Chapter 1503
Chapter 1503 - 1499 Rule
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7 min read
High-tier professionals with extraordinary abilities didn’t experience a desperate gap in the effectiveness of their abilities when Rule-level and Decree-level abilities didn’t clash directly.
Lu Ping’an was able to contend with Rule-level as a Peak Commandant previously because the Newborn Rule Level hadn’t reached the so-called moment of qualitative change.
And at the eighth-tier... Ordinary sixth-tier individuals absolutely had no chance of victory against those at the eighth-tier.
"1 can fight against 10, but how can it fight against 100, 1000..."
Lu Ping’an really realized that the so-called "qualitative change" was not as mystical as it seemed but rather simply "multiplication."
Seasoned Rule Level individuals of the seventh and eighth order even began to "stack" their abilities. They had enough cards in their hand that a simple Flat A attack could be a stack of three or four different abilities.
This wasn’t mere addition; even the most basic stacking could be "Triple Strength (buff)," "Double Damage (Curse)," "Blade Flame Enchantment (Elements)," "Reduced Flame Resistance (Curse)"... which could potentially result in an effect of more than twenty times with 3 times 2 times 2 times 2.
This was just a theoretical value calculation. Actual combat was more complex, and increases were unlikely to be in whole numbers, but reaching ten times the power of the past was almost effortless; hard contending with a low-order individual was giving it away.
And this was only straightforward numerical stacking of abilities; most were a combination of abilities from various paths, not just numerical superiority but also ruling suppression, ultimately building up to a conceptual or even domain-level overwhelming force.
In actual combat, it might involve stacking attributes like "vision being blocked," "intuition being misled," "spatial sense of up, down, left, and right being flipped," "significantly amplified sense of pain"... Dying without knowing how was the norm. Even Big Cat Kris, a Quasi-rule being, could easily stack "Spiritual Invisibility," "Spatial Rupture," "God-slaying Attack" to create an outrageous attack sequence.
"Top Extraordinary beings are actually competing with the combinations of their abilities. No matter how many scattered abilities there are, their effectiveness is limited."
Panda was his combination of high survivability with widespread Calamity around him, competing to see who could last till the end.
And among Lu Ping’an’s team, the strongest individual, Fei’er, harbored countless means of attack within her "Opposition Division," including the "Light and Dark Separation (vision block)" and "Perception Separation (upside down)," which are some of her strongest attacks.
As Big Cat’s designated "heir," her abilities were many and powerful. Apart from not having lasting power, she already sat firmly on the throne of the top combat power unit of individuals... Lu Ping’an himself found it hard to evaluate. His individual power wasn’t strong, but as long as he was willing to spend points, his limit was too high before the points ran out.
𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
How to achieve "multiplication" instead of "addition" or "subtraction" with abilities was a problem professionals must ponder. At this time, a single approach was clearly insufficient. Multiple paths that could harmoniously fit the "Rule" were fundamentally the route every eighth-tier had to take.
But accumulating trump cards required time and resources. At the same time, it was also a test of the professionals’ endurance limit, and many abilities were inherently conflicting.
In the end, the result often boiled down to playing the cards you had.
"My abilities are a stack from different domains, each and every one is ’multiplication’..."
Lu Ping’an realized that his potential might be the most outrageous of all.
"My ’Rule’ is..."
When Lu Ping’an reached this step, he finally understood what it all meant.
"It’s ’human.’"
Vain deadwood from zero to one, from inorganic to life.
Life that moved blindly without intelligence gradually evolved from a single cell, from purely instinct-driven beasts, began to change...
This was a sea of infinite life, where all life forms within chaos struggled free or merged, everything evolving, with no end in sight.
What Lu Ping’an glimpsed was "Ten Thousand Spirits," the process of infinite life, endurance, transformation, and evolution.
He, the current him, could understand that the past him probably saw something very similar to what Big Cat Kris had seen, which, if called by another name, might be the so-called Mother Goddess.
"But just this alone is not enough..."
In Lu Ping’an’s eyes, that wooden humanoid was contemplating.
He issued it a command, letting it wish... but didn’t specify what it should wish for.
"A flesh lump without rationality, without self-cognition, will always just be a beast..."
Lu Ping’an watched the life in front of him consume points. He had already given it the soil and possibility for evolution; now it was a matter of when it would become him or her.
"I... I..."
The wooden humanoid was still unable to make a request; its "capital" was running low. Lu Ping’an had not given it many life points, and it needed to turn them into true life before they ran out.
"I... want to live..."
At that moment, light rained down, and the wooden life turned into resilient skin, the humanoid shape stabilizing.
It seemed to awaken, seemed to be thinking, but after obtaining life, it stagnated... perhaps just breathing was enough to satisfy it.
"To think, to choose, to collaborate, to desire... The existence of humanity itself is a miracle."
Mutual devouring was only a beast’s instinct. The ability to make decisions against instincts, to consider what is right or wrong, even to harm oneself for the benefit of others, is what it means to be "human."
This "human" was not merely the human species, but the "human" as Lu Ping’an understood it.
Because of the ability to overcome instincts, to benefit both self and others, it’s possible to "trade," "communicate," "collaborate," creating what is called society and kingdoms.
Peace and development, building collectives, constructing team societies, were traits of the "human."
War, opposed to mere battling, for the benefit of the collective, for living space, for even more long-term interests, was a rational choice— the beastly side of "human."
Kerdalais represented the pinnacle of the beast, the only embodiment formed by instinctive mutual devouring.
Lu Ping’an was the opposite; it was humanity or, perhaps better said, he was...
"Overcoming the beastliness..."
Lu Ping’an’s "Rule" was gradually evolving.
"Only by doing so can one have everything."
The humanoid before him chose "to live on," the instinct of life, the beginning of everything, but not merely everything.
To live better, how to live better, what do I need, what should I do?
Lu Ping’an provided the "path," allowing it to make choices, evolve, and ultimately become an independent "person."
But this time, it seemed to be another failure.
The life force ran out; it remained at the level of the instinct to survive.
Looking at the shattered wood scattered around, Lu Ping’an sighed.
Then, he started to act again, gathering those wood chips to become the nutrients for a new "wooden person."
"Person" was not something individual could produce on their own; "inheritance" and "evolution" ultimately formed races and nations.
Lu Ping’an thought that perhaps he needed to add some external pressure for it to desire more.
Perhaps, more plural individuals were needed to form a "society," to begin plotting the path of evolution.
"Try again, to build a skyscraper, you must start with a single grain of sand, a single block..."
— End of Chapter 1503 —