Chapter 170: A Ruthless Character

The television broadcast entertainment news. An actress had boldly declared her love for Yu Xian, only to be accused of using him to gain publicity.

Yu Xian lay on the sofa, chatting with Eternal Purity while watching television. The two traded questions and answers on all manner of subjects, but the conversation gradually circled back to the same topic.

"Auntie, why aren't the souls and bodies of living beings from Level-One Worlds strong enough?"

"Because they are fundamentally different. Take the Blue Planet, for example. On a Level-One Blue Planet, the peak physical condition a human can reach through training is merely the normal physical condition of an untrained adult on a Level-Two Blue Planet."

"Why is that?"

"The environment and food both play a role. There are also subtle genetic differences."

"Could someone from a Level-One World improve their constitution by living in a Level-Two World for a while?" Yu Xian asked.

"Unfortunately, no."

"Auntie, the Indivisible Yin-Yang Sea of Tribulations Scripture also seems rather disorganized. How did Impermanence manage to advance to Star rank?"

"Do you truly think the Indivisible Yin-Yang Sea of Tribulations Scripture is disorganized?"

"Is it not?"

"Every stage of the Indivisible Yin-Yang Sea of Tribulations Scripture is extremely well defined. It is not disorganized at all. You may have misunderstood what I meant. When I said your systems were extremely jumbled and lacked any coherent structure, I was mainly referring to how none of your individual abilities are truly pure. They originate from too many different sources."

He was surprised. "Even having too many sources makes a difference?"

"Of course. The energy wielded by someone in Star rank is incredibly vast for someone at your level. It is so immense that there is zero room for even the slightest impurity. Otherwise, it can easily spiral out of control. Think of that energy as boiling oil, and those impurities as cold water. You should know exactly what happens when you drop cold water into boiling oil."

"It explodes."

Yu Xian knew how to cook, so naturally he understood what would happen. If someone dropped cold water into a pot of boiling oil, it would rapidly vaporize and expand, causing the oil to splatter violently.

Similarly, if a supernatural being's body and soul were both strong enough to advance to Star rank, but their body were riddled with impurities, they would explode on the spot the moment they broke through.

Therefore, provided that their bodies and souls met the standard, most supernatural beings would actively pursue the absolute purity of their abilities. This was precisely why the vast majority of supernatural beings stuck to a single attribute. It wasn't that they didn't want to show off flashy, versatile abilities, but rather that they couldn't afford to.

A question occurred to Yu Xian. "Auntie, then... how can someone determine whether their abilities are pure?"

Eternal Purity faintly smiled and tapped him between the eyebrows. His eyes immediately widened as the abilities within his body transformed into a multicolored mosaic. Whenever he focused on a particular color, he could see the origin of the corresponding abilities.

The vampire bloodline had originated from thirteen vampire-inhabited worlds that the Abyss had devoured. Fragments of the laws from those thirteen worlds had fused to create the vampires of Yu Xian's world. Their vampire bloodline was impure from the very beginning. It was nothing more than a crude imitation cobbled together from various sources.

It could be said that not a single vampire ability was pure. In Yu Xian's vision, they resembled red light speckled with countless tiny green and black dots. These were the impurities Eternal Purity had mentioned. If a Star-rank powerhouse used an ability riddled with such impurities, they would explode on the spot.

Yu Xian examined the abilities of the Perfect Lifeform. They were even more complicated, far more so than his vampire bloodline. Super Smell had originated from a dog with the Howling Celestial Dog's bloodline. That bloodline had come from the progenitor of the Howling Celestial Dogs, whose ability had, in turn, originated from a Forbidden Fruit. The power within that Forbidden Fruit had come from a certain world of demons.

No. It was actually a complete counterfeit. It was not a true Howling Celestial Dog at all, but merely an ability copied from a Star-rank dog demon. To make matters worse, it was also mixed with a multitude of abilities from other dogs before eventually becoming what it was now.

Yu Xian examined every ability he possessed and discovered that none of them was pure. Every last one had been cobbled together from various sources.

After he finished examining all of them, unwillingness washed over him. "Auntie, is there any way to purify them?"

Eternal Purity smiled. "Of course there is. Nothing is impossible for those willing to put in the work. There are many ways to purge impurities, but only one is suitable for you: practice. As long as you continuously use an ability, your proficiency will steadily rise. Once you master it so thoroughly that it becomes second nature and falls completely under your command, the ability will naturally become pure."

Although Eternal Purity's smile appeared no different from usual, Yu Xian had spent enough time with her to detect a hint of mischief behind it. He gulped and asked, "Auntie, roughly how long would it take to master an ability?"

"That depends on your talent. Some people can master an ability after seeing it only once, while others fail to do so even after training for a thousand years."

The person who could master an ability after seeing it once was obviously Impermanence. As for the latter, Yu Xian suspected that Eternal Purity was referring to him.

"You seem rather opposed to advancing through a Star Divine Artifact," Eternal Purity said with a smile.

Yu Xian nodded as though it were only natural. "Advancing to Star rank through a Star Divine Artifact just feels like some kind of shortcut. Something about it seems strange."

"The Star Divine Artifact advancement method is indeed considerably weaker than the conventional method. In the early stages, its practitioners are no match for those who advance normally. However, there is no difference in their long-term potential, because no rule has ever stated that a person may possess only one Star Divine Artifact."

She described the characteristics of Star Divine Artifacts in detail. A Star Divine Artifact could store not only its host's energy but also one of the host's abilities. Even if that ability contained impurities, it could still unleash Star-rank power as long as the pathways through which its energy flowed were properly organized.

While each Star Divine Artifact could house a single ability, if someone created enough of them, they would be no different from a conventional Star-rank powerhouse. Moreover, if the Star Divine Artifacts were of sufficiently high quality, their wielder could even surpass someone who had advanced through the conventional method.

Yu Xian asked, "Auntie, what did Edward use to forge his Star Divine Artifact?"

Although he was somewhat unwilling to accept it and Star rank was still far beyond his reach, he knew that if he ever wanted to advance to it, he would most likely have to rely on the Star Divine Artifact Advancement Method. After all, even if he trained his abilities until he had mastered them, his body and soul could still fail to meet the requirements.

Eternal Purity explained, "Two centuries ago, Edward Vlad Stoker stumbled upon the remains of a mid-rank devil commander, Ottokoma, in the Abyss. He brought the body back and dedicated one hundred fifty years to studying it until he unlocked the Star Artifact Ascension Method. Using Ottokoma's corpse and its shattered Star Divine Artifact as raw materials, he forged the embryonic form of a Star Divine Artifact, the Devil Cross.

"Drawing upon the knowledge he gained from studying Ottokoma, he secretly accumulated power over the years. After advancing to Dragon rank, he finally saw a shortcut to Star rank.

"His True Progenitor of Blood ability allowed him to accumulate power rapidly. Marcus, Gemis, and Orlando were the three bloodkins most closely connected to him, and they could help him regulate and refine the ability. By merging both the accumulated power and those three descendants into the Devil Cross, he could transform its embryonic form into a true Star Divine Artifact in the shortest possible time. Clearly, he succeeded."

Edward had obtained a method of advancing to Star rank long ago and patiently concealed his ambitions while waiting for the right opportunity. What shocked Yu Xian even more was that Nora's father was one of the materials Edward used to create his Star Divine Artifact. That meant Nora had truly lost her father, and he could not resurrect him.

Another thing that sent a chill through him was the revelation of Edward's true nature. Edward was unquestionably a ruthless and formidable schemer. Everyone had severely underestimated him in the past. The Blood Race had not behaved themselves because they were genuinely obedient. Edward had merely needed a seemingly "well-behaved" Blood Race to conceal his ambitions.

The moment he awakened the True Progenitor of Blood ability, he had already sentenced the Blood Race to death. Even the founding of their nation had merely been intended to drive the Blood Race into complete madness.

His strategy had been extraordinarily successful. In a single day, the vampire population in Romulus Dominion skyrocketed. With no rules left to restrain them, the vampires created bloodkin without inhibition, competing to turn ordinary citizens into vampires through First Bite. They all dreamed that once their nation was founded, each of them would enjoy a bright future.

In the end, every last one of them died. They had all become sacrifices for Edward's advancement.