Chapter 177: Against the World

It was true that this path was slower than the Monster Path, but it was far superior in terms of the ability to control the Laws!

But since it had chosen this path, it naturally had to bear the disadvantages of this path as well, and its greatest and almost only disadvantage was that it could not progress along this path naturally!

All paths could be advanced simply by having enough energy without the need for external supplements, with the exception of the human Energy Path.

After thousands of years of research, the Tree of Cradle discovered this based on the requirements for advancing to Level Four, specifically the requirement for a catalyst. This was the only path among all the other paths that required a catalyst for its user to advance!

But the function of the catalyst was to temporarily increase one’s affinity with the Law to facilitate the fusion of the Law with the core. After reaching Level Four, the function of the catalyst was over, and the Law had already fused with the core, meaning that the core would not need another catalyst.

But after several more centuries of research, and by comparing the Monster Path and the Body Path, the Tree of Cradle discovered something dangerous about the human Energy Path!

After the four ancient races arrived in this new homeland, they sent thousands of expeditions to search for any traces of monsters that had reached Level Five, hoping to uncover the secrets of advancement, since the Monster Path was far easier than the human path in terms of advancing through the Levels.

But after thousands of years of painstaking research, they came up with no results, and they did not find any trace of a single creature that had surpassed Level Four!

Even after the Elves discovered the ability of the Law of Formation to strengthen their bodies, and discovered and developed the Body Path, after reaching the peak of Level Four, they too collided with an invisible wall that prevented them from advancing any further no matter how much they refined their bodies!

Therefore, the Tree of Cradle continued studying the Body Path and the Monster Path and comparing them with the Energy Path!

In the end, it reached the conclusion that the human Energy Path was not based on a fair exchange between creatures and the world like the other paths, but rather on plundering and stealing!

A path like the Monster Path or the Body Path relied on drawing energy from the world and using it to strengthen the blood or body. After the death of the monster or human creature, that energy would return to the world once again, along with some Law runes that the user’s body had formed throughout their journey.

But the human path was different. It did not draw energy like the others. Instead, it was more savage and stole Law runes from the world. After the death of a human path user, those runes did not return to the world. Instead, they drifted through the world as strange runes that did not belong to it!

The world’s Law runes that determined the level of advancement of that world—this path stole them and took them for itself, and this was where its ability to control the Laws, which surpassed every other path, came from!

The Tree of Cradle and the Elves discovered this after thousands of years of research and experimentation on the three paths.

And after thousands more years of research, the Tree of Cradle and the Elves discovered the reason why no one had reached Level Five. There was no curse as people believed, nor was it merely a myth as the rumors claimed, nor was there a Law or rule preventing it as the kings and emperors believed...

Rather, the reason revolved around the fact that the world did not yet support the existence of a Level Five being!

The world’s Level Five Laws had not yet been completed, so attempting to break through and advance to Level Five through any path was meaningless, because the paths relied on the world and its Laws to ascend to higher Levels. But there was one path that was an anomaly here...

The human path!

Since this path relied on plundering Laws rather than following their flow, it did not need the world’s Laws to be completed in order to reach higher Levels!

It was enough for Level Two Laws—Level Five—to exist, even if they were incomplete. It would simply steal their runes and fuse them with the core.

But just as this path was extremely extreme, the world hated it as well, so it placed many, many obstacles in its way. One of them was what the Tree of Cradle and the Elves had discovered...

The existence of an insulating wall between Level Four and Level Five. It was an extremely powerful wall that could not be removed simply through perseverance or attempts to destroy it with energy. The stronger and more complete the user’s Law was, the stronger and more solid that insulating wall became...

And after thousands more years of research into this matter, the Tree of Cradle and the Elves were able to invent a potion made entirely from the essence of the Law of Formation and crafted from the rarest and most powerful resources the Elves had been able to gather.

The purpose of that potion was to fuse with the core and fully stimulate it to attack and destroy that barrier.

It was not an increase in affinity with the Laws, but an increase in stimulation and repulsion...

Stimulating the user’s own Law and making it unleash its utmost power, directing that power to repel against the barrier in an extremely difficult and painful process.

Anyone who went through this stage needed immense concentration and an isolated place, otherwise the slightest consequence would be a serious injury to the core, while the worst consequence would be death!

After the Tree of Cradle successfully created the potion, it decided that it would be the first to try it. When the other three ancient races received this news, they immediately used the spatial Arrays they had kept since the Age of War and went straight to the Elven Empire. When they arrived, they found the Elven armies prepared to receive them!

The situation was tense, and war was about to break out immediately. The emperors of the three ancient races would never allow the Tree of Cradle to break through to Level Five.

It was already the strongest creature in the world when it was at Level Four, so what would happen after it reached Level Five!

But the Elven Empress did not want this war to happen, nor did she want to prevent the Tree of Cradle from breaking through either...