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Chapter 508: Chapter 508: Self-Examination

After temporarily solving the most basic problems, Chen Xuan finally had time to sit down and comprehensively examine his own situation.

Although he was no longer a store manager, all the abilities he had used in the past remained with him, with no limit on how many he could carry. These abilities were like crystalline structures the size of cells hidden within him. He could use them all simultaneously or choose to activate one or two selectively. For example, passive abilities like "Weak and Ill" and "Linguistics" could be possessed without affecting him.

In the past, Chen Xuan would have found this incredible.

But now, he could easily understand it all.

Thought Power... also known as Spiritual Qi, can combine with flesh and blood to become a part of a cultivator. He had heard this from Liu Shuyue long ago. Now that he had become the forbidden entity itself, his understanding of these things had taken a significant step forward.

Chen Xuan could easily conclude that the greatest feature of Thought Power was its complete reversibility. Unlike how an egg, once digested and absorbed, becomes part of the human body’s muscle fibers and cannot revert to its pre-digested state, Thought Power is not restrained by the increase in entropy. It combines with flesh and blood under the guidance of consciousness, but once the consciousness disappears, it will return to nature, becoming energy that others can freely use.

The product of this combination nearly covers every aspect of an ability user: strong self-awareness, vigorous flesh and blood, and those diverse abilities and spells.

The former is reflected in memory and soul, the middle explains why ability users physically surpass ordinary people, and as for the latter...

He spread his palm, and a hexagonal prism, almost indistinguishable by the naked eye, emerged from his skin and fell into his palm.

If he hadn’t become the Lord of Flesh and Blood, he would never have imagined that such a small thing could represent the "Thousand Thoughts Sword."

Indeed, the soul can be contained and sealed, and abilities can also be condensed into a solid entity...and this condensation process is somewhat similar to forming a stone.

"I didn’t expect that even though I’m no longer a store manager, I can still trade abilities." Chen Xuan shook his head with a wry smile.

It’s even more convenient than before.

There are no restrictions on trading ability for ability, and no need to adhere to secret trading rules.

In essence, it is a combination of Thought Power and flesh and blood. As long as one is proficient enough in flesh and blood abilities, one can mass-produce such crystals.

As for whether to sell, exchange, give away, or discard the crystals, it’s all up to him.

As long as he earns enough Thought Power, it’s no problem to open an ability supermarket.

At first glance, it seems hard to believe, but upon further reflection, one would find it as natural as drinking water.

Because endowing others with abilities is indeed the authority of forbidden control.

Both the Ability Store and the Star God possess similar powers, only differing in their methods of realization.

Chen Xuan can now even reverse engineer why the store can only trade ability for ability.

Because the Computation Well cannot create ability.

All its abilities come from the collection of successive managers, stored in data form on the Salvation Ark. The seemingly absurd rules in the Manager’s Code are all for the purpose of "collection". Therefore, the initial KPI requirements were to encourage managers to conduct more trades, exchanging one for many, striving for the highest collection efficiency possible. Later, when the KPI was canceled, it was because with a certain inventory accumulated, the Ark further desired them to earn higher-level, rarer abilities rather than focusing solely on quantity.

Thinking back, he indeed collected quite a few good abilities for them.

Of course, the fact that the Computation Well can’t create abilities doesn’t mean it is inferior as a forbidden entity... its ability to trade abilities remotely indicates that its capability to create erosion channels is extraordinary, which should be one of the authorities of the forbidden as well.

The abilities traded in the store should be transmitted through these microscopic penetration points imperceptible to ordinary people.

Having sorted out his own situation, it was now time to consider his future actions.

Without a doubt, the white-clothed woman Ma Shun saw was the young Liu Shuyue. She had left the mountain gate only two or three months prior, and was still on her way to Qi Kingdom.

Chen Xuan vaguely remembered that the night he opened the store, she appeared at the store door, her eyes icy and her sword tip stained with blood. She mentioned she had just destroyed a group of robbers and, following the lamplight, wanted to see if this place was a den for such criminals.

If all these things happened on the same day, it means that Liu Shuyue had already met with him, the store manager, and obtained the abilities she wanted.

The ascent’s conclusion could not be altered; it was a warning left by the Celestial Patrol.

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan inexplicably felt relieved... His encounter with Liu Shuyue turned out to be a part of ascension history, and quite a crucial part. If he awoke before the meeting, should he stop Liu Shuyue or give his past self a hint? If it affected the ascension, would he be corrected or punished? It goes without saying that either choice would be quite troubling.

Now, it’s convenient; he doesn’t have to think about these headache-inducing matters. The next time the store opens, it will be five years later, and five years is enough time for him to think.

So... should he go find Liu Shuyue immediately?

She should have already descended from the mountains, heading towards the Qi Kingdom. If he sent out several birds to find her, there would be about a thirty percent chance of locating her.

Chen Xuan quickly dismissed this idea.

He hadn’t figured out his next steps, so finding Liu Shuyue would have no real meaning. Precisely because five years is a long time, his immediate priority is to enhance his own power. After all, whether it was changing Liu Shuyue’s fate or facing the ascension challenge, it would require powerful strength as a support. And as a newly born entity, his current abilities were quite weak—although stronger than his past self, by forbidden standards, it was really not up to par.

Liang Mingzhe had mentioned that some newly born deities could be wiped out with a single missile, and Chen Xuan felt he was at that stage.

Settling is necessary for him.

So how to improve? The answer is not hard to come by—either devour life rich in Spiritual Qi, or seize faith like a god. The former means plundering Thought Power that has already combined, while the latter is akin to harvesting the Thought Power gathering in nature. Thought Power gathers with people’s prayers, and when the mind is vast enough, it can either form new deities or become nourishment for existing ones.

Moreover, those who inherently contain Spiritual Qi can undoubtedly mobilize more resources.

The Star God always wanted to recruit him as an angel envoy, probably based on this consideration.

The Celestial Patrol chose another path; it seized the energy of the inner demon, crude but effective.

However, compared to the term deity, Chen Xuan preferred the term forbidden entity—whether it was the Computation Well comprised of supercomputers, the Star God with an insect-like face and human body, or the mechanical lifeform made of nanobugs, they all felt far removed from traditional godly images.

If Thought Power is a trickle seeping from a higher-dimensional universe into a lower-dimensional world, then the forbidden entities are merely a handful of water blooms arising from that stream.

Because it is a meandering stream, it will eventually dry up, and the so-called ascension is akin to going upstream. Only by seizing this opportunity can life reach an abundant source before it is entirely lost.

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