“Explaining this matter is far more complicated than I imagined…” Earth-Serpent said as he stroked his clean white scalp. “Where should I even begin?”

Qi Xia paused for a moment before responding: “Start with yourself.”

Earth-Serpent nodded. “Right… If I’m to start with myself, then what I’m about to tell you addresses the initial question—the second direction of my teacher’s research: how to allow one person to simultaneously possess multiple ‘Immortal Arts.'”

Qi Xia nodded lightly.

“If I must explain it…” Earth-Serpent’s eyes flickered. “Since I myself possess a body that already carries an ‘Immortal Art,’ it’s extremely difficult for me to accommodate other Immortal Arts. But some people here are different. They became ‘Zodiacs’ as ‘ordinary people.’ To put it simply, they’re blank sheets of paper, and my teacher can paint any color on them. But I’m a sheet of deep blue paper—many colors simply won’t show on me.”

Apart from Qi Xia, the remaining few began to look thoughtful.

Qi Xia sighed and said: “Since you’re prepared to be completely open and honest… there’s no need to lie anymore, is there?”

“I… lied?”

“According to what you said, ‘Heavenly-Serpent’ discovered that the eyeballs transplanted onto your body had a very low survival rate, so he tried many times and eventually found your weakness,” Qi Xia said. “The logical relationship is like this, right?”

“Yes.” Earth-Serpent nodded. “Is there something wrong?”

Qi Xia sighed after hearing this, simply staring at Earth-Serpent in silence.

“Damn!” Qiao Jiajin seemed to suddenly remember something at this moment. “This really isn’t right! For that Heavenly-Serpent brother to find out your ‘weakness,’ does he need to go through all that trouble?”

“I see, so that’s what you’re considering. You think he could directly read my mind.” Earth-Serpent nodded. “Qi Xia, the ‘logical relationship’ is correct, but the ‘temporal relationship’ is wrong.”

“Oh?”

“So their abilities only came later…”

Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes at this moment, feeling that there seemed to be an important condition that hadn’t been established.

“That’s right. Precisely because of the contributions of monsters like us… my teacher was able to possess the abilities he desired.” After Earth-Serpent finished speaking, he shook his head again. “No, not just my teacher—all the upper echelon here are like this.”

“Then theoretically…” Qi Xia pondered for a moment before continuing, “You also possess two abilities?”

“Speaking of which, this is also an astonishing coincidence.” Earth-Serpent said. “Originally, my ‘Inflict Sorrow’ wasn’t nearly this powerful. I needed to maintain continuous contact for a long time before I could make someone start to feel sadness. But my teacher, from who knows where, found the previous generation’s owner of ‘Inflict Sorrow’ who had already become a ‘Native.’ When conducting experiments on me, he happened to transfer that person’s eyes to me. And these eyes also brought an end to my inhuman torment.”

After hearing these words, Qi Xia let out a cold laugh—he had already extracted most of the truth.

“Previous generation?” Qiao Jiajin frowned from the side. “Is this thing hereditary or something?”

“Calling it ‘hereditary’ isn’t quite accurate.” Earth-Serpent shook his head. “Although ‘Heart’s Desire’ has been split into tens of thousands of pieces, my teacher has also done statistics. At any given time, the maximum number of ‘Immortal Arts’ that can appear is only around three thousand varieties.”

“Immortal Arts… over three thousand varieties…” Qi Xia murmured this phrase.

“Yes, and the acquisition of ‘Immortal Arts’ is different from what everyone imagines.”

“How is it different?” Chen Junnan asked.

“You all think ‘Immortal Arts’ are things hidden inside your own bodies, requiring some kind of ‘trigger’ to manifest them, right?” Earth-Serpent asked.

Qi Xia shifted his gaze to the side without speaking, while Chen Junnan nodded from the side: “Everyone’s always been like this. What’s wrong with it?”

“It appears to have the same effect, but there’s actually a slight difference.” Earth-Serpent said. “All ‘Immortal Arts’ aren’t hidden within people’s bodies waiting to be discovered—they’re like birds in the sky.”

Chen Junnan clearly didn’t understand this metaphor: “Birds in the sky? What does that mean?”

“For example, suppose your ‘Immortal Art trigger’ is ‘despair,’ but at the same moment, there are many people here who are all ‘desperate.’ At this time, the ‘Immortal Art’ is like a bird circling in the air. It will choose and fly toward the master it likes most. From then on, this master possesses the ‘Immortal Art’ born from despair. Do you understand now? It takes residence in your body, and ‘despair’ is this Immortal Art’s sustenance—it activates by collecting your ‘despair.'”

Earth-Serpent’s explanation clearly exceeded everyone’s expectations, but upon careful consideration, it didn’t seem absurd.

“As for the remaining ‘desperate ones,’ they become this bird’s ‘candidates.'” Earth-Serpent continued. “When the master it chose becomes a Native, or abandons it to become a ‘Zodiac,’ or disappears from here for various reasons, then this bird will fly toward the ‘candidates,’ making the ‘candidate’ become the new ‘Immortal Art inheritor.’ But it must be noted that each person’s understanding of ‘Immortal Arts’ is different, so ‘candidates’ don’t necessarily mean they’re weak.”

After listening, Qi Xia nodded slightly: “Did your teacher research all of this?”

“Yes, and I helped quite a bit too.” Earth-Serpent nodded. “After all, I manage the largest bookstore here, which makes it more convenient to consult materials and obtain knowledge.”

“So…” Qi Xia looked at Earth-Serpent’s body and continued, “You’re saying this eye happened to be able to survive on your body precisely because your constitution is inherently ‘Inflict Sorrow,’ and the only eye that survived on your body happened to come from the previous owner of ‘Inflict Sorrow.’ You also simultaneously obtained a more powerful ‘Inflict Sorrow’ than before, and now everyone only needs to briefly touch you to become extraordinarily sorrowful.”

“Oh! You’re more concise.” Earth-Serpent nodded. “But I don’t understand what you’re saying. Those people’s sorrow is because the stories they told were truly too heartbreaking.”

“Fine, I’ll take it as your admission.” Qi Xia said. “Let’s consider this an extremely coincidental situation. After all, your teacher isn’t exactly a normal person either—let’s just count it as occurring naturally.”

“It did occur naturally.” Earth-Serpent said somewhat irritably. “If he had known this eye could survive on my body, he wouldn’t have implanted it at all, since he wanted to try more possibilities.”

“That makes sense too.” Qi Xia nodded. “Then comes the crucially important question.”

“What? After saying so much… there’s still a crucially important question?”

“Of course.” Qi Xia nodded. “Tell me, where are the ‘eyes’ on their bodies?”