Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
The entire relic space was deathly quiet.
And then—
The next second—
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
"…!"
Zhao Xuan suddenly burst into laughter.
His laughter echoed again and again throughout the relic space.
It was wild.
Manic.
Filled with uncontrollable excitement and joy.
There was no doubt about it.
His strength had undergone a complete and explosive transformation.
Compared to before his reconstruction, his physique had increased by nearly one thousand points.
What did that mean?
It meant something explosive.
For others, one thousand points might not be that much.
But for Zhao Xuan—
It was completely different.
Under the amplification of the Azure Dragon Fruit, under the tenfold boost of his dragon-man form—
One thousand points became ten thousand.
Ten thousand!
That was not a small number.
Not for Seventh Rank.
Not even for Eighth or Ninth Rank emperors.
Ten thousand physique was enormous even to them.
But the true reason Zhao Xuan was this excited was something else entirely.
"BOOM!!!"
Zhao Xuan suddenly opened his mouth.
A scorching stream of heat burst forth.
Wherever it passed—
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The life energy that had condensed into liquid instantly evaporated.
After exhaling the blast of heat, Zhao Xuan opened his mouth again.
"Ha!!"
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Terrifying blue-brown wind blades poured out like a breached dam.
Whether it was the fiery beam he had just released, or the wind blades afterward—
Both were unimaginably powerful.
Even without a reference target, Zhao Xuan could clearly feel the terrifying energy contained within them.
Their power was comparable to his Thunder Bagua.
Blast Breath. Kaifu.
Yes.
Those two techniques were precisely Blast Breath and Kaifu.
"So that's how it is… so that's how it is…"
Zhao Xuan's eyes flashed rapidly.
"I always thought these two abilities would only unlock after my Azure Dragon Fruit advanced, after I unlocked the full dragon form. I never expected that simply breaking five thousand physique would trigger them!"
His smile grew brighter.
By all logic—
Now that Zhao Xuan had completed his reconstruction and his strength had skyrocketed, with his personality, he should have rushed out immediately to settle accounts with Neps and the others.
But he didn't.
The reason was simple—
The life energy in this relic space was too abundant.
Too abundant.
In fact—
If Zhao Xuan had wasted absolutely nothing, if he could perfectly control the life energy within him and prevent it from leaking through his pores—
The life energy required to refine his limbs once could have been cut in half.
What did that mean?
It meant that every time he spent sixty billion worth of life energy refining his limbs, thirty billion of it leaked out of his body.
The same was true when he refined his internal organs.
Roughly half of the life energy had escaped.
In other words—
Over the past ten-plus hours, Zhao Xuan had consumed nearly 135 billion worth of life energy resources.
But half of it—
Roughly 67.5 billion worth—
Had been wasted.
And most of that had dispersed into this relic space, which was no larger than a villa.
As a result—
The life energy concentration here was absurdly high.
So high that Zhao Xuan couldn't bear to leave.
"No rush. No rush. I'm not in a hurry to go find them."
"With my current strength, even if Neps gathers twenty or thirty people against me, I'm not afraid in the slightest."
"With my current power, even facing a high-tier Eighth Rank King, I wouldn't necessarily lose."
"In that case, why rush out to find trouble?"
"They can't escape anyway. When the city gates open, I just have to stand at the entrance and block them all inside."
"And besides…"
"They're such excellent tools. It'd be a waste not to use them."
"Let them 'work' for me first. Let them gather Life Stones for me. Once they've gathered enough, I'll go 'collect the debt.'"
"A large group of them collecting Life Stones will always be faster than me hunting Golden Guards alone."
"If I take everything they gather over three days, that should be enough to reach the 750 billion mark."
"And then I can directly advance to the Eighth Rank King."
At that thought, Zhao Xuan's smile widened.
He closed his eyes once more.
Fully focused.
Fully committed.
Absorbing the dense life energy filling the relic space.
All of it was drawn into his body and stored inside his bones as reserve resources.
Neps and the others had no idea about Zhao Xuan's plans.
They were still frantically slaughtering Silver Guards and Golden Guards, gathering Life Stones as quickly as possible.
Time passed quietly.
After an unknown amount of time—
Zhao Xuan opened his eyes again.
The life energy inside the relic space had noticeably thinned.
Still dense—
But no longer enough to impress him.
"Alright… that's enough. Time to go out."
"Let's find an unlucky soul first and test my current strength."
Muttering to himself, Zhao Xuan stood up.
With a thought—
The relic space entrance opened.
The next moment—
His figure flashed and disappeared from the relic space, reappearing inside the City of Life.
Almost the instant he appeared—
"Chi chi chi!"
A flash of golden light appeared before him.
The big golden rat was already there.
Its face was filled with urgency and excitement.
Its little paws waved wildly as it squeaked nonstop.
Clearly—
It was agitated.
Something had happened.
"What is it? Don't panic, don't panic. Slow down. Tell me slowly."
Zhao Xuan's eyes sharpened as he quickly tried to calm it down.
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