Technological advancement begins with devouring.

Chapter 197 Breakthrough to the Fifth Rank! Realm Lord! (2nd Update)

"In this form?"

After a moment's thought, Jiang Chen immediately understood the process of 'awakening' a unique skill.

It's somewhat similar to 'character customization' in games.

'Autonomous Awakening' means that during the process of learning, researching, cultivating, and fighting, there is a certain probability of triggering the awakening of a unique skill. The higher the probability, the more 'uncontrollable' the generation effect of the unique skill.

If it's entirely a 'self-awakening', the attributes of the exclusive specialty will most likely depend on what you're doing when the 'awakening' is triggered, and the final direction of improvement will be related to this.

Investing in expertise points can expand the scope of 'autonomous choices'.

The more expertise points you invest, the wider your range of choices will be.

If everything is generated from skill points, then each bonus of the awakened exclusive skill can probably be chosen by the user.

Although this is just a guess, it is not without basis.

The nine selectable tendencies are all things Jiang Chen was doing when he triggered his exclusive talent 'Awakening'.

Jiang Chen triggered awakening the most times while studying the design blueprints, so this item ranks first.

The transformation into a mechanical apostle only triggered awakening once, so it is ranked last.

There are nine directions; you can choose at least one and at most three.

Jiang Chen pondered this in his mind.

According to Jiang Chen's judgment, the overall improvement in 'total attributes' from a unique specialty should be fixed.

After all, its 'value' is fixed at one million expertise points.

The more bonuses you choose, the less bonus each item should provide.

If only one direction is chosen, the overall bonus should reach an extremely exaggerated level.

Only in this way can the 'total value' of up to one million expertise points be justified.

There are nine bonus directions, and each one is useful.

But of the 'path' that Jiang Chen chose, the most valuable aspects are still a few of them.

1. Design drawing development.

2. Mechanical manufacturing.

8. Increase in basic attributes.

9. Mechanical Apostle Amplification.

As for the 'ability enhancement' of illusion techniques, swordsmanship, and so on, as well as 'source affinity', their value is naturally not low, but for Jiang Chen, they are a lower priority.

However, it is impossible to select all four options.

Jiang Chen also didn't want the bonuses from his exclusive skills to be too scattered, so that none of the bonuses would be too strong.

However, Jiang Chen hesitated between choosing only one option to maximize the bonus of a single attribute, or choosing both to improve the abilities in both directions at the same time.

After hesitating for a long time, Jiang Chen chose [1. Design Drawing Development].

The reason for this choice is not complicated.

Every design that is recognized and included by the system will be rewarded with expertise points and free attribute points.

Having stronger design and development capabilities will obviously lead to a higher efficiency in accumulating expertise points.

Jiang Chen originally wanted to choose between two options: design blueprint development and mechanical apostle enhancement.

The latter can obviously significantly enhance the combat power of his mechanical legion.

However, after hesitating for a long time, Jiang Chen still gave up on the Mechanical Apostle enhancement.

With more skill points, Jiang Chen could exchange them for skills that enhance the 'Mechanical Affinity' attribute, thereby increasing the strength of the Mechanical Apostle.

For a specific specialty, maximizing the bonus from a single inclination is the most important thing.

After making a selection, the system prompts will continue to pop up.

The main trend has been determined.

Please determine the secondary inclinations of this expertise from the following options (single/multiple selections).

[1. Comprehensive Bonus (Overall enhancement of comprehensive R&D capabilities; this option is a single selection).]

2. Materials Analysis.

[3. Department of Mechanical Engineering.]

4. Department of Biochemistry.

5. Alchemy synthesis.

……

[587. Runewords.]

This time there was no room for hesitation. Jiang Chen wanted to build a 'mechanical legion', but each mechanical unit was not simply composed of pure 'machinery' but involved multiple different fields, so it naturally needed to be comprehensively upgraded.

Jiang Chen directly chose option one.

The secondary tendency has been identified.

Please select 1-2 of the following enhancements and rank them. The options ranked higher will receive a significant boost.

1. Improved efficiency in design and development.

2. Improve the quality of design drawings.

[3. Design blueprints receive additional bonuses.]

This time, Jiang Chen hesitated for a long time before finally choosing: 1. Improve the efficiency of design drawing development. 2. Improve the quality of design drawings.

Improving R&D efficiency comes first, followed by improving quality.

[All inclinations have been determined; unique specializations are being generated...]

【Generation completed! 】

[You have acquired a new skill, '(Unnamed) - Jiang Chen'!]

[(Unnamed) - Jiang Chen: Design blueprint development efficiency is greatly improved. When developing design schemes, there is a certain probability of triggering an 'inspiration burst,' which significantly increases the completion progress of the design scheme in a short period of time. After the design blueprint is certified by the system, its rating will be randomly increased by 1 to 10 levels.]

You have acquired your first exclusive perk, and this perk is now permanently unlocked.

[Note: The more exclusive skills you possess, the higher the requirements for 'awakening' those skills, and the greater the bonus will be.]

[Number of Faction Points Required for the Next Exclusive Faction: 100,000 Faction Points per 1% Awakening Progress.]

[Advancement mission completed, ready to advance to the next rank!]

A long list of system prompts appeared before my eyes.

Jiang Chen first carefully examined the enhancement effect of the exclusive skill, and immediately showed a satisfied expression.

That large amount of expertise points was well spent!

He casually named his specialty 'All-Round Designer'.

On the system panel, the full name of this specialty is 【All-Round Designer - Jiang Chen】.

As for the permanent activation of the exclusive skill awakening 'permission', Jiang Chen only glanced at it and then ignored it, directly jumping to the task interface and selecting to complete the promotion task.

The moment Jiang Chen confirmed the submission of the task, his 'level' on the system panel changed from Tier 4, Level 9 to Tier 5, Level 1.

A peculiar fluctuation emerged, engulfing the massive 'Heart of the World' in front of Jiang Chen.

The next moment, an invisible energy appeared out of thin air and enveloped Jiang Chen.

Under the influence of this special energy, Jiang Chen's primal force and psychic power rapidly transformed, and even his entire life level underwent astonishing changes.

A 'crack' suddenly appeared inside Jiang Chen's body, sucking a wisp of Jiang Chen's consciousness into a peculiar place.

This is an incredibly vast land, with no end in sight.

On the endless earth, every grain of sand contains an immense space, filled with countless cosmic crystals.

This boundless land contains an unimaginable quantity of cosmic crystals.

This is the very origin of the primordial universe.

Having gained the approval of the fundamental laws, Jiang Chen had already 'come' here many times and was very familiar with the place.

However, at this crucial moment in his breakthrough to the realm master level, Jiang Chen had no time to linger here. His consciousness instantly left the place of origin and returned to his body.

Endless primal power surged from the 'cracks' within Jiang Chen's body, continuously devouring and assimilating Jiang Chen's primal force and mental power.

When all the Force and psychic power disappeared, the crack vanished, turning into a gray bead.

A wisp of 'world power' was born from within the gray primordial pearl.

Jiang Chen suddenly discovered that the 'Heart of the World' had appeared inside the Origin Pearl at some point and had silently merged with it.

Although Jiang Chen was completely focused on the changes within his body, he was completely unaware of the process.

It's as if the Heart of the World and the Primordial Pearl were originally one.

The endless primordial energy surges forth from the origin of the primordial universe, and after being transformed by the Heart of the World, it becomes the 'Power of the World,' creating a world within the Primordial Pearl.

For the vast energy of the primordial universe, the cosmic crystal contained in a single grain of sand would only consume a negligible fraction of the primordial world within Jiang Chen's body.

However, each life form only has one chance to luxuriously receive energy from the source land when it breaks through from the Domain Lord to the Realm Lord.

Jiang Chen could sense that he could control the energy flowing in from the source to a certain extent and evolve his inner world.

This is arguably the most important moment for a realm lord.

The way the inner world evolves has a significant impact on the strength of the realm lord.

However, Jiang Chen had no control over this process.

The special power from the system completely controlled Jiang Chen's body and even manipulated the evolution of his inner world.

A massive continent with a diameter of tens of millions of kilometers solidified and took shape under the infusion of a vast amount of primordial power.

Plains, mountains, basins, deserts—all kinds of landforms have evolved naturally, appearing incredibly harmonious and perfect.

Beyond the mainland lies an endless ocean, stretching as far as the eye can see, countless times larger than the mainland.

Countless scattered islands lie in the ocean.

Even now, the entire structure of the 'inner world' is perfectly normal.

Aside from its diameter, which is tens of millions of kilometers high and somewhat too enormous compared to the inner world of a typical world lord, the overall structure of the inner world is very 'conventional'.

There's nothing special about it.

There is no need for anything special about it.

The 'Heart of the World' is like a bottomless pit, frantically devouring energy from the primordial origin of the universe.

Ninety-nine percent of it was absorbed by the Heart of the World, and only one percent was distributed throughout the body's inner world after being transformed by the Heart of the World.

But this one percent of the original energy has created an incredibly vast and expansive world!

Even after the inner world was born, the Heart of the World continued to frantically devour the energy overflowing from the origin of the universe, causing the inner world to continue to expand.

It didn't stop until it expanded to a diameter of 100 million kilometers.

—The primordial origin of the universe no longer actively 'releases' energy to Jiang Chen's inner world. Jiang Chen needs to actively control his inner world to communicate with the primordial origin of the universe and absorb its primordial energy.

This efficiency is countless times slower.

Each realm lord can only receive the 'gift' from the original source of the primordial universe upon their first breakthrough.

Of course, when you break through to Immortality, Venerable, or Lord of the Universe, there will still be similar 'gifts', but you only have one chance for each level.

Once the breakthrough is complete, it will be very slow to draw upon the primordial energy from the origin of the original universe.

"What a big world!"

Feeling the scale of the world within his body, Jiang Chen couldn't help but widen his eyes.

When a normal World Lord breaks through, the diameter of their inner world is only about 10,000 kilometers.

Even Luo Feng in the original work, who had an astonishing accumulation before becoming a World Lord, only had an inner world with a diameter of tens of millions of kilometers.

Jiang Chen's inner world has a diameter of 100 million kilometers!

What a terrifying scale this is!

Moreover, Jiang Chen's inner world also contains the 'Heart of the World,' a treasure that can communicate with the origin of the primordial universe and absorb a large amount of primordial energy!

As it continues to draw upon primordial energy, the size of its inner world can continue to expand.

Alternatively, these primordial energies can be accumulated and transformed into cosmic crystals.

A significant portion of the cosmic crystals circulating in the universe are transformed from the primordial energy of the original universe by the realm lord.

Even if a realm lord does nothing but focus on absorbing primordial energy and transforming it into cosmic crystals, he can still accumulate considerable wealth.

If Jiang Chen were to rely on the 'Heart of the World' to draw upon the source energy, the efficiency would only be even more terrifying.

However, Jiang Chen would never do that.

Even if one draws upon primordial energy, it is used to expand the inner world, not to transform into some kind of cosmic crystal.

Jiang Chen wouldn't even waste time actively trying to control his inner world to communicate with the primordial universe's origin; instead, he would rely on the 'Heart of the World' to absorb the primordial energy on its own.

Although it's a bit slower, you don't need to control it yourself.

The internal world gradually stabilized.

Countless flowers, trees, and even some life forms were born during the formation of the world, filling the entire internal world with vitality.

However, these life forms are all very weak, merely 'embellishments' within the inner world.

The moment the inner world stabilized completely, the system's power dissipated, and Jiang Chen regained control of his body.

Jiang Chen raised his hand, and a 'power of the world' appeared in his palm.

Carefully sensing the 'Power of the World,' Jiang Chen smiled slightly after a moment and muttered to himself, "It's far more powerful than the Force or telekinesis..."

At the Domain Lord level, they still use Force and psychic power in combat.

But when it comes to the realm lord, it becomes 'world power'.

Of course, the 'World Power' also possesses the properties of the Force and telekinesis, only it is much higher in 'quality'.

However, the secret techniques used are all the same.

The secret techniques that can be activated by the Force and telekinesis can naturally also be activated by the 'Power of the World'.

It can even 'restore' the power of the world into the Force and telekinesis.

Jiang Chen tried it out, and the power of the world was 'digitized', successfully establishing a link with the machine.

The change in the nature of the extraordinary power did not affect Jiang Chen's abilities in any way, which put Jiang Chen at ease.

Using telekinesis to 'dataficate' and control a mechanical army is Jiang Chen's most important combat method, bar none.

If this ability is affected, Jiang Chen's combat power will drop sharply.

Thankfully, the things I was worried about didn't happen.

After briefly experiencing the changes following the breakthrough, Jiang Chen immediately opened the system and entered the system library.

The sixth level of the system library is now open!