49: Chapter 49 discusses the influence of the celestial energy field on living organisms.

Wang An looked over following his introduction. Although Daoist Mingxin appeared to be in his sixties or seventies, his hair was pitch-black, his expression peaceful, and his eyes seemed capable of seeing through a person's heart. He was dressed simply, and his Daoist robe was clean, tidy, and spotless.

Daoist Jingling was younger, perhaps in his thirties, a vibrant young man.

After the two Daoists from the Jingming Sect exchanged greetings, Daoist Priest Zhang Mingqing continued to introduce him to Daoist Baozhen and Daoist Baoyuan of the Lingbao Sect. These two seemed even more rigid than the others, their expressions consistently cold.

Following that, he introduced Master Zhenyi of the Pure Land Sect, Chan Master Shanji of the Caodong Sect, and finally, Mr. Wang Li of the Jiangyou Wang School to Wang An.

"Alright, now that everyone has met, let us move on to today's topic: On the influence of Heaven and Earth Qi fields on living beings like us."

"Some fellow Daoists may not know what Heaven and Earth Qi fields are. I will provide a brief introduction."

"Everyone here has successfully taken a job, so you should be familiar with the job-change stone. Over the past few months, through observations of the strong magnetic interference areas within the various Forbidden Zones, authorities have discovered that biological activity inside them is becoming increasingly frequent."

"In fact, some ordinary creatures have started to exhibit enhancements that break through normal physiological limits."

"I am not referring to those Mutant creatures. Everyone here should know that those Mutant creatures only mutated after coming into contact with a job-change stone."

"Strictly speaking, these Mutant creatures are simply ordinary creatures that have taken a job, and are essentially the same as us Professionals."

In the cultivation world, various sects have discovered that taking certain jobs within their sects provides various bonuses that are highly beneficial for cultivation.

Some powerful major sects began organizing personnel to explore and collect job-change stones.

If these cultivation-type Professionals want to obtain them, they can basically only participate in explorations themselves or hire an Exploration Team to accompany them inside to complete their job change.

The state does not have channels for exchanging job-change stones. After all, there are few usable job-change stones to begin with, and resources should be concentrated on cultivating top scientific and technological talent.

"However, I am referring to those ordinary creatures. According to official information, it has been confirmed that they are not Mutant creatures. Yet, their various attributes have begun to exceed the limits of their species."

Upon hearing what Daoist Priest Zhang Mingqing said, everyone realized the seriousness of the situation.

All along, no one had considered Mutant creatures a threat to human civilization as a whole, as there were only so many job-change stones. It was impossible for Mutant creatures to appear in swarms and form beast tides, and it was equally unlikely for creatures to take dozens of jobs.

Even now, there are only a few thousand Professionals in the entire world, so the number of Mutant creatures cannot be very high.

Furthermore, the scattered distribution of meteorites means the probability of them producing extreme individuals is far lower than it is for humans, so no one was worried that Mutant creatures would pose a threat.

If, as Daoist Priest Zhang Mingqing suggested, ordinary creatures have begun to break through their physiological limits and become stronger due to some unknown factor, then the matter is extremely serious. If this trend continues to expand, it could even threaten the survival of civilization.

While everyone was worried, Wang An recalled the group of monkey guards he had previously seen in the monkey cave, and that wisp of Qingyang Qi that was exceptionally close to living beings.

Perhaps it was because the Feng Shui fields in certain areas continued to strengthen, leading to the synthesis and generation of increasing amounts of Heaven and Earth Qi that could enhance living beings, resulting in the current situation.

Upon realizing this might be the cause, Wang An let out a sigh of relief.

Just as he had previously guessed, to achieve transcendence, one must design one's own transcendent rule runes to counter the physical laws of reality.

Otherwise, merely accumulating energy is insufficient to achieve the scale where quantitative change leads to qualitative change; even if one were to luckily achieve it, they would eventually starve to death due to a lack of energy.

Such is the rigor and cruelty of reality; without rule-level confrontation, achieving transcendence is nearly impossible.

This is not to mention comprehending rule runes with the intelligence of ordinary creatures. Unless they had taken jobs that improved their intelligence to reach or even exceed the level of human intelligence, there was only a sliver of possibility.

This was also the reason why Wang An had sought to exterminate such creatures whenever he encountered them before.

With the current resources and reality of this planet, it could not accommodate the survival of a second intelligent species. To achieve transcendence, a creature's wisdom and the physical laws of reality were the two great mountains pressing down on all living things in the world.

Only with the appearance of the job-change stone, a fragment of these rule runes, did transcendence become a possibility.

Thinking of this, he felt that perhaps he could draw inspiration from these Feng Shui fields to synthesize and generate Qi that had similar effects in improving bodily attributes.

He could set up nodes to gather Qingyang Qi, artificially creating a chamber with an extremely high density of Heaven and Earth Qi.

This would allow the creatures inside, even without absorbing the Qingyang Qi, to have their bodies transformed and their attributes improved due to its high concentration and the gradually revealed principles.

"Perhaps this is the key to taking the job of Feng Shui Master." Thinking of this, Wang An felt a surge of eagerness.

Daoist Priest Zhang Mingqing, seeing the serious and somewhat worried expressions on everyone's faces, said.

"Everyone need not worry. The state has already dispatched the army to search for these special areas where ordinary creatures are breaking through their physiological limits, expel other creatures, and establish isolation zones."

"Currently, except for a small number of areas where the uninhabited zones are too vast and search efforts are difficult, most areas are already under control."

"Based on the research conducted over the past few days, we have not yet identified the cause of these creatures breaking through their physiological limits."

"Therefore, the authorities wish to view this from different perspectives, specifically from our perspective as practitioners, to see what the underlying principle is. Is there something we have missed?"

"If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share them. Any enlightening insights will be converted into contributions."

Hearing Daoist Priest Zhang Mingqing's words, everyone relaxed and began to attempt to provide a reasonable explanation, drawing from their respective cultivation lineages and their understanding and knowledge of the world.

"Maybe it's something like… the resurgence of spiritual energy? Biological mutations and enhancements, the emergence of Professionals—isn't this quite normal?" the younger Daoist Jingling said. Looking at him, it was clear he had read quite a few novels.

"That is possible, but if it were something like the resurgence of spiritual energy, we practitioners should have been the first to sense such energy appearing between Heaven and Earth." Daoist Mingxin immediately debunked his speculation.

"Perhaps it is that this area has gathered some kind of substance or energy that we currently cannot detect, yet it is compatible with living beings and continuously strengthens them." Wang An voiced his guess, phrasing it in a more scientific manner.

Hearing his words, everyone felt there was some merit to them and nodded.