Chapter 1072: Dan The silvery dust traveled up Rowan's nostrils and entered his brain and a subtle wave of golden light pulsed down his robes as the silver dust was separated into two components, Ascendant Aura and Soul Essence. The Core Aura of the Ascendant released what would be considered an overwhelming amount of purified Aura for anyone else below the Ascendant level, but it was like pouring a bucket of water inside a river in the case of Rowan whose body was filled with enough Aura to rival a thousand Ascendants. With soul energy, he no longer needed to kill for Aura, the primary reason he killed an Ascendant was no longer for their Aura, but their memories. With most of Rowan's consciousness in a dormant state, he could no longer process the Soul mountains of immortals, and so he devised another plan. The bodies of Ascendants were unique, existing more as souls than flesh, and so instead of assimilating the entirety of an Ascendant soul which would inevitably create a Soul mountain and therefore locked inside his dormant dimension, Rowan decided to disperse a majority of the Ascendant soul, leaving their core behind. If it was any other creature that Rowan had come across in the reality outside Doom Star, then he would not be able to do such a thing, but because every blow against an Ascendant that led to the injury was like breaking off a part of their souls, he thought he might be able to break them down enough to a digestible size for his now limited consciousness. It was a risky plan, with a high chance of failure if he did not fully grasp the way an Ascendant's soul and body worked, but he ended up succeeding to an extent. There were clear disadvantages to this process because every part of the soul that was lost represented missing memories but Rowan had no choice but to trim out the fat and bones and leave only a small choice meal that he should be able to digest. Although Rowan made sure he seized the portion of the soul that was integral to the core of the Ascendant, which should contain all his most important and relevant memories, there was still a chance that he might lose something important, but that was not a problem when he could kill more Ascendants and cover up the gaps in his knowledge base. Yet, all his speculations would be useless if he was not able to assimilate this soul he had just harvested. He felt a click in his mind, and everything fell into place as a familiar sensation overwhelmed his senses. Like falling into a dream that seemed to last for an instant and simultaneously a thousand years, the memories of Arthurius Rais came to him like a flood. Born into the prestigious Arthurius family in the upper continents, Rais's destiny was always to become an Ascendant, and he did not disappoint his clan, rapidly rising through the ranks of Explorer, he soon became an Ascendant, creating a faction in the lower continents called the Silver Alliance, alongside three other Ascendants, he was a man of many talents, including an in-depth understanding about Fate and.... Rowan rapidly parsed through the information emerging from the soul, he did not want to know about the life experiences of the Ascendant, he was only interested in his knowledge about Ascendant society, his other Consciousness Nodes would slowly take apart Rais's life, but for now he needed other kind of knowledge. Rowan soon nodded in delight when the target of his inquiry began to emerge from the fog of memories, but there was not enough for him to understand the full picture of the Ascendant world, because he had gone for the core part of Rais's soul, most of the information he had collected was personal and linked to his life, but this was the only way Rowan was assured that he could harvest something tangible from a dead Explorer. He opened his eyes to an army of angry faces, and Rowan smiled. There were many more targets to pick from. There were a hundred and thirty-five extremely angry Ascendants surrounding him, and now Rowan could instantly understand their power levels as the awareness of the Ascendant stage for an Explorer was opened before him and another piece of the great plan he had been building together clicked into place. Rowan learned that merging a single continent to their Natal Treasure as a Deific Explorer was the least requirement to become an Ascendant, because most techniques practiced by Explorers granted them the capability of only merging one to three continents to their Natal Treasures, and only extremely rare techniques like the Silver Golem technique of the Authurius family could merge with all six Natal Treasure. This made the Authurius family one of the Pillars of the Ascendancy world and granted them a position as one of the Nine. What guided the growth of Ascendants was a concept called Dan, and it had levels to it, but Rais only knew of Ascendants of the Third Dan, because he had not met anyone higher. Ascendants who could only merge with one to three continents had limited growth opportunities, and would never grow past the First Dan. Of the hundred and thirty-five Ascendants before him, a hundred and ten of them were basic Ascendant Explorers and had not attained the First Dan. It was not easy to attain the first Dan, and time and opportunities were needed. The power of Ascendancy was straightforward, after becoming an Ascendant they became true immortals and unless they were killed, an Ascendant would live forever. Rowan pegged the power base levels of a basic Ascendant to be equal to either a High God, God King, or a God Emperor; these power levels were all dependent on the number of continents that were merged with the Natal Treasure when they became Ascendants. The leap in power from Deific to Ascendant was extreme and was one of the largest dividing gaps between mortal and immortal that Rowan had ever seen. The Deific Rank was equal in power to an Earth god or a Minor god depending on the Explorer's techniques and talent, and becoming an Ascendant for a talented Explorer could push their power levels instantly to the realm of God Emperors. After this level, came Dan. The first Dan signifies the first stage of Will, which was the fourth dimension-Time. The Second Dan was the fifth dimension, Space-Time, and the Third Dan was the sixth dimension, Memory-Mind. There was not much difference between the Wills of Doom Star and what was achievable in the outside reality. Of the twenty-five Ascendants left, twenty-three were Ascendants of the first Dan, and among them was the Ascendant who had attacked him from afar. This number of First Dan Ascendants in such a small sample size would be a ridiculous number outside the universe, Rowan had explored countless universes in the great darkness but he could barely find a dozen immortals in the fourth dimension, but here he could find twenty-three Ascendants who could control the power of time, and this must be a small percent of the total Ascendants as evidenced by the thousands of descending light now erupting from the continents above. The two preeminent Ascendants leading these small groups were at the Second Dan.