[ General Information ]
[ Name: Theodore Winter ]
[ Age: 24 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Affiliation: Winter Family ]
[ Cultivation ]
[ Stage: Dawning Numen ]
[ Realm: Divine Will, 0% ]
[ Technique: Theodore Winter's Unique Technique (Unnamed) ]
[ Energy Vein Incorporation: • Meridian Wall Replacement: 100% ]
[ Dantian Size: • Upper: 1,000,000,000,000 km³
• Middle: 1,000,000,000,000 km³
• Lower: 1,000,000,000,000 km³ ]
[ Cores: • Upper: Golden Core (Unique), 3rd Refinement: 49%
• Middle: Golden Core (Unique), 3rd Refinement: 49%
• Lower: Golden Core (Unique), 3rd Refinement: 49% ]
[ Coreflame: Heavenly Dao-grade, 3rd Refinement: 49% ]
[ Divine Will: • Grade: Average, 0%
• Proficiency: Novice, 15% ]
[ Attributes ]
[ Strength: 127,519,501,029,191,735,284 → 21,207,462,502.176 (DN) ]
[ Dexterity: 127,519,501,029,191,735,283 → 21,207,462,502.176 (DN) ]
[ Vitality: 127,519,501,029,191,735,285 → 21,207,462,502.176 (DN) ]
[ Endurance: 127,519,501,029,191,735,285 → 21,207,462,502.176 (DN) ]
[ Agility: 127,519,501,029,191,735,284 → 21,207,462,502.176 (DN) ]
[ Energy: 475,200,000,000,000,000,000 → 12,222,222,222,222.222 (DN) ]
[ Intelligence: 177 ]
[ Wisdom: 1,911 ]
[ Mind: 2,042 ]
[ Luck: 103 ]
[ Talents ]
[ Existence's Foremost Calamity (Heavenly Dao), Supreme Empyrean Physique (Supreme), Winter Family Member (Supreme), Cultivation Polymath (Transcendent), Eternal Freeze (Transcendent), Fire Authority (Transcendent), Foundational Element Conduit (Transcendent), Sacred Phoenix Physique (Transcendent), Spawn of Shadows (Transcendent), Array Luminary (Mythical), Coattail Ascension (Mythical), Fate Suppression (Mythical), Spring of Clarity (Mythical), Undying Physique (Mythical), Absolute Reflection (Legendary), Alchemy Savant (Legendary), Darkness Incarnate (Legendary), Gravity's Proxy (Legendary), Intraworld Teleportation (Legendary), Near Miss (Legendary), Regression (Legendary), Overflowing Vitality (Legendary), The One Behind The Curtain (Legendary), Void Walker (Legendary), (See More) ]
[ Proficiencies ]
[ Weapon Mastery (Perfection, 8%), Body Cultivation (Perfection, 5%), Ice Manipulation (Perfection, 0%), Energy Cultivation (Master, 10%), Scheming (Master, 1%), Array Formation (Expert, 98%), Tactics (Expert, 94%), Acting (Expert, 93%), Alchemy (Expert, 61%), Faction Management (Expert, 58%), (See More) ]
[ Subordinates ]
[ • Followers: Cheong Suhyeon (Dawning Numen, SS), Vigdis Rún (Dawning Numen, SS-), Kjartan Skordýr (Dawning Numen, S-), Xie Mei (Dawning Numen, S-)
• Retainers: Navya Aatma (Dawning Numen, S++), Saitou Satoru (Faux Dawning Numen, S+), Han Junqiao (Dawning Numen, A-), Conrad (Dawning Numen, A--), Jules Cartier (Dawning Numen, B+++), Annis Galanis (Dawning Numen, B++), Kiran Arya (Initial Ascension, B++), Bogdan Dragović (Dawning Numen, B+), Corinna Booras (Dawning Numen, B+), Marina (Initial Ascension, B+), Juana Olmo (Initial Ascension, B), Soraya Karim (Initial Ascension, B), (See 17 More), Currently locked (2)
• Slaves: Currently locked (1) ]
[ Equipment ]
[ • Faavi (Armament Spirit, Unknown-grade) ]
[ Special Statuses ]
[ Concealed Status Panel: Unique-grade ]
[ Heaven's Chosen Level: 70 ]
Casually letting his eyes wander across all of his information, a satisfied smile stole itself on his lips. There were quite a few additions to his Talents–and even a lot which didn't show up in this overview. His Proficiencies had seen varying amounts of increases, with his Body Cultivation being by far the most outstanding of the whole bunch. This was naturally courtesy of his extremely long time in the Body Refinement Stage.
As for his Subordinates, their numbers had grown substantially. By now, there were a total of 36 of them working for him, with Cheong Suhyeon earning the highest rating by the Heavenly Dao out of all of them so far. He had never actually seen the entirety of her Status Panel, but even back when he had first noticed her rating, he hadn't been too surprised.
According to his family's records, there was at least another X rating after the SSS rating–and who knew how much further it went? From what he understood of the Heavenly Dao, it simply made it all up on the spot. If it encountered someone who should be classified even higher, then it would create a new rating right then and there.
His current Heaven's Chosen Level was also not too shabby. While it certainly wasn't the greatest out of all participants right now, it at least should put him somewhere slightly approaching the front of the pack.
Over in the Cultivation category, his recent breakthrough had brought another addition along with it. Whenever someone finally unlocked their Divine Will, then no matter how long they had spent familiarizing themselves with it in previous or illusory lives, they would have to start from scratch.
It would be at Inferior-grade and its Proficiency level would be Uninitiated, without any known exceptions. Theodore, however, had the fortune of having unlocked his Divine Will quite a bit earlier than anyone who came before, which was why he had a head start now that he had made it here.
Last but certainly not least, there were his Attributes. Just like he had requested, all but his Special Attributes had been adjusted from the standard of a regular mortal to that of a normal peak Dawning Numen Stage cultivator. This had caused them to fall from the quintillions to the billions and trillions.
To be fair, those were still ridiculously huge numbers. Exactly akin to before, the standard at his current stage and realm was represented by the number 10. Whilst it was to be expected for anyone more outstanding than the most average person ever to surpass this, even Supreme Pillar heirs could not remotely approach the heights which he had reached.
Having achieved the absolute limit in terms of Dantian size, his Energy Attribute in particular stood out like a sore thumb. Although it had already undergone the adjustment to a new standard, it still appeared absurdly large.
'... I'll keep an eye on it for now. In the future, I might have to choose a higher cultivation stage's peak instead. That would also make comparisons a tiny bit easier.'
One thing to lament–because it was exactly as he had expected–was that if he wanted to see a singular point of increase in any of his Standard Attributes, he would have to invest far more than just one Attribute Point now. For his Energy to grow by one, he would need almost 40 million of them, whereas the rest would require approximately 6 billion. This difference was mainly due to the average person of his stage and realm having quite pitifully small Dantians.
'I genuinely see no reason to waste my Attribute Points on such increases right now. It would be a lot wiser to save them for improving my Talent grades instead.'
Despite the inordinate costs associated with that specific feature of his Existence's Foremost Calamity, it would still bless him with the most impactful and important changes. There was one Talent in particular which he intended to upgrade once before the second round began: Regression. Yet doing so would require one quadrillion of points...
'But improving this life-saving trump card of mine has to be my priority. I can't bank on being extremely lucky and running into another Heaven's Chosen who will bless me with some other second chance-providing Talent.'
That initial Regressor had been somewhat of a fluke, one which he doubted he would run into again in these remaining less than 98 years. That might sound like a long time, but in actuality, it would go by far quicker than he would ideally prefer.
'I think I should consider expanding the Fly Slave Breeding Project. There are so many worlds at hand, and as long as Kjartan can handle the micromanagement, increasing the population before reaping the profits would lead to a higher return down the line.'
With that thought in mind, he made use of Kiran's network to contact his partner in atrocity. Discussing all of the details and juggling ideas back and forth, they eventually came to a conclusion.
As not too many male Fly Slaves were needed, the surplus would be culled regularly as soon as they reached the final cultivation stage that their world allowed. This way, not many resources and much Energy would be wasted on them. Once the Yulong State's maximum capacity had been reached, the project would be expanded to other worlds under Theodore's control. Relocating the original inhabitants would be left to his Subordinates, and would of course be done well in advance.
'Now that that's out of the way, it's time to finally kick off the long grind.'
Teleporting to one of the many warehouses within this planet-sized palace, he picked out various materials, bones and herbs which could help him improve his Array Formation and Alchemy Proficiencies.
Just like with many things in life, practice makes perfect. Naturally, he would also attempt to actively grow beyond his limits, but even if he simply created the most mundane Arrays or utterly ordinary medicines, ever so minute traces of Proficiency would be acquired. He might not learn much, but repetition could still refine his skills to an extent.
The reason as to why he couldn't trailblaze new knowledge and understanding for himself with reckless abandon was that he was ultimately limited by whatever he had available to him. Therefore, he would mostly have to make use of less effective methods.
Yet that didn't mean that he would allow himself to be inefficient. He was constantly refining his Golden Cores and Coreflame as usual, but to make progress with his Divine Will, he was exclusively using it to lay out his Arrays and concoct his alchemical creations.
Initially, multitasking this much caused him to make a mistake here and there, but he quickly grew used to it. With his Mind Attribute being as high as it was, it wasn't actually difficult to achieve this. If compared to his Energy Vein Incorporation, it was a lot easier. Still, nobody could be perfect at everything from the very start, which explained his initial blunders.
Although he had changed from solely focusing on cultivation, Theodore still mostly secluded himself, allowing the years to pass him by rather quickly.
Of course, he still spent time with his lovers every now and then, or eliminated the prisoners which his Subordinates captured on their extensive conquests, but other than meeting up with Eleanora every six months, he rarely ever left his palace.
There were obviously instances when he went out to get rid of the male Fly Slave surplus that Kjartan had prepared and arranged for him, but those occasions only came around every four years.
With the first round of the Heavenly Succession functioning as a lenient tutorial period, where nearly every action one took could allow one to earn points, Supreme Pillar heirs generally didn't come across anything noteworthy. Most of them acted exactly like Theodore and focused on using this time to improve themselves as much as they could before the 'real' competition would begin.
Needless to say, some were already aware of a couple of details regarding the second round or even had prepared comprehensive plots, but Theodore wasn't one of them. It was almost impossible for his father to not have picked up on any relevant information, considering his personal prowess and abilities. However, being a relative straight shooter amongst a flock of duplicitous crooks, Theoderick wanted his son to win by his own merit, without undue help and support from his end.
This did put Theodore at quite a bit of a disadvantage, yet in his father's eyes, someone worthy of the title and position of Heavenly Emperor would overcome all of these obstacles.
As the years turned into decades, and soon almost a whole century, the event venue saw very little clashes between the top competitors. Due to how vast it was, even when everyone who was capable of contending for dominance was recklessly expanding their territory in all directions, extremely rarely did anyone actually encounter a worthy opponent.
This was by design, of course. Seeded participants were generally less likely to start off close to each other. What had occurred on Theodore's end–with him and Eleanora being practically neighbours–was so unlikely that less than a dozen instances like it could be seen across the entire event venue.
Regarding the Dragon Family heiress, throughout all of these years, never once had she or Theodore clashed with each other. Their cooperation went without a hitch, leading even them to acknowledge that there was a high chance that neither of the two was scheming against each other.
Whilst a certain sense of familiarity and goodwill had begun to sprout, that was the extent of it. At the very least, should they encounter each other again in the future, they would be all but guaranteed to avoid hostilities unless absolutely necessary.