296: Aha is a good man

Inside Chen Hao's consciousness space, in that elegant lakeside villa, Xiao Jixiang rubbed her sleepy eyes and floated down from the second floor, looking displeased.

She was wearing cute cat-print pajamas, her hair was messy, and she had clearly just been woken from a sweet dream.

"Idiot host! Do you know what time it is?!" Xiao Jixiang let out a big yawn, her voice full of lazy complaint, "Even if I'm not old yet, I still need my beauty sleep, alright?!"

"Waking a lady up in the middle of the night like this would get you fined where I come from!"

Chen Hao rolled his eyes in exasperation: "Oh please, you lazy bum, and you still have the nerve to call yourself a lady. Don't I know you better than you know yourself?"

"Alright, I have something serious for you. I've made an important discovery that needs your analysis."

He directly transmitted the experimental data of the seven supreme treasures to Xiao Jixiang, and at the same time, summoned the seven supreme treasures and placed them before her.

"The abilities of these supreme treasures have significantly weakened after leaving Semuria, but the path aura of a Star God level has not diminished. This is very illogical."

"Is it because of the mixture of paths like The Hunt, Preservation, and Abundance?"

Xiao Jixiang's eyes instantly cleared. She quickly scanned the results, while also examining the seven supreme treasures up and down.

"Hmm... interesting indeed~ The original power hasn't decreased, but the manifested ability has dropped significantly. Yes, it is indeed a Star God level path aura..."

She suddenly opened her eyes wide, clapped her hands, and laughed: "Host! Your guess is basically correct! These supreme treasures indeed possess Star God level conceptual authority, but it's not because of the mixture and collision of paths like The Hunt, Abundance, Preservation, or Elation. It's because they each represent some special paths!"

Chen Hao frowned: "Special paths? What do you mean? Explain it more clearly."

Xiao Jixiang winked mischievously, deliberately keeping him in suspense: "Think about it, why were these supreme treasures so powerful on Semuria and then became weaker after leaving?"

"Because of the special influence of the planet's environment?" Chen Hao tentatively replied.

"Close, but not entirely correct~" Xiao Jixiang wiggled her slender finger, "It's because after leaving that planet, under the influence of the mainstream path rules of the universe, the authority of these special paths was suppressed!"

Chen Hao was even more confused: "If that were the reason, it wouldn't necessarily lead to a weakening of abilities. path authority should be unaffected by the environment..."

"Hmph hmph~ Host, why don't you think carefully about the functions of those supreme treasures? Be bold in your guesses~"

He looked at Xiao Jixiang's upturned lips and sly eyes, and suddenly realized a possibility that made his eyelids twitch wildly.

"Wait..." Chen Hao's voice trembled slightly, "You're not saying... the paths these supreme treasures represent are..."

Xiao Jixiang crossed her arms, nodding proudly: "That's right! It's exactly what you're thinking!"

Chen Hao was so excited his voice was shaking: "Reality, Causality, Space-Time, Destiny... these profound, high-level conceptual paths?!"

"Bingo!" Xiao Jixiang clapped her hands happily, "You guessed right~ But no prize, though."

"Yay!" Chen Hao jumped up excitedly, picking up Xiao Jixiang and spinning her around.

Space is supreme, time is king. Without destiny, causality reigns.

Even in those fantasy novels where universes are casually crushed, these are all top-tier concepts!

This makes sense. As the bottom-most code in the universe's underlying code, it's not something that can be simply manipulated.

It's like a sandbox mode; you can implement it in a game using code, but you can't just do whatever you want to the computer running the game, can you?

"Oh, and this 'Reality,' is it the one I'm thinking of?" Chen Hao suddenly thought of a concept not on this list.

If 'Reality' referred to concepts on the level of Nothingness and Existence, then he could truly stand at the top of the Imaginary Tree and point fingers at will.

"Unfortunately, it's not the one you're thinking of, Host~" Xiao Jixiang propped her chin on her palm and shook her head.

"The concept of this 'Reality,' to be precise, refers to virtuality and reality. While there is indeed a tiny, tiny shadow of Nothingness and Existence, it's just a shadow, and a tiny one at that."

"To put it in a way that's easier for you to understand, Host, this 'Reality' mostly refers to the concepts of 'turning the virtual into real' and 'turning the real into virtual.'"

"Hmm, of course, you could say it's a subordinate of Nothingness and Existence, that's not entirely wrong either."

"It depends on your ability~ If you, Host, can truly master a few more path authorities, even if it's just partial control like The Hunt, quantitative change leading to qualitative change isn't impossible."

Upon hearing this, Chen Hao was so excited he was incoherent: "I remember you said you had a way to help me master other paths, right! If I can master these conceptual paths, won't I just take off?!"

Xiao Jixiang crossed her arms and nodded proudly. Receiving affirmation, Chen Hao happily jumped up and began spinning Xiao Jixiang around.

Xiao Jixiang got dizzy from being spun, and her arms and legs started flailing in sync: "Ah ah ah ah~ Put me down!"

Only then did Chen Hao notice that stars had already appeared above Xiao Jixiang's head. So he quickly stopped spinning and put Xiao Jixiang back on the ground.

She tidied her disheveled clothes and wiggled her finger, saying: "So dizzy~ Hmm, although these authorities are indeed Star God level, even if you master them all, you won't be able to directly ascend to a Star God and wield that great power~"

Chen Hao's enthusiasm was immediately doused with cold water: "Why?"

Xiao Jixiang pointed at herself, then at Chen Hao: "The total amount of path power in this universe is still too small~ Just like a baby, even if born with divine strength, can't swing an eight-hundred-pound barbell so fast it blurs, understand?"

She continued to explain in detail: "The paths of Preservation, The Hunt, and Trailblaze that you currently master, although also Star God level, still have a very small 'volume' in this universe."

"And these higher-level conceptual paths require greater 'energy support.' With the current total amount of path power in the universe, it's simply not enough to support you in fully utilizing their power."

Chen Hao nodded thoughtfully: "I understand, it's the same situation I faced when I first gained the authority of Preservation Star God, right?"

"Sigh, well, there's no helping it then. Strengthening paths can only be a slow, painstaking process, something that takes time. Wait!"

Chen Hao was initially a bit dejected, but suddenly thought of something.

Aha!

He used to have to take time every day to grumble about Aha, that playful entity that never did anything serious and even caused a huge stir for him in this universe.

Not only did he casually open holes in the dimensional wall, but he also brought over all of the Star God Eons' relics from the Honkai: Star Rail universe without missing a single one. And when they arrived, he played out a 'Seven Dragon Balls' scattered treasure hunt scenario.

Now, Chen Hao just wanted to say that Aha did a brilliant job.

With the great Star God Eons' relic treasure hunt orchestrated by Aha, the mission of 'strengthening paths,' one of the many main quests, was practically a plot accelerator.

"Ah, praise Aha~"