Damon's Ascension-Chapter 122: Aftermath

[Essence Augmented Reality (Earth) - Hubei Instance 2 (Clear!)]

[Objective(s):

1. Survive and win three public duels hosted in Jiangxia’s annual Spring Challenge Festival. Failure to participate results in being branded a coward and thrown out of town. - Completion Grade: EX

2. Uncover the fate of Qian Weimin, the county’s missing martial judge whose sudden disappearance threatens to plunge the local power balance into chaos. - Completion Grade: EX

3. Navigate the growing tension between the Heaven’s Dew Sect and the Iron Banner Hall. Aligning with one may turn the other against you. Staying neutral will cost you trust from both. - Completion Grade: A

4. Expose or eliminate the unknown third-party agitator sowing conflict between civilian militia groups under the guise of ’protection efforts’ before open rebellion ignites. - Completion Grade: EX]

[Remarks: Not a bad performance, but it is advised to never resort to resolving issues using force in such an impetuous manner. It will come with severe consequences in the Chaos Realm.]

[Rewards: 360 units of Worldly Essence, A-Grade Skill: Empty Soul Palm, D-Grade Skill: Silent Wheel Palm, D-Grade Skill: Shadow Tide Step, D-Grade Skill: Withering Thread Style, D-Grade Skill: Flowing Iron Curtain.]

Damon reappeared in the valley of Hubei, where countless Chinese people were queued up in an orderly manner to enter the instance after their papers were checked. When they saw Damon come out, they were startled, and their faces showed a hint of xenophobia and unwelcoming.

Damon had already dealt with this when coming in, so he simply looked left and right, seeing a group of soldiers walking over with a brisk pace toward him. In the lead was the familiar Ji Sheng, who wore a placid yet cold expression, sent to be his local liaison for his duration here.

Ji Sheng imperceptibly scanned Damon and felt that the man was vastly different from before when he entered, in that his presence was extremely hard to pin down. His danger assessment told him that if Damon before entering this instance could take a few moves to kill him, then the current Damon could end him before he knew it.

This realization made Ji Sheng frown deeply and feel extremely uncomfortable because, like most humans, he felt that the instances within their region were private property of the country as it concerned their history.

The colonel took a deep breath and spoke firmly. "Prime Representative Damon Arnan, please follow us for a debrief on the instance details."

Damon stood there and thought about it, ignoring Ji Sheng and company, who became slightly irritated by the disregard.

In the end, Damon waved his hand. "No. Reach level 10 and above yourself before heading in to find out the details about the instance. Anyway, it’s not like you can truly die within, so just tough it out."

Damon said this and began walking away, aiming to return to his trek towards the Bermuda Triangle to watch over the construction of the planetary embassy.

Ji Sheng’s eyes narrowed as he took a step forward, boots crunching lightly on the gravel as several soldiers stiffened behind him.

"You’re disregarding a formal request from the local military command, not very wise," Ji Sheng said flatly.

Ji Sheng then folded his arms behind his back as his eyes became half-lidded. "You entered a cultural preservation zone under Prime Representative privilege, harvested precious martial heritage from our region, and now refuse accountability? That’s not how this works."

Damon didn’t stop walking. His expression remained unreadable, yet something in the air twisted around him, a sort of intangible weight that made the soldiers’ hands tighten unconsciously around their rifles.

"You’re wrong, Colonel Ji," Damon said without turning around.

"That’s exactly how it works. I followed the rules of access, cleared the objectives, and received my rewards. That’s how the Prime Representative privilege functions. Don’t mistake the courtesy of cooperation for obligation," Damon added casually.

"You used our blood, our legacy—our people—as a stepping stone. When your people were treated the same by the west, did you enjoy it?" Ji Sheng’s voice rose, brittle with offense.

Damon stopped then as the air became still.

He turned his head slightly, enough for Ji Sheng to see the flicker of silver light beneath his calm eyes.

"If you think I owe you something, then you’re delusional. That instance didn’t belong to you, it belonged to the Universe Will. You don’t own your history, you were merely born from it," Damon said softly and slowly.

The soldiers bristled while Ji Sheng clenched his fists, wanting to say more.

"And if you want recompense, then go into your own history and earn it the same way I did. Risk demise, suffer trauma, fight monsters, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll walk out with more than pride," Damon continued with a smile.

Ji Sheng’s composure cracked for the first time, but Damon had already turned away again, walking with brisk strides down the mountain path.

He spoke one last time, his voice drifting behind him like falling snow.

"Push this further, and the only thing I’ll leave behind in your country... will be your corpses."

None followed him.

...............

When he was back on his shuttle, heading towards the Bermuda Triangle, Damon finally had time to check his rewards.

[Empty Soul Palm - Physical-Based Skill]

[Rank: A || Stage: A]

[Effect: The user gains the ability to convert their physical stats into Qi essence, which is then refined into an esoteric energy called Internal Force that is based on the vital essence of all living things. This esoteric energy possesses the following characteristics and powers:

1. Presence masking: Within a range of 100 meters around the user, all sentient beings and methods of detection will be suppressed by a ratio dependent on Mentality.

2. Energy Infusion: The user can infuse this energy into other entities at a variable rate to achieve any of the effects listed by this ability. The strength of the abilities the secondary entity gains is dependent on how Internal Force is imbued in them.

3. Regeneration: The user can consume Internal Force to regenerate rapidly from injuries, at a rate dependent on Fortitude.

4. Enhancement: The user can utilize Internal Force in any means, whether it be by imbuing into items, weapons, or other skills and martial attacks, to attach the power of Internal Force to it, along with its element. At the current stage, it enhances the power of any attack by 1.6x its base power, and this modifier grows with the Power stat.

5. Unknown: Reach 10 points in Power to unlock this ability.

6. Unknown: Reach 10 points in Mobility to unlock this ability.

7. Unknown: Reach 10 points in Fortitude to unlock this ability.

8. Unknown: Reach 10 points in Power to unlock this ability.

Current units of Internal Force: 180.]

An A Rank skill? It seems that this Empty Soul Palm was far more precious than he gave it credit for because even the Universe Will rated it above the Divine Stool, and that item was Divine!

At Damon had once researched, any item or skill above the B rank was reaching into the territory of conventional deification. This did not mean you would have the power of a deity right away, but rather when you reached the grade equivalent to its rank, you would have such power.

For example, level 1-10 was equivalent to the F rank, 11-20 to the E rank, and so on. So when Damon reached level 61-70, he would reach the peak ideal of the Empty Soul Palm and have the real power of a Martial God who had reached the limit as theorized by the world of the instance he came from.

And to think, this was a skill that came from a level 2 instance with a maximum upper limit of wuxia, which even had its main feature of growing the body’s power stripped away to conform to universe rules.

If even a martial arts manual for Internal Force can be like this, then what about those cultivation instances with allowed one to absorb spiritual energy between heaven and earth? Would they directly be S class and above?

Damon couldn’t help but shake his head. Well, forget his conflict with the soldiers, the world—and probably the universe—owed China a big thank you for their great imaginative minds and exaggerative abilities, because they had created a very powerful and useful power system.

He checked his power slowly and found that each of his avatars had a full tank of 180 units, the same as within the instance, and the abilities and usages were the exact same. Nothing had been added, nor had anything been stripped away, and it showed that his idea to learn the technique to its limit before coming out was the right one.

If all his avatars were concentrated in one fight, his foe would have a hell of a time. That time was also coming soon since he had fulfilled his objective within the oriental instances, so he could continue to upgrade if he wanted, taking him to level 20 and granting a new avatar.