Ye Tiancheng and the little fox perked up upon hearing the crucial point.
They were very interested in the layer outside the school, which Long Miaomiao called the "Realm." If Long Miaomiao hadn't had a premonition that forcibly breaking that layer might lead to unfavorable events, Ye Tiancheng and the others would have likely shattered it immediately.
Later, they didn't give up on researching that thing and entrusted the task to Long Miaomiao.
This was because Long Miaomiao understood it better, while Ye Tiancheng and the little fox knew less and thus had no insights, making them hesitant to act rashly.
Now, hearing that Qiao Zhanyuan might know something, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox couldn't help but pay attention.
They heard Qiao Zhanyuan say, "Later, after research, consulting numerous documents, and conducting multiple verifications, I finally determined what was happening."
"I always thought it was a shield created by the entity behind it to prevent us from leaving, to keep us contained within. However, after investigation, I realized that the shield actually prevents the entity behind it from leaving this place."
"From beginning to end, this has been a prison. The entity behind it is imprisoned here and cannot leave. In fact, in the beginning, the entity behind it had much lower freedom, but perhaps as time passed, the restraints it received gradually loosened."
"Moreover, during the period of its imprisonment, the entity behind it has been conserving its strength, gradually accumulating power, waiting for the day it can break through the prison."
"This is also why it has been consistently absorbing the vital energy and life force of the people in this university in a controlled manner."
When Qiao Zhanyuan mentioned this, his face turned pale, and his expression revealed a hint of fear.
Ye Tiancheng's eyelids twitched.
If what Qiao Zhanyuan said was true, then the problem was quite significant.
Those who were previously imprisoned, sealed, and suppressed were generally not good people. Looking at the current behavior of the entity behind it, constantly absorbing others' vital energy and life force, one could tell that it was definitely not a benevolent being, but a wicked one.
Even if it exercised restraint and did not cause a large number of human deaths, it was not incapable of killing.
Furthermore, the reason it chose to exercise restraint, despite not causing mass casualties, was likely because it still possessed rationality and, for long-term development and its own successful escape, acted in such a manner.
This point was easy to infer.
The fact that it gave the people here breathing room, established a credit system, and repeatedly attempted to break free before resorting to killing to make an example of others, as well as the fact that those who detached themselves from this place were no longer troubled, all indicated that it was giving the humans manipulated and herded by it a sliver of hope to survive.
As long as they knew they wouldn't die, had a chance to escape all this, were allowed to rest, and even permitted a certain degree of rebellion, the resistance faced by the entity behind it would, to some extent, decrease.
Once people know they won't die, they become more hesitant and cautious in their actions.
Moreover, killing to make an example would be more effective.
Death would come only if the rules were broken; by choosing to be obedient, one could survive. In comparison, suffering would not be unbearable.
Such a villain, hiding in the shadows, adept at manipulating people's hearts, and possessing rationality, was even more chilling and difficult to deal with. If it could cause so much trouble while imprisoned, what would happen if it absorbed enough vital energy and life force and truly escaped?
Ye Tiancheng pondered, finding the truth of the matter to be highly probable.
If this were the case, then Long Miaomiao's premonition was very accurate. No wonder she felt that forcibly breaking that layer would lead to bad things. If the situation were indeed like this, then breaking that layer would be equivalent to directly helping the entity open its cage and release a great villain.
Once such an absolutely evil existence was no longer bound and roamed freely in the world, who knew what else might happen.
This information truly made Ye Tiancheng take the matter seriously.
Ye Tiancheng thought that there was definitely some truth to this piece of information, so regardless of whether it was mixed with falsehoods or how much, he had to inform Nie Chongyang about it and see how to handle the situation.
Moreover, he wondered how to define completely severing ties with that place.
He also wondered if simply moving away from that location would have any effect.
Even if it had an effect, relocating a renowned institution was not a simple matter. Currently, they couldn't easily reveal the truth to the public and cause panic, so they needed to find suitable excuses.
This was a university town, and the excuses that could be used to move the entire school would either be natural disasters or man-made calamities. However, once these excuses were used, how could they not affect other schools near the university town?
Furthermore, the collective relocation of so many universities and the use of excuses like natural disasters or man-made calamities would not be a small matter and would be troublesome to resolve.
They also needed to consider that some humans in society simply didn't value their lives and treated their own lives as a joke. They would likely rush over immediately upon hearing about any natural disasters or man-made calamities, potentially causing even more trouble.
In short, this method could absolutely not be used lightly.
Unless it was absolutely necessary.
Ye Tiancheng asked Qiao Zhanyuan, "How did you discover this point? And do you know what kind of entity the one behind it is?"
Qiao Zhanyuan told Ye Tiancheng, "I don't know much, really. My personal abilities are limited, and there's so little I can do. For a while, I was desperately searching for any method, just hoping to find a clue, a way out, and it was then that I inadvertently discovered something."
"And when I say 'something,' I mean just a tiny bit."
"It was in a travelogue left by a senior from a sect hundreds of years ago, which I found in a book. There were only two or three sentences that mentioned this matter. I happened to notice it, and by chance, I found that the location mentioned by that senior, corresponding to ancient directions with current locations, happened to be this university, which led me to vaguely guess some things."
"That senior wrote in his travelogue that during one of his travels, he discovered an entity of unknown origin causing evil in the human world. He acted to punish the wicked and capture the entity, but found that he could not destroy it."
"In the end, he could only choose to suppress it. After calculations, he found a place, used a certain treasure, and managed to suppress and seal that entity."
Ye Tiancheng noticed the "treasure" mentioned by Qiao Zhanyuan in his drawing and wondered if it might be a fragment of the Fuxi Qin.
He now knew that the Fuxi Qin he had "repaired" in the Pure Land was not complete. Years ago, it had been determined that several fragments were scattered outside, including one on Guihu Azi, two on Long Miaomiao, and recently, one on Long Zhaozhao.
That was already four fragments, and the timeline even predated his birth.
Therefore, the probability that the treasure used by the senior mentioned by Qiao Zhanyuan to suppress the entity behind this university was a fragment of the Fuxi Qin greatly increased.
Ye Tiancheng had not forgotten why he had come to this place in the first place.
He also had not forgotten what he was looking for when he first started investigating and had uncovered all these matters.
Ye Tiancheng then asked Qiao Zhanyuan, "May we see the senior's travelogue?"
"After all, it is related to this matter and somewhat helpful, and it is quite important."
Qiao Zhanyuan frowned.
Ye Tiancheng asked, "Is this matter difficult to handle?"
Qiao Zhanyuan explained to Ye Tiancheng, "I am willing to cooperate with the official work, but that senior's travelogue belongs to another sect, not mine. Therefore, his travelogue is naturally stored in that senior's sect. Thus, I cannot give you a definite promise that I can accomplish this."
"Even I, at the time, could only borrow books from their sect through my own sect's connections, and I couldn't take them away; I could only read them on the spot."
Ye Tiancheng understood what Qiao Zhanyuan meant.
These cultivation sects were more or less arrogant and quite exclusive. It was not easy to even let outsiders glance at their books, let alone borrow them. There were only a few possibilities for outsiders to gain entry.
Either they had a good relationship and connections with the sect, or the person coming had enough power to make the entire sect bow down, in which case they would naturally be willing to yield.
Unlike the ordinary world, the cultivation world was more inclined towards the law of the jungle, where the strong were respected.
As for Ye Tiancheng, while it wasn't entirely true that he had no backing, he also knew it himself. However, when it came to having backing, Ye Tiancheng leaned more towards being a lone wolf.
At most, he had a few friends and one or two close brothers who were willing to follow him.
It was more likely to make a sect bow down if it was an entire force, but for Ye Tiancheng to lead his brothers to challenge an entire sect alone would be a joke. No matter how strong Ye Tiancheng was, he couldn't fight against overwhelming odds; even ants could bite an elephant to death.
Moreover, the difficulty of this matter was not about whether Ye Tiancheng was strong enough.
Ye Tiancheng was not a great villain who would resort to violence at the slightest disagreement; that was purely the act of a villain. Moreover, such violence could only make them bow down temporarily, but it would definitely offend them greatly, and they might seek trouble later.
He was not so brainless as to do that.
This matter was completely unfeasible.
Ye Tiancheng rested his chin on his hand, his fingertips stroking the skin on the side of his face, thinking to himself that it seemed he couldn't handle this matter himself. He still had to notify Nie Chongyang and see if the Special Operations Team's influence was enough.
If that didn't work, perhaps they would have to let Qiao Zhanyuan find a way to secretly copy a version.
But Ye Tiancheng did not want to choose the latter option.
Even if Qiao Zhanyuan could be allowed to copy it, Ye Tiancheng felt that any facts learned through others, without his own verification, would have to be discounted to some extent in his mind.
Relying on only one party's account was absolutely not advisable and made one prone to being deceived.
If even a small part of the information was false, it was possible that those false parts were hiding some crucial information that would trap him severely at the last moment, to his utter ruin. Ye Tiancheng was unwilling to take such a risk.
Therefore, he outwardly told Qiao Zhanyuan, "In that case, I understand your predicament. This matter will be handled by our department's people. You just need to tell us the name and appearance of that travelogue, which is sufficient."
With Ye Tiancheng saying this, Qiao Zhanyuan naturally had no objections and proceeded to describe the name and style of the travelogue to Ye Tiancheng as requested.