Chapter 2168 - 2161: Certification Exam

"Ancient humans, new humans..." Since yesterday’s events, Zhang Menglong has been feverishly searching through various materials in the Mansha Kingdom’s library, hoping to understand some changes happening to his soul.

However, even with Gou Dan’s help in scouring the library and listening across the continent’s public network, they’ve found absolutely nothing. What little information they did find was unrelated, and apart from these two terms, Zhang Menglong couldn’t find anything useful.

Zhang Menglong also explored his new soul.

Although his soul once reached the Eighth Grade Peak, by simply consuming Supreme Crystals, his soul’s quality could be improved to a certain extent. But now, it seems Supreme Crystals have lost their effect on his soul!

Currently, his First-grade soul is sufficient to rival his original Eighth Grade, but it clearly has a higher growth ceiling. Being an ambitious person, Zhang Menglong cannot accept his Soul Rank remaining stagnant for long.

Therein lies the problem: how can he continue to elevate his Soul Rank?

Actually, such information is abundant online; the most common method is, of course, Supreme Crystals. However, Zhang Menglong has outright dismissed this route; the world’s Supreme Crystal count is astonishingly low, and even if available, it won’t be of any help to him now.

There are numerous accounts of individuals who achieved Soul Rank enhancement through special encounters, but these methods are almost entirely without reference, often involving significant randomness.

Nonetheless, Zhang Menglong did not leave empty-handed; after some days of attempts, he came across some intriguing information.

"A lake that can produce Supreme Crystals!"

This headline is as attention-grabbing as UC headlines on Earth.

He knows for certain that 99.9% of people in this world would be compelled to click and read upon seeing this news.

The so-called lake that expels Supreme Crystals lies in a neglected zone; it’s called Blood Pond—an ominous-sounding place reeking of blood.

Blood Pond spans an area about five times the Pacific Ocean’s size. True to its name, the water in Blood Pond resembles fresh blood, not merely because the water is red, but as if a massive creature once fell here, saturating the entire Blood Pond with its blood, leaving an intense stench of blood throughout.

Blood Pond is approximately 200,000 meters deep, and at its bottom, Supreme Crystals are slowly born due to some mysterious reaction, and quite a considerable number at that.

Many countries around the area want to incorporate the Blood Pond into their territories, but who would willingly give up such a place? Claiming it means a country can continually produce Supreme Crystals, crucial for accumulating wealth and nurturing strong individuals.

Six countries have fiercely battled for Blood Pond, all of them long-term beneficiaries of Blood Pond’s resources, even surpassing the Qinglan Kingdom in strength.

But their strengths are evenly matched, leading to a prolonged stalemate. Eventually, they realized external forces were interfering in their Blood Pond dispute, prompting the awareness that their internal struggles should be secondary to uniting against outsiders.

Consequently, those six countries formed an alliance to jointly develop and use Blood Pond’s resources, adopting an exclusionist stance against external forces.

Blood Pond thus came under the joint jurisdiction of the six nations, eliminating warfare, with the alliance leveraging Blood Pond’s resources, so much so that even minor academies dared not provoke them.

Later, research was conducted on Blood Pond to decipher the birth of Supreme Crystals. Researchers found Blood Pond’s water startlingly resembled fresh blood, sharing more than 90% of its composition.

Blood Pond acts like a special solvent, dissolving elements forming Supreme Crystals within it, which under certain conditions precipitate and crystallize into Supreme Crystals.

Collecting Supreme Crystals is challenging due to Blood Pond’s composition, whose bottom pressure is immense. Even the most robust detectors ever created cannot withstand the pressure, thus requiring manpower for extraction!

Only individuals above the Sixth Rank Transcender can dive to such depths; otherwise, they’d be crushed alive.

Yet, this condition is stringent, and despite countless experiments by the six countries to determine crystallization conditions, they’ve yielded no results thus far.

Under these circumstances, industries related to Blood Pond began to arise, including the search, processing, and sale of Supreme Crystals, forming a comprehensive industrial chain.

However, Zhang Menglong is interested not in extracting Supreme Crystals from there, but in Blood Pond itself.

Sampling and researching revealed Blood Pond harbors Supreme Crystal elements, yet its origin remains unknown. Its birth remains a mystery, which is precisely Zhang Menglong’s most intriguing point.

This is where Zhang Menglong’s next ambition lies!

...

"King of the Mountain, are you really leaving?" Upon hearing this news, the Emperor and General Xiwat were somewhat reluctant to see him go.

"Rest assured, as the Prince of Mansha Kingdom, feel free to reach out if you ever need my help." Zhang Menglong still has two apprentices here, thus maintaining some connections even after he leaves.

Zhang Menglong left them with his communication frequency. Given this world’s advanced virtual technology, they can meet online from anywhere using their personal smart neural devices.

The Blood Pond is far from Mansha Kingdom. The six countries formed a force known as the Holy Soul Alliance. Rumor has it that within this alliance, not only peak Transcenders reside, but they are numerous!

Therefore, many eager for Blood Pond’s resources must adhere to their rules upon entering the Holy Soul Alliance’s territory.

To reach there, Zhang Menglong made several spatial jumps, and only after roughly a dozen transitions did he finally enter the Holy Soul Alliance.

But strangely, during the journey, Zhang Menglong continually felt something tailing him, yet found no clues or any suspicious individuals, leaving him quite perplexed.

The Holy Soul Alliance consists of six countries, with Blood Pond situated at their convergence. The management system in Blood Pond has mutual supervision and restraint amongst the countries, maintaining an overall equilibrium.

People coming here typically fall into two categories: those seeking Supreme Crystals to enhance their Soul Realm,

or those planning to harvest Supreme Crystals for profit.

Of course, the official work of harvesting Supreme Crystals is mainly managed by the Holy Soul Alliance, as entry into Blood Pond isn’t simply a matter of wishing.

Zhang Menglong learned that to enter Blood Pond, one must first obtain a certification, becoming an official rank collector, and tax is imposed on all earnings from each dive.

In other words, Zhang Menglong wants to explore Blood Pond, yet surprisingly needs to get certified!

He never imagined that after shedding his corporate shackles, he would still need to take exams!