Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1701 One More Thing

Sylas didn't answer immediately, nor did he relax.

Honestly speaking, if you were talking about the odds of him reaching this place in their conversation, he had already been 100% confident. The reason he had told the Thryskai that he only had 70% assurance of leaving this place despite that was because he knew it would be the pinnacle of foolishness to assume he had ever fully painted an A-tier into a corner.

No. Fanelei was no normal A-tier. She was a Legend.

As far as Sylas could tell, that was a title reserved for someone who had already touched the threshold of S-tier. But the difference didn't matter all that much to him now.

He wasn't the only intelligent person in the world, he wasn't the only one with trump cards, and he was trying to pin down and restrict the actions and future of a person who understood far more about this world than he did.

Even if she hadn't been an A-tier, she had quite literally lived seven full lives already. It was one thing to escape the impotent system, but what was clear to Sylas was that the Madness System was on a whole other level.

Even if it hadn't been, because the Madness System only had to manage what was practically an infinitely smaller number of individuals compared to the impotent system, it was only natural that its effects be more potent per capita.

Yet, Fanelei had still managed to fool its eyes.

If Sylas went into this thinking that he already had everything in the bag, that would be nothing short of truly arrogant. At that point, his Pride would no longer be a Virtue-it would be a Sin.

Plus, Sylas wasn't naive enough to think that having Fanelei in his pocket meant that he had the Weaver Guild. This wasn't the Golden Grove.

The Weaver Guild had seven Quasi Demi-God Clans holding up its foundation, not to mention what were probably dozens of B and B+ Races under its wing.

Even if he was just considering the Analei Clan alone, Sylas knew for a fact that Fanelei wasn't the only voice-she just happened to be the only one who was awake right now.

Sylas had already interacted with Malikhi, and though the latter had kneeled when Fanelei appeared back then, there was something about his posture that made something quite clear to Sylas... He was kneeling not out of true respect but out of duty and cultural norms.

There were good odds that even if Malikhi wasn't on the same level as Fanelei, he was on track to reach her level with another few reincarnation cycles. And if he could reach that level, there was no reason to believe that others couldn't have.

The problem with this went beyond just how much power Sylas could control and wield through Fanelei alone. Because of her actions, he had been tied to their Ancestral Will. It was likely that there would almost certainly be some consequences for that.

Their family's elders would be asking questions, scrutinizing him, and because of the unilateral decision Fanelei had made, they might even take it upon themselves to restrict him in various ways as well.

Sylas had spent the last week in the guild, so he hadn't experienced any fallout from this just yet—but that didn't mean there weren't any.

When he was looking at a chessboard, he was analyzing every possible position as well as that of the perspective of his enemies on the very same chessboard.

Someone more naive might think they had everything made already.

Sylas knew far better than that.

So, when Fanelei asked this question, he didn't ask her for the actually valuable F-tier resources, nor did he ask for any treasures. He asked for the one thing that had always been the most valuable to him.

"I want information. The E-tier Cryst Emperor. Who are they, who is protecting them, where are they, what are their abilities, and when is the best time to target them?"

Fanelei's pupils constricted into pinholes. She stared at Sylas for a fine, long while before she lowered her head and chuckled bitterly.

Monster.

It was the one assessment of Sylas she could have.

Unfathomably deep, impossible to measure, unshakeable. On the same playing field, she honestly wasn't sure if there was anyone that could match him.

Maybe she was just biased. She had heard the legends of the Purvon Clan's young master. But the actions of the latter were so obscure and in the shadows to her that she couldn't assign any shock to them.

But time and time again, every interaction she had with Sylas formed her feel like she couldn't even counterpunch.

She had been prepared for him to ask for the world just now. But this was what he asked for instead?

He understood the situation maybe even better than she did.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I have great belief in your talent, but your starting position is too low. You are lucky in that this new Cryst Emperor has only just reached the E-tier, but I do not believe you could defeat any legitimate F-tier disciple of the Weaver Guild or Seeing Eye Guild in your current state-let alone a genius, and certainly not an E-tier genius.

"In fact, to call the Cryst Emperor a genius is an understatement. Every cycle of entry might have four to six so- called 'geniuses', but they're just people a standard deviation away from the average.

"Someone like the Cryst Emperor isn't just two or three standard deviations away-they only appear once every two or three generations. If not for the Sector they were born into, they too would be a Primus Imperium."

Sylas stared at her without the slightest shift in his emotions.

"None of this is what I asked you for."

Fanelei stared back at him and then shook her head. What choice did she have now? Not only did she need to answer, but she would need to sneak out the very young man who held so much of her family's Karma herself so that the Analei Elders and Ancestors didn't stop him.

How had this happened?

Sylas silently documented everything until he was satisfied. Then, he turned to leave.

"Oh, and one more thing." Sylas looked over his shoulder, his eyes flashing a particularly cold light, infused with such a force that even Fanelei felt a deathly cold chill. "Leave my little sister alone or I will kill you regardless of what it costs me."