Chapter 2394: The student’s weapon

"...What?" Robin raised his eyebrows, genuine confusion showing on his face as he looked between the two of them, unable to understand the reason behind those strange expressions.

"..."

Neither of them answered. Both Jabba and Sakar simply continued staring at Robin as though they were looking at some ancient monster that had suddenly revealed its true form before them.

Robin had shown them the entire battle against the space beasts from beginning to end, including the Executioner herself and everything that had happened during that confrontation.

Although what he had given them was merely a soul transmission rather than allowing them to personally experience the battle, the sensations Robin himself had felt while facing her were included as well, allowing them to feel some of the terror and pressure of that moment. Of course, they had not actually been there, so they still had no way to personally judge the true extent of her strength or accurately measure how powerful she had been.

But within that very same memory fragment, there was something they could use as a clear reference for evaluation...

Robin had used nothing more than a formation and his immense soul force to burn hundreds of thousands of space beasts, reducing those terrifying creatures to something that could be dealt with on a massive scale without even forcing him to reveal the greater part of his strength.

Yet against the Executioner, he had brought out his five Master Laws, all ten stars, even a weapon like Seraphim and his legendary soul creature, using nearly everything they knew he possessed merely to manage to take one of her arms and force her to retreat.

Epic!

The battle from beginning to end was so epic and overwhelming that merely witnessing those transmitted memories was enough to send shivers down their spines!!

Jabba looked at his master differently now, his breath unconsciously held as his eyes remained fixed on him... He was no longer merely a researcher who wanted to establish an empire to protect him and provide him with resources so he could comfortably continue his research, as he had always claimed. His master was actually, and without any exaggeration, one of the strongest creatures in the entire universe.

He had arrived today with his head held high because he had solved a major problem, believing that this accomplishment finally gave him enough confidence and qualification to call himself a disciple of Lord Human... But what about calling himself the disciple of Lord Robin, the man who had severed the arm of the progenitor of the space beasts and personally forced her to flee? How long would it take him, and how much more would he have to accomplish, before he reached a level where he could say that sentence aloud without feeling that the title itself was far greater than him?!

Still wearing that same complicated look, Jabba slowly let out the breath he had been holding and shook his head... The task he had placed before himself had just become much harder than he had imagined.

As for Sakar, he used his nose, soul sense, and blood affinity to examine Robin several times over, repeatedly checking him as though he wanted to make absolutely certain that the person sitting calmly before him truly was his lord and that the memories he had just witnessed belonged to this very same man...

He had come today with his head raised high, ready to be used as a weapon that would open roads for his lord wherever he pointed, proud that the demon army had finally reached an immense level of strength after everything they had gone through, and proud that he himself had become powerful enough to contend with a Mid Monarch.

But before the overwhelming power he had just witnessed in those memories, before the sight of six Master Laws belonging to a single person... it turned out that despite everything he had achieved and all the confidence with which he had arrived today, he was still nothing more than a low-level subordinate beneath his lord.

The scene had even included Marlik the Butcher being slapped with the very same hand Robin had just casually given him to eat... Marlik, known throughout the universe as the Bully of Tyrants, someone so infamous and widely known that even Sakar himself had heard of him despite spending so much time away from the greater conflicts, had himself been bullied!

Could he dismiss the scene as false or believe that what he had witnessed was somehow exaggerated? He had personally watched Robin implant the Sun of Truth into the infant. He had seen the six symbols with his own eyes and felt their presence himself, so there was no room to doubt their existence, yet despite that, he had never truly understood the terrifying magnitude represented by those symbols until he saw five of them being used together in an actual battle.

"...Master." Jabba finally spoke after the heavy silence had stretched long enough, still looking at Robin with an expression difficult to describe. "I know you love praise and showing off whenever you get the chance, but this is excessive even for you."

"What’s the problem?" Robin looked genuinely confused by the complaint, as though he could not see anything unusual about what he had done. "Don’t you want to stay informed about what’s happening?"

"You even included the part where you broke through and obtained the sixth law, and the part where you said you’re far stronger now than you were when you fought the Executioner, and that you’re going to ascend into an existence beyond humanity!" Jabba quickly replied, pointing out the parts that had shocked him the most as though Robin had deliberately selected every possible detail capable of crushing what remained of their confidence.

"That’s so you can rest assured that you have a powerful sky above your heads and don’t have to worry unnecessarily about every little thing." Robin waved dismissively, still treating the matter as though his reasoning were perfectly natural. "My mistake for wanting to broaden your horizons a little."

Then he leaned forward slightly, his posture becoming more serious as he looked between the two of them. "Now that you’ve seen and heard everything that happened, including what the Executioner and the Seer said, we have to—"

"Urgh!!"

At that exact moment, Sakar suddenly let out a hoarse cry of pain, his entire body jerking violently before it began twisting uncontrollably on the seat.

CrackCrack

His leg twisted upward at an unnatural angle and snapped at the knee, the armor covering it unable to stop the force coming from within his own body. His arm twisted behind his back as well and shattered in several places, the broken bones tearing through the flesh and protruding outward, while even his neck began slowly rotating around its own axis, tightening and wringing itself as though some invisible force were trying to twist his entire body apart.

"...." Robin watched Sakar’s miserable state for a while with a trace of sympathy in his eyes, but after confirming the situation with a few more glances, he simply shifted his attention entirely back toward Jabba. "What were we saying?"

"...." Jabba immediately forced his attention away from Sakar and focused on Robin again, replying quickly, "We have to."

"...?" Robin furrowed his brows as though he had genuinely forgotten where he had stopped, then snapped his fingers when he remembered. "Ah, right. We have to understand that there are people who want us to fail, powerful people far beyond what we can fight directly at the moment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t sabotage their plans and ruin what they’ve arranged for us. Not for the Seer’s sake, but for our own survival."

"Of course, understood!" Jabba nodded with utmost seriousness, his expression showing complete agreement.

Thwack Robin immediately smacked Jabba over the head with the thick book in his hand. "It doesn’t look like you understand anything at all. What exactly is all this content you’ve written?"

"It’s my life’s work!!" Jabba immediately clutched his head with both hands, looking as though he were on the verge of crying from both the blow and the insult to his efforts.

"The first quarter is your true life’s work, and that alone is what qualifies this book to become one of the treasures of the universe, but what about the other three quarters?" Robin stared directly into Jabba’s eyes while listing what he had read. "Methods to strengthen beast blood in the Second Cultivation Path? Methods to eliminate the maximum potential limit imposed on Second Cultivation Path users? Methods to alleviate the symptoms and greatly reduce the manifestation of beastly traits?"

Then he slammed the thick book onto the table beside them. "You’re practically redrawing the entire Second Cultivation Path from the ground up, beautifying it, correcting its flaws, and making it more usable. You’re fixing the very path that was forced upon us as a method to humiliate the inhabitants of this universe and gradually turn them into animals!"

"...." Jabba lowered his gaze for a moment as though carefully considering Robin’s words, then raised his head again and looked straight into his master’s eyes without retreating. "What’s wrong with that?"

"...?" Robin extended his hand toward the book again and grabbed it, clearly preparing to use the thick volume to hit him one more time.

"Just hear me out!!" Jabba hurriedly raised one hand to stop him before the book could descend again. "As you can see for yourself from what I wrote, my use of beast blood in the book was merely as a catalyst to activate the ancient dormant variable particles already existing inside humans and then attempt to multiply their numbers. The Second Path won’t remain a matter of lizard families, feline families, and all those other divisions anymore; if this succeeds properly, the entire situation will be completely different from what we know today."

Robin furrowed his brows slightly, still clearly dissatisfied with the fundamental problem. "But beast blood will still invade human bodies, and some beastly features will still appear on them as a consequence. Even if those features become fewer and less obvious than before, they’ll still appear."

"Yes, but the animalistic behavior will disappear, and the issue where, if the beast providing the blood is at the World Cataclysm level, then everyone who uses its blood can never surpass the World Cataclysm level will disappear as well. Even the outward beastly features appearing on Second Path users will be greatly reduced compared to what happens now." Jabba replied quickly, taking advantage of the fact that Robin was actually listening. "What is a human to you in the first place, the body or the soul? I can guarantee you a human soul and human behavior!"

"...." Robin slowly placed the book beside him again instead of striking Jabba with it, then raised one hand to his chin and began rubbing it thoughtfully, clearly reconsidering the matter from the angle Jabba had presented.

"Master, why don’t we set the matter of pride aside for a moment and look at what we can actually gain from this?" Jabba immediately sensed that he had finally found an opening. "Maybe those entities really did intend to humiliate B-14 and limit our future by doing this to us. After everything I’ve just seen and heard, I agree with your interpretation..." Then a small smile appeared on his face as he continued, "But what’s wrong with taking that very punishment they imposed on us and using it as a weapon?"