Chapter Seventy-One: Finally Departing the Founders' Village

PS: Anyone who gets the wrong idea from the chapter title, go reflect in the corner.

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The days of eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, passed in a blur—perhaps ten years, perhaps a hundred—before Feng Xue finally accumulated one kilobyte of data and successfully grew a body.

Although his physique was short and squat, with a head disproportionately large for his body, at least he now had hands and feet. Feng Xue reached out to touch here and there, resembling someone regaining health after years of paralysis.

It was then that Feng Xue discovered he had developed organs inside his body!

The notion that a Digicore is a crystal-like nucleus, similar to a magic stone, is entirely misguided. In fact, except for toy-type Digimon, all Digimon possess Digicores akin to cellular structures, present in each cell. When a Digimon enters its growth stage or acquires an independent form (for example, a young Cupimon as a Little Angel type, or a child Dracomon as a Little Dragon type), corresponding organs are constructed within its body.

These include organs such as the heart, blood vessels, stomach, and intestines—though apart from digestive organs, most serve no practical purpose. Only when a Digimon descends into the real world and undergoes quantum transformation, taking on a body seemingly built of protein, do these organs truly become functional.

Many believe that when a Digimon dies, it simply reverts to data and thus lacks blood. This, too, is a misconception. For proof, look at vampire-type Digimon like Myotismon or GranDracmon. Myotismon, in particular, needs to drink blood to replenish his strength after entering the real world—if Digimon had no blood, whose would he drink?

Thus, alongside honing Quincy abilities, Feng Xue had gained a new path for self-improvement—the Ripple Hermit Technique.

Though the air of the Digital World lacks components such as oxygen and nitrogen, existing instead as a unified concept of “air,” and Digimon blood cannot increase its oxygen content via breathing to accelerate healing, the Ripple Hermit Technique, refined through countless generations at the Central Transmigrators Academy, relies on the vibrational effects of breathing alone to achieve a tempering effect akin to the Tiger Leopard Thunderclap.

Yet with these surprises came a certain problem—Feng Xue had to leave the Village of Beginnings.

Yes, it wasn’t the Digimon sprites driving him out, but rather the rules of the Digital World itself exerting their influence. Any Digimon beyond the growth stage, save for a few tasked with caring for the young, would be expelled by this force of law.

But Feng Xue had no desire to linger in the Village of Beginnings. He strode boldly out of the area covered by the plush, toy-like ground of the village…

And then—

“Damn it all!” Feng Xue stared at the barren wasteland before him, finally realizing his error.

The world of the third series was not like the first—a single cohesive planet—but rather split into countless layers. The Village of Beginnings lay at the very innermost layer; in other words, aside from the village itself, there was nothing else in this layer.

“Son of a—!” Feng Xue cursed inwardly, then dashed toward a pillar of light. In the blink of an eye, he was whisked away from the first layer by the transport beam.

…

Unlike the teleportation mechanism of the Babel Tower world, the Digital World's transport pillars were more akin to hyperlinks—close your eyes, open them, and you would find yourself in an entirely new environment.

A somber sky hung overhead, as if cursed by the world itself, with malevolent intentions seeping through the thick mist that filled the space. From all directions came unsettling, restless sounds. In such an environment, a timid soul might suffer nightmares for a lifetime after just a few seconds.

Yet, Feng Xue felt none of this unease. On the contrary, a sense of comfort welled up from within, as if a wild beast had returned to the forest or a fish to water.

Though Impmon was classified as a Small Devil-type, the domain to which he belonged was not the Dark Area. Rather, he was a member of the Nightmare Soldiers.

The Nightmare Soldiers were not simply the name of an army, but also one of the ten great compatible domains of Digimon. Besides denoting allegiance, these domains represented the environments a Digimon could adapt to.

For instance, the Deep Savers domain, as the name suggests, was for aquatic Digimon, while the Nightmare Soldiers thrived in dark and misty areas.

At this moment, Feng Xue found himself, naturally, in the Misty Zone.

“It seems the first teleport after leaving the Village of Beginnings always sends a Digimon to their compatible domain. Otherwise, tossing a Virus-type into a region teeming with Virus Busters would be a riot! Thank goodness I wasn’t thrown into the Dark Area, or with this scrawny body, I’d be headed straight back to the Village of Beginnings,” Feng Xue muttered, scratching his head, which was twice as broad as his body, a look of relief on his face.

The so-called Dark Area was not merely a place dense with dark energy but held a more profound significance. If the Network Sea represented the flowing data of the digital world, then the Dark Area was the "graveyard of deleted data," a place of pure darkness and negative energy—a sort of recycling bin, yet fundamentally different. It also served as a prison for the most dangerous and evil Digimon.

Had he been cast into that place, Feng Xue was certain he’d be schooled in the ways of Digimon in a heartbeat.

In every Digimon series, the Dark Area is always the domain with the most and strongest Mega forms (in the first series, there are only four Megas, but the strongest, Piedmon, is the Nightmare Soldiers’ leader).

Yet, the Misty Zone was no safe haven either. Here gathered Digimon renowned for their strength or strangeness. Aside from rare weaklings like Impmon or DemiDevimon (ScourgeBeast), even the weakest were peak Champion-level Digimon like Dokugumon (and don’t underestimate Dokugumon—in the first series, one could take on all seven protagonist Digimon at once and only lost after the appearance of WereGarurumon and MegaKabuterimon; in the third series, Kyubimon’s debut was so powerful that any regular Champion-level Digimon would kneel).

Feng Xue, though confident he could take on any Rookie (excluding outliers like Arcadiamon or Lucemon), was not arrogant enough to wander unprepared in the Misty Zone. He had to search for various camouflaged bases (like the giant, disguised trees from the first series—essentially safe houses) to ensure his safety.

Unlike his formless, attribute-less infancy, Feng Xue was now truly a Virus-type, and a Small Devil-type at that. He felt a deep aversion to Holy attribute factors—just touching them brought a profound, physiological nausea.

To embark on the path of the Fallen Angel, Feng Xue had to force himself to swallow Holy factors that, to him, were as agonizingly stimulating as a Carolina Reaper pepper.

Yet, the Misty Zone was not rich in Holy factors. Every day, Feng Xue had to spend a great deal of time filtering data just to keep his body’s Holy factor content above one-tenth.