Chapter Eleven: The Essence of Krypton Light

“Fifteen hundred billion origin?!”

As he placed his hand upon the crystal sphere, Ye Han’s consciousness instantly detached, converging within the crystal itself.

The moment his consciousness touched the Bond Panel, it indicated that fifteen hundred billion origin was pending receipt.

“Looks like my predecessor’s parents didn’t have an easy life!” Ye Han stared at the origin, silent for a long while, before finally gritting his teeth and choosing to accept it.

Two years in the main realm, harvesting origin once a month, allows for twenty-four harvests. Averaged out, the two together could only accumulate 6.25 billion origin monthly.

Compared to Earth’s monthly origin output, that’s ten billion more. Clearly, after years of managing their Bond Star, Ye Han’s parents still lagged behind Earth in overall development.

“Hopefully this origin will let me draw a good talent!” Watching the origin value surge to 154,930,700,857, Ye Han, both moved and grateful, began preparing for the talent draw.

Beneath the dome, golden bubbles appeared identical, their types mixed together. Normally, drawing a talent was pure luck. Once drawn, it could not be changed.

But that was only the usual case.

“There are always exceptions!” Glancing at the origin bar on the panel, Ye Han clenched his fist.

The civilization of the Heavenly Pool developed primarily along two paths: the technological and the mysterious.

The mainstream of the technological side included the four great branches: Life, Materials, Quantum, and Space.

Ye Han’s information engineering on Hanlan Star was a sub-branch of Quantum.

The mysterious side’s mainstream consisted of four major branches: Celestial Spirit, Profound Spirit, Fantasy, and Occult.

Within the Hall of Inheritance, these different branches of talent were all mixed together. Drawing at random, one could easily obtain a talent useless for planetary development.

The first time his predecessor drew a talent, inexperienced and sneaking in behind his parents’ backs, he ended up with an Occult branch talent, from the secret arts subcategory: “Enlightenment.”

Fortunately, this talent was decent—when focusing on information engineering, it could occasionally buff the local scientists and boost their IQ, not entirely wasted.

By the second draw, his predecessor had gained experience, directly burning origin to exclude certain branches.

But since he hadn’t accumulated enough origin, he could only afford to remove the main mysterious branches. When it came time to filter technological sub-branches, his origin ran dry, and he randomly got the Space category’s “Space Jump.”

“Talents can be imparted to native intelligent life, profoundly influencing local development!”

Looking at the two existing talents, Ye Han found himself in a difficult dilemma.

Now, due to the planetary transformation package, Hanlan Star’s original information engineering was exponentially harder to advance.

“Earth’s development is balanced, but balance often means mediocrity!” Ye Han mentally analyzed the situation of the two Bond Stars, ultimately deciding to forego a technological talent.

According to the teaching materials of the Li Yang main realm, aside from the pan-human camp, other camps existed.

Among them, the “Silicon Camp” was far more advanced technologically than humanity.

Given Earth’s average intelligence and technological exploration, even Li Yang Star Domain couldn’t make the cut, let alone the wider universe.

In contrast, the mysterious side’s theories were quite robust on Earth.

“With the ancient culture of Huaxia, perhaps the entire globe can be mobilized to reverse the mysterious side!”

Once he decided, Ye Han resolutely began burning origin, excluding the technological side.

“By the rules, drawing a talent always consumes ten billion origin. Excluding entire technological or mysterious branches costs another ten billion each. Excluding subcategories within a branch accumulates—first exclusion costs one billion, and each subsequent exclusion multiplies by ten!”

Watching his stash of over 154.9 billion origin, Ye Han endured the pain and paid ten billion for entry, then burned another ten billion to exclude the technological side.

As the origin burned, fully half of the golden light clusters in the Hall of Inheritance dimmed, turning silver-gray.

“Of the four remaining categories, exclude Fantasy!”

With the technological side gone, Ye Han quickly burned another billion origin, further dimming the bubbles beneath the dome.

Despite Hanlan currently being covered by the second-sequence Fantasy package, Ye Han’s heart resisted the Fantasy branch.

Even if this branch reached its peak, it would still be crushed on the battlefields of the heavens.

Facing the “Natural Camp” and “Light Mimicry Camp,” it often ended up carrying water for others, its own elements manipulated by enemies—a tragic fate.

“Only Celestial Spirit, Profound Spirit, and Occult remain.”

Looking at the bubbles floating in the sky, Ye Han was once again caught in indecision.

He needed to draw four talents this time. With over 154.9 billion origin, rounding up, he could burn nearly forty billion per draw.

Refined to a major branch of the mysterious side, it was more than enough.

“Celestial Spirit focuses on nurturing spirit and refining essence, using one’s soul to mobilize surrounding spiritual energy, riding the tide of greater forces, betting small for big gains.

Profound Spirit, on the other hand, forges the body as a furnace, relying on external resources to temper itself, devouring endless resources to suppress all who rebel—a path of dominance.”

Staring at these two branches, Ye Han was personally more inclined toward Profound Spirit.

Celestial Spirit required a high-quality environment—frankly, it’s like lighting a gas canister with a lighter.

Those on the Celestial Spirit path are the lighter; the environment is the gas cylinder.

If spiritual energy is abundant, Celestial Spirits just need to ignite, and the cylinder explodes with power.

But if spiritual energy is scarce, they’re doomed. Once their reserves are depleted, they’re toothless tigers—a mere kitten.

Profound Spirit practitioners, in a rich environment, can’t match Celestial Spirits of the same level.

But since their cultivation is internal, their overall resilience is strong and their environmental dependency lower.

Even if spiritual energy dries up, they remain robust.

If cultivated to the extreme, overturning fate and defying saints is not mere fantasy!

“It’s settled—Profound Spirit path, technology as a supplement, and buy results from the camp directly!”

After wavering between the two branches for a while, Ye Han ultimately chose to exclude Celestial Spirit.

Earth and Hanlan combined are only so large; their spiritual energy can’t support Celestial Spirit masters.

Profound Spirit is a tougher path, but at least it allows for external plundering.

Even if defeated, there’s always “Space Jump” for escape and survival.

As for Occult, Ye Han hesitated for a few moments before passing it up.

Talents in the Occult branch are secret arts, protection, shaping, summoning, curses, blessings, and so on.

This category is the most polarized in combat power, requiring high intelligence to play—one must use talents for combo skills and strategic layout.

Anyone who achieves greatness in this branch is without exception a cunning old fox.

Earth certainly has its share of geniuses, but globally, most people are more laid-back, prefer brute force, and dislike complex planning.

Having made his decision, Ye Han decisively burned eleven billion origin, excluding Celestial Spirit and Occult in turn.

“A total of thirty-one billion origin burned—now, let’s draw directly!”

Gazing at the one-in-ten golden bubbles beneath the dome, Ye Han’s consciousness shot out of the crystal sphere, streaking like a rainbow toward the suspended golden bubble.

Pop—

A sound like a cork being pulled echoed.

The moment Ye Han touched the golden bubble, it tightly enveloped his consciousness.

He entered without defense.

An unspeakable warmth surged, an inexplicable sense of joy flooded his spirit.

Ye Han’s consciousness gradually relaxed, his mind becoming hazy.

In the blur, something seemed to flow out, sticky yet slippery.

Ye Han reflexively opened his mouth.

A salty, fishy taste spread across his tongue.

???

Feeling a sharp pain on the tip of his tongue, Ye Han abruptly opened his eyes.

“What the—was that it?”

He didn’t know how, but one moment he was inside the bubble, and the next, his consciousness had returned to his body.

More embarrassing, he’d unwittingly bitten through his tongue.

“So that’s where the salty taste came from!” Ye Han muttered, annoyed, pursing his lips.

But the annoyance lasted only a moment, as his attention was drawn to the contents displayed on the crystal sphere.

“Talent acquired: Tenacity. Would you like to slot it in?”

Staring at the freshly drawn talent in the crystal sphere, Ye Han paused for several breaths, not immediately choosing to merge it.

This talent’s effect: increases a lifeform’s adversity resistance by ten percent.

That ten percent is comprehensive, covering both elemental and physical damage.

The talent isn’t bad, but it’s not exceptional—rather mediocre.

Now, each talent draw cost Ye Han thirty-three billion origin. With over 154.9 billion origin, the four top-tier draws would consume 132.4 billion.

The remaining 22.5 billion origin would let him do one more high-end draw.

What if he got a better talent on the next try?

With this in mind, Ye Han set the talent aside and started his next draw.

Three draws in succession.

For the last attempt, Ye Han entered the crystal sphere with only 22,530,700,857 origin left.

“Pay ten billion entry fee, exclude technological side, then exclude Celestial Spirit and Fantasy branches!”

After burning 22.1 billion origin, Ye Han was left with just 430,700,857.

He was essentially tapped out.

Compared to the previous 145.9 billion origin, the four hundred million remaining couldn’t even buy a pair of shorts.

Same process, same person.

Ye Han gambled again!

He bet this last attempt would avoid the Occult category.

Another cork-like pop echoed.

Looking at the final talent drawn, Ye Han’s whole face turned dark.

“Damn, that’s a slap in the face!!”

He’d hoped to lift the hem of Lady Luck’s dress, but instead hit her time of the month.

Directly smacked in the face by angel wings.

Standing before the crystal sphere, Ye Han unhesitatingly absorbed three of the five flashing talents.

The crystal sphere retained only the first-drawn “Tenacity” and the last-drawn Occult branch summoning sub-talent, “Mist Shadow.”

These two talents left Ye Han uncertain.

Mist Shadow’s effect: releases a mist and creates a shadow identical to the lifeform, lasting two seconds.

In essence, it’s a perfect decoy—matching the original’s aura and even attire.

But the decoy can’t be controlled or moved by the original.

It’s simply a sitting duck.

Logically, following the Profound Spirit route, Tenacity is far superior to Mist Shadow.

But Ye Han hesitated, knowing he also possessed “Space Jump.”

If Mist Shadow combined with Space Jump, maybe, in a critical moment, it could save his life!