Chapter 154: Upgrading from Birdshot to Artillery!
Peak stage of the ninth realm as a World Lord, with a life gene level of 3,000 times!
50 times soul amplification!
9 times body amplification!
An internal world with a diameter of 300 billion kilometers!
And this was just Jiang Zhe's (in symbiotic state) baseline stats.
There were still several crucial factors that influenced his final combat power.
For example, his comprehension of origin laws, the sophistication of secret techniques, and of course—the often underestimated matter of treasures.
Jiang Zhe sat cross-legged atop a stone platform on the mountain peak, taking out all the treasures he owned and laying them before him in a neat row.
There was:
A blood-red pearl the size of a fingertip.
A suit of armor that looked like it was carved from violet gemstones.
A small spindle-shaped wooden shuttle, about as long as a forearm.
Two left arm guards engraved with "Thunder Dragon" patterns.
A tiny five-colored mountain that could sit in his palm.
A luxurious umbrella radiating twelve different hues.
And a blood-red curved blade.
Jiang Zhe let his satisfied gaze roam across them one by one.
These were all the treasures he currently possessed.
Then he paused and sighed helplessly.
This lineup certainly looked impressive, but some of these items couldn't be put to use just yet.
He extended his world power to touch the blood-red pearl.
Instantly, it vaporized and fused into his world power, flowing straight into the "new proto-core" of his nested body, tinting the internal origin pearl with a layer of crimson.
A special treasure: Ancient God Blood Crystal.
Effect—grants an additional 10 times soul amplification!
Jiang Zhe clicked his tongue.
"With 60 times soul amplification now, for the foreseeable future I'll have to focus on mental-force-based attacks…"
Next, he pressed his hand to the chest of the violet gemstone armor, activating it and putting it back on.
A heavy treasure: the 'Panling' Battle Armor.
It offered both physical and soul defense, and when fully activated could withstand up to one billion World Lord units of force.
Basically, a solid "turtle shell." Nothing more needed to be said.
Jiang Zhe casually put away the next item, the wooden shuttle.
A flying-type mental weapon: Taixu Core.
Among heavy treasures, it was top-tier—excellent equipment for Marquis or King-level undyings.
His gaze shifted left.
His hand fell on the two left arm guards of similar shape but different colors.
He gently caressed them, expression tinged with emotion.
The dark purple one was crafted by his teacher Saint Spirit King.
The dark silver one had been modified by his teacher the Lord of Darkness.
These were precious to him, carrying the hopes of both his teachers.
Sensing her master's attachment to this mental weapon "Hand of Time and Space," Orianna had to remind him in his mind:
"Master, although its limit was raised to the King level, it clearly can't keep up with our current 'symbiotic state.' It's ineffective against undying bodies."
Jiang Zhe muttered,
"With my 3,000 times World Lord power, multiplied by 60 times soul amplification, I could crush a low-tier King's god body with brute force alone…"
"But Master, isn't that rather troublesome? We should have better options."
Jiang Zhe fell silent.
In the end, he put both "Hands of Time and Space" away, relegating them to collectibles for now.
It was time to prepare a new main weapon for his current symbiotic state.
With that thought, his gaze moved on to the top-grade treasure—the Mustard Seed Divine Mountain.
It was an excellent treasure combining palace-type, mental-force, and concealment effects.
Its functions were simply astounding.
It could run!
It could fight!
It could hide!
Jiang Zhe spread out his world power, seeping it into the tiny mountain, causing the five-colored peaks atop it to detach and float before him, swirling into a brilliant five-colored halo.
After experimenting for a bit, he reattached the peaks and shook his head helplessly.
That was his current limit.
The Mustard Seed Divine Mountain was made up of six components.
The core was the main mountain—a top-tier treasure.
The five colored peaks were high-tier treasures that could be detached and used as mental weapons.
In theory, this was perfect for his current symbiotic state.
Unfortunately, these five-piece high-tier treasures had minimum usage requirements.
Which was normal.
Everyone knew heavy treasures and above depended on the user's law comprehension to unlock their true forms and power.
The five colored peaks required the user to have fully comprehended at least one complete lower origin law in the space category.
So until he fully grasped the Earth Law, he couldn't use even just the attached components.
Jiang Zhe's gaze finally fell on the last two treasures.
These would be his key assets for hunting demon dukes.
The Mixed Element Umbrella.
The Bloodbane Blade.
These were gifts from his "plugin," incredibly high-grade but with surprisingly few restrictions—quite "easygoing" to use at this stage.
Especially the latter—the Bloodbane Blade.
The first three seals he could currently unlock gave it lethal bonuses against targets with life gene levels under 10x, 100x, and 1,000x respectively.
One slash harmed the body.
Two slashes damaged the soul.
Three slashes triggered a blood toxin explosion, collapsing the target's genes and killing them outright.
(Though of course, this was relative to power levels—if the gap was too large, it couldn't guarantee an instant kill.)
"Unless it's a pure-blood Demon Grand Duke about to reach perfect state, no demon in the Abyss can survive three strikes from the Bloodbane Blade."
"Shame I need the duke's heart intact—and to preserve the 'source blood'—so I can't actually swing a third time. I'll have to use it carefully."
Muttering to himself, Jiang Zhe tucked the Bloodbane Blade behind his waist.
His gaze landed on the last item—the Mixed Element Umbrella.
As mentioned before, though he couldn't fully wield it yet, he could still use some of its lesser functions.
Jiang Zhe closed his eyes, entered the virtual universe, and teleported directly to the Dark Divine Kingdom.
He took a floating platform up the black pyramid, then entered the third-highest temple—the Dreamshade Hall.
There, a purple-haired woman with a dreamy aura sat high on her throne, already waiting for him.
"Senior Sister, is the secret technique I requested ready?"
"Mm. After receiving your request, I thought it over and asked Master to personally handle it."
She waved her hand, and a thick silver metal tome appeared before Jiang Zhe.
He quickly used his mental power to hold it up.
Engraved on the silver cover were four large characters—"Threefold Transformations of Space-Time"!
Boom!
A surge of law-infused might hit him.
In a trance, Jiang Zhe seemed to see star systems in the void moving in accordance with natural laws.
No—not natural laws. They were being manipulated by some intelligent being. From the depths of the chaotic void, a towering draconic figure gradually emerged.
Suddenly, light burst from the dragon's eyes, destroying and annihilating everything in the universe.
Crack!
The images in his mind shattered.
Jiang Zhe's awareness returned.
But he was still savoring what he'd just witnessed, trying to burn it into memory.
He was sure—those three visions were the essence of "Threefold Transformations of Space-Time". The more he remembered, the faster he'd learn.
This wasn't a completely new secret technique.
It was adapted from the final three forms of his old mental weapon—the Hand of Space-Time. The law patterns had been extracted to create three moves known as the "Three Transformations."
Why do this? Because Jiang Zhe wanted to change his main mental weapon—but not his attack techniques.
Like how Luo Feng carved the patterns from his Yan God Soldiers onto his Town-Sealing Stars, so he could still use the "Ninefold Yan God."
Jiang Zhe scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Haha… Senior Sister, such a little favor and I actually troubled Master to handle it?"
"Junior Brother, your request was too complicated."
"If you only wanted me to extract a lightning-time fusion law from your Hand of Space-Time, that'd be easy.
But you also wanted to mix in earth and space elements… I realized only Master could make it flawless."
She waved dismissively.
"It was nothing to Master. Don't worry about it."
"Take a look at the custom secret technique. I hope you like it—and don't let Master down in the future."
Jiang Zhe felt deeply grateful, opening the tome with mental power.
On the first page was a message:
"Jiang Zhe, these are three quasi-peak absolute techniques. I've given you a framework.
You can fill it with your insights into lightning-time, earth-space laws, making them uniquely your own peak-level absolute techniques.
Peak absolute techniques also have levels—how far you take them depends on you.
This will be less natural than a self-created technique, but won't overly restrict you.
If you one day break free of my framework, then congratulations—it will become the foundation of your own self-created pinnacle techniques.
I look forward to being surprised by you."
Jiang Zhe brought the secret tome back to his estate in the Primitive Region.
He hurried into the study in his stilted bamboo house, eager to explore the technique's details.
—It was a quasi-peak absolute technique adapted from the final three forms of the Hand of Space-Time.
7th form → 1st Transformation: Starry Voyage.
8th form → 2nd Transformation: Descent of the Evil Dragon.
9th form → 3rd Transformation: Heaven's Execution Light.
Jiang Zhe quickly immersed himself, analyzing law patterns, and his mastery of the first move advanced at an astonishing pace.
Three days later, he closed the tome and exhaled deeply, eyes sparkling with excitement.
First Transformation—Starry Voyage: mastered!
He had already been able to use the 7th form of the Hand of Space-Time. Now he had simply traced it back to its principles and gained complete understanding.
At this point, even if given nine ordinary iron balls, he could engrave the law patterns and unleash Starry Voyage.
"Smooth progress. My mental attack technique is secured. Now I need a mental weapon to match."
His consciousness withdrew from the virtual universe.
High atop the inner world's greatest peak, Jiang Zhe opened his eyes on the stone platform. With a thought, he entered the world inside the Mixed Element Umbrella.
A hazy, multicolored space.
As far as the eye could see, massive "gems" larger than Earth drifted slowly through the void.
There were twelve colors—deep green, dark green, cyan, glowing white, dark yellow, crimson, deep blue, pale blue, bright white…
Brilliant and lustrous.
If a true Sovereign came here, they'd go mad.
Because each of these "gems" was a top-tier heavy treasure, immensely coveted by Kings and beyond.
Jiang Zhe lifted his hand, and one gem of each color flew to him.
They shrank from ninety-thousand-kilometer giants to marble-sized beads, twining around his wrist like a bracelet.
"Tsk tsk… emerald, dark emerald, cyan emerald, night pearls, dust-warding pearls, fire-warding pearls, water-warding pearls, cooling pearls, winding pearls, beauty pearls, wind pearls, true pearls…
Not mere jewelry—each has a unique effect, each is a top-tier heavy treasure."
"By engraving my secret technique's law patterns onto them, they'll become the best mental weapons I could hope for."
Jiang Zhe's face lit up with undisguised joy.
He toyed with the twelve gems, reluctant to let them go.
One point to clarify:
These twelve-colored gems weren't essential components of the Mixed Element Umbrella.
They were byproducts, created to support one of its seals.
The umbrella could absorb cosmic origin energy or chaotic streams, endlessly producing these gems.
Of course, it was renewable—but production was slow.
So Jiang Zhe knew exactly how many he could take without harming the umbrella.
Suddenly, he wore a strange look, rubbing his chin.
"Funny… the Star Tower is a Sovereign weapon, yet its Town-Sealing Stars are only top-tier heavy treasures, five whole levels below.
How can they be so critical, even irreplaceable parts?"
"Then again, why not?
Star Tower mutated. Sitting Mountain Guest probably prepared its materials expecting to forge a supreme treasure anyway."
(End of the Chapter)
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