The Fourth Energy Level powerhouse from the Blazing Flame Lands whom Ian had captured was quite young.
Xike Nemasas was only twenty-eight. Reaching the Fourth Energy Level at that age was clearly extraordinary. Moreover, his bloodline, the Boundless Primordial Worm, came from the Pure Grand Lord Savaga, the Chrysalis—one of the Blazing Flame Lands' two Fifth Energy Level powerhouses. He should have been a direct descendant of the Nemasas bloodline, and there was far too much to unpack there.
That was why Ian had not joined forces with Nethersea to kill him outright, but instead gone to the trouble of capturing him, even deliberately drawing upon Terra's Heart's computing power.
"Quite the fierce resistance."
As Ian soothed Nethersea, preventing the enraged colony lifeform from tearing Xike apart immediately, he also used Nethersea's remaining psychic power to break through Xike's soul defenses and read his memories.
This back-and-forth exploitation was the very embodiment of Ian's freeloading path brought to perfection. From beginning to end, to defeat this Fourth Energy Level powerhouse, Ian had only offered a few suggestions and some computing power, yet his harvest was immense.
First, Ian figured out exactly how the Blazing Flame Lands had gotten involved in the muddy waters of the New Continent.
Xike Nemasas was one of Savaga Nemasas's more than seventy children, and one of the seven "qualified candidates" who had awakened the Boundless Primordial Worm bloodline.
Relying on his exceptional talent and the peculiarities of his bloodline, he had reached the Third Energy Level at twenty-eight under the Pure Grand Lord's full support. After stabilizing his Soul Light Body, he swiftly took a Magic Potion and became Fourth Energy Level.
His immense talent had nearly made him the Pure Grand Lord's heir. But the eastern front under his command—the fortress cluster in the