[Summoned Beast: Zhang Ping] [Master: Zhang Ping] [Race: Human] [Potential: ???] [Lifespan: 89] [Rank: Novice Awakened] [Level: 2] [Talents] [Absolute Command: You possess absolute authority over your summoned beast. Your commands are absolutely impossible for the summoned beast to disobey.] [Absolute Obedience: You absolutely obey your summoner's commands. You will faithfully carry out your summoner's orders.] [Stable Appraisal: Can appraise a target, with an extremely small chance of obtaining information about the target. The smaller the gap in strength between both sides, the greater the chance of successfully obtaining information. Once the first appraisal succeeds, the success rate for subsequent appraisals of the same target will increase significantly. Note: A talent ability born from the thirst for knowledge of summoned beast Zhang Ping and summoner Zhang Ping.] [Nightwalker: Gain night vision, greatly reduce your presence at night, greatly increase movement speed, reduce body weight, and become completely invisible while in shadows.] [Fire Eater: Can restore physical strength by devouring flames and convert excess flames into Fire Element energy stored within the body. After releasing the energy, you will temporarily gain a flame-wreathed effect until your Fire Element reserves are exhausted.] [This ability will gradually increase the user's resistance to high temperatures.] [Note: Potential is ultimately only potential. Only when it is turned into strength does it become true power.]
After some work, Zhang Ping fed the materials into the mold, hammered them, poured fire oil over them, then sat on the ground to rest while checking his attributes.
The first thing he noticed was that his potential had lost a star.
However, after reading the note for his new talent, he realized what potential meant.
Potential was not strength.
It was power within his body that had yet to be realized.
Only through training or gaining new talents could potential be transformed into strength.
The potential of other Awakened, and even Mutated Beasts, was limited. Yet Zhang Ping could continuously strengthen his potential through Contract Gems, then turn that potential into strength through training and awakening new talents.
This was a broad road with no end in sight!
After reading the note, Zhang Ping recalled a small detail from when he had observed the Heavenly Foxes.
The adult Heavenly Foxes he had observed mostly possessed only two stars of potential, while the Heavenly Fox cub he had wanted to kill possessed four stars of potential.
At the time, he had mistakenly believed that cub was a genius among Heavenly Foxes and thus possessed greater potential.
Only now did he belatedly realize that it was because the Heavenly Fox cub's potential had yet to be turned into strength.
"No, when I awakened Nightwalker, I gained a star too."
Zhang Ping quickly recalled what had happened on the night he awakened Nightwalker. Still, it was hard to say for sure. After all, he did not know exactly how much potential Nightwalker had consumed.
Abilities of different levels definitely consumed different amounts of potential.
For example, he himself had initially been categorized as Useless Tier.
If an ability truly belonged to Useless Tier, it would definitely consume very little potential.
Following that line of thought, Nightwalker probably had limited potential, or perhaps it had not consumed much potential when he awakened it.
The ability levels of Awakened were actually difficult to appraise accurately. The evaluators could only make judgments based on past experience.
At present, Mingzhu City divided abilities into seven tiers:
[Useless Tier]
Simply put, these were abilities that could not meet their activation requirements or could not produce any effect—abilities with no use at all, such as Silent Fart and Alien Death Ray.
Silent Fart was a famous ability at Pearl Ability Academy. The name of its Awakened was unknown, but the ability was extremely simple and easy to understand: the sound of his farts would be eliminated.
During the first year, teachers repeatedly used this ability as an example.
As for the Awakened with Alien Death Ray, his eyes could emit light waves that living creatures could not see. These light waves could instantly kill all aliens.
The problem was that no aliens had ever appeared in Mingzhu City, so the ability was also categorized as Useless Tier because its target did not exist.
[Convenience Tier]
Abilities that could provide a certain amount of convenience but could not be used in battle.
For example: Cold Immunity and Tooth Regeneration.
There had once been an Awakened who gained Cold Immunity and later became a doctor.
He devoted himself to researching viruses that could cause colds in the human body. He even wanted to use viruses as weapons. In the end, he accidentally contracted a virus that did not cause colds but did cause fever, and the fever fried his brain, turning him into an idiot.
[Practical Tier]
Abilities that could provide positive assistance to their users.
For example: Storage Space, Food Enhancement, Eagle Eye, and Enhanced Smell.
The first three abilities actually had decent development potential. The reason they were categorized as Practical Tier was mainly because their Awakened often found it difficult to advance. Most stopped at Intermediate Awakened and struggled to break through into Advanced Ability Users.
Simply put, the potential of these three abilities was exhausted at the intermediate stage.
Most of the tiers beyond this were similar to Practical Tier. If strengthened without limit, they could all become extremely powerful. The issue was that once their potential ran out, they would stop progressing at different levels, which was why they were assigned different tiers.
There was another situation that could lower an ability's tier: overly harsh activation requirements.
Zhang Ping's Contract Gem only consumed physical strength and Mental Strength, but some abilities required the consumption of souls, luck, lifespan, humanity, and so on.
Because abilities of that kind could not be used frequently, their tier evaluations were also lowered.
[Combat Tier]
Abilities that could be useful in battle, such as Steel Body, Rapid Healing, Enhanced Five Senses, and Appraisal Technique.
[City Guardian Tier]
Abilities with the potential to grow into powers capable of protecting a city, such as Mind Control, Gravity Manipulation, Equipment Forging, and Heavenly Eye.
[Nation Guardian Tier]
Abilities with the potential to grow into powers capable of protecting a nation, such as Enhanced Sixth Sense and Precognition.
[Infinite Tier]
Abilities with unimaginable potential and indeterminate limits, such as Ability Replication, Divine Artifact Forging, and Wisdom Eye.
Among these seven tiers, anyone who awakened a Combat Tier ability was qualified to join the Patrol Team or Investigation Team. Some special Practical Tier abilities could also qualify to join an organization after evaluation.
For example, most users of the Practical Tier ability Storage Space were recruited by the three major organizations as logistics personnel.
Most Awakened at Pearl Ability Academy possessed Convenience Tier or Practical Tier abilities. Only a handful of geniuses could reach Combat Tier. For instance, Su Jingyao's Psychokinesis was Combat Tier. The moment she awakened it, she could lift an object weighing nearly half a ton, though she could only maintain it for thirty seconds. Then there was Zhang Chen, whom Su Jingyao had mentioned before. His Boulder Armor was also a Combat Tier ability.
As for the higher City Guardian Tier, Pearl Ability Academy had produced only one person: Luo Shiyu.
Luo Shiyu's ability was Temperature Manipulation. She could easily alter the temperature within a ten-meter radius centered on herself. If the Heavenly Foxes had not killed her too early, she would have eventually become a pillar of Mingzhu City with her potential.
As for the even higher Nation Guardian Tier and Infinite Tier, none had appeared in Mingzhu City for several centuries. Their holders existed only in textbooks.
For example, an Awakened with the Infinite Tier ability Ability Replication had appeared in Mingzhu City two hundred years ago.
This ability user could replicate every ability below Nation Guardian Tier. As for whether he could replicate Infinite Tier abilities, there had only been one Infinite Tier ability user in his era—himself—so there had been no one to test it on. The answer remained unknown.
Zhang Ping was basically certain that Contract Gem was absolutely an Infinite Tier ability.
He did not even need to replicate anyone else's abilities. As long as he continuously devoured Contract Gems, he could naturally awaken all kinds of abilities.
Becoming omnipotent was only a matter of time.
He did not continue thinking about it. After all, potential was ultimately only potential.
Though he had gained a new ability, he was still a Novice Awakened. Any Intermediate Awakened could easily beat him flat.
His second forging attempt failed without surprise.
Because Fire Eater had suddenly awakened, the furnace's temperature had been too low for a period of time. This caused some of the materials to fail to properly fuse with the refined iron. As a result, the Pearl Saber's patterns developed a large number of cracks. There was no need to test the blade to know that this saber was ruined.
Zhang Ping was somewhat disappointed, but he was not dejected because he had awakened a new ability.
He simply sat beside the furnace and continuously absorbed its flames. Whenever the flames weakened, he added more firewood and continued absorbing them.
Because he had only just awakened it, Fire Eater had limited Fire Element storage. After absorbing flames for half an hour, Zhang Ping felt full.
He could feel an extra current of energy inside his body. It was not stored in any particular organ but dispersed throughout his entire body with his blood. Whenever he wanted to control it, it flowed with his thoughts like a stream of heat.
Like a child with a new toy, he spent the entire afternoon controlling that heat flow. Sometimes he concentrated it in both fists, sometimes in both legs, and he even tried clenching his anus to gather the heat in an unspeakable place.
Honestly, this ability was far more fun than Contract Gem or Nightwalker.
Contract Gem was powerful, but it ultimately only created a gem. Both its visual effects and the feeling of controlling it were rather ordinary. Using it felt like suddenly becoming a little tired and sleepy because it consumed physical strength and Mental Strength.
As for Nightwalker, it only passively enhanced him at night and could only be considered a passive ability.
Fire Eater was different.
Fire Eater allowed him to devour flames and control the Fire Element energy within his body.
Strictly speaking, this was the first time he had truly come into contact with a superpower he could actively manipulate.
By evening, he could already control a small amount of Fire Element energy to coil around his fingers. Once that energy leaked from his fingers, it turned into flames that wrapped around them. At least visually, this ability was genuinely cool.
There was another point: Zhang Ping discovered that when his body was filled with Fire Element energy, he could also resist the cold. This gave him greater confidence about meeting the mysterious woman who had slipped him the note.
That night, after dinner, he absorbed another round of flames.
Once he confirmed that Liu Tiefeng was asleep, he left Iron Soul and headed toward the small park.