Human Genius? Sorry, I’m a Deviant-Chapter 249: Reverse Deduction

"It's useless... another illusion, right..."
A voice that even Su Zhan himself found unfamiliar came out.
This was caused by him not having made a sound for too long.
In this despairingly long journey, he had seen similar hopes far too many times.
Sometimes, it was an energy refraction illusion caused by some strange geographical phenomenon.
Sometimes, it was the trap-like fluctuations set by certain special Mist Creatures while hunting.
Sometimes, it was just an energy ripple produced by this bizarre world itself, utterly meaningless...
Every single time.
He would cautiously approach, holding onto the thought, "What if?"
Every single time, it was met with deeper disappointment, sometimes accompanied by danger.
The greater the hope, the more bone-deep the disappointment.
Su Zhan's footsteps subconsciously slowed down.
An impulse arose within him, a desire to immediately turn around and flee in the opposite direction.
As if as long as he didn't touch it, that tiny, fragile possibility could still be preserved in his heart, not crushed once again by reality.
But... what if?
What if this time it really is the one-in-a-million chance?
Su Zhan struggled to suppress the turmoil in his heart, his gaze turning alert once more.
Towards the direction from which the energy fluctuation came.
He moved, step by step, with even greater caution.
Just like a traveler dying of thirst in the desert, who, despite knowing the oasis before his eyes is ninety-nine percent likely a mirage, still crawls towards that faint, perhaps-existent hope with his last ounce of strength.
Su Zhan passed through the final stretch of dense mist, and the scene before him made him pause slightly.
In a relatively open area ahead, a dozen or twenty uniformly shaped Mist Creatures were gathered.
Su Zhan recognized this type of Mist Creature.
It was the first Mist Creature he had ever seen with his own eyes.
Snake-Tailed Beasts!
These monsters had no facial features. Six thick limbs were asymmetrically distributed on both sides of their bodies, supporting their crawling movement.
On both sides of their heads grew organs that constantly opened and closed like fish gills.
Their height was generally around two meters, emitting energy fluctuations between Medium-risk fifth and seventh stages.
They were much stronger than the Snake-Tailed Beast he had first encountered.
This group of Snake-Tailed Beasts detected Su Zhan's arrival.
They stopped their movements, their heads swiveling in unison towards Su Zhan. The opening and closing speed of their gill organs increased, seeming somewhat restless.
They sensed the Medium-risk tenth-stage Pressure emanating from Su Zhan.
Although they displayed hostility and wariness, they did not dare to attack recklessly, only issuing threatening low hisses.
Su Zhan ignored their threats, his gaze drawn to the behavior of these Snake-Tailed Beasts.
He saw them forming a not-so-orderly line, walking one after another towards an area of mist ahead.
Upon contacting that patch of mist.
The mist rippled in a circle.
And the Snake-Tailed Beast would completely disappear.
One, two, three...
In a short time, all dozen or so Snake-Tailed Beasts vanished into those ripples, disappearing without a trace.
Su Zhan was utterly stunned, his brain momentarily unable to process it.
The next second.
An astonishing guess surfaced.
A unified race of Mist Creatures.
None possessing extremely high strength.
Collectively disappearing after entering a specific area.
These characteristics... this pattern...
"Spatial traversal?"
Su Zhan murmured involuntarily, his eyes suddenly blazing with light.
Here... could this be the entrance to a spatial passage leading to Blue Star!?
Just like how Transcendence Society members on Blue Star could summon Mist Events.
And the monsters pouring out of Mist Events were often Mist Creatures of the same race, and not of high strength.
Then, could one make a reverse deduction?
At certain specific nodes within the Mist World, do entrances exist that lead in reverse to Blue Star?
And these Snake-Tailed Beasts are precisely being guided by some force, passing through this exit to go to Blue Star and create disasters?
As for why it might not necessarily be Daxia...
Su Zhan couldn't be certain if other countries had organizations capable of summoning Mist like the Transcendence Society.
Hope!
Real, tangible hope!
Go back!
Even if that world is also filled with danger, at least it's not this despairing, endless mist.
The prolonged loneliness, numbness, and emptiness had nearly driven him insane.
Take a gamble.
Bet that the other side is Blue Star!
Bet that he can survive!
Su Zhan's eyes turned frenzied.
Medium-risk tenth-stage Pressure erupted with a roar, startling the few remaining Snake-Tailed Beasts that were hesitating and not daring to approach, causing them to retreat repeatedly!
Then, he exerted force explosively.
And charged towards that patch of mist that was still gently undulating with ripples!
The next moment, his body made contact with that area.
Su Zhan only felt the world spin and turn upside down.
A sense of spatial compression assaulted him.
A flash of light, and his figure also completely vanished into the ripples.
...
Atop a teaching building in Vermilion Bird Academy.
The night wind whistled fiercely, whipping at the clothes of three young men.
Over a year's time was enough to strip much of the youthful naivety from the boys, adding a touch of steadiness.
Liu Ziming leaned against the railing, his black hair seeming longer than before, casually tied at the back of his head.
He looked down at the brightly lit academy below and sighed: "Sigh, now at Stream Realm fifth stage, it feels completely stuck, not moving an inch."
Beside him, a man stood at just over 1.6 meters tall.
"Who says it isn't the same for me? I'm also Stream Realm fifth stage. It feels much harder than back in the Dew Realm days."
Xu Hao chimed in gloomily upon hearing this: "Back then, if you put your mind to it, you could advance a stage in a little over a month. Now, it's good if you see any movement in over two months.
The difficulty has doubled.
The cultivation resources the academy provides are much better, but the effect... tsk!"
Feng Jue had been silently gazing at the distant night sky.
He was now the highest in cultivation among the three, having reached Stream Realm sixth stage.
Feng Jue spoke calmly, his voice somewhat scattered by the wind: "The higher the realm, the harder it is to advance. That's common knowledge. The Stream Realm is just the beginning. The later Tide Realm, Abyss Realm... will only be harder."
The topic became somewhat heavy for a moment.
The night wind blew past, carrying a chill.
After a while.
Liu Ziming seemed to remember something, his tone lowering somewhat: "A few days ago... people from Xie Xi's family came again. Her parents still refuse to give up, saying they must see the person alive or the body dead... They still haven't held a funeral."
"Ah! Those two are also senior officials of Daxia... they understand in their hearts."
Xu Hao punched the railing hard: "In that kind of situation, how could it be possible... Mist Creatures devour people without leaving bones!"
The atmosphere grew even more somber.
After a moment of silence.
Liu Ziming suddenly spat fiercely: "Damn it! Just talking about it makes me suffocate with frustration! Xie Xi is gone, and that guy Su Zhan too..."
The Mist Event meticulously planned by the Transcendence Society a year and two months ago felt like it was just yesterday.
"Who could have thought those Transcendence Society bastards schemed so viciously! They even calculated that Dean Ye wouldn't be there!"
Liu Ziming cursed.
"But they miscalculated one thing."
Xu Hao picked up the thread, a relieved smile appearing on his face: "They could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that Old Mu, the one always dozing off in the library, actually possessed strength on par with Dean Ye! Haha! That's our academy's trump card!"
"The Calamity-level Thousand-Faced Demon Nightmare saw the situation turning bad and ran away on its own, but the remaining Aberrants were in for a world of hurt."
A smile appeared on Feng Jue's face: "Four Ocean Realm powerers joined forces and wiped out over eighty-five percent of their manpower on the spot!"
Whenever they talked about this, the three of them would feel a bit more relieved.
The Old Mu they spoke of was the administrator of the Vermilion Bird Academy library.
Who would have thought that during that disaster, he would step forward and beat back the Thousand-Faced Demon Nightmare step by step.
They only learned later that Old Mu was the Vermilion Bird Academy's trump card. Apart from the dean and vice-dean, no one in the entire academy knew this secret.
So well hidden.
Naturally, the Transcendence Society didn't have the capability to know this.
They were banking on this information gap.
Because of Old Mu's presence, the losses for Vermilion Bird Academy in that battle were not significant.