While chatting with Herta, 'Ruan Mei' suddenly felt a chilling sensation.
But when she turned to look, she only saw the real Ruan Mei studying the data of the Light Giants.
A short while later, Ruan Mei had finished reviewing the detailed data on the Light Giants.
There was basically no room for adjustments.
Their strength, mentality, growth potential—every aspect had reached a balanced level.
Essentially, they were a "youth edition" designed to rival the level of Emanators.
Arbitrarily enhancing one aspect would cause a decline in other dimensions.
If there was a drawback…it was probably that the Giants' attack methods weren't varied enough.
And despite having access to highly malleable "Light," the pre-programmed light-based skills were somewhat limited. But in Ruan Mei's eyes, these were minor issues.
According to the plan Herta had sent her, there were two main research directions for the time being.
Herta insisted on delving deeper into the nature-shifting properties of Imaginary Energy, while the other Ruan Mei wanted to borrow power from different Paths to achieve a "pseudo-Path" effect.
Both approaches had their pros and cons.
Herta's plan was clearly superior in every way, but its drawback was the difficulty.
Creating a Path—even for geniuses—was an absolute challenge.
The other Ruan Mei's plan, on the other hand, had the advantage of feasibility.
But if, by chance, an Emanator of Remembrance or an Emanator of Enigmata intervened, it could easily cause the "pseudo-Path" effect to fail outright.
Ruan Mei had already considered this on her way here.
She would treat the other Ruan Mei's plan as a fallback, while putting all her effort into researching the first option.
When Ruan Mei voiced her thoughts, Herta was momentarily taken aback, then let out a laugh: "Haha~ Your choices are exactly the same."
"Is that so."
Hearing this, Ruan Mei also smiled slightly, turning her head to meet the gaze of her other self.
"Well then, there's nothing more to discuss. Let's devote ourselves fully to researching the conversion of Imaginary Energy."
With Herta's grand proclamation, the three geniuses threw themselves wholeheartedly into the research.
And the test subjects…
Were naturally the cloned History Fictionologists.
Of course, out of humanitarian concerns, 'Ruan Mei' didn't actually clone complete individuals.
Instead, she continued using the form of light-based lifeforms, creating one Enigmata Pathstrider after another.
These little orbs of light had relatively simple thought processes, incapable of complex reasoning or powerful combat abilities.
They were only adept at defense and escape.
In the future, they'd probably remain in Herta Space Station or the Land of Light, serving as mobile light sources.
What 'Ruan Mei' and the others had to do was capture the exact moment the power of the mysterious Path was born within an individual!
Then try to analyze what kind of force exactly triggered the shift in the nature of the Imaginary Energy.
Ruan Mei herself was deeply interested in this kind of research. Her ability to create so many lifeforms born with inherent Paths wasn't because she had researched Paths thoroughly enough, but because she had mastered the code of life.
She knew what kind of life would give rise to what kind of Path power.
But as for the specific trigger, the key point that initiated the change in Imaginary Energy—Ruan Mei didn't truly understand the underlying principles.
In her view, Path power was essentially an extension of life itself. By continuing to delve into the causes of life, she would one day unravel the effects of the Paths.
Herta's perspective was clearly quite different from Ruan Mei's.
For now, neither could say which was right.
But the clash of different perspectives and ways of thinking proved immensely beneficial to Ruan Mei.
--+--
Time passed day by day, but progress wasn't exactly smooth.
Of course, Ruan Mei had already anticipated this.
Still, it wasn't completely without gains.
At the very least, they had genuinely observed the process of Imaginary Energy transforming into Path power.
This discovery excited Herta immensely. She even wanted to develop equipment that could stably and artificially direct Imaginary Energy to undergo different nature shifts.
Hmm... that topic was a bit too grand.
By Herta's standards, what she wanted was to be able to manipulate any Path at will.
That was clearly somewhat unrealistic at this stage.
Meanwhile, 'Ruan Mei' and the original were contemplating whether this ability to shift the nature of Imaginary Energy could be actively implanted into a living being.
Whether life itself could complete the random nature-shift of Imaginary Energy, and a life's will could direct it.
Put simply, 'Ruan Mei's' idea was still to bypass that temporarily indecipherable "black box" and rely on the traits of life itself to achieve the goal.
And this time, it was Herta's turn to compromise. Because, first of all, it was somewhat established that life could set foot on a Path through will.
But what about purely mechanical beings?
Not intelligent mechanical life, but machinery, AI—how should such entities choose a Path?
On this point, perhaps they could only ask Zandar, or inquire Nous, the Machine who ascended to Aeonhood in a mechanical form.
Herta couldn't even find an observable sample.
Research in this area seemed impossible to start in the short term.
"Tch, if only I could ask the Mechanical Head."
Hearing Herta's click of annoyance, 'Ruan Mei' replied with a smile: "Wouldn't Nous just answer you with another question?"
"Obviously, I know that. But even if it's just a question... Wait, how do you know that Nous answers those who seek an audience with questions?"
Herta retorted instinctively, but halfway through, she paused, then turned her head, eyeing 'Ruan Mei' suspiciously.
Only those who had met a being like Nous would know its habits.
How would a guy like Bai Ming, who clearly could only play at research by borrowing power, know about Nous's peculiarities?
"Ah-ha... Let's just say I'm well-informed."
'Ruan Mei' blinked, trying to brush it off.
But Herta wasn't buying it.
Well-informed enough to know about Nous, huh?
Why not say you're also buddies with Aha?
Meanwhile, the real Ruan Mei looked up and asked curiously: "Do you know any other interesting rumors?"
"Hmm... Nanook promoting Pathstriders from other Paths to be Emanators is to destroy the corresponding Paths. The one corresponding to Zephyro is Nihility."
"Zephyro? The one who likes burning glass planets everywhere?"
Herta raised an eyebrow.
She genuinely didn't know about that.
But considering this guy used to be an Emanator of Destruction, it made sense she had access to such information.
"Any gossip related to geniuses?"
Herta was getting interested. She continued working with her hands while pressing for more.
'Ruan Mei' hadn't planned on saying more, but seeing Herta's curious expression, she suddenly felt inspired:
"Do you want info related to you, or unrelated to you?"
"?"
A question mark practically popped up over Herta's head.
"There are things related to me that I don't know about?"
"There's one."
"Let's hear it."
"Lady Herta, haven't there been several times when you felt you were on the verge of touching a Knowledge Singularity, only to be interrupted by various accidents?"
"...How do you know that?"
Herta's previously amused expression instantly shifted.
This woman... How did she even know about that?
'Ruan Mei' smiled faintly:
"That was man-made."
CRACK—!
The instrument in Herta's hand was instantly crushed.
Amidst sparks and a sharp pop, it turned into scrap metal.
--+--