Chapter 218 – First Deep Contact!
"Brother, are you kidding me?"
Dressed in silver robes, Jiang Zhe spread his hands helplessly as he circled the massive stone pillar. With his abnormal eyesight and terrifying calculation ability, he counted the number of tiny monsters carved into its surface.
The total—ten billion.
His heart sank instantly.
"Wait… are these secrets something even native lifeforms of the Universe Sea should know?"
"Would the Origin Will of the Primordial Universe really allow such a thing to exist?"
"No wonder it's been luring me deeper and deeper into the Silent Wind Belt—it wanted me to deal with this! Just like it used others before to get rid of that Lord Yuan'ao who brought strange treasures into the Primordial Universe."
The grotesque two-headed monsters carved on the pillar—were界兽, the World Beasts.
They were the natural enemy of the Primordial Universe, the very embodiment of Destruction, born with complete mastery over its laws.
The totem pillar itself stood nearly a hundred meters tall, thick at the top and narrowing as it went down, a bizarre design.
At the top were three aligned holes, one above the other, each smaller than the one below. The bottom two were empty, while the uppermost contained a black cocoon wrapped in swirling, multicolored mist.
Jiang Zhe, recalling the sensation of using the demon avatar's [Origin Demon Qi], carefully examined the cocoon. The aura it released was all too familiar—thick with the essence of destruction.
A sharp instinct rose within him.
This… this thing must be related to the World Beasts. Could it have been taken directly from one of them?
Not daring to act rashly, he glanced at the kneeling "Herod" beneath the pillar, then sent his consciousness into the Virtual Universe.
After visiting Thunder Island's Chaos Temple and returning, Jiang Zhe opened his eyes once more, comparing the pillar before him with the battle images his Uncle-Master Chaos had shown him.
"This is… a scepter? Most likely a top-tier pinnacle treasure—one of Herod's symbols."
Transforming his divine body into a hundred-meter giant, Jiang Zhe reached down and pulled the pillar from the ground with one hand, swinging it experimentally.
The length, thickness, and weight—perfectly balanced.
Yet with such a mysterious object, perhaps even from the Higher Realm, he dared not casually bind it. The recognition conditions could very well be deadly.
He thought of the harsh requirements for the Star Tower's recognition…
And of Herod's mysterious death, followed by the strange corpse-mutation of his entire race…
The more he thought about it, the colder he felt.
Lifting the scepter closer, he examined the three aligned holes, which reminded him of his own "Threaded Nest."
Touching his stag-like chin, he muttered, "Could it be that the Threaded Nest is one of its components? That it's supposed to fit into one of these holes? Then… who took the third component?"
Yet, unlike the "Slayer's Wings" whose components naturally attracted each other, he felt no such pull between this scepter and his Threaded Nest.
Even so, he could not try inserting it. Removing the Nest from his body now would mean instant annihilation by the Silent Wind.
After some thought, Jiang Zhe made a decision.
"Herod could bind it. Why shouldn't I? Even if there's hidden danger, maybe it'll only erupt after my death. And when I'm dead—dust to dust, ashes to ashes. What do I care about the flood then?"
When brushed over casually, his phantasmal divine power ignored the scepter. But the moment he focused fully, his power touched it.
He let the power seep into the scepter's shaft—smoothly leaving behind a life-mark. The binding completed without resistance.
It was almost too easy.
But before he could question it, torrents of information rushed into his mind.
After a long moment, Jiang Zhe rubbed his antlered head.
"A mechanical-type single unit treasure. Its name is Regal Authority. It consists of one scepter and three cores. The top core is the 'Source,' which channels divine power as the central hub to unleash devastating might. The second core is my Threaded Nest, representing the material realm. The third is missing—representing the soul realm."
Comparing this with Chaos's battle recordings, Jiang Zhe saw clearly: Herod once wielded this scepter with all three cores embedded.
It had only been dismantled shortly before his death.
Just like the one who carried away the material core—escaping the Silent Wind with half a divine body, leaving the other half and the core behind to become the "Silent Prison."
"No rush. As long as the missing component exists somewhere in the Universe Sea or Primordial Universe, I'll find it eventually… But this treasure is strange. Each core must be bound separately."
"Herod himself never truly bound even one. That's why he never drew out its true power. Chaos even mistook it for only a pinnacle supreme treasure…"
His gaze fell on the cocoon—the first core.
"So the Silent Wind itself… was caused by this 'Source'."
Jiang Zhe clenched his fists, pained.
"Damn it! The last eruption drained all of its stored energy! And since Herod never bound it, that means it was burning through reserves left by its previous master. Now it'll take me who-knows-how-long to replenish it with high-grade divine power!"
The Source—it was no ordinary core.
This "Regal Authority"… or better, this Scepter of Destruction, could unleash unmatched might when powered by the Source.
Without it, Herod had used it as little more than a pinnacle treasure. With it, the same treasure could transcend the supreme level entirely.
Moreover, the quality of divine power mattered—true gods, void true gods, eternal true gods—all differed. The stronger the divine power poured into the Source, the more terrifying the unleashed might.
Just as Luo Feng's Chaos Wings had proven.
Still staring at the cocoon, Jiang Zhe's eyes burned with desire.
"Incredible… truly incredible."
"Who would have imagined—the core of this mechanical treasure, the Source itself, was forged from the 'World' inside a World Beast King?"
Enslaving such a beast was near impossible. Killing one—ironically—was easier.
And so, some peerless craftsman had slaughtered a World Beast King, ripped out its perfectly-developed "World," and reforged it into a treasure.
"No wonder its eruptions brought ultimate destruction to life, birthing the Silent Wind as a forbidden zone where no creature could survive."
Unable to resist, Jiang Zhe pressed his power into the cocoon.
Time to bind the Source.
The moment his divine power touched it—
"Arghhh!"
His soul—no, his will—was suddenly bitten into, torn away piece by piece. The pain was sharp, alien, nearly unbearable.
Bite after bite, endless, gnawing. His consciousness grew dim.
"Damn it! So this is the binding test? To endure the World Beasts devouring my will itself?"
Each bite shredded his will further. If he gave in, he would be consumed entirely. Sleep called to him—oblivion, peace.
"No! I will not sleep! My will is indestructible. You cannot devour me—you cannot digest me!"
"Scattered will—reform! Broken fragments—rejoin!"
With a roar, his awareness snapped back into clarity. The pain returned, but sharp and clean, no longer blurring his mind.
Still, a voice whispered inside him:
Why fight? Let yourself drift. Sleep. Rest…
"Get out! Get out! Get out!!!"
Bloodshot eyes blazing, Jiang Zhe bore the pain with unyielding defiance.
In the Virtual Universe, inside the Dark Temple, Jiang Zhe's true body was buried in scrolls of cultivation methods, painstakingly modifying his own secret art, Palm Thunder.
Suddenly, he cried out in pain—and his avatar collapsed offline.
The Dark Lord, watching from afar, was startled. Such sudden disconnections usually meant mortal peril in reality.
"The last report placed him within the Zerg territory…"
Scowling, he immediately fired off ten urgent messages.
The Zerg had already left their faction with deep trauma after "Kedi's" fate.
To his relief, only moments later a reply came: Jiang Zhe was alive, though enduring some ordeal within the Silent Wind Belt.
Losing a single clone, even the Silent Prison, would not endanger his true life.
Or so the Dark Lord believed.
Reality was more complicated.
Jiang Zhe endured the gnawing pain with both his silver-clad avatar and his true self simultaneously. By linking their sensations, he lessened the unbearable torment, sharing it between them.
In the 7098th year of the Hanxia Calendar, thirty years had passed.
Jiang Zhe's silver avatar knew—the test was almost over.
He had counted each bite. The total was approaching ten billion, the exact number of beasts carved on the scepter.
"The nine-hundred-ninety-nine-million, nine-hundred-ninety-nine-thousand, nine-hundred-ninety-ninth!"
"The tenth billion!"
With a final roar, his eyes bloodshot, he felt the gnawing stop at last. His divine power etched its mark within the Source.
The binding—complete.
"Finally… it's done."
Exhaustion filled his body, yet his will now gleamed sharper, stronger.
The endless gnawing had reforged his will like steel in the forge—no longer hollow, but dense, unbreakable. He now stood truly at the standard of a Universe Lord.
As he absorbed the vast knowledge flooding from the Source—
Boom!
The surrounding space shuddered. A mighty presence descended upon the White Fang Tower.
Jiang Zhe frowned. My cousin?
A voice linked with his mind, ancient and vast.
[World Beast… 'World'… Sacrifice… Reward… Supreme Treasure…]
"What?"
So now the Origin Will of the Primordial Universe wanted his prize?
It had ignored Herod. It had ignored countless eras of silence. It had ignored him until now.
And now that he had bound it—it dared to demand?
He sneered, shaking his head.
"Not giving it. Not now, not ever."
"It's already a forged weapon, no longer a mere forbidden object. It's mine—and my future depends on it. You have no right to interfere."
His resolve was absolute.
The Origin Will tried to bargain, but Jiang Zhe laid everything bare.
"You know better than anyone. A World Beast King's 'World'—to me, it's everything. It decides whether I fade into mediocrity… or become a legend."
"This matter—cannot be compromised."