After checking each other's contents, the two agreed on the deal, and with Alive as a witness, they exchanged the items. Endless Skies gained the info regarding rank 14, while Luther got the info regarding chaos.
Until now, for Rachel, info regarding chaos was not an emergency; chaos would not help at all in reaching rank 14. Even now, after getting the data, she's only going to sell it to her universal data center; she doesn't anticipate having any use for it.
...
Rachel sold the data regarding chaos and finally gained enough universal data center contribution points to barely withdraw what she wanted: info regarding the infinite universal law and everything she needed to reach rank 14 with it.
Not intending to waste time, she started right away.
...
Rank 14 is special; at this rank, one can extract energy from creation but cannot exert any control over the creation itself.
Compared to rank 13, a rank 14 is countless times stronger.
What energy does a rank 1 mage use when they cast spells? The answer is that they use a very diluted form of fragment laws.
Pure energy that many low-rank beings use does contain fragment laws; it's just that those fragment law pieces are very sparse and random.
A rank 4 mortal starts using pure energy with a much denser form of fragment laws; they can collect specific forms of diluted fragment laws and use them to cast specific spells. That's why they say rank 4 is the time one chooses one's future road.
A rank 7 starts using the highest form of fragment laws without much dilution, and as one reaches rank 9, one can cast spells with fragment laws alone, without any dilution.
Of course, mortal ranks are dependent on the specific world, so in different worlds, these rules may be drastically different.
When one reaches rank 10, one can finally use a complete law.
But, different from the ranks below, a complete law alone is not enough; a complete law is like a gun, while energy is like a bullet. Without a bullet, a gun is barely useful; without energy, complete laws are not really useful.
One can use many different sources of energy to use complete laws. For example, one can use realization law, universal energy, soul energy, supreme mana energy, supreme qi, etc. The name is not important; the point is one needs high-level energy to use complete laws.
One's reserves of energy are the most important determinant of one's combat abilities; even a universal law can be suppressed by energy.
A rank 12 would gain access to a universal law; the same as with a complete law, one must have the energy to use a universal law.
At such a high level, supreme mana energy and supreme qi energy, along with many other forms of energy, are no longer able to provide enough force to use a universal law.
Only very high-level energies, like realization energy, soul energy, and universal energy, can provide enough force to use a universal law.
Realization energy can be produced in emotion refineries, as some call it. Emotion refineries are places where they place mortals and force them to experience different emotions; in this process, mortals produce different types of realization energy. Realization energy is the best and most useful energy that exists besides creation energy.
Soul energy is the energy gained from farming and extracting the souls of mortals; it is of a lower level than realization energy, but it's possible to use it to wield some universal laws.
Universal energy is the energy one can gain by refining the chaos in the endless world; this form of energy is also very powerful, but refining chaos is no easy task, so it's usually very expensive.
Some rank 13 civilizations have their own specific energies which they keep a secret. Clearwater sect, for example, has universal Qi, which is an extremely condensed form of supreme QI that can be used to drive even universal laws. How to create universal qi is a secret; only sects who submit to Clear Water Sect can be allowed to use it.
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When one reaches rank 14, the whole equation changes.
From ranks 0 to 13, one has to input something, whether it's mana or realization energy, to be able to cast a spell.
In rank 14, however, everything changes; one no longer needs any energy to cast a spell. One can cast as many spells as they want free of charge. To say it more precisely, it's not that one can do infinite things; the output of the creation energy is still limited. It's just that each rank 14 is granted a stream of creation energy, always flowing and present.
This stream is not storable; one must use it at the moment; otherwise, it will be lost. It's not that storing creation energy is entirely impossible, but one's stream cannot be saved for later.
Even after who knows how long, no rank 14 civilization in this universe managed to find a way to store this energy.
In any case, rank 14 is different in the way that one would forever be given free energy: the creation energy.
The creation energy is the highest and most powerful form of energy imaginable. It's called energy, but in fact, it's more like authority, a permission slip. Using it, one can change anything, create anything, and without limit, as long as it doesn't exceed the allocation given by the creation.
The allocation can increase, and as such, some rank 14s are far stronger than others, but the way to do it is, of course, a supreme secret. As the creation itself is infinite, one can increase one's allocation infinitely,
To reach rank 14, one must copy an aspect of the creation.
Nearly everyone chooses the omnipotent aspect, with some choosing the omniscient aspect.
The specific reason why is simple. It is very difficult to copy the infinite aspect. One must have the Infinity Universal Law and knowledge of how to code infinity. The final step is running the Infinity Formation once; running the Infinity Formation requires an unbelievable amount of energy.
Rachel has the formula and can gain access to the Infinity Universal Law. She now knows how to code it.
The only remaining part is running the Infinity Formation. Running the formation is the start and finish of one's path to rank 14; once the formation is run once, one can then enjoy an endless supply of creation energy forever.
What is the formation? For the creation of energy to flow out, one must use a formation; this formation would be self-sustaining, using the energy allocation to sustain itself. But, for the first time, one must run it using one's own energy; the first circulation wouldn't be self-sustaining, as one doesn't have an allocation.
For nearly everyone else, it would have been a massive problem, but Rachel has gray energy; with it, this step is the easiest.
...
"Let's do it!" she thought. Then, using the formula, she summoned the Infinity Universal Law and, according to the formation map, began constructing the Infinity Formation.
She has gained all the knowledge required before, so her road would be smooth.
After constructing the formation, she started pouring her gray energy in. The formation began moving, but very slowly, barely noticeable.
Seeing this, Rachel increased her output.
"It’s a bottomless pit!" she thought. Even after pouring all her spare gray energy, it still didn't fill up. Seeing this, she took out all her scattered gray energy throughout the universe, activated her rank 13 skill to draw reinforcement from her incarnation in other universes, and poured it all into the bottomless hole.
But, all went into the bottomless pit and disappeared.
Gritting her teeth, she decided to use the energy she used to build the office's cage; She can feel that the bottomless hole is only a bit off and will be filled after she puts a bit more.
With a thought, the massive cage she constructed outside the universe dissolved, and all the gray energy came back to Rachel, being poured into the pit.
After a few moments, the pit closed, and Rachel smiled. "Success!" Rachel thought.
There was no explosion, nothing special; the only thing that changed was some click in her mind.
Before, she was unable to hack her system skill from ranks 10 to 13. Now, after she reached rank 14, that changed. With a thought, she hacked her system and gained root authority over it from ranks 1 to 13.
"What is my rank 14 skill?" she thought. It has been uncountable years since she experienced the excitement of unlocking a new system skill.
"Gray energy draw!" she exclaimed. Now, as a rank 14, she can draw golden creation energy, but that is not the only thing. Using her rank 14 skill, she can also draw gray energy from her system.
"What if I combine these?" she thought. If the creation is, in fact, incomplete, and if the incomplete part that was separated is her system.
Then, if they two combine; wouldn’t that mean she can use the power of rank 15? Of course, it wouldn’t be a lot of it, but even just a tiny bit of rank 15 power would be unimaginable.
In fact, creation energy is supposed to be rank 15 power, but Rachel is nearly sure that the creation is only semi-rank 15 and not true rank 15.
As a result, the creation energy that rank 14s now uses is also only semi-rank 15. That means the rank 14s today are technically only semi-rank 14, as true rank 14s use true rank 15 energy.
Rachel decided to test it.
"Let's test it on the office!" she thought.
She released the office when she was trying to run the infinite formation. Now, it is back and angry.
The poor rank 13 she put there to take care of the formation has long been reduced to ashes.
"Poor thing! What was his name? Heaven Daoist?" Rachel struggled to remember his name. She didn’t even bother saving his name in her memory; for her now, rank 13 is nothing.
Putting the matter aside, she looked directly through the universe wall and saw the office outside. Drawing a bit of gray energy and a bit of golden energy, she combined the two, and then... boom!