Chapter 125: Exile

Since Fan Bei now had the power to suppress Little White, he naturally chose to continue using both threats and inducements. The other party decisively yielded, revealing the mysteries of the Ethereal World one by one, though whether they were true or false remained for Fan Bei to carefully judge.

After all, only a fool would take everything an opponent said at face value.

"Actually, I'm just a small fry," it said sullenly. "Earth is a place of exile; I didn't lie to you about that. As for the society I come from, I can only say it exists within the Ethereal World; I don't know its exact location. That place is vast, and I am merely a member of the social underclass. During a struggle between two powerful figures, I was just passing by and got caught up in it, being exiled to Earth along with the faction of the figure who lost."

Hearing this, Fan Bei subconsciously thought of that mysterious manor.

"The others were luckier. Since they followed that powerful figure into battle, they could at least claim some scraps in this wilderness on Earth. But I was an innocent bystander, forgotten by everyone. I ended up with no territory to claim, left to linger and struggle for survival among you, and even forced to endure the bullying of you indigenous people. It’s a classic case of a tiger fallen into the flatlands being bullied by dogs," Little White said, clearly resentful.

Hearing this, Fan Bei silently kneaded it from the shape of a spatula back into a ball.

"What exactly is the deal with the Evil Spirits? Why did the Evil Tide that plagued Earth for decades come to such an abrupt end?" Fan Bei continued to ask.

Although he already had his own theories, he wanted to hear the answer from an indigenous inhabitant like Little White.

"As for the Evil Spirits, they are the base-level products of our society, the foundation for nurturing higher-level life," Little White continued. "They are the exclusive domain of the powerful figures. When a person of status arrives in a place, these Evil Spirits instinctively create an Ethereal World for them. Once the local Ethereal World is fully formed, the powerful figure moves in to reside, simultaneously sealing off the Evil Spirits and allowing the local lifeforms to recover and propagate, serving as a constant source of nourishment for the Ethereal World."

"That’s not right," Fan Bei decisively seized upon a loophole in the creature's logic. "By your account, the Ethereal World is inherently limited and constantly spreading. Earth was not within its coverage area before. How then did it have a projection in your Ethereal World? How was it discovered, and how did you get here?"

Little White was stunned, glancing around evasively. "This—that—can I take back what I just said?"

"Damn it, Little White, at a time like this, you still dare to deceive your master?" Big White stopped playing with the collar and said angrily. "Do you want to stop taking advantage of me?"

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you, won't I?" Little White said helplessly. "Like I said before, it's better not to know what you don't know. Ignorance is bliss; fools are the easiest to satisfy. The truth is: if the life on a planet thrives to its peak, and the spiritual energy accumulated among them reaches a critical threshold—and if many of them start longing for the extraordinary, hoping for the 'resurgence of spiritual energy,' and wanting to abandon their old path—they will resonate with our Ethereal World and project into it."

"It's like you sent many signals into the universe, which we received. Of course, some planets are just unlucky, discovered and invaded by trailblazers. You lot brought this upon yourselves. You were originally in a desolate, backwater region that no one cared about. It would have taken at least several billion years for you to be discovered. By then, your technology would have developed to its peak, and you would have had everything you needed. But instead, you craved spiritual resurgence and the arrival of the extraordinary... you spent every day fantasizing about these shortcuts, wanting something for nothing, wanting premature immortality. It is only natural that you drew the attention of our world."

A *Three-Body Problem* variant? Fan Bei immediately thought of a novel from his past life: the weak must humbly hide themselves, yet they cannot isolate themselves; they must humbly explore the world to have a chance at survival and growth.

Simply hiding without exploring or developing is still a dead end.

If one is too arrogant to hide, they will inevitably be exposed and perish, just like insects in nature—the fate of being exposed to a natural predator is simply to be eaten.

He continued to ask: "The question of discovery is resolved, but how did you cross tens of billions of light-years to get here?"

"In order to exile that powerful figure, they specifically chose your region—the most remote place that still had a significant population. Using the projections you sent out, they fixed the coordinates of the real world and projected that figure and his faction here. The subsequent rise and fall of the Evil Tide were all caused by this powerful figure," Little White continued.

Fan Bei suddenly grew suspicious: "You know so much. Are you really just the innocent, uninvolved small fry you claim to be? Could you be that powerful figure yourself?"

"How is that possible? No such cliché plot would appear in reality—a prince lost in the wild, picked up by you people!" Little White suddenly jumped up, flustered and angry.

"Hmm, looking at your temperament, you really don't seem like a powerful figure. A figure that strong wouldn't be reduced to fighting a dog for scraps," Fan Bei shook his head.

Little White felt a surge of relief. *Sure enough, the more you say, the more you slip up.* From now on, no matter how much it was beaten or trampled, it would not say another word. The blockheaded Big White was easy to fool, but its master was a suspicious character.

Although it wasn't the powerful figure, its background was indeed significant.

Having learned more about what lay behind the Evil Tide, Fan Bei felt he had more options for his grand system-planning endeavor.

He possessed the "Father of the System" ability, which allowed him to redeem various cultivation techniques already existing on Earth.

He believed that the powerful figure existed within Earth's Ethereal World, and the techniques Lin Zhongqing had previously redeemed likely originated from that source.

Of course, before redeeming anything, he had to have the concept of it. If he didn't even know a thing existed, how could he redeem it?

Just like now, knowing how Little White arrived, knowing about the projections and the transmission, he could target his efforts and drive his "tycoon" host to make the right redemptions.

Although his current mental energy reserves had reached over fifty million, he still firmly remembered his previous lessons: save where possible. If he could make the host do the redeeming, he wouldn't do it himself.

After all, who knew when he would need that mental energy to deal with unknown risks?

Especially since, according to Little White, its original society must be a behemoth—just the fact that they could project exiles across tens of billions of light-years was proof enough.

While these exiles weren't purely material beings—they belonged to the Ethereal World—and likely didn't need to follow the rules of the physical world during transmission, being supported by special laws instead, that only made them more mysterious.

Fan Bei acted on his thoughts. He transmitted the gathered information to his sole steward system and instructed it on what to redeem.

In truth, he didn't even need to tell it; the steward system, whose intelligence had already reached a bottleneck, knew exactly what to do.

It was a pity that during a maintenance check, a notification had appeared: "The system's intelligence cannot, in a true sense, surpass its creator." Otherwise, he believed the steward system could have done even better than he could.