Abyss Sequence-Chapter 364 - 21: Mortal to Transcendent

Yulia fell silent.

She was Slavic, born and raised in the frigid lands of Siberia. Though she later learned Mandarin as it became the common language for Hunters, her comprehension was limited to basic reading and writing.

The terms "Foundation Establishment" and "Immortal" that Sasa mentioned were only partially understood by her.

So Yulia asked Sasa to explain a bit about what exactly these things were.

"The ancient Blue Star Civilization undoubtedly had Engravers above the Sequence. I suspect they were called ’Immortals,’ and Sequence One is a ’Foundation Establishment’ stage. To become an ’Immortal,’ one must lay a solid foundation."

Both Xia Country civilization and Ancient Indian civilization have mentioned the existence of ’Immortals.’ Other civilizations might have lost the related information, which is why there are no records.

Sasa explained to Yulia, "In our traditional culture, the term ’Immortal’ holds a high status. It refers to an existence beyond the concept of ’human.’ The issue is, no matter how powerful Engravers become, they are essentially still human. Our ancestors would not mistakenly call someone ’Immortal’ just because they are powerful; this existence surely transcends the mundane.

"Just like ’Saints,’ they are still considered human, only possessing abilities beyond the ordinary, hence called ’Saint.’ In contrast, ’Samurai’ is just a position. Even if they far surpass the mundane in strength, our ancestors never regarded them as fundamentally different from ordinary people; they remained human.

"In summary, I believe that to become Sequence One, one must work on being ’extraordinary and transcendent.’

Yulia seemed to comprehend a little, "So, does that mean I have to transform my body?"

"No!" Sasa earnestly denied Yulia’s assumption, "It’s not about transforming your body; it’s about changing your essence, elevating yourself beyond the ordinary!"

What Sasa said, Yulia couldn’t understand.

No matter how many engravings an Engraver adds to their body, they remain ordinary people and cannot become genuine Extraordinary.

But according to Sasa, to become Sequence One, one must transform from ’mundane’ to ’extraordinary’?

How could that be possible?

Just as Yulia furrowed her brows, lost in thought, Sasa continued, "Therefore, I think that to become Sequence One, you probably have to get the engravings into your body and let the engraving completely integrate with yourself."

Yulia suddenly felt strange, "Aren’t my engravings integrated with me now?"

Sasa tilted her head, saying, "To be honest, I’ve always thought of ’engraving’ more like equipment, only it can be carried around. When you Engravers haven’t activated your engravings, it’s like not using a weapon; only when you activate them do you wield the weapon. By ’integration,’ I mean the extraordinary power and the Engraver becoming one, with the engraving becoming a constant, and able to invoke that power at any time without activation."

Upon hearing this, Yulia opened her mouth but couldn’t utter a word.

She finally understood that Sasa meant that the prerequisite to becoming Sequence One was to fully elevate oneself to an Extraordinary, like Yan Luo.

Yan Luo’s extraordinary power was inherent; even with nothing, his strength remained immensely powerful.

"But can this... be done?" Yulia wondered with tightly knit brows.

If one could truly become like Yan Luo, anyone would be tempted.

But Yulia was puzzled—how exactly could one transform the engraving into their own power?

Sasa shook her head and said, "I don’t know either, because the Elf’s archives may not contain these things. The ’Foundation Establishment’ and ’Immortal’ I saw before were recorded over eight thousand years ago when the Elves still interacted with Blue Star. So I can only speculate based on that, but I can’t guarantee the accuracy."

"That’s troublesome..." Yulia muttered to herself.

How could one completely transform the engraving into their own thing?

Or is it because the technology of ancient and modern times is different that modern Engravers can’t use ancient methods to become Sequence One?

The ancient Blue Star civilization certainly didn’t have nanomachines, so the engraving method differed greatly from modern times.

Modern engraving methods involve engravers using their consciousness to control nanomachines, shaping them within their bodies, and connecting the engraving to their spinal nerves, becoming part of themselves.

As engravings increase, nanomachines must connect new engravings with old ones, achieving engraving linkage, making the user stronger.

Otherwise, adding engravings would only result in stacked singular engravings, with no significant increase in strength.

Ancient Engravers certainly didn’t use this method, so their way of becoming Engravers of similar Sequence Level surely differed from modern methods.

Thinking of this, Yulia sighed, "...Seems like I have to find some old friends to understand the situation."

She referred to historians researching ancient Engravers, as they might hold clues about the cultivation methods of ancient Engravers.

Yulia glanced at Sasa, smiling and nodding at her, "Sasa, thank you."

Sasa shook her head, "Don’t mention it, Ms. Bilukova, I should be thanking you. Without your protection, I might have been killed by Abyssal Believers long ago. Even if not captured or killed by them, Ms. Number Two might have caught me..."

Hearing this, Yulia laughed again, teasing, "Aren’t you going to call me ’Mom’ or ’Grandma’?"

Sasa was quite helpless, "Ms. Bilukova, please don’t joke like that anymore..."

"Hahaha!" Yulia was quite delighted.

......

Whiz, whiz, whiz!

Bullets flew out of the barrel, crossing dozens of meters to hit the demon hiding in the bushes from afar.

"Yes!" Wang Lingyu clenched her fist, unable to suppress her laughter. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

After Yan Luo’s training, she was now able to hunt Dangerous-level Demons on her own.

Of course, ’hunting’ here meant spotting the target from afar and shooting from a distance.

If a demon approached her stealthily and attacked suddenly, Wang Lingyu might react clumsily and shoot wildly.

If lucky, she could kill the demon; if not, she might be injured.

Currently, Wang Lingyu’s left wrist was sprained, and she had to continue enduring Yan Luo’s training with pain.

This was her own request; Wang Lingyu wanted to prove she wasn’t a frail young lady and could deal with demons herself.

Through Yan Luo’s teaching, Wang Lingyu learned where the weak points of different types of demons were typically located. With the help of the exoskeleton’s targeting system, she could precisely hit the weak points, injuring or even killing the demons.

However, Wang Lingyu also knew she could only face demons on the Alfheim side; facing those with deflection shields in the Abyss, she was incapable.

She hadn’t yet learned to use her engravings flexibly, only relying on shooting with an electromagnetic rifle.

Yan Luo, from a distance, grabbed the demon Wang Lingyu had killed and began skinning and bleeding it.

"We’ll eat this today," Yan Luo said.

The longer Yan Luo operated in Alfheim, the more familiar he became with the process of skinning and bleeding demons.

He used to be unable to skin animal hides properly or bleed them professionally, but now he skillfully skinned the fur from the demon’s corpse and drained its blood.

Many demons’ blood has a fishy odor; if not removed beforehand, it could ruin the meat’s flavor during cooking and even give off a foul smell.

"Great!" Wang Lingyu cheered softly.

She never expected she’d ever get to eat a demon she hunted herself.

Regardless of taste or flavor, the sense of accomplishment was fulfilling.

Yan Luo fetched a portable stove from the armored vehicle and started roasting the rabbit-like demon Wang Lingyu had just hunted, occasionally sprinkling seasoning during the roast.

Soon enough, an enticing aroma wafted into the air.

Wang Lingyu and Yan Luo sat by the armored vehicle, eating the demon meat they had hunted themselves, gazing at the star-studded night sky, their hearts filled with countless emotions.

But when the emotions reached their lips, they turned into a simple expression.

"It’s so beautiful!"