"Visiting? No need. I don't have that kind of free time."
Herta rejected Nolan without the slightest courtesy.
"Hehe. The research on the Simulated Universe has reached a critical stage lately. Once things ease up a bit, I'll pay a visit to Mr. Nolan's home planet then."
Compared to Herta, Screwllum—the mechanical gentleman—declined far more politely.
Asta, too, had to look after the massive space station and didn't have time to visit for now. Nolan didn't press the matter; there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.
After Herta and the others left the Void Star Sea, Nolan instructed the Lumine;s Sword God he had stationed in Teyvat to head to Fontaine and open a new spatial rift.
Using the Void Star Sea as a transit point, he and Ruan Mei exited from there and arrived directly in Fontaine City.
They appeared inside the opera house. There was no performance at the moment, and no audience either.
As a result, no one noticed Nolan and Ruan Mei's arrival.
"Ms. Ruan Mei, please follow me. The god I mentioned is over here," Nolan said, leading her toward the room where the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale was housed.
"Alright."
Wearing high heels adorned with plum-blossom motifs at both the toe and heel, Ruan Mei followed behind him at an unhurried pace.
She casually observed the opera house as they walked.
Across the Stars, countless civilizations existed, and many architectural styles overlapped. This sort of design often emerged when civilizations reached the stage of industrialization.
Of course, every civilization had its own unique circumstances. Judgments like this could often be off the mark—or even completely wrong.
Since she had arrived in a new world, Ruan Mei naturally wanted to see whether there were any lifeforms here worth researching.
The next moment, the world before her eyes changed.
The walls of the opera house vanished, revealing the bustling plaza outside. Then the humans disappeared, leaving only the sky and the earth.
When even the sky and earth faded away, only seven colors of fundamental particles remained around Ruan Mei.
These were the seven different elemental powers.
Soon after, these fundamental elemental particles began to combine and evolve. Dominated by yellow elemental particles mixed with small portions of others, vast quantities sank downward, evolving into land.
Particles dominated by wind and water elements, mixed with large amounts of other elements, rose upward, gradually forming the atmosphere.
The elemental particles continued to evolve, and the earliest forms of life appeared—spirits composed entirely of elemental particles.
Elemental sprites of all shapes and forms, with only the vaguest sense of awareness.
Countless ages passed before the elemental particles finally evolved into various small organic molecules, such as amino acids and nucleotides.
Large organic molecules formed by amino acids linked through peptide bonds—proteins—emerged soon after.
As more and more substances evolved, single-celled life began to appear, followed closely by simple multicellular organisms.
Animals, monsters, humans, and more came into being one after another.
By peering into this world's evolutionary history of life, Ruan Mei gained a basic understanding of the species that had emerged here.
Compared to the Universe at large, the lifeforms of this world weren't particularly special.
Although the world was built upon seven elemental powers, it had ultimately evolved creatures not much different from those found on most planets.
Carbon-based lifeforms like humans were common almost everywhere. Elemental sprites, as a form of energy-based life, were also not rare in the universe.
As for the various monsters, while similar beings existed in the cosmos, their specific life information—such as DNA—would certainly differ quite a bit.
When she had some free time in the future, it might be worth coming back to study them.
Before long, Ruan Mei's vision gradually returned to normal. When she looked ahead again, she found herself standing before a door, having followed Nolan there.
"Focalors, we're here," Nolan said as he knocked on the door.
Inside the Oratrice's chamber, Focalors had already noticed the arrival of Nolan and Ruan Mei.
The door opened, and Focalors stepped out, dressed in a white gown.
She turned her gaze to the elegant lady standing beside Nolan and spoke,
"So this is Miss Ruan Mei, who comes from the stars?"
Nolan had mentioned her before.
To be honest, when Nolan told her that he had found someone capable of separating the Authority without causing harm, she had been somewhat skeptical.
The Authority had fused completely with her soul. The only way to separate it, in theory, was to tear her soul apart.
Because even if the Authority was fused with her soul, as a world's Authority it could not be destroyed. Once her soul was shattered, all that would remain would be the Sovereign Dragon's Authority.
"Greetings, Lady God," Ruan Mei said, nodding lightly in greeting.
"May I ask how you intend to help me separate the Authority?"
Focalors asked directly.
"Please wait a moment. Allow me to diagnose first."
Ruan Mei did not answer right away. She reached out with her right hand, clad in dark blue gloves, and grasped Focalors's wrist.
"Eh—so sudden…"
A body composed of soul was somewhat sensitive. Focalors's cheeks flushed slightly as she instinctively drew her arm back.
"…"
Nolan watched in silence, feeling a bit speechless. Why are you blushing? You're both girls.
Information about Focalors's soul-state surfaced clearly in Ruan Mei's mind. The situation was largely as she had anticipated. She parted her soft lips and spoke:
"Under normal circumstances, without external interference, a portion of a world's Authority cannot exceed the world itself at its strongest state.
"Let us compare this portion of Authority to water. Your soul, likewise, is water. At present, the two have merged into one mass, indistinguishable from each other.
"When we increase the 'density' of this mass of water to the world's upper limit, we reach a boundary. The part representing the world's Authority will stop there.
"However, the part representing you will not be affected. If we continue increasing the 'density,' surpassing the world's upper limit, then you and the world's Authority will naturally become distinct.
"At that point, separating them will be far simpler."
As a world-level Authority, the Sovereign Dragon's Authority could not exceed the upper limit of the world itself.
As long as Focalors's soul strength surpassed the world's upper limit, the two would naturally separate.
Hearing Ruan Mei's method, Nolan's eyes lit up. It really did seem feasible.
As long as she was invited to stay in the Wonderland Space and trained together every day, rapidly increasing Focalors's strength, surpassing Teyvat itself wouldn't be impossible.
The only question was—what exactly was Teyvat's upper limit?
It was certainly higher than the one hundred and twenty levels of top-tier Archons. Nolan himself was only around level one hundred and twenty at present. Even if he focused on training Focalors, the increase wouldn't be that fast.
After all, their life tiers weren't drastically different—unless he widened the gap between his own level and the world's upper limit by more than twenty levels.
Only then could he quickly raise Focalors's soul strength beyond the world in a short period of time.
That was indeed a bit difficult. For now, Nolan couldn't manage it—unless a large number of powerful enemies suddenly appeared for him to defeat.
But since Ruan Mei had proposed this method, she likely already had a solution in mind.
(End of Chapter)
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