“Deprive.”
Bai Xuan placed his hand on the mutated lion. A mysterious and profound force flowed across its body, and in the end, the entire corpse withered up like an animal hide. All the energy gathered in Bai Xuan’s hand, condensing into a blood-colored bead.
Inside that bead, you could vaguely make out the runes of a mutated lion.
“This bead contains all the energy of that mutated lion. Absorbing it is equivalent to eating the entire lion’s corpse and digesting it perfectly. If someone who has awakened a lion-type ability absorbs it, it might even help them develop a new power.”
This was Bai Xuan’s new ability – the power to deprive mutated creatures of their strength. As for why it took the form of a bead? Honestly, it was just because he felt a bead was more fitting. If he wanted to, he could just as easily condense the energy into a cube.
As for when he awakened this ability… maybe it’s better to say that this is actually an ability he’s always had. He just didn’t know he possessed it before.
The [Authority over Nature] doesn’t just hand him a list of his abilities with neat little names. He has to try things out and discover them one by one.
The deprivation ability came to him when he was out in the nature reserve and his storage ring got full. He casually muttered something like, “If only I could condense all their energy into something portable…” And then he just realized he could. He gave it a try, and it worked.
He just felt like he could do it. He tried, and it succeeded.
If you ask him how it works, he couldn’t explain it either.
Everything, all of it, felt like instinct.
You know that saying?
As long as he has enough imagination, he can develop countless powerful abilities.
He shook his head, put away the blood bead, and turned his gaze toward the distance.
“You’ve been watching for a while now. You might as well come out.”
“I was just curious to see how you’d handle that mutated lion. I didn’t expect you to also master telekinesis. Is telekinesis also a part of nature?”
“Or maybe your spiritual power is just that strong. After all, telekinesis is one expression of powerful spiritual energy.”
A tall, elegant woman appeared before Bai Xuan. She wore a navy-style uniform and had flowing blue hair.
If this world had the anime Akame ga Kill!, he would’ve thought she was imitating Esdeath. She had the same temperament and also possessed ice abilities.
But her ice wasn’t weak like Su Yue’s. No, this was true extreme cold power – a talent on the same level as Huo Yu, someone who had terrifying strength from the very moment of her awakening.
“I don’t recall Huo Yu mentioning that you’d be here, Chen Bing.”
Bai Xuan looked at her calmly and spoke in a flat tone.
“Of course she didn’t know I’d be here, because I didn’t tell her.”
Chen Bing crossed her arms under her chest and spoke in a relaxed, leisurely voice.
“I just heard that you were the one assigned to this mission, so I came over.”
“After all, I’m really curious about your strength.”
“Child of Nature. Someone who wields near-conceptual authority over nature itself. From the moment of your awakening, you stood above everyone else – an unstoppable monster.”
“And it’s not just me. Qin Tian, Chen Changsheng, Ye Feng – they’ve all been interested in you for a long time too.”
“If Huo Yu hadn’t kept emphasizing that our strength isn’t even in the same dimension as yours – that she was completely crushed by you and couldn’t even muster the ability to fight back – I’m sure a lot more people would’ve already come to challenge you.”
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now.”
Bai Xuan cut off Chen Bing, who looked like she wanted to keep talking. He had finished his mission and had no interest in standing around chatting with her.
“How about a match?”
Chen Bing paused for a moment after hearing his words, then smiled and said directly.
“I want to see the gap between us.”
“Let’s talk about that after you’ve earned the right to use your ability in front of me.”
Bai Xuan said this flatly, then walked right past her.
Chen Bing frowned slightly, not quite understanding what he meant.
Then, as if something occurred to her, she tried to use her ability. But even though she could sense that her power was there, she simply couldn’t activate it.
It was as if something was blocking her from her ability.
Only after Bai Xuan’s figure had completely disappeared did she finally reconnect with her power.
“He can even control other people’s abilities…? Is there really someone in this world who can awaken such an unfair power?”
“And that blood bead he condensed from the mutated lion’s energy earlier…”
“Huo Yu’s assessment of him really wasn’t an exaggeration.”
But even so, she wasn’t about to just give up trying to catch up. Yes, Bai Xuan’s starting point was ten, even a hundred times higher than theirs. But the stronger you get, the more solid your bottlenecks become. The gap between them and Bai Xuan would eventually get smaller and smaller.
The Rebirth of Spirit Energy was a global evolution. They weren’t about to let one person stay ahead forever.
Chen Bing was very strong. Bai Xuan knew this very well.
Maybe she was still far from being as powerful as Aokiji from One Piece, who could freeze entire oceans. But just the mountain forest where Bai Xuan stood? Chen Bing could freeze the whole thing if she went all out. And her power was still growing.
Maybe soon, her development of extreme cold power would reach Aokiji’s level.
But even so, Bai Xuan had no desire to fight her.
Truth be told, he had no desire to fight any living creature.
Especially humans.
The point of a sparring match is that both sides are roughly equal in strength. Even if there’s a gap, it shouldn’t be too large.
But Bai Xuan was already too far ahead of everyone else. In fact, many people would never reach his current level of power, even if they spent their entire lives trying.
A fight like that would be completely meaningless.
Especially here on Earth, where he had all sorts of advantages. All of nature was helping him.
Unless he was facing someone else who also held an Authority, he really had no desire to fight.
His opponents weren’t here. They were in other worlds.
Naruto, One Piece, Ultraman Tiga… even Xiong Bing Lian (The Black Troop), Dragon Ball, and those even more powerful worlds like Shrouding the Heavens, Perfect World, and Primordial Honghuang.
Of course, he didn’t have that kind of power yet. And no one from those worlds had joined the chat group.
But the future is always full of surprises.
Maybe one day, someone would join?
He looked forward to the arrival of that new era.
Until then, what he needed to do was keep cultivating – to expand his capacity to hold more energy and grow stronger more quickly.
For others, cultivation was dry and boring. But for Bai Xuan, sure, he felt a little tired after training, but the process itself wasn’t dull, and boring? Not even close.
After all, while his body was training, his consciousness was in the chat group.
Invincible East: “So, we get one free chance to draw from the lottery?”
Ordinary Group Owner: “It’s a welcome gift for new members – the chat group gives it to you for free. But unless you’re really lucky, you probably won’t get anything great. After this, each draw costs 1,000 points. If you ask me, save up your points. Wait until there are more people in the group and more stuff in the prize pool before you start drawing.”
