Chapter 133: Twenty Long Years (Part 4)

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The Nineteen Law-type Chaos Steles were not, as Jiang Chen had imagined, rendered completely worthless merely because the System Library now possessed a “Law Zone.”

Compared with the System Library, however, the assistance provided by the Chaos Steles in terms of pure law guidance was indeed limited.

Seven days of comprehending the Nine Universe Chaos Stele had failed to help Jiang Chen grasp even one additional essence of spatial law.

Of course, this was also largely because Jiang Chen possessed no specialty specifically related to laws.

Specialties such as the Grand Arcane Sage did provide some assistance in comprehending and studying laws, but their primary effects were manifested within the System Library.

Once he left the System Library, the bonus became negligible, far inferior to the effects of specialties focused on a single field.

For that reason, Jiang Chen persisted in his previous decision and did not devote too much effort to the nineteen Law-type Chaos Steles.

He merely went through each one once, obtained the qualifications to challenge the corresponding Celestial Bridges, and then stopped touching those nineteen Chaos Steles.

After obtaining the qualifications, he immediately challenged the corresponding nineteen Celestial Bridges as well.

His results were astonishingly consistent. He passed the tenth level of all nineteen Celestial Bridges and stopped at the eleventh.

Within the System Library, the “levels” involved in each law were roughly the same on every floor. Naturally, if he challenged the Celestial Bridges using laws alone, his results would be nearly identical.

Passing the tenth level of nineteen Celestial Bridges directly granted Jiang Chen one hundred and ninety opportunities to comprehend Chaos Steles.

Of course, some of those opportunities had already been consumed during his initial comprehensions of the nineteen Chaos Steles, but nearly one hundred and eighty remained.

The rewards in points were even more astonishing.

With the tenfold point bonus for his first entry into Chaos City, his total gains amounted to more than 9.7 million points—nearly ten million!

After counting the rewards from the Heart Scar Celestial Bridge and the Darkness Celestial Bridge, and combining the points of his three identities, the points in Jiang Chen’s possession had long since surpassed the ten-million mark.

And this was merely what he had gained during his first ten years in Chaos City.

Had the City Lord of Chaos not used his authority to classify Jiang Chen’s Celestial Bridge results as confidential, the news would certainly have caused an uproar throughout Chaos City and even the entire human race.

By then, the alien races hostile to humanity would probably have tried to kill Jiang Chen at any cost.

Even the few Universe Lords, including the City Lord of Chaos, who had already guessed that Jiang Chen was concealing his true strength and talent, found his performance difficult to describe once they learned of it.

After this sudden burst of brilliance, however, Jiang Chen once again kept a low profile.

For more than a year, apart from occasionally comprehending a Chaos Stele, he did not leave his residence at all, devoting himself entirely to his research.

His true body, along with the avatar possessing the same identity, completely ceased all other work and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to developing new blueprints.

After a year and a half of effort, he finally developed a blueprint recognized by the System and rated as Rank Five, earning 9,999 specialty points.

Following the order he had established long ago, Jiang Chen exchanged them for a specialty called Grandmaster of Formations.

Grandmaster of Formations: You are a grandmaster who commands formations, possessing extraordinary comprehension of them. Your efficiency in learning and cultivating formation-related abilities is greatly increased.

The exchange required 6,666 specialty points.

After acquiring this specialty, Jiang Chen immediately added the Ancestral Mother Chaos Stele, corresponding to the Formation Master system among the nine miscellaneous-study Chaos Steles, to his cultivation plans.

After spending more than a year and comprehending it over a dozen times, Jiang Chen successfully passed the tenth level of the Ancestral Mother Celestial Bridge.

By then, Jiang Chen had also developed a new blueprint and exchanged it for two additional specialties.

Grandmaster of Potions: You possess extraordinary comprehension of potion-making. Your efficiency in learning and cultivating potion-related abilities is greatly increased.

The exchange required 6,666 specialty points.

Grandmaster of Treasure Refinement: You possess extraordinary comprehension of treasure refinement. Your efficiency in learning and cultivating treasure-refinement abilities is greatly increased.

The exchange required 6,666 specialty points.

The Chaos Steles corresponding to the Potion Master and Treasure Refinement systems were also added to his cultivation plans.

This time, Jiang Chen’s cultivation progress slowed considerably.

After all, cultivating two Chaos Steles simultaneously required twice as much time.

Moreover, Jiang Chen had not completely abandoned the systems corresponding to the Chaos Steles he had chosen earlier. He was still cultivating them, which likewise required him to divide a considerable amount of his attention.

It took him slightly more than three years to advance the Celestial Bridges corresponding to those two Chaos Steles to the tenth level.

During those three years, the cultivation of three additional Chaos Steles consumed a great deal of his energy, and Jiang Chen’s efficiency in developing new blueprints inevitably declined.

Nevertheless, his acquisition of specialty points was still sufficient to meet his needs.

Thus, Jiang Chen continually exchanged for new specialties and incorporated one new Chaos Stele after another into his cultivation system.

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Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

Several new specialties had appeared on Jiang Chen’s status panel.

Perfect Energy Controller: You possess astonishing affinity for and control over all kinds of energy. Any ownerless energy no higher than your own rank plus three will be perfectly controlled by you, and no secrets of it will remain hidden from your eyes.

The exchange required 8,888 specialty points.

Otherworld Explorer: You possess astonishing adaptability to other planes. When exploring or studying knowledge originating from other planes, your efficiency is greatly increased.

The exchange required 5,500 specialty points.

Mystic Rune Mage: The power of any mystic rune in your hands is increased by fifty percent. You possess exceptional adaptability to and comprehension of every type of mystic rune.

The exchange required 6,500 specialty points.

Transcendent Combat Instinct: During battle, the efficiency with which your combat experience increases is greatly enhanced. Through reviewing and reflecting after every battle, you can rapidly recognize the flaws in your combat habits and improve them. The higher the intensity of battle, the more pronounced the effect of this specialty.

The exchange required 6,888 specialty points.

Of the four specialties, the first three corresponded respectively to the Otherworldly Energy, Dark Universe, and Mystic Rune systems.

As for the final specialty, it provided significant improvements to mainstream combat paths such as martial warriors, spiritual force controllers, and illusionists. It was a purely combat-oriented specialty.

After some simple trial comprehensions, Jiang Chen confirmed that he did not need to exchange for specialties belonging to the Illusory Realm Warrior, Illusionist, Psychokinetic Weapon Control, or Gene Enhancement systems.

In other words, he already possessed specialties sufficiently compatible with all four systems and did not need to exchange for additional ones.

There was no need to say much about the first three. The most unusual was the last.

Among the miscellaneous-study Chaos Steles was one called the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele.

Its name alone made it clear that its creator was Venerable Ancestral Tree, one of the three foremost cosmic overlords of the human race.

This Chaos Stele was extremely unusual. It had only twenty-one levels.

Its core, however, was a system capable of raising one’s genetic level—a system exceedingly rare throughout the universe.

Of course, unlike the Nine Tribulation Secret Manual, which directly altered and enhanced one’s genetic level, the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele explained how to use treasures to raise one’s genetic level.

Nor did it multiply one’s genetic level from its original foundation in the way the Nine Tribulation Secret Manual did.

Instead, it established an “upper limit.”

For example, if the upper limit of the first diagram was tenfold genetic level, then a practitioner whose genetic level already exceeded tenfold would gain no benefit from comprehending that diagram.

If the practitioner’s genetic level was below tenfold, then after fully comprehending the first diagram and obtaining the corresponding treasure, they could raise their genetic level to at most tenfold according to the method described in that diagram.

This was also the only one among the fifty-two Chaos Steles whose corresponding Celestial Bridge challenge was merely a formality.

To challenge the Ancestral Tree Celestial Bridge, one had to undergo an examination in reality to determine one’s genetic level.

Each level of the Celestial Bridge corresponded to a genetic-level standard. Once one reached the required level, one could pass directly without undergoing any other assessment.

After the examination and confirmation in reality, one merely had to go through the motions in the Virtual Universe, and the challenge was considered complete.

As for Jiang Chen himself…

After employees of the Virtual Universe Company examined him with specialized equipment, Jiang Chen discovered that his genetic level was not merely double what he had previously assumed. It was thirteenfold.

This result left him puzzled for quite some time.

Only after reexamining his status panel did Jiang Chen realize that specialties such as Physical Potential and Perfect Evolution, which directly enhanced his attributes, were actually increasing his genetic level.

Among Jiang Chen’s many specialties, those that enhanced his attributes had increased them by a little over twelvefold in total. Adding his original onefold foundation, the result was precisely a thirteenfold genetic level.

However, Jiang Chen still had not determined whether genetic-level enhancement depended solely on “physical attributes”—that is, strength, agility, and constitution—or whether all six attributes had to be enhanced for it to count.

A thirteenfold genetic level corresponded to the sixth level of the Ancestral Tree Celestial Bridge.

This was the lowest level Jiang Chen had reached among all the Celestial Bridges corresponding to the Chaos Steles he had comprehended.

Nevertheless, as long as he exchanged for a large number of treasures according to the methods contained in the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele, he could quickly raise his genetic level even higher.

“But what is the point of this Chaos Stele? Why create an entire Chaos Stele just for taking treasures?”

After comprehending the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele, Jiang Chen was unable to understand this matter.

But this had been a decision made by the upper echelons of the human race. They naturally would not waste resources for no reason. There had to be a deeper meaning behind it.

His inability to understand it now was merely because he possessed too little information to make any useful guesses. There was no need to investigate the matter too deeply.

The treasures required by the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele were not cheap. Although Jiang Chen had obtained a great many points by challenging the Celestial Bridges, exchanging for those treasures still caused him considerable pain.

Even exchanging only the treasures for the first few diagrams, enough to raise his genetic level to thirty or forty times, would cost so much that Jiang Chen would be extremely reluctant to pay it.

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Spending so many points was not as worthwhile as spending a little more time exchanging for specialties that enhanced his attributes.

However, Jiang Chen was in no hurry to invest his specialty points in attribute enhancement. After understanding the specific circumstances of the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele and its corresponding Celestial Bridge, he faintly suspected that this Chaos Stele concealed some secret he had yet to uncover.

At the very least, he would wait until he understood that secret before deciding whether to raise his genetic level bit by bit according to the methods of the Ancestral Tree Chaos Stele or simply exchange for specialties.

Setting the Chaos Stele aside for the time being, Jiang Chen devoted more of his attention to the other twelve Chaos Steles he had selected.

He did not stop developing new blueprints, but comprehending twelve Chaos Steles simultaneously consumed a tremendous amount of his time and energy.

In particular, Jiang Chen had accumulated a large number of comprehension opportunities. He had to use them one by one and then spend time digesting the insights he gained. The amount of time this consumed was astonishing.

Jiang Chen also did not intend to leave Chaos City with a large number of unused comprehension opportunities.

Who knew when he would next have the chance to return to Chaos City?

Since he had the opportunity, he had to use as many of them as possible before leaving.

During the years that followed, Jiang Chen continually comprehended various systems. Whenever he accumulated a certain number of questions, he consumed one Chaos Stele comprehension opportunity and frequently entered and exited the City Lord’s Manor.

It was fortunate that the City Lord of Chaos was cautious enough to conceal Jiang Chen’s movements personally.

Otherwise, with Jiang Chen visiting the City Lord’s Manor every few days, he would have attracted attention long ago.

Frequent comprehension of the Chaos Steles naturally involved some waste.

But for Jiang Chen, who possessed several hundred comprehension opportunities, even a little waste was worthwhile so long as it allowed him to accumulate his foundation more quickly.

Time swiftly slipped away as Jiang Chen repeatedly traveled to and from the City Lord’s Manor.

Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

In a flash, more than thirty years had passed since Jiang Chen entered Chaos City.

Thirty years in the Primal Universe amounted to a hundred years in the Original Universe.

—

One day, within Chaos City.

Suddenly, a voice rang directly in the ears of Jiang Chen and every genius from this year’s genius battle.

“Come see me at once!”

The voice echoed continuously, rousing one genius after another from their cultivation.

“Is it Venerable Nine Swords?”

Jiang Chen looked up. Seeing the enormous whale-like spacecraft suspended above Chaos City, he immediately shot into the sky.

Figures rose into the air throughout Chaos City. More than eight hundred geniuses arrived before Venerable Nine Swords and formed neat ranks.

At the very front of the formation stood several Immortal subordinates directly under Venerable Nine Swords, including King Longyu and others.

“Greetings, Venerable!”

Everyone bowed in salute.

“Hmph!” Venerable Nine Swords gave a cold snort. His gaze swept across the geniuses one by one before he berated them. “There were one thousand geniuses. After thirty years, only 818 of you are still alive! Chaos City is the safest place in your cultivation careers! In a place this safe, you still managed to lose nearly one-fifth of your number! Once you return to the Original Universe, I imagine that in less than a hundred years, only three or five hundred of you will remain alive, right? What a disgrace!”

Jiang Chen’s expression remained impassive on the surface, but inwardly he felt an urge to roll his eyes.

How was this any different from a homeroom teacher saying, “You are the worst class I have ever taught”?

Presumably, the Universe Venerables leading every genius battle gave the same speech every time.

Everyone remained silent.

“In ten days, you will leave Chaos City,” Venerable Nine Swords said淡ly. “Those who should challenge the Celestial Bridge, go challenge it. Those who should comprehend the Chaos Steles, go comprehend them. The next time you return here, who knows how many years it will be?”

“Gather here in ten days.”

“All right. You are dismissed.”

After Venerable Nine Swords finished speaking, he entered the spacecraft and departed directly.

The geniuses dispersed as well.

End of Chapter