Chapter 1217: Chapter 187: Using the most boastful tone to say the most timid words (5400)
“Thousand-Star Beast? How did we suddenly encounter something so exaggerated?”
Despite being utterly shocked inside, Ian managed to suppress any changes in his expression with his vast experience, as if he was just ordinarily on guard.
Though he didn’t know the true power of the so-called ‘Thousand-Star Beast’, the long list of ‘warnings’ and ‘alerts’ from the Silver Chip, more than any swarm or demon, made it clear just how dangerous this so-called Sparkkind derivative from the Primordial Beehive truly was!
Even the prototype of the Ether Titan Dragon, among the Ether Crystal Dragons, is merely a ‘rare wild animal’ that needs protection in the eyes of the Star God, and the ‘Void Spawn’ can be likened to cockroaches or diseased gnats…
Yet, the Thousand-Star Beast still warrants being labeled as having ‘a certain level of danger’!
(Fallen Empires, Sparkkind creatures, semi-independent derivative…interesting, is this Elgar Qingyue before me an unlucky soul assimilated and devoured by the Thousand-Star Beast, or is it that a mad researcher from the City of Knowledge is attempting to cultivate their own ‘Thousand-Star Beast’?)
(That semi-independent derivative must be the key!)
Now, the way Ian looked at the dark-haired scholar before him turned playful.
If it were on Earth, Ian would definitely assume the former is the case.
Elgar Qingyue is obviously an unlucky soul replaced by an extraterrestrial monster, much like in every sci-fi or horror movie where the monster would lurk in a human research lab, creating ever-greater and more terrifying disasters.
Local Terrans are a bit more terrifying than extraterrestrial monsters!
“Before answering your question.”
Ian lifted his hand, signaling Yisen Gard and Sio to stand back. He then stepped forward to face Elgar, who was floating in mid-air.
The white-haired youth naturally smiled and said, “I have a question for you.”
“Elgar, have you been ‘from the start’, or have you just not yet learned how to mimic humans?”
In truth, Ian’s inquiry was indeed very abrupt.
Elgar’s current state was the public bloodline inheritance ‘Hidden Dawn Illusion Octopus’, a sea and sky magical beast with a decidedly beautiful name, yet it was extremely dangerous and fearsome. This great octopus rests in the shallow coastal waters at night, morphing into clouds in the sky by day to hunt. It can freely change into any weather pattern, slipping into cities through rain, twilight, or fog to devour humans and animals.
This is its low energy level state, but at high energy levels, the Hidden Dawn Illusion Octopus gradually transforms into a semi-void realm life form, or more correctly, it has always been a void realm life form, only brought into the material world to survive due to the void realm mutation caused by the Calamity of Heavenly Fall. By then, it devours not only the flesh but also the illusions within human hearts.
There have been cases where entire coastal fishing villages and even a medium-sized port were drawn into the void realm by a greedy Illusion Octopus Beast King, with tens of thousands of people in the city quietly passing away in dreams, leaving behind only human skins and brittle bones.
And the abilities Elgar just exposed, whether in tentacle surprise attacks or mental disruption, were indeed among the innate abilities of the Hidden Dawn Illusion Octopus… Theoretically, Ian should not have been able to uncover Elgar’s true identity, nor have questioned him with that seemingly ambiguous query.
Even Anfa’s suspicions only arose from Elgar’s suspicious actions and lack of evidence as a team leader — even if she was doubtful, she could never directly think like Ian that the other was this way from the very beginning.
But ‘Elgar’ could understand.
This individual, already marked as the ‘Thousand-Star Beast’, narrowed his eyes. Faced with Ian’s open confrontation with his actual identity, he instead revealed a cold smile: [Interesting, this was precisely my question for you…]
[Ian Silverpeak, I was very curious about you. If all the rumors and exaggerated descriptions about you were to be considered real, your improvement speed and technological development rate would be 89% of Grand Artisan Friedrich, who had the full support of the City of Knowledge along with the covert assistance of the Four Great Orthodox Churches. Meanwhile, you have only the backing of a branch of the Ellen Family, along with a minor royal investment… Even with Dragon Island’s favor and the Ashlight Sect’s young master’s friendship, your output efficiency surpasses that of a grand artisan theoretically operating with similar resources.]
Saying this, ‘Elgar’ gazed coldly at the white-haired boy in front of him and made an icy assessment: [In other words, from the most exaggerated standpoint, your intelligence level is 295% of the theoretical human limit, which is 3.51 to 3.79 times that of Grand Artisan Friedrich. Even after accounting for the rumors that you might possess the insights of a prophet, your intelligence level is still 180% of the human limit.]
[Though it’s a rather overstated evaluation, the miracles and surprises associated with you are countless. According to our intel, you displayed only as a smart child before age eleven, outpacing 98% of humans but still lagging significantly behind the theoretical peak of human intelligence… However, post eleven, your performance became increasingly astonishing.]
[Up until now, standing before me, you managed to use at most 70 standard units of Origin Quality to counter my attack employing around 300 units… You may come across as very ordinary, yet you seemingly never considered that being able to instantly quell over nine hundred Origin Quality variations in my attack should be beyond a seventeen-year-old White Folks youth’s capability. Not even a Prophet could accomplish it.]