"From what I can remember, Professor Frances specifically told us to make her a new body," Alina muttered behind Alex as she stared at the professor's head. "But from the way she talked about her plan, it seemed like she needed a special body created from special materials. If you're this confident, does that mean you already have a plan to obtain the materials for her new body?"

"Yes. I was able to create my plan after you shared all of that Symbolist's memory with me," Alex replied, blinking. "Mind you, I learned a lot from that guy's memories."

Alex heard some groans in the background, probably from his pun, but he ignored them as he continued to converse with Alina.

"From the way you're smiling, you seem to have enjoyed peeking at that Symbolist's memories," Alina murmured, glaring at Alex. "Are you sure you're only thinking about the plan to recreate Professor Frances's body?"

"Well, there's a lot of interesting stuff in that Symbolist's memories. I can't just ignore them, you know."

Just like Alex said, he had obtained a lot of interesting information from the memories Alina had scoured from the Symbolist. If information could be compared to food, the information Alex obtained was like a succulent, honey-glazed roast chicken. Not only did he learn more about the Symbolists, he also observed the way of life of each of the Three Factions. For the Symbolists, what mattered most was knowledge and academic standing. The higher a Symbolist's academic status, the higher their rank among peers; positions of power were granted only to those with exemplary credentials. Those who lacked knowledge were regarded as plebeians or barbarians. At first, Alex found the Symbolists' view on knowledge extreme. But when he tried his Pillaged Symbolist ability, he discovered why they were so rigid. Their power—creating Symbols to manipulate the laws of physical reality—was a science in its own right. To discover new applications, Symbolists had to identify a problem, formulate a hypothesis, and conduct experiments to confirm it. Through this scientific process a Symbolist could grow stronger, and they adhered to it for years. It was no wonder they were obsessed with knowledge and academic achievement; only Symbolists with that mindset could devise innovations with their power. Like other power systems, the Symbolists had several levels of strength, with clear distinctions at each rank. The weakest was the Mortal Type Symbolist, followed by the King Type and the Emperor Type. An Emperor Type had to undergo a tribulation to advance to the Sovereign Type. Above Sovereign came the Earth Type, then the Heaven Type, followed by the Ancient Type, the Immortal Type, the Eternal Type, and finally the Paragon Type. The Grand Symbolist, the strongest in the world, was said to be a Paragon Type. When Alex saw this hierarchy, he sighed, feeling sorry for those so engrossed in study—their love lives were likely dismal.

If the Symbolists valued knowledge, the Celestials valued bloodlines. Alex learned that a Celestial's power depended on their lineage. The Celestials' ability to harness Stellar Essence depends on the amount of Celestial Bloodline in their veins. The purer and stronger the bloodline, the greater the power. This natural limitation produced a society divided into three strata. The First Stratum contains those with the thinnest traces of Celestial Bloodline. They can barely use Stellar Essence but meet the minimum to be recognized as Celestials; they are called Mortal Celestials because their power is comparable to that of mortals. The Second Stratum includes Celestials with enough bloodline to make them formidable fighters, though not supremely powerful. These average-powered individuals are known as Heavenly Celestials, their strength bringing them closer to the heavens. The Third and highest Stratum comprises those with the thickest, purest Celestial Bloodline. Their lineage grants them legendary abilities, and they are treated as the ruling class among Celestials. These pure-blooded Celestials were called the Stellar Celestials, their presence compared to the stars themselves. As for their power levels, the Celestials surprisingly followed the same system as the Symbolists: Mortal, King, Emperor, Sovereign, Earth, Heaven, Ancient, Immortal, Eternal, and Paragon types. Because the memories they recovered came from a Symbolist, Alex could not determine how powerful the Celestials were as a whole. But since the Celestials could stand toe-to-toe with the Symbolists, Alex could safely conclude that the Celestial faction was likely just as strong as the Symbolist faction.