Plate Twenty-Six: The Secret of Innate Abilities

Sang Sang, scarcely able to believe it, took out all her works and examined them one by one. She discovered that every finished piece bore traces of mental force linking and supplementing the array diagrams—purification, repair, enhancement of mental vitality—all were painted and supplemented upon the simplified foundation of healing arrays. Among them, there was one titled “Snow Melts, Ice Dissolves, Spring Arrives,” created to heal Hu Yang after he had been corroded by ice-type mental force. Now, upon close inspection, part of its linked array diagram was identical at its core to the light energy array found in the world's painting “Twin Stars of Sun and Moon.”

At this point, Sang Sang still struggled to believe her findings, but when she proceeded to examine her dark works, she could no longer deny that her abilities held far more potential to be explored.

The dark works were evil, intended to induce depravity and madness, even violently dragging a person’s consciousness into the illusion within the painting for infernal torment. In creating them, she had not included any array diagrams but instead used her powers directly, placing her mind in a shadowy, decayed, cold, and ruthless state, conjuring hellish scenes and incorporating spatial laws to form a painted illusion.

But now, Sang Sang realized that what she had once thought to be a chaotic distribution of mental force actually followed a cycle. If she mapped out their trajectories, they formed rune arrays—some even appeared in the dark law diagrams found in the Sacred Academy’s textbooks. She had never known that dark works required arrays as well.

That was it—her abilities could supplement array diagrams, meaning they possessed the traits to fill in the laws associated with arrays. Based on past experience, there was no soul wave that her abilities could not mimic. If she failed to simulate someone of significantly higher rank, it was simply due to insufficient strength, not a limitation of her abilities.

Her body was attuned to all systems, her soul as well—could her abilities be the same?

The balanced physique of all systems was, in truth, something of a trap. Human energy is limited; to develop comprehensively is to disperse one’s focus, leading to slower advancement than peers. Even if one chooses a single direction, the need to suppress other affinities still falls short of a pure talent. The advantage, as Sena said, was the ability to gather followers from every angle, but with slow advancement, a multitude of low-level followers could never match a handful of high-level ones.

Yet Sena’s words were not entirely mere comfort, for there was more than just level—there were laws.

Laws are not ranked. A law mastered at the celestial level, if understood deeply enough, can shake even the void level. Even at the mysterious level, as long as one’s defenses are down, the effect remains; no one opens their defenses during healing, which means a celestial could potentially heal a mysterious, albeit with very weak power.

At this, Sang Sang suddenly stood up. She ought to enhance her abilities—from supplementing array diagrams to supplementing laws. Excited, she circled the meditation room, paused, bit her lip, and sat back down.

Studying her abilities was not urgent. The priority remained mastering the purification law; she could not face Professor Yaslan with divided attention after agreeing to the course change.

Sang Sang was completely immersed in the rune arrays—some candies brought her new surprises, some merely helped her consolidate memory.

The tiny purification law contained three hundred and one thousand runes, and there were nine thousand five hundred array variations. Even so, Sang Sang still felt no limit to purification; in fact, the deeper she delved, the more she realized she knew only a fraction.

The alert bell sounded in the meditation room—the preset three days at tenfold speed had ended.

“Sang Sang, hurry and freshen up, there’s a feast waiting for you.”

As soon as she stepped out, Little Gold greeted her.

“Dust Purification.” Sang Sang opened the door, raised her hand to cradle Little Gold in her palm, and smiled down. Though her inner power and mental force had not changed, the room’s energy responded to her words, forming an array. The array rotated, lifting fine dust, which condensed under the array into a small bead. Then the array shifted, the bead vanished like dew in the sunlight, and the array naturally dispersed back into energy.

The room had already been clean; now it gleamed.

Little Gold let out a breath. “Word manifests as law!”

“Word manifests as law” was a popular saying, but in truth, it was one of the fundamental applications of law.

“Purification law is basically mastered now. Further improvement is just grinding away or adding new rune arrays.” Sang Sang was proud. She had built several basic array variations from the purification law into her mental force core, then set activation commands to make using the law more convenient, so she need not sift through countless rune arrays each time.

“Sang Sang is amazing.” Little Gold applauded, tilting his tiny head. “I found a good place for custom private artifacts. I ordered a set of pens for you.”

“Thank you, Little Gold.” Sang Sang kissed his forehead and set him on the windowsill swing. “I’ll be ready soon.”

At the table, chicken, duck, fish, mountain delicacies, and seafood filled every inch. Sang Sang and Little Gold sat across from each other—one devouring her meal with relish, the other hugging an energy stone and absorbing it. Sang Sang ate as she voiced her doubts and speculations about her abilities, growing animated as she spoke, as though she had already mastered countless laws.

“Hmm.” Little Gold mimicked the Emperor of Heaven’s throat-clearing.

Sang Sang stopped talking and ladled a bowl of soup to soothe her throat.

Little Gold stared at Sang Sang for a long moment, only speaking once she had finished her soup. “Sang Sang, of the reading list I gave you, you’ve only reached the eighth part.”

Sang Sang nodded. “I only have five hours of free time a day, and that’s after Professor Yaslan kindly allowed it once I finished most courses. I need to refine mental force, comprehend laws, battle in vast illusions; there’s little time for reading. Some books are in minor languages, and the translator is odd. I have to cram in alien languages on the spot—it’s time-consuming. I’m recently reading the Divine Court Encyclopedia. Is there a problem?”

Little Gold said, “If you get to the third eighth, you’ll find the secret of talent is already explained.”

“Ah.” Sang Sang closed her mouth, which had been hanging open, grateful Little Gold waited until she finished her soup; otherwise, she surely would have choked.

The “Analysis of Mysterious Soul Talents” was an internal reference published by the Divine Court headquarters. Its authors were said to be several masters at the primordial level, with cosmic-level divine beings as advisors. The content was updated rapidly, with minor and major revisions every few centuries. It was now in its ninety-ninth edition.

The book specifically discussed the intimate link between talents and laws, how to discover the law your talent belongs to, and how to use talent as a springboard to better master laws.

The universe contains countless planes, yet its origin is singular. This origin is the foundation of the universe’s existence. Every soul, after death, returns to the origin, decomposing into basic soul energy. These soul energies form multiple soul seeds, which reincarnate and grow. Once mature, the soul returns again to the origin, in a cycle that expands the origin and enables it to withstand the rapid growth of life in the universe.

The origin is the will of the universe, and all laws stem from it. In fact, whenever someone successfully advances and receives the energy baptism, their soul returns to the origin. It is the universe’s reward—how many prizes one receives depends on personal strength.

Talent, at this moment, becomes crucial.