My skills have mutated again!

Chapter 368 Conflict and Collision, Reorganization and Integration!
"A profession has its own characteristics; to put it romantically, a profession has a soul."

"This is the original intention behind my design of the profession, and it is also one of the underlying logics I implanted into the Ash Zone system."

When the notification sounded, the Demon Emperor's voice also rang out.

His voice was calm, as if he were telling a story in a gentle and persuasive way, which was a kind of alternative literacy education for Xia Lin.

"As I mentioned before, the Shadow of the Uncertain and the Pillar of Eternity are completely incompatible in terms of their core concepts. Therefore, this first round of class conflict is the price you must pay."

"However, since your main profession is the Uncertain Shadow, and the Uncertain Shadow represents chaos and the unknown... I don't know what the consequences of the profession conflict will be. This is the first point I want to see from you."

As the Demon Emperor spoke, his tone shifted, as if he had become interested.

"Actually, looking at it this way, the Unstable Shadow profession has more unknowns and possibilities than I expected."

Just as the Demon Emperor finished speaking, the notification sound from the Ashes Zone rang out again.

[The balance has been reached!]

[Due to the conflicting and counteracting nature of your dual professions, your racial stats and attributes have been permanently reduced by 20%!]

As the pain gradually subsided, Xia Lin breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't just because the pain in his soul had lessened, but also because Xia Lin could bear the consequences; it wasn't a big problem.

Open the properties panel and look at your own properties.

The racial stat decreased from 10856 to 8685.

The attribute value decreased from 203.5y to 162.8y.

When the two are multiplied, the loss is even close to one-third!

The problem is, with the Life and Death Decree (Inferior) in hand, it won't take Xia Lin long to recover these attributes!
Yes, the cost of reduced attributes was nothing to Xia Lin.

Because for him now, breaking through limits is far too easy and effortless.

"But this is not the end; the most interesting part is yet to come."

The Demon Emperor sat on the sofa, conjured a glass of red wine for himself, and smiled as he swirled the wine in the glass.

Those black eyes seemed to shimmer with a halo, easily seeing through Xia Lin's outward appearance and penetrating into his soul!
"The decrease in attributes is due to the temporary incompatibility between the soul and the body caused by the mutation of the soul... A mere 20% reduction in attributes is not worth mentioning."

From the Demon Emperor's perspective, Xia Lin had just been split in two, but had already healed and become a single soul again, clearly distinct!
Half of it, shimmering with chaotic colors, represents an uncertain shadow.

The other half, like a diamond, is crystal clear, hard and stable, representing the pillar of eternity.

Soon, the two completely different colors began to merge and blend together.

He spoke slowly.

"This is just the beginning of professional conflict."

Just as the Demon Emperor finished speaking, more notification sounds came in quick succession!
[Due to the conflicting and mutually destructive nature of your two professions, your soul has inevitably developed gaps and vulnerabilities, which will significantly reduce your defense against soul-based attacks! Soul-based attack skills will be greatly enhanced against you, with a natural damage increase of +3!]

This is troublesome!
Because this price is equivalent to creating a fatal weakness for Xia Lin!

Xia Lin was momentarily stunned...

Suddenly, the Demon Emperor's voice rang in his ears.

"A loophole in the soul body? Oh, what a coincidence!"

Standing before Xia Lin was one of the Six Pillars, the Soul-Controlling Demon Emperor, the number one Soul Daoist in the entire universe!
No problem with the soul path is a problem in front of the Demon Emperor.

The problem Xia Lin is currently facing doesn't even require the Demon Emperor to intervene personally.

He enlightened Xia Lin with a single sentence.

"This matter can be resolved through fair trade."

Xia Lin was taken aback, and tried to activate the fair trade as the Demon Emperor had reminded him.

The illusory image of the scales flashed by. The notification sound rang again.

[You have forcibly balanced the flaws in your soul through the power of fair trade!]

[The weighting effect of soul-type attacks on your judgment is no longer effective!]

So what's the cost?

Xia Lin opened the attribute panel and looked at his own attributes.

The price is 100 million for all attributes...

Well, it's nothing.

At this point, the pain had completely subsided.

Xia Lin looked up at the Demon Emperor and asked in confusion, "Fair trade has this function too?"

The Demon Emperor nodded: "Yes, of course."

"Because this skill is based on one of my trump cards, which is absolute balance."

Xia Lin gasped.

He truly hadn't expected that Fair Trade would have such a powerful backing!

Thinking of this, Xia Lin looked at the Demon Emperor with burning eyes. The Demon Emperor saw through Xia Lin's little thoughts at a glance, sneered, and said again: "Don't dream. You are not qualified to master the power of the Six Pillars. This fair trade may have the potential to evolve further, but you do not cultivate the Soul Path. The rest depends on your future opportunities."

Upon hearing this, Xia Lin immediately abandoned his greed.

Firstly, the Demon Emperor is not the kind of person who will give in just because you pester him and flatter him.

Secondly, more notification sounds rang out again.

The dual-class balance issue is far from over!
From the Demon Emperor's perspective, the power unleashed by the fair trade opened a bridge of communication between Xia Lin's two halves of his soul and his two professions, creating an initial connection and allowing Xia Lin to overcome the most dangerous and crucial stage.

Chaos and the light of stability began to merge and intertwine.

At the same time, the talents and skills of the two different professions hidden deep within the two halves of the soul also came into contact for the first time.

Xia Lin could not sense anything.

The Demon Emperor, however, was fully aware of all of this.

When he saw the dual-class talent skills begin to converge, the Demon Emperor was first stunned, then clapped his hands and laughed out loud.

"This is interesting! This is exactly what I wanted to see!!"

Just as the Demon Emperor was laughing heartily, a notification sound rang in Xia Lin's ears.

[Dual-class talent balance begins.]

[Your Unstable Shadow class has been detected, possessing the following talents: Unstable Constant, Unstable Mutation, Twin Shadows.]

[Your Pillars of Eternity class has been detected, and you possess the following talent: Permafrost.]

[Testing... Balancing...]

This wait was a little long.

Xia Lin was filled with apprehension. She saw the Demon Emperor's smile, but she didn't understand what it meant.

The first thing to arrive is unstable mutation!

[Your class talent has been detected: Unstable Mutation. This is your unique talent, unaffected by dual-class conflicts; on the contrary, it may even be positively altered by dual-class talents!]

The unstable mutation was originally Xia Lin's own!
That was something he already possessed before he became an Unseen Shadow!

[Determining...]

[Judgment complete!]

[Your talent's unstable mutation can affect skills in your second job slot, as well as skills in your permanent skill slot!]

Xia Lin didn't quite understand the significance of this change.

The Demon Emperor smiled and explained, "The term 'permanent skill bar' isn't just for show. The talent description states that under normal circumstances, the permanent skill bar is the same as the regular skill bar, but it doesn't explicitly state that the permanent skill bar exists; it's a unique characteristic."

"Skills in the permanent skill bar cannot be affected by any means, including random combinations, and should also include unstable mutations."

In other words, theoretically, unstable mutations cannot affect skills in the permanent skill bar.

The problem is that unstable mutation is Xia Lin's own talent, but after he obtains the Pillar of Eternity profession, from Xia Lin's perspective as a whole, his individual talent surpasses his professional talent!
Therefore, the effect of unstable mutations naturally overwhelmed and covered the effect of permanent skill bars.

"This doesn't seem to make much sense..."

"Hey, you're wrong." The Demon Emperor was in a really good mood, and he was talking more than usual.

He wagged his finger and said to Xia Lin, "This is incredibly significant! Because essentially, the Unstable Mutation is still the Unstable Shadow's class talent, and now it's affecting the Permanent Skill Bar. Do you understand what that means?"

Xia Lin shook his head blankly, indicating that he did not understand. The Demon Emperor explained, "This means that you have taken the first step in the fusion of conflicting professions by relying on unstable mutations!"

This step is very, very small.

But it's a change from 0 to 1!
It doesn't require a bridge to the reverse source, nor does it require numerous opportunities, schemes, or coincidences.

Xia Lin, relying on his existing knowledge and experience, so easily achieved the breakthrough from 0 to 1!
From the Demon Emperor's perspective, within Xia Lin's soul body, the Chaos Light and the Eternal Light had already begun to merge, albeit in small, traces.

This will not bring about a qualitative change, nor will it meet the Demon Emperor's needs; in fact, it falls far short.

But in any case, this is a good start!
The notification sound rang again right after the Demon Emperor finished speaking!
Next up are the dual-class basic talents: Indeterminate Constant and Permanent Foundation!

Xia Lin felt a slight stinging pain.

However, the stinging sensation quickly disappeared.

[Your talents, Uncertain Constant and Permanent Foundation, have had their effects weakened due to their similar functions but conflicting class attributes...]

[Note: Your dual-class system has shown signs of merging; this balance rule is no longer in effect!]

No change!
But no change is the best change! The Demon Emperor's voice rang out again: "Originally, according to my calculations, both of your talents would be weakened, the number of variable constant skill slots would be reduced from 10 to 5, and the number of permanent foundation skill slots would be reduced from 3 to 1!"

"However, with the underlying instability and mutations promoting the initial integration of the two professions, the impact of this conflict is no longer effective."

Things always have a chain reaction.

The current narrow escape is a kind of chain reaction.

Judging from the Demon Emperor's smile, he hadn't anticipated this either... but for Xia Lin, it was pure good news.

[Your talent, Twin Shadows, is a talent mutation!]

Beneath Xia Lin's feet, the shadow twitched rapidly, as if undergoing a drastic change.

However, this change could not affect the main body, so Xia Lin did not immediately notice the changes in the Shadow of Calamity. He could only open the personal information panel and look at the description of the Twin Shadow of Calamity's talents.

Soon, the old characters distorted rapidly, and new characters came into view!

[Professional Talent 3: Twin Shadows (Racial Heritage Talent).]

【Twin Shadows (Racial Heritage Talent): Your shadow has been shaped into a vessel of conflict by the power of the Unseen Shadow and the Pillars of Eternity! It has no self-awareness, is not a living being, and cannot move on its own. Twin Shadows possess 8 skill slots and 10 debuff slots. You cannot directly use the skills in the Shadow's skill slots, but you can freely swap the skills on you and on it at any time!】
Whenever you suffer negative consequences due to dual-class conflicts, Shadowbringer will absorb all of them for you! However, as a trade-off, the level of this talent will be forcibly downgraded each time a negative effect takes effect!

Xia Lin was taken aback at first, but after a quick thought, he immediately took a deep breath!
"Big money!"

Yes, we made a profit this time!
There are two changes.

Firstly, the restrictions on the Shadow's skill slots and buffs have been lifted! Previously, the Shadow's skill slots could only handle negative skills, but now they can handle all skills!
This is equivalent to Xia Lin having eight extra skill slots without him even realizing it!
It's just not very convenient; it can't be used directly. You need to adjust it yourself before battle. The advantage is that it speeds up the adjustment process and saves on the previous fair trade + recipe book's commission costs.

This change may seem small, but it is actually quite significant.

Because this changes the operating logic of Xia Lin's existing system—for example, the overpowered brush combo.

Of course, we'll discuss this further later.

Now let's talk about the second change.

The original effect of the Shadow of Calamity, which helped Xia Lin share half of the damage, is gone. This is a pure loss. However, in its place, the Shadow of Calamity will help Xia Lin bear all the negative effects caused by the class conflict!

The Qingjue Manual records that the negative impacts of the conflict between the two profession systems are numerous and strong, and the intensity of the conflict will gradually increase as the level increases.

Don't think that what Xia Lin is going through right now is all there is to it.

This is not the whole story of dual-class conflicts; it's just the tip of the iceberg.

However, due to the mutation of E'ying's talent, Xia Lin didn't need to worry about the subsequent problems - the reduction in talent level could be made up for with evolution points, right?

"Thirdly, this is the third bridge for the integration of dual professions!"

The Demon Emperor smiled and told Xia Lin about a third benefit he hadn't expected.

"The first bridge was built by fair trade."

"The second bridge is built through unstable mutations."

"The third bridge will be built by the Twin Shadows talent."

As he spoke, a slight light shone in the Demon Emperor's eyes.

It was also observed that the two parts of the soul that should have been in complete conflict actually felt like they were perfectly integrated!

Things didn't go as the Demon Emperor had predicted!
What should have been a very difficult task in His vision became simple and easy because of these three bridges.

"Hmm... This situation is somewhat unexpected. I don't know if the special nature of this matter stems from you, Xia Lin, or from the dual-class system of Uncertain Shadow and Eternal Pillar that I designed..."

What you learn from books is never enough; plans can't keep up with changes.

The Demon Emperor was eager to find more samples.

But he calmed down and continued to look at Xia Lin.

Because the changes in Xia Lin are not yet over!

……

The general direction has already been determined.

Within the professional system, the essence of a profession is its soul.

Professional talent is the foundation.

The spirits of conflict began to merge, and the roots of conflict were linked together, building bridges.

This means that the Demon Emperor and Xia Lin's attempt was successful and positive!
Xia Lin's dual-profession journey has had a perfect start!
The remaining changes are to skills, but skills are external, secondary, and superficial, which the Demon Emperor doesn't care about because they don't touch the root of the problem.

However, they also knew that this was the most crucial factor affecting Xia Lin's combat strength.

Today, the Demon Emperor was in a good mood and was happy to see for himself what changes would occur to Xia Lin's two sets of professional skills.

And the changes soon became apparent.

On Xia Lin's personal information panel, a large number of snowflake-like spots appeared out of nowhere, causing the entire information panel to become distorted.

Xia Lin heard a series of notification sounds in his ears.

[Due to a conflict between two classes, your skills will be randomly combined and will change!]

A random combination, the ultimate move of the Unpredictable Shadow!
However, the skills that are most affected by the dual-class system are precisely those that can become the core of the system!
This is why there's a saying that having two careers is difficult.

If a system's core skills are destroyed in a conflict, that person is naturally rendered useless.

[Due to a conflict between two classes, your random combination level has plummeted to S-rank, your level cap has been locked, and you will never be able to advance further. Additionally, your Heavenly Essence assessment authority has been disabled.]

The negative impact is coming...

This skill has been completely ruined!
[Twin Shadows talent activated! You have exempted this conflict; Twin Shadows' rank has been reduced to SSS!]

Xia Lin said that wouldn't work...

I simply used 10 evolution points to bring the Twin Shadows' level back up.

Just when Xia Lin thought the random combination changes had come to an end, a new notification sound rang out!
[Unstable mutation activated!]

[Due to the conflict between two classes, and further affected by unstable mutations, your skills have undergone a random combination and mutation, resulting in: ???]

Xia Lin: ? ? ?
What do you mean by this???

The Ash Zone system seems to be operating, sorting out the underlying logic of this unprecedented and bizarre phenomenon.

The tidying up was completed quickly.

The Ashes Zone system, however, changed the subject!

[Requires prerequisite skills... The prerequisite skill components are complete.]

Your skill, Observation, can be incorporated into the Pillars of Eternity class system. Yes/No?

Xia Lin didn't react for a moment, and unconsciously looked up at the Demon Emperor, only to hear the Demon Emperor slowly speak.

"Known and certain are omniscient. But omniscience requires witnessing, observation, and analysis."

"Hmm, I suddenly thought of that person named Junyou... This Pillar of Eternity class seems to have something in common with the Observer."

The hint is already far too obvious!

Xia Lin took a deep breath and immediately used a fair trade to remove the two unimportant negative skills from Er Ying. Then, she opened Er Ying's recipe book and bought back the other two Junyou skills that came with the observation skill!

[Record (Racial Heritage Level): Passive skill, exclusive to the Observer, used in conjunction with Observation. You can record everything you see (including but not limited to professions, talents, and skills) in your mind! When you face professions, talents, and skills that you have recorded, you will gain advantages such as high damage reduction and extra hit detection...]

[Copy (Racial Heritage Level): Active skill, exclusive to Observers. Used in conjunction with Observation and Recording. This skill has no cost; you can use all classes, talents, and skills you have observed or recorded! However, your observation record will be cleared after each copy and use! This skill has a 10-minute cooldown.]

The notification tone changed immediately!
Your skills—observation, recording, and copying—can be incorporated into the Pillars of Eternity class system. Yes/No?

This time, Xia Lin finally made her choice.

He chose yes.

[Merger complete! Please pay 100 Evolution Points and 50 Ember Zone Points as the merger cost.]

Wait, why are you asking for money, Ash Zone System?!
The Demon Emperor chuckled: "No one gets up early for nothing, there's no reason for me to work for you for free."

Okay, the expenses aren't that high anyway.

Xia Lin simply paid, and then the notification sound rang again!

[Your skills—observation, recording, copying, and merging—are combined into the Pillars of Eternity class talent: Witness!]

【Professional Talent 2: Witness (Racial Heritage Level): I came, I saw, I observed, I witnessed!】

Your eyesight and observation skills have been greatly enhanced; nothing can escape your notice! This talent accelerates the growth of your first talent, "Eternal Foundation," and synergizes with the sixth-tier skill, "Eternal Inscription."

This talent's observational power is greatly enhanced by the sixth-pillar level skill: Eternal Inscription, resulting in significantly increased judgment authority and effectiveness!
Witnessing the effect of any skill is equivalent to personally experiencing that skill once, thus reducing the number of times Eternal Inscription needs to be affected by skills—but please note that this effect can only take effect once for Eternal Inscription!

The original Eternal Inscription required personally enduring four skill attacks to record the skill. With this talent bonus, it's equivalent to only needing to endure three attacks!
The improvement is considerable.

However, that's not the point.

The key is still in the random combination!
When the Witness talent appeared on Xia Lin's second attribute panel, the system notification from the Ashes region abruptly changed its tone, returning to the previously perplexing question mark.

Your skill: Random Combination, mutated to: Pseudo-Random Permutation!

【Pseudo-random replacement (racial foundation level) (divinely bestowed source quality authority +1): active skill, exclusive skill of the Shadow of the Uncertain.

Choose a target and consume 100 Spirit Points to activate the skill. Once activated, the skill will swap the skills on you and the target! You can freely choose any number of any skills you possess as the swap target.

If you do not know the name and detailed effect of the other party's skill, the replacement target will be completely random!

However, if you know the name and detailed effects of the other party's skill, you can specify that skill. The more information you observe and understand about the skill, the higher the additional weighting of the pseudo-random replacement skill will be, but it will not reach the level of the sixth pillar (this skill cannot shake the level of the sixth pillar skill)!

Displacement effect duration: 1 hour. Skill cooldown: 10 days.

(End of this chapter)