Chapter 161: 2500 Times Over!
"Alright, the rest is up to your Virtual Universe Company to handle. I trust you and Chaos with this. Let's end it here."
The Giant Axe (Ju Fu) nodded, smiling heartily, preparing to stop the time-reversal.
But the Lord of Darkness froze, then quickly said, "Wait, Giant Axe! Keep going—we're not done yet."
"Not done yet?" Giant Axe was momentarily confused. "Darkness, if we go back any further, your disciple won't even exist. What else is there to see? In fact, this native civilization didn't even have a cultivation system before this 'Great Nirvana' period."
The rough Giant Axe then cracked a joke. "You're not expecting me to pull Huyan Bo out of the past to ask about his two disciples, are you?"
The Lord of Darkness covered his face with his hand.
Giant Axe, are you telling some kind of grim joke right now?
"Giant Axe, keep reversing time. I want to see this native civilization's origin."
"There are still secrets hidden on this planet!"
Suddenly, a sentence echoed in the Lord of Darkness's mind:
"It's my family's legacy. Those six slabs should've been mine all along."
That was Jiang Zhe's attitude toward the Beast God Slabs.
During the time-reversal just now, the Lord of Darkness had naturally witnessed the entire process of Jiang Zhe obtaining the slabs.
Instantly, he understood the truth.
An opportunity that rightfully belonged to Earth's civilization had ended up in the hands of his own people.
That treasure trove contained the Beast God Slabs, special life flesh tissues, methods to acquire clones...
The Lord of Darkness roughly guessed this was the legacy left by Earth's ancient civilization for its future successors.
But along the way, someone had siphoned off most of it, taking the treasure for themselves, leaving only two Beast God Slabs for Jiang Zhe—or rather, for Earth's civilization.
Thinking this over, the Lord of Darkness explained, "Giant Axe, I didn't bring you here to investigate my disciple. Our mission is to assess the 'Earthlings' as a race."
Giant Axe continued to rewind time, also using his divine power to scan the Earthlings on the normal timeline.
This was already the second time.
He frowned slightly—still finding nothing remarkable.
"Soul! Willpower! Comprehension!" the Lord of Darkness reminded him.
Giant Axe nodded silently, carefully observing the historical images of ordinary people, finally discovering the clue.
Tracing back to the Spring and Autumn period, he saw sages with profound attainments in the cultivation of the mind. A hint of regret appeared on his rugged face.
"Pity, their lifespans were too short. There's no way to resurrect them," the Lord of Darkness voiced what Giant Axe was also thinking.
Time continued to rewind—
They saw Huyan Bo's last desperate counterattack, killing the mechanical race spy.
They saw Earth as a livestock resource planet under the Blue Silver Empire.
They watched Earth break apart and reform countless times, yet always maintaining its form.
They saw the Source Star Era, when a penniless immortal monopolized the legacy of the previous civilization.
They saw the Mountain Sea World and a realm master whose fate defied heaven itself.
…
Finally, they saw the origin of Earth's birth—its creator.
An awe-inspiring elder, over 90,000 kilometers tall, with crystalline horns on his forehead.
"Zuoshanke!"
"Zuoshanke!"
Giant Axe and the Lord of Darkness spoke his name with solemn faces.
At that moment, all their lingering questions were answered.
Though both men feared Zuoshanke, they couldn't help but admire his methods.
Giant Axe sighed. "Incredible! He first guided the lineage of the Flame God Race with their mighty godly bodies, then nurtured Earth's line with exceptional souls. Such unfathomable means—it's truly astonishing!"
After marveling for a while, neither spoke again.
Because…the Flame God Race was an eternal wound for the human race!
Now, how should they treat Earth's lineage?
Jiang Zhe… He combines the Flame God line's physical advantages with the Earthling line's soul strength? Perfect. Absolutely perfect!
The Lord of Darkness didn't dwell on deeper matters; he cared more about his little disciple.
A sigh from Giant Axe brought him back.
Giant Axe said, "We may never unravel the Flame God Race's secrets, but Earth's are laid bare before us… Darkness, what do you think we should do?"
"Giant Axe, let's first meet my senior brother in the Virtual Universe. The three of us can discuss it properly."
Since this discovery about Earth was led by the Virtual Universe Company—and the two people holding Earth's sovereignty were both core members of that company—Giant Axe didn't interfere too much. He left it to Chaos and Darkness, who had direct stakes.
He was simply a pure warrior, better at fighting and adventuring across the Universe Sea than managing a power.
His Giant Axe Dojo, because of its rough business and lack of oversight, bred members who were arrogant, domineering, and carried a kind of underworld aura within the human race.
As a hands-off leader, Giant Axe had once casually ordered his men to buy Earth, which in Jiang Zhe's previous memories nearly led to Luo Feng being killed and Earth's sovereignty being forcibly taken.
This time, Earth naturally wouldn't face such danger.
Because fundamentally, Jiang Zhe's status was different.
Now, as a third-generation direct heir of the Virtual Universe Company, he might not be strong yet, but his seniority within humanity was terrifyingly high.
Giant Axe and the Lord of Darkness split off parts of their consciousness to log into the Virtual Universe.
*
After the qualification battle, Jiang Zhe exited the Virtual Universe and looked at over a hundred duke hearts neatly laid out on the floor of his cultivation room, narrowing his eyes.
These were the spoils of two years spent tirelessly hunting demon dukes.
The lowest quality came from a demon duke with a 30 times life gene level.
The best were five perfect hearts from "demon grand dukes" with 100 times life gene level.
They were survivors clawing their way out of the corpse-laden hell of the Ninth Abyss.
Each had refined their demon bloodline to the ultimate limit beneath universe master level.
Their combat power was at the king level, equivalent to 30,000 to 80,000 times a world leader.
Due to the Ninth Abyss's brutal environment that encouraged constant slaughter, many demon grand dukes would eventually seek out wormholes to return home and cultivate in seclusion.
In these two years, Jiang Zhe had hunted down nine demon grand dukes with gold-void attributes in the First Abyss.
Four successfully self-destructed, but the remaining five had their hearts ripped out.
Orianna asked, "Master, are you planning to try it now?"
"Yeah. Chiying said duke hearts provide a gene amplification judged at a very high level, so it should work across attributes. I want to see if it's effective on me."
"This result will decide whether I waste more time in the Abyss World."
As he spoke, Jiang Zhe thought of Luo Feng.
In the future, Luo Feng's golden horned beast clone would cultivate the Nine Tribulations Secret Code to reach a 7,680 times life gene level, and even Beast God's power would amplify it further.
It was truly enviable.
Blood Luo Crystals and Beast God's Blood were wonderful treasures, but unfortunately useless to him.
Jiang Zhe shook his head, clearing away these messy thoughts.
"Orianna, disengage the symbiosis."
"Master, brace yourself."
Then Jiang Zhe felt the pain of something being drawn out in threads.
Tiny blood threads were pulled from his flesh, blood, muscles, bones, and marrow. The surging power receded like a tide, leaving him feeling hollow and weak.
This process lasted nearly ten hours.
Only then did Orianna fully detach, completely ending their deep symbiosis.
His power fell from marquis level back to the peak of universe level.
The drastic drop was uncomfortable, but with Jiang Zhe's mental strength, he quickly adapted and regained perfect control over his current body.
Now was the best state to merge with Demon Power.
Jiang Zhe picked up an ordinary duke heart from the floor, sliced a cut on his left palm, and pressed the golden, semi-transparent crystal heart against it.
This was the same way to fuse with Blood Luo Crystals, and worked for demon hearts too.
Jiang Zhe found swallowing them downright stupid.
As soon as his blood touched the heart, it dissolved into golden energy and burrowed into his body through the wound.
Upon contact with his flesh, it naturally split into two streams of special energy—one blood-red, one black.
Just like before.
The blood-red energy, carrying demon power, spread throughout his body.
The black energy, carrying chaotic will, invaded Jiang Zhe's sea of consciousness.
No doubt, this chaotic will was far stronger than that from earl or marquis hearts.
But to Jiang Zhe, it was still trivial.
He didn't even need to use his mental realm's special powers—his domain lord-level willpower alone violently crushed it.
And once again—
The 181 "stars" inside his body burst into light.
But unlike before, this time they didn't reject the demon power.
Instead, it was as if they acknowledged it, drawing the blood-red energy into themselves.
The demon power spread evenly into all 181 "stars", starting a transformation.
Jiang Zhe's body began to tremble uncontrollably.
His muscles spasmed, bulges the size of fists crawled under his skin as if rats were scurrying inside.
Most notably, a bulge on his forehead broke through the skin, sprouting two dazzling golden devil horns.
His wild black hair spread across the floor, his skin cracked, blood trickled down, blue veins swelled like small pipes, muscles tore, dissolved, then reformed…
The pain—
So intense that even Jiang Zhe nearly lost control of his expression!
Still, compared to becoming the master of the Blood Transforming Divine Blade, it was nothing.
About ten minutes later, Jiang Zhe endured the agony, survived the transformation, and after trimming his wildly grown black hair, everything returned to normal.
He checked inside his body. The 181 "stars" formed by cultivating the Life Blueprint hadn't changed shape.
But he could now sense demon power within.
It was just an almost undetectable wisp—impossible to mobilize yet.
Jiang Zhe was delighted. "Continue. Any change at all is the best news!"
Second heart—fuse!
Third heart—fuse!
Fourth heart—fuse!
…
As he fused more duke hearts, the chaotic will impacts grew fiercer. Yet each was still effortlessly crushed by his domain lord-level will.
The pain of his body being altered by demon power? Utterly insignificant.
Inside, the demon power was slowly increasing.
Once activated, it would transform into gene amplification!
Seventy-fourth—fuse!
Seventy-fifth—fuse!
Seventy-sixth—fuse!
At this point, Jiang Zhe suddenly frowned, carefully sensing his body.
"Strange. The seventy-sixth fusion succeeded, but there's no increase in demon power?"
"Hmm? Oh." Jiang Zhe quickly understood. "Looks like ordinary duke hearts have reached their limit on me."
Looking inside again, he clearly saw that the 181 "stars" were now surrounded by a golden halo.
His eyes lit up. "Demon power—activate!"
Boom!
A chaotic, sinister, savage aura erupted from him, like an evil spirit awakening from the depths of hell.
A faint blood-red glow enveloped his body.
"Hahaha! I finally have gene amplification too!"
"My power's increased by over 30%—that's more than 1.3 times, nearly 1.4 times!"
"Orianna, did you see? I now have a life gene level of 2,500 times!"