"This wasn’t easy."

"I finally succeeded."

Qi Suian looked at the panel, at the two words "Fully Infected" after the asterisks, and then at his S-rank virus talent.

He sighed with heartfelt emotion.

’If it weren’t for my +5 enhanced protagonist’s halo, I have no idea how long it would have taken for my virus talent to evolve from A-rank to S-rank.’

[S-Rank Talent: Person of Profound Darkness]

The appearance of this talent signified a complete transformation within him.

"The only problem is, can I still be considered human?" Qi Suian felt a little strange.

The talent’s suffix was "Person," but in reality, he was more like a conglomerate of the profound darkness virus, merely retaining humanoid characteristics.

As for the benefits, there were plenty.

The simplest one was that he no longer had any weaknesses. He didn’t have to worry about his lifespan, injuries, or anything of the sort. As long as a single one of his cells or a single profound darkness virus remained, he could recover.

As for *how* he would recover, that remained to be seen. This involved a rather bizarre problem.

Namely, any enemy capable of beating him down to a single cell or virus would never give him the chance to resurrect.

So, there were many things he needed to overcome and optimize.

After all, for Qi Suian, there were still SS-rank and SSS-rank levels to consider.

But for now, he had no plans to develop those next two ranks.

The reason was simple: he didn’t have the corresponding strength to even attempt it.

According to his analysis of his own data, not counting his protagonist’s halo, his own abilities were only on par with an A-rank talent.

His ability to punch above his weight class relied on his protagonist’s halo, the think-tank, and high-concentration death potions.

Without them, he would have never been able to create an S-rank ability and virus talent.

Going any higher wasn’t a matter of it being difficult or not; it was a matter of him not having the slightest clue where to even begin.

Although the protagonist’s halo defied logic in some ways, it still required a foundation to be of any help to Qi Suian.

At most, it just gave him a bit of inspiration and presented suitable options; it didn’t just stuff the answers directly into his brain.

If Qi Suian’s own strength was lacking, he wouldn’t be able to capitalize on the inspiration and choices presented to him.

Therefore, to advance further, the best method was to increase his strength.

’My stats haven’t changed. The 5-point mark must be a threshold.’

This didn’t surprise Qi Suian. After all, the virus talent wasn’t one that directly boosted his strength.

In essence, it was the type that increased his potential and foundation, allowing him to go further in the long run.

So, thinking that he would gain a huge stat boost just by leveling his talent from A-rank to S-rank was unrealistic.

Of course, getting no boost at all was also a bit illogical, but then he remembered that his foundation as a "profound darkness human" was thin to begin with.

Even with a mutation, it couldn’t have increased by much.

"Still, 5 points is enough for me. After all, every point represents an exponential increase." Qi Suian wasn’t greedy.

Besides, if he wanted to improve his strength, he had to rely on the Extraordinary system.

He then turned his gaze to the giant clam he was keeping in a pool.

Qi Suian had starved it until now. It wasn’t dead, but it was too weak to move.

From the think-tank’s research reports on Cold Energy and the giant clam, Qi Suian already had a lot of foundational knowledge before he even started.

For example, Cold Energy Monsters didn’t actually need to eat, in a sense. They could survive just by being in an environment with a certain concentration of Cold Energy.

And that was just passive absorption of Cold Energy. Once they had a corresponding Qi Cultivation Method, they could actively intake Cold Energy. Not only would they not have to worry about food, but they could also effectively resist the cold.

Eventually, they would become fearless of the cold, and even gain special abilities formed from Cold Energy to control it.

When Qi Suian looked at it, the giant clam shivered in fear.

Ever since its capture, it had witnessed some of the insane tortures Qi Suian inflicted upon himself, and it was terrified he would use them on it.

To upgrade his virus talent, he couldn’t just will it to happen; he had to conduct extensive experiments.

And the test subject was himself.

After all, he was the only one with the A-rank talent Virus Control (Profound Darkness). Not to mention, his body had already undergone massive modifications.

Being both a "profound darkness human" and a practitioner of the Dragon and Tiger Primordial Force, it would be difficult to find a second case like him.

If he didn’t use himself, who else could he use?

Besides, with Death Recasting, Qi Suian considered himself a prime test subject in his own plans.

If he weren’t so busy, he could have even moonlighted as fuel for the Melting Furnace to provide evolutionary energy for the Tai Sui God.

The giant clam was definitely scared by this kind of madness.

The fool fears the thug, but the thug fears the maniac.

"I... I think my king might be looking for me, you see..." The giant clam was on the verge of tears, if it had tear ducts.

But Qi Suian slowly walked over and said, "Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to eat you."

This made the giant clam even more afraid. It wasn’t scared of being eaten by Qi Suian; it was scared of being tortured by him.

Getting eaten would be a quick death. But in this situation, a quick death was out of the question; it was doubtful it would even be left in one piece while alive.

It would be a relief to just be eaten directly.

Of course, Qi Suian was aware of its fear. After his virus talent was upgraded, his perception had greatly improved, and even his thoughts had become more active.

"Just tell me what you want! Don’t torture me!" The giant clam steeled itself and laid its cards on the table.

It knew its situation. There was no way it was getting out of here alive, so the best it could do was try to get a quick death.

"Rest assured, I’m the type to kill, not to torture," Qi Suian said in the tone of a good person, though he only spoke half the thought.

’The other half was, ’I hope the anesthetic works on you.’’

If it didn’t work, Qi Suian would have no choice but to cover its mouth to stop it from screaming.

’How can you call experimenting ’torture’?’

"But I am curious, how do you absorb Cold Energy? Is it an instinctual process of your organs, or is it similar to a human’s Qi Cultivation Method?" Qi Suian asked.

The think-tank’s focus had always been on Cold Energy itself. Its data reports on the giant clam were mostly about how the creature consumed Cold Energy to sustain itself.

After all, Qi Suian was the one controlling the Tai Sui God for experiments. Even if the think-tank wanted to study it, it couldn’t. Therefore, the think-tank mostly focused on the Cold Energy environment.

"I was born with the ability to absorb yin energy to strengthen my body and soul. Only humans, with their innate deficiencies, need Qi Cultivation Methods."

"Speaking of which, Qi Cultivation Methods are techniques humans developed by observing us Cold Beasts."

"But in terms of intelligence, humans are indeed far superior to my Cold Beast race. Even the Beast Kings feel inferior when compared to the top-tier Qi Cultivation Methods."

"I once heard that in the Ancient Times, a Qi Cultivation Method called the Taiyin Refining Technique suppressed the Cold Beasts for several eras, leaving them unable to rise up."

At this point, the giant clam clearly showed a trace of fear.

"Back then, my king fought a human who had cultivated a fragment of the Taiyin Refining Technique."

"If not for the King’s divine valor, repelling the opponent at the cost of shattering most of his shell, I’m afraid we all would have been slaughtered."

"This was what the King said afterward. Thankfully, that person had only cultivated one-fifth of it. If it had been any more, even if the King could have repelled him, it would have cost him half his life."

The way the giant clam spoke, it sounded like something out of a fantasy novel. Qi Suian almost wanted to laugh.

"So can your king overturn rivers and seas, or move mountains and create land?" Qi Suian asked curiously.

"Huh?" The giant clam was stunned by Qi Suian’s question. "You’ve been reading too many storybooks, haven’t you?"

"If he really had that kind of power, my king would have conquered the world long ago."

"My king’s strength is nothing to scoff at. With a single strike of his great claw, he can shatter a farmhouse."

The giant clam ’educated’ Qi Suian on King Zhen Ao’s power.

Qi Suian started to question reality. That level of strength... seemed pretty average.

Of course, that was its normal attack.

Then he realized it was perfectly normal.

How could a powerhouse capable of blowing up a planet with a flick of their wrist possibly appear in this world?

Besides, if they were that strong, they wouldn’t be affected by Cold Energy.

So, he had overestimated the power of the ancient Extraordinary beings.

He even suspected that the highest level was probably around the Jie Jin realm.

The overall power level was definitely higher than the Polar Day World, but not as high as the Ancient Martial World.

Of course, if you excluded the existence of over-the-top entities like Qin Sheng and his seven masters, as well as Xu Tongming and the Golden Light Man, the ranking would definitely change.

"So, where does your king rank among the Cold Beasts?" Qi Suian continued to ask.

"Well, he’s said to be only mid-tier," the giant clam hesitated for a moment before finally speaking the truth.

"Mid-tier... that’s pretty average then." Qi Suian hadn’t expected King Zhen Ao to be that strong anyway.

If the nations’ thermal weapons hadn’t been affected by the low temperatures, this group of Beast Kings would never have dared to confront the nations head-on.

And if the nations united, they could slaughter these Cold Energy Monsters to the point where they could only be farmed or kept in zoos.

To take it a step further, they wouldn’t even need to unite. As long as a single major power wasn’t hindered by the other nations, it could easily accomplish this.

They were only able to act like kings and tyrants back in the day because humanity hadn’t developed yet.

Take the giant clam for example. In ancient times, an ordinary person couldn’t even dream of opening its shell. But now? Never mind a hydraulic press; a simple electric drill could make it scream for its mommy.

Even Qi Suian never considered confronting the nations head-on. He only planned to go on a killing spree in their capitals to establish his fearsome reputation.

This was also a kind of clever workaround.

"But even so, my king rules over..." the giant clam retorted, a little indignant.

In the process, it leaked a lot of information.

Qi Suian knew this was most likely the intelligence-lowering effect of his protagonist’s halo getting stronger.

From the moment it started answering whatever he asked, the giant clam had already been dumbed down.

Otherwise, how could things have gone so smoothly?

Seeing this, Qi Suian hurried to pry more information out of it.

He had to admit, the giant clam was quite cunning. If not for the enhanced intelligence-lowering effect, it would have managed to hide a lot.

For example, King Zhen Ao’s old treasury.

It was probably another fortunate opportunity, and it wasn’t far from here.

Qi Suian, on the other hand, was wondering when he could find the time to go open it up and see if there was anything useful inside.