Leon waited.
The system screen held still for a moment after the EX Rank rating appeared, as if the tower itself needed a breath before proceeding to the next part.
Then the messages began arriving, one after another, each appearing with a clean chime that echoed softly in the empty arena.
[Highest Grade Unique Reward Granted]
[You have obtained the Primordial Void Heart]
[You have obtained the World Fragment]
[Authority Fragment of Floor One has recognized you]
Leon read through all three lines first before going back to examine any of them individually.
His gaze settled on the first reward.
Primordial Void Heart.
His initial reaction was honest skepticism.
I already have an extraordinarily powerful heart. I have absolutely no intention of replacing it.
The source of his strongest combat capabilities ran directly through his Divinordial heart. His holy energyâaccumulated over years of subjective timeâdrew from it as its fundamental reservoir. Before becoming Divinordial, heâd barely been able to access mana properly at all, struggling in a world where mana permeated everything. That nightmare felt distant now, but the memory of it was enough to make him deeply protective of what he currently had.
And beyond the holy energyâhis Leximancy, the most powerful and mysterious trump card he possessed, stemmed from that same heart. Primordial Might, which made his base physical strength abnormally, absurdly powerful compared to any cultivator at his rank, was also tied back to it. The heart wasnât just an organ. It was the foundation of everything that made him genuinely dangerous.
No chance Iâm replacing that.
Still, he checked the description purely out of curiosity.
Then his eyes nearly fell out of his head.
The more he read, the more his carefully maintained composure started developing visible cracks.
He thought about the Orb of All Elementalâthe only legendary-rank item heâd possessed before today. That orb had genuinely changed his destiny in every measurable sense. Every other treasure heâd accumulated had been impressive, extraordinary even, heaven-defying from the perspective of anyone from Seraphineâs original worldâyet theoretically replaceable. Objects he could part with if forced.
But the orb had merged with him in a moment of desperation and revealed its true worth only afterward. A treasure that the being whoâd given it to him might have considered worthlessâwhich Leon now found deeply amusing.
If that ever discovered what it actually gave away...
He genuinely believed the being would vomit blood for at least several months. Possibly longer. He allowed himself a moment of private satisfaction at that mental image.
Actually, knowing what that orb became after mergingâknowing what it gave meâ"vomit blood for months" is probably underselling it. More like: sulk for centuries, experience daily bouts of blood-vomiting, feel a persistent existential constipation that no cultivation technique could resolve. And that wouldnât be an exaggeration.
The orb had disappeared from his abdomen entirely after his race change, absorbed so completely into his being that it no longer existed as a separate thing.
If the orb rated a ten in terms of life-changing impact at legendary rank, this heart, just from reading its description, was a rock-solid nine.
[Primordial Void Heart]
Rank: Legendary
Type: Unique Constitution
Description: A heart born from primordial void energy. A beast capable of refining and assimilating unstable energies.
Effects:
Increases mana purity and refinement
Grants resistance against pressure, corruption, and dimensional instability
Allows gradual assimilation of external energies
Enhances adaptability toward unknown powers
Growth-type constitution
Note: The heart possesses dormant potential.
The effects were already absurd enough on their own merits. Increased mana purity and refinement meant every technique he used would become more efficient and more powerful with the same energy expenditure. Resistance against corruption addressed the exact type of threat heâd just spent this entire battle fighting through. Dimensional instability resistanceâdeeply relevant given his frequent spatial techniques and the volatile environments he regularly created around himself.
But those effects were merely the starting point. The growth-type designation meant this wasnât a static itemâit would develop alongside him, potentially reaching parity with his current Divinordial heart over time. The special note about dormant potential implied that even the ceiling wasnât fixed.
And then there was the type classification: Unique Constitution.
Constitution type. Like a physique.
Leon had a very strong feeling, based on everything he understood about how heâd become Divinordial in the first placeâthe tribulation, the transformation, the heart at the center of it allâthat this was the same category of change. A constitution treasure that, when merged, didnât just add a power boost but fundamentally altered the recipient.
Which means it would change whoever receives it.
The ecstatic feeling that welled up from somewhere deep in his chest wasnât just excitement about personal gainâit was relief. A problem heâd been quietly worried about for a while now, turning over in the back of his mind without a solution, had just been answered.
He couldnât wait to leave this tower.
Next, he examined the second reward.
The World Fragmentâs system entry was sparse to the point of being almost frustrating.
[World Fragment]
Rank: ???
Type: Fragment
Description: A fragment of a dead world.
The rank field refusing to display a proper classification told Leon more than any number couldâit either exceeded whatever ceiling the systemâs ranking vocabulary could describe, or it was something so fundamentally different that conventional rank categories simply didnât apply.
Either way, not something worthless.
He had no idea how to use it or what it was actually for. The description offered nothing practical. But the rank indicator alone was enough to tell him it deserved careful preservation and future investigation rather than dismissal.
The third notificationâthe Authority Fragment recognitionâremained the most cryptic and the most outwardly disappointing of the three.
Iâve been recognized by the first floorâs authority fragment. Whatever that means.
He noted it for later consideration and moved on.
Three thick beams of pure white light descended from somewhere above the arena ceiling, dropping with a low, resonant hmmm that he felt in his sternum more than heard.
Leon instinctively tried to move aside.
He managed to avoid two of them entirely.
The third connected with him directly.