The Taiyuan Wang Clan estate, located in an open area at the central intersection of two rivers to the northeast of the Confucius Temple, covers approximately 80,000 square meters. Although tall buildings abound within, the specific layout is scarcely known, as not just anyone can visit the head of the Five Great Clans.
However, perhaps due to recent rebel activity, the flow of people near the estate has once again dwindled significantly, to the point where one might not see a single car pass by for half a day.
Cheng Jinyang sat in a nearby teahouse, and he was the only person in the entire second-floor hall. The owner brought him some fine tea named "General's Red Robe." It was unclear whether it was black tea or oolong, but its color was as rich as amber, and the tender buds floated and sank like silk in water.
"Wait a moment, I don't think I ordered this..." Cheng Jinyang began to speak, but the owner interjected, "This tea is on the house."
"On the house?"
"Yes. This tea has to be sourced from other regions, it's quite expensive, and its shelf life is short, affecting the taste if it's not fresh," the owner explained with a smile. "But recently, the regulars from the estate haven't been coming. We can't finish it ourselves, and throwing it away would be a waste. Since you're here, it's fate, so I'll let you have a taste."
Since the owner put it that way, Cheng Jinyang took a sip.
Aside from the typical refreshing quality of tea, there was an extra hint of sweetness.
"Good tea," he said, embarrassed. "I'm no expert, but I can say the taste is quite nice."
"Glad to hear that," the owner replied, heading downstairs with the tray. "If you need a refill, just let me know. It can be refilled twice; more than that will require fresh brewing, but it will be charged as regular tea."
"Thanks, boss."
Cheng Jinyang slowly sipped his tea, looking at the streets and buildings outside. For a moment, he almost fancied himself a connoisseur.
After a long while, he saw Wang Wanrou strolling leisurely with a book from the direction of the estate.
When she reached the bottom of the teahouse, she suddenly looked up, and her gaze met Cheng Jinyang's from above.
Cheng Jinyang raised his teacup in a mock toast.
Wang Wanrou withdrew her gaze, expressionless, and entered the teahouse, climbing the stairs to sit across from Cheng Jinyang.
"General's Red Robe?" She raised an eyebrow. "You drink tea?"
"Hey, why can't I order this?" Cheng Jinyang laughed. "You think I can't drink tea?"
"You can?" Wang Wanrou asked sarcastically, glancing at the empty surroundings and sneering, "The owner gave it to you, right?"
"You look down on me?" Cheng Jinyang slapped the table, feigning anger.
"Indeed." Wang Wanrou took his teacup and sipped, "Tsk, it's cold. And you claim to know how to drink tea?"
"It's not cold though?" Cheng Jinyang was puzzled.
"This tea loses its flavor if it's too hot, and it turns bitter if it's cold. The best time to drink it is within three minutes of pouring," Wang Wanrou stated calmly. "This has already gone cold; can't you taste the slight bitterness?"
Cheng Jinyang: ...…
"Now that you mention it, there is a bit of bitterness," he sighed.
"Did you enjoy yourself last night?" Wang Wanrou asked.
"Just routine training. What's there to enjoy or not enjoy?" Cheng Jinyang shook his head. "Why did you call me here this time?"
"I told you, to check your head," Wang Wanrou stared at him intently.
Cheng Jinyang suddenly felt something strange. Her pupils seemed like a vortex, with a magnetic pull that could draw one's gaze in. He was dazed for a moment before snapping out of it, only to see Wang Wanrou finish the tea in one gulp and stand up.
"Alright," she said blandly. "I have a rough idea now."
"What do you mean?" Cheng Jinyang got up to see her off.
"Connection," Wang Wanrou said concisely. "An enhanced connection. It's good news for you... no, for us."
"Can we stop playing guessing games?" Cheng Jinyang paid the owner downstairs and escorted Wang Wanrou out. "I have the right to know about my body and mind, at least, right?"
"Fine, I'll try to explain it in terms you can understand," Wang Wanrou walked out of the teahouse. "Do you know bacteria can exchange genetic material?"
"Huh?"
"The so-called bloodline of superpowers is not some kind of physical hereditary material but more akin to a meme of the mind," Wang Wanrou walked along the street. "This is also why the bloodline of superpowers cannot be replicated."
"If the key to the bloodline of superpowers were some kind of material, it would have been extracted with current scientific technology long ago. Unfortunately, it's not a tangible material but more like a spiritual contamination passed from parent to offspring."
"How is this contamination transmitted to the next generation? We don't know. But each person's mind can only be contaminated once, meaning you can only inherit it from your ancestors once. When exactly this inheritance happens and in what form? We don't know. But we can confirm it occurs before the early embryo forms, with an unknown mechanism, approximately considered as pseudorandom. In other words, before the fetus has consciousness, the limit of their life as a supernatural is already determined."
"Is there a way to break this random inheritance? In the past, I would have said no, but now it seems not necessarily. Just like people initially thought bacteria replicated genetic material by division, later discovering that different strains also exchange genetic material..."
Wang Wanrou suddenly stopped and asked, "Did you understand?"
"You mean my superpower is inherited from my dad, but I can get superpowers from others in other ways?" Cheng Jinyang asked tentatively.
"Well, if this were an exam, just guessing the answer wouldn't count," Wang Wanrou said calmly. "But you're right."
"To use an analogy, your dream is like a Petri dish, and everyone is like different strains of bacteria in different environments, placed in the dream Petri dish to grow due to some unknown mechanism."
"So, what is the significance of this Petri dish? Suppose it wasn't formed naturally; then its creation must be related to 'our consciousness coexisting in the dream.' Why put different bacteria in the same Petri dish? From the result, if some hybrid bacteria appear, we can infer that the purpose of this Petri dish is to facilitate the hybridization of different strains."
"You mean for us to hybridize?" Cheng Jinyang immediately realized his mistake and coughed to cover his embarrassment.
"I mean, for our superpower bloodlines to hybridize!" Wang Wanrou said coldly. "If enhancing bloodline concentration is seen as self-replication of bacteria, then 'bacteria' refers to our bloodline, not ourselves!"
"Think about that demon who called herself 'Su Lili'! She used a flame attack in the dream, the same as the 'oxidative combustion' bloodline inherited from the Sanchuan Zhu family by Su Lili. This exactly supports the previous hypothesis, that demons can use the superpowers of individuals they have devoured."
"Or, to go further with a bold guess, this dream itself is a tool for the demon tribe to evolve."
"For example, the devouring by demons doesn't kill the other party's consciousness but traps it within themselves. The demon then acts as a server, bringing all the trapped consciousnesses into the dream, just like you bring us into the dream."
"In the dream, the demon's consciousness and the trapped consciousnesses fight each other. Those who are killed can revive indefinitely, but their superpower bloodlines are slightly plundered. This continues until, in the end, the last surviving consciousness can leave the dream to dominate the demon's body, capable of using the bloodline superpowers of the defeated consciousnesses."
"This sounds like raising Gu," Cheng Jinyang said, clicking his tongue.
"Yes, this method is called 'plundering.' If I'm not mistaken, there should be another method called 'connecting,'" Wang Wanrou said. "Next time we enter the dream, we can conduct an experiment. Let me kill you a few times and see."
"Why do you get to kill me?" Cheng Jinyang was shocked.
"With my peerless beauty, how could you bear to kill me?" Wang Wanrou looked at him disdainfully.
Wang Wanrou finally cracked the mental firewall, capturing six key lines of code. The first line was kuuga! AgitΩ! Ryuki! Faiz! Blade! The second line was Hibiki! Kabuto! Den-O! Kiva! Decade! The third line was W! OOO! Fourze! The fourth line was Wizard! Kaiwu! Drive! The fifth line was Ghost! Ex-Aid! Build! The sixth line was Let's Celebrate! Kamen Rider Grand.
[T/N: I don't know what the last paragraph means. Just translated it as it is.]