[ The 'Heavenly Succession', the competition to decide the second generation of Heavenly Emperor and Heavenly Empress, has officially begun!
Congratulations on qualifying for and entering the first round, Theodore Winter. ]
[ Rules:
• The first round will last for 100 years.
• After the round is over, everyone's points will be tallied any all who qualify for the second round will be allowed to ascend to the next round's venue.
• Only worlds corresponding to the current round can be accessed by the contestants. Exceptions will be made in case a participant is an indigenous inhabitant of one of the event venues.
• If a contestant gives up, they will be sent back to where they came from.
• If a contestant does not qualify for the next round, then they will be sent back to where they came from. Exceptions will be made if the participant has already become subservient to another contestant. They will lose their competitor status and be treated as a Servant instead.
• If a contestant-turned-Servant's master dies (and no Talents would interfere with this development), then the Servant will regain their contestant status for the current round.
• If a contestant-turned-Servant's master does not qualify for the next round, then the Servant will be disqualified from continuing alongside them.
• There is no restriction to the number of Servants that a contestant can bring with them to the next round. ]
[ Points and score calculation: (See More) ]
Nothing much had changed about the rules, and he had already been aware of them before the competition began. A notification regarding them popping up was a mere formality, so he waved it aside.
[ Attempt at Soul Fusion detected.
...
All traces have been erased. ]
[ The Unique-grade Talent, Grim Reaper's Levy, has been detected in both souls.
Attempting to fuse.
...
Error! No higher grade than Unique exists!
...
Error resolved. New grade created: Heavenly Dao.
...
Talent Fusion successful. ]
[ Existence's Foremost Calamity (Heavenly Dao):
• Obtain one Talent from every killed being.
• If multiple are available, then a specific one can be chosen.
• If the same Talent is already in possession, then an evolution towards a higher grade can be initiated. The upper limit is set to Unique-grade.
• If a target does not have a Talent, then a target-specific amount of Attribute Points can be chosen instead.
• Talents, Talent Energy, Attribute Points and Lifespan can be freely converted into each other at no loss.
• Talent Energy can be used to increase the grade of a Talent. ]
[ Soul Fusion successful. ]
This one notification was jam-packed with information that Theodore would have to spend a while to digest.
Firstly, as he had already anticipated, the Heavenly Dao did help him cover his tracks. Considering that the Soul Fusion had been personally initiated by the Heavenly Emperor, it did not come as much of a shock to see the Heavenly Dao sneakily help him out.
However, the fact that both John Doe and Theodore Winter carried the Unique-grade Talent 'Grim Reaper's Levy' within them... now that was something he never could have anticipated! Even the Heavenly Dao did output an error message regarding this, after all. Surely, it had been just as surprised at two of a supposedly unique Talent appearing at the same time.
Was John having this Talent too the reason as to why he had been selected by Huang Xian? Was this fusion result exactly what the Heavenly Emperor had planned, and why he had been so confident in him? Likely, this was a part of the truth, but Theodore felt certain that there was far more to it than just that.
Lastly, the exact effects of his new Heavenly Dao-grade Talent, 'Existence's Foremost Calamity', truly lived up to its name! While it didn't seem that much had changed, this couldn't be further from the truth. Unique-grade Talents had been–until now–the most outstanding ones that anyone could obtain. Now, Theodore could effectively gather an infinite amount of them if he put in enough work!
Additionally, no matter what kind of being that he killed, he would still obtain something from it. Even Talents that he had previously judged to be worthless finally found their uses. The ability to transform them all into Talent Energy to raise his Talent grades without relying on duplicates, as well as to directly gain limitless Attribute Points and Lifespan, was extremely tempting!
While his Grim Reaper's Levy had held quite a lot of potential, it couldn't hold a candle to Existence's Foremost Calamity! His only weakness had been that at any time before he had become sufficiently strong, he could easily be eliminated. Now, his growth speed could be nigh-infinitely accelerated, if only he killed enough. If he was never cut down by anyone, then he would grow immeasurably powerful and his Lifespan would be endless!
But before he could pat himself on the back to an excessive extent and lose himself in delusions of invincibility, his profoundly refined Dao Heart pulled him back to the reality of his situation. In essence, his was still a Growth-type Talent. Additionally, while no other Talent up until this point had reached the Heavenly Dao-grade, that didn't mean that none would do so in the future–or that Unique-grade Talents were suddenly not a threat any longer.
He knew of far too many Talents–even non-Unique-grade ones–that could lead to his instant demise. In a Heavenly Court full of unprecedented monsters and geniuses, while he was certainly far above average, he would have to put in unimaginably hard work to be able to triumph over the rest. And once he considered that the Heavenly Dao was merely one World Cluster amidst the infinity of existence...
'Let's not worry about that for now. I'm still eons from even approaching a level where I'll be able to meddle in those matters...'
With his state of mind entirely recovered, he moved on to the second to last notification that was begging for his attention.
[ Existence's Foremost Calamity has activated.
There are multiple Talents to choose from. They will be listed in order from the highest to the lowest grade. ]
[ Regression (Legendary):
• After death, one's mind will reawaken in one's past body, at a previously specified point in time.
• There is no limit to the number of regressions.
• The exact moment to which one will regress can only be set once. ]
[ Cultivation Prodigy (Superior):
• Cultivation difficulty: -90%
• Cultivation speed: +900%
• Daily: 1% chance to enter a state of enlightenment. ]
[ Vigorous Resilience (Outstanding):
• Wound healing speed: +50%
• Endurance +50% ]
[ (See More) ]
[ Will you choose one of these Talents or a fixed amount of Attribute Points instead? ]
The first one in the list allowed Theodore to put most of the doubts that he had still harboured about the circumstances of his murder to rest. Regression was a well-known Talent amongst the Heavenly Dao's high society, and it was regarded as far surpassing its grade if used appropriately. Of course, there were ways to disable it or account for it–it didn't make anyone invincible. Still, it was nonetheless quite good!
Now aware that he might have come to know this woman in the future and somehow turned her into his enemy, this did solve the mystery as to why she wanted to kill him to begin with. The most reasonable explanation for her knowing exactly when to strike, however, was that he had told her about his embarrassing past after allying with her sometime during this round. For her to hate him to the degree of wanting to kill him, though, he could only really think of one possibility: He was the one who had taken her life.
The sole matter that Theodore still found puzzling was the fact that if his future self had indeed done so, then why hadn't he chosen the Regression Talent? That way, the woman would have been unable to return to the past and screw him over.
There was only really one explanation for it. She had obtained an even more valuable Talent sometime in the future, which he was willing to take a risk for, betting on her not regressing to an early enough point in time that would allow her to threaten him.
A helpless smile flickered across his lips, then he shook his head. He would take this incident as a lesson to always choose the more prudent and most cautious path. His future self's bet had clearly backfired. If he hadn't undergone a Soul Fusion, then he would have been dead for good!
'Alright, no more gambling! Safe and steady wins the race. This isn't a sprint, but a marathon. The one left standing at the end will have the last laugh. Of course, there is a certain minimum requirement that I'll have to achieve to keep qualifying for the next rounds, but I shouldn't rush and end up with an imperfect foundation as a result of wanting to stick out from round one.'
Confirming his future course of action, he contemplated for a moment, then he chose the Regression Talent. 'Cultivation Prodigy', other than its lower grade, also suffered from the fact that it could easily be accumulated via collecting even lesser grade, more common Talents of the same kind. On the other hand, the lowest known grade of Regression was Legendary. This didn't even take into account that Theodore himself also had a far higher grade version of Cultivation Prodigy...
With that matter out of the way, it was time for him to focus on the last remaining notification.
[ Heaven's Chosen eliminated.
Heaven's Chosen Level +1. ]
[ Heaven's Chosen Level: 2 ]
Everyone qualified for the Heavenly Succession would obtain a Special Status called the 'Heaven's Chosen Level' upon joining the ring. It had no practical effect other than to add an additional multiplier to the point calculation of the participants. Therefore, not only did one have to perform well during the round, one would also have to eliminate other contestants or make them into one's Followers. Under such circumstances, their Heaven's Chosen Level would be added to one's own.
While it was impossible to progress to the second round without earning any points at all–as zero multiplied by any number will always be zero–one could certainly primarily focus on hunting other contestants to rack up a sufficiently high score, while almost entirely disregarding the round's scoring criteria.
For Theodore, however, this was not of too much importance. He planned to get as close to perfect points in every round via following the scoring criteria. The Heaven's Chosen Level would just be a bonus that he could pick up on the side.
If there was a real reason to hunt his peers, then that would be the Talents that they carried, not the ability to turn what was supposed to be a primarily PvE experience into a PvP one. Only those who were lacking in some qualifications related to the current round, those who had surplus time or those who were simply bloodthirsty or combat-obsessed would joyfully put varying amounts of focus on this Special Status.
With all of the notifications out of the way, Theodore fell into deep thought, weighing his options and modifying some of the plans that he had made in the years prior.
'The biggest game changer is Existence's Foremost Calamity. Even if I were to ignore everything else, the ability to obtain Attribute Points without a limit whenever I want them can allow me to break through my natural limits in every cultivation realm even further than I had anticipated. Maybe–just maybe–I can even attempt to go a little crazy. After all, don't I now have Regression on my side, too?'
While Xie Mei was happily preparing a meal, coyly sneaking a peek at him every so often, an utterly insane idea formed in Theodore's mind.