The secrets behind the Demon Hunters, or rather the Ancient Ones – the super-artificial beings created by the magic emperor of Holletta – far exceeded Hao Ren's initial expectations. He originally thought that these super-beings were at most experimental products that stole the authority of the goddess, and their background would not exceed the star cluster where Holletta was located. However, he never expected that they were actually directly involved in the war of god-slaying. Although they themselves were unaware of this, their souls, their bodies, and their very existence were inextricably linked to that war. Without their knowledge, these artificial beings were implanted into the information network of the Goddess of Creation as a kind of "disguised embedded virus." They deceived the network's identification mechanism through their own divine characteristic codes, and unknowingly replaced all the upstream nodes. When the god-slaying war fully erupted and the Goddess of Creation was about to fall, the connection between the Origin Star and the lower mortal world was completely cut off, but no one thought that the root cause of the network failure was on a "barbaric" planet located on the edge of the territory...
"The mastermind behind the scenes seems to know the Goddess of Creation quite well... even to an unbelievable extent." Hao Ren felt a bit of chilling fear, because a guy who could calculate a true god in such a way made him feel a great threat. This "third-party force" was more dangerous than all the opponents he had predicted before: the god-slaying race had only martial power and ambition, but were ultimately just disposable "tools"; Lockmarton was powerful and strange, but he was just a crazy nascent demigod; even the Lord of Insanity, that powerful primordial being, was just an irrational, phenomenon-level enemy. A guy without a mind naturally cannot be called a conspiracy, and an opponent without a conspiracy does not give people a sense of unpredictable danger. Only this mysterious mastermind who has now emerged seems to control the overall situation, and can even play the true god in the palm of his hand. tA fully understands the Goddess of Creation, and even sets up various destructive plans in advance before the latter takes action. Having such a mysterious enemy hidden in the mist is definitely not a good feeling.
Raven 12345 also nodded slowly: "That is indeed a guy who knows the Goddess of Creation quite well. Let's summarize the information we have so far: First, tA knows all the details of the god-slaying war, and may even be one of the planners of this war, so tA can arrange all the arrangements just right, and can also obtain the rune technology of the god-slaying race; secondly, tA should not be a member of the god-slaying race, because what tA has done has exceeded the intelligence control capabilities shown by the god-slaying race. At the very least, tA can obtain the original divine power sample of the Goddess of Creation, but the god-slaying race cannot do this; thirdly, tA has an extreme understanding of the Goddess of Creation, even more than the Guardians. tA knew in advance that the Goddess of Creation would contact the 'children' all over the universe, so tA set up the Demon Hunters to block the information network of the Goddess of Creation. From this point, we can also know that this mastermind also knows the information network of the Goddess of Creation quite well. tA knows the architecture and operating mechanism of this network, so that it can accurately replace the key nodes of this network; finally, tA has never shown up throughout the entire process of the god-slaying war. At least you have not found any records of this guy's activities in the records of the survivors after the war. There are only two explanations for this. Either tA really hid from beginning to end, so that no one noticed that there was such a 'chess player' hidden in the war, or tA stood in front of everyone from the beginning, including the Guardians and the Goddess of Creation, and everyone knew of this 'person's' existence, but no one knew their true face, and no one suspected them..."
The last point mentioned by Raven 12345 made Hao Ren frown suddenly: "You mean..."
"I guess this 'third-party mastermind' is someone close to the Goddess of Creation, and ta is on the Origin Star, and has always been there."
As Raven 12345 spoke, she outlined words and lines in the air, listing all the clues and connecting them into a well-organized grid, and all the lines ultimately pointed to the conclusion she had made.
Below this conclusion, she extended several more lines, adding more notes:
"The connection between the Goddess of Creation and her children passes through the 'Firstborn' as a signal relay station. There is at least one Firstborn on every planet with a god-created ecosystem. This Firstborn is the antenna for the local mortal race to communicate with the Goddess of Creation, and is also a physical node of the information network."
"The process of the 'embedded virus' replacing the network node is essentially the replacement of the sending and receiving permissions of these Firstborn. The first generation of Demon Hunters were injected into the sending and receiving process of the information network as a virus. This injection process should also require guidance from a higher level of authority."
"What is actually contaminated is the spiritual network between the Firstborn. The spiritual network between the Firstborn and the information network used by the Goddess of Creation to contact lower-level nodes are equivalent in physical structure."
"After the end of the god-slaying war, all the Firstborn showed a tendency to madness, which is also a kind of pollution..."
"The mastermind behind the scenes is quite familiar with the spiritual network between the Firstborn. ta may even have a very high authority in this network – enough to allow ta to import the false nodes formed by the first generation of Demon Hunters into the normal communication sequence."
"The modifications made to this network by the mastermind behind the scenes were hidden from the eyes of the Goddess of Creation, and also from all the Guardians and even the Firstborn who served as network nodes... the most difficult thing to explain."
Raven 12345 listed the conclusions, guesses, preconditions, and contradictions one by one. When she finished writing, she gradually stopped her movements and tilted her head slightly: "Hao Ren, look, the mastermind behind the scenes has done so many things, many of which must be completed on the Origin Star, and also require frequent contact with the Guardians and the Goddess of Creation to be done, so there is a conclusion..."
Hao Ren had been watching this reasoning until now, and at this moment he already had his own ideas: "This person can never hide."
"That's right, this guy appeared openly beside the Goddess of Creation, and the Guardians back then must have known ta!" Raven 12345's eyes flashed with a light, "And according to the Goddess of Creation's performance, she knew nothing about what this guy did, otherwise she wouldn't have been so badly tricked when she sent out a distress signal at the end, so this mastermind still had enough time to manipulate the Firstborn network behind the goddess's and the guardians' backs, as well as contact the god-slaying race, steal the True Word Stone Tablet, and secretly contact the Holletta civilization circle, etc. Therefore, ta's activities on the Origin Star must have had a high degree of freedom, and before the outbreak of the god-slaying war, ta must have frequently contacted the control center of the Firstborn network... With these restrictions, I think Mu Lu and the others should be able to give you some information."
"Enough... enough," Hao Ren felt his head throbbing faintly. After a short conversation, he actually felt more tired than arguing with Raven 12345 for three hours, "I just want to know where this mastermind is now... With such capable people, they shouldn't have been wiped out in the final big bang of the god-slaying war, right?"
"That depends on whether the incident of the final fall of the God Realm into the 'Dark Domain' was also in ta's plan," Raven 12345 raised an eyebrow, "The God Realm explosion was the only event in the entire war that may have exceeded everyone's expectations. If the mastermind behind the scenes could even calculate this in advance, then ta is probably still lurking in some corner of the Dream Plane, waiting for an opportunity to move. If all this was unexpected, then ta should have fallen into the Dark Domain along with the Origin Star."
Hao Ren pondered for a while, then raised his head: "I think the second possibility is higher, because since the fall of the Goddess of Creation, this mastermind has never shown any signs of activity again, and now I have launched a large-scale investigation in the Dream Plane, but this mysterious guy has never shown up, so it is likely that ta fell into the Dark Domain together with the Origin Star."
"But ta is very likely still alive." Raven 12345 sighed.
Hao Ren also frowned: "Yes, very likely still alive... that's the most troublesome thing."
According to the various data collected at the Gate of Surorun, Hao Ren can be sure that the Origin Star and the surrounding God Realm did not perish after falling into the Dark Domain, but continued to exist in a state of spacetime distortion. Under suitable conditions, they can return to the real world, so if the mastermind behind the scenes fell into the Dark Domain along with the Origin Star, then ta is likely still alive now, and this has to be considered.
"You have to be prepared for everything, because we are not sure about the situation in the Dark Domain, and we can't be sure whether the mysterious enemy has changed in the 10,000 years after falling into 'that side', so you have to consider the situation in the worst possible direction," Raven 12345 solemnly reminded Hao Ren. After the other party nodded, she nodded slightly, "Then this question will stop here for now. The inspection here is over, and those volunteers will return to their physical state in a while. Before that, I am interested in the 'Divine Power Oscillation Network' you discovered in the Dream Plane."
"Oh, I have already sorted out the information."
Hao Ren had expected that Raven 12345 would be interested in that thing, so on the way back he sorted all the data of the Divine Power Oscillation Network into a report. At this time, he took out the data terminal and uploaded these data directly into Raven 12345's mental link.
"Is this all the data..." Raven 12345 casually opened a light screen next to her. The light screen showed the image of the Divine Power Oscillation Network, "... It doesn't look complete?"
"The actual scale of this network may have covered all the describable universes of the Dream Plane. My drone fleet cannot detect its boundaries yet..."
"No," Raven 12345 interrupted him, "What I mean by incomplete is not its physical structure, but the 'software' of this network... The process of information proliferation and transmission is not quite right."
Hao Ren thought for a while: "Should I pretend to understand at this time?"
"Your shamelessness is quite worthy of my true inheritance," Raven 12345 glanced at him askance, "Don't interrupt – I'm talking about serious business. There must be something wrong with this data network, although I can't say what it is... but I have a hunch that some of its operating procedures have been hidden or stripped, and... it was done deliberately!"