The Three Rules of Manifestation

Without hesitation, Sean focused his mind, causing the earth-style elements before him to condense into a needle that quickly pricked his finger. A drop of blood welled up, and under the guidance of his soul power, it dripped onto the pitch-black Coiling Dragon Ring.

The surface of the Coiling Dragon Ring emitted a faint, pale cyan-green glow. Had Sean not been paying such close attention, he might not have even noticed it. A few seconds later, the Coiling Dragon Ring lost its luster once more, suspended in mid-air by his soul power, yet Sean could not feel the slightest bit of protection within his own soul.

I suppose it's because I'm below the god level, so I can't fully activate this soul-defending Sovereign Artifact, Sean thought to himself. At this moment, he didn't dare utter a single word, terrified that the god from the Radiant Church might sweep the area with his divine sense.

With the discernment of a native of this material plane, one shouldn't be able to recognize a Sovereign Artifact, but if he were to accidentally let it slip, that would be suicide.

However, even though he couldn't feel any changes in his soul, Sean knew he must have successfully bound the Coiling Dragon Ring. In the original story, when Linley bound it, he was still just a child; it had succeeded simply because he accidentally dripped a bit of blood onto the ring.

Under the control of his intent, the Coiling Dragon Ring flew into his hand. Then, with a thought, the shape of the ring changed. Linley had made that mistake in the original work, but he certainly wouldn't. Although it was unlikely anyone on this material plane could recognize it, there was no harm in changing it, and the original shape was a bit too large, feeling awkward on his finger. Now that it was smaller, it was just right.

He channeled his soul power to permeate the Coiling Dragon Ring. In the original story, this Sovereign Artifact ring could be used as a spatial ring, but Sean tried several times to no avail. He guessed it was because his level wasn't high enough yet. In the original story, Linley seemed to have started using the Coiling Dragon Ring as a spatial ring only after reaching the god level.

After obtaining the Sovereign Artifact ring, Sean's heart finally settled. As long as he could reach the god level in the future, his soul defense would definitely be far superior to those at the same level. Especially if he encountered certain innate divine abilities, as long as he wasn't hit directly in the gap of the Coiling Dragon Ring, it would be an invincible absolute soul defense.

As for "Grandpa Doehring" inside the Coiling Dragon Ring, he would not appear here. Long ago, when the Coiling Dragon book appeared in his mind, it had informed him that it was impossible to manifest any life or consciousness from the book. He would have to walk his future path alone; regardless, his earth-style talent was strong, and coupled with this cheat, his potential could be described as heaven-defying.

He just wondered, if he reached a level before Linley became a Sovereign in the book, would he be able to manifest a Supreme Artifact or a Sovereign Spark? This seemed to clearly violate the laws of the universe, especially if the Four Divine Beasts weren't dead yet at this time.

After a while, Sean decided to stop thinking about these questions; they were meaningless for the time being. Just the strength Linley had to kill a Grand Perfection with one punch was something he couldn't possibly achieve under normal circumstances.

To manifest the treasures from the Coiling Dragon book in his mind, there were three rules.

The first was that his strength had to reach the level of Linley at that point in the story. For example, since Sean was currently an 8th-rank mage, he could flip through all the pages of the book before Linley reached the 9th rank.

The second was that the treasure must not have been bound to anyone. For instance, the Coiling Dragon Ring was ownerless until it was touched by Linley's blood, which was why it could be manifested. A divine artifact that appeared as someone else's weapon from the start could not be manifested, and the same applied to spatial rings.

The third was that it must not violate the most basic operating laws of the current world. As for what those laws were, Sean didn't know.

Of course, manifestations could not be repeated. For example, if an item manifested in this chapter appeared again in the next, even if it remained ownerless, it could not be manifested again.

Furthermore, the "ownerless" condition in the second rule meant it had not been bound to an owner, not that it didn't belong to anyone. For example, a gold coin might belong to Linley, but since there was no binding involved, it could still be manifested.

Touching the ring in his hand, Sean felt much more at ease. There were still three drops of Sovereign Power inside; once he reached the god level, they would be life-saving treasures, allowing him to fight even if he encountered a Highgod.

It was just a pity about that drop of Azure Dragon Essence Blood. He didn't dare absorb it casually. In the original story, the four ultimate warriors were only successful after Beirut the Sovereign had experimented on countless lives, and it was highly contingent on chance. It might even have been due to the influence of Linley, the child of destiny; otherwise, wanting to succeed in just a few thousand years felt like a pipe dream.

In the Coiling Dragon world, time was the least valuable thing. If the Azure Dragon Sovereign had known that it would take 5,000 years to create a descendant with such bloodline, he might have used his own essence blood to test it.

Returning to his secret cultivation chamber, Sean sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate. While absorbing the surrounding earth-style elements, he flipped through the Coiling Dragon book in his mind.

He had just skipped directly to the seventh chapter to find the Sovereign Artifact, but now he had to go through them one by one. Although other treasures combined couldn't compare to a Sovereign Artifact, every little bit helped.

Checking the table of contents, Sean used his soul to flip directly to the first chapter of the fifth volume, Violet Blood: The Mysterious Magic Array. There was a Highgod artifact here.

As for the mundane weapons and gold coins mentioned earlier, they were of little significance to Sean. As the most promising Saint-level successor of the Radiant Church on the Zhongyuan Continent, he never lacked such things. Gold coins were fine as long as he had enough; having too many was meaningless. What he pursued was strength and eternal life.

The content at the beginning of this chapter was Linley seeing two magical beasts kill each other—one Saint-level and one 9th-rank. Sean wouldn't manifest their corpses; they were too large, and if they suddenly appeared in Shengyue City, it would cause chaos. However, the magic core of the dead Saint-level beast was manifested by Sean.

"Not a trace of magic leaking out." Sean looked at the black, fist-sized magic core in his hand. It was just a pity that it belonged to a Dark Saint-level beast, so it was of no help to his cultivation.

After putting away the Saint-level magic core, Sean once again used his soul power to look at the Violet Blood soft sword in the book. This was an incredibly powerful weapon that could definitely be manifested before Linley bound it.

However, if he manifested it now, he wasn't sure if the Lowgods of the Zhongyuan material plane could identify it. Once it was recognized, he would be in big trouble.

After much deliberation, Sean decided not to touch it for now. It wouldn't run away from the book, and what he needed to do was focus on increasing his own strength.

Suddenly, as Sean flipped further into the book, Linley's name turned yellow.

"?" Sean froze. Items marked in red were those that could be manifested, but what did Linley's yellow mark mean?