Shen Hex now finally understood what it meant that the stronger the profession, the harder it was to level up.
The strength of the Transmigrator profession was indeed beyond imagination, possessing the ability to traverse all heavens and realms at just Tier One Level One, but its difficulty in leveling up was equally unimaginable.
This time, he traversed to the Great Song World, stayed for over a hundred and seventy years, starting from the Jianghu, disturbing the world order, exterminating sects, slaughtering tyrants, assassinating monarchs, pacifying lands, destroying mountains and temples, confiscating property and exterminating clans, finally establishing a new regime unprecedented in history...
Such actions, needless to say, had a profound impact on the course of history and the world, but the experience gained only allowed the "Transmigrator" to advance one level.
That's one level, not one tier!
According to this calculation, he would have to traverse dozens of worlds to have a chance at leveling the Tier One profession of Transmigrator to full level.
The difficulty need not be mentioned.
However, the strength of the profession was also evident here, as leveling up just once unlocked the second professional talent.
It should be noted that for many professions, Tier One typically includes only one talent, and only through advancement can they acquire a second or third talent.
The Transmigrator, however, needed no such advancement, acquiring the second talent immediately upon leveling up, and it was an exceptionally powerful second talent.
Anchor of All Heavens!
Gate of Ten Thousand Realms!
Ten Thousand Dao Fruit!
Three options, how to choose?
Shen Hex was truly conflicted about this.
If he could, he wanted all of them, as each of these talents was top-tier.
The Anchor of All Heavens could fixate worlds, meaning he could traverse the same world multiple times. Perhaps insignificant in a Small Thousand World like the Great Song, but what about a Grand Thousand World teeming with gods and demons?
Heaven has unpredictable storms, and humans have sudden misfortunes. What if he traverses to a Grand Thousand World filled with gods and demons but gets stepped on by some great god or demon before he can even develop?
By then, he wouldn't just fail to exact revenge but also lose a Grand Thousand World, a loss that would be immeasurable.
The Anchor of All Heavens could not only avoid such losses but also enhance his ability to conquer worlds.
After all, Zhuang Zhou's Dream of the Butterfly, the death of the traversing self, does not harm his true self, meaning he could continuously traverse and employ life after life to conquer world after world.
Which world could withstand such relentless and fearless onslaught?
Thus, the strength of the Anchor of All Heavens goes without saying.
The Gate of Ten Thousand Realms operates on a similar principle, directly creating a gate to the ten thousand realms, allowing his true self to traverse. This not only provides various worlds as strongholds and sanctuaries but also allows two-way travel for enormous profits.
The final option, the Ten Thousand Dao Fruit, offers unparalleled power, enabling him to condense the professions and pathway systems acquired through Zhuang Zhou's Dream of the Butterfly into "transfer-type" professional items.
Transfer-type items are a category of professional items which, when used, provide direct acquisition of the profession and its subsequent pathway system.
Shen Hex checked on major online shopping platforms and found that such items are generally exorbitantly priced: for instance, a Daoist talisman enabling a transfer to the "Daoist" profession with the subsequent Tier Three system costs billions of Imperial Coins.
Billions of Imperial Coins, more than the entire Shen Martial Arts Hall could ever sell for.
Clearly, the value of such items, not to mention the prestige of the "Mage" profession, is immense.
Thus, Shen Hex also wanted this talent.
But life rarely goes as desired, and in the end, he still had to choose one of the three.
How to choose?
After much deliberation, Shen Hex ultimately chose the Ten Thousand Dao Fruit.
Although the Anchor of All Heavens was good, its effects would mainly reveal themselves in later stages and were not immediately needed.
The Gate of Ten Thousand Realms could be utilized immediately, but Shen Hex's current situation was not suitable for its use. Firstly, no one knows how much professional experience is required to create such a gate; secondly, there is no guarantee that the world gate, once created, would not be discovered by others.
This is because the Human Empire's primary enemies are the various evil gods scattered throughout the universe, some of whom have a strong command of spatial manipulation. Therefore, the Empire has established a dedicated monitoring agency to closely watch spatial reactions, preventing any chaos by evil gods.
Shen Hex could not guarantee that his Gate of Ten Thousand Realms would not be detected, and if it were and he were accused of "colluding with evil gods," he would have no choice but to escape to other worlds to evade pursuit.
This is not what Shen Hex desired. With the experience of the Great Song World, he deeply understood the strength of the Human Empire, which can offer him substantial support as an overlord-level civilization and is the origin of "Professionals," crucial for future development and not to be easily relinquished.
So, after much contemplation, Shen Hex chose the Ten Thousand Dao Fruit. This talent was not only the most prudent but could also break his current predicament, allowing him to generate a second profession and peacefully attend high school.
After selecting the second talent, Shen Hex didn't linger; his mind sank, and he entered the dream again.
East Sea Shore, atop a high cliff.
Shen Hex opened his eyes, gazed upon the sky and sea, and sighed.
He has lived in this world for over a hundred and seventy years, longer than his past and present lives combined. To say he has no attachment at all would definitely be self-deception.
But every feast in the world must end, and it's time for him to leave completely.
Yes, completely!
Twenty years ago, he let the "Martial Ancestor" retire and fade away, and no one knew where he went or whether he lived or died, including his disciples.
The reason for retiring was simple: he wanted the "Martial Madman" to become a dead yet undying soul, constantly hovering over this Martial Dynasty, in everyone's minds, as the last barrier and deterrent.
Thus, combined with some preparations and methods he left behind, he should ensure that after he leaves, this country, this home, and these people won't collapse too quickly.
That's it!
As mentioned before, every feast must end; Shen Hex, who governed for a century, knows well that changing the dynasty is easy, but changing human nature is difficult.
What can the Six Dynasties do, such private agendas and plans? The Human Empire hasn't managed such things for hundreds of thousands of years, how can one person change them in a century?
In fact, the reason the Martial Dynasty has reached its current state is due to his personal prodigious strength forcibly driving progress — an ideal yet unrealistic development. Nonetheless, through his own power, his invincible might, he forcefully turned this ideal into reality.
But ideals are still ideals, and reality is forever reality.
Once he leaves, without his formidable martial force suppressing all, various factions will undoubtedly rise, and even with laws, it's hard to change the fundamental human nature. Coupled with internal strife within Martial Dynasty, national collapse seems inevitable — it's just a matter of time.
About this, Shen Hex is also powerless, only able to delay it as much as possible and bury the fireseed, waiting for historical cycles, the rekindling of the flames.
What he can do is only so much; after all, such issues have plagued the Human Empire for hundreds of thousands of years without resolution, how can he change it by himself in just over a century?
When the cycle indeed comes, it's also natural law in motion, sowing the seeds of the past leading to the consequences of the future — nothing worth mentioning.
He has done all he can; what follows is time to let go.
But before that...
"Professional Level is full, do you wish to advance?"
"Do you wish to retain the Professional Talent — Static Posture?"
"Do you wish to retain the Professional Talent — Killing Life and Cutting Karma?"
"Do you wish to retain the Professional Skill — Xingyi Fist?"
"Do you wish to retain the Professional Skill — Yuan-Devouring Skill?"
Staring at the career panel's prompts, Shen Hex chose to retain all without a second thought.
The Martial Dynasty has been founded for over a hundred and fifty years, yet his profession remains a Tier Two Mad Hero, without change.
This isn't due to insufficient experience for leveling up, but rather because in researching data and examining his situation, he discovered something very important: this world may not provide much experience for Tier Three Professionals.
Since the core principle for Professionals gaining experience is impacting the world, the world's rank is crucial. The data Shen Hex reviewed showed some High-tier Professionals unable to gain experience due to residing in planets with too low ranks.
The world isn't a planet, but the principle should be similar — high-tier professions struggle to gain experience in low-rank worlds.
This world is undoubtedly a low-rank world; otherwise, it wouldn't be incapable of giving rise to a Tier Three Martial Artist proficient in Gang Yuan, and the legendary Shaolin Dharma is also an uncertain existence.
Therefore, after reaching full level as a Mad Hero, Shen Hex didn't advance directly but chose to accumulate experience, consolidate power, and deepen his impact on the world, striving to eventually generate a high-quality profession.
This is akin to an exam; if you lack accumulation, you might only enter a third-rate university with no funds to retake or transfer, but with sufficient accumulation, the hope is to hit the ground running and enter a top academy.
Thus...
"Retain Professional Talent!"
"Retain Professional Skill!"
"Commence Professional Advancement!"
"Based on your experiences and deeds, you may choose one of the following professions to replace your original Mad Hero!"
"Profession One: Saint Walker (Slaying life for preserving life, cutting karma not cutting people, understanding the Orthodox Dao amidst chaos, realizing the reasoning of killing one to save thousands. By executing heaven's will and cutting all karma, saving all living beings, you can obtain abundant professional experience through cutting karma, professional experience, skills, and items possess Qiankun Righteous Qi effect, and can consume experience to refine exclusive professional items — Slaying Karma)"
"Professional Talent: Saintly Walk Without Regret (Slaying life and cutting karma as saintly deeds — not regretting even if falling into the abyss. The Saint Walker kills life to defend the Dao, cuts karma to save the world, blessed by the Celestial Dao and Righteous Law, greatly enhances effects of cultivating Righteous Cultivation Techniques, significantly boosts suppression and damage against those bearing heavy karma, and is unaffected by same-level law order, Emperor Dragon Qi, and similar forces)"
"Profession Two: Dragon Slayer (The world belongs to the people, not to one despot alone; emperor is not a True Dragon, nor is he the Son of Heaven, without rank above all beings. If not, someone will rise with blade in hand to slay the dragon. Obtain abundant professional experience by slaying dragons and killing monarchs, professional experience, skills, and items possess Dragon Slaying Power effect; and can consume experience to refine exclusive items — Dragon Slayer)"
"Professional Talent: Punishing the Wicked, Consoling the People (Punish the wicked, console the people, like timely rain bringing joy to the world. When a wicked ruler brings chaos to the state, the Dragon Slayer's Dragon Slaying Power greatly increases, and gains Human Dao Celestial Destiny's blessing, transforming misfortune into fortune, adversity into prosperity)"
"Profession Three: Martial Arts Ancestor (Founding a nation by martial prowess, governing the world by strength, stabilizing all corners of the earth. Leave behind a legend praised for eternity, as the ancestor of all under heaven, Martial Dao True Immortal. Obtain abundant professional experience through practicing martial arts and governing a nation, expanding territory, professional experience, items, and skills possess Emperor Dragon Qi effect; can consume experience to refine exclusive items — Overlord)"
"Professional Talent: Martial Dao God (Martial arts prowess, extremely proficient, greatly enhances effects of practicing martial arts, significantly increases experience gained through Martial Combat, and Martial Arts Cultivation can break through all limitations, including world rules, escalating one major realm tier)"
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