Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1917: Divide and Conquer

Sylas stepped eerily close to the pool of bubbling tar. It viewed like he was approximately trying to get hit by the fumes, but in reality, that was half of it.

Genes werenʼt as simple as simpler Genes making up larger ones.

After reaching Infinite Void Mastery of the F-tier, what Sylas realized was that even though he had fully comprehended F-tier Genes, he hadnʼt truly fully comprehended them.

The best way Sylas could describe it was like a mathematical proof that was intuitive even to a layman, but incredibly difficult to prove without a shadow of a doubt.

Of course, in this case what was ”intuitive” was the drawing of Genes, something only a rare few Rune Masters were capable of in the first place. But from Sylasʼ vantage, he felt it was accurate enough.

He could draw Genes, he understood what formed them holistically, but the individual parts that made them up wasnʼt something he had grasped.

In the past, Sylas hadnʼt thought it to be a big deal. That was because he thought that a Gene was a fundamental unit. Meaning, understanding its individual parts was unnecessary. Instead, it was more important to understand the whole.

It wasnʼt until he laid eyes on the Legendary Luck Gene that he realized how foolish that thought process was.

The reason he had shattered the Legendary Luck Gene in the first place was because he thought there would be some starting point that he could grasp onto since he couldnʼt quite understand the whole thing... Only to find that there was nothing at all.

This was all to say that the individual parts that made up something were always important. But it was impossible to understand those individual parts if you couldnʼt see the full view of them.

The trouble Sylas was facing after making the decision he had was that the Genes he was seeing now werenʼt just broken pieces of higher level Genes that were weakened down to the D-, E-, and sometimes even F-tier.

No, the real problem was that it was the actual D-, E-, and F-tier Genes being deconstructed.

Genes werenʼt building blocks that built atop of one another. You didnʼt stack E-tier Genes on top of F-tier Genes. By the time you started to work with E-tier Genes, your F-tier Genes had already long been fused into your body and become part of your Foundation.

If Sylas wanted to reconstruct these Runes, he first needed to understand how they were broken down, and that required comprehending the Poison that was here first.

By understanding the poison, he would be able to extrapolate how the Runes were broken down, the steps through which they broke down, and thus reform what pieces were left behind into the whole picture.

However, Sylas was definitely choosing the far harder path.

The far easier path would be to stand there and wait. Eventually, enough pieces of low-tier Genes would float up that he could guess at what went where and eventually reconstruct them.

Then he could use the Life Seal to hide his reconstruction from the universe and reform the body of the Hydra at the F-tier.

By the time he succeeded, the Hydra would no longer be a Hydra, but instead a Serpentes Hydra. So, Sylas wouldnʼt have to worry about it being detected anymore.

The reason Sylas chose this path, though, was because the Poison had fascinated him.

While Sylas had seen broken pieces of floating Runes floating everywhere, what he had also seen was an E-tier Poison. That made no sense.

That E-tier 6000 Foundation Poison was the first thing he saw in this place, and it was clearly the Poison breaking down the body of the Hydra.

But why would an S-tier creature be using E-tier poison in its belly? That made no sense whatsoever.

That was why Sylas was so intrigued. Because the only possibility was that this was somehow a sacrificial poison, one that gave of itself to break down things that would have been too powerful for it to decompose otherwise.

ʼDivide and conquer...ʼ

Sylas realized that if he could incorporate this sort of sacrificial aspect to his Glassvolt Aether, he would be able to take advantage of his False Infinite Will to target those of a higher Will than himself.

Right now, Sylasʼ Glassvolt Will was incredibly lethal at the same level. A sliver of Glassvolt was already enough to kill any E-tier of the Mortal Realm. Sylas didnʼt believe that even the Purvon or the other strongest Thryskai Mortal Clans could possibly have someone in the E-tier who could withstand it.

His Glassvolt was still quite effective at the D-tier as well, and very few could resist it. However, that was only because his Primus Imperium Conquest Title gave him D-tier Will.

As with all things handed to you by the system, though, it was limited.

Sylas could make it better by comprehending the D-tier Glassvolt Rune, but right now he was too focused on progressing to Infinite Void Mastery of the D-tier to put so much effort into learning a perfect D-tier Rune, one that would require a million Foundations.

Every level beyond required exponentially more effort. The further you went, the harder it was to leap across levels.

But that didnʼt mean it was impossible.

Sylas memorized every kernel of the poison he came across. The F-tier versions, the E-tier, even some of the D- tier ones didnʼt escape his notice.

He did nothing but observe, standing there for a longer and longer period of time.

And as he did so, his comprehension of poison continued to deepen.

This was truly the best poison he had ever seen. If not for the fact it was working autonomously and didnʼt have any Will attached to it, Sylas had a feeling that even the F-tier version of the poison would have directly killed him... Before he understood it, that is.

Sylasʼ eyes burned brighter and brighter.

He could see. This poison. It was like the Legendary Luck Gene.

The Foundations didnʼt matter, its pieces didnʼt matter, the whole, the parts, the differentiation was irrelevant.

Just how many years of evolution did this take?

Sparks of violet lightning began to weave through Sylasʼ emerald lightning, jetting out of the corner of his eyes.