Negary began his time of rare leisure in this world.
Of course, his leisure was only relative, as the majority of his time was still spent in his lab, flipping through the various science and technological records he obtained from the D.E.R division's board of directors.
Whenever he felt inspired, he would attempt an experiment.
The construction of the Path of Error was currently being managed by Noah, who had brought a large portion of Spiritual Inception practitioners who had pledged their allegiance to Negary in order to build the mechanical-biological hybrid machines all over the world.
A portion of the biological composition was derived from Negary's Dragon of Eternal Sin form, by fusing it with the mechanical portions, they essentially created power conduits.
This mechanical-biological hybrid technology came from a psychic during the second cycle. That psychic's ability was [Biological Heat], in order to make up for his shortcoming of not being able to attack from a ranged distance, he developed this technology to allow the convergence of biological tissue's power that could then be fired like bullets.
The current machines had gone through modifications to better fit Negary's needs, as well as including another device that, when activated, would also gather the power of Spiritual Inception practitioners all over the world, manifesting it as the 'flesh and blood' for the Path of Error.
As for whether or not these things could actually repel the New Deity and Progenitor Dragon, Negary didn't clearly express his opinion. After all, he had never personally experienced the strength of the New Deity and Progenitor Dragon, his only understanding of them were through records that were supplied by the D.E.R division's board of directors.
This so-called board of directors was created with An Ping at its center. Through the use of the Reflective Cast technique, they were able to retain their memories of the previous cycle, and unlike the second cycle with An Ping as the only regressor, the board of directors had been formed since the third cycle.
Of course, the Reflective Cast technique wasn't quite that simple either, the only people from the third cycle who had performed Reflective Cast to regain their memories of the third cycle only included the previous members of the board. Some of the board's crucial members like Fang Ze and Lan Shan hadn't completed the recasting of their memories either.
The essence of the Reflective Cast technique was the 'casting' of the information contained within the soul into the [Origin], which created a 'reflection' of oneself. When the [Origin] entered their mother's wombs and matured, the [Origin] would once again derive itself to form a soul, during which the 'reflection' would also be copied, thus resulting in a form of resurrection.
〖 This needs to be improved further 〗
Negary took a mental note but didn't express much interest in this technique. When he entered this world, those people had most likely read through his memories; even if they didn't read through everything, they would most likely have seen quite a bit.
Furthermore, there was also the open monitoring tool called 'Authority', once he expressed too much interest and the other party realized something, nothing good would come of it.
〖 I still need to wait for a short while, at that time I will have my opportunity 〗
Negary remained still while continuing to flip through another book. It really must be said, through four cycles of accumulation, the rich supernatural knowledge of this world was truly beneficial for Negary's path of advancement from this point on.
There were already quite a few among practitioners of Spiritual Inception who had reached the second stage of release, allowing Negary to stably reinforce his soul, improving its quality to the second stage of release as well.
Negary couldn't help but admit that when it came to sheer individual strength, he wasn't particularly powerful. The bulk of his strength was manifested more so through his way of thinking and the knowledge he possessed.
As his soul reached the second stage of release, Negary's own strength didn't actually grow much. After all, he didn't have an [Origin], the only thing that actually improved was the quality of his soul, while the [Virus Manipulation] ability he obtained from his pseudo-release wasn't strengthened much.
〖 This is because my ability did not receive information transmission from the [Origin] as it became released 〗through the various records from the psychic era, Negary noticed more of his own issues.
For a normal person, as they released their [Origin] for the very first time, a portion of soul information stored within the [Origin] would be released, which contained certain properties from it. For example, Wang Yuan's [Origin] property was 'domination', so the soul information it released was related to the concept of 'domination'.
This soul information would take the individual's bodily information like: emotions, body state, mental needs… and manifest into an ability that the individual wished for; which also happened to be the structure of their soul.
〖 I've always maintained Killer J's soul structure, which is why his ability of [Hostility Manipulation] had also been retained 〗Negary pondered: 〖 When I infected Fang Ze, as a secondary soul developed from within Fang Ze's heart, due to it having the same soul structure as Fang Ze, I was also able to utilize Fang Ze's ability 〗
〖 This means that as long as I hold the soul information of a certain soul structure, I would have access to the corresponding ability 〗Negary waved his hand, after which Lan Shan who was standing on the side came trotting.
〖 What is the progress of your [Origin] release? 〗Negary tried asking.
"It's pretty fast, after a short while, I'll be able to achieve the first stage of release" Lan Shan cleverly answered, her small head looking up at him with an earnest expression.
〖 Keep on working hard 〗Negary stroked Lan Shan's head and casually told her to continue trying harder.
According to the information from An Ping's side, Lan Shan's [Origin] was related to the plague and diseases. During the third cycle, there weren't a total of 10 Disaster Kings; among them, [Continental Sinking], [Order Collapse], and [Super Plague] had yet to evolve to become Disaster King-level Authorities.
The [Plague] Authority used to be just a grade E Authority, it was only after Lan Shan released her [Origin] for the third time and caused a plague that she successfully complemented the [Plague] Authority, evolving it to the Disaster King-level [Super Plague].
While both [Continental Sinking] and [Order Collapse] had only managed to accumulate enough power to evolve during this cycle.
Negary thought to himself:
〖 Once Lan Shan releases her [Origin], regardless of what her ability is, it would be related to the plague and germs 〗
〖 Since I had implanted Soul's Blood into her body, I would be able to copy her ability and soul structure, fusing them with my own ability and soul structure in order to truly advance 〗
If not for this, even if the quality of his soul had reached an equivalent to those at the second stage of release, his raw strength would still be weaker than a normal person of the same level; after all, his ability wasn't improved despite having achieved the second stage of release.
After confirming the progress of Lan Shan's release of her [Origin], Negary went back to his studies. The prosperous psychic civilization described through An Ping's words weren't just his one-sided boasting, they had truly gone in-depth with the research of psychic powers, or rather, supernatural powers.
How to optimally explore one's psychic powers, how to release one's [Origin], even the creation of supernatural artifacts had been researched, all for the sake of improving one's strength. Due to Negary's lack of an [Origin], every step of his advancement was a bottleneck to him, so he needed to seek out other ways of strengthening himself.
Technique, perfect control and understanding of abilities, psychology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, weapons of various kinds, all of these were crucial means of strengthening oneself.
Despite only being a remnant soul, an 'incomplete' being, Negary managed to surpass and defeat humans who were 'whole' that should have been stronger than himself due to these factors.
…
At another location, Fang Ze sat by Liu Shi's hospital bed with stubbles all over his chin, having completely lost all of his previous vigor and drive. He Qiao sat on the other side, worriedly watching over Fang Ze.
"Liu Shi will definitely be ok" He Qiao tried consoling him. For some reason, she felt like she was a lot more fidgety compared to normal, or perhaps not.
"I understand, I'll go wash my face" Fang Ze went into a nearby bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror, he sighed. Some sort of illusory sound seemed to be resounding in his ears, as he felt like he heard the sound of something shattering, but the feeling quickly faded.
At the same time, He Qiao who remained in the hospital room seemed to have noticed something as a flash appeared in her eyes before vanishing.
