I Don't Agree to the Terms

The matter of mutant life forms naturally disappeared from the entire Navia Empire... without a trace of gossip to be heard.

The online public opinion was quickly suppressed, first by eliminating relevant heat, then by exposing a scandal of a celebrity affair, it soon vanished. Hot searches were cleared, and the memory of it on the internet quickly faded.

Lastly, the related individuals were warned offline, and all affairs regarding the mutant life forms became akin to an urban legend; your insistent claims were without proof, and even if you presented a video, it would be dismissed as fake, and the Navia Empire even intentionally steered the narrative in that direction.

In just five days, it started with claims that the video was fabricated, followed by all sorts of debunking and muddying the waters. Even if someone testified to having seen it, they were treated as seeking attention.

Gu Shanhai, seeing this, was not too surprised. If such a vast empire couldn't handle even this bit of influence, wouldn't that be too incompetent?

The council members are greedy but not powerless, especially since this matter touches on their ruling position and interests. If they really were incapable, they wouldn't have made it into the council; they would have been completely devoured by other members.

Just like the former research institute director Baruch, he naively thought that being in the council meant superiority. The reality is, once you're in the council, you need enough ability to fend off both overt attacks and secret plots while tearing off a piece from other members to grow stronger. If you're someone else's lackey, you'll end up being used and then discarded, instead of living a life of glory and wealth.

The council is incredibly competitive.

"This matter has blown up quite a bit; even Emperor Navia had to get involved, truly inconceivable."

It was the first time Gu Shanhai had seen Emperor Navia summon the head of the research institute to report and then had him executed. Of course, this matter was also covered up, and it was publicly claimed that the director died suddenly.

He also took this opportunity to investigate Emperor Navia, who looked as burly as a bear. His strength was nothing special, but the primal Ghost Energy in him was just one step away from becoming the concept of death.

To Gu Shanhai, this indeed posed a threat of death, unfortunately for Navia, Gu Shanhai could resurrect after death; the concept of death couldn't kill him.

So, the real difficulty in this world for him was the concept of death; other than that, there wasn't much of a threat.

Perhaps it was because the bizarre influenced the outcome; otherwise, the world's difficulty level could have been higher.

Using the eyes of that executed research institute director, Gu Shanhai also collected information on Emperor Navia and confirmed that the latter was the Great Emperor who founded the Navia Empire. Any Crown Prince that would ascend the throne would be taken over by him.

His soul and Ghost Energy had fused into one, rightfully called a Ghost Energy Soul. Correspondingly, his physical body could not achieve eternal immortality, hence why he chose to survive through body snatching.

He could live without body snatching, but without the confines of a body, the terrifying primal Ghost Energy would form an extremely horrifying radiation field.

According to Gu Shanhai's estimate, given the intensity of the primal Ghost Energy inside Emperor Navia, its release would turn at least hundreds of thousands of miles into a barren land, and beyond that distance, the effect would gradually diminish.

It was like a minor version of the death concept. By data inference, once Emperor Navia entered the mutant universe, the primal Ghost Energy within him would most likely be stimulated, making him take the final step to become the death concept, and then he would be added into the world.

It was probably why Emperor Navia had secretly supported the research institute's, council's, and Royal Family's various explorations of the mutant universe.

Now he was being supplemented into the world as material, but if he mastered the corresponding technology, instead of being material for the world, he could be the one in control of both worlds.

Thus, the research institute's study of mutant life forms was essentially Emperor Navia's preliminary investigation of the concept of life.

And now it seems rather successful; otherwise, how could they have managed to create mutant life forms with altered life structures?

The clever ones weren't only people like Gu Shanhai; Emperor Navia could suppress the entire Navia Empire with just the balance of power, without any use of force—this ability was there.

Perhaps his talent was not in science and research, but he could make those with such talents serve him and help him explore this path.

"Emperor Navia is not to be feared; he can't leave the Imperial Palace unless he really wants to cross me," Gu Shanhai did not take Emperor Navia too seriously.

Through prior observation, Gu Shanhai had established a personality model of Emperor Navia using the Four Saints Beasts System. While not one hundred percent accurate, it was around seventy percent correct. Any higher accuracy, and even Gu Shanhai himself wouldn't have believed it, as the emperor had deep and inscrutable motives; who knew if the outwardly displayed personality was genuine or if anything was hidden.

However, one thing was certain: The abundant Ghost Energy in the Imperial Palace emanated from the Ghost Energy Soul of Emperor Navia, just traces of it. Yet even these traces were enough to immerse the entire Imperial Palace.

It was precisely this observation that led Gu Shanhai to compare the Ghost Energy in the princes and discover that indeed, this was a path to strength, albeit an alternative experiment and creating spare bodies.