Infinite Potential System

Chapter 359: Anula Andorea

"Oops?! What do you mean, oops! Let me go!" Berphanses clearly hadn't been paying attention to the information about William. The only emotion within the man was his intense anger and surprise that someone was able to casually capture him without even a chance to resist.

Berphanses mobilized his mental energy and tried to activate an Artifact, but the Confinement Array prevented it from happening. He promptly gave up, accepting that his fate was in the hands of this absurdly powerful young man that didn't understand the idea of knocking.

William didn't bother with the woman and took the restrained Berphanses back to the Velos Faction through a long-distance portal. He didn't have to verify with Vitruvius on the man's identity, so he just dropped the man off with a note and traveled to the final Faction, Andorea.

So much for starting a war, I can take these kids on by myself. William laughed inwardly. His enemies were probably in chaos now, considering William's detection Spells covered large swaths of the Continent. Even if they tried to hide, it was useless.

The Andorea Faction was well worthy of being called the strongest. Instead of attempting to hide from William, their leader, Matriarch Anula Andorea floated in the sky joined by thirty-eight Tribulation Transcendence Cultivators just beyond the poisonous miasma.

Matriarch Anula was a roughly average-height woman of 1.62 meters sporting long black hair that cascaded all the way to her waist. With an innate ability to use her hair as both a weapon and defense, Anula took very good care of it, using the finest shampoos money could buy to keep it in pristine condition.

She was also a third generation Matriarch belonging to the Andorea Faction that took her job very seriously. As the only Faction on the Velos Continent that placed women in positions of power, Anula made sure to stay on top of the flow of information to always be a step ahead of her enemies.

"So you're immune to the poison. No wonder you can move so freely on the Continent, but your terror ends here!" Anula shouted while her hair lengthened and sped towards William at incredible speed.

Even faster than Light Magic, William was forced to dodge before he had a chance to speak. The long strands of hair rushed past his face at speeds so close to the limits of the World that tiny spatial fissures opened up at their edges, causing damage equal to that of a Superior Tribulation.

But it's still nothing! William smirked as he watched the few strands of hair that hit fail to pierce his skin.

Seeing that her fastest attack with the most piercing power had failed, Anula became concerned and retreated a few dozen meters to dodge a speedy bolt of Heavenly Lightning that glanced off William's body.

"I had hoped the rumors were just that, but it seems you really shouldn't be in this World. Why haven't you Ascended yet?" Anula asked as she secretly signaled her group.

William shrugged his shoulders. "I have plenty left to do before going up. Aren't you the same?"

He could tell at a glance that Anula had the ability to Ascend, like multiple others before her that were at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm. The only thing that didn't make much sense to William was, why?

It would be fine for one or two Cultivators to suppress themselves and remain on Efretta for a longer period of time, but for the numbers to reach the dozens or possibly hundreds... what was it about Ascending that prevented them from going up?

William thought back to what the System implied before. Ascension didn't just send you to a random location, but probably to fixed areas depending on where you Ascended from. If people Ascended from the Velos Continent, wouldn't they go straight to wherever the poisonous miasma came from?

The idea sent shivers down William's spine. Is this why they choose not to Ascend? They're afraid it could spell instant death?

Seeing William's expression made Anula pause briefly, "It seems you already understand. I can't Ascend from here; it needs to be from somewhere else. Somewhere safer. Not to mention I have my Faction to lead. I can't just leave them behind before finding a suitable successor.

This is information that's only readily available to use Tribulation Transcendence Cultivators, but from what I hear, you're only in the Golden Core Realm. Or maybe the Nascent Soul, your concealment Technique is impressive." she finished with a sigh.

William shook his head, "Why allow yourself to be held back by a Faction? You could do bigger and better things above."

"Or worse things, what do you know about Ascension? For all we know, I could die the moment I step foot in the higher Realms.

With the little contact we have with the Ascended Cultivators, I'm at least confident that I'd be like cannon fodder again.

Who would want that? I'd rather be a living frog in a well than a dead one in the ocean." her subordinates moved at this moment to surround William with a complex Complete Confinement Array, though they were already well aware of William's status as an Array Master.

Their hands were behind their backs, so William couldn't tell which one was the real caster of the Array, or whether there were multiple.

"Aren't you curious?" William asked as he destroyed the Array instantaneously. His fingers twitched slightly as a series of a hundred Perfect Confinement Arrays were formed at almost the exact same time, two to three sent to each enemy Cultivator and suppressing them simultaneously.

Only two avoided his Arrays, Anula and another male Cultivator that was just a few meters behind her.

He kept his eyes peeled while the Cultivators struggled to break free, using his Territory of Sealing to lock down the movements of the first four that escaped the Arrays. His guess resulted in the capture of three Array Masters, though he wasn't confident that was all of them.

"Curious? Of course I am, but I am not ready yet. I've lived here for over two thousand years, and while that isn't a long time compared to others at the peak, it's more than enough to become attached to this World of ours." she avoided another Confinement Array and wrapped her hair around herself to defend against a wave of Darkness Mana that turned her black hair a greyish color.

More Cultivators escaped William's Confinement Arrays and counterattacked with Elements of their own. They fought extremely defensively despite the 39 to 1 battle, hoping to exhaust William before switching to the offensive.

Unfortunately for them, William was only playing around and gleaning information from Anula. His Mana reserves were almost completely full, and his Mana Regeneration Talent still labeled him as out of combat because he had yet to take real damage.

Anula and the others continued to counter William's most popular attacks to the best of their ability, but after hours of back and forth, neither side could see a decisive victory.

On their end, they made the perfect use of their Cultivation and Mana to counter each of William's individual Spells, taking advantage of the fact that Will was just one person, but it was still not enough.