Clear Direction

"Imperial Bloodline?"

Su Shijie froze for a moment. By his current reckoning, he only had a Knight Bloodline.

After that came Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, Duke, King, Emperor, and only then Imperial. In other words, he still needed eight more transformations.

Although Bloodline Transformation could bring an additional overall increase of roughly ten percent, with a twenty-percent increase every two levels, while also strengthening one's foundation and raising potential, the cost was obviously much greater as well.

His next transformation alone would require five evil spirits, or around five hundred Mortal Tier Level 4 Spirit Beasts. After eight transformations, he would need more than three thousand evil spirits!

Everyone knew how terrifying exponential growth was.

Take Prosperous Sky City, three hundred kilometers away. It was a city belonging to a Count Bloodline family.

"At present, our Earth Federation doesn't have a single Imperial Bloodline. Yet it was marked out so early. Based on what I learned while traveling in the past, this bloodline level should be crucial—perhaps even tied to humanity's civilization itself.

"If an Imperial Bloodline appeared, it would probably immediately receive the full support of all Earth Federation resources. Even the bugs in Africa would support us."

Su Ren's words made Su Shijie swallow. The unconditional support of an entire civilization's resources... this...

Damn, that was tempting.

"But I don't recommend exposing yourself."

"Why? Any generation among bloodline descendants could awaken an ancestor's bloodline. Couldn't you just arrange for yourself, or Mom, to be a collateral branch of some Imperial Bloodline or King Bloodline family?

"Don't worry. At most, I'll reveal the bloodline itself. I understand what needs to stay secret."

Su Shijie asked in confusion. If his father wanted him to break through to an Imperial Bloodline, wasn't it for the resources? As for his greatest secret, after all his father's previous warnings, he definitely would not expose it.

Still, his father had more experience. If he opposed it, there might be danger involved.

Drawing on the skills he had honed arguing online in his previous life, Su Shijie came up with his own guess.

Humans were, after all, very good at infighting. Would others resent him for taking resources that belonged to them?

If that was the case, it was indeed easy to understand.

His father believed becoming an Imperial Bloodline would bring him unknown benefits, but that he also needed to avoid all sorts of risks afterward?

"It isn't just possible infighting. In any case, both the Spirit Emperor and the Mad Emperor—two prominent figures recorded as having a chance to step into the Imperial Bloodline—died."

However, it was as if Su Ren had seen straight through Su Shijie's thoughts. That meaningful reply left Su Shijie stunned.

"You mean our Sovereign Civilization?"

Su Shijie's expression turned grave.

"Uh, where did that come from? The Skyfeather Civilization is far too far ahead of us. Their average bloodline level is probably already that high. They wouldn't care much about the advancement of their subordinate civilizations. I mean civilizations that are competitive with us, the ones that aren't that much stronger than us."

Su Ren was taken aback for a moment before waving his hand.

Would Taobao target a village convenience store just because it started selling a high-profit product that Taobao itself also carried? That convenience store even had its links listed on Taobao!

No. Only competitors selling similar products to that convenience store would think about putting it out of business.

For example, the nearby civilizations that had tried to forcibly purchase ownership of the Solar System's planets after the Interstellar Raiders incident.

"That's still such a pity. The support of the entire Earth Federation..."

Su Shijie spoke with some regret.

"It's not entirely a pity. You can make up for some of it another way."

"What way?"

"The Dawn Goddess."

Su Ren's words immediately made Su Shijie feel enlightened.

The Dawn Goddess was the Earth Federation's largest artificial intelligence system, though the technology itself did not belong to the Earth Federation.

It was entirely thanks to their Sovereign Civilization's Sovereign Civilization.

The Earth Federation's Sovereign Civilization was called the Skyfeather Civilization. Some also called it the Angel Civilization, as its members had once passed by Earth and left behind legends.

The Skyfeather Civilization's Sovereign Civilization, meanwhile, was the leader of one of the Milky Way Galaxy's six great civilization spheres: the Radiant God Race.

According to rumors, the Radiant God Race was a type of energy lifeform.

If the Skyfeather Civilization still had flaws such as arrogance, overbearing behavior, and haughtiness—

Then the Radiant God Race seemed somewhat "perfect." Aside from being a little cold, they were a civilization of absolute order. Their entire civilization was immensely powerful, yet not particularly aggressive, simply following their own rules and procedures step by step.

All systems and rules were operated by a galactic-level superintelligence called the Wisdom Goddess. Every civilization under the Radiant God Race also had connected subsidiary systems. For example, the Sovereign Civilization Skyfeather Civilization had the Justice Goddess.

Earth's Dawn Goddess was a subsidiary system of the Justice Goddess.

This was the greatest benefit of leasing out the spirit-energy-covered Sun, which could produce Spirit Crystal Ore, for the long term.

According to records, in order to cling to such a powerful backer, they had spent a long time negotiating before successfully forcing the Sun into their hands. Many of the earliest pioneers who entered space had been assassinated before the deal was completed.

The broad terms and certain resolutions could be altered through the Earth Federation Parliament, but its operation itself could not be interfered with.

"The Dawn Goddess is an artificial intelligence and has no means of detecting spirit energy. So once you become an Imperial Bloodline, as long as you vaguely upload this information, it will take the initiative to keep it confidential for the Earth Federation's benefit and secretly allocate some resources to you."

Su Ren's words opened the door to a new world for Su Shijie. That did seem to make sense.

After all, the core secret he most needed to hide was merely his nature as an evil god. As for the level of his Bloodline Transformation, it would be enough as long as no one knew the exact number and speed of his transformations.

Suddenly awakening an ancestor's bloodline—wasn't that perfectly normal?

Even if he surpassed the Imperial Bloodline and was discovered in the future, there would still be ways to explain it.

Couldn't I just say my father was an alien's illegitimate son?

Once Gene Evolution reached the Transformation Tier, reproductive isolation no longer existed among carbon-based lifeforms. Of course, the greater the difference, the harder reproduction would be.

Humanity's limits had never reached the Imperial Bloodline, but there were plenty of interstellar civilizations that had.

The Dawn Goddess was also an artificial intelligence incapable of actively testing spirit energy. Therefore, letting it know part of his secret after reaching the Imperial Bloodline was indeed a highly feasible choice.

At that moment, Su Shijie felt very pleased with his own wisdom in coming to discuss this with his father.

Although he had absorbed all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge online in his previous life, when it came to practical application and experience in every aspect, his father was leagues beyond him.

One only had to look at his severed limbs to know how brutal his past had been. It was something one could never comprehend, no matter how long one lived in peaceful times.

Being overly cautious would not do, but neither would reckless bravado!

Discussing this with his father was indeed completely different from brooding over it alone.

At the very least, the road ahead had suddenly become clear.

His father would help him find Contamination Sources. Then he would secretly undergo Bloodline Transformations, lie low all the way until he reached the Imperial Bloodline, report it to the Dawn Goddess afterward, and gain support and protection.

He would reach the pinnacle of life under the Dawn Goddess's patronage.

Perfect!

"Alright, let's continue. Catch as many Spirit Beasts as possible, and look for that Contamination Source while we're at it. From now on, come out with me every night."

After confirming Su Shijie's path and clarifying certain matters, Su Ren made his decision.

Naturally, Su Shijie had no objections.

"Oh, right. Since you weren't taking the combat path before, I didn't tell you about some small tricks. Right after a Spirit Beast dies, the spirit energy that had saturated its body dissipates. If you guide spirit energy beside it then, the speed will be much faster.

"Overall, even factoring in the time spent searching for prey and traveling to kill it, guiding spirit energy while hunting outside is much faster than staying home and doing it on your own."

Hearing Su Ren's words, Su Shijie calmed himself and sat beside the Spirit Leopard's corpse to perform a round of spirit energy guidance.

Sure enough, the speed increased by at least several dozen times!

A single Mortal Tier Level 4 Spirit Leopard could produce such an effect. It truly exceeded his expectations.

However, it only lasted a few minutes, equivalent to three or four hours of normal guidance.

Moreover, there was none of the "limit" he encountered when guiding spirit energy on his own.

Under normal circumstances, after an hour of spirit energy guidance, he would feel saturated and need to rest and digest for a while before continuing.

But this dissipating spirit energy, which had already saturated the beast's body, had no such restriction.

This was like having a high-level player power-level him!