Chapter 323: Black Goat Cub

‘It actually works pretty well?’

Watching Lalei carry out his orders to the letter, contacting both the Independent Investigator Mr. Wei Ya in Giant Horn City and Skinning Manor, Han Su gritted his teeth and tapped away at his keyboard.

Hatred and loyalty were playing out simultaneously—a scene both contradictory and perfectly natural. Even Han Su found it a bit strange. He could only conclude that in terms of Divine Material, they were no longer the same species.

The essential change in Tier Two Mysterious Power training was the alteration of one’s own Divine Material by Stealing Mysterious Power.

Divine Material is the very essence of a person. Once contaminated, the body begins to deform, both inside and out.

‘Then what about me?’

Having begun to Steal from the Emperor’s Text, Han Su took stock of his own Mysterious Power for the first time.

In terms of progression, he was now in the “Stealing” phase of Tier Two.

Tier Two was also known as the Monster Phase, because nearly everyone began to develop bizarre physical traits, the only difference being how obvious they were.

Even Qinggang’s Four Heavenly Kings appeared normal on the surface, but if you were to cut their skin, you would immediately see fleshy, blood-red tendrils squirming out to actively stitch the wound shut.

He was Stealing from the Emperor’s Text. While it did contaminate him, it didn’t cause physical deformities.

The most significant change was the subtle increase in the amount of his Divine Material.

Divine Material, Spiritual Power, and Spiritual Living are the three pillars of Mysterious Power.

Previously, his weakness had been his Divine Material. Now, as it increased, the Spiritual Range he could withstand also began to expand. He effortlessly added a fourth “Spiritual Battery” and had even begun attempting to add a fifth.

This was far more efficient than forcibly raising his Spiritual Activity through risks and crises to increase his Spiritual Battery capacity.

He had been following a heretical path before, but now his methods felt somewhat more orthodox.

As he added new Spiritual Batteries, his average Spiritual Activity naturally dropped, but it remained above 70%. After the integration was complete, it would even subtly climb again, now hovering around 74%.

Furthermore, under the influence of the Emperor’s Text, his Spiritual Activity seemed to be rising subtly even when he did nothing, though the process was quite slow.

‘But is that all there is to it?’

Han Su carefully assessed the changes within himself and soon identified several differences beyond these fundamental metrics.

First, due to the domineering nature of the Emperor’s Text, his use of Mysterious Power was now greatly restricted.

Although the powers of the Pale Gaze and Ghost Flame had been recorded by his Fishing Song and could still be summoned, the Emperor’s Text would immediately devour them the moment he tried to use them. This made wielding these two powers incredibly taxing.

His Copper Blood, however, could be used normally, since he possessed the Copper Will and had made a conscious effort to preserve it.

This led to the second change in him: his ability to use external items.

Thinking about the unique properties of his Copper Blood, he took out two items. One was a bloody, fibrous mass that looked like a mop head soaked in gore.

The other was the pouch of syringes that Akbar had taken out before her death but never had a chance to use.

The fibrous mass was a piece he had torn from a Vampire’s cloak. These cloaks were bizarre entities, a part of the Vampire’s own body. Once torn off, a piece would transform into this substance, something between flesh and fabric.

Remembering that Vampires were also considered “nobles,” Han Su decided to try feeding the material to the second Mechanical Fragment in his box.

As it turned out, he was overthinking things. The second Mechanical Fragment showed no interest in the fleshy material whatsoever.

It even seemed disgusted. The blood he tried to force into it was slowly spat back out by its densely packed, turning gears.

‘Looks like this won’t work. Either this blood is too impure to be a worthy offering for the Mechanical Fragment, or this Vampire wasn’t a true noble to begin with.’

‘This matches the information Wei Lan gave me. The Ancient Nobles have grown into a massive population, but they’ve also absorbed many people from the lower rungs of society, diluting the bloodlines. The vast majority of nobles have no connection to the Knights…’

‘If I want to find the blood of a Knight Descendant to activate the second Mechanical Fragment, I can’t just hunt any random noble.’

‘They have to meet two key criteria: ancient and high-ranking!’

‘The master of Skinning Manor is supposedly a Count… perhaps he would suffice?’

…

Setting aside the cloak fragment, he picked up the syringes Akbar had left behind.

The Queen Bee had taken great pains, using her own blood, saliva, hair, and perhaps a few other ingredients, to create these ten syringes. She had intended them to be her ace in the hole, a last resort to save her life in a critical moment.

Unfortunately for her, her Mysterious Power had shattered on contact with the Emperor’s Text, leaving these weapons perfectly preserved for him instead.

Han Su had originally planned to destroy them, but after seeing the change in Lalei, he decided to keep them, considering how he might put them to use.

The greatest core of Mysterious Power is knowledge, and it is knowledge that allows one to make better use of such external items.

Li Moxi had once told him, when explaining his theories, that if one chose to never compromise with Mysterious Power and enter a state of constant opposition, one must be prepared to abandon their most powerful weapons and rely solely on Zero Sequence Spells to fight their enemies.