Chapter 577: Below the Demigod Realm (Two-in-One)

One bottle.

Two bottles.

Three bottles.

In just a few dozen minutes, Yan Jing had swallowed all of the Physical Enhancement Potions.

He heard his entire body crackling and popping as his bones grew, violently tearing at his flesh.

Whenever his flesh tore, the dark golden Demon Blood and his [Physique]-amplified body instantly regenerated to fill the gap. Yan Jing was already over 1.8 meters tall, but he shot up again as his skeleton shifted. Though the growth wasn't purely vertical, he still gained several inches.

But he was still hungry.

The Physical Enhancement Potions had slightly eased his bones' craving for energy, but his newly torn flesh demanded even more fuel to recover.

Yan Jing could feel every inch of his flesh screaming, begging for more, more, more energy.

Yan Jing pulled out the newly acquired Super Potion.

He stared at the vial for a moment before twisting the cap off and downing it in a few gulps.

"Whoosh—"

In a daze, Yan Jing thought he heard jubilant cheering ring in his ears.

Every cell and every inch of his flesh danced with joy at the arrival of this massive, rich surge of energy.

It was like a torrential rain after a long drought.

Yan Jing finally felt a "long-lost" sense of peace.

The screaming had stopped entirely.

Every part of his body quietly absorbed the colossal energy.

Yan Jing sat cross-legged on the floor, his eyes half-closed as he focused on the changes in his body.

An hour or two later, he stood up. His muscles popped and cracked like roasting beans.

He was truly reborn and remade. Compared to before he absorbed the bone's origin essence, his physical strength had multiplied to an unfathomable degree.

The white glow that previously radiated from his body when his physical form reached the Summit had now shifted into a murky, dark radiance.

He casually reached out a hand, and the air in the room instantly warped into a vortex. At the center of that vortex, a pitch-black tunnel leading to a Space Rift tore open.

"This is definitely beyond the Ninth Tier—"

Yan Jing examined his arms. Every inch of muscle and meridian stood out clearly to his eyes, synergized to near perfection. They exuded a mysterious, dangerous aura.

His physique had broken through the Ninth Tier after absorbing Wen He's origin essence. Now, it had transformed again. Though he didn't know if he had reached the Tenth Tier, it was definitely on a completely different level from the Ninth Tier.

"I'll ask Senior about it later."

Yan Jing walked over to the final item. Three beams of light had fallen earlier, and he remembered this last object came from the brightest star.

It was a small, transparent glass bottle. The inside looked completely empty.

But the moment Yan Jing picked it up, he felt its sheer weight.

Even with his current physique, he actually found it slightly heavy.

Yes, a bit heavy. Just a little—like a normal adult man picking up a heavy case of water. But for the current Yan Jing to feel that kind of heft, he conservatively estimated the bottle weighed hundreds of millions of tons.

But why—

He set the bottle back on the floor and observed it closely. The floor showed absolutely no signs of caving in.

If the bottle wasn't the anomaly, then it had to be—

Yan Jing held the bottle up to the light. Sure enough, he spotted the liquid inside.

Clear and completely transparent. The bottle must have a shielding effect, completely masking the aura of whatever liquid it held.

If he hadn't looked closely, he never would have noticed it contained anything at all.

[Item Name: Bottle: Containing the Sea (Bound Item)]

[Usable Tier: Usable at all Tiers]

[Item Effect: Shields everything inside the bottle, completely concealing all properties of its contents.] [Item Description: Far from as simple as it appears. Even if some weaker Deities exhausted their entire fortunes, they wouldn't be able to obtain a bottle like this.]

Yan Jing stared at the liquid, leaning in for a closer look. Suddenly, he felt a sense of déjà vu.

"Something's not right."

He set the bottle back on the floor and subconsciously backed away, retreating a little, and then a little more, putting some distance between them.

"This thing might not be good news. Forget it, I don't have to claim every single item."

He consoled himself, then turned and headed straight for the door.

But the moment he reached the doorway, he instantly sensed something was wrong. A dense energy flooded every inch of his surroundings.

It was unlike any ordinary energy. It wasn't destructive—it was even incredibly gentle—but Yan Jing felt as if he had been submerged in water. Everything around him morphed into flowing currents. Ripples began to slide in reverse, and a force squeezed against his body, pushing him backward, seemingly trying to drag him into the past.

"Just as I thought—"

Yan Jing sighed.

He had been wondering why it looked so familiar. That star had actually sent down a drop of water from the River of Time.

Wasn't this just a trap?

Fortunately, a single drop of this river water wasn't completely uncontrollable for his current self. He instantly activated Universal: Minute and Second.

The time-based ability opposite him was suppressed by one Tier, while he was automatically elevated by one Tier.

Furthermore—he was immune to temporal erosion.

Yan Jing waded through the temporal currents and easily walked over to the small bottle, snapping the slightly opened cap firmly shut.

"Snap."

The "flowing currents" in the room vanished instantly.

Yan Jing stowed the small bottle away.

Though it was hard to say whether the sender was trying to set him up or actually help him, they had undeniably been quite generous.

Drops of liquid from the River of Time weren't something you came across every day.

Having maxed out all his immediate upgrades, Yan Jing walked out the door and arrived at Rabbit's office a few moments later.

"Knock, knock. Good afternoon, Senior."

Yan Jing pushed the door open and walked in. Rabbit was sitting at its desk, sipping coffee.

"Mm, good afternoon."

Rabbit set down the newspaper, looked up at Yan Jing, and then—

"Cough! Cough! Cough—"

It choked hard on its coffee.

"Where have you been these past few days?!" It stared at Yan Jing, its eyes full of disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Yan Jing glanced down at himself and blinked.

"Physical body Deity Transformation..." Rabbit's gaze swept up and down Yan Jing's body before it finally looked away, muttering, "Sure enough, you got your hands on the essence blood. Paired with the Divine Throne, it really could produce this kind of effect... but is this reasonable?

"That bullshit legend is actually true? I thought someone just made it up—"

"What is physical body Deity Transformation?" Yan Jing caught exactly what he wanted to hear and quickly asked.

Interrupted, Rabbit looked up at Yan Jing. Its suspicious gaze made it clear it thought Yan Jing was just messing with it.

You've already reached it, and you're asking me?!

When it finally realized Yan Jing genuinely didn't know, it sighed, its gaze growing profound. "Below the Demigod Realm, your physical strength is unmatched."

High atop the wall, a girl in doggy pajamas sat slouched over, utterly bored. She yawned. "How much longer until shift change? This sucks."

Hundreds of meters away, a man built like an iron tower spoke flatly. "Stop yawning. It reflects poorly if others see you."

"Who the hell is going to see us up here? I've been reduced to a glorified gatekeeper—"

"His Lordship is everywhere!" the man snapped, interrupting her with a stern tone.

"Tch—" The girl curled her lip.

Seeing that the man had zero sense of humor, she turned her head to look in the other direction.

Hundreds of meters away on that side stood another figure. Dressed in a long red robe, the slender man had his chin slightly raised. "Just focus on your job. Judging by the time, they should be back soon."

Hearing his words, the girl let out a short laugh. "I don't think those three are going to bring us any news. They've probably been gunning for our positions for a long time now."

"..."

"Everything comes down to fate. If it's not in their destiny, they have no one to blame but themselves," the iron-tower man said coldly.

The girl burst out laughing. She opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly twitched her nose. Her gaze instantly sharpened.

"Looks like they're back—"

She peered into the distance.

As the domain lord of [Tiangou], her vision and sense of smell were her most praiseworthy traits, second only to her ravenous appetite.

Several miles away, she spotted a few familiar figures.

"Oh? How far out are they?"

The red-robed man asked.

"Umm... I don't think that question really matters anymore." The girl's expression turned grim. The red-robed man clearly didn't notice her change in demeanor. He frowned. "No question is meaningless. I'm the captain of this squad now, and I need an answer. Immediately."

Having earned the approval of the figure backing him, the red-robed man had become the de facto leader of [Zodiac]. Normally, the girl would listen to his orders.

But this time was an exception.

The girl's voice turned icy. "I said, it doesn't matter."

The red-robed man was about to lash out, but the girl's next words stopped him cold.

"Because they're already dead."

"Our two old teammates are currently slow-dancing with Monkey's corpse."

The girl's face was utterly frosty.

In her line of sight, Tang Tian's heavily bruised, pale corpse was currently being manipulated by Wang Yu using Weird Energy to dance a comical jig.

"What about the rest of them?" the iron-tower man asked, his voice turning frigid.

"I don't see them. But if Monkey ended up like that, you can guess what happened to the rest."

The girl stood up.

She and Monkey had been quite close. Seeing her friend's corpse being carelessly toyed with finally pushed her to her limit.

"Hold on. This is obviously a trap," the red-robed man said, frowning.

The fact that their enemies managed to kill Tang Tian meant that even if they weren't at the Ninth Tier, their strength had to be incredibly close. To blatantly flaunt the corpse like this meant they were fully prepared for a fight.

"So what do you suggest we do?" The girl turned to look at the red-robed man with an icy glare. "If higher-ups find out about this, I highly doubt you'll keep enjoying their favor."

"..."

The red-robed man's expression darkened.

She was right. This incident had to be covered up, and it needed to be resolved flawlessly.

"I'll go with you."

He looked at the girl. "Tucker stays here. If things go south, I'll send a signal. You'll immediately summon everyone and launch a purge under the pretext that the enemy instigated a riot and attacked public officials in the Central Region."

"Fine."

The red-robed man truly lived up to his favored status; his swift strategy immediately won the other two's approval.

The next second, their figures blurred into two streaks of light. Guided by the girl, they rapidly closed in on Wang Yu and Long Quezhou's location.

"They're coming."

Wang Yu sensed the intruders entering a one-li radius around her. She immediately turned to Long Quezhou beside her. "Stick to the plan. Retreat."

Their plan was simple: draw their pursuers a safe distance away from the Central Region's high wall, and then finish off whoever took the bait.

But—the red-robed man instantly blinked into existence right in front of them.

He cut off their escape route.

"Where are you two off to?"

As the domain lord of [Maori], all of the red-robed man's Rituals were derived from the [Space] Pathway. His aerial speed vastly outstripped anyone at the same Tier, let alone the fact that he was already at the Ninth Tier.

Wang Yu and Long Quezhou had clearly underestimated his speed, reacting just a half-beat too slow.

But—

Long Quezhou immediately tossed aside Tang Tian's corpse.

Since they hadn't been fast enough to escape, they wouldn't run at all.

He glared at their pursuer. Weird Energy surged around his body as streams of dragon aura descended from the sky, weaving together to form a shimmering golden robe around him.

"Long Quezhou, I don't know what happened between you guys, but we can talk about this." Seeing the Weird Energy constantly surging and morphing into dragon shapes around Long Quezhou, the red-robed man subconsciously sensed a severe threat. He quickly offered, "The others clearly died at your hands, and [Zodiac] is short on manpower right now. If you agree to cooperate, we can recruit you directly into the Central Region."

"We both know that our goals have always been the same. The Day of Godhood is fast approaching. There's no future for you if you stay out here on the fringe."

But upon hearing the red-robed man's words, Long Quezhou—who had been standing sideways—suddenly pivoted to face him fully. "No. To be precise, our goals were the same. Now, things have changed."

Seeing Long Quezhou turn to face him directly, the man's brow twitched. Without another moment of hesitation, he launched a sudden, explosive attack.

Countless red feathers materialized around him and shot forward in a furious swarm. He darted through the turbulent stream of feathers with uncanny speed, aiming straight for Long Quezhou's face.

A dark golden mask rested upon Long Quezhou's face.

Everyone in [Zodiac] knew that when Long Quezhou got serious, the man who constantly kept his back or side to the world would finally face his opponent head-on.

And when Long Quezhou was truly furious, he would don that Dark Golden Dragon-Tooth Ghost Mask.

Facing the incoming assault, Long Quezhou's dragon robe fluttered fiercely, its broad sleeves billowing in the wind as countless ethereal silhouettes manifested behind him. He raised his hand, moving with the supreme grace of a Martial Grandmaster. With a single motion, his hands blurred into multiple phantoms—pinching, flicking, retracting, pushing, and grappling—effortlessly plucking every single feather out of the air.

Before ascending to the throne, any qualified emperor was required to practice martial arts from a young age. Though it took a back seat to the sacred doctrines of statecraft, it just so happened that [Tianzi] had produced a Sixth Crown Prince who was absolutely obsessed with martial arts.

Long Quezhou had studied every martial art under the most renowned masters of their respective fields. Whichever discipline he wished to learn, his father would track down its greatest living practitioner to teach him.

Even after he took the throne.

He never stopped training.

He usually spoke quite tactfully, but there was one thing he had once told Wang Yu that was absolutely, undeniably true.

Perhaps they had fallen behind the times now, but back in their own era, they had been unparalleled geniuses.

"The Sixth Crown Prince's talent in the Martial Dao is unrivaled in the world!"

Back then, everyone in [Tianzi] echoed that very sentiment.

"The Sixth Crown Prince's path of cultivation will surely lead him to the absolute peak!"

Back then, he had believed it himself.

Yet the eras changed, and their generation was destined to become nothing more than a footnote for the new era.

Long Quezhou felt that he had come to terms with it by now.

Still, occasionally thinking back to those days left him feeling profoundly nostalgic.