The four direct descendants looked at each other and followed Wuornos’ instructions. They raised their hands and released their energy to merge into his body.
The situation in the area was akin to fuel being added to the fire. The intensity of the energy storm increased, and Wuornos, who was in the center, could no longer be seen. All that was left was a blinding light.
Wuornos’ aura rose steadily, and the four of them could not help but be shaken.
“It seems to have worked!”
“As expected of the publicly acknowledged number one expert. Although Black Star beat him to it, he still managed to follow closely behind.”
The four direct descendants communicated telepathically, surprised and delighted. On the other side, the hearts of the Promotion and the other upper echelons, who were paying attention to this place, were in their throats. They felt as nervous as if their children were going to the examination venue. They stared at the scene without blinking, unwilling to miss a second.
They had all heard from Wuornos that there was a risk to this Promotion, so many of the upper echelons of the church were worried. Apart from anticipation, they were feeling anxious.
The existence of Wuornos was important for the Arcane Church to suppress the other two civilizations in terms of individual strength. If this pillar was sacrificed, it would be a heavy loss.
The radar of the fleet was buzzing nonstop, the energy detection value rapidly increasing.
This process lasted for a long time. Under everyone’s eyes, the energy storm finally began to slowly shrink and was absorbed back into his body. Wuornos’ aura rose to its peak and slowly became stable.
“Is he going to succeed?!”
Seeing this, the upper echelons of the church were overjoyed. They looked at this scene with hope.
“Looks like the first Transcendent Grade direct descendant is about to appear…”
The Pope was overjoyed, heaving a sigh of relief.
However, just as he thought that the Promotion was about to be completed, the shrinking energy storm suddenly stopped.
The next moment, with Wuornos at the center, violent energy exploded and the energy storm absorbed into his body was blown back, bursting out at an even faster speed.
The blinding light turned everyone’s vision into a vast expanse of white. The loud sound seemed to shake everyone’s hearts!
Boom!
The defense fleet around was forced to activate their shields and were filled with cracks not long after. The four Beyond Grade As closest to the center of the explosion were caught off guard and were blown away by the violent energy shockwave. They were like shrapnel shot out when a bomb explodes, tumbling far away in the universe. “What’s going on? Why did it suddenly explode?!
The Pope was present as a remote projection, so he was not affected. However, he was shocked and immediately became nervous.
Could it be that Wuornos failed his Promotion and was unfortunately sacrificed to be blown to smithereens?!
The church head immediately panicked and quickly ordered the four direct descendants and the surrounding fleets to prepare to save him.
Fortunately, the only wave of energy explosion did not cause any lasting damage to the surrounding fleets. When the energy was poured out, the bright light in the center slowly faded, and Wuornos was finally revealed.
He floated in midair, and golden blood continued to seep out from every pore of his body. When it landed in the freezing environment of the universe, it quickly solidified into golden crystals that were clear like snowflakes.
The energy reading of the radar dropped rapidly, and Wuornos’ aura turned dispirited. He looked like he was heavily injured and was on the verge of collapse.
The spaceships around quickly surrounded him to save him, but Wuornos waved his hand to indicate that there was no need. He extended his finger and tapped lightly on the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods in the distance, seizing the God Embodiment of a statue through the air. He summoned the incarnation of a god wearing a gorgeous dress and separated it from the statue.
The avatar of this deity was clearly a female, but it had his face. Although his facial features had softened, he still looked like a male dressed as a female.
As soon as the God Embodiment appeared, it poured out a light that filled the sky and fused into Wuornos’ body. Wuornos’ injuries were quickly suppressed and did not continue to worsen. Although his aura was still weak, it slowly calmed down. It was obvious that the original form of this God was one involved in healing
The Pope connected with Wuornos again and asked worriedly, “Are you alright?”
“It’s just that my life force has been greatly depleted, I won’t die.” Wuornos coughed weakly after spitting out a mouthful of golden blood.
“You… failed your Promotion?” The church leader’s tone was hesitant.
“Yes.” Wuornos nodded weakly.
“Didn’t you say there’s a 70% chance of success? Why…”
Before the Pope could finish, Wuornos interrupted him.
“I did it on purpose. I could have advanced smoothly, but I stopped it at the last minute.”
“What?!”
This answer was out of the church’s expectations.
They had thought that he had failed because of an obstacle in his advancement, but it turned out that Wuornos did it on purpose. No wonder he looked so badly injured.
Originally, his cells had all been successfully sublimated, but he had forcefully interrupted the transformation and forced his genes to return to their original state after the Promotion. It was just like undergoing a transgender surgery and asking for it to be reverted halfway. The ending would be anything but good, and in Wuornos’ case, it had greatly depleted his life force and damaged his cells.
“What do you mean?”
The Pope was extremely surprised. He knew that Wuornos would not do something like this for no reason.
“When I advanced, I realized that something was wrong. My life level did not undergo a huge transformation. It’s too different from when Black Star advanced. There must be something wrong with my method!” Wuornos said with a deep voice. “…So what you’re saying is that this method of Promotion isn’t right?” The Pope frowned.
“That’s right. It seems like the method to advance to the Transcendent Grade is not as simple as it seems. Black Star must have hidden some important conditions.”
Although Wuornos was heavily injured by the backlash, his eyes were still sharp.
In the beginning, he was very happy that his Promotion went smoothly, but the closer he got to the end, the more he felt that something was wrong.
Although he could indeed become stronger after this Promotion, the increase in his strength was far from what he had expected of a Transcendent. This made him suspicious.
He had a faint premonition that this Promotion would not allow him to step into the Transcendent Grade. If the Promotion was completed, he would have to wait until he had reached a new boundary in order to undergo the next Promotion. His potential had almost been squeezed dry, and he did not know how long it would take for him to obtain a new Promotion opportunity. He might not even have another chance.
If that was the case, his dream of reaching the Transcendent Grade would probably turn into smoke, and he would never be able to step into it.
After fighting for a while, Wuornos finally made up his mind. When he was halfway through his Promotion, he decided to cut his losses. He would rather risk his life to endure the backlash and end this Promotion.
Generally speaking, the advancement process of Supers was irreversible, but at Wuornos’ level, he could already control everything perfectly. Interrupting the advancement and reversing the transformation was possible. Of course, if a normal person did this, it might lead to the collapse of the genetic level, but the ‘stable’ property of the Void Spirit Kingdom’s weapon was one of the reasons why Wuornos dared to take the risk. Even if his cells were damaged, the risk would be greatly reduced.
This way, although he would be heavily injured, he would be able to recover after resting for a while. This precious opportunity to advance would not be wasted, since he failed to break through to a higher level. This was not the first time he had experienced this.
If Han Xiao was there, he would have immediately understood the meaning behind Wuornos’ actions. If Wuornos had succeeded in his normal Promotion, it would undoubtedly have been extremely difficult for him to reach the next Promotion at his current level.
If he took the initiative to fail the Promotion, the opportunity would not be wasted. According to the Promotion rules of this level, if he wanted to advance, he only needed to complete a new Promotion mission. However, those without the interface should not have the tough requirements of the Promotion mission. Maybe he just needed to train for some time and return to his peak state.
However, this method was very dangerous. If they were not careful and met with a malignant mutation, they would only end up harming future generations. However, just the failure of the Promotion was not fatal. The malignant mutation during the Promotion was the fatal one. The chances of the two were independent. Most Beyond Grade As were the lucky ones, and Wuornos was one of the best. With his deep accumulation and good luck, he did not encounter the malignant mutation this time and was not killed by his actions.
At this moment, another spectating upper echelon could not help but say angrily,
“Black Star knew that this was something crucial, so he deliberately hid it. He might be waiting for you to fail your Promotion and use it to trick us once again. He’s trying to indirectly kill an important member of the three Universal Civilizations so that we won’t have the strength of a Transcendent and won’t be able to threaten him!”
Wuornos shook his head. “It’s not his fault. I was too impatient.”
This was quite a close call, and he still had some lingering fear. He could not help but recall Black Star’s brief warning after his Promotion, but he did not take it to heart. He knew that he could not blame anyone. For Wuornos to be able to come this far, he had the resolution to not vent his anger on Han Xiao.
On the other side, the Pope was silent for a while before sighing.
“In that case, we still aren’t able to break through to the Transcendent Grade. In the short term, Black Star is the only one in the universe who has such power. This isn’t a good thing… Should we ask Black Star about the method to break through to the Beyond God level?”
“Forget it. Put yourself in his shoes and think about it. He either won’t say it or will lie about it. If we go over and try to get information from him, not only will he take away some benefits, but we will also be played by him again.” Wuornos waved his hand.
“You’re right… Never mind, it’s good to be alive. I’ll think about it in the future.”
The Pope had a helpless expression. He had high hopes for Wuornos, but now that his hopes had been dashed, he was naturally disappointed. However, it was not suitable for him to show it in front of Wuornos, who had escaped death.
This way, they would be on the same starting line as the other two civilizations, and their advantage of having intelligence would be gone.
“Sigh…”
The Pope of the Arcane Church sighed and did not say much. He only told Wuornos to have a good rest before deactivating the remote projection.
He had originally wanted to celebrate the birth of a Transcendent Grade direct descendant of the church. Since it was a failure, he had no interest in staying here. He still had to go back and attend to his multitude of daily matters.
The fleet of guards dispersed one after another, and the four direct descendants also took their leave. The military martial law in the area was lifted and it returned to being deserted.
Wuornos returned to the Temple of the Gods alone to lick his wounds. He recalled the process of Han Xiao’s Promotion over and over again in his mind, muttering to himself, “What am I missing…”
A few days later, in the head office of the three Universal Civilizations.
“… These are the specifics. I plan to invite the representatives of the various civilizations, including the three Universal Civilizations, as well as the various famous organizations, to hold a meeting regarding the peace in the galactic society. I want to discuss the elimination of human trade…”
In the room, Han Xiao’s remote projection spoke.
He had taken some time today to find the leaders of the three Universal Civilizations and prepare to complete his quest of [Ending of Darkness). The attitude of the three Universal Civilizations was very important.
“This is a good thing. In principle, we agree.” Louis nodded. “However, the enemy has yet to be dealt with. Is it too early to be concerned about this?”
“It will be too late by the time the war is over. There’s no harm in trying to maintain order before the war. Anyway, many troops are on standby now, so it’s good to pull them out,” Han Xiao said casually.
Louis pondered for a few seconds before turning to look at the other two. “What do you guys think?”
“I have no objections.”
“Me neither.”
Marbruce and the Pope nodded and exchanged looks.
They were rather curious as to why Black Star would do something so ‘unimportant’ at this time. After analyzing it, they all felt that this was most likely Black Star trying to gain public reputation. If this was done, his reputation would definitely increase greatly.
It was not that the three of them could not accept it. At the very least, Black Star had this requirement, which meant that he was confident in this war. Furthermore, due to many factors, they could not stop Black Star from increasing his reputation.
“Since that’s the case, I’ll send a unified invitation to the various large organizations in the name of the association and the three Universal Civilizations.”
Han Xiao nodded. This matter required many organizations to work together. He planned to hold a meeting this time and invite all the organizations in the universe to participate.
Having completed his mission, Han Xiao was in a much better mood. He turned to look at the Pope and suddenly thought of something.
“By the way, has Wuornos tried to advance?”
The corners of the Pope’s eyes twitched. “Why do you care?”
“From the looks of it, you must have tried.” Han Xiao raised his brows and said playfully, “He failed, right? Is he still there?” The Pope’s mood immediately turned sour. He only felt that this was a joke directed at him and did not want to speak.
“Well, it seems like he’s not dead. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so quiet. However, I did persuade Wuornos not to rush to advance. It’s his business if he doesn’t listen, not mine.”
Han Xiao did not mind and said with a mocking tone.
“…He’s still alive. He only stopped his Promotion and suffered some backlash. He’ll be fine after recovering for a while.” The Pope’s face darkened. This was not a secret at all. With Han Xiao’s intelligence network, it would not take long to find out about this. It might even be Wuornos who tells him the truth himself.
Seeing this, Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.
If Wuornos had gone through an ordinary Promotion, he would not have the qualifications to break through to the Transcendent Grade for a very long time. However, if he only failed the Promotion and did not die, there was still a chance. In fact, he did not care whether it was the former or the latter.
If it was the former, Wuornos would no longer be a threat to him. If it was the latter, it meant that Wuornos still had a chance to become a Transcendent. He would not lose anything anyway, since the method of advancement would still be monopolized by himself.
However, he actually took the initiative to stop his Promotion. That was quite bold… Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and nodded.
It seemed like such a small scheme would not allow Wuornos to fail so easily. After all, he was a big shot who had stood at the peak of his individual strength for so many years. He definitely had substance.
He did not have any enmity with Wuornos to begin with, and he had no intention of targeting him. However, he did not persuade Wuornos to temporarily give up his Promotion mission, so he did not care about this result.
However, seeing this guy suffer because he tried to imitate his actions left Han Xiao gloating.
Heh, trying to learn from me? You must be joking!
