GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

If they can gain the divine ability of another race, why not take the divine ability that will allow them to take the divine ability of others? They did and they realized that the divine ability of another Shapiro doesn't take up their single slot, instead, it adds to it. At the end of the day, the perfect divine ability to increase their potential is the divine ability of another Shapiro. It solved their problems and more.

This obvious solution came with a lot of problems too. It doesn't work for transcendents. The awakening of their divine ability a second time makes it impossible to increase the amount of divine abilities they can take. That means they had to increase their potential and the amount of divine abilities they could take before they became transcendents. That is how the blood crucible was born.

The Blood Crucible is all about cannibalism. Members of the same race are fed to each other to strengthen the divine ability of the survivors. The young Shapiros have been raised well. They have been fed the best delicacies and enjoyed luxury since they were born. Then they will be made to eat each other.

Cannibalism for strength is a common activity in the realm of high heaven. Beasts eat each other to grow stronger. Demons do so to great effect. Other races also do it to increase their potential. Warrog paragons do it to increase the potential of their divine ability.

Cannibalism is so rampant in the realm of high heaven that there are parents who produce offspring just to eat their young. That's exactly what the ancient Shapiro did first to increase their potential. They ate their young. It was the Supreme Alliance that established the blood crucible.

While eating other Shapiros increases potential, the amount needed for subsequent increase becomes exponential. Two Shapiros with one slot are needed to create a Shapiro with 2 slots for divine abilities. Two Shapiros with two slots are needed to create a Shapiro with 3 slots. Two Shapiros with 3 slots are needed to create one with 4 slots.

All in all, 256 Shapiros with one slot are needed to create a Shapiro with the maximum number of 9 slots for divine abilities. Therefore, 256 are fed to each other until one with the maximum potential is created. That's why even though there are many hatcheries in the plane churning out almost a thousand hatchlings every year, only 4 or fewer actually become supreme beasts after passing through the blood crucible.

His guide didn't underplay how dangerous the blood crucible is when he said that the chances of survival are 1 in 256. Ragnarok just has to fight and win 9 battles straight so things don't look so bad. But only one out of 256 Shapiros will survive the blood crucible and become true Supreme beasts accepted by the Supreme Alliance.

The blood crucible has brought order to the race. It has stopped the barbaric act of killing and eating their young. Now the young eat each other. That is much better.

The blood crucible has also stopped the use of their young as currency. Widespread and socially accepted cannibalism brings out the worst in a civilization. Any child was potential food for the ancient Shapiro. These are the reasons why the blood crucible was enforced despite the fact that it reduced the reproduction of the race to abysmal levels.

In the past, despite the widespread cannibalism, it was rare for a Shapiro to achieve the maximum potential for their divine ability. This usually occurs only in the rich and already powerful. But the blood crucible has made it so that every Shapiro at the transcendent level has maximum potential.

The act of achieving maximum potential increased their strength enough for them to become worthy of being called Supreme Beasts, but it also made it so they could barely reproduce. Maximum potential meant stunted reproductive ability and population decline.

This is why the Supreme beast that created the mother plant is honored for saving the race from extinction. She became one of the leaders of the supreme alliance by making it possible for the race to reach its maximum potential and still reproduce enough to keep churning out full Supreme beasts through the blood crucible every year.

Legion-5 learned about these and more. He learned about the Supreme Alliance, its mode of operation, and its contribution system. It enlightened Legion about the operation of one of the most powerful races in the realm.

Legion knew that the supreme beast race was extremely powerful. But they didn't know how they became so powerful. Now he knows and he is already looking forward to the divine abilities that he wants to acquire.

"We will see which is greater, a dragon's divine ability or a supreme beast's." He thought to himself in anticipation.

The Supreme Alliance has about 20,000 planes under its control. It is not by chance they managed to accomplish this. They can compete with dragons in raw power comfortably. This is despite the fact that they have a limit on their stats. It is because of their ability to enhance themselves with multiple divine abilities. Their quantity more than makes up for the lack of quality of divine abilities.

The pursuit of power through the accumulation of divine abilities also made them enemies with a lot of races. They had to fight other races and invade planes to get divine abilities. Even if they didn't, other powerful races wouldn't have spared them since they were too much of a threat.

Their divine ability is why the Supreme Alliance invades planes so much. They turn planes into farmland to rear livestock. It has made them accumulate a lot of divine abilities but they are always hungry for more.

The Supreme Alliance has the details and information of more than 100,000 races. Unfortunately, he can't get access to the information yet. He knows the seven most popular divine abilities though. They have been very important for the supreme race to subdue so many planes. These abilities are called the great seven.