Chapter 846 – The White Crystal Civilization

Mo Lan let out a soft sigh.

Whether the luck spell had truly taken effect, she honestly had no idea.

If she were to say it hadn’t worked—well, the Starsea Ark hadn’t even fully departed the star region repeatedly traversed by Explorers, and they had already discovered a target that was simultaneously a “zero-level world” and an “endangered world.”

If she could resolve the intelligent species’ existential crisis here, guide them onto the path of the extraordinary, and propel their world’s ascension all at once, the rewards would surely be extraordinarily generous.

But if she were to say it had worked—the intelligent species of this world just happened to be a completely unfamiliar existence she had never seen before, with absolutely no records about them anywhere.

She had no idea where their magical talent might manifest, let alone how they were supposed to learn magic.

Under such circumstances, how could she even begin to “guide” them?

Moreover, she knew nothing about this species’ culture, language, or social structure. Precisely intervening to resolve an extinction crisis facing an entire race would be no easy feat.

But asking her to simply give up? That was absolutely out of the question.

Memory is the cornerstone of understanding all intelligence.

To truly understand an unfamiliar intelligent being, the most direct method is to read its memories.

Just then, Mo Lan noticed a semi-transparent humanoid creature whose inner glow had stagnated and appeared particularly dim, walking alone out of the crystal cluster settlement.

“Perfect opportunity!” She immediately steered the flying carpet to follow it silently.

Once it had wandered deep into a wild, uninhabited crystal cluster forest, Mo Lan promptly cast the Psychic Magic confusion spell to bring it under her control.

She then used Psychic Magic to read his memories.

Countless memory fragments surged toward her like a tidal wave.

With her formidable psychic power, Mo Lan instinctively imprinted and sealed all the memories she had read into her own mental sea at maximum speed.

Afterward, she released her control, letting the creature stand there in a daze for a moment before it resumed its original course.

Mo Lan, meanwhile, rode her flying carpet high above, hidden from sight, and began carefully sorting through the imprinted memory images. She meticulously filtered out the useless, cluttered information, attempting to understand this unfamiliar species and world from the humanoid creature’s perspective.

Amid the chaotic memory fragments, Mo Lan gradually pieced together information about this world and its intelligent species.

These semi-transparent humanoid beings called themselves the “White Crystal People” and referred to the planet they depended on for survival as “White Crystal Star.”

The White Crystal People were born from the peculiar “plants” found everywhere on White Crystal Star—towering white crystal trees, those enormous crystal clusters—condensing from them like fruit.

The skin of the White Crystal People shared the same milky-white, semi-transparent texture as the white crystal trees that had given them life. It was cold and hard to the touch.

They were born with rich emotions, and their bodies could convert different emotional energies into visible colored glimmers that flowed through the meridian-like channels within them.

When joyful, the channels would shine with a warm golden light; when sorrowful, a serene blue would spread through them; anger would ignite a blazing red; deep love would suffuse them with a gentle pink; and intense hatred would congeal into an oppressive ink-black.

As for those enormous butterfly-wing ears, Mo Lan had originally speculated they were some kind of biological organ for receiving information. After viewing this White Crystal Person’s memories, she learned that the butterfly ears were not innate at all, but deliberately worn emotional collectors.

In the year 100 of the White Crystal Calendar, the scholar Riven Lighttrace, after extensive observation of how white crystal trees converted sunlight into energy, published the paper 《Hypothesis of Energy Fields in the Emotional Spectrum》, in which he first proposed that intense emotional fluctuations generate a unique “psychic force” whose energy intensity far surpassed that of ordinary light energy absorption.

This groundbreaking theory was dismissed at the time as impractical fantasy.

However, ten years later, a genius engineer named Norton Prism—born into a workshop dynasty yet plagued by emotions too intense to maintain precision work—witnessed a catastrophic event in which a large white crystal tree farm withered due to energy shortages. He was deeply moved.

Utilizing the properties of white crystal trees combined with micro-engraving techniques, he successfully created the first “Heartlight Resonance Device”—the prototype emotional collector.

When he pressed the device’s sensors against his forehead, the blue glimmers formed by sorrow within his body surged into the energy storage crystal at the device’s tip. The crystal was instantly illuminated, its brilliance stunning every onlooker.

In the year 111 of the White Crystal Calendar, the “First Energy Act” was promulgated, officially establishing the legal status of emotional energy.

Subsequently, various instruments powered by emotional energy spread rapidly, and social efficiency improved dramatically.

In the year 115 of the White Crystal Calendar, the “Heartlight Energy Corporation,” co-founded by Norton Prism and his partners, established the first “Emotional Exchange” in Crystal Crown City.

From then on, White Crystal People could sell their daily surplus emotions at the exchange in return for the universal currency known as “light coins.”

Long lines formed at the exchange’s entrance, as everyone rejoiced at being able to transform intangible emotions into real warmth and light.

The civilization of the White Crystal People thus transitioned from its initial Empathic Era into the Rational Era.

At first, only surplus emotions and intense feelings were converted into emotional energy. Later, emotional stimulators were developed specifically to provoke emotions and feelings for the purpose of harvesting even more emotional energy.

In the year 118 of the White Crystal Calendar, Heartlight Energy Corporation founder Norton Prism died in a laboratory accident.

Before his death, he had publicly warned on multiple occasions that “emotions should not be completely commodified,” and had already begun researching a “safety valve” technology designed to protect users’ mental health.

His sudden death caused this research to be permanently shelved.

Afterward, control of the company fell into the hands of a pure technocrat named Samuel Coldgleam.

He swiftly pushed through a mandatory adoption act for the “Butterfly Wing” model emotional collectors, justifying it as being “for the more efficient collection of energy essential to civilization’s continued existence.”

These devices, shaped like ornate butterfly wings, could indiscriminately and efficiently collect emotions of all intensities. People no longer needed emotional stimulators—they could convert their own emotions into stored energy at any time through the devices, and could even transfer this energy to others through the simple gesture of pressing their “ears” together.

Light coins were thus abolished, and trading emotional energy via the butterfly-shaped emotional collectors became the mainstream.

In the first few years after the universal adoption of emotional collectors, white crystal tree farms flourished under the radiance of artificial emotions. Cities blazed with light day and night, population growth exploded, and the entire society seemed to be thriving.

However, Samuel Coldgleam and the consortium behind him maintained an iron grip on both the core technology of emotional collection and the right to distribute energy.

By adjusting the “exchange rates” and “tax rates” of emotional energy, they silently plundered the vast majority of society’s output.

Class stratification became absolute. The upper echelon, the “Radiant Nobles,” relied on early-accumulated energy reserves and patents to live lives brimming with emotion, while the lowest class, the “Dustlight Folk,” had no choice but to overdraft their own joys and sorrows each day just to obtain enough emotional energy to sustain basic survival.