After confirming that Jian Ji had been erased, Feng Qi returned to the Tiger Soul Research Institute on the same night aboard a dedicated Tiger Soul aircraft.
Originally, he'd planned to target the Sword Clan and the Shield Scale Clan.
But after thinking it through, he realized it wasn't the right time.
Without Jian Ji, with his current strength, wiping out the Sword Clan and the Shield Scale Clan would be easy. But that might lead to a chain of unintended consequences.
After all, there were still many unknowns about the Sword Clan's setup in Winterfell City.
If he acted too soon, it could drive the Sword Clan or the Shield Scale Clan to a desperate, mutually-destructive end—possibly resulting in civilian casualties among Winterfell's population.
He believed it was better to fully investigate the structure of the hidden forces in Winterfell before making a move.
Just like when he took down the Night Shadow Clan that had infiltrated the Tiger Soul Research Institute.
Once the details were uncovered, the Night Shadow Clan had no way to resist him. The purge went smoothly.
To play it safe, Feng Qi decided to clean up Winterfell's underground forces during the next sacrifice timeline.
If anything went wrong, he'd at least be prepared for it in advance.
...
One month later, Tiger Soul Research Institute.
A meeting was held at the Tiger Soul Research Institute to discuss how to welcome the arrival of the Silver Moon Clan.
At this stage, the Silver Moon Clan could descend at any moment.
Yin Ling and the other vanguard members of the Silver Moon Clan had already finalized the descent plan. After years of deep work in the energy sector, all necessary steps to open a spatial transmission channel had been prepared.
The only thing missing was the right moment.
Now, that moment could come at any time. The only obstacle left was arranging a settlement zone east of Star City—a new city for the Silver Moon Clan to call home.
This would require coordination across many departments within Star City.
According to Yin Ling, the city didn't need full functionality from the outset. Just a foothold would suffice. The Silver Moon Clan could rely on Star City's resource support to handle the rest of the development afterward.
Feng Qi was quite satisfied with this plan.
There would be no issue with front-loading supplies and resources—especially since humanity still needed the Silver Moon Clan's technical help in future infrastructure projects.
But one problem remained unresolved.
How to convince the general human population to accept the Silver Moon Clan?
In the future, this would be a simple problem. After all, humanity had eventually formed an alliance with the Mist Clan, leading to a mutually beneficial relationship.
In the early phase, humans supported the Mist Clan. Later, the Mist Clan returned the favor with substantial resources.
They achieved full complementarity.
But now, that same issue was far more complicated.
In this era, humans harbored intense hostility toward domain creatures. The common belief was that domain creatures were evil and fundamentally incompatible with humanity.
That mindset ran deep.
Even Star City's leadership largely held similar views. Feng Qi himself had once thought the same way.
This wasn't due to close-mindedness—it was just how people were shaped by their environment.
In the Central Region, humans had forged a tight alliance with the Elf Race early on during the disaster. That's why Central Region humans could accept alliances with domain forces.
After centuries of evolution, Central Region humans had even grown accustomed to bodily elfication.
They treated it the same way they viewed life and death—an inevitable part of existence.
But the Eastern Region was a different story.
Over the past 500 years following the catastrophe, the Eastern Region's history was written in blood: a tragic epic of humanity's resistance against domain invaders.
Countless heroes had fallen defending their homeland. Numerous bustling cities had been destroyed.
Only after all that did Star City, Future City, Old Day City, Victory City, and Winterfell City emerge as the five great urban zones.
Throughout this relentless struggle, domain creatures had always been the enemy. They preyed on humans and inflicted deep trauma across the Eastern Region.
Unlike the Central Region, no Elf King had emerged to cooperate with humanity.
That's why hatred of domain creatures had become a historical legacy in the Eastern Region.
Changing that legacy wouldn't be easy.
The leadership of Star City might be persuaded—they had learned from Feng Qi about future global dynamics and understood the benefits of cooperating with domain forces.
But for the average citizen, that kind of mindset shift would take time.
Announcing a sudden alliance with a domain race could spark chaos—possibly leading to fears that Star City's leadership had already been compromised.
That's why Feng Qi believed such alliances were easier to manage in the future, but incredibly tricky to execute in the present.
It would require a gradual change in public perception.
That was the central issue of this meeting Feng Qi had convened.
The direction of the meeting focused on changing public perception.
The specific implementation plan would approach it from multiple angles.
For example, textbooks could include stories about cooperation with Domain races.
This was the same method used in a previous timeline, where a modified version of his encounter with the Mist Lord was added to the curriculum.
Through such stories, the residents of Star City could be guided to understand that Domain creatures were not all inherently evil—that some were willing to cooperate with humans, and not all were bloodthirsty by nature.
Changing perceptions was absolutely necessary.
Feng Qi used to believe that humanity's rise was a lonely path, that all Domain forces were obstacles to be crushed underfoot.
But now, his thinking had changed.
Humanity needed outside support.
With help from the Mist Race, the Silver Moon Race, and potentially other Domain allies, humanity's future path could be broader and stretch farther.
Even a powerful race like the Blood Soul Clan had learned to leverage outside resources to benefit their kind.
They offered services to other races in exchange for resources and profits.
That was just another form of inter-racial cooperation.
...
The next day after the meeting, Feng Qi went to the training room at the Tiger Soul Research Institute.
As he pushed open the metal door, he saw the Mist Lord, with purple hair and eyes, sitting in the corner of the room on a couch, holding a tablet and reading through human history records.
Feng Qi walked over and sat beside the Mist Lord, a bright smile on his face.
"Old Mist, let me ask you something."
"Ask away," the Mist Lord replied without looking up, his eyes still fixed on the words on the tablet screen.
Glancing over, Feng Qi realized he was reading another novel.
It was clear the Mist Lord was very interested in human fantasy literature.
Not long ago, he was reading about some powerful cultivator returning to the city. Now, the title was I Am the Boss Behind the Scenes.
Just from the title, it was obviously a typical overpowered protagonist type of story—pretty dull.
Feng Qi looked away and asked, "Do you see any issues with the next timeline plan I laid out in the meeting?"
He'd gone into detail about the plan during the meeting, but felt it was still necessary to get Old Mist's opinion.
Whether from personal feelings or alliance interests, Old Mist's input was a crucial part of the planning. He couldn't just make decisions on his own—he had to consider all sides.
Especially since this plan would cause real losses to the Mist Race.
It was Old Mist who had originally proposed the plan to wipe out the Silver Moon Race. In past timelines, that race had been the startup resource for both humanity and the Mist Race's development.
But now, the plan was to ally with the Silver Moon Race.
So those startup resources would no longer be available.
For humanity, it wasn't a big issue. The losses could be made up for with future benefits from the Silver Moon Race's engineering expertise. In the long term, the gain outweighed the early setbacks.
But for the Mist Race, the losses were tangible and real.
Originally, the Mist Lord had planned to revive the Mist Race and rebuild Mist City using the resources gained from sacrificing the Silver Moon Race.
Now, without that sacrifice, the entire plan would be delayed.
That meant a real impact on the Mist Race's development—and on the Mist Lord's long-term strategy.
Feng Qi had already thought about compensating him later by helping rebuild the Mist Race, but as both his brother and an ally of humanity, it was only right to ask his opinion first.
The Mist Lord shook his head immediately.
"No issues. If bringing the Silver Moon Race into the alliance is something you've thought through carefully, and you've weighed the pros and cons, then it's the right move. If they've got huge potential, our Mist Race can benefit too. So it's not a bad thing."
As he spoke, he put down the tablet and turned to look at Feng Qi, his purple eyes glowing under the light.
"You worried I'd be upset?"
Hearing that, Feng Qi grinned and gave Old Mist a light punch in the chest.
"I've spent enough timelines with you to know what you're like. I know you wouldn't mind. And besides, the plan to sacrifice the Silver Moon Race never happened for you. I just feel a bit guilty… We've only gone through a few timelines together, and now I'm already putting the Mist Race's interests on the line to push humanity forward faster."
"You don't need to worry about that. You have to understand something— the stronger your human race gets, the more our Mist Race stands to benefit in the future. What we need to consider is the long-term outcome. Gains and losses in the present don't matter… In short, don't come asking me about these minor things anymore. They're insignificant. As the leader of humanity, you need to look at the bigger picture. Don't fuss over trivial matters."
Even though he had already guessed what Old Mist would say, Feng Qi still couldn't help but smile brightly.
"Alright then, tell me—what do you think about the next future line I laid out? Any suggestions?"
"I do. And this is something you absolutely have to handle in advance. You didn't bring it up in the meeting." Old Mist nodded.
"What is it?" Feng Qi's expression turned serious.
"Have you considered the issue of Star City's political stance once humanity starts down the belief-based superpower path?"
"Political stance? You mean how other races will view Star City?"
"That's right. You need to think about how Domain factions that are hiding in other cities will perceive Star City once its citizens start cultivating through belief."
"This is a major issue you'll have to face on the belief superpower line. Once superpowers spread through Star City, it'll be impossible to stop the information from leaking. The Domain forces hidden in human society will find out—like Hei Xuan in Old Day City. They'll notice Star City's changes and grow wary."
"How you handle this will determine the stance those other Domain forces take toward Star City. If you mess this up, they'll definitely start making moves against the city."
Hearing this, Feng Qi fell into deep thought.
He had considered the issue before. But now, he wanted to hear Old Mist's take on it.
"What do you think Star City should do?"
"It's not realistic to try and hide it. Cities are still connected. You can't fully seal off information from leaking out. So instead of hiding, you should just lay your cards on the table… I mean in terms of belief-based power acquisition. Be upfront. Let the outside world assume that Star City has already been taken over by a powerful Domain faction."
"That way, other forces will think this is the move of some mysterious group that's been hiding inside Star City. They'll be cautious, but they won't dare to act recklessly."
"For example, the Institute of Technological Research, controlled by the Black Shadow. They've got full control over Future City, but their knowledge of Star City only comes through the weak-race alliance inside the city. If they want to act against us, they'll have to consider one thing first—whether it's worth it to go to war with us. As long as they can't figure out our real strength, they won't take the risk."
Feng Qi couldn't help but nod.
Old Mist's idea lined up exactly with his own plan.
To the outside world, the belief cultivation path would never be seen as something humanity developed on its own.
In fact, Hei Xuan had deployed something similar before.
More precisely, it was his subordinate faction—Dark God Sect. They also followed a belief-harvesting path, aiming to gather enough faith to awaken the Dark God.
Given that precedent, Hei Xuan would definitely think Star City was up to something similar.
But that didn't really matter.
What mattered was that Star City needed to appear powerful—or at least mysterious—enough to make outside factions give up the idea of targeting it.
Feng Qi wasn't particularly worried about Hei Xuan himself.
What concerned him was the Psionic Race behind Hei Xuan.
Even though the Psionic Race at this point in time wasn't yet the overwhelming force it would become as one of the Eight Royal Clans in the future, they were still far beyond what current humanity could handle.
These were the real dangers of the belief superpower path—ones that had to be explored and tested through the sacrificial timelines.
Old Mist's analysis made perfect sense.
As long as they couldn't figure out who was really hiding in Star City, the Psionic Race behind Hei Xuan wouldn't dare to act.
With that in mind, Feng Qi looked at the Mist Lord and nodded.
"Your thinking's the same as mine. No point hiding it. Just throw it all out there. Let the world know that Star City is developing along the belief path. As for what's really behind it—let them guess."
"Oh, and about your Mist Race—once the next future line begins, I'll speed up the development of the west supply zone in Star City. I'll allocate twenty percent of the initial resources to you, to help you revive some of your clansmen and start rebuilding the Mist Race."
The Mist Lord didn't refuse. He looked at Feng Qi and nodded solemnly.
"Thanks. When our Mist Race rises again, we'll repay it a hundredfold."
"How many times?"
"Many times."
"How many is 'many'?"
"You're so annoying. However many you want, fine?"
"Then one thousand times! Hahahaha…"