy, the old man snapped out of his daze, hurriedly fished out a glass bottle engraved with runes from his sleeve, and presented it with both hands.

Qi Xing didn't mind; he casually tossed the abstract "Whisper" into the bottle. The bottle instantly dimmed, the sealing spell activated automatically, and a brilliant rune flashed to suppress it. Only then did the "Whisper" in the bottle let out a series of silent shrieks, rolling and twisting inside, unwilling to give up.

Everyone watched in stunned silence.

However, this was only a small part of it. The incredible things Qi Xing's divine power could accomplish had only just begun.

"…Is this the mastermind that has been plaguing The Society for ten years, constantly invading the Sanctuary?"

"It seems a bit too simple. This can't possibly be everything, right?"

The master of the Astrology Academy took the bottle containing the "Whisper" and hurriedly cast a spell to examine it.

But the other deans, even now, were still at a loss as to what to do, all feeling quite bewildered:

They had just finished complaining, saying how difficult and arduous it had been for the past ten years with unknown individuals secretly invading the Sanctuary, and then [Rep-Man] had turned around and pulled a "worm" that had been secretly invading out of the head of their own pride and joy—wasn't that a bit too coincidental?

This was all just too smooth, too dramatic, wasn't it?

Could there really be such a coincidence?

…Could it be that you, [Rep-Man], staged this whole thing yourself?

Especially since Qi Xing was now asking them with great interest, "Well? Does this count as catching it for you?"

Since they couldn't afford to offend [Rep-Man], they could only wipe away cold sweat and explain, "My Lord, even if we want to trace it with magic and conduct a thorough analysis, I'm afraid it will take some time."

…Whatever gazes or attention there had been, they no longer lingered on Playfair Bahas.

That former acting mentor, once called a "genius," was now kneeling on the floor like a soaked dog, his face pale, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, cold sweat soaking his clothes, yet he couldn't even say a word.

"Take candidate Playfair Bahas away for a thorough examination, and then place him in temporary isolation."

His own superior, the dean of the Original Essence Academy, had already announced.

A very reasonable judgment, but for the person involved, it was no different from a cruel declaration of defeat and the loss of qualification for further study.

He understood better than anyone that if the hand of the invincible [Rep-Man] had been a second late, what everyone would have witnessed today would not have been a farce, but the beginning of his eternal damnation.

The Demon King, possessing god-like power, had acted to save him from eternal damnation.

Yet, ironically, the shame left behind was harder to erase than any other mark.

The "Whisper" trapped in the bottle, still wriggling like wet paint, no longer had the power to harm him.

…But as for the temptation of the "Demon" to Playfair Bahas, it was probably unprecedentedly huge now.

Resisting the thoughts flowing through his own mind was far more difficult than resisting any external mind-control magic.

————————————

It was obvious that in this day and age, having one of the best combat capabilities in the world could solve half the problems, and a warehouse of inexhaustible silver coins could solve almost the other half.

When these two were combined, the power was truly terrifying. And now, Qi Xing possessed both. Who would actually try to oppose him?

After the chaotic events temporarily subsided, the bewildered candidates and spirits waited in the cathedral. The deans could no longer hide everything, and finally had to disclose a portion of the truth to Qi Xing.

"So, the Sanctuary of your Hermes Society is really on the moon?"

Raising an eyebrow, Qi Xing asked curiously, confirming once again.

All five deans nodded helplessly.

"I want to go in and take a look—of course, I don't necessarily have to take one of your scarce spots." Qi Xing continued, "If it's confirmed to be on the moon, I can just fly there myself. Just tell me where exactly this Sanctuary is on the moon."

Qi Xing could certainly fly to the moon himself. He was currently using [silver coin] to boost his thunder-speed flight, with an upper limit of one-tenth the speed of light. It would take some time to escape the solar system, but simply flying to the moon was truly too easy.

He hadn't done so yet, simply because the surface area of the moon was actually quite large. It wasn't as if Qi Xing could just fly over, take a glance, and be sure to find where this Hermes Sanctuary was hidden; otherwise, he probably would have set off long ago.

"[Rep-Man], our Lunar Sanctuary is not for outsiders to visit casually."

The dean of the Original Essence Academy said with a bitter face,

"We are very grateful to you for helping us catch this shadow that attempted to sneak into the mind of our candidate representative. But first, the culprit hasn't been found yet…"

"But I am definitely not the culprit." Qi Xing interrupted him, "The timeline doesn't match. Ten years, my friend."

Ten years.

Anyone who had done even a little bit of investigation into [Rep-Man] would have discovered that ten years ago, Qi Xing had just escaped from the original family of this body, ran away from home, his combat power was not even as good as a small truck, and he didn't know anything.

Although one could suspect anything if they wanted to, and although this past intelligence and experience could just be the disguise of the Demon King [Rep-Man]—the deans here weren't actually paranoid to the point of being sick, and in the end, such words were impossible to say out loud.

"If you are worried that the culprit hasn't been caught yet, then you shouldn't push me out of the matter."

As he said this, Qi Xing couldn't help but smile,

"Letting me go in and take a look is equivalent to getting a Demon King bodyguard for free. You wouldn't pass up such a good opportunity, would you?"

"Strictly speaking, that's not how it works. Besides, [Master Leipu], if you really knew the details, you might not even be interested anymore."

Among the deans present, the most senior dean of the Original Essence Academy had no choice but to bite the bullet and explain,

"Even if you fly to the moon, even if you walk all over the moon, you won't be able to see or enter the [Lunar Sanctuary]."

"Truth be told, we don't have the ability to actually launch disciples, along with their physical bodies, to the moon for further study."

Huh?

Qi Xing was no longer a naive youth, after all. After a pause, he immediately reacted: "No physical body?"

The dean of the Original Essence Academy nodded honestly.

"[Rep-Man], you should remember that the spirits just told you that we can help the victorious spirit refine into a new form—this is something that can only be done with a spiritual body, and only through the [Lunar Sanctuary]."

"[Lunar Sanctuary] is a non-physical spiritual space that exists only on the far side of the moon."

"It is a place known to worldly people by names like [The Other Shore], [Valhalla], or [Golden Cube]."

Volume 6: Rep-Man · Lunar Expedition: 219: Redefinition

Flying out of Earth, through the starry sky, towards the moon, 384,400 kilometers away.

On the far side of the moon, within a spiritual phase that mortal eyes cannot perceive, visible only to mages—the massive [Lunar Sanctuary], the [Golden Cube], is embedded in the silver-white lunar surface.

It is not floating above the lunar surface, but "embedded" into it, like a golden eyeball deeply set into a pupil. None of its six faces point towards Earth, yet it gives one the feeling of constantly watching the Earth.

Human telescopes will never see it; its surface neither reflects light nor produces a physical image, but every mage with spiritual vision can "see" its outline in their perception.

Mortal mages certainly cannot fly up with their physical bodies; even riding a broomstick, it's impossible to fly to the moon.

But if one assumes a spiritual form, one can ride the aetheric winds, soar through the starry sky, and ascend directly to the lunar heavens—provided you have the correct guidance.

As for Qi Xing, his situation was an entirely different matter.

He could truly fly to the moon in his physical body.

Qi Xing was actually quite unwilling to let his soul leave his body and act independently… although he was certainly capable of it. Even if he was a very lame rogue martial immortal, there shouldn't be any immortal who couldn't achieve Yang Spirit projection.

But the problem was—this was Sasa's absurd universe!

Everyone should understand, right? In this eroge-style universe, a powerful mage's soul leaving its body and abandoning its shell—this in itself was a deadly Flag!

Qi Xing didn't want his soul to go wrong and suddenly get stuffed into a fleshlight; nor did he want to see the kind of plot from doujinshi where a monster or even a goblin suddenly took over his body and started acting recklessly.

After all, Qi Xing was indeed a man who had read doujinshi with these themes.

Thinking of this, he had absolutely no interest in projecting his Yang Spirit to personally go to the [Lunar Sanctuary]. For a moment, Qi Xing even felt a bit discouraged.

This was just so damn uninspiring.

"Sasa, when did this thing appear?"

After pondering for a moment, Qi Xing looked at the moon beneath his feet and asked.

—No need to worry about the vacuum environment. [Master Leipu] certainly had the ability to speak in space.

[It wasn't created by me, anyway, and it didn't exist before the Common Era.]

The Loli Evil God lay on Qi Xing's head, frowning,

[But I can be sure that this thing was made using [silver coin]… however, the [silver coin] itself is not inside.]

Unexpected, yet reasonable.

Qi Xing knew with his knees that such a massive spiritual construct must have been made with [silver coin], and was most likely created by that oldest Demon King of the [Magis Sect]—otherwise, what? Could it really have been built by ordinary humans from hundreds or thousands of years ago flying to the moon? Did that statement have even the slightest bit of persuasiveness?

It was just unexpected that this oldest Demon King was so stingy, not leaving even one [silver coin] inside this [Golden Cube] for Qi Xing to go in and snatch. Why didn't this plot follow the standard pattern?

[Although the [silver coin] wasn't stored inside, little fool, you should be able to tell what this big gold lump is used for.]

Sasa narrowed her eyes, not underestimating the Lunar Sanctuary like Qi Xing did.

[It's very creative… why do humans always manage to apply their creativity in problematic places?]

"I think your creativity is often applied in problematic places too."

Complaining aside, Qi Xing understood what Sasa meant.

By now, he had basically figured it out: the inner circle training of the [Hermes Society] was actually just uploading and projecting the consciousness of excellent disciples into the [Golden Cube]—he didn't know if they were taking high-intensity classes or what kind of learning method it was, but in any case, it was about rapidly training inside to the level of an inner circle superman, gaining a rapid leap in strength, and then sending their consciousness back to the ground.

Detaching from the physical body and entering such a massive spiritual facility for "learning" with pure consciousness, combined with the fact that this Golden Cube itself might also possess the attributes of some kind of magical database—such an arrangement was indeed quite creative and highly efficient, not hard to understand.

…If it were just that, Qi Xing would probably just praise it as "very creative."

But Qi Xing was not a fool who only looked at the surface, after all.

Connecting this to what the Roman Emperor had said before, the [Hermes Society] made seven spirits fight against each other, and the final winner would be sent into the [Lunar Sanctuary] for refinement, thereby rewriting their "character attributes" in the cognitive concepts of the entire human world.

For historical figures who were originally male, the [Society] could make all of humanity believe that they were actually female in history.

For historical figures who were originally the ones being fucked, the [Society] could also make all of humanity believe that they were actually the ones doing the fucking in history.

This was not just a simple "place of practice" anymore.

It sounded like some kind of sublimation ritual, but the essence of this ritual was clearly far more complex than it appeared on the surface. If one associated it with the role [silver coin] played in this universe, and with the human collective unconscious represented by the [Dream of All Living Beings], then piecing these clues together, it was not difficult for Qi Xing to make a bold speculation:

—Perhaps this [Golden Cube] embedded in the moon was a giant magical device used by the ancient Demon King of the [Magis Sect] to rewrite the collective consciousness of humanity.

It was not just a simple teaching and research facility, not just a large library database for recording knowledge,

If anyone could truly master this device, they could act like a god, arbitrarily erasing, rewriting, or adding to the "history" of a person, allowing the history of people and events to be reinterpreted by the world, and also allowing a once-evil name to be reshaped into a hero.

This was more than just "education,"

It was a pen that could tamper with humanity's perception of history and subvert the "past."

Can the past be changed?

Many people would say that the past cannot be changed, and there is indeed no magic in this world that can return to the past. Perhaps only Sasa, with her divine power fully restored, would have a way to rewrite space-time.

But if you could make everyone in the world believe in another version of history, then it would be almost equivalent to changing the past.

If the past exists, where does it exist? In books, recorded in text, and in people's memories.

As long as memories can be rewritten and cognition can be guided, the so-called "past" is no longer unshakeable.

Whoever controls the present can rewrite the past.

…However, Qi Xing didn't believe that the [Hermes Society] really had such great ability. If they really did, they should have ruled the world long ago.

"The oldest Demon King created such a huge device, but then ascended to his own [Inner Realm] without even teaching his disciples how to use it?"

Qi Xing frowned,

"…Is this really possible?"

[Who can say for sure about such things.]

Sasa said ungraciously,

[The point isn't them, it's you, little fool.]

[Now that you know there is no [silver coin] in this [Lunar Sanctuary], what do you plan to do next?]

Good question.

Qi Xing's original plan was to enter the [Lunar Sanctuary] and seek more information about the oldest Demon King of the [Magis Sect]. But given the current situation, Qi Xing was definitely unwilling to project his soul and enter the [Lunar Sanctuary] to look up information.

On the contrary, this [Golden Cube] itself—this function that was said to be able to tamper with human collective cognition—made Qi Xing feel increasingly tempted the more he looked at it!

As he gradually mastered the power of [silver coin], he also increasingly understood the correspondence between the [Dream of All Living Beings] and reality. If the operation of this Golden Cube could indeed influence the [Dream of All Living Beings]—then it was not just a boring, useless training tool for [The Society].

Until this moment, Qi Xing finally understood why Sasa frowned, and why this Loli Evil God would show a regretful expression of "the idea is good, but applied in the wrong place."

And within himself, somewhere in his heart, an irrepressible desire had already ignited.