"Create Aeons first, then create Emanators?"
Hearing the reason Ryuga gave, Ruan Mei was momentarily stunned.
Having taken this path for granted for so long, this was the first time she was re-examining the steps she had set.
"Of course."
Ryuga nodded.
"In a certain sense, Aeons and Pathstriders are more similar—both walk within a Path and can master the Path. The power they wield is power they can control themselves."
"But Emanators are different. Emanators are beings actively granted Path power by Aeons and bound by them. In other words, the Path energy Emanators possess isn't mastered through their own initiative."
"Or rather, Emanators themselves don't necessarily need to be Pathstriders of the corresponding Path."
"This also means Emanators themselves don't have the ability to fully control their own power."
Aha the Elation once granted all the power in Its Path to an insect, making it possibly the strongest Emanator to date, wanting to test if this insect could join the Genius Society for amusement.
When this experiment failed and Nous the Erudition didn't accept this insect, Aha directly withdrew Its blessing.
Thus, this historically strongest Emanator died on the spot.
From this, it was clear that without an Aeon's personal blessing, Emanators couldn't master the Path energy granted by Aeons.
"So the Swarm King replica disintegrates so quickly because of this?"
Ruan Mei blinked, finally understanding the root of her failure.
She had always tried to use Skaracabaz's own body to restrain the imaginary energy within it.
But who could have imagined that without an Aeon's blessing, Skaracabaz's own body originally had no ability to restrain the imaginary energy within itself.
Since such a state never existed from the beginning, no matter how much she tried to approach it, her efforts were bound to be futile.
"Correct."
Ryuga nodded.
"In a certain sense, your experiment actually succeeded. You indeed perfectly recreated Skaracabaz's state when it was alive as an Emanator of Propagation."
"It's just that without an Aeon's blessing, Skaracabaz originally couldn't stably maintain its own power and would spontaneously collapse."
Saying this, Ryuga looked at Ruan Mei with some appreciation.
It had to be said, Ruan Mei's talent was truly astonishing. She had genuinely achieved creating an Emanator with a mortal body.
If not for the special nature of Emanators—that they inherently needed to borrow an Aeon's power to maintain their existence—Ruan Mei would have long ago been able to create complete Emanators and become a renowned figure throughout the stars.
"In other words, the current replica lacks an Aeon's blessing, and that blessing requires an Aeon in person to bestow..."
Hearing Ryuga's explanation, Ruan Mei looked at the Swarm King replica hovering above, her jade-green pupils showing slight realization.
"If so, then Emanators are a byproduct obtained from creating Aeons. That's why you said to create Aeons first, then Emanators."
She finally completely understood Ryuga's meaning, and also finally understood why he said she had the order wrong.
She wanted to create Emanators to approach Aeons, but the prerequisite for creating Emanators was creating Aeons in the first place.
"So from the very beginning, the direction I was researching was a dead end."
Ruan Mei lowered her eyes, her tone showing neither sorrow nor joy.
"Indeed."
Here, Ryuga didn't offer comfort but supplemented instead.
"Trying to bypass Aeons to create Emanators—this difficulty is even higher than simply creating Aeons."
Saying this, his gaze toward Ruan Mei became slightly strange.
"Actually, with this route's difficulty level, if an ordinary researcher started drilling into it, they would discover their positioning problem in at most half a year, because this difficulty is extremely unreasonable."
"But your talent is simply too high, to the point where those divine punishment-like difficult problems involving Path powers were overcome one by one through pure talent. This actually caused you not to doubt your route."
Should this also be called a genius's curse?
Because it was too unreasonable, she completely failed to notice the key problem, until reaching the final barrier did she realize she had taken the wrong path.
Like an extremely strong-headed fool who never had the concept of turning back when hitting a wall—her innate talent instead made her lose her sense of danger in困境.
If not for the Aeon problem being too complex, Ryuga suspected Ruan Mei planned to just charge through like this.
"Speaking of which, even Skaracabaz's original body can't withstand Emanator-level power for more than three seconds, yet your strengthened version can last fifty-six seconds... Your achievements in the life sciences field have already surpassed the offspring personally bred by Tayzzyronth the Propagation."
For Ruan Mei, this experiment itself might have been a failure.
But from this failed experiment, one could easily see Ruan Mei's attainments in the life sciences field—calling it unprecedented was no exaggeration whatsoever.
"If this universe were truly to birth some kind of Life Aeon, then you would certainly be the most suitable individual... Of course, that's assuming conditions for a Life Aeon to be born truly exist."
Even from his perspective, Ruan Mei's talent was extremely excellent, a level above Senji.
"Life Aeon..."
Hearing Ryuga mention this, Ruan Mei finally raised her eyes to look at him quietly.
"You've already resolved my doubts. According to our agreement, I'm willing to accept your invitation. You complete my wish, I become your familiar."
She hadn't forgotten her promise.
"No problem. Shall we shake on it?"
Ryuga extended one hand.
"Yes!"
As a Xianzhou person, Ruan Mei naturally understood this ritual.
"Clap!"
After their palms met, Ruan Mei was slightly stunned, noticing a double-helix pattern mark had appeared on her wrist.
From it, she not only felt the contract's power but also sensed a special authority.
This power seemed extremely compatible with the knowledge domains she had mastered, and even contained life sciences knowledge beyond her current understanding.
"What is this?"
Ruan Mei asked curiously.
"The Catalog of Life, a mythological technique constructed with Tiamat, the creation mother goddess from Sumerian mythology, as its core."
Ryuga immediately provided an answer.
The powers of the Divine Domain pantheons were extremely comprehensive, with basically no uncovered areas.
And the life sciences field happened to be what Sumerian mythology excelled at most.
Just as he had woven the Victory Sword technique from Zoroastrianism and the Seven Deadly Sins technique from Christianity, Ryuga had woven the Catalog of Life technique through Sumerian mythology, recreating this creation mother goddess's authority—the ability to freely create life through life factors.
Whether mythological species or phantasmal species, as long as they were biological structures Ryuga had contacted, he had the ability to replicate them.
"You can understand it as an authority specifically for life editing. With your attainments in the life sciences field, you should be able to fully unleash this mythological technique's power."
"Besides that, I've also included data on dragon species and other life forms I've encountered. These life form templates should also be somewhat useful to you."
Ryuga was never stingy with his own people.
Perhaps Ruan Mei's understanding of the life sciences field even surpassed Tiamat, this creation mother goddess, but she still needed matching experimental environments to cultivate life.
With the Catalog of Life technique, she could not only ignore most experimental conditions and greatly accelerate her research progress, but could even use life factors she comprehended to evolve herself and enhance her own strength.
Perhaps Ruan Mei didn't lack self-defense methods, but with this technique, given her knowledge reserves, she could definitely display Emanator-level combat power.
For her strength, this was a qualitative leap.
"I see..."
Feeling Ryuga's attitude suddenly become intimate and without barriers, caring for her like a parent, after brief speechlessness, carefully experiencing this gift she had received, Ruan Mei's gaze toward Ryuga trembled slightly.
"Then should I thank you, or should I say, thank you Master?"
After making her decision, Ruan Mei tilted her head slightly, as if inquiring what form of address Ryuga preferred.
"Although we've signed a contract, your wish hasn't been fulfilled yet, so there's no need to call me Master. Just call me by my name."
Ryuga shook his head, having no intention of prematurely exercising his rights.
"Yes!"
Ruan Mei readily complied. She hadn't really cared much about these matters to begin with.
After formally confirming their relationship, she immediately inquired.
"Then, how should we proceed with the experiment afterward to achieve Aeonhood?"
Saying this, she added another sentence.
"I'll fully cooperate."
Clearly, in Ruan Mei's view, they would be launching a project called "Creating an Aeon" going forward, with Ryuga as the main project leader and herself as both test subject and assistant.
Since that was the case, to avoid holding things back, she wanted to first understand Ryuga's experimental approach.
Hearing this, Ryuga shook his head.
"No rush. According to what Herta said earlier, I still need to verify a fact with Nous the Erudition—to confirm whether this era has entered a historical transition period as I theorized. Only then can we proceed to the final step."
As mentioned before, verifying a new theory had three steps.
The first step was being able to align with and explain past phenomena—Ryuga had already accomplished this.
The second step was using the old theory to deduce and predict future phenomena—this hadn't been achieved yet.
The final step was officially conducting experiments, which meant creating an Aeon.
Even though Ryuga was already more than ninety percent confident in his heart, out of caution, he still planned to verify his hypothesis first.
"Historical transition period?"
Hearing this unfamiliar term, Ruan Mei was slightly confused.
"It's a period when civilizations undergo drastic changes."
Ryuga patiently explained.
"Didn't I mention before that the birth of Aeons is closely connected to civilization's development? This means that if civilizations themselves aren't undergoing drastic changes, no matter how deep your attainments are, it's impossible to ascend to Aeonhood."
Human struggle doesn't just depend on personal effort—one must also consider the historical process.
Clearly, in terms of personal effort, Ruan Mei was already quite qualified. The reason she hadn't become an Aeon was mainly because the previous historical stage simply didn't have any new Aeon positions to be born.
However, the coming era might be different.
"Oh!"
Ruan Mei nodded obediently.
She already trusted Ryuga's judgment completely, having no objections whatsoever.
"Then let's go back now!"
Looking at the time, Ryuga turned around.
"Screwllum should be arriving soon too."
Ruan Mei responded softly and immediately followed Ryuga's footsteps upward.
Her gait remained light and elegant, yet somehow also resembled a child following their parents.
To be continued…