Chapter 248 - 210: Version Update, Old Hero Rework

Chapter 248: Chapter 210: Version Update, Old Hero Rework

「October 20th.」

The rescue mission on LengxingRhombus Star was complete.

All remaining survivors had been gathered.

Out of the planet’s original six billion people, only 13.75 million remained.

And this was only the fourth year since the disaster began.

If left unchecked, they would have all been wiped out in another five years at most.

This wasn’t an exaggeration. In that environment, humans were simply too vulnerable.

Swarms of various Exotic Beasts bred too quickly and posed too great a threat. With a lack of food, unless an Extraordinary could conjure some heaven-defying black technology out of thin air to rebuild civilization, or one or two high-tier, A-rank Extraordinaries emerged, it would be impossible to survive for long.

At the beginning of the disaster, there had been at least five hundred million people left on the planet.

The attrition rate was truly immense.

But with the Origin Star’s intervention, the problem was solved.

A little over ten million people was nothing—not even a third of the Supreme Capital’s current population. They could be supported with ease.

.....

「Origin Star.」

Inside a newly built Starship factory in the Supreme Capital.

Zhang Ji was accompanied by Iver, Taiyi-Zero, and a senior Immortal Ship technician from Celestial Secret City Technology.

Their current project was to replicate a Starship capable of traversing the void.

To travel through the void, the most crucial element was top-tier materials; technical requirements were secondary.

Void particles could erode and penetrate anything; ordinary matter simply couldn’t withstand them.

As it happened, the World Tree, which had been burned to a char, became the primary material for replicating the Starship.

Through Spiritual Energy reconstruction, its form was converted, then it was reprinted and molded into the Starship’s main body. After equipping it with a series of devices, a replicated Starship was essentially complete.

Not far away, the new Starship’s main body was nearly finished. Its shape was no longer that of a retro-style ship, but more like a long box with a slightly flattened, more aerodynamic front end.

"You’re moving fast," Zhang Ji commented.

"In the Celestial Essence Realm, this would be considered slow. It’s only because the materials are special; otherwise, we could finish production in three days," Taiyi-Zero boasted.

"Have you run tests?" Zhang Ji asked, turning to the technician from Celestial Secret City Technology.

"Compared to the original Starship, its strength tests two energy levels higher. Theoretically, it’s fully capable of void travel. The propulsion system, however, might be a bit weaker. The current Spiritual Energy engine’s speed is a fair bit slower than the original Starship’s. Also, the built-in folded space isn’t as large. We’ve installed a total of thirteen space modules, but that only brings it to the basic size of a Tier Five Immortal Ship. Because the spatial data of different worlds varies slightly, and we don’t have a high-level Artifact Spirit for precise adjustments and calculations, we haven’t installed a teleportation system yet..."

The technician quickly summarized the new Starship’s pros and cons.

In short, it was basically no match for the original Starship.

It was just a mobile, ordinary Immortal Ship. In terms of functionality, it couldn’t even compare to Ling Xuzi’s Tribulation Ship; its only advantage was being more durable due to the World Tree materials.

But it was enough.

Its sole purpose was to serve as a transport vehicle.

"Let’s test it!" Zhang Ji said.

With that order, the test began.

Zhang Ji personally boarded this Starship, the [World One], and began to cross the Void Gate to the Celestial Essence Realm.

Taiyi-Zero and Iver went with him.

There was no need to worry about accidents. If something did go wrong, Zhang Ji could just scoop them up with his own Ship of Hope and cross the void himself.

However, Zhang Ji clearly didn’t need to worry.

Although the World Tree had been scorched by the Divine Flame, the strength of its material was still undeniable.

Back then, not even a casual strike from Zhang Ji could sever it; he had to get serious to do the job. That just showed how tough it was.

Now, reinforced by a Spiritual Technology Array, its durability was even greater, making it easy to cross ordinary space-time rifts.

The only problem was its speed; it was a bit slow.

While eating a Demon Potion Supplement made from Superpower Crystal Cores, Zhang Ji played five rounds of *Cultivation World* with Taiyi-Zero before they finally reached the Celestial Essence Realm.

The journey took twenty-one hours, which was a bit long—even slower than Zhang Ji’s Ship of Hope.

"The engine needs improvement," Zhang Ji said nonchalantly as he exited the game.

Zhang Ji had won all five rounds of their card game.

For one thing, Taiyi-Zero no longer had the buff from his Celestial Calculation Compass peripheral. For another, Zhang Ji was no longer the man he used to be.

Once he activated [Prajna Stance], if it came down to a battle of processing power, even if Taiyi-Zero still had his Celestial Calculation Compass peripheral, he wouldn’t be guaranteed a win.

"I lost..."

Taiyi-Zero’s face was filled with disbelief. The same Zhang Ji he had once effortlessly crushed was now toying with him in the palm of his hand.

It was outrageous.

"Are you cheating?" Taiyi-Zero asked, unconvinced.

"Like you weren’t," Zhang Ji retorted with disdain. "If you’re trash, practice more."

He had seen Taiyi-Zero secretly changing the data in the fourth round.

Unfortunately, even after gaining a temporary advantage, Taiyi-Zero was quickly and decisively beaten back by Zhang Ji.

Taiyi-Zero was helpless and could only accept the outcome.

He decided he needed to upgrade his physical body. This current one was too weak, limiting his Spirit’s performance. Otherwise, with the Divine Sense he possessed in his prime—which was close to the Tribulation Crossing Stage—he should have at least been able to fight Zhang Ji to a standstill.

...

...

Back in the Celestial Essence Realm, although Zhuge Mingyuan was helping with war preparations, the [Qiankun Nine Heavens Void Tide-Inducing Array] had not been delayed and was still being upgraded.

Currently, five percent of the total modules were complete, and the pace was accelerating.

Thanks to the foundational construction, it was already starting to produce massive amounts of Spiritual Qi. Several hundred Spiritual Energy Factories were operating simultaneously and had been put into use.

It was estimated that once construction reached about eight percent, it would generate more Spiritual Qi than the original [Nine-Turned Quantum Furnace].

However, what surprised Zhang Ji more than this was Ferguson’s transformation.

"Purple lightning? It seems to contain a special will!"

Watching the purple arcs of electricity flicker on Ferguson’s fingertip, Zhang Ji felt the hairs on his own arms stand on end.

He sensed a faint threat.

"This is a Celestial Tribulation," Ferguson said. "I triggered a Thunder Tribulation and studied this world’s celestial lightning. Now, my Thunder Element contains the might of the Celestial Dao, increasing its damage to the Spirit and giving it greater destructive power. And because the Celestial Tribulation also contains life force, it can be used for Body Tempering and healing."

Zhang Ji looked at Ferguson, activated [Prajna Stance], and in an instant, read everything he had experienced.

After Ling Xuzi’s attempts to dissuade him failed, he had forced his way into the Nine Heavens, connected with the world’s consciousness, and drawn down the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, undergoing a metamorphosis within the lightning.

It was a risky move, but he had succeeded.

He was truly worthy of being called an absolute genius.

Once he understood the theory of tribulation crossing, he took the initiative to experiment with it, controlling it in his own way. If his technique was strong enough, even a Golden Core cultivator could use tribulation crossing to strengthen themselves, raise the limits of their physical body, and lay a foundation in advance, rather than having to wait until Divinity Transformation Peak to attempt a metamorphosis.

Now, he went to get struck by celestial lightning every day, and his strength was increasing rapidly. His energy level was already approaching the peak of A-rank, even higher than Tran’s. It felt like he might even turn things around and become the first of the four Saint Kings to break through to S-rank.

What else could Zhang Ji say? He could only give him a thumbs-up in approval.

After spending a day in the Celestial Essence Realm and checking on their progress, Zhang Ji returned.

On the way back, he didn’t take the [World One].

Instead, he summoned his Ship of Hope.

Now upgraded by the World Tree, the Ship of Hope’s propulsion was powerful, allowing it to cross between the two realms even faster than a Starship.

As soon as he returned to the Origin Star, Zhang Ji received a message.

Cyril had made a major breakthrough.

In front of an iceberg outside the Supreme Capital, Cyril demonstrated his improvement to Zhang Ji and Giles.

In an instant, his body almost completely transformed into deep blue Energy Particles. He underwent a deep energy conversion, performed an energy integration at the sub-microscopic level, and then blasted out a beam of light.

"SWOOSH~!"

The blue light blasted straight through the atmosphere and into space.

Such attack power had undoubtedly reached S-rank.

Zhang Ji had guessed wrong. The little old man was the first to reach S-rank.

"[Divine Intent Transformation], an advanced state based on [Spiritualization]. This degree of energy condensation and integration should be the limit for my current life form. I’ve had similar ideas before but never managed to achieve it. After Shen Xi ran some calculations, I found a viable path and have been trying ever since. I finally succeeded two days ago," Cyril explained.

Giles, standing beside them, complained, "Alright, alright, I get it. New patch dropped, and all the old heroes who can’t keep up with the meta are getting reworked, is that it?"

He had just heard from Zhang Ji about Ferguson and Tran’s progress. Seeing this now, he was really struggling to keep his composure.

He had finally turned a disaster into a blessing and was about to reach S-rank. He thought he would become the second S-rank martial artist in the Saint King Council. But now, it turned out that within the entire organization, he was the weakest one.

After all, besides Tran, none of the others—Zhang Ji, Ferguson, or Cyril—had relied on a bloodline to increase their strength.

Even Tran couldn’t be said to have relied solely on his bloodline; he still had to develop his Superpower himself.

Neither Zhang Ji nor Cyril paid Giles any mind. They looked at each other, and Zhang Ji said, "Let’s spar."

"My thoughts exactly," Cyril replied.

The next moment, Cyril vanished from the spot in a flash of blue light, and Zhang Ji disappeared as well.

Giles seemed to sense something and looked up, just in time to see the blue light collide with a crimson-gold figure high in the sky.

An ear-splitting sonic boom followed, mixed with a terrifying shockwave that instantly blew away all the snow and clouds within a radius of dozens of miles.

Collisions like this occurred hundreds of times in a single second. The aftershocks alone shattered the nearby glaciers and ground.

Giles could feel the blood boil in his veins, but he was still a short distance away from taking that final step, so all he could do was let it boil.

In less than a minute, Zhang Ji and Cyril finished their spar and returned to the surface.

Naturally, Cyril was no match for Zhang Ji, but his strength still earned Zhang Ji’s approval.

He was probably just below top-tier S-rank experts like Ling Xuzi and Dugu Yunfeng, but he was already on par with second-tier S-ranks like Zhuge Mingyuan.

And this was right after Cyril’s breakthrough.

Once he familiarized himself with his new state, increased his energy level, and developed a few new moves based on his current combat system, he might even give Ling Xuzi and Dugu Yunfeng a headache.

At this moment, Zhang Ji was beginning to believe the players’ old speculations.

The Saint Kings of the Origin Star might really have connections to ancient gods.

Otherwise, how could ordinary Extraordinaries improve so quickly?

And walk their paths to such an extreme degree!

Combined with the feeling of being watched that he’d sensed during Tran’s genetic upgrade, Zhang Ji was now starting to get a real headache.

After all, he had killed Elaven right at the start. Didn’t that mean he’d offended an ancient god from the get-go?

And according to the original plot, Elaven was the strongest Saint King.

’Could the ancient god behind him be weak?’

All he could do was hope that [Limit] would be powerful enough to give him the qualifications to reason calmly with them before the game updated to the "Ancient Gods Arrive" patch.