Chapter 119: Completion – A Strange Effect!
The 19th "blood bead" – obtained.
The master and servant duo wasted no time and hurried to Ruin Site No. 919.
This floating continent was bordered by undulating mountain ranges, resembling a giant basin. Inside was an abyssal sea trench thousands of kilometers deep.
In a sunken temple on the seabed, they obtained a G-grade water-type treasure valued at approximately 120 billion Hunyuan units.
That figure sounded impressive, but it was mainly due to sheer quantity piling up the value.
A G-grade treasure typically sat at this price point—some could even be worth more. For instance, the Three-Prohibition Boro Leaf, which could help a peak king-level being recover their divine body, was worth over 50 billion Hunyuan units per leaf. Even then, when paired with additional treasures worth over 10 billion Hunyuan units, it could only restore a divine body from 12% to around 20%, barely reviving the owner.
Lately, they'd been picking up G-grade treasures so frequently that Jiang Zhe had become numb to seeing his wealth grow. Those were just cold, meaningless numbers to him now.
In a way, he was already living the same life Luo Feng would experience in the later stages of the Outer Battlefield — the taste of true financial freedom.
What mattered more to Jiang Zhe were the "blood beads" hidden among the G-grade treasures. With this latest find, he now had 20 beads.
(One was currently used by Orianna to mask her aura, leaving 19 at his disposal.)
Their harvest continued.
At Ruin Site No. 915, they acquired the 21st blood bead. When Jiang Zhe fused 20 usable beads, he felt a stronger feedback through his senses — a compelling allure, mixed with an irritating sense of incompleteness.
"So this is only about one-fifth complete?" Jiang Zhe smirked. "I'm really curious to see what you'll turn into when fully complete."
Onward they went.
At No. 913, the 22nd blood bead.
At No. 904, the 27th blood bead.
At No. 890, the 31st blood bead.
Each of these temple sites spanned millions of square kilometers, akin to the land area of super-sized nations on Earth (100–500 million square kilometers). The outer zones swarmed with millions of D- and E-grade puppets, while the core zones were guarded by puppets possessing immortal-level strength.
Ordinary universe-level beings would have no chance in these perilous grounds. But Jiang Zhe was no ordinary being. With a realm master-level assistant lifeform at his side, they evaded detection by guardian puppets and moved through the temples as if nobody could stop them.
At No. 857, the 42nd blood bead.
At No. 799, the 55th blood bead.
At No. 780, the 59th blood bead.
At temple sites No. 741, No. 729, and No. 719, they intentionally alerted the guardian puppets to gauge their strength. They found that the smaller the site number, the stronger the guardians became. At No. 705, the guardian could unleash nearly 200 times the power of a realm master, far surpassing an average elementary immortal.
Further inward, within the sub-700 zone, the local spacetime became highly unstable. Jiang Zhe's cosmic-level clone could barely use the innate secret technique [Abyss] to stabilize the turbulent spacetime flows. A single misstep could sweep them into unknown dangers — a nightmare hard to survive.
So, they decided not to venture deeper and planned to sweep the 700–1000 range instead.
As long as the guardian puppets were still intact, collecting a total of 100 blood beads wouldn't be hard.
Don't underestimate the local ancient god descendants; they also had immortal powerhouses. They could theoretically clear out the outer ruins. But would the Virtual Universe Company allow that? If it wanted to, it could have emptied all 10,081 temples — including the core "Ancient God Palace" — right after the war that wiped out this race in ancient times.
No, the true value of this native world was as a training ground for fledglings, plus the possible legacy of puppet techniques.
At No. 733, nothing.
At No. 762, the 64th blood bead.
At No. 795, nothing.
At No. 801, the 72nd blood bead.
At No. 944, a floating continent covered in lush forests, they chose not to sneak around this time. Orianna crushed the guardian treant puppet's core with her Nine-Refinement Fist, extracting a piece of Dark Lora tree heart, ending the battle.
Even though the treant guardian had nearly 100 times realm master power, Orianna, now at realm master ninth rank, was right at that level. While she had 88 times realm master power, her sharper combat intellect and deeper law comprehension gave her the edge.
Inside Orianna's inner world, Jiang Zhe watched strands of blood being drawn from the tree core, merging into a new blood bead.
It was the 101st blood bead. Jiang Zhe could clearly sense its pull.
"Orianna, send it over."
She released it from her world force, and the bead shot toward Jiang Zhe, merging into a crimson mass made from the previous 99 beads.
The palm-sized blood mass began to churn, its volume shrinking as it thickened. Finally, it condensed into a crystal-clear blood-red orb, just the size of a fingertip.
Feeling its intense attraction, Jiang Zhe touched it with his spirit force.
Reckless?
Hardly.
His true core was in a clone within the umbrella-space. If anything went wrong, he could simply self-destruct and likely escape.
The moment his spirit force touched it, the orb vaporized and merged into his mind, dyeing his sea of consciousness in red.
"What will it do?" Jiang Zhe's expression remained calm as he carefully sensed the change.
The orb formed a film around his mind, filling it with rich soul power.
His spirit force was strengthened across the board!
He tested it, driving his spirit force to launch fifth-grade psychic weapons.
Stone orbs the size of bowls shot out, smashing down nearby mineral mountains.
"Orianna, did you sense it?"
In her own world, Orianna had absolute control, so she naturally noticed his before-and-after state.
"Your spirit amplitude increased again, roughly to 4500 times?"
"4509 times to be exact," Jiang Zhe said. "It jumped from 3509 to 4509 after that orb entered my mind."
"Is it permanent?"
"No." He then forced the orb out from his brow, and his next psychic attack was notably weaker.
Orianna quickly concluded:
"So this orb is like a treasure—when worn, it boosts soul amplitude by 1000 times out of thin air?"
It reminded them of Luo Feng's critical gear for cross-level combat — the Soldier Armor and General Armor. Those gave realm master power.
But this blood-red orb enhanced soul amplitude directly.
If combined with a peak soul treasure's Soldier Soul or General Soul, the results would be terrifying.
'Once I reach 100x genetic level as a realm master, I can bear the General Soul. That gives 10,000x realm master soul power.
With this 45x amplitude, that's a peak power of 450,000x realm master soul...
Even peak king-level powerhouses only have 100,000x realm master soul power normally!'
The thought flashed across Jiang Zhe's mind.
"Yes — but also two things: it only works for ancient god bloodlines, and... it's the key to unlocking their core inheritance."
"So it contained information too?" Orianna was amazed.
"Important information." Jiang Zhe nodded, praising her:
"Orianna, I truly believe now you're the only one who could've extracted these 'blood beads' from puppet cores."
"Heh heh~" She giggled proudly.
"I'll share the info with you."
It detailed all 10,081 temple ruins in the red zone — puppet counts, leader strengths, F/G-grade treasure lists.
Even more crucial, it described the 'Ancient God Palace' below.
A floating continent spanning tens of millions of kilometers held 118 temples, telling of the ancient gods' past glory.
The outer ring had 108 King Temples, guarded by puppets capable of king-level power.
The inner ring had 9 Saint Temples, guarded by puppets with universe lord strength.
At the center stood a lone Ancient God Palace — once the dwelling of a universe master, containing their core inheritance. Holding a 'Ancient God Blood Crystal' would allow partial access.
The so-called blood crystal was precisely the blood orb they had just crafted.
"Shall we head to the palace now?" Orianna asked.
"Not yet. I want a second blood crystal, just to be safe."
"Understood."
After a short rest, they continued sweeping the 700–1000 zone for more beads.
By their 33rd year in this world, they risked venturing into the sub-700 zone, since the 381 outer sites couldn't yield another 100 beads.
Not every ruin held a G-grade treasure; over half had already been looted by natives.
The real danger in these zones wasn't the puppets — but the chaotic spacetime on the way.
By year 35, they finally forged a second Ancient God Blood Crystal.
Now, aboard their long-unused spaceship, they plunged toward the star field below, heading to the area the Virtual Universe Company had marked in blood red — the final destination:
"The Ruined Ancient God Palace!"
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