Hijacking the Timeline

Scarlet Research Institute.

Three hours of recuperation ended, the nutrient fluid level dropped, and the tank door slowly opened.

As the soft tubes attached to his body retracted automatically, Feng Qi stepped out of the nutrient tank.

He picked up a towel from the nearby table, wiped off the residual liquid from his body, and changed into a clean set of clothes.

Taking a deep breath, he felt refreshed and invigorated, every muscle in his body relaxed.

The fatigue from his training had completely vanished.

He then sat down on the sofa beside the nutrient tank.

Looking up at the screen above the tank, he saw his physical details, bloodline strength, age, and other data displayed.

Three years had passed, and he was now 20 years old.

He wasn’t sure how long this timeline would last, but based on his experiences in previous timelines, he estimated he should live for at least another decade.

During his training, his control over his strength had grown increasingly refined. Enhanced by the Demon Dragon Rune Crystal, his power had reached the Silver-Lower rank.

In a pure strength contest, he could even rival Silver-Mid rank body cultivators.

Throughout this period, he had also been keeping tabs on Mu Qing’s progress.

Knowing that Mu Qing had already joined a domain combat team and was about to step onto the real battlefield, he wasn’t worried about her safety.

Even though he had altered history, causing Mu Qing to join a different domain combat team than in the original timeline, her strength remained unaffected. The Special Rune Crystal embedded in her body not only granted her formidable power but also bestowed upon her unparalleled combat instincts.

In Wei Wei’s words, if truly pushed to her limit, that girl could easily overturn a Tusk-Class (Third Tier) Domain Field and crunch the Space Crystals within it like snacks. As the one who knew Mu Qing best and had personally performed her rune modification, Wei Wei’s assessment revealed the terrifying extent of her strength. Even during her time at Star City Academy, she had never displayed her true capabilities.

Beyond Mu Qing, he also maintained frequent contact with Lin Ran. Using the excuse that his cultivation technique required mental attack techniques, he urged Lin Ran to focus his research in that area.

He also learned that after joining the Tiger Soul Research Institute, Lin Ran had demonstrated an exceptionally terrifying talent for Art Magic Research.

First, he publicly revealed the ”Hand Seal Flow Art” to the world.

In record time, Lin Ran earned the prestigious Human Outstanding Contribution Gold Medal.

The Hand Seal Flow Art had taken shape, birthing a super-art magic school that would undoubtedly go down in history.

Moreover, Lin Ran released several outstanding offensive art magics at once, quickly propelling him to the forefront of the field.

Major media outlets clamored to cover the news about Lin Ran.

But recently, during contact with Lin Ran, Feng Qi noticed something peculiar.

According to Lin Ran, after joining the Tiger Soul Research Institute, he had repeatedly requested to join the Cultivation Technique Research Group to study cultivation techniques.

Yet every single one of these requests had been denied.

Worse still, the institute’s leadership had even convened a special meeting to denounce Lin Ran as a cautionary tale, harshly criticizing him.

Then came the earnest persuasion. The Tiger Soul executives insisted that Lin Ran’s talent for Art Magic Research far surpassed his aptitude for Cultivation Technique Research, arguing he shouldn’t waste his energy on the latter.

To prevent Lin Ran from delving into cultivation arts, the Tiger Soul Research Institute even assigned him a heavy workload of Art Magic Research tasks.

To Feng Qi, this seemed quite strange.

By now, Lin Ran had already risen to prominence, becoming a top-tier art magic researcher in the public eye.

If the Lord of the Mist behind the Tiger Soul Research Institute wanted to launch Flesh and Blood Sacrifice, they could have easily begun manipulating Lin Ran’s future trajectory.

Yet, at this moment, Lin Ran actively applied to join the Cultivation Method Research Group, only to be rejected.

According to the normal historical timeline, even if Lin Ran hadn’t joined the group now, he would have eventually joined it in the future, leading the ”Limitless Cultivation Method” team.

The Tiger Soul Research Institute’s refusal at this point seemed strange.

Two hypotheses came to mind:

The first possibility was that the Lord of the Mist behind the Tiger Soul Research Institute felt Lin Ran’s current influence was insufficient. They might be waiting for him to gain more influence before strategically launching Flesh and Blood Sacrifice.

However, this hypothesis had flaws.

In his view, Lin Ran’s influence was already more than enough. If Flesh and Blood Sacrifice were released now, and the external cultivation community responded positively, it would quickly become known to all cultivators.

The second possibility was that the Tiger Soul Research Institute hadn’t yet been fully controlled by the Lord of the Mist.

Therefore, the institute, considering the interests of all humanity, concluded that Lin Ran was better suited for Art Magic Research and shouldn’t waste his talent on Cultivation Technique Research.

As for Lin Ran’s later joining the Cultivation Technique Research Group, this occurred when the Tiger Soul Research Institute was still being infiltrated and controlled by the Lord of the Mist.

In comparison, the second hypothesis clearly seemed more plausible.

After all, allowing Lin Ran to join the Cultivation Technique Research Group early wouldn’t conflict with the Lord of the Mist’s plans; in fact, it could be seen as laying the groundwork for him.

When the time came to release the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice, it could be claimed that this was the result of Lin Ran’s dedicated years of research into cultivation techniques.

Therefore, the hypothesis that the Tiger Soul Research Institute hadn’t yet been fully controlled by the Lord of the Mist was more reliable than the first hypothesis.

If this hypothesis were true,

He began to deduce when the Tiger Soul Research Institute had been truly infiltrated.

From a historical perspective, by the time Lin Ran released the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice, he had already died in every previous timeline.

This meant that the Tiger Soul Research Institute had been fully infiltrated in the decades after his death.

But upon closer reflection, this answer clearly didn’t hold up.

When he first joined the Technology Research Institute, he had instigated conflict between the Technology Research Institute and the Tiger Soul Research Institute. Using the Truthspeaker Device, the Technology Research Institute had even successfully captured a spy planted by the Tiger Soul Research Institute within its walls.

This meant that even when he was alive in the previous timeline, the Tiger Soul Research Institute had already been infiltrated.

This narrowed the possible time frame considerably.

Based on the available intelligence, he estimated that the Tiger Soul Research Institute was truly infiltrated about a decade later, during the years leading up to his near-death experience in the previous timeline.

This would have been around the time he was in his early thirties.

But a new question arose: if the Tiger Soul Research Institute was already infiltrated then, why was the release of the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice delayed by another decade?

His hypothesis was that when the Tiger Soul Research Institute was first taken over, the Lord of the Mist hadn’t yet developed the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice.

So he lay dormant for over a decade, and after successfully developing the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice, he seized the opportunity to perform body possession on Lin Ran, a figure with significant influence in the outside world.

He then established the Infinity Group to research the cultivation technique and released the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice under Lin Ran’s name.

He had no way of knowing the definitive answer.

But based on the existing intelligence, this theory seemed the most plausible.

It explained both why the Tiger Soul Research Institute currently refused Lin Ran’s request to research the cultivation technique and why the Flesh and Blood Sacrifice technique wasn’t released earlier.

With this thought, he mentally filed away this piece of intelligence.

Apart from Lin Ran, the development of the game Dawn was also progressing rapidly at the Scarlet Research Institute.

However, they had yet to launch any promotional campaigns.

The reason was simple.

Promoting Dawn would inevitably attract significant attention from all factions, drawing their focus to the Scarlet Research Institute. Even if these Domain Forces already believed the institute had been infiltrated by other factions due to his presence, such a move could create unpredictable variables.

To ensure this timeline could reach Mu Yao, stability was paramount, not recklessness.

After consulting with the Scarlet leadership, they reached the same conclusion: the advanced technologies developed for Dawn would be transferred to another him, and this timeline would not release the game.

To them, this timeline was already a Sacrifice Line.

While releasing Dawn could alter the future, it couldn’t change the ultimate outcome, making it pointless to do so.

Instead, stabilizing this timeline and focusing on contacting Mu Yao was the key.

As various pieces of information converged in his mind, Feng Qi fell into deep contemplation.

After a moment, he took a large gulp of the specially brewed beverage provided by the Scarlet Research Institute, then rose from the sofa and began another round of intense training.

(End of the Chapter)

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