Chapter 249: Heart
And since he had no way to increase his power in the Path of Energy or the Path of the Soul at the moment, and since his true combat form "Triant" couldn’t use the Body path, all current avenues of progress had become closed off to Vaelor... but there was still one way left to reach the maximum level of power at his current level.
"System!" Vaelor called out calmly, and a purple and black screen appeared before him, but it made no sound along with it.
"I know you told me you won’t be with me for long, but don’t you think the period of your communication with me has been shorter than it should’ve been!?" Vaelor raised his eyebrow, speaking mockingly.
Whenever Vaelor summoned the System, only the information panel would appear for him. And if the System spoke, it spoke in that mechanical voice when defining data, speaking only to the extent of the information it would provide.
As for that lively, mocking tone, it no longer existed anymore. In fact, Vaelor could count the number of times it had spoken with that tone.
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Whoever wants to understand and recall the events of this Chapter should review Chapter 13.
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"System, I’ll now begin entering the sub-space designated for the lineage test" Vaelor spoke, alerting the System.
In truth, Vaelor could enter the lineage test without any help from the System or informing it of anything, but he decided to tell it, hoping he might get some additional assistance, but he didn’t get what he’d hoped for in the end...
[Good luck, host]
That was all he got, just a damned mechanical voice, an annoying stock reply.
Vaelor sighed calmly, shaking his head, then deactivated the data panel, and his body began swelling slowly, his pale white skin transforming into dark, wrinkled tree bark, and numerous branches and red leaves grew upon him, and hundreds of flexible purple branches hung down from his large boughs, and his feet transformed into dozens of thick roots, and two hollows appeared above his trunk resembling eye sockets, but instead of eyeballs appearing, a sinister purple mist appeared in their place, which Vaelor could use to perceive everything around him across enormous distances!
Vaelor’s growth stopped when he finally reached a height of ten meters, and Vaelor didn’t want to appear in his full, immense size so as not to attract attention.
After Vaelor’s transformation was complete, he sent his spiritual sense and full focus toward his heart, at the top of his trunk!
Yes, Vaelor possessed a heart, but it wasn’t a heart in the common sense like the one possessed by non-self-feeding beings "humans, animals, and insects." Rather, Vaelor’s heart was a crystallization point for his lineage, and the place where his purest cells were preserved.
Had there been humans in this world, Vaelor would have given them his lineage from this heart... but unfortunately, humans had gone extinct from this world thirty thousand years ago, with the last part of them transforming into the Centaur race!
After Vaelor placed his full focus on his lineage’s heart, he began chanting strange words, using his energy in a certain way as recorded in his lineage’s memories... and after an hour of continuing like this, Vaelor’s consciousness vanished entirely, the purple mist disappeared from his eye sockets, and his body became rigid, like any ordinary, dormant tree!
...
Elsewhere, far from the Forest of Light region, upon a green slope covered in short, dense grass, a captivating woman sat, surrounded by thousands of glowing fragments resembling stars, which orbited the woman like a cosmic center with celestial bodies circling around it, looking with unnatural eyes at the valleys and lowlands before her without showing any notable facial expression.
Unlike the eyes of ordinary human beings, composed of a white eyeball and a colored pupil, this woman’s eyes were fully luminous, showing neither an eyeball nor a pupil.
Glowing with multiple, overlapping colors, as though containing the universe within them. She looked ahead, and her gaze pierced hundreds of kilometers of distance, where there were three luminous, radiant beings, fighting three Fifth Level monsters!
These three luminous beings were in the shape of a human taller than two meters, a large four-winged bird, and a graceful four-horned deer. While their opponents were a tiger, a wolf, and a gigantic snake.
Each pair of the six opponents had their own battlefield, separate from the other battlefield, and this fight continued for another hour before finally ending.
And after the three luminous beings finished eliminating the three Fifth Level monsters, each of them carried the corpse of one of the monsters, flying back toward the woman.
And after they arrived at the plateau the woman sat upon, as though they knew exactly what they needed to do, they immediately passed by the woman and headed toward a small house in the back. But behind that small house, there was a gigantic warehouse, several hundred times larger than that house at the very least. And when they entered that warehouse, there were dozens of monster corpses like the ones the luminous beings were carrying... all of them Fifth Level!
Some of these monsters were gigantic, the size of the house or several times larger, and there were small monsters, only the size of a horse carriage. And the types of all those monsters varied between flying monsters, animal monsters, sea monsters, and even insect-type monsters!
All those monsters were hung up, each one in a space designated for it. And dissection marks were clearly visible on their bodies. Some of them even had their skin removed, and some had their bones removed. But the strange thing was, there were no traces of bleeding on the bodies of those monsters whatsoever!
And after finishing their tasks, the luminous beings left the warehouse, heading toward the woman sitting on the plateau’s cliff, and the moment they arrived, they knelt beside her at once.
The woman waved her hand in silence, and the bodies of the luminous creatures began cracking and disintegrating, their outer layer shattering and transforming into glowing fragments that began floating around the woman in specific orbits like the rest of the fragments. And what remained of the luminous creatures was nothing but three souls!
Those souls were reinforced with armor formed from the Cosmic Law of Stars, and that armor was merged with their spiritual bodies, granting them the ability to use the Cosmic Law of Stars... something no one had ever heard of before!
The woman raised her hand, and a spiritual gate appeared, and the three souls quickly entered it. After they entered, the woman deactivated the soul gate, then deactivated the power of the Law of Stars, and all those fragments orbiting around her vanished.
Then she rose from her spot and walked toward the large warehouse, with calm expressions, placing her hand on her smooth belly!