Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 894 The Realm of Ashes
This is……

Xin Lailai gazed at the noticeably changed blessing interface before her, her eyes flickering slightly as she prepared to ascertain the specifics—

[Note: Due to "Blessing of the King," the "Backpack" is now available.]

[Note: Due to "Blessing of the King's Fire", the status can now be restored at the "Fire Seed" location.]

[Note: Due to the "Blessing of the Royal Fire," you can now learn "Spells" and "Prayers."]

Three golden-red text prompts popped up in succession, while the blindfolded nun beside her, looking at Xin Lailai who was standing there in a daze, gently reminded her:
"The power of the blessing will manifest according to what you, Lord Ash, perceive most that best fits it, so that you, from another world, can quickly grasp it."

As she spoke, the blindfolded nun gently grasped Xin Lailai's hand and said:

"Lord Ash, now that you have received the full blessing of the Kingfire, I can assist you and use the souls accumulated within you as fuel to restore your true power."

Using his soul as fuel... to restore his true power?
Upon hearing this, Xin Lailai's eyes flickered, as if she had realized something. The next second, two new lines of notifications suddenly popped up at the edge of her vision:
……

Current Soul Points: 3890

[Consume 100 Soul Points to upgrade to LV.2]

……

“Every Ash is a powerful soul from another world. They once possessed unparalleled power in their respective worlds, but due to conflicting rules, when they awaken from this world, they often find themselves in a weak state where their power is completely suppressed and their memories are severely lost.”

"The duty of the Fire-Giver Sister is to guide the Ashes who are qualified to inherit the power of the Kingfire, so that they can gradually regain their suppressed power in this world corrupted by the abyss and curses, until they reach the peak of their lives."

As the gentle voice faded, the blindfolded nun, seemingly seeing through the doubt in Xin Lailai's eyes, glanced at the seemingly eternally burning campfire beside her and softly explained:

"Lord Ash, please rest assured. I know you still have many doubts in your heart, but in any case, I will always be by your side until you reach the end. Therefore... please find your true power again."

"..."

After she finished speaking, Xin Lailai looked at the attribute enhancement interface in front of her and didn't say anything. She just silently pressed the confirmation button after the upgrade prompt.

Just as the nameless nun said, he does indeed have a lot of questions he wants to figure out, but all of that is predicated on them having the ability to protect themselves in this world and even to find out the truth.

Om-! !

The next second, a large number of soul light points flew out from his body and entered the body of the blindfolded nun in front of him. Then, wisps of flames went along the blindfolded nun's palms and entered the depths of their bodies, rapidly burning the gray mist that remained in their bodies.

Upgrade successful! Current level: LV.2

【upgrade……】

【…】

【upgrade……】

Upgrade successful! Current level: LV.8

[Note: Insufficient Soul Points prevent further upgrades]

"call……!!"

A few minutes later, Xin Lailai, whose aura was noticeably stronger than before, slowly opened her eyes, looked down at her body, and then at the branded interface at the edge of her vision, her brows furrowing involuntarily.

……

[Black Sword (left)]

Level: LV.8
Oath: (None)
Soul Points: 490
Health: 120/120 (100%)

Endurance rating: 120/120 (100%)

Mana: 144/144 (100%)

Soul Energy: 144/144 (100%)

Weapon attack power: 20.4 (17.0 + 3.4)

Shield block strength: 22.8 (19 + 3.8)

Strength: 12; Agility: 12
Physical Fitness: 12; Intelligence: 12
Temperament: 12; Soul: 12
……

Something is not right.

In terms of attributes, if this were the outside world, he could easily handle at least a hundred of his past selves, but the reality is...

The improvement was much lower than I expected.

Xin Lailai clenched her fist, gave the longsword in her hand a simple swing, and looked at the swing speed, which was less than 10% faster than before, and murmured to herself.

too weak.

Could it be that the Blessing system has a different way of dividing attribute points?
No, that's not right. In terms of basic physical strength alone, he did indeed sense a leap in their physical abilities just now. The problem is—

"The resistance from the spiritual realm that individuals experience in this world... doesn't actually increase linearly?"

Xin Lailai murmured, quickly analyzing in her mind the truth behind why her movement speed hadn't changed much.

Resistance from the spiritual realm.

Just as a person experiences resistance from the seawater while swimming, extraordinary life forms also encounter resistance from the spiritual realm. This explains why, despite being able to easily send objects hundreds or thousands of times heavier than themselves flying at speeds exceeding ten times the speed of sound, extraordinary individuals often move much slower in their own actions.

It's not that it doesn't want to go faster, but rather that its size at the spirit realm level is the maximum it can withstand at that speed.

This is also why, even when they are carrying something several times heavier than themselves, their movement speed remains unchanged.

It's not that physics no longer exists, but due to the limitations of the spirit realm, even if they have the ability to accelerate objects to tens of thousands of meters per second and have bodies that are many times harder and more durable than aerospace materials in the present world, when something lands on them, they still have to crawl slowly at a snail's pace of a few hundred meters per second.

As for the consequences of forcibly accelerating upwards? Well… it depends on the situation. At best, the extraordinary energy within the body will be unable to withstand the speed, resulting in various chaotic phenomena. At worst, it will probably be like staging a 'Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique' on the spot.

Incidentally, the reason why lower-level life forms can move around normally in first-level and ninth-level worlds, but higher-level life forms experience the phenomenon of an entire city collapsing in one go when they enter a lower-level world, is also due to the resistance of the spirit realm layer.

To explain in detail, there are three theorems:

1. In more than 99.98% of the astral realm (regardless of whether it is a first-order or ninth-order world layer), the resistance coefficient of the spirit realm is a certain fixed constant.

2. The magnitude of the resistance experienced by an individual in the spirit realm is directly related to their size in the spirit realm and the resistance coefficient of the spirit realm in the current area.

3. The upper limit of the spiritual resistance that a region can experience is only related to the spatial level of the current region.

To illustrate, suppose a contractor with a true agility attribute of 90 points experiences a spiritual resistance of around 360 points in a Tier 3 world. In a normal Tier 9 or even an extremely powerful world, the spiritual resistance they experience would be roughly the same. Therefore, their maximum running speed would not differ much between a Tier 3 world and a Tier 9 world.

However, if this contractor with 90 points of agility is thrown into a first-tier world where the maximum resistance of the spirit realm is only 10 points, then his maximum speed can instantly reach 36 times or more of that in a normal third-tier world, directly transforming him into a superhuman being on the spot.

Of course, considering that different worlds have significant differences in air density, material strength, etc., even if the resistance from the spirit world is the same, the expressive power will not be as uniform as theoretically stated.

—After understanding all of the above, one can realize just how serious the problems of the Ash World really are.

Even though his physical abilities have increased several times over, his maximum speed limit has hardly changed. There are only two possible explanations for this:

1. The resistance coefficient of the spirit realm in this world is not a fixed constant, but a dynamic value that increases geometrically as their physical attributes improve. This is why their movement speed increases very little with the improvement of their attributes.

2. In addition to the three theorems of resistance in the spirit realm mentioned above, this world has added a new rule based on attribute changes. This is to ensure that those powerful beings who can destroy mountains and shatter peaks with a single move in the outside world can only crawl and struggle at a speed not much faster than ordinary people in this world.

As for the difference between these two results, the former means that this limitation exists only in terms of body speed, while the latter means...

"Will all extraordinary phenomena, including magic, be severely suppressed?"

Xin Lailai muttered to herself, looking at the spell crystal in her hand that had only extended by less than half a meter compared to before, and made a rough judgment in her mind.

It seems that in this world, using magic to perform actions like bombarding the ground with artillery fire or striking beyond visual range is now almost impossible.

Of course, from another perspective, this means that in this world, no matter how powerful the enemy they encounter, the enemy's speed should not be so fast that they cannot react.

Combined with the world's injury mechanics, it means that as long as their weapons and shields don't explode, they can put up a fight even against enemies with the strongest attributes.

While the threat level of regular enemies will also increase dramatically, overall, it's not the worst news.

As for the rest…

"I have already tested the power of blessing you spoke of. Now, you can tell me about the situation in this world."

Xin Lailai looked at the blindfolded nun in front of her and spoke. The blindfolded nun nodded slightly, knelt around the campfire in front of Xin Lailai, and said softly:
"Yes, Lord Ash, please feel free to ask. Whatever your questions, I will do my best to answer them. That is the meaning of my existence."

"So, the first question is, where is this place... or rather, what is this world? And what exactly happened here?"

"This is a world protected by the Kingfire. Long ago, the gods named after the sun ruled the entire world, until an ominous power called the Abyss poured down from the sky, bringing endless darkness and calamity."

"To resist the darkness, the first king sacrificed his life to bear the Lordfire, becoming the first Lord of Cinder, bringing blessings and fire to the people of this world..."

In the firelight, the gray-haired nun with her eyes covered by a black cloth spoke softly, answering one question after another from Xin Lailai, and Xin Lailai gradually began to form a complete impression of the world they were in.

According to the blindfolded nun's description, this world was originally born from a wondrous object called Aurora, and all the races in the world originated from something called Aurora.

After the Abyss descended, in order to resist its corruption, the then-ruler of the Sun Dynasty volunteered to become the first Lord of Cinder, using himself as fuel to rekindle the Royal Fire, which had been nearly extinguished by the power of the Abyss, and save the entire world from darkness.

However, because the power of the Abyss has become deeply integrated with this world, although the Lords of Cinder regained its light thanks to the first Lord of Cinder, it has also fallen into an inescapable curse.

Willpower may wear down, but the soul and body can never truly perish. Even in death, they will only regroup over time as wandering ghosts driven by instinct. This is the curse brought by the abyss.

The only way to fight this curse is to seek the blessing of the Royal Fire, to use its power to protect one's soul, maintain one's will, and prevent oneself from becoming a wandering soul with only a thirst for flesh and fire.

The problem is that the current Owlfire is sustained by the souls of the Lords of Cinder. Since it needs firewood to burn, it will inevitably go out one day when the firewood runs out. Therefore, in order to ensure the continuation of the Owlfire, the entire Owlfire world has begun a process of selection from generation to generation.

Using the blessing brought by the Originium as a medium, powerful individuals with strong souls are selected one after another, allowing them to carry the 'Originium Soul' obtained by the first Lord of Cinder from the Originium, succeeding the other's responsibilities, and continuing the lineage of Lords of Cinder generation after generation. This is the method by which the world of Originium has been perpetuated.

"It was from that time onwards that, just as we felt the will of the first Lord Cinder, powerful beings from other worlds, like Lord Ash, began to appear in this world one after another."

"According to the records left behind, some of them were from a homeland that was invaded by the abyss, and they took the initiative to step into this world in order to seek the power of the King Fire. Others were devoured and forced to fall into this world."

"Furthermore, unlike the people born from this world, these powerful beings from other worlds cannot truly burn to ashes because of their 'outsider' nature. Even if they bear the power of the King's Fire, they will only become 'ashes' and cannot truly disappear from this world."

"Even so, with the help of these powerful souls from the outside world, Wang Huo was able to continue for a long time. However, everything eventually comes to an end. Wang Huo's power became weaker and weaker with each generation, and the number of strong people with powerful souls also decreased."

"In order to reignite the Lordfire, the last Lord of Cinder has decided to ring the bell and use the power of the Lordfire to awaken Lord Rudolfs and the others who had fallen into slumber due to bearing the Lordfire."

"But as Lord Ash can see, Lord Rudolfs and the others have no intention of burning themselves again to succeed as Lords of Cinder. Therefore, the last Lord of Cinder rang the bell once more to awaken the Lords of Ash who have long been sleeping in the graveyard, and to implore you Lords of Ash to take over the duties of the Lords of Cinder, to fight against Lord Rudolfs and the others, and to become the new Lords of Cinder."

……

(End of this chapter)