Chapter 45: Artificial?
On the fifth floor of the Watch Guild, inside Madam Xiang's room, Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Viper, Madam Xiang, and Librarian Commons were all present. As for Amu and Baha, they were in Sodo City to ensure the celebration there went smoothly.
"This person called Douglas, is he the one favored by the world?"
Viper's face was dark. Recently, he had been searching for the World Child, not only failing to find one but also losing an arm in the process.
"He's only half of one."
Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the sofa, with Dragon-Slaying Flash placed on the low table in front of him. He was maintaining the blade.
"Half?"
Viper frowned deeply, not quite understanding Su Xiao's meaning.
In truth, after reviewing Douglas's information, Su Xiao was also puzzled. Setting aside his various abilities, one piece of data about Douglas was particularly intriguing:
Category: Human, World Child (1/2).
...
Su Xiao had never considered that a World Child could be only half. But after analyzing the current situation, he arrived at a hypothesis.
The previous World Child was named Alexia, a female hunter. She had died a few days ago. That meant, a few days prior, the fortune force had been drawn away from her, and a new World Child had emerged within a very short time.
After Alexia's death, a new World Child appeared, but it was too weak. It might even have been a newborn infant. A weak lifeform with immense potential was more likely to receive the blessing of fortune force.
As an existence capable of plundering world force, when the Ancient God was resurrected, the world itself would undergo changes, including the transfer of some fortune force.
Back when the Ancient God was resurrected, none of the people present could accept the fortune force, because they were too strong. The blessing of fortune force was like drawing a golden arrow on a blank sheet of paper, representing fate, mission, and so on.
At the time of the Ancient God's resurrection, among those present, Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were not natives of this world and had no connection to its fortune force.
As for Hun, he was tainted by the Ancient God's aura and would be rejected by this world. Hao Gui had died, and the Divine Hunter, Ta Balder, was too powerful to accept the fortune force either.
Originally, Douglas wouldn't have been able to either. But at that moment, he had tried to perish together with the Ancient God and Hun. After overexerting his abilities to the limit, he was severely wounded by the Ancient God.
For an instant, Douglas was on the verge of death. He even saw the "death slideshow." This near-death state made him weak to the extreme for a moment. Coupled with the world's rejection of the Ancient God, which triggered the transfer of fortune force, the dying Douglas managed to gain the blessing of some fortune force.
If a normal World Child had the dual blessing of fate and mission, then Douglas only had the mission, without the blessing from fate. This was evident from the fact that he had encountered Su Xiao—his luck was not good.
In terms of luck, Douglas could go toe-to-toe with Su Xiao.
"Kukulin, in two days, Ta Balder is going to take this person deep into the Dark Prison? To destroy the substructure of the Array Realm?"
Viper's frown deepened, his expression filled with worry.
"No. Taking him to the Dark Prison will only lead to worse results than now."
Madam Xiang flatly refused, her tone forceful.
"Without him, we can't destroy the substructure of the Array Realm."
"Then think of another way. Viper, what are you thinking? Placing our hopes of victory on the enemy?"
"What you said... makes sense."
Viper let out a long sigh. His gaze shifted to Librarian Commons, and he asked, "Commons, do you have any suggestions?"
Librarian Commons put on an oxygen mask, took a deep breath, and then said slowly:
"What would happen if we artificially created a 'World Child'?"
At his words, Bubu Wang, who had been dozing off, lifted his head. He suspected this old man might be a contractor in disguise. After all, even the term "World Child" was mentioned, and Su Xiao had never used such a concept, only referring to someone favored by the world.
"Alexia, Douglas, Old Eald, Mandy, Sombari—there have been many such people in history. Between the ages of 15 and 40, they would have a brilliant life. Among them, Sombari had 19 wives and still held great power in his later years. These people are like the world's own children. Those around them gradually gather around them, centering on them."
Librarian Commons paused here, his breathing becoming rapid. After a moment to recover, he continued:
"Once, a civilian organization discovered what I've described. They began frantically searching for such people. Until that organization was destroyed, they never found a World Child. Those favored by the world, unless they become as powerful as Bai Ye or Ta Balder, are unlikely to be threatened by them.
After that civilian organization was destroyed, they left behind many things. One of them was a ritual called Soul Fortune Separation. But no one knows if that ritual works."
Having said this, Librarian Commons leaned back in his single sofa and stopped moving. Viper was startled and quickly stepped forward to put the oxygen mask back on Commons. Commons took a few minutes of breathing to recover.
"Commons, you knew all this, why didn't you say so earlier?"
Viper looked at Librarian Commons with a helpless expression.
"You didn't ask."
"If I don't ask, you won't tell?!"
"In my mind, I hold over 1,400 years of historical changes. All the supernatural events combined are countless. If you don't ask, it's hard for me to recall. I am a library, not a prophet. Also, shouldn't we be having breakfast?"
Hearing this, Viper was speechless. He knew Commons's dementia was acting up again. It was already noon, and there was no point in talking about breakfast.
"That 'Soul Fortune Separation Ritual,' how should it be set up?"
"What soul fortune?"
"It's over."
Madam Xiang was distressed. The hope that had just appeared vanished in an instant.
"Just kidding. No need to look so glum."
Librarian Commons took out a notebook he carried with him and began writing in it, completely unfazed by the strange expressions on Madam Xiang and Viper's faces.
After a short while, Librarian Commons finished writing, tore out the page, and handed it to Viper.
"Leave it to me."
Viper quickly left to find someone skilled in this area to prepare for the Soul Fortune Separation Ritual.
Of course, there were no hunters skilled in this. Civilian supernatural organizations were more adept.
At 2 PM that day, Viper, through the channels of the Rhine Kingdom, brought in a few professionals. These were people from the Rhine military. Previously, they had used some ritual to imbue firearms with dark energy and even shot Hao Gui with it.
At 3 PM, the military personnel reached a conclusion. In principle, the "Soul Fortune Separation Ritual" was completely unfeasible. No, it was suicidal. But the idea was good.
As Viper, Ge, and Madam Xiang mobilized their respective networks, by 5 PM, they had assembled a research team of over a hundred people. These were old scholars who had spent their entire lives studying mysticism. Finally, their lifelong knowledge was recognized by the Watch Guild, and they were as energized as if they had been injected with stimulants. Sometimes, when arguments grew heated, they would roll up their sleeves and engage in physical PK. The PK between two old scholars was not exciting, and in the end, they were almost scratching each other.
Finally, at 4 AM, the old scholars provided a solution. Their conclusion was that an individual should not try to oppose the entire world. In other words, they could not strip Douglas of his fortune force.
Although they couldn't strip it, the old scholars came up with a workaround. They planned to use a ritual to establish a symbiotic relationship between the female spirit that had once resided in Douglas's body and Douglas himself.
This way, Douglas and that spirit would become the same entity. After completing this step, they would use the spirit's characteristics to seal this spirit, now representing Douglas, into an artifact. Then, a trustworthy person would highly integrate with this artifact.
Thus, the trustworthy person, the female spirit, and Douglas would be connected. The female spirit would act like a wire, linking the trustworthy person and Douglas. The three would become nearly one entity, successfully creating an artificial, trustworthy World Child.