Operations command room.

The middle-aged nun's words made everyone's eyes turn to a young man in the corner. He looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, with blond hair, blue eyes, a high nose bridge, and a handsome appearance.

After learning that he had become the designated first heir to the throne, the young man not only did not show the slightest joy on his face, but on the contrary his face turned pale and he looked a little panicked. He opened his mouth to refuse, but after a middle-aged man next to him pulled his sleeve, he swallowed his words back.

It is not easy to be the emperor of an empire.

Once one inherits the throne, he is doomed to lose his freedom, because only the emperor can connect to the empire's mind synchronization device, which is a stabilizer of the mind suppression barrier. Its original function was actually to build a mental network and connect to the legendary [virtual realm]. However, after the failure of psychic ascension, it was transformed into a mental protection barrier. It can greatly enhance the emperor's psychic upper limit, but it also means that the emperor himself is more susceptible to mental whispers.

The royal family members are already extremely sensitive, and if they are connected to this device, they can only enter the hibernation chamber regularly to recover.

He didn't want to be trapped in that lifeless golden palace. Rather than inheriting the throne, Prince William would rather be a free and idle salted fish.

At least he can still live like an ordinary person.

But unfortunately, no one cared about Prince William's attitude. After learning that Queen Isabella had designated an heir, others were obviously relieved.

The empire cannot be without an emperor yet.

The aftereffects of the failed psychic ascension are still affecting everyone. Only the emperor can stabilize the spirits of the people of the empire and allow them to regain their rationality to fight against the ubiquitous whispers of the mind.

I must briefly talk about the virtual realm here.

It is an extremely mysterious subspace, a vast and boundless spiritual world.

It also seems to be one of the sources of psychic power.

When a race's idealistic thinking reaches the maximum level and psychic awakening begins to spread to everyone, they can choose to embark on a civilization process that transcends races - [Psychic Ascension].

But the ascension of a race is not so easy.

Some lucky races can succeed, while some less fortunate ones, like the Empire, fall directly in the process of ascension.

The most important step in the Empire's psychic ascension plan is to "transcend into sainthood", which literally means to awaken the deepest power of the soul, step into the realm of "saints" and "chosen ones", and then listen to the whispers from the void.

The first emperor of the empire, Edward I, was a "Saint".

What he has to do is to gather the psychic energy of the entire race, and through special rituals, form an extremely powerful spiritual body that transcends the boundaries of the material plane, and thus enter a dimension composed entirely of pure psychic energy. This place is the legendary [virtual world].

The virtual world is the plane that all races in the current universe must go through if they choose the path of psychic ascension.

However, the virtual world is not a safe place, nor is it a paradise where gifts can be easily obtained. In the virtual world, in addition to guides with good intentions who lead people to ascend, an extremely powerful consciousness, similar to the existence of gods, there are also many unknown sub-space life forms. Some of their original forms are terrible evil gods, or some indescribable terrifying monsters.

Only by receiving the correct guidance within the virtual world can the entire race obtain higher-level psychic knowledge and spread this blessing to everyone.

Once successful.

The entire race will make a qualitative leap and directly enter the realm of advanced civilization.

But if it fails, the result will be the same as the current empire, and a powerful civilization may be destroyed in an instant.

The mind synchronization device in the deepest part of the imperial capital was originally used to connect to the virtual world.

It can be understood as an artificial 'Alaya consciousness body', that is, a collective of human pan-consciousness, dominated by the emperor's powerful spiritual body, and eventually forming a very powerful spiritual body that can move freely in the virtual world.

certainly.

For more than three thousand years, this device has never been fully activated and is now just a protective barrier.

The fall of the empire began when Edward I returned to the real world from the virtual world. No one knew what kind of existence Edward I signed the contract with in the virtual world, but.

Rumor has it that within the royal family, there is a hidden record named - [Whisper of the Void].

After Edward I returned from the virtual world, ominous signs began to appear throughout the empire.

The nobles became more and more depraved, indulging in luxury and pleasure, not caring about the lives of the lower classes. At the same time, a strange madness began to spread within the empire. No one cared at first. Those mad people just succumbed to their own desires and became slaves to their desires, whether bloodthirsty, greedy, or lustful. These characteristics were obvious in the nobles, and almost no one deliberately investigated anything.

Until one day.

When the gathered negative desires began to erupt and even affected the empire's mind synchronization device, an extremely terrible disaster befell.

The Telepathic Device is a shared device.

It can connect the spirits of the imperial people to a certain extent, and store the excess spiritual energy into the Alaya consciousness body, forming a stable virtual spirit body.

In this state.

The emperor of the empire will have psychic energy that is theoretically close to infinite. Even if the emperor's psychic level is only level 7, he can still output psychic energy continuously and unlimitedly according to the standards of a level 7 psychic. In other words, the emperor's psychic energy is infinite.

He may not be able to use more advanced psychic spells, but what he can cast are endless.

As long as the spirit can withstand it, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, or ten million spells are not a problem.

so.

When one day, Edward I also became insane, an extremely terrible disaster befell.

At this time.

The survivors of the empire only then realized the outbreak of the whispers of the mind. They found that the strange whispers began to emerge continuously from the depths of their hearts, which made them shudder, gradually drive them crazy and lose control.

The current telepathic synchronization center has shut down 90% of its power.

Queen Isabella only served as a stabilizing mind suppression barrier. The spirits that the empire once gathered in the virtual world had long since disappeared. It was unknown whether they dissipated naturally or were swallowed by some monster.

Anyway, the original generation had long since died out, leaving only the remains of a former king lingering on this planet.

A failed psychic ascension.

It directly led to the fall of a powerful empire and also created an extremely terrifying ancient abomination.

----——