Torvain spoke first, "You never mentioned your concept's tier."
Adrian met his gaze calmly, "You never asked."
Lara's mouth opened slightly, then closed. Maelis blinked twice, as if the simplicity of the statement had short-circuited her ability to respond. Even Kaya, standing several paces away, looked between Adrian and the elders with growing unease.
For a moment, the elders were left dumbfounded by the simplicity of the answer. He was not wrong. None of them had asked directly, and they had simply assumed that his divine concept was high-tier.
Torvain's jaw tightened. His hands flexed at his sides, crimson essence flickering faintly around his knuckles before he forced it down. When he spoke again, his tone had shifted sharper, more direct.
"You stated your authority is only seventy percent." Torvain stepped forward, closing the distance between them by half. "But now you are wielding an ultimate-tier concept, and not only that, you can even suppress it completely. That implies full mastery. Full mastery of an ultimate-tier concept means ninety percent authority."
Torvain's expression darkened as he pressed forward. "So tell me, why are you deliberately understating your power? And more importantly, what is your true goal here?"
The question hung in the air like a blade poised to fall.
Torvain had reached the end of his patience. Earlier, when Adrian had understated his authority, he had chosen not to escalate the matter. A small discrepancy could be overlooked, particularly when dealing with someone who had saved Lyra and returned the key. Now, however, the implications were too serious to ignore. An ultimate-tier divine concept was not something a lesser minor sect encountered casually. Such beings did not wander into dying sects without purpose.
Around them, the other elders waited intently for Adrian's answer. The disciples, meanwhile, were still processing the shock of learning that the divine concept they had just sensed was ultimate-tier. Unlike the elders, they lacked the experience to immediately identify such things, but now the truth had been spoken aloud. Kaya's hands trembled faintly. The scaled female had gone rigid.
Adrian looked at all of them and finally understood the misunderstanding that had been forming from the beginning. When he spoke with the sect leader earlier, he had only realized that suppressing his divine concept would project him as someone powerful, but not someone who had fully mastered their concept. Now it was clear. In the universe, suppression itself was considered proof of mastery. Only someone who had fully mastered their divine concept could hide it entirely. This had happened due to his lack of knowledge.
He could not allow them to believe that his authority was ninety percent. Such a misunderstanding would shape every decision they made going forward and lead to expectations he could not fulfill. If they entered battle believing he possessed that level of power, they would take risks assuming he could compensate. People would die.
Adrian's voice remained steady, unruffled by the accusation embedded in Torvain's words. "What I said before is the truth. I only have seventy percent authority."
Torvain's eyes flashed, "That's—"
"You can sense it for yourselves," Adrian continued, "Does it feel like ninety percent to you?"
The interruption worked. Torvain stopped mid-word, his mouth snapping shut.
The elders focused their perception on him, pushing past the instinctive recoil their concepts experienced when faced with something superior. They could not pinpoint an exact number, authority percentages were not something that they could measure with perfect precision even with their experience, but they could clearly tell that it did not feel overwhelming enough to reach ninety percent.
Lara's brow furrowed. The pressure was immense, yes, but it lacked the crushing, absolute quality she had felt once before when encountering a major sect elder. Instead, it felt comparable to Hestia's presence, dominant, refined, but not utterly insurmountable. That meant his authority was indeed within the expected range of a peak rule stage wielding a mid-tier divine concept.
Torvain opened his eyes, "Then how are you suppressing your authority without having fully mastered your divine concept?"
That was the question at the heart of everything. It was the reason assumptions had spiraled so far. Suppression required absolute control, and absolute control only came with full mastery. That was universal law. That was what every cultivator in every sect across every galaxy understood.
Adrian answered, "I possess a special method that allows me to do this. I cannot reveal any further details."
In truth, even if Adrian wanted to explain it, he could not. Such a method did not exist with him in the first place. He had always been able to suppress his divine concepts freely, including the Source itself. He had never known that full mastery was considered a prerequisite. The Source simply obeyed his will, bending to whatever he desired. Whether that was a natural function of wielding the origin of all concepts or something unique to him specifically, Adrian did not know.
Hearing this, the elders began to calm. They did not know whether such a method truly existed, but none of them would dare claim knowledge of everything in the universe. Techniques passed down through ancient sects, secret arts developed by reclusive geniuses, forbidden knowledge salvaged from ruins, any of these could account for what they were witnessing. The possibility was reasonable.
More importantly, the explanation aligned with logic. If Adrian truly possessed ninety percent authority, then he would be comparable to elders of a major sect. A being of that level would have no reason to involve himself with a lesser minor sect on the brink of collapse. They would have countless better opportunities, safer paths, and more prestigious positions waiting for them elsewhere.
Seventy percent authority, on the other hand, while still extraordinary, placed him within a range they could accept.
Torvain studied Adrian for another long moment, then nodded once. "Understood."
Finally, Lara spoke, "We need to move forward. Wasting time here only benefits the Everlasting Pill Sect."
Her crimson essence flared brighter around her, pushing back the chaotic energy with renewed focus.
Everyone nodded in agreement and lifted into the air once more. Divine domains expanded, each cultivator wrapping themselves in their respective authorities. With authority pushing back the chaotic energies around them, movement became significantly easier. The oppressive resistance that had forced them to walk earlier now yielded, allowing controlled flight through the devastated landscape.
Adrian rose alongside them, his Source domain compressed tightly around his body, authority held at precisely seventy percent.
They advanced together, maintaining the same formation as before. As they traveled, the energy around them grew denser and more aggressive with every passing kilometre.
No one knew how far they still had to travel, but the intensifying resistance confirmed they were approaching the source of the disturbance.
Torvain glanced at Lara. She nodded once, her expression grim. They had both felt it, the shift in the environment, the way the chaotic energies seemed to pulse with rhythm now rather than random turbulence. Something vast lay ahead, something that had warped the very fabric of this place.
But eventually, they were forced to halt and descend to the ground to rest.
The disciples dropped from the sky like stones, landing heavily on the cracked earth. Several collapsed immediately onto their knees. One young man with four arms braced himself against a broken pillar.
The elders and Adrian remained composed, but the Mid Rule Stage disciples had already expended nearly half of their mana reserves.
"Form a perimeter," Lara commanded, her crimson essence still burning brightly around her. "Torvain, you go and check the surroundings. No one sleeps until we've assessed the situation."
Torvain moved to the group's edge, his divine domain expanding outward in a slow sweep, searching for threats in the murky haze beyond their position.
On average, each disciple possessed around twenty thousand Mana Units, and most had already burned through ten thousand. If they continued without rest and encountered danger, they would be unable to fight at full strength.
Maelis knelt beside Kaya, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder, "How much do you have left?"
Kaya replied, "Maybe... twelve thousand units. Perhaps less."
Just this mana consumption would not weaken them, the true culprit was the willforce. Maelis could understand this.
"Then rest now. All of you." Maelis straightened, addressing the disciples as a group. "Recover what you can. We don't know what waits ahead."
The elders, with authority exceeding fifty percent, were largely unaffected. Their consumption was minimal, roughly five thousand Mana Units at most, with their total reserves nearing fifty thousand. Their Willforce was also higher due to their personal experiences, so that too didn't affect them.
Lara stood apart from the others, her gaze fixed on the swirling chaos ahead. She felt the weight of every decision pressing down on her shoulders. They were exposed here, vulnerable. If the Everlasting Pill Sect stumbled upon them now, whilst the disciples were depleted...
She pushed the thought aside. Dwelling on possibilities achieved nothing.
Adrian was in a better position than everyone. With nearly forty thousand mana units and his authority at seventy percent, his consumption had been lower still. He had used only around three thousand mana units.
He stood slightly removed from the group. His expression remained neutral, but his mind worked rapidly, analyzing the situation from every angle.
He watched as the disciples sat cross-legged on the barren ground and consumed mana pills to restore their reserves.
Pills emerged from spatial rings, each one glowing faintly with concentrated mana. The disciples swallowed them quickly, grimacing at the taste or the sudden surge of energy flooding their systems. Within moments, their auras brightened, mana reserves climbing back toward their full capacity.
Their mana recovered quickly, but rest was still required. No one could accurately measure how much willforce they had expended, and willforce could only recover naturally through rest.
Torvain returned from his sweep of the perimeter, shaking his head at Lara's questioning look. Nothing. They were alone for now.
"How long do we need to stay here?" Lara asked quietly.
"At least two hours," Maelis answered, crouching beside another disciple who looked particularly drained, "Maybe three to be safe."
Lara's jaw tightened, but she nodded. They had no choice.
Adrian felt a growing sense of urgency. If this pattern continued, how long would it take for them to search the entire planet and find the plant they needed?
The relic planet was enormous. Even their perception range here was reduced to mere kilometres. Searching systematically would take weeks, perhaps months. They did not have that kind of time. The Everlasting Pill Sect had entered first, and every hour that passed gave them more opportunity to locate the alchemy garden.
Time was not on their side. At this rate, finding the alchemy garden before the Everlasting Pill Sect would be uncertain.
He needed a solution. But what could he do? Even he had no method to recover willforce quickly. He didn't even have a proper understanding of it. Not even the Source offered a solution to that problem.
Adrian had tested things before, during his experiments with divine concepts. Willforce could not be manufactured artificially or transferred. It could only recover through rest. And it even differed for each person.
Since willforce could not be addressed directly, his thoughts turned outward. This environment itself was the root cause of their exhaustion. If the environment could be dealt with, the problem would ease.
The chaotic energies were the enemy here, not distance or time. Remove them, or at least reduce their intensity, and the disciples could move freely. Their mana consumption would drop. Their willforce expenditure would slow. Everything would become easier.
Could he neutralize it?
Adrian extended his perception outward, feeling the way the chaotic divine energies moved. They were not random, despite appearances. There was structure here, broken and corrupted, but still present. Ancient formations, collapsed and leaking essence. Divine concepts that had decayed over millennia, their rules fragmenting into contradiction.
He was not sure if he could neutralize this. Even his Source domain faced resistance here. Its current purity was insufficient to fully dominate the chaotic divine energies surrounding them.
His authority was absolute if he didn't suppress it, yes, but that range was limited. Thirty metres. Beyond that, his control dropped sharply. And even within his domain, the chaotic energies fought back.
As Adrian pondered this, something stirred within him.
It was subtle at first, a faint tremor deep in his core. He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as he turned his attention inward.
Deep inside his Source Seed, the Devour concept chamber pulsed erratically.
The sensation was strange, almost uncomfortable. Unlike the other concepts, which remained still and obedient within their chambers, Devour moved. It writhed, pressing against the boundaries of its containment, as if straining toward something beyond.
It was not random. It felt deliberate, almost insistent, as if the will of Devour itself was trying to draw his attention.
Adrian turned inward, focusing on the Devour chamber.
Adrian could feel the hunger radiating from it, primal and overwhelming. Devour wanted to consume. That was its nature, its purpose, its existence.
But what was it reacting to?
This was a concept that had submitted to him during his battle with the Demon Emperor, but he had not even actively used it or comprehended it much.
Now, as he examined the chaotic energies suffocating the land, a thought emerged. The Demon Emperor had devoured not just energy, but memories, concepts, and anything with it.
If that was possible, then why not this? Could he devour the chaotic energies here? If the Demon Emperor could do it, then could he do it too?