Because Elina's cold attitude greatly helped Heinrich extinguish the flames of desire within him, Heinrich could gradually free himself from the unilateral desire towards Elina under strong psychological suggestion. Furthermore, Heinrich managed to adjust his emotions anew, defining Elina as a goddess figure worthy of admiration and respect but bound by moral constraints that he could not surpass.
Thus, Heinrich's attitude towards Elina gradually changed from purely primal desire to a respectful admiration tinged with affection. Finally, under the powerful influence of his self-awareness, Heinrich learned how to maintain a healthy and proper mindset in his interactions with Elina, ensuring that the crack above the seal within him did not show any further signs of enlargement.
Although he couldn't have Elina physically, working alongside her every day was enough to make Heinrich enjoy the experience. Moreover, Elina's ability to help them enhance the efficiency of their purification tasks and allow Eve and the others more time for procreation in order to expedite their plans made Heinrich deeply involved. Consequently, Heinrich gradually let go of his guard and began wholeheartedly supporting their covert escape plan through means other than direct involvement.
Hearing this, Haoyun couldn't help but interrupt Heinrich and ask, "I'm curious, how did Elina help you improve the efficiency of the purification tasks? And how did she gain the energy to enhance her strength here?"
Perhaps considering the complexity of the purification tasks, Heinrich pondered briefly before responding with relatively indirect words, "Simply put, we must always have a core item ready when executing purification tasks, and this item is called the Dum Ore. Whether in the Dark Chain Plane or in the lower worlds of the Spirit Realm, Dum Ore is an indispensable source of vital energy."
"Dum Ore?" Haoyun, Dao Lao, and Dream Jia exclaimed in shock, despite their familiarity with the name. "Dum Ore?! Are you saying Dum Ore?!"
"Yes, Dum Ore. Is there another ore called Dum Ore? Have you heard of this type of ore?" Heinrich asked, perplexed.
After some thought, Dao Lao furrowed his long white beard and proceeded to describe in detail to Heinrich how they had encountered Elina and learned about Dum Ore. Heinrich nodded understandingly and exclaimed that everything indeed seemed too coincidental.
Haoyun's mind was a complete mess right now, swirling in chaos. Heinrich's brief reply contained immense information, leaving Haoyun to rub his temples in an attempt to sort through the scrambled thoughts before asking, "Um... So, Heinrich, are you saying Dum Ore isn't unique to the planet Alf? Instead, it's a ubiquitous mineral?"
"That's right," Heinrich replied.
With a dry chuckle, Heinrich continued, "Of course! I can understand why the Spirit Realm intentionally concealed information about Dum Ore from you, making you think it was just a tool discovered by Elina by chance. Hmm, this might also explain why the Spirit Realm issued one of the orders to hunt down Elina?! After all, they're probably afraid that Elina might someday discover the true role of Dum Ore and expose its secrets to the world, even potentially threatening the Spirit Realm's rule!"
"In fact, Dum Ore is far more powerful than you know because it's a miraculous ore originating from the Dark Chain Plane. It contains immense, immeasurable energy and can replenish itself by absorbing negative energy. Simply put, Dum Ore is the fundamental energy source that the Spirit Realm has placed in the lower worlds to ensure their long-term stability."
Heinrich paused for a moment and gestured towards Haoyun to continue, "Take your Earth world, for example. Dum Ore is deeply buried in the deepest part of Earth and operates like a battery, constantly providing necessary energy for the survival of everything on Earth, while simultaneously absorbing the negative energy released by all living things on Earth and converting all that negative energy into usable energy, thus ensuring that Dum Ore can continue to supply energy for the growth of everything on Earth. Therefore, once the energy within those Dum Ores is depleted, that Earth world will lose the power to survive and eventually face destruction."
After a brief moment of reflection, Haoyun asked, "Um... But there's one thing I still don't quite understand. If Dum Ore can absorb negative energy from everything on Earth, theoretically speaking, shouldn't Dum Ore allow Earth to run perpetually like a perpetual motion machine? So, why did Elsie and the others say that the Earth world is already in a moribund state and heading towards destruction?"
Heinrich replied knowingly, "That's because Dum Ore itself is very fragile and could easily transform from an eternal power source into a rechargeable ore with a limited lifespan! Dum Ore is indeed powerful enough to sustain an entire world's full ecosystem for a long time. However, once the world it supports encounters problems, the fragile and sensitive Dum Ore loses its efficacy for unrestricted use."
"For example, the Earth world you're in, every generation of beings born there isn't exactly made of easygoing stuff. What's even more deadly is that each and every being born there carries to some extent a self-destructive personality trait. This leads to every civilization in that world, after reaching a certain height of development, not pondering how to explore higher orders of cosmic reality and evolve their spirits for the better. Instead, their thoughts tend to veer off track after reaching a bottleneck in development, casting wars, diseases, disasters, and many other calamities into their world. It's precisely because of the malignant nature ingrained in the beings of that world that disasters are continually triggered worldwide, often not realizing these calamities are responses triggered by Earth's self-destructive development."
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"This kind of response massively depletes the energy within Dume Ore, simultaneously bringing lethal destruction to the Earth world. Afterward, your Earth world will once again use the power of Dume Ore to self-heal, birthing new beings. Subsequently, these newly emerged beings will once again tread the path of destruction. This cycle repeats endlessly, inevitably causing increased depletion of Dume Ore, making it increasingly fragile."
"When all these evils accumulate, gradually reaching the limits that the Earth world can bear, the balance of supply and demand within Dume Ore itself will be disrupted. This will lead the Earth world towards destruction as the beings there reach the standard required to ascend to the Spirit Realm. Conversely, it will guide that world towards destruction. A world unable to provide talent for the Spirit Realm above, nor energy for the upper realm, naturally loses all value. Therefore, once a lower world enters the process of destruction, the sole purpose the Spirit Realm allows it to continue existing is to wait for the time when it can replace everything in that world, under the premise of maintaining stability in the lower space-time line. This is the cruel rule hidden within the Spirit Realm and the reason for the existence of the Sacred Mission External Expansion Department and the Purification Envoy."
Heinrich paused briefly, then added, "So, logically speaking, whether it's the Earth world where Lord Hao resides or any other lower world heading towards destruction, the ultimate reason they face purification by the Spirit Realm boils down to each ruling civilization that controls that world. The demise of these worlds is entirely their own doing, reaping what they sow, and has nothing to do with the Spirit Realm. The Spirit Realm acts in this way solely to maintain the stability of the entire world and protect the lives of more lower realm beings!"
After listening to Heinrich's narrative, Hao Yun fell into silence involuntarily. Suddenly, he thought of a saying that everything had a cause and effect, making his mood even more complicated. Because Hao Yun did not believe that Heinrich's words just now were a defense of the Spirit Realm's covert purification mission. On the contrary, Heinrich was merely stating an objective fact.
The reality of the N38 Earth timeline was indeed as described: if the beings there were not always so belligerent, if they didn't always enjoy creating conflicts and slaughtering each other within the same civilization, in a suicidal way to disrupt the world's balance, then the energy harbored within the Earth world wouldn't be on the brink of exhaustion due to insufficient intake. If the beings in the N38 Earth timeline didn't enjoy risking their lives so much, they wouldn't have been abandoned by the Spirit Realm and punished accordingly.
In contrast to Hao Yun, who was immersed in reflection, Dream Jia evidently disagreed with Heinrich's statement. So she took over the conversation, saying, "Although what you said makes sense, the lower realm beings are actually a group of immature children in terms of mentality. We can't guarantee that they won't make some outrageous mistakes due to their youthful ignorance. And those silly things they do often become vicious cycles that are difficult to clean up. This is also the meaning and value of our existence."
"Because we can continuously correct the mistakes they make, teach them what is the right behavior, and guide them to eventually follow the right path. Isn't this the driving force that compels the Spirit Realm to actively and positively develop? So, if according to your statement, doesn't it mean that every world in the lower realm exists with the possibility of being destroyed? In that case, wouldn't the Spirit Realm become even more unstable? Wouldn't this contradict the development philosophy of the Spirit Realm?"
"Logically speaking, every world in the lower realms, to a greater or lesser extent, faces the risk of destruction. Or, to put it more pessimistically, every world in the lower realms will eventually be destroyed," Heinrich responded.
Then, Heinrich's tone shifted again as he continued, "However, not all lower world realms are as extreme as the world where Lord Hao resides. Because for the vast majority of worlds, the beings there will learn lessons from their mistakes to ensure they don't repeat similar errors in the future. Only a few worlds, like that Earth world, will use the experience gained from each summary of mistakes to ensure that they can effectively avoid greater risks the next time they commit greater mistakes. Due to the different starting points of these two types of beings recognizing mistakes, it leads to a huge difference in the controllability of their worlds, and ultimately affects the speed at which their worlds move towards the end point—one controllable and the other extremely uncontrollable."
"You see, the reserves of Dume Ore in each world are extremely abundant, and the energy stored within them is exceptionally vast. Therefore, waiting for Dume Ore to completely lose its effectiveness and eventually trigger the destruction of a world is something that will take an extremely long time. This allows those worlds that continuously progress through their mistakes ample time to constantly improve and evolve themselves. As a result, they are sufficiently qualified to ascend to the upper realms before the energy in Dume Ore is completely depleted."
"So, from the current situation, although the number of worlds accelerating their consumption of Dume Ore due to their unwillingness to repent, thereby heading towards destruction, remains significant within the lower realms, their proportion within the entire lower world is not very high. With the Spirit Realm's continuous purification of these worlds, those inherently flawed worlds will further diminish in number, making it even more difficult for the Spirit Realm's energy to passively deplete and thereby becoming stronger."
"Of course, the Spirit Realm doesn't want to simply watch these worlds perish, because that would always bring significant harm to the Spirit Realm. Therefore, the Spirit Realm is actively expanding the space-time lines of the lower realms, enabling them to accommodate more high-quality worlds. These worlds will provide more energy sources for the upper realms, ensuring that the upper realms gain more divine power to strengthen the entire Spirit Realm."