Chapter Fifty-Eight: Ascending to the Purple Soul

System components?! As soon as this thought flickered through his mind, Lando dismissed it. Although he could sense a certain allure from the system, there was a deeper, instinctive aversion—this was nothing like the response a “set” should evoke.

He glanced at the system, searching for any other changes.

Lando’s gaze sharpened as he looked at the remaining Soul Essence—it had reached 5500. If he remembered correctly, after his battle with Prince Sandy, he was left with only single digits.

Before he could think further, Lando noticed the Soul Essence increasing again.

5501... 5502... 5503...

Almost every second, it grew by one. Lando pondered, then used his Will Mark to strengthen his connection with the Heart of the World.

5510... 5515... 5520...

It had become five per second! The result left Lando both astonished and delighted.

But after the initial joy, he sank deeper into his senses.

An hour later, Lando opened his eyes with a complicated expression and voluntarily halted the system’s extraction of Soul Essence.

During the hour, he had distinctly felt the Heart of the World weakening. Though it was barely perceptible for a being of its size, this world was already teetering on the edge of collapse. Such internal damage could well be the final straw.

For the sake of sustainable development, he temporarily gave up the opportunity to harvest vast Soul Essence.

Finding no further changes in the system, Lando considered for a moment and approached the shattered armor, drawing his sword with his right hand, slowly extending his left.

He encountered no resistance and easily touched the remains of the half-bodied armor.

Suddenly, the system unleashed a powerful suction; countless mysterious substances flowed from the armor, absorbed by the system.

At the same time, fragmented images flashed before Lando’s eyes. They were so broken that their meaning was indecipherable.

Images gathered, vaguely forming a special symbol, but something crucial seemed missing. Ultimately, all images vanished.

When Lando came to, the shattered armor still floated there, but no longer emitted its black-red glow.

Withdrawing his left hand, Lando breathed a sigh of relief—his hand was safe.

He turned his attention to the system, but there was no sign of an upgrade, which left him a little disappointed.

Checking Soul Essence, he found no increase. But when he looked at Essence Crystals, he was surprised to see a change.

[Essence Crystals: 25 (Purple)]

He had gained twenty-two more.

Lando was not particularly surprised. After sorting through the images he’d seen, he made some logical inferences.

The broken armor, due to some accident or perhaps its inherent abilities, arrived in the interworld. By manipulating the Heart of the World, it spawned ancient kings of purple soul strength. When they died, the armor reclaimed their souls to repair itself.

Perhaps the strange Dream Sacrifice of this world also originated from it.

Lando was in high spirits after this unexpected harvest; the addition of purple Essence Crystals solved a moderate dilemma. He wasted no time and spent ten crystals to elevate his soul to purple.

Soul: Blue (100%) → Soul: Purple (1%)

Much like the previous advancement from green to blue, but ten times more intricate—last time, perhaps due to the limited total soul strength, Lando mainly felt physical changes. This time, he felt his soul break its shackles, his mind freed from its bonds, his thoughts expanding beyond the body, absorbing and integrating more information from the void.

Three purple suns appeared in the void. Lando suddenly understood: after the soul’s ascension to purple, these were innate talents he could choose from.

These three talents, derived from his soul, were the most suitable and powerful for him.

At this moment, Lando felt fortunate. Had he advanced using only one Essence Crystal, not only would the talents be less powerful, their number might also be restricted to one.

[Talent Prodigy (Purple): Sparks of wisdom flicker in your thoughts; any problem can be effortlessly solved.]

[Mental Space (Purple): A unique space is born within the mind; the boundary between illusion and reality becomes blurred.]

[Spacewalker (Purple): Space becomes unusually simple in your eyes; the gates of dimensions open to you.]

Though the descriptions were vague, all gave Lando an inexplicable sense of power.

Logically, at his current stage, [Talent Prodigy (Purple)] was most needed, but he was reluctant to forgo the other two exceptional talents.

If only he could choose them all, Lando thought greedily.

Suddenly, an idea struck him—he called upon the system. The system didn’t disappoint and manifested before him.

He quickly scanned it, a smile appearing at the corner of his lips, then unhesitatingly chose [Talent Prodigy (Purple)].

As Lando made his selection, the consciousness space shattered and vanished, returning him to reality.

He exhaled deeply, feeling the changes in body and mind, unable to restrain a hearty laugh.

[Name: Lando]
[Soul: Purple (1%)]
[Profession: Arcanist (Arcane Furnace 100%, Elemental Body 0%)] (Knight omitted for now; will update if changed)
[Talents: Talent Prodigy (Purple), Elemental Affinity (Blue)] (Number that can be condensed: 2)
[Loaded Souls: None] (Number that can be loaded: 3)
[Possessed Souls: Sun Prince (Purple), Wind Prince Locke (Blue), Ancient Giant Ape (Blue), etc.] (Child of Destiny is now useless, since the shattered destiny talent is gone)
[Recorded Talents: Talent Prodigy (Purple), Mental Space (Purple), Spacewalker (Purple), etc.]
[Soul Essence: 9527]
[Essence Crystals: 15 (Purple)]
(I’ll organize a talent archive sometime, so everyone can check it conveniently.)

All three talents derived from Lando’s soul were recorded by the system. This was why he hesitated no longer; condensing [Mental Space (Purple)] and [Spacewalker (Purple)] would require either 100,000 Soul Essence or ten purple Essence Crystals each. Given the rarity of Essence Crystals, he would not use them lightly, so these two powerful talents would have to wait in the system for now.

Loading Sun Prince (Purple), Wind Prince Locke (Blue), and Ancient Giant Ape (Blue), Lando immediately felt ten times stronger.

Of course, this was just an illusion. In fact, when he could wield the Arcane Domain, he could easily overpower his current self.

Although now he could use the Will Mark to activate the Arcane Domain, he would not lightly repeat such acts that harmed the world.