"By the way, where did you get the degree mica stone from?" Dream Jia asked the Countess as she savored the third cup of hot tea.
"Elina gave it to me. I was worrying about how to roast tea leaves to make them more flavorful at the time, so Elina gave me a few pieces of degree mica stone to try. As a result, the green tea I roasted with it was indeed fragrant." The Countess replied.
From the exchange after the meeting, it could be seen that this Countess was actually quite carefree, lively, and constantly exuded a strange charm. Moreover, from the Countess's words and actions, she seemed genuinely uninterested in attacking Haoyun and the others. At least from the current situation, the Countess seemed more willing to communicate with them than to confront them.
However, even if the Countess appeared very friendly now, Haoyun and the others knew they couldn't let their guard down. After all, this Countess was a dangerous life form formed by the fusion of mold energy, and she was also a terrifying existence capable of creating independent spaces and forcibly blocking the divine power of the Spirit Realm.
"Where are we exactly now?" Thinking of this, Dao Lao quickly organized his thoughts and brought the conversation back on track.
"You're in the Fragrant Nebula, of course. How do you like it here? Ahem. You should know, I've spent a lot of effort to create this microcosm!" The Countess took another big gulp of tea. However, because the tea was too hot and she drank too quickly, she was immediately scalded, repeatedly opening her mouth wide, sticking out her tongue, and stomping her feet to cool down the hot tea in her stomach.
After a painful struggle, the Countess finally satisfied put down her teacup and continued, "Ahem. I'm so happy to see you three! I almost forgot to introduce myself properly! My name is Gogolnikyeva, and you may call me Countess. Hmm, you must have guessed it, I'm Elina's ally. However, we are different. Elina still adheres to the traditional way, forming a complete form by fusing with mold energy and the corresponding host. Whereas I am just me. I don't have a fusion, nor do I need one to help me evolve into a stronger form."
"Are you saying that your current appearance was directly formed by the essence of mold energy?" Dao Lao asked in surprise.
Because fusing with a suitable host is the only way for mold energy to evolve and fully activate its power. However, since mold energy can only unleash its full power through fusion with a host, and the strength of the lower creatures in the Spirit Realm varies, mold energy can fully exert its power after fusion. But if mold energy can now bypass this process and evolve into a form on its own, doesn't that mean it can break free from the restrictions of fusion and better exert its own strength, posing a greater threat to the Spirit Realm? If other mold energies also have the same ability as the Countess, does that mean they can all wield such powerful forces like her?
Seeing Dao Lao's concern, the Countess jumped around for a few circles and said, "Don't worry, I'm just an exception. No one else has this ability besides me. Because I'm different from them, I managed to break free from the original constraints of mold energy by chance, so I can freely roam around and do whatever I want! Ahem!"
Seeing the Countess respond to questions while behaving strangely, Dream Jia quickly asked, "Countess, what kind of trick did you use to infect us with mold energy and bring us bad luck? And how did you block our divine power?"
The Countess responded pretendedly in fear, "Oh my! You are all gods from the Spirit Realm! Under the protection of the Spirit Realm, you are all invulnerable. Where would I get the strength to restrict you? Ahem!"
Then, after laughing inexplicably for a while, the Countess made an effort to calm herself down and continued disdainfully, "You arrogant beings from the Spirit Realm, do you really think that everything in the Spirit Realm is perfect and flawless, and cannot be broken? Ahem."
Because from the current situation, Haoyun and the others did indeed enter the black hole VOID-5173 with extreme confidence and then became prisoners under the Countess's command. All of this was enough to show that the Countess's contempt for the Spirit Realm was not groundless. However, the proud Haoyun and the others, even though they were in a predicament, were unwilling to acknowledge the Countess's views. So when the Countess raised this question, the three naturally refused to answer it.
The countess, seeing that the three didn't agree with her views, sat back slightly disappointedly in her seat, conjuring up a makeup box and touching up her ugly makeup while saying, "Ah! I'm sure you all know how these chaotic voids are formed and why your Spirit Realm has been reluctant to deal with these territories. Because here, all balance is not broken but rather returned to its original state."
"So, even the divine power of the Spirit Realm will be suppressed here. I simply took advantage of the power within this space, which returns to its original state, to establish a new set of rules and forcibly require all life forms entering my jurisdiction to abide by the rules I set."
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Then, the countess pretended to worry and said, "However, your arrival has indeed helped me a lot."
"What help?" Dream Jia asked puzzledly.
Pointing her dirty fingers at Haoyun, the countess said, "Because your arrival made me realize that I am still not strong enough to better resist the divine power of the Spirit Realm. You know, this could seriously affect my plans. So, it seems I also need to quickly recover my strength! Otherwise, in just two days, I might become a prisoner under the pursuit of the godly officials of the three mold energies! Ahem!"
"So, you're hiding here just to create more negative energy using the innocent creatures that survived in the black hole VOID-5173 to help you regain your strength. Then, you plan to go out and implement a destructive plan against the Spirit Realm?" Dream Jia asked again.
"Oh! Darling, you're thinking too evil of me, aren't you? Ahem." The countess covered her mouth with her hands and twisted her body exaggeratedly, showing extreme resistance to Dream Jia's questioning.
"Although in your worldview, I am a villain. But in my worldview, I am a, um—, liberal. Yes, that's right! I am a liberal." The countess pondered.
"A liberal?" Haoyun expressed confusion at the countess's statement.
"Um—, how should I put it? I am a mold energy, but am I really a pure embodiment of evil? Can't I enjoy myself freely and unrestrictedly, despite having an evil nature? You know, I am an evil and interesting mold energy. Compared to other fellows who misbehave day after day, I prefer to try more interesting things. Like creating this space." The countess, rare in stopping her random movements, thought carefully about how to define herself.
"Even if what you said is true, aren't you afraid of angering the Mother of Mold Energy and being punished by her?" Dao Lao felt that something was wrong with the countess's speech, so he asked. However, as he raised the question, Haoyun naturally brought up the Mother of Mold Energy, hoping to probe the countess's attitude and perhaps gain some information about the Mother of Mold Energy's future plans.
"The Mother of Mold Energy? Why would I anger her? And why would she punish me?" The countess asked in confusion.
"Because the purpose of you being created by the Mother of Mold Energy is to bring disaster to the Spirit Realm, right?" Seeing the countess pretending to be unaware, Dream Jia said somewhat annoyed.
"Um—, we were indeed created by the Mother of Mold Energy. But causing trouble for the Spirit Realm is just our mission—"
"If that's the case, then after the Mother of Mold Energy was defeated by our divine army, what exactly are you planning? What kind of conspiracy are you plotting against the Spirit Realm?!" Seeing the countess admit, Dream Jia interrupted her speech and continued to question.
The countess struggled for a while, then finally grabbed her hair and yelled, "Hey! Darling! What on earth are you talking about?! The Mother of Mold Energy was defeated by you, and what conspiracy and tricks? You've confused me!"
Seeing that the countess seemed genuinely confused at this moment and didn't seem to want to avoid Dream Jia's questioning, Haoyun signaled Dream Jia not to rush to continue questioning, and then openly told the countess about the information they knew about the Mother of Mold Energy and their speculation about her plans after being defeated.
The result that surprised Haoyun and the others was that after listening to Haoyun's explanation, the countess suddenly laughed even more exaggeratedly, "Ahem! Ahem! It? It claims to be the Mother of Mold Energy? Ahem! Oh! It really made me laugh! This may be the funniest joke I've ever heard! Ahem!"
While laughing loudly, the countess got up and twisted her body in a dance similar to the "Sweetheart Dance", and after messing around like this for a while, she collapsed exhaustedly onto her chair. Then, the countess wiped away the tears of laughter with her handkerchief, trying to control her intermittent trembling body, and said weakly, "Ahem! I didn't expect that guy to be so funny. It seems that it thinks that after coming here, it can be unruly and add all kinds of titles to itself! Ahem! That arrogant guy, if I go back next time, I must publicize this embarrassing incident to all mold energies and make it the laughingstock of all mold energies."
Although Haoyun didn't know why the countess laughed so much just now, Dao Lao still focused his attention on the countess's "return." Because, although mold energy is a strange race that poses a great threat to the Spirit Realm, the Spirit Realm actually knows very little about many things related to these mold energies, including the specific source of mold energy. It is precisely because of this reason that, although the Spirit Realm can come up with many ways to deal with mold energy with its powerful strength, it still cannot completely suppress it, allowing mold energy to cause trouble to the Spirit Realm like flies.
Therefore, if they could learn from the countess the specific source of mold energy, it would be equivalent to the Spirit Realm gaining a very important situation. It might even help the Spirit Realm follow the clues to thoroughly eliminate the mold energy force from the source. So, Dao Lao immediately pursued, "Return? When you say return, where are you going?"
The countess paused for a moment before answering indifferently, "The Abyssal Space. That's our realm, a boundless world exclusively for our mold energy. As for the Mold Mother, she, as the creator and ruler of the Abyssal Space, would never leave it."
"So, that fellow fused with Elina, it's not the real Mold Mother. It's just a clown putting on airs there for show. And from what I know, we lost in the Divine War, that's it. The Mold Mother didn't plan any retaliatory action against the divine realm. Those speculations you three made, they simply don't exist. You've all been fooled!" Despite being a member of the mold energy, despite her eccentric appearance, for some reason, after hearing the countess's response, Han Run and the other two couldn't help but believe that she was telling the truth and felt somewhat relieved.
The countess continued, "Ah! Anyway, I'm afraid I won't say much more to you. Actually, it was a mischievous mold energy here who, by chance, discovered that there are many special spaces in the divine realm. These spaces store a large amount of energy that could pose a fatal threat to the Abyssal Space. So, this mold energy became very vigilant and investigated those spaces. And it found out that you divine realm folks were secretly studying that energy and planning to use it to launch an attack on the Abyssal Space."