Chapter 494

That research project was called 【Occultology】.

Occultology is divided into many subfields.

Qingchen was in charge of 【Human Occult Compatibility】.

In simple terms, it's the study of compatibility between humans and occult entities.

For example, which human organ has higher compatibility with a certain occult entity, making them suitable for pairing in 【Experimental Subject】 research—that's the problem Qingchen needed to solve.

Of course, the one doing the cutting wasn't Qingchen; he was just a dead theoretical researcher.

"Big shot, can you please not add the word 'dead' in front?"

"Alright, dead theoretical researcher."

But as Qingchen himself said, his lifelong dream since childhood was to become a scientist.

So when he entered the game and had the chance to realize his dream in an alternative way, he became extremely diligent.

In a brand-new subject, a completely unexplored field, with all players starting from zero, he relied on his own effort and study to build an exceptionally solid theoretical foundation, earning great recognition from the 【Phoenix Organization】; Xia Xiyu even invited him to join the 【Shadow Guild】.

"What guild?!" Fang Yue froze.

"The Shadow Guild. What's wrong?"

"..."

Qingchen clearly had no idea what the 【Shadow Guild】 was—perhaps he wasn't from Jianghai City.

Unlike the 【Alliance Guild】, which was based in Jianghai City and radiated its influence nationwide.

The Shadow Guild, as an underground organization, had strong power only within Jianghai City, with limited reach in other regions.

So it was normal that Qingchen didn't know about it.

After thinking for a moment, Fang Yue asked: "Did you join the 【Shadow Guild】?"

"No, I don't like game matters interfering with reality."

"Then never mind... keep talking about 【Occultology】."

Clearly, Qingchen held the typical old-school player mindset—he kept game and reality strictly separate.

"What a pity..."

Fang Yue pondered, unable to believe that Xia Xiyu, whom he had killed, was from the 【Shadow Guild】!

Too bad the character was already dead and Qingchen hadn't joined the Shadow Guild—otherwise, he might have been able to extract information about the Shadow Guild's hideouts from this lead.

Listening to Qingchen's detailed explanation, Fang Yue gained a general understanding of the 【Phoenix Organization】's main field: 【Occultology】.

In simple terms, it was the study of occult entities—no different from Qingsi County's 【Occult Research Division】.

But its scale was far larger, and its research direction was drastically different.

Qingsi County's 【Occult Research Division】 merely studied the classification and special abilities of occult entities, primarily compiling these intelligence reports so that Qingsi's Qingwei could know how to defend and attack when encountering occult entities, reducing casualties.

The 【Phoenix Organization】's 【Occultology】, however, conducted meticulous research on occult entities.

It comprehensively explored every aspect: the composition of occult entities, how they used their abilities, the principles behind those abilities, live organ dissections, and residue analysis of corpses.

And the most important department was the 【Experimental Subject】 department.

It studied how to implant the traits, abilities, and power of occult entities into the human body.

This implantation could involve surgical suturing, organ replacement, direct ingestion of extracted occult fluid, or other methods.

In short, the methods were bizarre and varied, but the goal was always the same: to grant humans the power of occult entities!

Fang Yue suddenly recalled his own power activation—the moment his eyes turned pitch black and black blood flowed—and couldn't help asking:

"Isn't that just like what happens when a human is possessed and their body undergoes occult revival?"

"Similar, but under this premise, the human's will and cultivation level are preserved. Merging both into one—that's the ultimate goal of the 【Occultology】 research at the stronghold."

Merged into one... human-occult unity...

Fang Yue froze, flashes of the 【Shi Zhi Gui】 trying to force-feed him poison broth flooding his mind as he first entered the game.

And the words spoken by the traitor in Gu Yue Cun, Mu Zi.

So... the occult side was researching how to turn humans into occult entities, while humanity was researching how to fuse occult entities with humans and wield both powers simultaneously!

Both sides' research and experiments felt insane and absurd, yet both had actual operational records.

Fang Yue couldn't help recalling the incident at Qingluan Lou, where survivors who had been possessed suddenly had their possession interrupted.

A terrifying hypothesis slowly surfaced in Fang Yue's mind.

"Could it be... the occult side's research has already achieved a minor breakthrough? On the technological tree of turning humans into occult entities, they've subtly unlocked a branch path: the possessed occult entity can now trigger its own revival at will—and terminate it at will!"

If my guess is right... Qingsi County is in grave danger!

They've maxed out stealth!

Imagine: if humans were massively possessed, yet the revival could be remotely controlled and terminated at any moment—this turns possessed humans into both containers and hostages!

In a sense, the occult side's research has also reached the path of human-occult unity, mirroring the 【Phoenix Organization】's 【Experimental Subject】 project!

Normal possession involves the occult entity killing the human and taking over the body—it's not true transformation into an occult entity. These are two different concepts.

As for the boy Fang Yue saw on his first night in the game, turning into an occult entity by consuming 【Black Ember】, that was an extremely rare occurrence—like winning the lottery with a side bet. It's negligible, and what the occult entities truly sought was a stable method to transform humans into occult entities, not such negligible anomalies.

At this moment, Fang Yue felt something was deeply strange.

On one side were occult entities that killed humans; on the other, a dark organization that tortured humans.

Yet beneath the surface, both were scientists, occultologists—pioneers relentlessly advancing along the path of technological progress??

Granted, one served the occult, the other served humanity.

Two opposing forces, yet now, their final outcomes seemed to converge on the same goal.

Humans becoming occult entities—eradicating humanity at its root, achieving universal unity.

Human-occult unity—a new species, achieving universal unity.

But this was merely Fang Yue's personal speculation; both sides likely had far deeper intentions than "universal unity."

"Currently, regarding the 【experimental subjects】, as you can see, there are already some 'success' cases. It's just that achieving perfect compatibility, while also having a human with strong personal strength, and still needing to integrate a powerful anomaly with perfect high compatibility, inherit its characteristic strength, and bring out the human's own Martial Dao power—this is simply too difficult. So there are success cases, but they're basically all failures: either they can only use the power of the anomaly, or they can only use the power of Martial Dao—otherwise the body collapses on the spot.

"Personally, I internally refer to these 【experimental subjects】 as version 1.0. Once we overcome the difficulties, we can research version 2.0. I believe that when the two are combined, the experimental subjects will no longer be a wasted effort, but a synonym for power!"

In the morning, he proudly puffed out his chest, and at the end, couldn't help but summarize: "In short, every effect is meant to move closer to the 【Ghost Spirit Root】. Whenever we can replicate the effect of the 【Ghost Spirit Root】, that's when our project can be called a success."

Fang Yue: …

Fang Yue:???

Fang Yue:!!!

(End of this chapter)