Chapter 110: The Unknown Behind the Scenes

As a spiritual life form, Harvey, existing in the immaterial world, had no concept of time, so he was unaware of when that disaster occurred or how long it had been since.

After something at the core collapsed, all the elements in the “Phantom Realm” fell into chaos, and the elemental life forms began attacking each other in their madness, unable to accommodate the attachment of spiritual life from the “Upper World.”

The most severe consequence was that, likely due to this turmoil, both the “Upper World” and the “Lower World” simultaneously closed off their passages to the interstitial world of the “Phantom Realm,” leaving Harvey unable to return to the Upper World and forced to drift aimlessly in the chaotic and frenzied material interworld, awaiting the moment when his consciousness would eventually fade away into nothingness.

Many things happened during that time, but what truly changed Harvey’s situation was the recent appearance of a material life form.

Harvey didn’t know its name; names meant nothing to upper-world beings—it was just a code, not a “being.” Even the name “Harvey” was given to him by that entity.

That material life form opened a narrow passageway in the “Phantom Realm,” not connecting to the “Upper World” or “Lower World,” but leading to the now more fantastical and splendid principal material world.

Through this passage, he took away some drifting upper-world life forms and lower-world elemental forms, and Harvey was one of them. Thus, the latter truly understood what the actual material world, different from the concept of the foundational world, was like.

Interestingly, material life forms were generally unable to observe spiritual life forms and couldn’t control the irrational chaotic elemental bodies, but that guy did it with something called “equipment.”

For this reason, the material life form was given the title of “Summoner.”

However, the passage didn’t stay open for long; the “Summoner’s” actions were soon discovered, forcing him to flee. Although the reasons were unclear, it seemed he never opened a similar passage again afterward.

But Harvey didn’t care; most upper-world beings had no concepts of empathy toward their kind. Evolved to the extreme, spirits generally brought coldness, selfishness, and suspicion.

After leaving that hellhole and arriving in the material world, the “Summoner” provided many of the upper-life forms he brought out with new bodies, and Harvey was no exception. The body he received was a magical beast known as the “Devouring Serpent.”

According to the “Summoner,” this serpent possessed a powerful and rare bloodline; although it was quite diluted, it still granted it excellent strength above level four.

As a magical beast, the material life form’s body was strong, but mostly only had instincts or lower-level intelligence on the spiritual level. Through the innate attachment ability carried by upper-world life, Harvey easily occupied the serpent’s body and took over everything.

The possession by upper-world life was not merely attachment; if you were to say it closer, it resembled a concept proposed by the “Summoner” known as “Soul Reaping.”

Compared to attachment, it was more like directly swallowing the original consciousness and becoming a new individual. While one could inherit most of the original body’s abilities and memories, leaving was not straightforward.

Moreover, “Soul Reaping” itself had certain difficulties; if it weren’t for low-intelligence life forms like lower-world elemental beings or magical beasts, similar processes could easily face backlash from the original body’s consciousness, resulting in failure or even getting killed in return.

After successfully transforming into the “Devouring Serpent,” Harvey began following the “Summoner.” On one hand, this was because they had signed a contract with binding force upon leaving the “Phantom Realm.” On the other hand, Harvey himself was completely ignorant of this vast principal material world and needed guidance and help from someone familiar.

The “Devouring Serpent” possessed a terrifying talent for devouring magic-powered creatures, continuously growing stronger, though there was a limit to how much it could consume at once. Otherwise, it might face issues like indigestion or even exploding from magical overload, but it was still impressive.

Originally, this serpent hunted with the instinct to eat, and both the quality and quantity ingested were far from the limit. After taking over the serpent’s body, Harvey began actively and strategically feeding to continue strengthening his power.

Soon enough, it reached a major bottleneck at the peak of level four.

There were also differences in strength among upper-world beings, and since Harvey himself already had strength above level five, he could easily occupy the “Devouring Serpent” body. However, spiritual power and material strength were different; to evolve, he would need to consume more prey over a longer period.

At that moment, while lurking in the mountains, he received a task transmitted by the “Summoner.”

It was to head to a nearby area and eliminate a local magical beast group known as “Mountain Wolves.”

Elimination equals hunting, and after hunting, one could eat. For Harvey, who followed the “Summoner’s” orders and tried to remain dormant without causing too much noise, this was undoubtedly a lucrative task.

Upon arriving at the mission location, he quickly found the group described by the “Summoner” and launched an attack.

Those Mountain Wolves were well-coordinated and used various methods to resist, but unfortunately, their strongest members were only level three. They stood no chance against the peak-level four “Devouring Serpent,” controlled by a highly intelligent upper-world life form.

Harvey intentionally didn’t showcase overwhelming power all at once, giving the Mountain Wolves the illusion that “they could win if they just tried a little harder,” which tempted them not to flee but to counterattack repeatedly, gradually gnawing at the wolf pack’s fighting force.

He understood the concept of “territory” held dearly by the “Wolf Clan” in this world; as long as they hadn’t fallen into complete despair, they would fight with all their might if there was even a glimmer of hope.

This was sometimes referred to as “resilience,” but to Harvey, it seemed incredibly foolish.

In fact, it was precisely taking advantage of this trait that Harvey eliminated most of the wolf pack’s main force and kept them firmly within their territory.

Later, even though the Mountain Wolves finally realized and hid themselves using scent-masking plants, Harvey didn’t care much; in his calculations, they would never escape now.

It was just that he had eaten too much recently and needed to digest. Although the issue of poor eyesight fell to Harvey after occupying the serpent’s body, his olfactory senses could completely substitute for the former. The numerous wolves would eventually have to come out to forage—that was just a matter of time.

Just as he was leisurely playing the waiting game with the wolf pack, figuring out how much more he needed to eat to break through to the next level, the scent of several unfamiliar intruders suddenly appeared in the area.

At first, Harvey didn’t pay much attention. This “Devouring Serpent” was an exceptionally powerful creature in the principal material world, and aside from some beings near the “Summoner,” it had hardly encountered anything stronger since arriving here.

Even so, the cautious nature of upper-world life compelled Harvey to decide to avoid active contact. The intruders were likely just passing by, and there was no need to conflict with unknown parties.

But soon, a terrifying feeling of being watched suddenly descended from above, plunging Harvey into extreme fear.

He didn’t know what was casting that gaze, but it was definitely something he couldn’t oppose. No, there was simply no comparison; it was like the difference between the blazing sun in the sky and a tiny candle flame.

Harvey decided to flee immediately, but he was reluctant to abandon the Mountain Wolves he had raised for so long. In truth, he had already roughly deduced the location of those intruders. It was only because he had eaten too much and wanted to weaken their resistance by letting them feel hunger a bit more that he hadn’t acted immediately.

If he devoured this last batch of magic-rich prey, he should be able to break through to level five, and leaving this place now would make finding such high-quality food difficult later.

After all, in other locations, the “Summoner” wouldn’t allow him to hunt freely.

In the end, Harvey made a decision—consume the prey as quickly as possible and escape as far as he could before the terrifying presence truly descended.

It shouldn’t take long.

It should…

   

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