Chapter 204 – Palm Thunder!
"Disciple, strike at me. Don't hold back."
Jiang Zhe immediately complied. He extended a finger toward his master, his movements perfectly mirroring the dragonman depicted on the Beast God Tablet's "Destruction Aspect."
The power of the world surged. Behind Jiang Zhe, the void trembled as secret runes of law emerged one after another, intertwining until they formed the figure of a dragonman avatar. Its eyes blazed with brilliance, exuding a fierce and ruthless aura of the Beast God.
Following Jiang Zhe's gesture, the dragonman avatar struck forward with a single finger—its intent as if to pierce through the Lord of Darkness himself.
Without exaggeration, even this casual strike—backed by just one-fold the power of a World Lord—was enough to annihilate an Undying Army Commander.
The Lord of Darkness now had a clear measure of Jiang Zhe's progress in comprehending the fusion of Thunder and Time Laws.
With a casual wave of his hand, divine power rippled out and instantly dispersed the dragonman avatar.
Sensing the loss of the power supporting him, Jiang Zhe halted his attack.
"Not bad," the Lord of Darkness said with a faint nod. "If you had followed the normal path, I would never believe you could create a technique on the level of a Universe Venerable. But from your performance just now… if you base it on the fusion of Thunder and Time Laws, the possibility is very real."
After giving his assessment, he turned and walked deeper into the grand hall, waving his hand behind him without looking back.
"Come with me, disciple."
The two walked, one behind the other, into a side hall of the Dark Temple. Inside, the chamber appeared completely empty.
The Lord of Darkness lifted his hand. With a single wave, the entire room shifted and transformed into something Jiang Zhe had only seen in Western films on Earth—a vast, ancient magic library.
The chamber split into four levels.
Each level was ring-shaped, lined with towering wooden bookshelves. On the shelves rested enormous metallic tomes, each more than a meter tall. Their thick spines were etched with intricate secret runes of law. By attuning to the intent within the runes, one could discern the titles of the books.
"To create a qualified secret technique, one must first immerse themselves in the crystallized wisdom of the geniuses of the past," the Lord of Darkness explained.
"Disciple, here lies the full collection of secret techniques gathered by my Virtual Universe Company. The four levels correspond to Immortal-level, Venerable-level, Universe Overlord-level, and Universe Master-level techniques. Even the lowest among them are ordinary secret arts, while top-tier, pinnacle, and ultimate-level techniques are countless."
"This is the first gift I am giving you."
He then turned his palm over, revealing a massive metallic tome, the size of a door panel.
"You too can link to the Virtual Universe system and have it manifest a blank tome for you," he said. "Whatever secret art you create, you can engrave it into the tome… like this."
His divine power seeped into the blank book. An invisible carving blade seemed to etch upon the surface, inscribing layer after layer of complex law runes.
Before Jiang Zhe's eyes, the aura of the book grew stronger. He quickly realized the runes described a slashing technique rooted in the Law of Time.
Soon, the tome solidified with power. The Lord of Darkness weighed it in his hand and smiled.
"Done. This is an ordinary Immortal-level secret technique."
He gestured, and another tome flew off a distant shelf. Placing the two side by side, he let Jiang Zhe compare their runes.
"Disciple, what do you feel?"
"The pressure they emit is identical," Jiang Zhe quickly realized his teacher's point. "So if I engrave my created technique into a tome, and its aura matches, then it can be classified as an Immortal-level ordinary secret art."
The Lord of Darkness's lips curved into a smile, and he nodded.
"This is the second gift I'm giving you."
Then his tone shifted. "But this method alone is not precise enough… which brings me to the final aid I've prepared for you."
He waved his hand again.
The chamber transformed once more—this time into the familiar training ground of Jiang Zhe's manor.
"Disciple, I've used my authority to expand your training ground into an infinite space. The Virtual Universe system will assign opponents tailored to your progress and weaknesses whenever you test a newly created secret technique.
"Defeat one opponent, and the next will appear.
"If you can defeat five hundred opponents, your technique is 'top-tier.'
"If you can defeat one thousand opponents, it is 'pinnacle.'
"For example, my Three Transformations of Time and Space should fall between nine hundred to one thousand opponents. Based on your Thunder-Time fusion path, you are already steadily moving into the pinnacle level.
"Your senior sister's Skyfeather Spear, if assessed, should be at around fifteen hundred opponents. Once she creates the 'Fourth Aspect' from the Beast God Tablet you gave her, her technique will rise even higher.
"And if you can defeat two thousand opponents, then your art has reached the level of 'ultimate'—though still only at the Immortal level."
The Lord of Darkness gave a deep look at Jiang Zhe. "You still have one great realm to go before your true goal. Keep pushing forward."
---
Thus began Jiang Zhe's days in Chaos City.
He trained in Five Thunders Mastery, deepened his comprehension of the fusion of Thunder and Time, and browsed countless secret arts within the Dark Temple, striving to create his own absolute technique.
---
Sealed Wind Prison.
Within it, Jiang Zhe's silver-clad clone tempered his divine body.
The ever-present, corrosive Wind of Silence gnawed at him. Instead of resisting, he allowed it to seep into his body, refining that strange substance into part of his divine structure.
According to the Demon Spirit, this was how other Marquis and King-level powerhouses trapped here had strengthened their bodies—raising their divine amplitude and obtaining greater might.
The Wind of Silence tore him down; the silver-clad Jiang Zhe rebuilt himself. Soon, the refinement was complete.
He clenched his fist, sensing the transformation. His expression turned odd.
"Good news—I really can feel the difference. My divine body has changed at the fundamental level. That strange substance, or perhaps strange energy, has become part of me. Harmonious, no rejection."
"But the bad news… there's absolutely no improvement. Divine amplitude? Nothing at all!"
He scratched his chin. "So what are you, exactly? Doesn't matter if you're here or not."
In truth, he knew the problem lay not with the Wind of Silence, but with the uniqueness of his own divine body.
"…Still, it's not useless. At least the Wind no longer corrodes me. I've adapted to this prison."
Just as he said, after the refinement, the Wind of Silence no longer harmed him within the prison.
But that only applied here.
Suddenly, the silver-clad Jiang Zhe stood up, gazing at a direction deep in space.
"That way… if I fly at sub-light speed for five hours, I'll exit this prison and enter the Wind Belt."
In both the prison and the Wind Belt, the corrosive gales made it impossible for Immortals to accelerate to light speed.
"Let's test it. What's the difference between the prison winds and the true Wind Belt?"
Relying on the resilience of his life crystal, he could afford to experiment.
He boarded the F-class ship Catherine had given him and shot off from the desolate planet, cruising at sub-light speed.
Naturally, Jiang Zhe wasn't about to follow the Demon Spirit's cautious instructions.
He even tested accelerating to light speed.
But before reaching it, his divine body nearly tore apart. Reluctantly, he stabilized the ship at a safe velocity.
After five hours, he arrived at the prison's boundary.
A few kilometers further, and he would step into the true Wind Belt.
Storing away all items, he leapt from the ship, a streak of light as he crossed the boundary.
The instant he did, he felt it. Like stepping from a warm house into a freezing northern winter.
His divine body trembled violently. The strange substance within him stirred restlessly, as if trying to escape.
His body began to collapse!
Countless particles of energy dispersed.
"Restart! Restart! Restart!"
He had anticipated this. His innate secret art instantly activated, recording his previous state.
Behind him, the shadow of a massive silver serpent appeared, coiling endlessly, with a giant clock phantom overlaying it like a grand formation.
The clock's hands turned backward.
Time itself reversed.
The scattered particles reassembled into Jiang Zhe's divine body.
But the collapse began again.
—Collapse—Restart—Reform—Collapse—Restart—Reform—
A vicious cycle.
His consciousness scattered and reformed again and again.
Fortunately, his mind had long adapted to such fragmentation. Anyone else would have gone mad.
"If I can't hold onto the sand… then I'll just let it go!"
This time, when his body collapsed, Jiang Zhe didn't resist. He let the strange substance return to the prison.
In the howling death zone of the Wind Belt, only a single crystal nucleus remained—its surface covered in faint dark-gold runes.
Even the savage gales that could annihilate a Universe Master's body could do nothing to this life crystal.
"Reform!"
From the life crystal, he summoned his divine body once more.
Normally, his true form as the Eternal Serpent was so vast its coiled body stretched a light-year across. What appeared before was only a fraction, stored within the crystal.
But the moment his human-shaped divine body took form, the Wind Belt devoured it instantly.
So be it.
Even Chaos City Lord couldn't endure the true Wind Belt. No one could.
He tried to repeat his earlier trick—refining the wind into his body to adapt.
But it failed.
The raw, untainted Wind of Silence here rejected him utterly.
The winds inside the prison and outside it were fundamentally different.
Something was off. Very off.
After wasting over ten bodies, Jiang Zhe gave up.
The lone life crystal floated quietly in the raging death zone.
"…Useless for now. Better to return."
With a sigh, the crystal shot back toward the prison.
But before he could re-condense his body—
Two beams of light streaked from afar, one gold and one silver, scattering like Tyndall rays.
The golden beam distorted space. The silver beam warped time. Together, they squeezed at the life crystal, freezing it in place!
A domineering voice rang out:
"What treasure is this? It belongs to me now!"
From the distance, a monstrous beast appeared—its form like a massive wolf, but with two heads.
Jiang Zhe's eyes narrowed.
A Spacetime Nightmare Beast—one of the eighteen royal clans of the demon race. Upon adulthood, they naturally reached Domain Lord level. One head bore golden eyes that manipulated space; the other, silver eyes that manipulated time. Together, they wielded terrifying control over spacetime itself.
And this one had already ignited its law flames, unleashing a domain of fire mixed with spacetime comprehension, multiplying its suppressive power.
From the weight pressing down on his life crystal, Jiang Zhe judged it clearly: this was no weakling. This was a true elite of the royal clan, its strength at least Invincible King level—millions of times the power of a World Lord.
Yet Jiang Zhe only sneered.
"You think you can suppress me? Come back after you've become a Universe Venerable and can project a space domain."
"Law Domain—unleash!"
But what he spoke as "Law Domain"… was in truth—
A projection of his inner universe.
The void around them burst with thunder. Lightning arced into mountains, forests, rivers, and valleys—a fragment of his Thunder Universe projected outward.
The Nightmare Beast's fire-law domain instantly shattered under the crushing weight. Only the mysterious Wind remained unaffected.
Now, the tables had turned—the beast itself was suppressed.
"What is this?! This isn't a mere lightning domain!" The twin-headed beast panicked at the unbearable pressure.
Jiang Zhe's body reformed around his crystal.
With a casual wave, a bolt of lightning shot out from his ship, gathering in his palm into a sphere of crackling electricity.
Runes of law glowed across its surface, radiating such terrifying power that even Jiang Zhe himself felt a chill.
"Beast… taste my Palm Thunder!"
---
Note: Among humanity, the strongest Beast God Dao cultivator is the Star Prison Demon Lord, a top-tier Universe Overlord. The Seven Slaughters of the Beast God created by Hilo is merely the strongest cultivation text for the Gold-path of the Beast God Dao that humans currently possess.
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