Chapter 407: System awakened again The passage of time in the negative plane was hard to measure. There were no stars to track and no sun to watch. For Ethan, the only clock was the steady pulse of his own blood and the quiet hum of his cells. Five months had passed since he entered this world of inverted laws. Deep inside his spiritual world, the World Tree spoke. "Master, I have refined those 100 million bloodlines I collected. I have boiled them down to the 10,000 supreme essences. Would you like to merge with them now?" Ethan opened his eyes. The grey mist of the negative world swirled around him like a hungry ghost. He looked at his own skin. It was shimmering. Half of the cells in his body had already turned golden, fueled by the endless flow of physical entropy. "Yes,"Ethan replied. The command was like pulling a trigger. Instantly, the 10,000 supreme bloodlines surged into his veins. They did not just enter his body; they attacked his Omni Bloodline. It was a chaotic war of biological data. Boom! A tremendous pressure gushed out from Ethan’s body. The void he was sitting in cracked open. The air for thousands of miles around him turned heavy enough to crush anything. Ethan tried to suppress the aura to stay hidden, but it was far too late. The transformation was too violent to be quiet. At that moment, his sixth sense screamed at him. It was a feeling of destiny. He knew it was time. "Yumiko," he whispered into his own mind. "You should awaken now." After he said those words, a familiar sound echoed in his head. It was a sound he had not heard in a long time. [Ding! The system is at your service, Master.] Ethan didn’t even have time to welcome her back. A wave of pain, sharper than any blade, tore through his very existence. It felt like his soul was being pulled through a needle. He gasped for air, his eyes wide. "Ahhhh!" He looked inside his ocean of essence, the place where his power was stored. Something impossible was happening. Normally, a positive cultivator had an ocean of energy and a negative cultivator had an ocean of entropy. But now, another ocean was forming directly above the ocean of energy. This new sea was not made of energy. It was made of pure, raw entropy. His positive existence was giving birth to a negative sea of power. This was existentially impossible. The creators had designed laws to prevent such a combination from ever occurring. Energy and entropy were supposed to cancel each other out. But in Ethan’s body, they were learning to live together. The ocean of energy he already possessed was infinite. Because of the balance of the universe, the new ocean of entropy began to expand to match it. Ethan watched, mesmerized, as the finite became infinite. His Infinite Comprehension ability activated automatically, soaking up every detail of this cosmic event. Outside, the entire negative plane began to shake. The ground rolled like waves on a sea. Ethan’s aura was rising at a terrifying speed. It shot past the limits of a normal Eternal Sovereign and raced toward the Source Authority realm. In the distance, powerful beings of the negative world watched the place. They were confused. "Was he not a Source Authority being already?" one of them asked, his voice trembling. Why is his power at the Eternal Sovereign level now and increasing so fast? "Should we kill him?" another suggested. "He is a threat to the balance." "No," a third one replied. "He is too mysterious. We cannot take the risk of starting a war ourselves. If we fail to kill him in one hit, the eternal war might start early because of us." In the deepest, darkest corner of the negative plane, a being opened his eyes. He was the one from whom the Lotus of Creation had originated. He was the highest Source Authority being in both the positive and negative planes. His name was Erebus. Some legends said his strength had already entered the Absolute Continuum realm. Because he was so powerful, "The Presence" couldn’t kill him. Instead, he messed with his memories to keep him dormant. Erebus sat up. "Huh? Why am I awake again? What happened this time?" He turned his head toward Ethan’s position. He felt a familiar aura. It was faint and suppressed, but it called to him like a long lost relative. Erebus stood up. He didn’t use a portal. He simply stepped out of his dimension and into the negative world. Instantly, the entire negative plane shook again. This time, it was much more intense. Shadows began to grow longer. Darkness started to swallow everything. "No, no, no!" the Source Authority beings screamed. "That monster has come out! We are doomed! Everything is over!" But Erebus ignored them. To him, they were no different than dust. His only target was Ethan. He began to walk. Every step he took crossed millions of miles. Ethan was still going through his evolution, unaware that death was walking toward him. His actual realm, which had been stuck at the Progenitor level, was breaking through continuously. He finally became a true Eternal Sovereign. He could feel the gates of the Source Authority realm right in front of him, but they remained closed for now. The Sword of Infinity also flew into his ocean of essence. It floated right between the two oceans, the sea of energy and the sea of entropy. The sword began to glow with a strange, grey light. It was evolving alongside its master. Finally, the violent shaking inside his body stopped. The evolution of his bloodline and essence was over. His cells were still turning golden, but the main storm had passed. [Master, I am at your service again],Yumiko’s voice sounded in his mind. "Thank you, Yumiko," Ethan said. "I missed having you here." He opened his system interface to see his new status. [Master: Ethan Hunt Realm: Eternal Sovereign Physique: Eternal Sovereign Spirit: Eternal Sovereign Talent: Infinite Comprehension System Ability: Creation of All Things Bloodline: Infinite Bloodline] Ethan sighed. Even with all that power, he still hadn’t reached the Source Authority level. The gap between realms was like a canyon that had no bottom. [Master, the system has also evolved] "How so?"Ethan asked. [Before, your power would have doubled every day. But now, a new feature is included. The system will copy the power of the highest being you have fought. It will then double your power from that new peak every day.] Ethan’s heart skipped a beat. "What?" "That means if I fight an Absolute Continuum being, I would gain his level of power?" [It means exactly that. But you will have to survive the fight first. And you must wait for the day to end before the power becomes yours.] Ethan’s excitement cooled down instantly. Surviving a fight with a being like that was impossible. It was like an ant trying to survive being stepped on by a giant. He looked at his ocean of entropy. It had turned infinite so quickly that he didn’t have time to fully understand the process. However, he knew his bloodline had changed. It was no longer the Omni Bloodline. It was now the Infinite Bloodline. He could feel that he could slowly create his own law now. He was millions of times more powerful than he had been just a few hours ago. Just as he was about to go back into meditation, the air in front of him froze. A shadow appeared. It was not a shadow cast by light, but a physical manifestation of darkness and death. Erebus stood there, looking at Ethan with eyes that seemed to hold the end of the existence. Ethan’s eyes went wide. He felt his throat go dry. He gulped, trying to find his breath. The aura coming from this man was vaster than Ethan’s own power, even when he had used the Sword of Infinity. "Who is he?" Ethan thought. [Master, he is a top Source Authority realm being. His power vastly surpasses every other ruler in this world. If you fight him and win, or even just survive, you will hit the jackpot today.] Ethan looked at Erebus. The man in white didn’t look angry. He looked curious. But the pressure he gave off was enough to make the Law of Entropy itself bow down. Ethan slowly reached for the Sword of Infinity. He knew that this was the most dangerous moment of his life. Erebus spoke, and his voice sounded like the grinding of tectonic plates. "You have a strange smell, little human. You belong to the light, yet you carry the dark. Tell me, who gave you the right to hold both?" Ethan didn’t answer. He stood up and gripped his sword. He could feel his golden cells vibrating, preparing for a battle that would either make him a god or turn him into nothingness.