Hummm—!
In an instant, the Esper Energy Core plunged directly into Lance’s Consciousness Hub.
The sight sent a jolt of horror through God-Emperor Extinction, watching from the depths of The Infinite Void, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head.
"Holy sht, what the hell is happening?!"
The color drained from Extinction's face. An Esper Energy Core was nothing like a Void Core; it wasn't sothing one could just swallow to recover strength in the short term. Even a Void Core required careful refinent. Attempting to process that much energy too quickly would flood the body with foreign power, leading to a singular, catastrophic result: the cultivator’s spiritual energy and physical strength would fall into a violent, uncontrollable riot.
At best, the Consciousness Hub would shatter. At worst, the Divine Soul would be completely annihilated.
But an Esper Energy Core was far more volatile. Because its inherent properties were fundantally unstable, fusing it directly into one's Consciousness Hub was a guaranteed recipe for an explosion. And an explosion of this magnitude was infinitely more terrifying than a re Void Core riot.
Even the "lightest" consequence was permanent Soul damage.
For a genius, even a microscopic scratch on the Soul was a fatal setback. It demanded years, if not decades, of recuperation. By the ti the wound healed, peers of the sa level would have long since left them in the dust. So Soul injuries never truly healed, leaving behind hidden scars that crippled future growth. If luck was truly absent and the energy reached peak instability during the riot, the Divine Soul would simply vanish from existence.
While The Virtual Universe could technically resurrect Lance without a scratch, it would an instant disqualification.
If Lance were defeated and eliminated by another participant, Extinction could live with that; a powerhouse of his stature couldn't easily interfere with the natural flow of combat. But if Lance was disqualified because of a reckless stunt like this, Extinction was terrified that his ntor would beat him to death.
Extinction was well and truly panicking now.
He had no idea if Lance had already awakened the Undying Power of the Undying God-Body. Logically, it seed impossible—Lance had only been "awakened" in this life for less than a month. How could he have already pushed The Divine Physique of Death to its limit?
Even as the reincarnation of The Paramount God of Death, it defied all reason.
Unfortunately, it was too late to stop him. The mont Lance slamd that Esper Energy Core into his own body, the fuse was lit. The riot was about to begin.
"Virtual Universe! Quickly, analyze Lance’s full-body energy fluctuations! Is there a problem?!" Extinction shouted urgently.
He stared unblinkingly at the projection, not even daring to use his own divine sense to probe Lance’s condition for fear of accidentally triggering the volatile energy.
"Grandmaster... oh, Grandmaster. We can resurrect you, sure, but you can’t just play with your life like this! If you wanted to analyze the structural principles of The Power of Concealnt, couldn't you have waited until The Genius Trials were over?!"
Extinction was genuinely speechless. Was everyone who mastered the Power of Death possessed by so innate urge to seek out creative ways to die?
"Beep! Scanning... Lance’s vital signs and Divine Soul fluctuations are perfectly calm. No signs of energy riot detected. Additionally, you need not worry. Lance has already developed the Undying God-Body to its limit. He cannot die within The Virtual Universe."
The clinical voice of The Virtual Universe broke the tension.
God-Emperor Extinction froze, montarily stunned by the explanation. He didn't understand how it was possible, but the relief hit him like a tidal wave, and he broke into a frantic, ecstatic grin.
"As long as he's okay... as long as he's okay! I can't believe it. In less than a month, he’s already pushed the Undying God-Body to the limit? As expected of the Ancestral Patriarch’s reincarnation."
Extinction let out a long, shaky breath. As long as the kid didn't die, nothing else mattered. From now on, he wouldn't have to spend every waking mont worrying about Lance being eliminated by so freak accident.
He couldn't help but marvel at how absurdly powerful Lance was. This immortality was truly heaven-defying. As long as soone in the universe still rembered you, you could return—even if your Soul fragnts were ground into absolute nothingness.
It was staggering to contemplate. The Power of Death was truly the most terrifying force in existence, second only to Ti and Space. While it didn't possess the raw, "brute-force" destructive capabilities of their Destruction Power, its applications were infinitely more subtle and terrifying.
Rumor had it that if the Power of Death reached its zenith—the level of a Paramount God—one could directly resurrect others. It was said they could even bring back those of the Immortal Class.
Extinction didn't know if the legends were true. His ntor had ntioned it once, claiming that he himself had died once and had been personally brought back by the Grandmaster. But only The Destroyer Supre knew the truth of that tale. All records and traces of The Paramount God of Death’s existence had long since vanished from the annals of history.
Only his ntor rembered.
Back when Extinction and his fellow disciples first heard their ntor praising the Grandmaster’s god-like abilities, they hadn't quite believed it. If it were true, then any civilization with a Paramount God of Death would essentially possess an army of immortals for anyone below the rank of The Supre Divinities.
It sounded impossible.
Despite their profound respect for The Destroyer Supre, none of them truly believed The Paramount God of Death had been that powerful. So even secretly doubted if such a figure had ever truly existed. Of course, they never dared voice those doubts; doing so would have been a one-way ticket to being purged from the sect by their ntor.
If Lance hadn't appeared, God-Emperor Extinction might have gone to his grave wondering if his ntor’s stories were just senile ramblings.
Inside the trial grounds, a sphere of pure black light coalesced rapidly above Lance’s Consciousness Hub.
Driven by Lance’s terrifying Elental Affinity, the sphere contracted at high speed, compressing into a single, crystalline Law Thread in the blink of an eye. Finally, this Law Thread transford into a streak of black light, diving into the massive, multicolored elental orb nearby.
Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully awakened a new Supernatural Trait: The Power of Concealnt (Immortal Grade).
This elent has been successfully integrated into The Power of Genesis.
Current elents integrated: 142.
The Power of Genesis has been promoted to: Tier 16 Peak-Grade!
The system notification echoed in Lance’s mind.
As he used The Eight Sacred Canons to comprehend more elents, the number of forces rging into The Power of Genesis continued to climb. At Tier 16 Peak-Grade, the explosive power of his primary energy was significantly more potent than the previous Low-Grade version.
"Reaching Tier 17 is going to be difficult," Lance thought, his brow furrowing slightly. "I’ll likely need to integrate at least one Supre Elent and dozens more top-tier high-level elents."
But such high-level elents were notoriously hard to find. In the universal classification, "Apex Elents" were energies of the 12th, 13th, and 14th Tiers. High-level elents ranged from the 8th to the 11th Tier. Mid-level elents were Tiers 5, 6, and 7, while anything below Tier 5 was considered Low-level.
By the standards of The Human Race, a Tier 8 elent would be classified as an SS-Rank Supernatural Trait. The fact that an SS-Rank trait was considered rely "Mid-level" on the grand scale highlighted just how rare and precious the Apex Elents actually were.
"Well, I’m at over a hundred and forty now. Three thousand doesn't sound like that much in the long run," Lance mused. "Besides, once my realm increases by one more major stage, I can begin repairing my Human Sovereign Physique. Once that developnt is back on track, my Affinity and cultivation speed will skyrocket."
"At that point, even top-tier elents won't take much ti to master. I can even upgrade my Divine Soul subdivision again. If fourteen divisions aren't enough, I’ll go to fifteen. Eventually, I’ll have thousands of consciousness threads comprehending simultaneously. Collecting all three thousand elental laws won't take long at all."
Lance smirked at the thought. To anyone else, mastering so many elental powers would be an insurmountable task, but for a man with his "cheats," it was barely an inconvenience.
Vrummm!
Suddenly, a surge of pure death energy erupted from the void. This was the residual energy from the Nether-Shades that Lance had slain earlier. Although it seed delayed, in reality, only a few seconds had passed since Lance had obtained the Esper Energy Core and completed the Reconstruction fusion.
Vrummm!
The refined death energy then surged forward, integrating completely into Lance’s body.
[CON 200 Trillion! Divine Soul 200 Trillion!]
[CON 200 Trillion! Divine Soul 200 Trillion!]
[CON 200 Trillion! Divine Soul 200 Trillion!]
......
A rapid succession of system notifications chid in Lance’s mind. To his annoyance, however, the absorption speed had only doubled.
"Well, it looks like energy from this level doesn't provide much of a boost," Lance muttered, his brow furrowing. "If I want a massive increase in speed, I need higher-grade energy. But the Power of Death is already at its peak. Any higher and I’m looking at Space or Ti Power."
He felt a pang of helplessness. Space and Ti powers were undeniably formidable, but the difficulty of mastering them was astronomical. To forge Space Power, one needed to fuse ten different Tier 14 powers—a feat considered impossible by most standards.
Fortunately, he had the system. At worst, he could just buy ten Void Cores of various elents. If the Virtual Universe didn't sell them, he could always seek out his "master," the Destroyer Supre. Surely the man would have them. As long as the items existed, Lance could repair their Exploits. Once the Exploits were patched, he could consu the cores and awaken the elents directly, even without raising the cores' levels.
By that logic, mastering Space Power might actually be easier for him than so common Supre Powers. However, the biggest hurdle was the cost. Void Cores capable of helping one comprehend Tier 14 Esper Abilities were prohibitively expensive, even if the core itself was low-level. Even an Immortal Grade powerhouse would find it difficult to afford one, and Lance was currently broke.
It boiled down to two paths: find a powerful patron, or pray that his rewards from this trial were substantial enough.
"Double speed is better than nothing," he mused. "A twofold increase at the Domain Lord Class, and likely another double at the World Lord Class. That's a fourfold increase. At my current rate, I can hit the Universal Realm in a few hours just by absorbing Domain Lord energy. I’ll set up an array first, then find a place with a dense concentration of Domain Lord energy. Once the Genius Trials are over, I’ll see if a quintillion-fold reward multiplier is enough to buy eight Tier 14 elents with Spatial Affinity. At the very least, I could buy the virtual versions; they’re billions of tis cheaper than the real thing. One-hundred-millionth of a Tier 14 price is roughly a Tier 13 price—I should be able to swing that. Besides, this is the Genius Trials. The first-place prize should be significant, surely better than a Tier 13 item. With a quintillion-fold multiplier, buying ten Tier 14 Void Cores shouldn't be an issue, right?"
Lance’s eyes flashed. Seeking a patron? Better to rely on himself. He was determined to secure the reward for exceeding the trial requirents by two major realms. Technically, based on his entry level, it should have been three, but his growth was so explosive he had already reached the Star Sea Realm, shrinking the gap to two.
Currently, he was generating 2 quintillion CON and Soul points per hour. At this rate, reaching the Universal Class would take fifty hours. If he could reach it now, he'd have to move to the World Lord Class trial grounds to keep his "two-major-realm" bonus. But even with doubled speed from World Lord energy, it would still take a day.
"But if I can push for a three-realm gap, the multiplier would skyrocket to a septillion-fold! Even if the base reward is only Tier 13, the final value would be Tier 15. That would more than cover the Void Cores. The World Lord Class, though... that's a tough nut to crack," Lance sighed. Even with his progress, he couldn't upgrade his array mastery to Tier 13 in such a short window. Without Tier 13 energy, he wouldn't even clear the first round of the World Lord trials, let alone win.
Lance considered it for a mont but realized it was impractical. He simply didn't have the strength yet. His cultivation had improved, but his actual combat power was still capped at the World Lord level. He was still leagues away from the God-King realm.
"Forget it. I’ll just stay here. I refuse to believe the first-place prize for the Genius Trials would be lower than Tier 14." Lance smiled. The odds of that were zero. This was a grand ceremony held once every cosmic epoch—once every trillion years. Usually, a standard leaderboard champion would receive Tier 13 rewards; for a universe-wide event like this, Tier 14 or even Tier 15 wouldn't be unreasonable. There were only fourteen tiers of power in the entire universe, after all. Providing fourteen Tier 15 items should be easy for the organizers.
And even if it were only Tier 14, with his quintillion-fold multiplier, he could easily afford the ten Void Cores. He might even be able to get the Void Cores for the remaining four Supre Elents.
"Right, I should aim for the Supre Elents too. I need to hurry up and hunt down the other contestants to clear the first round. I just hope the second and third rounds aren't too ti-consuming. If they are, I might need to prepare so Tier 13 Void Cores. If I break through to the Universal Class while the trials are still ongoing, I’ll have no choice but to head to the World Lord trial grounds."
Lance’s eyes glinted with resolve. Without hesitation, he began carving countless runes into the Void Core in his hand. He was preparing to punch above his weight and construct a Tier 12 High-Grade Legendary array. Because he was building an array beyond his current level, it would be incredibly ti-consuming. Even with Lance’s speed, it would take at least three or four hours.
Lance wasn't in a rush, though. He could use that ti to raise his cultivation level. With over ten hours left in the preliminary round, ti wasn't an issue. Furthermore, this was no ordinary array; it was the prototype for the formidable Nine-Revolution Heaven-Devouring Array. Even in its infancy, this prototype required Destruction Power as a foundation. Its completed form would require the integration of six elents, excluding space and ti. Its power was nothing short of terrifying.
"That technique! Holy sht!" God-Emperor Extinction watched from the void, reeling in shock. "Is the Grandmaster building a Tier 12 High-Grade Perfect array? He's even infusing Destruction Power! What is he planning?"
He had already witnessed Lance’s incredible array skills, but he now realized that Lance’s mastery had reached even greater heights. It seed the Grandmaster was reclaiming more and more of his mories. At this rate, he might fully recover his past self within a few years—or even months. Given a few hundred million years, he might even return to his peak strength. If that happened, perhaps his Master wouldn't have to die.
"If I can finish this Tier 12 array and then stumble upon a World Lord peak Secret Realm with a few quadrillion examinees to farm... man, that would be the dream," Lance muttered to himself as he worked.
Hidden in the infinite void, God-Emperor Extinction’s eyes lit up.
"The Grandmaster’s wishes are so humble and pure. Allow your Grand-Disciple to make them a reality!"
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