“Yes, yes, just like that. Focus your attention on your weapon. You and it are one; it’s an extension of your arm—relax, relax. Hey, don't eat it! Aim with it! And don't eat your belt buckle! Don't eat your weapons case! Hey, what's with this kid..."

Nan Gong San Ba frantically rescued the hand crossbow and weapons case from Dou Dou's hands, but he only managed to salvage most of it. The little mermaid still had half a toothpick-like training sword in her mouth, grinning foolishly at the adults around her, slapping the coffee table with her tail: "More!"

Today was Dou Dou's second day of weapons training. The little fellow didn't quite understand what these seemingly delicious things were for, but with the adults' guidance, she could already resist biting her equipment for a while—at most a few minutes. Hao Ren rubbed Dou Dou's tail with his fingertip: "San Ba, you should get her a genuine set of equipment. Honestly, this kid's skills in demon hunter abilities are already better than yours. You're only half-baked and can't even hurt yourself; she'll be fine."

Nan Gong San Ba carefully tidied up the weapons case that Dou Dou had messed up, while righteously expressing his opinion: "Please call me by my full name or call me Nan Gong—the 'San Ba' part is easily misunderstood. Besides, I think your suggestion makes a lot of sense."

Dou Dou hugged Hao Ren's finger and kissed it, continuing to bounce around on the coffee table in search of food. Being in a stage of growth and development, she felt hungry almost every moment, but no one knew where the wood she ate went. The little fellow showed no signs of getting fat. This demon-hunting fish, destined to make a career of her own, was still just a clueless fish-baby, but she had already demonstrated her qualities as an excellent hunter: the little fellow cheerfully bounced between her exquisite toys, diligently leaving her teeth marks on everything, having a great time playing by herself.

Nan Gong San Ba had given up trying to save those wooden training equipment; he decided to get the little fellow a genuine set.

"I'm going to see the Goddess," Hao Ren casually picked up the data terminal that was playing a video and stuffed it into his pocket. "I won't be back for lunch."

Lily, who was halfway through watching the video, immediately jumped up: "Hey, hey, landlord, I haven't finished watching it yet..."

"Watch less of this bland drama; leave a way out for your brain," Hao Ren poked Lily's forehead. "If I'm not back by this afternoon, remember to walk the cat. Take her to Irim and don't wander around here."

Lily pouted, quite unhappy: "It's boring to walk around with a cat; she can't even understand the joy of frolicking on the grass."

Hao Ren shrugged: "Then let her walk you; you go frolic and let her watch."

Lily immediately rolled her eyes: "You're just being glib—okay, okay, I'll walk the cat. Remember to bring me some steamed buns when you get back, from Old Zhao's in the back street."

Hao Ren pocketed the data terminal, confirmed the state of the samples in his dimensional pocket, and then teleported directly to Raven 12345's territory.

Raven 12345 seemed to know that Hao Ren would come to her today. She was already waiting in front of the mansion, and she greeted him cheerfully as soon as he appeared: "You're here? Have you eaten? Sit for a while and then leave? You're not staying here for lunch, are you?"

"Boss, have some integrity for once," Hao Ren was already used to this female madman's unpredictable reactions, and at this point, he was too lazy to argue with her. "I'm just going to freeload a bowl of noodles; I won't eat much. I'm here to give you..."

"I know; I saw your report," Raven 12345's playful expression instantly vanished, turning serious as if she were changing masks. "Come with me; let me see those samples."

Hao Ren was dragged by Raven 12345 directly to a place he had never seen before. This place was extremely wide, the ground paved with light grey crystalline stone slabs depicting the sun, moon, and stars. Every hundred meters, there was a light golden decorated pillar, and far above, he could vaguely see a magnificent dome. All of this décor seemed to indicate that this was an indoor space, but Hao Ren was shocked to discover that he couldn't see any boundaries no matter how far he looked—this was like an infinitely vast, ornate hall. Either it really was that big, or the spatial structure here was abnormal.

But Hao Ren knew that he was still in Raven 12345's mansion: As he visited more and more frequently, he had become increasingly familiar with the true face of this seemingly unreliable "heaven," and the more he knew, the more he realized that he could never fully understand this place. The building's interior had a bizarre spatial structure that defied the laws of physics, and some places were completely devoid of rules. There seemed to be countless rooms and countless landscapes within the mansion. In many places, opening a door would reveal an entire continent unfolding before your eyes (said to be Raven 12345's species observation rooms), while some corridors led directly to the stars.

It wasn't strange that there was a hall with infinite spatial extension here.

"This is my storage room, my basement, uh... a place for storing some things," Raven 12345 waved her hand. As she did, the space between the surrounding pillars fluctuated slightly, and some faint light and shadows floated between the pillars, as if there were many things hidden inside. "It's more appropriate to put the samples here. Take them out and let me see them."

Hao Ren opened his dimensional pocket and presented two containers to Raven 12345. One container was a square metal box containing the giant brain, while the other was a transparent crystal jar more than ten meters long, in which a giant's remains floated quietly.

There were a total of four giant remains; Hao Ren kept three for research and gave the remaining one to Raven 12345.

"I've already mentioned the events on Aioi in the report, so I won't repeat them. In short, the sirens have been properly settled, and Aioi's ecosystem has begun to restart," Hao Ren pointed to the giant brain in the metal box. "The key problem now is this... These brain monsters attacked Aioi, and they turned out to be the brains of these giants... mutated from them."

Raven 12345 nodded slightly, not saying a word. She circled around the piece of brain matter, which had lost its soul but was still undergoing physiological reactions, and then looked up curiously at the giant floating in the container. Then, with a light wave of her hand, the giant's remains were directly teleported out of the container, lying horizontally and suspended one meter above the ground.

"To be honest, this kind of mutation is a bit of a challenge to my worldview," Hao Ren spread his hands. "I thought I was already well-informed... A creature's brain can leave the body and survive on its own, and then mutate into another species in a short period of time... Brain monsters can eat with tentacles and have their own complete set of physiological cycles. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that they were once an organ of another creature."

"Some races possess extraordinary talent for manipulating flesh mutation, but this usually occurs in species that choose the path of biological evolution," Raven 12345 said slowly, while slowly moving her hand over the head of the giant's remains, some small electric arcs jumping between her fingers. "But these giants... they clearly possess both the skill of using tools and extraordinary biological evolution abilities. The former requires reliance on the accumulation of the race itself, while the latter..."

Raven 12345's finger touched the center of the giant's remains' brow, and a halo quickly spread from the latter's forehead to its entire body.

"The latter can come from divine gift. If they are born with such extraordinary talent and it doesn't degrade with the use of tools, then they can produce the kind of mutation you described."

"Izhaks said that the bodies of these giants are extremely perfect, so perfect that they almost don't seem to have evolved naturally; they are born with immortal golden bodies," Hao Ren vaguely knew where the key to the problem lay. "Do you think this can appear in nature?"

Raven 12345 retracted her hand: "Yes, but the chances are very low, and I don't think we're so lucky to run into it. You've already encountered a Goddess as great and righteous as yours truly, which is already a small probability event; you can't have everything happen to you."

"Boss, is it appropriate for you to say that yourself?"

"Totally," Raven 12345 snapped her fingers shamelessly. "In short, the physical strength of these giants is flawless, and there is almost no defect or useless information in their genetic factors. Even if an organ mutates out of their body, it still has great power. These characteristics all resemble a finely crafted product made in one go, which indicates that their blood relationship with the 'First Seed' must be very, very close."

In the Dream Plane, the closer a creature is to the Goddess in terms of blood, the more naturally powerful it will be.

Hao Ren stroked his chin, suddenly having a guess: "Could these giants be another form of the 'eldest'? Not evolved into that kind of super tentacle monster, but evolved into this race of supermen wearing mortal skin?"

A faint light flashed in Raven 12345's eyes: "Who knows..."