Genetic Ascension

[Bonus thanks to donswan <3 Announcement below chapter]

Sylas tumbled across the ground, coughing up mouthfuls of blood as he felt the surging Aether rampaging through his body.

There was a flash in Byahmad’s eyes. They had succeeded, and everything had been recorded properly.

Even if things hadn’t gone as well as they expected, he could just cut everything out and only release the ending. That would be enough.

Several Warlords stood, having sensed the aura of a C-tier just now, but none of them could tell exactly who it had come from. If not for their keen senses, it would have almost felt like it had come from Zolte himself, but that much was impossible.

Whoever had used their aura just now had done it especially cleverly. And against a mere F-tier, they could afford to control it so expertly because they hardly needed to use even a fraction of their strength to cause such a result.

On the one hand, everyone knew who it must have been. But on the other, they didn’t have definitive proof.

Their gazes landed on Byahmad one after another, some gazes seemingly particularly gloomy.

Not everyone had been so eager about an additional Lineage. And as the Scorpion Lineage continuously handled them so perfectly, the reasons for needing the Bat Lineage in the first place only seemed to be growing lesser and lesser.

Plus… with that event now coming up, a lack of cohesion and unity would only harm them.

Every day, the Bat Lineage only seemed to step further and further out of line. It was really starting to grate on their nerves.

Even the 713th Lion Lineage Warlord was frowning right now, looking at Byahmad as though he was an idiot. But Byahmad wasn’t looking at them at all—his gaze was entirely focused on Sylas.

However…

One second…

Two…

Three…

Sylas coughed and then slowly pulled himself up to his feet, his expression indifferent as he wiped the blood from his mouth. With a wave of his hand, his torn clothing was replaced with a new set. This time, he seemed to have settled on a pressed white turtleneck, a pair of black slacks, and a comfortable pair of black shoes. He fitted a black jacket over them and then calmly started to walk back to his seat as though nothing at all had happened.

It was at that moment that everyone realized something odd…

Gralith wasn’t stoic and hard to read, but his temper was fiery. He wasn’t the sort to remain silent after such a thing had happened. He was also the only one not to have stood up after that C-tier Will took shape. Just what happened just now?

But before they could even understand, Sylas had returned to the pod. It bobbed back up into the air the moment he took a seat.

“Are you okay?” Gwenu looked at Sylas, wondering why this guy was busy pretending like nothing had happened when he had just taken the full-force strike of a Level 64 right to the gut without the protection of his Aether.

“Their goal wasn’t to harm me. Unfortunately, they’re fools,” Sylas said calmly. “I haven’t started building my Foundation yet. Trying to induce my E-tier breakthrough with such crude methods was never going to work.”

Sylas’ voice wasn’t particularly loud, but in the atmosphere, his words made several shudder. The realization of what happened hit them like a ton of bricks, but the reality of Sylas’ words hit them even harder.

Sylas hadn’t… started building his Foundation yet? And he was already so powerful? How was that possible?

It had to be known that one’s stats weren’t stagnant when a Foundation was being built. The stronger the Foundation, the more implemented into it, the stronger one would become.

Not all Level 100s were created equal even if they were of about the same talent and starting position. If one had been building their Foundation for a period of time longer than another, then the gap in their stats could be significant.

The higher the Tier in question, the more obvious this gap would be.

By the time you got to some people building C-tier Foundations to enter the B-tier, the gap in power between some could be as much as tens of millions of stat points.

Read on lig‌ht‌no‌‌vel‌world‌.o‌rg

This was part of why it took so long to build Foundations. You were fundamentally changing your body.

For Sylas to be so powerful without having begun his Foundation building process…

But no, that was impossible. They could feel it. They could feel Sylas’ Foundation. How could he not have started?

The Wheel of Fortune.

The Wheel of Fortune was there as a primer to Sylas’ Foundation. It registered his feats and then added to his Foundation as a result. But… the Wheel of Fortune hadn’t yet fused with Sylas’ body.

Someone as powerful as the Emperor Sanctum elder that came could sense it, but that didn’t mean that these Warlords could. To them, it just felt like Sylas had started to build his Foundation. They couldn’t sense the intricacies and changes.

Gwenu couldn’t help but blink when she heard Sylas’ words. Then she looked toward her master pitifully.

“Master, are you sure you won’t let me be your youngest disciple? How am I supposed to compete with this?”

Gralith gave Gwenu a glance but didn’t say much. He knew Gwenu well. She could joke around, but after their last talk, she had grown several times more serious.

Right about now, she was probably planning her next large training session. She had already been working very hard in the last few months. Now she would likely intend to go even harder.

“But what about that guy? Are we really going to let him off just like that?”

Sylas didn’t answer immediately, his thoughts a bit absentminded. That was because… he knew something the others didn’t. It wasn’t Byahmad that had attacked at all.

But the result was curious. Very curious.

He had told Gralith not to interfere no matter what happened because he knew that some slithering rat tails might be exposed as a result. He just didn’t expect this particular rat.

Suddenly, he awoke to Gwenu’s question as though he had only just registered it.

“Him?” Sylas looked toward Zolte, who hadn’t moved. “Can’t you tell? He’s been dead since he struck me.”

Byahmad’s pupils trembled.