Chapter Seven: Transcendence

Lando listened silently, activating the system to extract abilities.

[Primordial Giant Ape (Blue): Primordial Tyrant Body (Blue) (5000), Primordial Beast Physique (Blue) (2000), Heaven-Shaking Roar]

A blue soul! And it's a double-talent one!

Lando focused his gaze on the two talents. This was a system ability he’d discovered, allowing him to discern their approximate effects.

Primordial Tyrant Body (Blue): The racial talent of the Primordial Giant Ape. As strength and age grow, it greatly enhances power and massively strengthens physique.

Primordial Beast Physique (Blue): Greatly strengthens physique and defense.

The Heaven-Shaking Roar that followed was an ability attached to the soul, but its effects weren’t specified. He’d have to wait until he equipped it to discover its true power.

What a brilliant start—this card would yield at least 7,000 soul essence upon decomposition, an absolute windfall.

This also roughly confirmed Lando’s hypothesis: 100-999 corresponded to green, 1,000-9,999 to blue, likely matching the color of his soul.

“I wonder what’s above blue.” In Lando’s view, blue talents were already extremely powerful; he could only imagine how much stronger those above it might be.

He eagerly tried to equip the blue card, but found he couldn’t. It seemed only when his soul’s color matched could he equip corresponding souls.

After making a quick circuit of the warehouse, Lando was in high spirits, having gained two more souls, while the inventory clerk was nearly exhausted.

[Knight (Green): Life Energy Affinity (Green) (200)]

[Apprentice Mage (Green): Perception Enhancement (Green) (500)]

Both were green souls. Compared to his [Iron-Blooded General], these souls were clearly far inferior, lacking even a single skill.

When Lando emerged outside, sword in hand, he found Leal and his companions chatting. Seeing him, Leal couldn’t help but complain, “We know it’s your first time here, but did you have to stay so long? We thought you couldn’t resist the treasures and got detained for trying to steal them.”

“There were so many treasures I got dizzy picking,” Lando replied apologetically.

“All right, you’ve finished choosing. Let’s head back and rest. Tonight we’ll go out for drinks, and I’ll introduce you to some friends,” Brad said with a smile.

“Of course, absolutely.”

……

After much thought, Lando returned to his room at the inn with a decision. He opened the system and immediately decomposed the Knight and Apprentice Mage souls. Though the perception enhancement seemed useful, he still preferred to equip blue souls.

Watching his soul essence rise to 1330, he resisted temptation and increased his soul to green (99%). With just 390 essence remaining, he ignored the sting and began to sense the changes.

“Hah—indeed… The physical transformation is very clear. As I suspected, every 1% increase in soul brings direct feedback. No, perhaps every single essence invested directly strengthens my soul!”

Having confirmed another guess, he pushed his soul forward once more without hesitation.

Soul: Green (100%) → Soul: Blue (1%)

A thunderous roar echoed through Lando’s soul. When he came back to himself, his vision was crystal clear, and he could vaguely sense a certain energy circulating endlessly in the world. His inner life energy was more vibrant than ever. Blood flowed, cells leapt, more energy was produced, more was absorbed—he was growing stronger without even training!

“So this is a blue soul? It’s outrageous!” The massive boost left Lando wondering why he had worked so hard before.

“Hiss! Whew!” He took a deep breath, banishing thoughts of self-doubt and any notion of relying solely on the system.

“My talents are so powerful now, I should work even harder to get stronger. The system is an external aid, and I don’t know its origins—can’t become too dependent. If I want to be invincible, this is just the beginning. Eternal, undefeated, conquering all realms, infinite power…” Muttering random words of encouragement, Lando finally suppressed the toxic thoughts swirling in his mind.

He began to scan the system interface. Overall, the changes matched his expectations.

[Name: Lando]

[Soul: Blue (1%)]

[Class: Knight (35%)]

[Talent: None] (Can condense: 2)

[Equipped Souls: None] (Can equip: 2)

[Held Souls: Omitted]

[Recorded Talents: Omitted]

[Soul Essence: 380]

“The number of condensible talents and equippable souls has increased. Did my equipped souls get removed during soul ascension? And that state during ascension—I’ll have to make sure I’m somewhere absolutely safe next time I do this.”

Without hesitation, he equipped [Primordial Giant Ape (Blue)] and [Iron-Blooded General (Green)].

This time, equipping was markedly different from before with green souls. He felt an immense primordial giant ape enveloping his soul. Compared to it, the Iron-Blooded General was like a child—both in quality and quantity, the difference was more than tenfold.

“So this is the gap between levels? It’s almost unbelievable!” Seeing the difference firsthand, Lando was utterly shocked.

……

In the depths of the Northern Territory, since the expansion of humanity and the defeat of the barbarians, they had survived here for centuries. The harsh environment had fostered a unique tribal civilization.

Today, the three largest barbarian tribes are the Snow Tiger Tribe, the Snow Leopard Tribe, and the Snow Wolf Tribe.

Each great tribe is ruled by two leaders: the chieftain and the head shaman. The chieftain is inherited by the strongest warrior of each generation, while the shaman is appointed by the previous head and inherits the name of the totem.

At this moment, in the grand tent of the Snow Tiger Tribe’s shaman, the shamans of the three strongest barbarian tribes had gathered.

“Snow Tiger, are we really going to trust those outsiders?” Snow Wolf asked in a deep voice.

“What are you implying? Are you going to back down again, like before?” Snow Leopard retorted angrily.

“You…!” Snow Wolf was furious at Snow Leopard’s taunt.

“Enough, what happened in the past is over. Now we need to discuss those outsiders.” Snow Tiger cut off the impending quarrel. “The Snow Lion Tribe was once the strongest among us, but we never had any intention of betraying them.”

“Heh, strongest tribe? The Snow Lion Tribe was wiped out by humans, their secret inheritance stolen and turned into that so-called White Lion Battle Technique. I only regret that I was too insignificant in the tribe at the time—otherwise, I would have helped with all my strength, not just watched our kin be exterminated,” said Snow Leopard bitterly.

“……”

“The events of those days were complicated. There’s no point in discussing them now. We… can’t afford to make another mistake,” Snow Tiger sighed.