Chapter 474: Forging a New Profession |
In front of the Rift, several bored individuals were standing guard. Seeing someone approach, they merely raised their eyelids and signaled for him to pay at the Payment Terminal nearby.
This was an Exploration Node newly opened by the Five Pillar City Authorities; it served as a passageway.
However, not many people used it.
Su Chen used his newly acquired Identity Terminal to pay the fee and passed through.
The Temporary Outpost here was even smaller than the Falcon Group's, with only about a dozen people. However, there was no lack of vigilance in their expressions. Several Metallic Fortresses were scattered about, intertwined with each other to project an Energy Barrier.
Small outposts like this were more likely to attract attacks from Nether Realm Creatures.
Su Chen glanced around, looked down at his Comms Link, used its simple positioning feature to determine the general direction, and then vanished into the Nether Mist.
"Hmm... calculating the time, with my speed, rushing over there will take at least three months of continuous flying..." With the Nether Mist brushing past his ears, Su Chen looked at the Comms Link in his hand. Naturally, there was no network connection here, and due to the Nether Mist, precise positioning was impossible. He only had a general direction and an estimated arrival time.
Flying alone made it easy to drift off course bit by bit, but the Leimo Avatar was a native after all, so it wouldn't get lost.
Su Chen pondered for a moment and decided to temporarily set it to auto-pilot. With Leimo's somewhat limited intelligence, it could head towards the target location on its own.
There were quite a few benefits to this Nether Avatar, including the ability to directly extract Nether Mist as an energy source.
Living entities from the reality world did not possess this advantage here; they had to rely on Potions to restore their bodies.
With a slight stir of his heart, his consciousness detached.
In High Firmament, within his newly purchased Nether Realm Villa, Su Chen slowly opened his eyes and looked down at his surroundings. There was no surging of Elemental Particles.
"Still can't do it, huh..." Su Chen frowned. Before his consciousness detached, he had made his body run its Body Tempering and Meditation Methods.
Yet now, there wasn't even a trace left behind. Clearly, after his consciousness detached, the Body Tempering and Meditation Methods stopped running.
"This place is well-prepared, but the body can't operate autonomously," Su Chen said helplessly.
Right now it was just a boring travel period, so he could temporarily put the avatar on auto-pilot. But once it arrived, he would definitely have to control it personally, and who knew how long that would take.
"Let's search and see if there are any professions that can solve this issue." Su Chen opened the Hall of Professional Law and entered his requirements—"Body autonomously runs Body Tempering and Meditation Methods".
Immediately, quite a few professions popped up.
[Split-Mind. General Ability: Can divide attention to perform multiple different operations.]
"This one..."
The very first profession that caught his eye seemed to meet his requirements.
However, after Su Chen pondered it carefully, he noticed a flaw.
"The essence of this thing is Multitasking. But my consciousness has detached from my main body entirely; what use is Multitasking?" Su Chen shook his head. His main body would merely be an empty shell at that time.
[Thousand-Thought Master. General Ability: Can divide a portion of Psionic Power to attach to external objects.]
Su Chen frowned. "No good. Psionic Power is the carrier of consciousness, but they aren't completely equivalent. My consciousness is entirely with the avatar."
[Soul-Splitter. General Ability: Fabricates a mental duplicate possessing partial consciousness.]
"This..." Su Chen's brow twitched, and he skipped it directly. Fabricate a secondary consciousness to control the body?
He preferred to keep such abilities, which easily bred hidden dangers, at arm's length. He scanned a few more professions below, but didn't find any that met his requirements.
What he wanted was for his body to run the Body Tempering and Meditation Methods without conscious control, but also without relying on something like a "secondary consciousness" to take charge.
He adjusted his search keywords, but this time, no professions popped up at all.
"Nothing meets my requirements..." Su Chen was surprised. "Are the conditions that stringent?" Actually, the "Soul-Splitter" from before could have satisfied his needs.
"Hmm..." Su Chen thought for a moment. "Since there isn't one, then let's see if I can forge a new profession."
The Status Panel's Class Forging ability could not only strengthen professions but also forge entirely new ones.
It was just that ever since he acquired this ability, he hadn't had a strong demand for any specific profession, and the ones he did want could generally be found.
"I can take this chance to see what the process is like..." Su Chen returned to the previous selection criteria and randomly picked a profession—[Split-Mind].
After paying one Faith Essence to retrieve it, it was recorded in the panel.
The intensity of this profession was slightly stronger than the Black Market Seer. Although it was shivering in fear, it at least didn't faint, and its Job Entry requirements were reduced to just one.
To forge a profession, one didn't necessarily have to Job Entry it first. The Heavenly Venerable ignited the fire, and Su Chen tossed this guy straight into the furnace.
[The Split-Mind is thrown into the Profession Forge and refined instantly. Please provide two more professions with similar compatibility.]
"So it requires three to start forging..."
Su Chen was thoughtful. He then retrieved two similar professions and tossed them in.
[Do you wish to consume one portion of Faith Essence to forge this profession?]
"So it actually consumes Faith Essence..." Su Chen muttered. Strengthening consumed Evil God Power, while forging required Faith Essence.
The piece of Faith Essence clutched in his hand gradually disappeared, and he could faintly hear the clashing of a hammer and Anvil by his ears.
Ding!
[Class Forging successful. General Ability: Fabricates a mental duplicate possessing independent consciousness.]
[Do you wish to confirm?]
"Wait, isn't this just an enhanced version? It even has its own f*cking independent consciousness now..." Su Chen was speechless. Fortunately, he could continue to spend Faith Essence to re-forge it.
[Forging successful. General Ability: You can divide your mind into multiple thoughts to think about different things simultaneously.]
"Splitting the mind ten ways isn't what I want either..." Su Chen shook his head. Perhaps it was because of the three original professions provided, but even after forging several times in a row, he still didn't get a profession he was satisfied with.
"It seems I can continue adding professions. With just these three, it's impossible to escape the original vicious cycle..."
Su Chen pondered for a while. His gaze suddenly landed on the Service Bot nearby. "...Letting the body run autonomously is equivalent to idling. Perhaps..."
Su Chen entered the Hall of Professional Law again and adjusted the keyword to "Mechanical."
[Mech-Arm Artificer. General Ability: After modifying one of your own arms, you can enhance and amplify it.]
There weren't many professions of this type in High Firmament; the Machine Domain was much more adept at this. He continuously adjusted and narrowed down the search, finally finding a profession that seemed somewhat related—[Core-Builder. General Ability: Can encapsulate professions of the same tier and insert them into mechanical modules, granting them certain enhancements.]
"This is already one of the very few usable ones..." Su Chen retrieved it directly and tossed it into the Profession Forge.
Ding!
[Class Forging successful. General Ability: Manufactures Bio-chips that can be integrated into the body to record physical body movements.]
"Hah... this is it!" Su Chen's eyes lit up. "So this is the correct way to use Class Forging. Those three base professions were just the foundation."
"To get what I want, I had to add more and extract the essence."
Su Chen directly confirmed it. The furnace flames flared up, and something seemed to float out from within—[Discovered Specialized Class: Flesh-smith. Complete the profession requirements to Job Entry.]
[Profession Requirement One: Must hold five Physical-Path Classes, three of which must be top-tier.]
[Profession Requirement Two: Must undergo at least 10% mechanical modification on your own body.]
[Profession Requirement Three: Independently manufacture a Bio-chip.]
[The Flesh-smith pays deep respect and awe to the Sovereign of the Purple Zenith and the Sun-Mirror Calamity-Slaying Sovereign. Profession Requirement Two is erased. The 'independently manufacture' condition in Profession Requirement Three is removed.]
After this series of operations, the remaining profession requirements weren't too difficult.
"Bio-chip..." Su Chen thought for a moment, then took out a Grand Vow Crystal. "I have manufactured a Bio-chip."
[The Flesh-smith receives the calling. Requirement Three is considered fulfilled.]
This requirement was completed directly, and the Grand Vow Crystal suffered almost no consumption.
Su Chen proceeded with the Job Entry immediately. A slit opened in the center of his palm, and a small ball of flesh actually floated out. It intertwined, tore apart, and fused, gradually forming a palm-sized crimson chip. Dense silver patterns surfaced on its exterior, crackling with electric arcs.
It then submerged back into his body through the slit in his palm.
[Job Entry for Flesh-smith successful. Acquired Ability: Bio-chip. A chip created from one's own flesh and blood, capable of recording physical body movements and executing looped operations, etc.]
"Tsk... This Class Forging really is something. Originally, only Mechanically Augmented Beings could use plugins, but now I can use them directly." Su Chen was quite amazed. After a brief moment of comprehension, he gradually entered a state of development.
Elemental Particles surged around him. About ten minutes later, Su Chen finally stopped, having finished the recording, labeling it Action One.
He could record a total of three different physical actions.
"Loop mode. Continues to run endlessly without active intervention..."
Su Chen thought for a moment, then tossed out a large handful of Potions and placed them in front of him. He added an action for drinking the Potions and recorded it as Action Two.
"Action One will loop 432 times, then execute Action Two once, continuing the loop without active intervention..."
Su Chen finished setting it up and had the Service Bot keep watch. Every time his body drank a potion, the bot would place an identical potion in the exact same spot.
"Let's try it out..." Su Chen found this ability quite novel. Upon attempting to activate it, electric arcs immediately crackled around him. The spiritual power within his cells was also drawn upon, gradually entering a state of development.
Throughout the entire process, he didn't take control, watching his own body like a bystander.
With a slight mental command, this loop stopped instantly.
"Hah..." Su Chen couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Interesting. This profession can be considered filling a gap in High Firmament."
If a new profession was submitted, High Firmament could grant a reward of at least one Faith Essence, with no upper limit, after evaluation.
"Forget it, I'm not lacking a pittance." Su Chen estimated it wouldn't sell for much money anyway. After all, its usage scenarios were extremely limited, and the recorded physical actions were very stiff and inflexible.
"It's a pity that this kind of forged profession only counts as one profession, so I can't stack the talent buffs from the Unsullied." Su Chen glanced at the panel. After Job Entering the Nine Hells Thunder Evolution, his Development Efficiency had indeed increased significantly.
His Development Progress had currently reached 21%, not far from 50%.
"Preparations on the avatar's side are mostly complete. If all goes smoothly, there's just one more thing left to resolve..."
Su Chen's eyes flashed. Although the connection between a Chosen and the Professional Spirituality wasn't as strong as that of a Profession Holder, there was still some connection.
After a Morning Star Spirit's Chosen died, the Professional Spirituality would mourn to some extent. The Radiant Sun, in all likelihood, wouldn't remain indifferent either.
There were extremely few records regarding this aspect in the history of the Abyssal Domain. After all, every Radiant Sun Elect was of paramount importance, and no death incident had ever occurred.
"Since there have been no deaths, naturally there is no precedent to follow. But just in case, I still need to ask the Remnant Spirit..."
With a thought, Su Chen summoned the 'old treasure' in his house.
"Su Chen?" The Remnant Spirit, curled up in a ball, suddenly heard the call and couldn't help but tremble slightly.
Ever since the other party prematurely demanded the method to conceal the Chosen status last time, he had been waiting for Su Chen's call.
He couldn't perceive the passage of time in this place, but he estimated a long time must have passed in the outside world.
"This day has finally arrived..." The Remnant Spirit estimated that Su Chen came to find him this time precisely to become a Radiant Sun Elect.
The final game between the two of them lay in this very conversation.
Thinking of this, the Remnant Spirit became even more cautious and remained silent, waiting for Su Chen to speak.
Who would have thought that a somewhat miserable voice would come from above: "Taixu, something happened..."
Huh?
The Remnant Spirit, who was ready to match wits with this thieving brat, was stunned. A bad premonition immediately arose in his heart, and he hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"
"It's over, everything is over." Su Chen's voice was more miserable and helpless than ever before, faintly carrying a hint of anger and despair.
Since falling into this guy's hands, the Remnant Spirit had never felt such emotions from him. He couldn't help but press, "What exactly happened?"
"The Sovereign of the Purple Zenith..." Su Chen spat out a few words, then stopped. Only under the Remnant Spirit's increasingly anxious state of mind did he slowly say, "Has been discovered. Discovered by the Abyssal Domain."
"What?!" The Remnant Spirit was dumbfounded, the mist formed by his residual consciousness vibrating constantly.
This was the last thing he wanted to see. Back when he deceived Qin Yun, his original plan was that after escaping, he would find a guy with decent talent, slowly raise him up, and thus make him the Chosen of the Sovereign of the Purple Zenith.
Later, a series of unforeseen events occurred, leading him to this state.
And right now, the Chosen of the Sovereign of the Purple Zenith was even more crucial to whether he could escape from Su Chen's grasp, or even completely usurp the host.
How could it be discovered by the Abyssal Domain at a time like this!?
Even if Su Chen had some tricks up his sleeve, the entire Dust Star Sea combined wouldn't be enough for the Abyssal Domain to play with.
He couldn't help but question, "How could it be discovered by the Abyssal Domain?"
"I don't know..." Su Chen gave a miserable smile. "It's only because I have some methods that I managed to escape from that Flare Realm, otherwise I would have been caught by now."
"Sigh, I'm afraid I won't be able to become the Chosen of the Sovereign of the Purple Zenith."
"No, there's still a chance!" The Remnant Spirit grew anxious and blurted out. Su Chen couldn't despair. If this kid lost all hope of becoming the Chosen of the Sovereign of the Purple Zenith, what would happen to him?
"You have a way to snatch victory from the jaws of the Abyssal Domain?" Su Chen seemed to regain some spirit, but was still somewhat doubtful.
"First, tell me, which faction of the Abyssal Domain discovered that place?" The Remnant Spirit pressed.
"It seems like everyone is involved. Great Heaven, Buddha Land, High Firmament... all Five Pillars know about it." Su Chen's tone was complex. "What hope is there?"
Remnant Spirit: "..."
So it's a massive clusterf*ck, huh. He really couldn't understand how all these people managed to find this place at the exact same time, but right now he had to rekindle Su Chen's hope.