"Well, shi..."
Her words abruptly stopped, and Night Spirit Liya raised her voice.
"Wait, why are you suddenly asking this? You're not thinking of using that Authority to take them out right now, are you?!"
So all that talk I just gave you was for nothing?!
"You..."
Qin Yu tilted her head slightly, seemingly trying to avoid the loud voice beside her ear.
Unfortunately, the voice rang directly in her mind, not actually in her ears.
Seeing this, she had no choice but to stop her pointless actions and raise her gaze.
In my field of vision, the captain sat quietly to the side with his eyes lowered.
Until then.
"Alright, don't worry about that for now!"
The voice in my mind abruptly stopped.
Then, after a pause, he asked:
"Hmm? Have you figured it out?"
Although that's how he asked the question, his words were full of doubt.
Qin Yu believed without hesitation that even if the captain answered that he had figured it out, Sister Liya would still remain skeptical, after all... she herself had some doubts now.
Shen Heng looked up at Qin Yu, ' Qin Yu '.
He said, "Invoking that Authority requires mental energy, and my current state doesn't support doing that."
"Oh? Is that so? But that makes sense!" Night Spirit Liya replied, her voice tinged with barely concealed happiness.
Shen Heng, realizing this, said with a hint of helplessness, "Didn't you know?"
"I... this..." Liya Nolandir paused, then said, "I didn't Authority of Distortion, how would I know so clearly? It's already quite good that I know I can use it as long as I want to!"
"But didn't I tell you before that using the ' Distortion ' Authority consumes Origin Power and mental energy?"
"Your Authority comes from the rules and Origin Power within this palace. It shouldn't require you to expend any of it; the ' Distortion ' rules will automatically adapt."
"But what you want to do is something you need to figure out yourself."
"So, it's not surprising that it takes mental energy!"
There was no response; Shen Heng sat silently in place.
The pain lingered in his mind, forcing him to furrow his brow slightly.
"Don't worry, we've already been stuck in this godforsaken place for so long, one more day or two won't make a difference," Liya Nolandir reassured her.
"Perfect timing, you can use this time to get closer to the Distortion Authority."
"The more you are exposed to, the greater the chance you will successfully embark on a ' Distortion ' path in the future."
"Otherwise, having only used the Authority of Distortion once, while you are still stronger than other beings who have never come into contact with the Authority of Distortion, you are still quite far from truly embarking on the path of ' Distortion '."
Shen Heng slowly nodded. He didn't explain, but instead asked...
"... In short, that's roughly the gist of the information regarding the paths after the Seventh Tier."
"Is there anything you'd like to ask?"
Night Spirit Liya asked, her gaze passing through Qin Yu's line of sight to Shen Heng beside her.
Yesterday, the communication stopped halfway through. Shen Heng didn't force himself to ask questions, but stopped voluntarily after feeling the increasingly intense discomfort.
It wasn't until I woke up today and started walking outside that I continued.
Just now, I was talking about some examples of the paths taken by the Calamity Beast.
Shen Heng glanced at the Stone jogging forward, then turned his gaze slightly to Qin Yu beside him.
He silenced his voice, so that only the two of them could hear it.
"Therefore, apart from the known paths, there's no way to judge the strength of other, lesser-known or unseen paths based on their simple names or effects?"
"Emm... it's not entirely impossible. We can make a rough judgment based on the scope and type of the name, but it's very inaccurate," Night Spirit Liya said after a pause.
"Scope? Type?" Shen Heng asked in a low voice.
"Mm," Liya Nolandir replied.
"For example, the rocks, soil, and mountains I mentioned before—these paths point to relatively singular things. While they aren't weak either, their intensity is far less than that of the path 'Earth.' The path 'Earth' encompasses everything they point to."
"For example, the paths of tides and water are far inferior to the path of the 'ocean.'"
"In short, the more things the path you take leads to, the stronger it becomes."
"Of course, the more difficult it will be to successfully embark on that path."
"After all, if it's rocks, mountains, soil, and so on, there are concrete things for you to see. Even if they are difficult to understand, there are still things for you to see and understand."
"But things like the earth and the ocean are... well, in your words, abstract. They're so abstract that you don't even know what they actually are."
Shen Heng nodded slightly, having gained a general understanding of the matter.
Simply put, the broader the concept, the more resources can be mobilized, and the stronger the capabilities become.
But at the same time, it also makes it more difficult to get started.
"As for the type," Night Spirit Liya continued from the side.
"We Night Spirit Clan categorize roads into three types."
"Object-based, image-based, and pattern-based categories."
"Objects are things like rocks and soil, tangible objects; imagery is things like the earth and the ocean, intangible objects; as for laws, they are things like Order and Distortion, which I mentioned to you before, representing the fundamental laws governing the operation of the world."
There is no strict distinction between strong and weak among the three types.
"It's normal for the path based on physical objects to defeat the path based on intentionality, and it's also normal for the path based on intentionality to defeat the path based on patterns..."
"Emm... there are relatively few of these. The regular paths are usually quite strong, but there are still some weak ones, those that get defeated by the first two types."
So, overall...
"Besides the regular type, which can be roughly identified as not weak, the other two types can only be used to clearly determine the strength or weakness when they are the same type of road, just like the relationship between rocks, soil, and the earth that I mentioned earlier."
"Furthermore, the boundaries between these three types are actually quite blurry."
"Like mountains and tides, they can be classified as either physical objects or symbolic representations..."
The sound continued to ring out from the side.
Shen Heng listened silently.
Objects, images, patterns.
The three types are not difficult to understand, but...
He paused, then slightly raised his eyes.
Are Distortion and Order also classified as patterns?
Is it because of cultural differences that the definitions of this type differ, or is there indeed a pattern of Distortion and Order?