Chapter 1530
Chapter 1530 - 1526: Unique Path
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While Lu Ping’an was adjusting at home, the frontline had not stopped for a moment.
The black flames... that legion which seemed to burn eternally was still spreading across the entire octopus multi-universe.
"The king, remains with us..."
Above the waving war flag was the phantom of the Throne, with the king above perpetually guiding the way.
From beginning to end, they had never ceased their campaigns.
The step that Lu took allowed him to effortlessly control his clones, turning him into an "everywhere" "Controller."
However, the cost was likely the limited "firepower" at the front, even the strongest "Black Flame Incarnation" was not nearly one-tenth as powerful as the former King of Black Flames... Sending another incarnation of the King of Black Flames was an option, but Lu Ping’an felt it was meaningless.
What can a seventh-tier incarnation change in the face of the battlefield of the entire plane? What truly made the Burning Legion a threat was their continuously expanding bandit-like attributes, and their increasingly strange traits that grew stronger and more numerous the more they fought.
Decentralization was its hardest to eradicate root.
If targeted for assassination, so be it; one more high-tier incarnation wouldn’t make a difference... In fact, the "kings" who led various sub-currents were evolving amidst continuous slaughter, and their combat power had already surpassed that of regular seventh-tiers.
Their evolution pattern also became a reference for Lu Ping’an to create his own "Path"...
"Black Fire, can it be granted as a Battle-profession? Hmm, should it be considered as a combination of a Life system (Soldier) and Fire Control? Its strength should not be low..."
Black Fire and its prototype, the "Purifying Holy Fire," had actually become completely different categories.
Its core was really the ability of the Black Knight system, a "flame that burns life," whereas the "Purifying Holy Fire" was a "flame that burns away contamination and drives out mutations"... Purifying Holy Fire could even burn contamination without harming life, whereas Black Fire, even when attached to life, was always burning "Life."
This type of "flame" originating from Lu Ping’an, infused with Big Cat’s "Water of the Black Holy Grail," was full of his unique power modules, clearly his proprietary Path... and with the avatar of the King of Black Flames, he had also gained control over lower levels, indeed enabling the mass production of similar professions.
"....Yes, a very nice Profession Module."
And after communicating with Lulu and the others, this "profession" was also listed as one of the local "Proper God Professions"... Even though there were no Proper Gods yet, this profession itself was regarded as a popular profession encouraging employment.
"Second-tier Black Flame Walker and third-tier Black Flame Tamer, and a third-tier Raging Flame Black Blade?" For the first batch, Lu Ping’an just released three professions to test the waters and see how they were received.
This world’s proprietary Path had begun to take shape, including Guan Xinxian and several other "New Gods" who had become big winners, with the Path blending a large number of so-called "Proper God" Profession Modules.
Considering Lu Ping’an’s relationship with this world, joining it posed no difficulty.
The induction ceremony was kept as simple as possible; a second-tier novice only needed to pray to the "Lamp Tree" and fulfill the conditions of employment to be successful.
Second-tier was somewhat similar to the ancient Holy Fire Knights, both being "Flame Bearers" and "Fire Keepers," serving as tests of talent and foundational training.
One third-tier branch was professionally Fire Controllers (Life Mastery), and another was the evolutionary mode of those "beasts" that accepted Black Fire... basically various replicas of the "king’s" berserker system.
From the perspective of practical strongmen, the "Berserker" series was highly regarded, whereas Fire Controllers were rarely attempted, even though their potential was higher.
Although everyone knew that with advanced training, one could burn people under water, this was clearly not as straightforward as directly using Black Fire as a buff in the more straightforward and handy Berserker.
Only increasing endurance and acquiring the ability to draw life force (vampiric ability) in combat could make professionals flock to it.
In this module, Lu Ping’an had omitted the crucial "Upgrade Evolution" part. Instead, he had hidden high-spec Abnormal Abilities such as "Black Flame Weapon," "Black Flame Armor," and "Black Flame Incarnation," waiting for high-level professionals to discover them on their own.
It wasn’t that he was reluctant, but without his support, the "Battlefield Upgrade System" simply wouldn’t work.
However, Dark Fire inherently had the capacity to draw life and evolve through slaughter. Killing enough would naturally endow them with all requisite abilities.
In fact, although civil evaluation wasn’t high... this was mainly because Fishmen and the Long Hand Clan, being aquatic lifeforms, naturally feared high temperatures and burning. Even if not burned, the evaporation of their body fluids was lethal for them.
They naturally feared fire and lacked devotees proactively seeking advancement.
Yet, once it was confirmed that Black Flame could ignite even underwater and was exceptionally potent against Fishmen, various powers began to actively cultivate such professionals.
When Lu Ping’an was in this world and opened this Profession Module, taking it up was not difficult. But without him, it was nearly impossible... In this aspect, Lu seemed increasingly close to a deity.
"Actually, True Gods are not that remarkable. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I am stronger than the True Gods, even though there are many rumors. It’s just that I don’t need to become a deity..."
As Lu Ping’an’s "Divinity Mentor," Lord Xiuyi’s "explanation" here was quite comprehensive.
Divine creatures like Lu Ping’an and Lord Xiuyi, and True Gods didn’t fundamentally differ; both evolved through "rules" into something extraordinary of the "World."
However, even though Lord Xiuyi spoke modestly, when she really explained "what God is," she couldn’t hide her slight contempt.
To draw an admittedly imperfect comparison, although both are "large corporations," one is a wholly-owned company that accumulates through industry, while the other, lacking inherent substance, makes promises to the world or, shall we say, attracts investment as a publicly-listed company.
In terms of size, a corporation continuously obtaining new "shares/investments" from the market is easily the size of typical wholly-owned companies by several or even dozens of times.
But upon accepting "capital injection" and writing "tender offer/public commitment/development goals," this deity had ceased to be his former self.
He was the controller of rules and even the World’s reason, but from another perspective, he was also a slave to the World’s reason.
Not strong enough on their own, they used Ascension to align their rules with the World’s Reason, thereby receiving the World’s gifts... instantaneously increasing their "market value" by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands or tens of thousands of times.
Even if strong enough to retain substantial personal will, he was still constrained by "shareholders" and "corporate goals," becoming both a God of believers and the World’s "enslaver."
Those Divine Creatures, not dealing with the world nor needing to overindulge their "believers" due to agreements with the world.
They always fought for themselves and might indeed not compare to those "Divine Kingdoms," but they gained freedom.
"And moreover, given a few hundred or thousand years to develop, it’s hard to say who would be stronger."
Lord Xiuyi’s absolute quality surpassed many True Gods; if it really came down to a fight, it was difficult to say who would lose or win.
"Poor ones need to go public for financing? If one can reach the same strength without extra support, why surrender one’s freedom?"
And when Lu Ping’an truly began as a Divine Creature, started spreading his module, and released unique paths, the first high-level Extraordinary professional made Lu Ping’an a bit baffled.
"Lulu... directly transitioned to become an eighth-tier Black Flame Professional? And because of that achieved a great victory?"
— End of Chapter 1530 —