91: Past of the Secret Realm

After completely destroying the mental defenses of the three individuals, the memories in their minds were fully displayed before Xu Yan through the contract between Xiong Nian and Xu Yan.

Xu Yan was quite lucky. These three people held a certain status among humans, and one of them even came from a medium-sized Aristocratic Family, providing access to more detailed information.

By combining the historical memories of the three people with his own deductions, Xu Yan gained a general understanding of the Secret Realm's situation.

This Secret Realm was originally a Non-Magic World, generally at the level of the cold weapon feudal period, when extraordinary elements suddenly appeared within it, and various Spirit Beasts and Strange Beasts descended as well.

However, unlike the situation on Blue Star where Spirit Beasts of various attributes coexisted, the Spirit Beasts and Strange Beasts appearing in this Secret Realm were all primarily of the Ghost Spirit type.

Already in an era where theories of ghosts and gods were prevalent, and suddenly encountering the descent of the extraordinary, the Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts and Strange Beasts that arrived were immediately regarded as high-level ghost deities, leading to the formation of faiths centered around different Spirit Beasts and Strange Beasts.

Coincidentally, the power of faith truly had an extremely strong effect on the Ghost Spirit attribute. With the blessing of the faith of the Secret Realm's humans, the strength of the Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts and Strange Beasts that had descended began to rapidly increase.

If development had continued steadily like this, there was a certain possibility that this Secret Realm could have developed and upgraded into a Shinto Secret Realm World dominated by the Ghost Spirit type, perhaps even having a minimal chance of giving birth to a Mythical Rank existence.

However, this was merely the most ideal scenario; reality did not proceed in this direction.

As their strength increased, the Spirit Beasts were generally fine. Although they possessed the mischievous nature of the Ghost Spirit type and would occasionally play tricks on humans, they maintained a benevolent attitude toward the humans in the Secret Realm who provided them with the power of faith.

However, the Strange Beasts were not so peaceful. Most of them did not possess high intelligence, and their actions were more inclined to be driven by instinct.

Besides providing faith, the fear generated by the humans in the Secret Realm, and even their own flesh and blood subtly nourished by the Ghost Spirit elements, were of great benefit to these Strange Beasts.

Since their initial descent, apart from a very few special existences, the vast majority of Strange Beasts never stopped attacking the humans and various creatures within the Secret Realm.

Initially, the number of Strange Beasts was not too large, and they required a certain amount of time to digest the flesh, blood, and emotions after an attack. Given the relatively large population base, they only caused localized panic and did not have a major overall impact.

Furthermore, the panic caused by these actions did not reduce the power of faith they originally harvested; instead, it further promoted the development of faith related to those Strange Beasts.

As time went on, the Strange Beasts grew increasingly powerful, the scope of their influence widened, and the casualties they inflicted on humans and other creatures in the Secret Realm grew heavier.

During this period, the Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts who received human faith also attempted to intervene and provide protection for humanity. However, compared to the various methods the Strange Beasts used to increase their strength, the Spirit Beasts who relied solely on faith and self-cultivation were generally weaker than the Strange Beasts.

After the Spirit Beasts intervened to fight the Strange Beasts attempting to devour humans and other creatures, but were increasingly wounded severely or even directly consumed due to their insufficient strength...

What the Spirit Beasts did not expect was that the very humans they tried their best to protect immediately betrayed them.

The divine statues in the temples originally dedicated to them were torn down one by one and replaced with the statues of the Strange Beasts. All words of prayer and protection instantly turned into curses and disdain.

The Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts, who had only recently been born and had mostly received the goodwill of somewhat naive humans, were naturally dealt a massive blow when they suddenly faced this completely opposite attitude.

Their original faith was directly overthrown and transformed into blatant malice, and the backlash of faith severely wounded the Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts.

By chance, the human side seized the opportunity to use a special method to control some of the weaker Spirit Beasts who had been heavily wounded by the backlash.

From this point onward, the Spirit Beasts and Strange Beasts, who had originally possessed a mysterious aura and were worshiped by humans, began to fall from grace in the hearts of the extremely small number of human elites.

However, compared to the benevolent Spirit Beasts, the Strange Beasts, who were stronger and possessed more chaotic consciousness, managed to maintain their status precisely because of the destruction they caused.

Starting from the point when a Spirit Beast was controlled by humans due to severe injuries, more and more Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts—whether due to Strange Beasts, accidental opportunities, the humans who controlled them, or their own goodwill toward humanity—fell under human control.

It was similar to idol worship: the higher they were praised initially, the more severe the backlash from 'un-fans' would be once their image collapsed.

For these Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts who had lost their former lofty status and were now subject to human control, a large portion of their controllers treated them extremely poorly.

Incidents of forcing them to slaughter the entire family of a competitor or even an entire town were frequent occurrences. More often, however, they were subjected to various inhumane experiments in an attempt to find the Method of Eternal Life from their bodies.

In short, the Ghost Spirit type creatures controlled by humans during this period lived extremely miserable lives.

Even if some people genuinely held goodwill toward the Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts and tried to improve their current situation.

The final result was either their own inexplicable death and the transfer of their controlled Spirit Beasts to a new owner, or they forgot their original intentions under various temptations and joined the ranks of those people.

As time passed, the remaining humans who still held goodwill toward the Spirit Beasts eventually chose to go with the flow. The most they could do was simply not treat the Spirit Beasts under their command as badly as others did.

However, while treating the Ghost Spirit type Spirit Beasts in this manner, these people overlooked the fact that the injuries sustained by the Spirit Beasts would heal over time, and due to the abundance of Ghost Spirit elements in the Secret Realm, their recovery speed was not slow, as they never lacked energy.