CHAPTER 534: CHAPTER 44 THE MYSTERY OF THE RIPPLE SWORD

All members Level 10, achievement unlocked!

Currently, the highest level is Peggy, Level 15, with the Death Law, having comprehended four skills + Law Embodiment.

Next are Aske and Eleanor, Level 13, with the War Law and Will Law, having comprehended three skills each.

Following them is Medea, Level 10, who has condensed the Manipulation Law.

Then there is Miel, Level 10, who has already received the Ritual Task for the Fate Law.

Lastly, there are Mia, Sigrdrifa, Thira, and I, who have merely reached Level 10 and have not yet chosen a suitable Law.

Nora updated the team information in her notebook, then flipped through the previous pages, her mind filled with reflections.

It is now mid-June, and it has been over a year since the formation of The Azure Longsword Team.

Everyone has evolved from ordinary persons at Level 0 to Transcendents at Level 10 with respective Laws.

According to research by the Church Court, the natural lifespan limit of humans is around 160 years. Even in a laboratory setting, where from birth, a person receives perfect nutrition and is completely isolated from bacteria, viruses, radiation, and other external damages to the body, the human body cannot endure beyond 160 years, determined by the inertia of cell division.

However, once one consumes a Magic Potion, their lifespan begins to increase. After advancing to Level 10 and achieving Bloodline Completion, even a Spiritual Transcendent’s average lifespan can exceed 500 years while maintaining the body in a youthful state of 20-30 years.

years... It’s enough to sustain through a full cycle of the Magic Tide. In other words, condensing one’s bloodline means one foot has already stepped onto the threshold of immortality.

For a longer lifespan, one would need to advance to higher levels. It is said that if the level reaches above Level 30, the lifespan is calculated in tens of thousands of years and increases exponentially with subsequent upgrades, almost akin to eternal life.

Only external forces and losing control could kill them.

Losing control... Nora was momentarily puzzled, but she quickly regained her composure, recalling what Aske had said.

Indeed, I can no longer turn back now.

Either I live a short and mundane human life, or I forsake the human body to obtain extraordinary non-human power.

And with such power, I will protect more people—Aske, and everyone else...

Nora slowly clenched her fist. Beneath her feet, numerous seeds broke through the soil, rapidly sprouting and growing into a lush grove of small trees.

The Angelic Spirits gathered around. They sat on the grass, by the roots, and atop the branches, beginning to sing out loud.

Indeed, the bloodline of the Life Songster could fully harness the utmost power of the Life Sequence. Now, Nora could freely stimulate cell division and differentiation, achieving nearly limitless regenerative effects.

Whether regenerating limbs or hastening seed maturity, it could easily be accomplished by infusing Life Force. As for the source of Life Force, she could choose to consume her own Spirituality to transform it, or absorb and mobilize the Life Force from other living organisms.

With sufficient Life Force, she could even prompt a genetically intact cell to grow into a complete life form.

Next up, it was time for the Sensing Law Ritual.

The Evolution Law, perhaps?

Nora recalled the information her brother had entrusted to her. It’s said that the Evolution Law, although based on the Life Sequence, is a rare Law; the reason is that the concept of evolution is challenging to grasp—if one does not have a background in biology, it’s nearly impossible to understand the essence of evolution.

Not to mention, a Lamarckian principle like "use it or lose it" could mislead the vast majority of laymen.

If the Life Sequence could unleash the potential of cells for division and differentiation to their extremes, then the Evolution Law could create something out of nothing, transforming cells into entirely new life forms. For instance, making dogs grow wings, cats grow horns, or even humans grow animal ears and tails, are all basic manipulations under the Evolution Law.

Thinking about the description in the materials, Nora couldn’t help but shudder.

No, it’s not to conduct those anti-human bizarre experiments that I’m considering whether to condense the Evolution Law. I’m doing this to solve the problems with the Source Tree!

At that thought, she decided to seek out Aske to discuss this matter.

Upon arriving at the training ground on Fire Island, Nora spotted Aske currently entangled by Mia, who was incessantly showing him an odd Dagger.

"Aske, look!" Mia excitedly demonstrated, "This dagger has blades on both sides, but only one side can scratch a person!"

"If my finger presses on this side of the blade, it naturally gets resisted by the blade. But if it presses on the other side of the blade, my finger strangely passes through! It’s as if this dagger is invisible!"

"Then, I tried inserting my finger into the middle of the dagger and suddenly pulled back..."

"What happened?" Aske suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

"It hurts!" Mia let her finger pass through the blade and then showed Aske the wound on her fingertip.

Just now, she had only pulled back a little, and a clear wound appeared on her finger, with the depth exactly matching how much she had pulled back. It was evident that if she had pulled back a bit more... her fingertip would have come off.

Aske: .........

Nora: !!!

"What is going on here!?" she quickly walked over, grabbed Mia’s hand that was holding the dagger, and demanded with wide eyes, "Where did you find such a dangerous thing?"

Mia immediately shrank back. In the entire team, the two and a half people she feared the most were an angry Nora, a sneering Medea, and Aske posing as the prestigious Squad Leader—though she could easily soften him up by acting coquettish, so he only counted as half.

"Nora." Fortunately, Aske came forward in time, explaining for Mia, "This is the personal Dagger of the Chief Round Table Knight, Lancelot. It is said to contain the secrets to the extraordinary swordsmanship skill ’Ripple Sword.’"

"Ripple Sword? Lancelot?" Nora had, of course, heard the myths about King Arthur.

In the legends, King Arthur was the king of Brittania, and Lancelot was his Chief Round Table Knight.

What was controversial was Lancelot’s "spiritual love affair" with Queen Guinevere, who supposedly shared mutual, secret feelings, though they had never physically crossed the boundaries. Eventually, King Arthur became aware, feeling cheated but without evidence, so he ordered other Round Table Knights to watch them. They were indeed caught secretly meeting in the palace.

When Lancelot was caught off guard, he instinctively used a Ripple Sword to teleport away—this swordsmanship allowed Transcendents to ignore distance, fold, and traverse space, so, if used to escape, virtually no one in the world could catch him.

King Arthur failed to catch the adulterer but had no choice but to burn his disloyal wife at the stake. On the execution day, Lancelot suddenly appeared beside Guinevere, grabbed her, and whooshed away again, escaping to the West Frank Kingdom across the strait.

Yes, the Ripple Sword could not only teleport individuals but also carry someone with it, and the turnaround was surprisingly quick—how else could it rank alongside the other three top-tier swordsmanship skills?

Later, after the Pope’s mediation (or manipulation), Lancelot was forced to return Queen Guinevere. At that point, King Arthur decisively embraced the traditional Western spirit of forgiveness—allowing Guinevere to become a nun and pursue studies in sociology.

Years later, after King Arthur died in battle, the devoted Lancelot found Guinevere, but the Queen-turned-nun was already immersed in the world of knowledge and unwilling to see him.

In despair, Lancelot also became a monk to research gravitational wave theories, and after that, the two never met again.

Although he became a monk, the latter half of Lancelot’s life remained completely unknown. There were no records of where he conducted his research, what papers he published, how long he lived, nor where he was eventually buried; along with his unique extraordinary swordsmanship, the Ripple Sword, which also vanished without a trace.

Thus, the whole story sounded like a conspiracy by the Pope, using an affair to eliminate a Transcendent of undoubtedly high threat level, while erasing all traces of an extraordinary swordsmanship skill... yet unexpectedly, it reappeared here, in Mia’s hands.

"Nora? Sister Nora?" It was Mia’s voice that brought Nora back from her thoughts.

"Does that mean we’ve..." she said in disbelief, "already collected three of the great extraordinary sword techniques? No, four?"

"It’s still early days." Aske shook his head, "She still needs to learn it properly! Just consider Eleanor’s experience."

"Hmph!" Mia snatched back the dagger, huffing, "With my clever wit, I’ll definitely master it within a few weeks!"

Wait, if learning extraordinary swordsmanship depended on wit, considering Mia’s cleverness...

Nora thought carefully for a moment.

Well, let it be.