Attribute Farming System

The Head Butler bowed respectfully before speaking:

"My Lord, I'm ashamed to say this as your most loyal servant, but I fail to comprehend how Young Master Knox—a young boy who just started to cultivate—will be able to make a dent in the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect. A more likely scenario—if I may be so frank—would be his extremely unfortunate demise at the hands of those scheming snakes."

Count Falazar's serious facade cracked for the briefest of moments, a detail the Head Butler did not fail to notice.

"It might appear that way from the perspective of most anyone," Count Falazar responded. "But I know my son. I know what heights he's meant to reach for. I know that one day he'll come to shock not only the Elemental Nations and the Azura Empire but the entire world. It's fated to be so."

His voice overflowed with well-concealed pride as he continued, "The rise of the one who'll be unrivaled in Heaven and Earth. The Prophet has foretold it to be so."

"...The Prophet?" The Head Butler's confusion was evident as he tried to make sense of his lord's words. "What Prophet are you speaking of? Which one in the Elemental Nations could possibly cause someone as great as you to trust them so much?"

Count Falazar let out a hearty guffaw. "As great as me? In the grander scheme of things, I'm nothing. No less than a bug fighting for dominion on a tiny anthill. It took meeting HER for me to truly understand this."

"Her?" The Head Butler's curiosity deepened. "Is she the Prophet you spoke of, my Lord?"

Count Falazar nodded. "Indeed. The Prophet appeared out of nowhere and gave only her title, which was the 'Unbiased Prophet.' At first, I thought her to be an enemy, so I initiated a fight. Yet..."

A pause followed as Count Falazar's large, rough hands trembled, vividly reliving what he felt that day. "The Prophet's power was so immense—so unbelievably powerful—that I saw my death on repeat. Millions of times I died, and all she did was go to lift up her index finger..."

"Premonitions of one's own death," the Head Butler muttered, his disbelieving expression betraying the calmness in his voice. "For something of that unbelievable scale to happen to you, My Lord, just… just what Realm do you need to be at?"

Count Falazar shook his head in exasperation. "I know not the answer to your question," he admitted. "But what I can tell you is that even the Envoy of the Azura Empire felt like little more than an infant in the face of HER power."

The Head Butler's eyes widened ever so slightly for the first time in their discussion. His brows, however, nearly touched his hairline.

"A Soul Transformation Realm Master—no more than an infant!?"

Those in the Elemental Nations believed the Soul Transformation Realm to be an unachievable goal. To think that even an entity of that level would be seen as so fragile when compared to another…

Exactly what sort of incomprehensible existence was the Unbiased Prophet!?

Count Falazar's expression turned ever more complex. "The Prophet is not someone I can hope to understand," he said. "But what I do know is that just before she left as suddenly as she arrived, she bestowed upon me a prophecy. It was likely the only reason she was here in the Azura Empire to begin with."

His voice dropped to a murmur as he repeated the Prophet's words.

"On the 6666th year of the Lunar Calendar, you'll be blessed with a son. This son—one scorned by all—will at first seem like your burden. A stain on your reputation. However, from a mold of the disdained shall blossom a Crimson Scar onto the world. Rivers of blood shall drown out the cries of the world, and from them shall emerge a being whose destiny knows no limits."

"The only thing she told me before hurriedly disappearing was that I should give no preferential treatment to the son of mine yet to be conceived," Count Falazar reminisced, the inconceivable visage of that unfathomable, blindfolded woman still deeply imprinted in his memory. "She also instructed me to, under no circumstances, interrupt the natural process of things by assisting my son in the chaos that he was bound to wrap himself up in."

The Head Butler, a servant who had faithfully served three generations of Falazar Sect Leaders, felt a level of curiosity exceeding anything he had previously known. In his old age, there was very little he hadn't seen or heard.

But this... this was a first even for him.

A being capable of making a Soul Transformation Realm Cultivator seem inconsequential. A being that could somehow predict the future and foresee the birth of Knox Falazar.

Had these words come from any other source, the Head Butler would have dismissed them as the delusions of a madman. But coming from Count Falazar—a man who neither lied nor lost his sanity—he found himself compelled to believe the unfathomable.

In the World of Cultivation, there was always an unseen limit hidden behind every observable limit.

For them, the Azura Empire was the greatest force in the world. Yet, it was just that—their world. The limit of what they were permitted to perceive.

For an alien species who dominated an entire galaxy, their whole world would be whatever they could see. But what if—what if, past the scope of their sight—beyond the boundaries of their universe—there existed more?

More universes, more cosmic constructs, more, more, more.

In its essence, the pursuit of Cultivation was the pursuit of something more. And to find more, one first had to discover the limits and test for larger limits.

"Beyond a sky is another sky, beyond heaven is a higher heaven," the Head Butler murmured, seemingly lost in thought. "My Lord, I understand. I shall faithfully carry out your will and not help the Eldest Young Master in his affairs. But as for when his elder sister learns of this news… there's nothing I can do to stop her..."