71: Chapter 71 The Star Spirit Orb, Demon God Ritual

"Come to think of it, the ritual scene I am currently witnessing should be located within the 'Astral Layer', right?"

Although the occult knowledge absorbed in his brain was still shallow, it had somewhat broadened Qin Feng's horizons.

He looked around and could see, surrounding the ritual site and deep within it, vaguely shimmering numbers, secret runes, electromagnetic waves, information entropy, and so on… all mysterious and profound, buried deep within the mist of Chaos.

Qin Feng could not understand them, but he was deeply shocked.

The reason he could recognize them was due to the occult knowledge in his mind.

It was like a primary school student checking against a textbook; he could point out what things were, but he knew absolutely nothing about their specific connotations or Profound Truth.

"The 'Astral Layer' contains a vast amount of information, knowledge, rules, and so on. If one could read and understand them, it would definitely be of great benefit, but one must be strong enough to do so."

"Otherwise, this knowledge is nothing but a curse and pollution; if you try to understand it, your brain will mutate."

Qin Feng had only observed for a few moments before feeling his brain swell.

He had a strange sensation that his brain was about to mutate into a monster, pry open his skull, and crawl out to ascend to heaven.

He quickly averted his eyes and, at the same time, observed the giant cocoon of the demon god.

"To think this mysterious ritual site could be established in the 'Astral Layer'. Although it seems to be just a projection, it is definitely no small matter."

"I wonder… who exactly is the existence this ritual is communicating with?"

"And what exactly is this giant cocoon of the demon god?"

The Astral Layer is extremely mysterious; while it Hides the deepest dangers, it also contains many Treasure Troves.

However, this Astral Layer is not so easy to enter.

Originally, when Qin Feng's 'Hide' skill had not yet reached Perfection, it could only allow him to enter the edges and surface of the Ether Layer; he could not even penetrate deep into the Ether Layer.

He now understood that the key to his 'Hide' skill reaching Perfection was to make contact with the depths of the Ether Layer, and even the Astral Layer, and to generate a certain Fusion and resonance with it.

The Astral Layer contains endless knowledge and information, representing 'Omniscience'.

Hide represents making oneself 'Unknown'.

When 'Omniscience' and 'Unknown' collide, stimulate, and blend with each other, like Yin and Yang uniting, only then can one finally reach Perfection.

Of course, reaching Perfection in a skill is only the first step across the threshold.

To truly analyze the concepts of 'Omniscience' and 'Unknown', one would need to reach the Realm where technique approaches the Dao.

Because Qin Feng communicated with the ritual site of that massive cocoon of the demon god while performing Anatomy on the purple light, his 'Hide' skill was able to resonate with the ritual.

This was equivalent to opening a shortcut, which allowed him to enter the Astral Layer directly.

If not for this, under normal circumstances, wanting to enter the Astral Layer would inevitably require paying a huge price or spending an immense amount of time enduring it.

Qin Feng had effectively found a loophole.

As his thoughts drifted, suddenly, Qin Feng felt his self-consciousness becoming hazy.

It seemed as if a mysterious force was squeezing him, trying to expel him entirely and forcibly drive him away from this place.

"It seems that if one's own mental consciousness is not strong enough, even if one wants to stay in the 'Astral Layer' for longer, one will be gradually expelled."

"And if one tries to stay here by force, I fear one will encounter unimaginable dangers."

Qin Feng did not resist. He closed and opened his eyes, and in an instant, the familiar scene of the Raccoon Apartments corridor came into view.

The corpse of the patient with whispering syndrome, which had mutated into the appearance of a spider monster, lay quietly before him.

Faint purple light floated above the corpse, drifting and curling as it gradually dissipated and faded.

"Hm?" Before he could recover, suddenly, Qin Feng's gaze shifted, and he actually saw a bright, dazzling light flash within the gradually dissipating purple light.

The next moment, within this bright and dazzling light, the outline of an object resembling a bead appeared.

"Oh? Could it be… that the effect of 'Dissecting for Hidden Treasures' has taken place? Did I obtain an extra good item from the Anatomy?"

Qin Feng's eyes lit up involuntarily.

The 'Dissecting Reality into Void' ability contains the special function of 'Dissecting for Hidden Treasures'.

'Void objects' are not like 'real objects'; the probability of dissecting extra good items from them is naturally low. Qin Feng had not originally expected this, but he never imagined that a huge surprise would suddenly come.

"I wonder what exactly this good item obtained from the Anatomy is?"

The outline in the light gradually became clear. He could see that it was a crystal-clear, translucent, and shining round bead, like a pearl or perhaps a gemstone, but inside, it was not purely transparent without anything else.

Qin Feng raised his hand, grabbed the bead—which was the size of a night-luminescent pearl—in his hand, and looked inside carefully.

"Eh? This is…" Upon seeing clearly what was hidden inside the bead, Qin Feng's eyes widened immediately, and a look of disbelief flashed in his eyes.

He was shocked to see… inside this transparent bead, there actually existed an extremely tiny cocoon of the demon god!

That's right, it was exactly the cocoon of the demon god he had seen earlier in the mysterious ritual site within the Astral Layer!

This cocoon seemed to sense Qin Feng's gaze; it wriggled slightly within the bead, exuding a majestic and awe-inspiring mysterious aura.

Vaguely, he could even see, surrounding this cocoon of the demon god, one after another of twisted shadows emerging, mutating into the appearance of monsters, their mouths incessantly emitting incomprehensible sounds of whispering, praying and worshipping the high and mighty cocoon of the demon god.

The whole scene… was just like a miniature mysterious ritual site!

"What kind of bead is this, and why is there a ritual site hidden inside?"

While Qin Feng was puzzled, a message was transmitted from inside this bead:

[astral spirit bead] [Contains a 'demon god ritual slice'] [The 'demon god ritual slice' is an object of void concept. After use, it can briefly open a projection of an astral body world, making the ritual concrete and forming a special Domain] [In the Domain, one can become an Incarnation of the cocoon of the demon god and summon the mutated whispering ones] [The slice consumes energy, but it can be replenished using an egg of the demon god]

After the bead transmitted the information, it seemed to suddenly possess 'living' characteristics. With a swoosh, it slipped out of Qin Feng's palm, flew into mid-air, and circled around Qin Feng's head for half a turn.

Finally, it hovered on Qin Feng's shoulder, its whole body emitting a hazy, pulsing light, just like an energetic little sprite.

"Oh? astral spirit bead? Star of the demon god? demon god ritual slice? This seems quite interesting…"

Qin Feng immediately became very interested.

He searched through the occult knowledge in his mind that he had stored away and prepared to absorb slowly, and soon, he found what he wanted to know.

"So that's how it is." Qin Feng touched his chin and muttered to himself in realization:

"The 'Astral Layer' contains many Treasure Troves and good items, and this 'astral spirit bead' belongs to one of the common types. It is formed from the mysterious energy and special rules within the Astral Layer. It possesses a certain degree of 'living' characteristics and contains some information and knowledge, allowing one to read and understand it relatively easily."

"To a certain extent, this thing is a special life form unique to the Astral Layer."

"Inside an 'astral spirit bead', there will randomly exist some 'astral body projections' from the Astral Layer."

"These 'astral body projections' are strange and bizarre. Some are dangerous, some are mysterious, some are ominous, and some contain intense pollution and curses. Of course, there is also a certain probability that they are good items with special effects."

"I didn't expect that the projection contained within this 'astral spirit bead' would actually be a ritual?"

"Demon God Ritual… Demon god…"

Qin Feng's gaze fixed on the eerie cocoon of the demon god inside the bead. "Could this ugly, fat thing covered in tentacles actually be the so-called demon god?"