Chapter 117: Chapter 117

He had set out to experiment with visualizing his attribute panel, only to inadvertently develop an ocular Transcendent ability instead. Ron felt both elated and somewhat apprehensive. He didn’t consider himself to be anything special.

In fact, if these methods were applied out in the wider world, there weren’t many barriers to entry either. One simply needed to sustain contact with Sources of Chaos, accumulate more Pollution Secret Patterns, and the possibility of acquiring bodily mutations, and thereby corresponding supernatural abilities, was equally attainable.

It was just that the risks of operating out there were far greater, nowhere near as safe as Ron’s current method of directly manipulating the Pollution Secret Patterns on the surface of his true Light Orb.

Through this series of experiments, Ron could draw an inference: Pollution Secret Patterns were, at their core, also Transcendent Secret Patterns.

But because they belonged to a fundamentally different system from the Transcendent Secret Patterns involved in the Knight’s path, coexistence was exceedingly difficult. In reality, those Pollution Secret Patterns were indeed capable of forming relatively stable Transcendent abilities.

At the very least, across these several sets of experiments, Ron had discovered quite a few Transcendent abilities that could stably exist. Among them, the most practical was undoubtedly 【Perspective】.

However, Ron remained perpetually vigilant toward the Transcendent abilities granted by Pollution Secret Patterns.

On one hand, Pollution Secret Patterns exhibited a profound antagonism toward Order, and he was currently walking the Knight’s path. Whether a conflict existed between the two was still unknown.

He couldn’t exactly prepare a full cleansing routine before every use of these abilities, then clean up and reorganize everything afterward. That would be far too cumbersome.

On the other hand, there was the matter of the Pollution Secret Patterns themselves. Even without the Knight’s path standing in opposition, they exuded a thick aura of Chaos. The six nations of the continent placed such immense importance on Order; was it because they were inherently predisposed to it, naturally inclined to live that way?

Without even needing to guess, it was undoubtedly because of the Pollution Secret Patterns saturating the greater environment.

It was the six nations, and even earlier human civilizations, that discovered Order could be used to counteract those Pollution Secret Patterns. If Pollution Secret Patterns were inherently aligned with Order, wouldn’t they have easily integrated into human civilization?

They wouldn’t bear the infamous mantle of Chaos they carried today.

It seemed the name 【Pollution】 that he had chosen for them was probably apt after all.

Beyond these two reasons directly tied to himself, there was yet another critical reason that compelled Ron to maintain the utmost vigilance toward the Transcendent abilities forged from Pollution Secret Patterns.

That was his current environment: Sis Territory, the Kingdom of Helios, and indeed all six nations of the continent.

Every single one was built upon the bedrock of Order. While they might lack deep research into the fundamental nature of things like Pollution Secret Patterns, they held an extremely hostile attitude toward the various phenomena that manifested from them.

Such as Aberrant Beasts, Evil Spirits, Wastelanders, and the cultists who defied easy categorization.

In the Kingdom of Helios, anyone who slew any of these Sources of Chaos was guiltless. Not merely guiltless, but meritorious!

If Ron recklessly wielded the Transcendent abilities born of Pollution Secret Patterns and was deemed a Source of Chaos by the people of the Kingdom of Helios, then even with ten mouths, he wouldn’t be able to exonerate himself.

Because during his testing of those Transcendent abilities, he discovered that the more they were used, the deeper the influence of Pollution Secret Patterns became.

Of course, from another perspective, this simply meant that the more these abilities were used, the more powerful they grew.

They didn’t even require comprehension or training. Mere sustained use would make them increasingly potent. Ron was profoundly wary of this phenomenon as well.

He didn’t believe that any power in this world came without a price. It was merely that the cost exacted itself in places unseen.

The Knight’s path was no exception.

It was just that this particular path of transcendence had already been validated by countless Transcendent Knights across the Kingdom of Helios and the six nations. The price existed, such as relentless training, innate talent, and material resources, but all of it was acceptable.

As for the Transcendent abilities bestowed by Pollution Secret Patterns, what the true cost was, no one could guarantee. At the very least, no one had explained to Ron the price of such power.

…

“What a pity! The attribute panel visualization still hasn’t seen much progress.”

Not much progress meant there actually was some progress, just subpar, unable to meet Ron’s expectations.

He was already capable of projecting chaotic streams of light within his eyes. If he could decode the randomly flickering trajectories of those streams of light, then the ultimate goal of this entire series of experiments might already be accomplished.

Regrettably, he couldn’t parse those trajectories, at least not to the extent of mapping them one-to-one with the various pieces of information on his attribute panel.

In truth, he hadn’t even begun the mapping process. If the attribute panel actually did manifest, he would probably be frightened out of his wits.

The so-called mapping was essentially a form of information encoding. Or conversely, information encoding was itself a form of mapping.

What Ron sought to achieve was to have the attribute panel displayed within his field of vision in some one-to-one correspondence, whether as streams of light or any other form.

As long as there was a clear correspondence and he could interpret it intuitively at a glance, the visualization of the attribute panel would be considered complete.

However, he had already done more than enough tonight. Transferring Pollution Secret Patterns was incredibly draining on his mental energy, especially across the multiple sets of Pollution Secret Pattern experiments conducted earlier. Ron had no desire to tinker with information encoding anymore.

He needed a good rest, in his true form.

…

The next day.

Ron woke up early, and the moment he rose, he immediately sensed something was wrong. His body had rested well, yet his mind felt somewhat lethargic. It seemed his spirit hadn’t fully recovered yet.

“This is rough! I still have Captain Monte’s special training today!”

But mental fatigue wasn’t the only thing plaguing Ron. His eyes, which had been subjected to the better part of the night’s Pollution Secret Pattern experiments, had also grown somewhat blurry.

While it didn’t impair his vision per se, everything he looked at seemed veiled behind a layer of haze. For someone like Ron, who was accustomed to pristine clarity, the sensation was deeply uncomfortable.

“What the hell is this now?”

Seeing this, Ron quickly lay back down, withdrew his consciousness, and returned to his true form to examine the Body Secret Patterns on the Light Orb’s surface. After last night’s experiments concluded, he had gone straight to rest without paying further attention to changes in his body.

The morning’s developments caught him off guard, forcing him back to his true form to check the status of this “Ron” vessel.

Since he had recorded data both before and after the experiments, Ron quickly pinpointed the crux of the issue:

It was none other than his eyes.

Those Pollution Secret Patterns that he had transferred away after the experiments last night had reappeared near the Body Secret Patterns representing his pupils, and had fused deeply with them.

The hazy veil that Ron was seeing was, in a manner of speaking, actually a Transcendent ability. It was just that the ability currently appeared to serve no practical purpose, and its root cause was Pollution Secret Patterns.

“How did this happen?” Ron couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

He remembered very clearly. Not only did his consciousness remember, but he had even left dedicated experiment records. He had clearly transferred all Pollution Secret Patterns involved in the experiment and stored them separately after the experiments concluded!

How could so many Pollution Secret Patterns still appear in his pupils?