Chapter 138: Limit! Limit!
The master and servant stared at each other, wide-eyed.
Oriana was trying to recall the "cosmic common knowledge" Jiang Zhe had shared with her, attempting to deduce a reasonable explanation for what was happening.
Meanwhile, Jiang Zhe looked up at the sky, hoping to pull out his old cosmic "buddy" for a chat — to ask what exactly was going on with his "Zhu Zhao avatar."
Oriana offered a somewhat silly guess:
"Master, could it be that the World Tree has a [Growth] talent? Maybe it works just like the [Sea Transformation] talent of the Nine Nether Sea, which is why it grew to such an enormous size?"
Jiang Zhe's mouth twitched.
"It was born that large. Plant-type lifeforms naturally have enormous divine bodies. Ninety thousand kilometers isn't even close to their upper limit."
He continued:
"Our clan once had someone who acquired a World Tree avatar, so we know that unique life form very well. It only has one talent — 'control of space-time.'"
After the joke, Oriana became serious again.
"Perhaps you've broken through the size limit? Maybe it's time to measure with the next extreme unit."
She speculated:
"The body size limit defined by a perfect genetic level is around ninety thousand kilometers. But for someone at ten thousand times the genetic limit, it might be as large as — twelve light years?"
"Master, your physical strength, mental power amplification, and genetic level have all broken past previous limits, so you should understand how the rules change after surpassing them."
"Also, I suspect that ninety thousand kilometers is only the maximum divine body for flesh-type life forms."
Oriana continued:
"Not just you and the World Tree — even beings like Li Huo Mountain and the Ancestral Star Tree exceed ninety thousand kilometers in size, but they're either rock-type or plant-type lifeforms."
Jiang Zhe's mouth twitched again.
"But my Zhu Zhao avatar is a flesh-type lifeform."
"That's why," Oriana concluded, "your Zhu Zhao avatar must have broken the limit. We should measure it using the next scale. That's the most reasonable explanation I can come up with."
"Ninety thousand kilometers might really be the divine body limit for flesh-type lifeforms."
Jiang Zhe nodded thoughtfully.
"Hmm... Anna, your final hypothesis makes a lot of sense."
"Alright, I'll complete the last multiplier for my genetic level and see if my body size can increase even more."
With a thought, a thousand Blood Luo Crystals floated up, ready to be infused into his Zhu Zhao avatar's radiant core.
"Wait, Master, we should prepare ahead of time," Oriana quickly advised.
Jiang Zhe paused, remembering Luo Feng's own transformations.
"Good point. Let's prepare more universe crystals, just in case. If we don't have enough, it could become a problem."
"Though it's also possible we won't need them," he chuckled, making plans for both outcomes — whether his size exploded or stayed the same.
Most people crossed the river by feeling for stones. He, meanwhile, was basically crossing by watching Luo Feng's future footsteps.
Every time a divine body grew, it needed the support of world energy or godforce. Jiang Zhe hadn't advanced to the realm of realm-lords yet, so he figured having universe crystals ready for his Zhu Zhao avatar to absorb would work.
Oriana split into three thousand clones, shaking the world's power and refining universe origin energy.
This was commonly called "mining."
By the year 2252, July (Hania Calendar)
Jiang Zhe looked over the vast fields of deep blue crystals within his umbrella space, nodding in satisfaction, then halted the three thousand mining Oriana clones.
He moved to the final stage, shifting from the storage world to the umbrella space — in case the Zhu Zhao avatar's size truly exploded to light-year scale and burst the world ring.
A thousand Blood Luo Crystals flew into the avatar's core, dissolving into a vast sea of blood-colored energy, merging with the abundant universe origin energy from the shattered universe crystals — forming a long river of blood.
The blood river surged, undergoing intense refinement.
Eventually, the blood color faded.
Transparent liquid shaped itself into ten thousand crystalline tetrahedrons, which combined into a sphere with 10,081 facets.
Since the Zhu Zhao avatar was ninety thousand kilometers in diameter, even one ten-thousandth part of it was larger than Earth, only slightly smaller than Uranus or Neptune.
A single such component was around forty thousand kilometers wide!
When the final sphere embedded into the avatar, Jiang Zhe looked up at this "tiny star in the sky," feeling an indescribable beauty.
"Perfect!"
"It's absolutely perfect!"
He saw the 10,081 spheres, the countless tetrahedrons within, and his mind sensed the fullness of the flesh particles inside.
Yes — from start to finish, the Zhu Zhao avatar was a flesh-type lifeform!
Every cell's structure, whether viewed macroscopically or microscopically, was flawless — a body utterly without defects.
"Huff — huff —"
The Zhu Zhao avatar naturally began absorbing energy, its already enormous size expanding even more.
Chunks of universe crystal scattered through the void shattered, raising a storm of origin energy that swirled around the avatar, forming brilliant rings.
Its volume kept growing.
Diameter: 1 million km!
Diameter: 2 million km!
Diameter: 3 million km!
…
The speed of expansion stunned Jiang Zhe.
Oriana quickly split into three thousand clones again, left the umbrella space, and started refining more universe crystals outside, worried the stockpile wouldn't be enough.
The growth didn't stop.
Finally...
When it reached over 900 million kilometers in diameter, the Zhu Zhao avatar stopped expanding.
The feedback Jiang Zhe sensed made his eyebrow twitch.
Right now, this wasn't even the avatar's perfect state. This was merely its cosmic-level size limit.
Oriana remarked:
"Master, by my estimate, its ultimate divine body limit in the future will likely be twelve light-years."
Jiang Zhe did some calculations — it might indeed be so.
Domain Lord: 1 billion to 9 billion km diameter
Realm Lord: 10 billion to 90 billion km
Immortal: 100 billion to 900 billion km
Universe Venerable: 1 trillion to 9 trillion km
Universe Master: 1 to 9 (maybe 12) light-years
These numbers weren't pulled from thin air. Given how the Swallowed Star world worked, they were almost certainly accurate.
It was a rigorously structured universe.
Jiang Zhe suddenly thought of something, frowning.
"If my body isn't at its perfect state, will the Origin Cosmic Will still grant me the strongest innate secret technique?"
Oriana shook her head. She couldn't guess.
"Boom!"
Speak of the devil — it appeared!
Time and space within the umbrella space froze instantly.
Oriana's head-shaking froze. Jiang Zhe stayed stuck in his frown. Even the Zhu Zhao avatar's radiance was halted.
The ancient core in Jiang Zhe's chest, hidden in his heart palace, was flooded with a mysterious power. The ancient tree atop the landmass inside his internal world shook, absorbing this power and sending it into the ground.
The old stone-pearl-like core transformed.
It turned into something like a purple crystal orb. The inner colors shifted —
Fiery red!
Emerald green!
Aqua blue!
Earthy yellow!
Shining gold!
Finally it became a hazy chaos, returning to its ancient stone appearance.
The weathered marks on its surface seemed to hold infinite mysteries.
"Buddy, I'm here!"
Jiang Zhe regained consciousness and shouted excitedly. He knew exactly where he was.
Though he planned to be wary of the Origin Universe's will, he wasn't yet at the True God level — when their "cousinly" relationship might strain.
From his teacher, the Lord of Darkness, he'd learned that the will of the Origin Universe often used the [Apocalypse] secret technique to pull subtle moves, but that was still within Jiang Zhe's tolerance.
Given the threats of the Beast of Disaster and Zuoshan Ke, the Origin Universe had to stay active to avoid losing more than half its essence or getting possessed. It needed to introduce new players to stir the stagnant pond.
One day, if his Silver-Garbed soul was summoned to the Ancestral God School to serve as a divine guardian or even an unprecedented auxiliary ancestral god, Jiang Zhe wouldn't be surprised.
Right now though — free top-tier innate secret techniques were delicious.
He looked at the countless light points drifting around him, avoiding him, and his eyes turned red like a mouse dropped into a rice bin.
"Mine! All mine!"
They radiated pressure comparable to Universe Masters. Even with Jiang Zhe's Universe Venerable-level will, he could barely handle it.
He was about to copy the pioneers who tied their pants into nets to scoop them up, but realized he was only there with his consciousness — so he used a spiritual hand instead.
As soon as he moved, a terrifying will descended, freezing him on the spot.
Suddenly —
Whoosh!
A light point far brighter than the rest shot toward him at superluminal speed. In this place, the speed of light was not even the limit.
"Buddy, I knew you wouldn't let me down!"
Though it was only one, it was enormous — Jiang Zhe was satisfied.
"Boom~~~"
Scenes flashed through his mind.
He saw the universe's destruction, then the evolution of life essence, the birth of the Origin Universe, the rise and fall of countless lives... then another cosmic collapse — a scene of annihilation.
Birth and death. Origins and ends. Life and ruin.
Endless cycles.
This was a colossal opportunity — to witness the birth and destruction of the Origin Universe!
Even if he wasn't truly on site and couldn't sense the deeper workings of fundamental laws, just seeing this imprint was something Jiang Zhe could study for eternity.
He immediately forgot most of the images. Not his fault — the Origin Universe will forcibly erased them.
But Jiang Zhe and his Silver-Garbed soul were synchronized — while watching, they were also uploading to their mental "cloud drive." The Origin Will didn't fully scrub it.
This scene had an even greater impact on his Silver-Garbed soul.
Not exaggerating — it was like a reserve Origin Universe.
Its fate was always to experience cosmic cycles.
With the images came vast knowledge, countless innate secret techniques flooding into Jiang Zhe's consciousness.
"Bang!"
Soon, Jiang Zhe was kicked out of that space.
Back in the umbrella space, the first thing he did was check his core. The aura and hardness he felt made his face darken.
"Sigh, I knew this would happen."
He was crystal clear — at the realm-lord level, he'd be stuck for a while.
Just like Luo Feng, whose internal world could still expand even when he was at the cosmic peak, with nowhere else to advance.
Jiang Zhe grabbed some universe crystals to feed into his internal world.
Suddenly he paused, then threw them aside.
"Anna, how many D-grade lightning treasures do we still have?"
"Master, we brought around 500,000 mixed-element units worth when we came. After restoring your energy body a few times, we have about 320,000 units left."
"Give them all to me."
Oriana handed over a world ring.
Every time Jiang Zhe's energy body burned out, he had to devour huge amounts of treasures using his Thunder Prison Realm to restore it.
Naturally, the two of them always kept a massive stock of D-grade lightning treasures.
Even Luo Feng knew to buy metal wreckage to expand his internal world, concentrating metal essence into the Golden Horn Stone and subtly transforming his core.
Jiang Zhe wasn't dumb enough to use just universe crystals.
Instead, he poured thunder essence from lightning treasures into his core, hoping that when he became a realm-lord, it might condense into something like a Golden Horn Stone.
Jiang Zhe dumped the entire 320,000-unit trove of D-grade lightning treasures into his 100-million-kilometer Thunder Prison Realm.
The essence refined there was funneled into his ancient core.
His internal world began an insane expansion.
Diameter: 10,000 km!
Diameter: 100,000 km!
Diameter: 1 million km!
…
The expansion process lasted less than a month.
Jiang Zhe never rested, continuously driving his Thunder Prison Realm to digest the treasures, refining their energy and injecting it into the core.
"Diameter: over 90 million km, close to 100 million km — almost catching up to the Thunder Prison Realm."
"This is the limit! Well... the cosmic-level limit."
Nearby, Oriana calculated his realm-lord peak internal world size.
"For a domain lord it's 1–9 billion km. For a realm-lord, 100–900 billion km."
"Master, at realm-lord peak, it should be nearly 1 trillion km in diameter, which matches the data you gave me. No discrepancy."
Jiang Zhe shook his head gloomily.
"Anna, your math checks out, but 1 trillion km isn't my limit — it's my starting point!"
Oriana tilted her head, confused.
"Anna, I still have twChapter 138: Limito avatar slots."
"If I could push them both to the perfect genetic level, plus my true body — all tied to one core — how large would my internal world become?"
Oriana's face changed after running the numbers.
Jiang Zhe's eyes gleamed with madness.
"Anna, if I really pull this off, will I ever break through to Immortal?"
Oriana gave him an honest calculation.
"Master, in that scenario, as a perfect genetic being at the realm-lord level, you'd have tens of millions of eras of lifespan."
"Within that span, you likely couldn't advance by comprehending only lower laws. You'd probably need to grasp an upper fundamental law to break the core's shackles."
"Or more likely, you'd have to comprehend two upper fundamental laws and skip directly from here past Immortal and Venerable to Universe Master, using the resonance with the Origin Universe's core to shatter your core and evolve your internal world into a god kingdom."
"That scenario you envision... through countless cycles..."
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