Chapter 28: Evolved Roots

[Nine Sovereign Spiritual Roots Have Evolved into Twelve Sovereign Primordial Roots!]

The moment the system window appeared, Neolan’s eyes and hands twitched before his entire body jolted awake.

"Huff... huff..." He breathed heavily as he felt the unbearable pain that had been coursing through his entire being suddenly fade away completely. He slowly turned his head and realized that time was still stopped, with everyone around him remaining completely motionless and the entire world covered in black and white. For a few moments, he simply stood there while recovering from the pain, unable to forget how violently his soul and body had reacted.

He immediately turned toward the translucent System Window as several more notifications appeared one after another.

’What’s this...’

[Host has awakened his Astrine Blade: Bifrost!]

[Host has unlocked the dormant Talent of his Astrine Blade!]

[Talent: Shadow Severance - SSS-grade]

[Aspect Ability: Shadow Render - SSS-rank]

Neolan stared at the notifications for a long moment before slowly letting out a small breath. "Everything is the same as my previous life, except for the grade of the Talent and the Aspect Ability’s rank, they have both gone from SS to SSS..."

He nodded slightly as he thought about how much stronger these two abilities must have become now that they had reached the SSS level. However, he didn’t dwell on them for long because he already knew the descriptions of both Shadow Severance and Shadow Render from his previous life.

’I guess the Talent will determine my overall growth rate and ceiling, while the Aspect Ability should depend more on how much of its strength I can actually exert. At my current Strength Rank, I probably won’t be able to use a fraction its full power.’ Neolan shook his head and dismissed those notifications for the moment.

What truly interested him was the sudden evolution of his Spiritual Roots.

’It suddenly evolved? Did it happen while I was unconscious? Hmm... Let’s see its description.’ The moment he had that thought, another System Window appeared before him, displaying the description of his newly evolved Spiritual Roots.

[Twelve Sovereign Primordial Roots: The only primordial roots ever in existence. Their origin is unprecedented, as they are the first primordial roots to ever emerge from the Host himself through unknown methods.]

[Twelve primordial roots now reside inside the Host, granting him the potential to reach beyond the Heavenly Daos. With these roots, the Host’s cultivation speed has increased by a hundredfold, and the Elements emerging from each root can now be fused to reach the origin of all Elements.]

The moment Neolan carefully read the description, his eyes twitched in pure, unfiltered shock.

’What the... hell? Is this even real?’ He couldn’t believe what he was reading, despite the fact that he could clearly feel the twelve roots residing inside him. The sheer reality of their existence made the description even more difficult to accept, because this wasn’t merely a notification telling him that he had gained some new ability.

’A hundredfold increase in cultivation speed and... the ability to fuse all the Elements?’

The absurdity of the description left Neolan completely speechless for several moments before he finally collected himself and calmed down.

’Sigh... It says the evolution happened through unknown methods, I guess it must have been caused by Bifrost, considering it has been the most unusual thing in both my previous life and this life.’ He had no way of proving that assumption, but there was no other obvious explanation for such a drastic change that had occurred immediately after Bifrost entered his soul.

For now, he decided not to waste time thinking about something he couldn’t confirm.

Neolan dismissed the description and stood up, immediately noticing the changes in his body. ’Hmm, my physique has changed as well...’ a pause before continuing in his thoughts again, ’Well, after seeing all of this, that isn’t surprising at all.’

He flexed his fingers slightly before turning his attention back toward the System Window and summoning his Status. As the information appeared before him, he immediately noticed that a new category for his Aspect Ability had been added, while the Talent section now contained both Ultimate Comprehension and Shadow Severance.

However, one detail immediately caught his attention.

’The question is, why doesn’t Ultimate Comprehension have any rank?’

[Notice: Talents gained through Sign-In will have no ranks!]

The System’s answer appeared immediately, causing Neolan to arch an eyebrow before nodding in understanding. ’So that’s how it works.’ He glanced at the frozen world around him before another thought entered his mind.

’Then when is this stopped time going to resume?’ The moment that thought crossed his mind, the world suddenly moved again as time resumed, and the black-and-white color covering everything completely faded away.

Everyone returned to motion as if nothing had happened, completely unaware that time had stopped for several moments. Neolan calmly turned toward the Director of the Awakening Association, who was staring at him with a confused expression.

"Why is nothing happening? Did you fail at your Awakening?" the Director asked, clearly wondering why there had been no visible reaction from the Monster Core.

The other participants also frowned as they looked toward Neolan, unable to understand how the heir of the Ashburn Family could have failed his Awakening. After all, the Ashburn Family was regarded as the strongest among the ten Noble Families, and Neolan was its direct heir. Seeing him standing there without an Astrine Blade appearing made the entire situation seem even more unusual.

Neolan simply shook his head and lifted his left hand. He activated the wristwatch on his wrist, and a holographic display immediately appeared above it, revealing his Talent and Aspect Ability to everyone present. The moment the information became visible, the entire hall fell into absolute shock.

"SSS-grade?! This is an unprecedented Talent! There are only a handful of individuals who have ever awakened an SSS-grade Talent in the entire world! The Ashburn Family has broken the records once again!" the Director shouted in disbelief.

At the same time, a massive screen appeared in the hall above, and Neolan’s name immediately surged upward through the Federation’s ranking system before finally stopping at the hundredth position.

"Neolan Ashburn’s Federation Rank has surged from one hundred thousandth to the hundredth position in the entire world."

The voice of an AI echoed throughout the entire hall and then spread across the Federation’s network, ensuring that people across the world became aware of Neolan’s Awakening.

For an ordinary individual, suddenly becoming the hundredth-ranked person in the world would have been overwhelming, and even the Neolan from his previous life would never have willingly revealed such an extraordinary Talent because of the countless difficult circumstances that would eventually surround him.

The current Neolan, however, had a completely different expression as he stared at the result. A grin slowly appeared on his face as he thought, ’I wanted exactly something like this...’

With that, Neolan turned around and began walking toward the exit, his grin disappearing beneath his usual calm expression. He had already achieved what he wanted from this Awakening, and there was no reason for him to remain there any longer. ’Father must also be shocked by this, but I can’t worry about that right now, I need to investigate the Church and the Empire a little.’

The Director didn’t stop Neolan to explain anything about the Federation’s ranking system, unlike what he had done with Alice earlier.

He already knew that there was no need to waste time explaining such matters to the heir of the Ashburn Family. After all, it was only a matter of time before the Federation Chief personally came to meet Neolan at the Ashburn Estate.