Chapter 380: Chapter 352 A Disaster and Also a Hope (3/3)
Gazing into the eyes of the confused youth, the elder with white fluorescent glow in his eyes slowly said, "The First and Second Energy Levels often appear in the human world. The Third and Fourth Energy Levels belong to the heroes and leaders among those who transcend the ordinary."
"They frequently battle, often appearing before the eyes of the public; even the mighty of the Fourth Energy Level will appear on the battlefield, commanding their own troops or lairs, ruling over their own lands and forces."
"But have you ever seen a Fifth Energy Level powerful being in battle?"
"...No," Ian slowly shook his head, recalling carefully, he realized that aside from Hiliad and Inega II, there was no one remotely familiar at the âFifth Energy Levelâ.
Even the number of those whose names he knew was few.
Even Hiliad rarely mentioned such information to Ian, apart from a few enemies he had faced in combat, the teacher mainly just informed Ian of the names of those powerful beings he knew, without going into much detail.
"Thatâs natural."
The White Mist Bishop, with his eyes glowing with white Spirit Energy Halo, said indifferently, "Because, starting from five hundred years ago, there will no longer be Fifth Energy Level strong beings engaging in all-out death battles against each other â at most, they spar with each other, stand off against each other, or use intrigue and schemes to plot against one another."
"If there is truly a battle, it is off to the empty space beyond the firmament."
"They will never appear on the surface of the earth to fight, because whatâs destroyed is not just themselves and the opponent, but also the world itself."
The elder paused, then continued, "Ian, do you think the unnaturally vast, mountainless plains of the Central Empire were naturally formed?"
The youth narrowed his eyes.
"Ian, do you believe the Huai Guang Holy Mountain truly existed before?"
The youth shook his head slightly.
"Ian, you donât think the weird semicircular coastline of the Yongji Ocean in the south of Canaan Moore Federation was formed by a meteor strike, do you?"
Ian remained silent.
He somewhat understood the meaning of the White Mist Bishop.
These seemingly strange terrestrial environments, these odd and unnaturally occurring landscapes... were they all âpowerful being landscapesâ created by battles of Fifth Energy Level Sublimators in the distant past?!
But... how could the Fifth Energy Level be so powerful?
"Indeed." Ian suddenly understood, "Indeed, what the White Mist Bishop said is correct."
"Indeed, I do not understand."
Teacher Hiliad had once discussed similar topics with him.
Mainly when Ian joked that the Unyielding Fortress was essentially just a hard enough big rock, the elder would chuckle and say.
â Then, what do you think, why are the main terms describing our inheritance âCityâ, and not âMountainâ, âRockâ, or âEarthâ among other words?
â My apprentice, why do you think âUnyieldingâ is the word used to âdepictâ our inheritance?
Ian still did not quite understand why it was âCityâ. To be honest, the title âMountain Apostleâ of the Fourth Level sounded more powerful because, after all, a city is nothing more than a thin layer of human habitation on the surface of the earth, whereas a mountain is truly a huge object rooted deep in the earth.
Thatâs what he said at the time, and the elder would always tell him mysteriously.
â Because you havenât seen it, child.
â You havenât seen the towering Skyseeker Sanctuary of the Gantreignum Republic, nor the World Tree of the Canaan Moore Federation. You havenât heard the Azure Khanâs Moving Royal Court thundering across the Zhuxing Plains, nor have you seen the Heavenly Metropolis standing atop the Cloudscape Marvel in the City of Knowledge.
â You havenât seen any of them. Child, you havenât even seen the Imperial Capital... but as soon as you have, you will understand, you will know.
â Understand what it means to be the unmovable âSolid Cityâ that is eternal.
"The Unyielding Fortress... unwavering perseverance is eternity."
As if knowing what Ian was pondering, the White Mist Bishop spoke calmly, "And you hold the key to this inheritance, with the potential to fulfill it â itâs not that we pay special attention to you, but we focus on all beings that may reach the Fifth Energy Level."
"Your very existence is the beginning of turmoil, the origin of calamity, each Fifth Energy Level represents a kind of doomsday, a disaster, and the potential to destroy everything."
"Provided a Fifth Energy Level wishes to and no other Fifth Energy Level intervenes, they can destroy the entire world... just like any Catastrophes of the Apocalyptic Order."
"Similarly, the Fifth Energy Level is also one of the few remnants in the world that represents the potential for hope."
Speaking so, the elder lowered his gaze, the white light in his eyes dissipated.
The White Mist Bishop said softly, "The Light of Huai Guang will be watching over you. Until the catastrophe unfolds. Until hope arrives."
"Please continue on your journey, we will witness your choices, as well as the future of humanity."
Under the watchful gaze of the White Mist Bishop, Ian left the Huai Guang Church with puzzlement in his heart.
Even after he reached the Crystal Cave deep in the Southern Sea and saw Shasha excitedly swimming toward him carrying a jellyfish that was half-dead and struggling to flicker its luminescence, he remained confused.
It wasnât just that the young man realized something was off about his understanding of the Fifth Energy Level.
He also discovered that his understanding of the Terra Continent was rather superficial.
Indeedâsince he did not even know what the Imperial Capital looked like, how could he arrogantly assume that his teacherâs description of âdemolishing half the Imperial Capitalâ meant literally tearing down half of a human metropolis?
When Hiliad said those words, was it a boastful showoff, or just a plain description?
Ian truly didnât know.
"At the end of the day, the Huai Guang Church is just too strange."
Ignoring the toxic corrosive fluids from magical beasts due to the high resistance of his Sand Armor Apprenticeship, Ian complained to the nodding and glittering Shasha while using a silver knife to extract the âRegeneration Coreâ from within the Dismal Nether Jellyfish: "They indeed always speak the truth, which makes them all the more incomprehensible."
âFight against disasters, wait for hope, the eternal and unchanging Light of Huai Guang, bearing witness to the choices and future of humans.
Unlike the Spiritual Tool Church that pursued a more comprehensible Ascension, the secrets within the Huai Guang Church were too numerous. Even as a Prophet, he couldnât rely on precognition to uncover the secrets behind it.
Upon mixing the âactive biological solutionâ from the Demi-Magic Potion substrate with the âGhostly Regeneration Core,â Ian soon had another bottle of Demi-Magic Potion.
A bottle of light blue gel that seemed alive, constantly moving, expanding, and contracting.
It looked just like blueberry-flavored jelly or a blob of slime.
And in the center of this mass of gel, a milky-white core pulsed like a heart.
The Regeneration Core of the Dismal Nether Jellyfish could stimulate the gland in the brain to continuously secrete âHealing Gelâ in the flesh and blood, which could heal wounds and speed up the regeneration rate of flesh and blood.
Even if the body was torn apart, the Healing Gel could temporarily hold the messy flesh and bones together, maintaining the vitality of the flesh while preventing bleeding and infection, and even enhancing immunity and poison resistance.
But that was not the end.
Ian threw âFairyâs Streaming Light,â a Second-Level Fairy material, into the bottle of magic potion to soak for a while. After the Demi-Magic Potion was infused with the fairyâs essence, he retrieved the âStreaming Lightâ from within and preserved it again.
Then, he drank the bottle of still squirming Demi-Magic Potion and circulated his Origin Quality to condense it at the junction of his occiput and cervical spine.
The patterns of the Silver Chip began to converge.
The structure of the âGhostly Regeneration Coreâ was imprinted behind his neck, and the sensation of clear veins began to spread.
The seventh Sublimation Organ of Ianâs dual inheritance was finally complete.
But even after drinking the potion and achieving his plan, it did nothing to alleviate Ianâs confusion... and his burning curiosity.
"Indeed, Shasha."
On Crystal Island, the young man rose to his feet.
Ian closed his eyes and said to Shasha, who was swimming around him, "Although I have suppressed myself for six years, I can no longer endure."
Opening his eyes, his gaze swirled with clear aqua halos.
The young manâs eyes were filled with pure curiosity and desire: "The Imperial Capital, the World Tree, Skyseeker Sanctuary... the Terra Continent, and all the wonders of this world I have never seenâI want to see them all."
Turning his head, he looked at the seemingly stunned Shasha and encouraged: "You need to make quick progress, too; otherwise, youâll never be able to keep up with me in the future, and you wonât be able to continue bumping into others with me!"
"Wow? Wow wow!" ("What? Alright!")
Shasha, too, made sounds of astonishment and resolve as if promising to make a great effort to eat and hunt, to ensure it could keep up with its leader and continue to bump into ships in the future!
And Ian laughed.
He laughed wholeheartedly, filled with anticipation.
Time passed in this way.
Before long, the 20th of May in the year of 773 in the Era of Tara arrived.
Ianâs Knightâs Medal along with his âArmored Clothingâ and âSide Swordâ were delivered to Harrison Port.
The long-awaited day had finally come.