When Gu Hang arrived in this space— one which didn’t belong to the reality of the universe but was wildly violent—a torrent of knowledge flooded into his mind as if it were a deluge.
Initially, he thought he was under some kind of attack, and he strived to use his Spiritual Energy, in conjunction with [Iron Will], to fend off the countless fragments of knowledge from his consciousness.
But soon, the bits of knowledge that leaked through made him realize he shouldn’t be doing that.
Of course, he didn’t simply drop his guard. Instead, he used the capability of [Iron Will] as a filter, beginning to sift through the knowledge.
What was useful was absorbed, and then stitched together to form a coherent and valuable body of knowledge;
The useless, incomprehensible fragments were kept at bay.
To tell the truth, there were far more of the latter than the former.
In fact, this was not some serendipitous adventure, but rather an ‘enlightenment’, or a curse, received by psionicists of a certain standard when they came into close contact with Hell’s Abyss.
The intrusion of insane knowledge into the brain, a slight carelessness, could be fatal.
An excess of information could burst the brain of a psionicist; much of the knowledge was ‘poisonous’, it could corrupt the souls of those who bore it, driving them mad.
Psionicists who were not strong enough died for various reasons; even those who were sufficiently powerful had to exert all their strength to keep the ceaseless inflow of evil knowledge out of their souls.
But Gu Hang’s current level of strength, especially with the addition of [Iron Will], had surpassed the point where he could only defend passively; he even had the capacity to actively filter out the understandable and useful parts of those knowledge fragments and absorb them.
From the many pieces of knowledge he pieced together, he learned that the place he was in was a corner of Hell’s Abyss.
Hell’s Abyss was the dwelling place of demons, but it was also a part of the True Realm.
The so-called True Realm, different from the [Real World] or [Material World], was the foundation of the universe.
All supernatural powers—what is referred to as Spiritual Energy—originated from there.
Even human’s cutting-edge technology essentially involved extraction and utilization of Spiritual Energy in various ways.
Yet, the True Realm was divided into Hell’s Abyss and the Star Spirit Realm. Find your next read on empire
There was no such distinction in the past; the entire ‘True Realm’ was a frightful sight, brimming with terrifying monsters.
It wasn’t until at least ten thousand years ago, when the Human Emperor who had established the empire ascended to godhood, that a part of the True Realm was cut out and the Spirit Network was established, allowing that portion of Spiritual Energy to be used in a pure, stable, and safe manner.
Before the Spirit Network was established, utilizing Spiritual Energy was a terribly frightening and dangerous matter. A slight mistake and one could be possessed by indescribable entities, altered in personality, explode due to overuse of Spiritual Energy, or have their coordinates located by demons that tore through spatial rifts into reality…
Even interstellar travel was extremely hazardous. Star Realm Tunnels were made of Spiritual Energy, also located in the chaotic space, and protective fields had to be covered and strong guidelights had to be used for navigation during travel.
Even so, many terrifying incidents still occurred during the journey through the Star Realm Tunnels. It was common for ships to arrive missing a few people or with a few extraneous passengers, and often entire ships were lost within the Star Realm…
However, with the establishment of the Star Spirit Realm propped up by the Spirit Network, the safety of using Spiritual Energy greatly increased. Intergalactic travel became safe, psionicists became safe, technologies utilizing Spiritual Energy became safe, which significantly expanded humanity’s potential.
Yet, all this safety was predicated on the existence of the Spirit Network.
A considerable part of the True Realm still remained unsafe.
That part was what was known as Hell’s Abyss. It was filled with uncontrollable Spiritual Energy, residual energy from usage, chaotic demons, and even the most dreadful Evil Gods born from chaotic cosmos.
The Evil Gods each occupied a part of Hell’s Abyss, with the four most terrible among them.
Hell’s Abyss frantically tried to infuse those four names into his mind, but his spirit was sending out frenzied warnings. He knew these were names that mortals weren’t supposed to know.
These four names were of the sort that once known, would attract unwanted attention.
Gu Hang did not have a death wish and decisively kept this knowledge at bay.
But the information about another Evil God was less of an issue, within his threshold of endurance.
[Primal Fury Owl, the Storm Evil God]
In the earliest of times, it was the leader of the last wild Rage Owl Tribe on Rage Owl Star, the strongest Rage Owl on the entire planet.
Of course, no matter how powerful, a Rage Owl was merely a primitive animal on that planet. When human colonists came and developed a star-level civilization, even the most powerful animal tribes were either put into zoos for people’s amusement or designated into nature reserves.
The so-called nature reserves, ostensibly protecting the primitive ecosystem, were essentially just larger zoos.
It was no exception, and it and its tribe lived within a reserve.
However, something happened to it.
The humans on this planet held a form of worship for the ‘Rage Owl’, a primitive creature.
Initially, it might have merely been people’s affection for the ‘Rage Owl’, a unique native species. After all, their cool and cute appearance, combined with being local specialties, naturally attracted affection; over time, a type of religious veneration really did develop from this affection.