Chapter 64

After resting for two days in the dormitory of the Affairs Bureau, Mu Huiyue felt she had mostly recovered.

During this time, Xiang Xun visited her once, and Wen Li, who was also recuperating, sent her a message asking about her condition.

For the rest of the time, Mu Huiyue spent most of it with a tablet, catching up on the information she had missed over the past few days.

The unexpected conclusion of the national ranking competition had gradually cooled the atmosphere in the live-streaming rooms.

Most of the audience had shifted their focus to the ongoing national championship, leaving only a few people still discussing the battles on the deserted island.

Among these, the replay of Mu Huiyue’s match against Lin Lin had the highest view count.

The Affairs Bureau and the Beastmaster Association ultimately did not disclose the reason for the abrupt end of the competition.

Due to the strange influence of those inexplicable memories, many of the contestants who experienced the incident firsthand couldn’t explain what had happened. As a result, the hype around the incident quickly died down, and within a few days, it had lost almost all attention.

Mu Huiyue skimmed through the news briefly before focusing her attention on researching the backgrounds of several Beastmaster universities.

Using the local students she had encountered during the assessment as a reference, she began to carefully consider her preferred schools.

Hongzhou University and Xingzhou University were off her list. While both had achieved good results in intercollegiate competitions in recent years, she disliked the atmosphere at Hongzhou University, and she didn’t want to constantly deal with troublesome family matters at Xingzhou University.

In addition, Yunzhou State University, Xizhou State University, and Jingzhou University in the capital were all highly ranked schools.

Yunzhou University was renowned for its Wood Attribute Research Institute, while Xizhou University was known for its wide variety of pet beasts.

Attending Xizhou University would offer more opportunities to contract with rare and powerful pet beasts from outside regions.

Jingzhou University had balanced development; apart from its combat department, its other departments also had their own unique strengths.

While she was pondering these options, the dormitory door was suddenly knocked on.

Ellen, emerging from the shadows, opened the door for her. Mu Huiyue looked toward the visitor.

It was Guan Yu, an A-rank investigator from the Affairs Bureau.

Mu Huiyue had met him alongside Xiang Xun when she first arrived from the hospital. As the head of the assessment for the Affairs Bureau, he was the one who arranged for her to stay in the dormitory.

“Good morning, Mu Huiyue,” Guan Yu said with a smile. “It looks like you’ve mostly recovered, hasn’t you?”

Mu Huiyue nodded and stood up to make room for Guan Yu. The room was small, with only enough space for two people at the table.

“I won’t be coming in. There’s someone here who wants to meet you,” Guan Yu said, glancing at the person next to him. “This is Vice Principal Li Yuan of Jingzhou University.”

…

The Vice Principal of Jingzhou University had specifically come to meet Mu Huiyue because of her outstanding performance during the ranking assessment.

Since she was already in Jingjiang City, Li Yuan couldn’t sit still after hearing the news Guan Yu had shared. She proactively requested a face-to-face meeting with Mu Huiyue.

Jingzhou University’s intercollegiate competition results in recent years had been mediocre, and Li Yuan was eager to bring in some exceptional new talent.

Taking into account Mu Huiyue’s family background and her connections to Xingzhou, Li Yuan extended Jingzhou University’s greatest sincerity.

Ordinary resource subsidies wouldn’t mean much to Mu Huiyue, but there were two aspects of Li Yuan’s offer that particularly appealed to her.

Jingzhou University, as a prestigious institution with a long history, possessed profound resources and even controlled several secret realms from the Descent Period. Among them was an S-rank secret realm with deep ties to the mythical races of Light and Dark.

These Descent Period secret realms could gradually be opened to students who achieved outstanding results.

Additionally, the most prestigious Dark Attribute research team in Dayan was also affiliated with Jingzhou University.

The conversation didn’t last long. Mu Huiyue stated that she would consider the offer carefully and then saw Vice Principal Li Yuan out of the Affairs Bureau.

On her way back, she ran into Guan Yu again.

“You’re having a busy schedule today, Mu,” Guan Yu said with a smile. “Since you’re recovering well, Deputy Minister Su Luo would like to meet you too.”

Su Luo’s office was just upstairs in the Jingzhou Affairs Bureau, so stopping by wasn’t a problem. Mu Huiyue nodded and headed straight to the elevator.

As a formal investigator directly under the Affairs Bureau, meeting her superior was standard procedure—likely to discuss the Lava Black Tortoise and the secret realm incident.

With these thoughts in mind, the elevator arrived at the 22nd floor. Mu Huiyue quickly found Su Luo’s office.

She knocked on the door, and from inside came a dull thud, as if something heavy had fallen, followed by a girl’s voice.

“Come in! The door’s unlocked!”

Mu Huiyue stepped into the office of the Deputy Minister of the National Secret Realm Affairs Countermeasures Department.

The sight before her was a chaotic swirl of flying documents, with the floor piled high with reports and books, leaving no room to step.

Amid the mountain of papers, Su Luo popped her head out. “Sorry about the mess. Have a seat.”

She then turned and called out, “Xiao Bai, come help entertain our guest!”

The embodiment of integrity and determination, Dayan’s mythical beast, the White Tiger, was currently in its miniature form—a regular tiger about half the height of a human. It slowly padded over to Mu Huiyue’s side.

Its gold-green vertical pupils regarded the visitor briefly before its striped tail swished, sweeping away the scattered documents on a chair. Then it raised its chin, signaling for her to sit as she pleased.

Mu Huiyue couldn’t help but smile.

Who would have thought that the majestic and awe-inspiring White Tiger seen outside would be so adept at using its tail to host guests in a Beastmaster’s office?

As for Su Luo, there was no trace of the demeanor of a superior or elder on her. Instead, she gave off the impression of being a peer.

Mu Huiyue even felt a strange sense of déjà vu. The White Tiger’s practiced gestures… didn’t they remind her of the Flame Strike Cat at Wen Li’s house, which was always cleaning up after its Beastmaster?

As she was lost in thought, Su Luo finally freed her hands and had the White Tiger help move a strangely constructed device onto the desk.

“Mu Huiyue… May I call you Huiyue?” The white-haired girl walked over to the device, smiling as she asked.

“Of course, Minister Su Luo,” Mu Huiyue nodded.

“Hmm… Would it be too awkward for you to call me A-Luo? Xiao Wei already scolded me about it, but never mind, that’s not important…”

Su Luo seemed to mutter something under her breath, shook her head, and then looked up at Mu Huiyue.

“I’ve reviewed your investigator onboarding record and your recent secret realm investigation report… but none of that really matters.”

“The reason I specifically called you here is to confirm something truly important and to show you this.”

Su Luo patted the device in her hands.

It appeared to be a special type of projector. The base was extremely heavy, with three-directional stereoscopic projection equipment, shaped somewhat like a skeletal armillary sphere.

At the intersection of the three focal points—the very center of the sphere—was the location where the projection materialized.

Su Luo called to her companion beast again, “Xiao Bai, turn on the light.”

The White Tiger sat on its haunches, its gold-green eyes emitting a faint gleam.

The office suddenly dimmed, and streams of faint light converged at the center of the projector, becoming the sole source of illumination.

A three-dimensional image gradually took shape, as if sketched out within a starry void, revealing its form piece by piece.

It was the projection of an extraordinary creature—small in size, with large semi-oval eyes and rounded, pointed triangular ears.

Its face resembled that of a kitten, with short forelimbs, wide hind legs, and a bipedal stance. Its tail was twice the length of its body, its appearance a soft pink hue, devoid of visible fur.

As its form grew clearer, Mu Huiyue’s eyes slowly widened, her expression one of disbelief and shock.

Even when she first crossed into this world and found herself trapped in a secret realm, she had never experienced such an intense cognitive upheaval.

She knew this creature.

It was from the world she had come from—the world of her past—a fantastical being of that bygone reality.

No matter how hard she tried to find differences or convince herself otherwise, the pink little creature in front of her was unmistakably the one from her memories—a being from her past life. It was the creature from Pokémon, Pokédex entry #151…

“What do you see?”

Su Luo’s voice broke the silence in the dimly lit office. “You’re seeing Mew… or rather, the creature known as Dream, aren’t you?”

Mu Huiyue abruptly turned to look at her.

The shadow at her feet rippled and surged—Ellen, sensing his Beastmaster’s intense emotional turmoil, attempted to pull her into the shadow space for safety.

Since forming a bond with Mu Huiyue, Ellen had never felt her so deeply shaken.

Mu Huiyue stopped the shadow’s movement, took a deep breath, and after a long moment, managed to steady herself.

The creature’s projection, combined with Su Luo’s words, made her feel as though she had been transported back to the world before her transmigration.

Su Luo turned off the projector, and the room quickly brightened again.

It was still the same messy, cluttered office, with stacks of books and papers everywhere, the youthful-looking deputy minister of the Bureau seated at her desk, and the White Tiger squatting on the floor, flicking its tail.

No matter how hard she tried to find differences or convince herself otherwise, the pink little creature in front of her was unmistakably the one from her memories—a being from her past life. It was the creature from Pokémon, Pokédex entry #151…

“What do you see?”

Su Luo’s voice broke the silence in the dimly lit office. “You’re seeing Mew… or rather, the creature known as Dream, aren’t you?”

Mu Huiyue abruptly turned to look at her.

The shadow at her feet rippled and surged—Ellen, sensing his Beastmaster’s intense emotional turmoil, attempted to pull her into the shadow space for safety.

Since forming a bond with Mu Huiyue, Ellen had never felt her so deeply shaken.

Mu Huiyue stopped the shadow’s movement, took a deep breath, and after a long moment, managed to steady herself.

The creature’s projection, combined with Su Luo’s words, made her feel as though she had been transported back to the world before her transmigration.

Su Luo turned off the projector, and the room quickly brightened again.

It was still the same messy, cluttered office, with stacks of books and papers everywhere, the youthful-looking deputy minister of the Bureau seated at her desk, and the White Tiger squatting on the floor, flicking its tail.

It felt as if the projection from earlier was nothing more than a hallucination conjured by Mu Huiyue’s memories.

She looked at Su Luo again. “…Is this what you wanted me to see?”

“It’s what I wanted to confirm.”

Su Luo neither affirmed nor denied, instead continuing, “Don’t be nervous. Let me explain from the beginning.”

“What you saw in the projection was the Primordial Spirit…”

Mu Huiyue’s eyes widened again.

“…a photograph? A record? An illustration? Ugh, I’m not sure how to explain it in detail.” Su Luo scratched her head in frustration. “I should’ve dragged Guan Yu over to do the explaining—he’s a top student in research and specializes in this kind of thing.”

“In any case, the Primordial Spirit exists in a rather unique manner. You could think of it as a higher-dimensional extraordinary being. What we see of it is merely its projection in our world.”

“But humans can’t imagine something they’ve never seen or can’t comprehend.”

“How one sees the Primordial Spirit’s projection in this world depends on their subconscious. After grasping the concept of its existence, the brain assembles its image based on fragments of subconscious memory.”

“Therefore, theoretically, the Primordial Spirit appears differently to everyone.”

“However, among groups with a shared cultural understanding, the images people see tend to have commonalities.”

“For example, in the Hela region, most people perceive the Primordial Spirit as resembling the Sea God of Creation. In the Nova region, nearly all citizens see it as resembling their life-giving Mother Goddess, Analos.”

“And here in Dayan, many people perceive the Primordial Spirit as sharing its origins with the Solar Divine Phoenix.”

At this point, Su Luo paused briefly.

Mu Huiyue struggled to process everything she had just heard and asked, “Because, in their understanding, these are the deities that created everything?”

“Exactly.” Su Luo nodded. “Before today, what did you know about the Primordial Spirit, Huiyue?”

“…The origin of all extraordinary beings, the first mythical race to descend upon the planet.” Mu Huiyue recalled the content from her textbook.

“Then, in your memory and understanding, what is the existence that most aligns with this concept?”

Su Luo smiled, answering her own question, “It must be Mew, right? The origin of all extraordinary beings in the Beastmaster world, the primal creature with all attribute energy…”

“Anyone who knows of Mew’s existence, upon hearing the concept of the Primordial Spirit, wouldn’t think of anything else… so the Primordial Spirit I saw was also Mew.”

Mu Huiyue exhaled lightly, feeling that her mind, which had been swept by a storm, was finally starting to rebuild.

Su Luo was right; the origin of all extraordinary beings, the first extraordinary being on the planet… after hearing these concepts, the first thing that came to her mind was that little pink legendary Pokémon.

There was no creature more suited to the concept of the Primordial Spirit than Mew.

So the Primordial Spirit Mu Huiyue saw had to be the projection of Mew.

But Mu Huiyue’s understanding came from her memories of living in another world. Why would Su Luo see the same projection?

“I know what you’re thinking.” As if reading the confusion in the young girl’s eyes, Su Luo smiled and nodded.

“In a certain sense, I can indeed be considered your ‘hometown’ person.”

Mu Huiyue almost widened her eyes for the third time.

“However, my situation is probably a bit different from yours, and explaining it is quite troublesome…”

“What I want to confirm is this, and I can’t say much more,” Su Luo made a shushing gesture to herself.

“The more you know now, the more likely things might change in the future, so it’s enough to confirm that what you saw is indeed Mew.”

Su Luo seemed to have solved a big concern, letting out a long sigh of relief before gesturing for White Tiger to bring over a small box.

“Regardless, your existence has brought hope. I’m very glad to meet you, Mu Huiyue.”

She handed the small box to Mu Huiyue. “This is the White Tiger Talisman that Xiao Bai and I made together. It contains a full-force strike from the Miracle Fantasy Race, the complete form, and I’m giving it to you for protection.”

“In case something like the Angry Rock Tortoise incident happens again, it will protect your safety.”