Chapter 1487: Chapter 1487: Strength Increase

For Zen to have improved so quickly, the Collapsing Mountain race must have devoted all their effort to his training.

However, it was the innate strength of Zen's body that made the most difference.

He had never tested the strength of his human body during this period of time. However, based on his repeated ascension, it was safe to assume that his physical body had now reached the level of a supreme divine weapon.

Usually, when a martial artist joined the Collapsing Mountain race to train their body, their training consisted of two parts.

One part was body refining. The other part was strength refining.

After all, entering the Collapsing Mountain race was every warrior's way of gaining strength. Whenever warriors stayed with the race, they experienced a notable strength increase.

However, as was true for most things, there was a limit. When a martial artist's strength reached a certain degree, it became stagnant.

Due to their bodies' inability to withstand immense power, this was bound to happen.

In the past, when Zen used the cyan dragon's strength, he had encountered the same issue and was unable to make full use of his power.

Now that Zen was no longer facing the same problem, his improvement was naturally swift.

After half a year of living and training with the Collapsing Mountain race, Zen gained a rough understanding of them. More importantly, he also gained insight into the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land's various life forms.

In an ordinary universe, a martial artist's greatest dream was to transcend it. By succeeding, they would escape the cycles of the heavens and enter the divine land. However, if they could take on a Heavenly Destiny and become a Supreme Lord, they would also feel like their life had meaning. The warriors in all universes would agree that these two were the ultimate dreams.

It was these two dream that urged them to continue their journey toward the peak of martial arts, no matter how difficult it proved to be.

The structure of the universe was very stable. From the Lower World to the Upper World, from the nature creature to the Supreme Lord, no martial artist was exempt from following the same progression.

However, the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land was different.

There were some notable differences between the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land and a typical universe built by a Holy Being.

First of all, the heavens had no equivalent in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. All sorts of powers were in disarray here. Many would consider it simple and primitive.

For instance, for a body refiner, it would be exacting to cultivate a substantial strength in the universe. However, there were at least 13 people stronger than a Supreme Lord in the Collapsing Mountain race. As for Chapman, his strength was unfathomable.

In addition, each person from the Collapsing Mountain race, including each newborn, was comparable to a world lord. These babies were lucky, as they weren't as affected by gravity as the average world lords from outside were. World lords who entered this place were unable to move freely at first because of the place's powerful gravitational pull.

The strength source had this effect on its visitors. It compressed all the treasures in the universe into this enormous cave. Then it imparted these to whoever was inside it, but for a price. Receiving these treasures was not painless.

What then was the purpose of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land?

What were the goals of the Collapsing Mountain race, the Skyland race, the Kaleidoscope race, and the other races? Did they exist merely to help martial artists from other universes, perhaps even from the divine land?

The only way to answer these questions was to ask the master of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land himself. For sure, he would know the purpose of establishing such a place.

But who was this master?

So far, there had been no answer.

The Collapsing Mountain race, the Skyland race, the Kaleidoscope race, and the Harmony race were all seeking to know.

From the information that Chapman had leaked, the place that they wanted Zen to enter was called the Fire Refining Lair. The thing that he needed to retrieve was somehow related to the master of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. ŗα𐌽ǑＢĚꞨ

Today, as usual, Zen sat opposite Chapman. They were enjoying generous servings of meat and gulping down wine.

Bam!

A big silver plate landed with a clang on the ground in front of Zen.

“Eat this,” Chapman said plainly.

On the silver plate were what looked to be golden pupae. They had roasted them, and so Zen couldn't determine from which insect they were. Remarkably, they had strange divine textures on them, but the textures didn't seem to be engraved. Rather, they seemed to have taken shape when the pupae pupated.

Did bugs also know how to seal divine textures on their pupae? Zen could only sigh in amazement at the wonders of nature in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land.

He had eaten way too many strange things during his stay.

Nevertheless, under the influence of the Calamity Dispelling Fragrance, Zen could hardly be picky.

He knew he was going to eat whatever was placed in front of him, even though this one was different. Certainly, there had been dishes that were terrifying to eat.

Zen thought back to the nightmare beast's brain and the head of the sulfur ghost, and he swallowed hard. Compared to them, the pupae in front of him looked much better.

He grabbed a handful and shoved them into his mouth.

Crack!

A sweet taste, as if he was chewing peanuts, filled Zen's mouth. The food tasted surprisingly good.

“This tastes pretty good,” Zen said as he took a swig of the strong wine.

Then Zen noticed a sudden change in his surroundings. The entire square grew quiet. All the warriors—the Collapsing Mountain race's clansmen and those from the other races—stared wordlessly at him.

Zen froze. “Why are you all staring at me?”

“These are the pupae of the barbarian bees, a type which lives next to the strength source. They're beyond precious,” Chapman said with a faint smile.

Zen was quite surprised, as he quickly understood what Chapman was saying. The race leader's words sounded casual, but the expressions on the Collapsing Mountain clansmen's faces suggested otherwise.

“These barbarian bee pupae are probably not an ordinary treasure, huh?” Zen asked.

He realized that he had initially underestimated his importance to the Collapsing Mountain race. Whatever they had asked him to get for them must be very important to them.

“More or less.” Chapman's expression suddenly turned solemn. “The strength source will be accessible in three days. I hope you can give it your all.”

'The strength source...'

The moment Zen entered the Collapsing Mountain race, he knew that the strength source was the race's foundation.

Adjusting to the strong gravitational pull of the place was only the beginning, as it only allowed him to stand alongside the ordinary clansman. The most important step was to enter the strength source.

After having eaten all of the pupae, Zen could feel a stable breath of air going up his throat from his stomach. This breath moved not only within his physical body. It also rushed into his elixir field and his inner world.

In the world that they were in, there were divine objects that directly affected a warrior's inner world. The barbarian bee pupae were one of them.

In the past six months, Zen's inner world had been developing rapidly.

After the first island had appeared, a layer of green grass grew and gradually covered its surface. The first set of creatures to be born included voles, lizards, and snakes.

These creatures had even formed a rudimentary chain of life, feeding on each other, multiplying.

Eventually, the World Tree grew tall and stretched out its luxurious branches. On this gigantic World Tree, other types of living creatures began thriving. All kinds of insects were being born. Everything seemed to be in order. Zen had been wondering when the first human being would be born in his inner world.

Over the next three days, he felt as if there was a furnace burning inside his body. His body was experiencing the effect of eating the barbarian bee pupae.

Three days later, the warriors came face to face with what they had been preparing for.

Zen, the Collapsing Mountain clansmen, and many other martial artists from the other races stood in front of the mountain up north.

This mountain was a shiny white color, making it look like it was cast in silver.

Chapman led the group to the foot of the mountain and stopped. “This is Sacred Spring Mountain, where our strength source lies. How much strength you can obtain will depend on your fortune and on what you've learned so far!”

The strength source flowed all year round, but even the Collapsing Mountain race had only one chance in a year to come and see it. When a martial artist from another race entered the Collapsing Mountain race to train, it would be safe to assume that their goal was to come along during this journey.

The martial artists present were rubbing their hands together, and their eyes shone with greed. Everyone there was well aware just how precious the strength source was. Concentrated here was the strength source of the entire Divine Refinement Forbidden Land.

This type of thing existed in other universes as well, but they did so quite rarely. A single drop of the strength source could cause a huge controversy, and the conditions for its birth in an area were extremely harsh.

In a more ideal inner world, the different sources of strength would be more evenly distributed throughout the universe, making them almost impossible to collect with usual resources.

Here in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land, however, these kinds of strength sources were concentrated. Another way to look at it was that the owner of this land had probably never planned to build a complete universe. This explained the existence of a concentrated strength source. Although the owner was a Holy Being, the strength source was placed at random instead of evenly being distributed. The Divine Refinement Forbidden Land had been created this way.

In other words, the power contained within this strength source was equal to that of a whole universe. One could only imagine how valuable it was.