Chapter 394: Refining, Special-Grade Directional Talent

Qi Suian slowly returned to his human form. His body was bloated from the vast number of undigested Green Tide Lords inside him.

His skin would also writhe, bulge, and sink from time to time as the residual life force instinctively tried to break free from his body.

The Green Tide Lord's origins were truly extraordinary. As long as a single alien Cyanobacterium survived, it could revive itself.

It was an ability akin to being reborn from a single drop of blood.

But once inside Qi Suian's body, it was nothing more than nourishment—just a little tough to chew.

"The remaining third escaped. It's incredibly fast." Qi Suian tried to track it using satellites and reconnaissance networks, but he couldn't find any trace of it.

It would take some time to find it again.

'I've achieved half my goal.' Qi Suian could feel the Ghost Monster Soul Seed climbing steadily as it was constantly irrigated by the Profound Yang Qi.

Soon, it had already taken the rudimentary shape of a ghost.

Once he completely digested all the Green Tide Lord remnants in his body, the ghost would be able to fully form.

As for the other half of his goal, that was to kill the Green Tide Lord, acquire its protagonist's halo, and use it as fuel.

Too bad it got away.

But no matter. Unless it decided to lay low, the moment it dared to show its face, it would leave a trail. It wouldn't be too late for Qi Suian to hunt it down then.

'I should be able to finish digesting it today.'

'Another ten minutes or so after that, and I can refine this ghost to bring the Twin Ghost Refining Technique to completion.'

'Once my strength has increased, I'll install the ghost into the 'Controllable Rule Containment Structure' module.'

'Even a complete Green Tide Lord would have to obediently enter my Melting Furnace and become fuel.'

Qi Suian had at least that much confidence.

He couldn't do anything about the Apocalypse Game and couldn't defeat the World Will, but a premature alien creature? That he could handle.

"Let's head back first. Increase the surveillance," Qi Suian delegated the follow-up tasks to his AI Brain. He, of course, was going to find a safe place to digest in peace.

Back in the safe house, Qi Suian began manually controlling his digestive system while also starting to read the detailed description of the skill, Envenom.

'Envenom isn't difficult. In essence, it's about releasing and attaching toxins externally.'

Qi Suian muttered to himself. After all, it was just basic knowledge. Combined with his complete knowledge base and his own energy technology, the Profound Elemental Attachment Technique, he estimated he could finish translating it in about three days at most, even without any prior exposure to its corresponding system.

'It's a bit superfluous, though. My Profound Elemental Attachment Technique is better.'

Doesn't Envenom just add extra poison damage to attacks? For him, his polymorphic energy could be converted into the poison element through an Enchantment Array.

Not only could he achieve the same effect, but the damage would also be higher.

What Qi Suian valued were the principles and effects of its energy manipulation. Although both abilities were somewhat equivalent to something from Western fantasy, they were ultimately products of different worlds and thus had different underlying principles.

'Fortunately, it's not entirely without its advantages. Envenom leans more towards the application and control of energy. They aren't fundamentally the same type of ability.'

'This means they can be stacked.'

'My Profound Elemental Attachment Technique provides continuous output, while Envenom is about energy sustainability.'

'The former stops when the supply is cut, but the latter can persist as long as the stored energy isn't depleted, even without a continuous energy source.'

'So, if I analyze it deeply, it can be used as an energy storage technology.'

His original Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic had a similar technique, but Qi Suian had discarded it.

The cost was too high; it was far less efficient than being powered directly by the Tai Sui God.

In contrast, the energy storage technology within Envenom was technically far superior to that of the Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic.

'With some optimization, I can even perfect the Profound Virus Attachment Technique.' Qi Suian was always taking the strengths of various Extraordinary systems as nourishment, stitching them into his own power to form a completely unique Extraordinary system, and this time was no exception.

'Small things can hold great wisdom.'

'The fundamentals are truly the most important thing.'

Qi Suian understood that although Envenom was only classified as a common-quality skill on the Apocalypse Game panel and seemed useless at first glance, even a skill like Poison Nova required the principles of Envenom as a foundation.

Otherwise, why would Envenom be a prerequisite skill?

'It seems that in the Ghost World's pre-game era, their so-called datafication also needed an underlying operational logic to support it.'

'If not, you should be able to learn Poison Nova directly without any prerequisites.'

'This must be 'order,' something like progressing step-by-step,' Qi Suian guessed.

His understanding of the "order" mentioned by the Ghost World's World Will wasn't very clear.

But Qi Suian was certain that the "order" it spoke of wasn't something like laws or regulations, but rather an existence on the level of fundamental rules and concepts.

He had actually asked the Ghost World's World Will about it, but it hadn't answered, so Qi Suian had moved on from the question.

Something willing to speak wouldn't have that attitude; only something that *couldn't* speak would fail to answer.

'This translation process is certainly demanding...' Qi Suian estimated the work needed to translate Envenom. It wasn't a huge amount, but it would genuinely take time.

He had to thank the Tai Sui God's language and communication modules, which provided him with significant assistance in this area.

He didn't let the AI Brain do the work for him, but that didn't mean he wouldn't use the Tai Sui God's various modules as research aids.

If you have tools, use them. There was no need to be pretentious about it.

As for the argument that using tools is relying on external objects? That's just bullshit. Humanity's advantage lies in its intelligence and its tools.

How else could humans have reached the top of the food chain? If you really followed that logic, why wear clothes or live in houses? Those are external objects too.

Not only did Qi Suian not reject the use of various tools and external objects, he was actually very fond of them.

He had always believed that marksmanship was a form of magic, and ballistics was its own Dao.

If the protagonist's halo didn't render the Tai Sui God ineffective against them, he would have let the Tai Sui God handle fighting protagonists for him.

He wasn't a conventional protagonist who grew stronger through battle, achieved breakthroughs amid the terror of life-and-death situations, or needed to temper his heart in the mortal world and undergo various trials to break through bottlenecks.

Compared to that bunch who relied on evolution and mutation, Qi Suian relied entirely on self-modification.

In his view, so-called cultivation was just a process of evolution, and gaining special abilities was a form of directed mutation.

He skipped the process, getting it all done in one go.

As for getting stronger, all roads led to the same destination anyway.

Qi Suian wasn't one of those protagonists with lofty ideals or stubborn convictions; he simply wanted to survive.

Time trickled by. Qi Suian had devoured every last bit of the Green Tide Lord within him, converting it all into Profound Yang Qi and feeding it to the Ghost Monster Soul Seed, allowing it to complete its growth.

Normally, ghosts were definitely humanoid, or at the very least based on a human form.

After all, ghosts and humans have a symbiotic origin.

The ghost in Qi Suian's hands, however, was different. It had developed from a soul seed, had never experienced the process of symbiotic life with a human, and had furthermore been eroded, assimilated, and guided by Qi Suian.

As a result, it more closely resembled a lotus flower constructed from Profound Yang Qi.

A single stalk with two blossoms—a symbol of one heart, one root, shared fortune, and shared life.

Qi Suian didn't even bother to look at the Twin Ghosts' stat panel. He immediately began circulating the Twin Ghost Refining Technique to refine them.

With his S-rank talent, the Devourer's Core, at its center, he continuously devoured the Profound Yang Qi lotus. The Twin Ghosts naturally began to resist instinctively.

However, two modules on the Tai Sui God—Barbaric Celestial Calamity Fierce Beast and Racial Gestalt Thought—began to exert their power.

After all, the materials for the Twin Ghosts' lotus form included Fei and the Fiber Worms.

Their resistance was quickly shattered. Subsequently, more modules joined in, such as the Dragon and Tiger Primordial Divine Force, the True Martial Jade Vein Lotus, and a whole series of others.

The reason was simple. The predecessor of Fei was not just divine will, but also martial wills such as the Evil Dragon and Evil Tiger.

Qi Suian had integrated all his Extraordinary powers into a single whole; thus, to touch one part was to move the entire system.

All the modules on the Tai Sui God would be stirred, though they wouldn't all trigger simultaneously due to the varying degrees of separation in their connections.

At the end of the chain reaction, the Controllable Rule Containment Structure also activated, as the module detected a rule that could be contained.

However, because of Qi Suian's refining process, the AI Brain forcibly shut down the containment procedure.

The module was attempting to contain the Twin Ghosts *after* they were refined by Qi Suian. This could not be allowed, as it was a matter of sovereignty.

If they were contained after he refined them, Qi Suian activating the ability would mean he was merging with the Tai Sui God.

The reverse, however, would be different—that would be the Tai Sui God merging with him.

If it came to that, Qi Suian could have just used his Virus Bloodline Bio-Armor. Why go through all this trouble?

"Ultimate Will, High-Speed Growth, Unyielding, Resistance..."

"Hold on!!!" Qi Suian roared in a low voice. The effects he listed were all related to willpower and pushing limits, enhanced by the protagonist's halo.

Refining a ghost was incomparably more difficult than simply controlling one.

Luckily, Qi Suian had plenty of hacks up his sleeve; otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have been able to withstand it.

Once the entire lotus had been completely devoured by the Devourer's Core, Qi Suian unhesitatingly initiated the next step.

He began fusing his special ability, Profound Feast, with the Devourer's Core.

Both of these talents originated from the Profound Virus, so it was only natural to integrate them.

He took this action because he had calculated beforehand that the Devourer's Core, Fei, and the Fiber Worms he had invested were only sufficient to bear the refining process itself.

After the refinement was complete, they would be unable to bear the strain.

Therefore, he needed another failsafe.

His SS-rank talent, the Talent Divine Ladder, was out of the question, so he could only choose his special ability.

Fortunately, nothing was lost; instead, they merged into one.

As the refinement and talent fusion completed, a brand-new talent appeared on Qi Suian's panel.

[Special-Grade Directional Talent: On-Duty Tai Sui]

[Tip: The target of this talent is locked to the SSS-rank armor, Tai Sui God.]

[Warning: Activating this talent will result in a permanent upgrade to SSS-rank. The talent's active state cannot be deactivated.]