A hundred-thousand-year Stigmata, the Mountain-Mover Ape, holds the power to manipulate gravity. Yet, simply bonding with this Stigmata isn't enough to wield its might. One must activate the soul information within its genetic makeup to gain mastery over this unique power, which exists independently of a spirit.
The conclusion of the Tianquan Auction was like a massive stone dropped into a deep pool, its ripples spreading and resonating across every inch of the Douluo Continent. News of the Stigmatas spread rapidly like a strong wind through various channels. Keen observers among the powerful factions immediately sensed that the Stigmatas revealed at this auction were subtly disrupting the balance of power that had held the Douluo Continent stable for ten millennia.
The top figures in the Spirit Master world were far from ignorant. From their positions of ultimate authority, they possessed an unparalleled clear understanding of the increasingly faint roars from the Spirit Beast Forest and the shrinking borders of spirit beast habitats each year. Their private records held detailed charts showing a sharp decline in spirit beast numbers over the last few thousand years—a nearly vertical plunge towards extinction. They deeply understood that once the last spirit beast fell, the spirit ring system, essential for Spirit Master advancement, would completely crumble, and their age-old profession would become mere dust in history.
However, this predicament was like a tightening noose. The more they struggled, the tighter it became. Forbidding Spirit Masters from hunting spirit beasts for spirit rings would be like cutting off the path of advancement for an entire class. In this world, where strength reigned supreme, anyone proposing such a thing would surely become an enemy to the entire Spirit Master community, facing widespread opposition. Furthermore, the crisis of spirit beast extinction seemed distant. Driven by a "lucky" mindset of "future generations can deal with it in a hundred years," how many were truly willing to sacrifice immediate gains to challenge these deeply rooted norms?
The appearance of the Stigmata was like the first light of dawn piercing through a long night. Although its creation difficulty was still unknown, and only one finished product had appeared so far, this faint glow had already illuminated a completely new direction. For human Spirit Masters, it meant the chance to achieve breakthroughs without the burden of slaughtering spirit beasts. For the spirit beast races, it offered a glimmer of hope for the continuation of their species. This was not merely a technological innovation; it was the beginning of breaking the long-standing "human-beast conflict."
News of the Stigmata's emergence spread like wildfire through the intelligence networks of the Douluo Continent. In just three days, across the Star Luo Empire, the Heaven Dou Empire, the Dou Ling Empire, Shrek Academy, the Sun Moon Empire, the Body Sect, and other regions, there was fervent discussion about this revolutionary invention from Haiyuan City. The gaze of countless forces fixated on this suddenly rising city. Covert agents and official envoys, like a tide, converged on this epicenter of change.
Lu Jingming felt no pressure facing this situation. Haiyuan City was vastly different now. Jingliu had already solidified her divine perception, stepping into the demigod realm, and with her sword mastery, she could even slay deities. Möbius, leading the World Serpent, had also reached the demigod level, surpassing others with Lu Jingming's backing. However, as a researcher, her combat power wasn't as extraordinary as Jingliu's, preventing her from slaying deities as a mortal. Herta was even more enigmatic; even Lu Jingming found it hard to estimate her true strength, but it was certain she was no weaker than Jingliu currently. Moreover, her importance lay not in combat ability, but in her exceptional intellect and vast knowledge.
Changli, a ninety-eighth-ranked Title Douluo with the divine beast Phoenix spirit, could hold her own against an ultimate Title Douluo. The newly summoned Dan Heng, possessing twin spirits and also a ninety-eighth-ranked Title Douluo, could not only contend with ultimate Title Douluo but also battle demigods. Ji Yingying was a ninety-seventh-ranked Title Douluo, her strength also considerable. Keqing, Ningguang, and Zhang Lexuan were all Spirit Douluo, but for now, Haiyuan City didn't need them in combat.
Adding to this were the members of the World Serpent who had bonded with the Pseudo-Ice Authority Core and had already ascended to the demigod realm, just one step away from breaking through the hundred-level barrier: the Fifth Throne, Snow Empress. It could be said that, solely in terms of high-tier combat power, Haiyuan City was now truly the strongest force on the Douluo Continent.
Admittedly, in terms of mid-to-low-tier strength, Haiyuan City was indeed slightly inferior. But with the Star Crown Sect as allies and their fusion warrior technology, catching up to the established powers was only a matter of time.
Lu Jingming was well aware of the massive ripples the Stigmata's appearance would create. In the original tale, when Huo Yuhao introduced the Spirit Soul technology, Shrek Academy didn't dare to monopolize it, opting instead to establish the Spirit Transferring Pagoda jointly with other factions for shared oversight. The Stigmata's effect was even more potent than Spirit Souls, and more benevolent towards spirit beasts, as creating Spirit Souls still required a spirit beast's soul, whereas Stigmatas did not.
On the anti-gravity observation deck floating atop the Daydream Hotel, Lu Jingming gazed down at the bustling crowd below, feeling the continuously increasing Realization Power. A smile unconsciously formed on his lips. He had long anticipated that the Stigmata's appearance would bring him a large amount of Realization Power. He had been overly cautious before, thinking of waiting a bit longer until Haiyuan City grew even stronger. But Möbius took the initiative to place the Stigmata on the auction block, accelerating this timing. However, he tacitly approved of it; otherwise, he could have completely prevented Xu Jiujiu from introducing the Stigmata's efficacy when the auction began.
Lu Jingming slowly raised his left hand. As the Realization Power was consumed, blood-red patterns began to emerge on the back of his hand. When the blood-red Stigmata fully solidified, the sky instantly underwent a dramatic change. Dense lightning bolts rolled and raged within the clouds, followed by a thick blue lightning bolt that struck straight down, hitting Lu Jingming directly. Yet, this lightning did not harm him in the slightest. Instead, it gathered in his hand, joyfully dancing, as if it had found its true master. Simultaneously, within his spiritual sea of consciousness, a space filled with lightning opened up; this was the Stigmata Space belonging to this Stigmata of Thunder. The Stigmata Awakening was completed in an instant. This condition, which would be difficult for others to achieve in a lifetime, Lu Jingming easily accomplished the moment he obtained the Stigmata.
Meanwhile, within the Stigmata Space, a graceful figure gradually materialized. Her eyes were tightly closed, like a sleeping beauty, her soft purple hair particularly striking. Lu Jingming glanced at the beautiful sleeping figure in the Stigmata Space, a slight curve on his lips. He truly disliked having other consciousnesses within him, like the Skydream Iceworm and Electrolux, but if it was her, he didn't mind.
Lu Jingming loosely closed his palm, and lightning gathered within it, emitting sounds like thousands of birds singing. Feeling the joyous celebration of the lightning element, a flicker of lightning flashed in his eyes. This was not a power belonging to a spirit, but an Authority, the Authority of Thunder, a power belonging to a deity.
Regarding the Stigmata, Lu Jingming concealed many crucial pieces of information, such as the Stigmata Space. Its function was far more than simply containing the Stigmata's will. The true marvel of the Stigmata Space lay in its ability to accommodate a divine position. This was an effect Möbius accidentally discovered when creating the Stigmata.
In this world, divine positions were paramount. A deity without a divine position, whether in power or lifespan, was far inferior to a deity who possessed one. Unless one could break through to a higher level, they could not completely shed their reliance on a divine position. Otherwise, even a God King would not easily abandon their divine position. Like Sea God Tang San, even with two divine positions, he never thought of giving them up, because he needed the power boost they provided. Of course, there were also deities like Emotion God Rong Nianbing, whose strength wouldn't decline too much even if they abandoned their divine position, but these were a minority. Most deities, unless utterly disgusted with the responsibilities of holding a divine position, would not easily give it up.
In this universe, only the God Realm could accommodate divine positions. But the problem was that the divine positions in the Douluo God Realm were full, and due to Sea God Tang San's obstruction, the God of Destruction's plan to expand the God Realm also failed to materialize. Therefore, if one wished to cultivate god-level combat power on the Douluo Continent, finding an alternative path became an inevitable choice. Originally, Lu Jingming planned to find a solution from the perspective of Devastation Energy, or hoped that Jingliu and Herta would have a good strategy. He never expected Möbius to solve this major problem as soon as she arrived.
The Stigmata Space was a unique existence, its form similar to the God Realm, both composed of pure mental power and existing in a different dimension from the real universe. Thus, the Stigmata Space could completely accommodate a divine position, just like the God Realm. However, the Stigmata Space could only accommodate one divine position, unlike the God Realm which could accommodate many. One could say that the Stigmata Space was a personal, portable God Realm.
Lu Jingming, having just obtained the Stigmata of Thunder and opened up the Stigmata Space, had not yet condensed a divine position, but had already obtained fragments of the Authority of Thunder. This fragment of the Authority of Thunder did not originate from the sublimation of his original power, but was a power granted to him by the Stigmata's will, which was dormant in the Stigmata Space. After all, his original power came from the Abyssal White Flower, so even if he opened a Stigmata Space, it should involve powers like death or life, not lightning.
With the fragment of the Authority of Thunder in the Stigmata Space, he only needed to feed it with faith power or other high-level energies, such as Devastation Energy. Given time, he would be able to condense the divine position of a Thunder God within the Stigmata Space. Moreover, the "Sleeping Beauty" dormant in the Stigmata Space possessed more than just the Authority of Thunder. By then, the divine position he condensed would certainly not be merely that of a Thunder God.
Most importantly, a Spirit Master could absorb more than one Stigmata, meaning more than one Stigmata Space could be opened, and naturally, more than one divine position could be condensed simultaneously. The existence of the Stigmata Space directly led to the result that dual divine positions were no longer exclusive to Sea God Tang San, and it was even possible for deities with three divine positions to appear.
However, all of this was still a potential future scenario. After all, merely a single Stigmata Awakening stumped the vast majority of people, let alone sublimating one's own power into Authority fragments and then condensing a rudimentary divine position. Only an existence like Lu Jingming, who was essentially "cheating," could achieve a rudimentary divine position through a clever method. But having a rudimentary divine position, it was not an exaggeration to say that he was now a Thunder God's divine position successor. After all, he could also use the fragment of the Authority of Thunder in the Stigmata Space to convert faith power, spirit power, and even the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into divine power. It was just that his current strength was still weak, the conversion efficiency was extremely low, so there was no need to do so for now.
But it was undeniable that the appearance of the Stigmata raised the upper limit of the Douluo Continent's cultivation system, allowing Spirit Masters to no longer be entirely dependent on the God Realm, and to pursue higher levels of power without having to ascend to the God Realm. However, for now, only a select few knew this secret. Others only understood the superficial effects of the Stigmata.
As for the Douluo Continent's inability to accommodate higher-level powers, and its spontaneous rejection of powers above the god level, it was not an issue for Stigmata possessors. As long as they closed the connection between the Stigmata Space and this world, concealing their own power, they could completely bypass the World Will and remain on the Douluo Continent, without being expelled from this planet. Moreover, if a large number of strong individuals stayed on this planet, then this planet could gradually grow stronger, and the upper limit of strong individuals it could accommodate would also increase.
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