"It's because of the Essence Flow," the sacral clone thought in his mind, "It makes awakening those atoms much easier."
He also noticed something more. The Essence Flow did not just help with awakening—it upgraded the atoms too, making them stronger and of a higher level.
Awakened atoms grew more powerful under the Essence Flow's influence. Still, a single atom could not affect the world. But when great numbers awakened, like in the child, they could unleash massive destruction.
But....Even with the Essence Flow making it easier, the child should not have awakened so many atoms. His own body, which stayed in high concentrations of Essence Flow most of the time, had awakened far fewer. Yet the child had awakened half of his—around five octillion.
This raised a deeper question. He tried to gain insight using his Divine Sage profession, but nothing came.
These atoms were beyond his current level to see clearly. It was not that the atoms held great power—even if the child awakened every single one, they would still be no threat to him. The issue lay in their sheer smallness and vast number; his Divine Sage insights simply could not reach or calculate them all.
The Divine Sage profession worked best on the grand scheme of the universe—tracking big variables that affect the world. It was like viewing the world as a chessboard where players moved the pieces by calculating their next moves in their minds. But when the pieces themselves became the countless atoms forming the entire board, what will happened? Can players even register the moves of those unimaginable numbers of atoms? No!
(Even a small ant possess a few hundred quintillion at minimum, let alone a chessboard!)
The complexity would overwhelm any mind, even his own. It could destroy anyone who tried to grasp it fully.
Even though he could see the atoms with his divine senses, seeing and calculating them were entirely different things. He could observe, but he could not compute their interactions.
That was why he could predict nothing about them. It also explained why he had failed to foresee anything about the child beforehand.
Still, he could not find the answer to how the child had awakened so many atoms. He decided to think about it more later. For now, he needed to deal with the kid.
As he focused on the child again, something caught his attention. He murmured, "How can this child carry so much sorrow, anger, and grief? These extreme negative emotions should not be in a child like this. What happened to him?"
He felt confused. The child slept peacefully right now. Yet he could clearly sense those intense emotions swirling deep inside.
The sacral clone spoke up with a questioning tone. "It couldn't be because of the emotions?"
"That's it!" After a moment of reflection, he grew certain this was the reason.
Even normal emotions could influence the awakening of those atoms. Extreme ones like these had surely driven them to awaken in such great numbers.
Before the Essence Flow arrived on Earth, humans typically awakened only around a thousand atoms at most. Extreme emotions could stir some atoms awake, but the total never climbed much higher.
After the Essence Flow came, awakening grew far easier and the atoms became stronger—just like elemental essence had been upgraded. The number of awakened atoms could now reach staggering heights. Extreme emotions pushed those numbers even further, making the awakened atoms more powerful and far greater in quantity, easily capable of mass destruction.
Now the child's extreme emotions had driven the awakening of so many atoms. Even while he slept, the number kept slowly increasing. His emotions continued to affect the atoms, awakening more even in his sleep.
On the other hand, he himself controlled his emotions tightly. He rarely felt strong feelings at all. That restraint had kept him from awakening many atoms in his own body—though the number he did awaken was still far greater than any other human's, thanks to living in areas of high Essence Flow concentration.
The same went for other humans. They rarely experienced such extreme emotions. That kept them from awakening many atoms in their bodies.
Of course, extreme emotions did not always guarantee awakening. Otherwise, even a raging bull would have awakened its atoms. But animals like that showed no such changes.
He had carefully sensed the area within 20,000 kilometers. No one there resembled the child. None had awakened such a vast number of atoms.
Something more must have happened to the child to unlock this power.
The sacral clone decided to search the child's memories. He wanted to uncover what had caused those extreme negative emotions. What terrible experiences had the boy endured?
If he learned more, he could try to create a method for awakening those atoms. He had witnessed the child's raw power firsthand. It came not from cultivation but from the boy's own body—even without training, he had erased an entire school building with only his body's atoms and basic elements like darkness and fire, though the power had been completely out of his control.
But if the sacral clone could awaken atoms with higher elements, like space, gravity, or soul, his strength would soar. He craved that power. He truly wanted to grow stronger.
This method would not just benefit him. It would strengthen his family too.
Of course, cultivation remained far more important. Those atoms offered only unique powers. He did not even know if they would keep growing stronger once all were awakened.
After every atom awakened, would they halt there? Or could they evolve further? If so, how?
Cultivation was different—it boosted everything. Not just raw strength, but reactions, lifespan, defense, and mystic abilities too.
Still, the chance to gain more strength and unique powers intrigued him.
Now he just needed to delve into the child's memories.
***
Thanks kiwami803 for your support.