Chapter 3173: Chapter 3173: Preparations Before Leaving

After making his decision, Zen ordered the Giants to put away the soul crystal.

A considerable part of the soul crystal collected was distributed to the disciples on the first floor of the Land of Sword Grief. Even Cleon, who ranked first, received some. Almost all the disciples on the first floor retreated to Stage Fourteen.

But Zen himself had also reserved a considerable amount of soul crystal, which he intended to give to Yan, Dorothy, Elvinia, and the Nine Li people.

Once the soul crystal was removed, the Giants positioned a stack of Body-strengthening Jades. Simultaneously, Zen retreated from the Other Shore before reentering with his physical body.

Many Body-strengthening Jades were crushed one after another, each one absorbed and refined by Zen.

Now, Zen's body drew strength from several aspects. First, the strength of his body itself was incomparable to any other's even before he reached the Chaotic Source Realm.

Second, he had the Chaotic Source Spirits.

Through the Truth of Godly Way produced by his weapon body, Zen's Chaotic Source Spirits had grown leaps and bounds ahead. Now that Zen had almost reached the later stage of the Chaotic Source Realm, the limit his physical body could bear was even greater.

Third, after absorbing more blood of the Chaos Ancient God, his body structure had changed—the sclerites could greatly strengthen his body in a special kind of way.

Lastly, he had the Shade Stone liquid. It was a pity that the stone was so rare—he had already asked the Ear Mouse race to help him find some. So long as they found any sort of treasure made of the Shade Stone, they could buy it for him at any price. Such a method of strengthening body was also rather unique.

Apart from the Chaotic Source Spirits, Zen seemed to use rather unique strengthening techniques.

It was the most common way to strengthen his body with the Body-strengthening Jades. But right now, only Zen and Elvinia could use such a method.

After absorbing a few Body-strengthening Jades, Zen picked up another one and asked, “The soul's limit is the ultimate level of the Indigo Soul, so does that mean that the body has a limit as well?”

After a moment of silence, No. 9527 burst into laughter. “It's a physical body—of course there's a limit.”

In ancient times, the Wild Gods had absorbed the Body-strengthening Jades to grow stronger on the Other Shore. It was then called the Wild God Body Realm, which corresponded to the level of Indigo Soul.

But once the Truth of Powerful Holy Body was forbidden, no one had continued cultivating the method any more. Fewer and fewer creatures came to know about the Wild God Body Realm. Theoretically, the Chaotic Source Realm merely referred to a means of strengthening body—it wasn't that accurate to call it a realm.

But no one could do anything about the rules of the entire chaos.

“Is there a place like the Soul City in an upper stage for body strengthening?” Zen raised another question.

“Bingo! But it's not in Stage Twenty-nine. It's in Stage Thirty, called the Land of Bone Tribulation,” replied No. 9527.

“The Land of Bone Tribulation…” Zen muttered, more to himself, keeping the name in mind.

He would get to that place sooner or later, he decided, no matter what. Right now, his priority was strengthening his body.

Body-strengthening Jades were sent in one after another, and Zen acquired them all.

The Giants in charge of sending the Body-strengthening Jades seemed a tad envious.

Whether it was the soul crystal or the Body-strengthening Jade, both were highly useful for Other Shore creatures. But their body-strengthening range remained quite limited. Ṙ𝐚ℕƟBËs

Limited by this stage, once they reached a certain level, they wouldn't be able to grow any further.

The amount of Body-strengthening Jades Zen had absorbed was enough to work on over a hundred Giants. Seeing how Zen's momentum seemed endless, they couldn't tell how many more he'd absorb.

“Again!”

Zen gave the order after absorbing the rest of the jades.

Even though he was aware of how many he was absorbing, his body hadn't seemed to reach its limit yet.

One of the Giants cupped his hands toward Zen. “Sir, there is no Body-strengthening Jade left in the Myriad Spirits City…”

“There's no more left?” Zen's face dropped in disappointment.

“Both our Giants and the Guide Weasel race still have some. If you need them, I can go find Master Raul,” added the Giant.

These Giants could raise their position in the Myriad Spirits City because of Zen's help. While they were known to be fierce and merciless in battle, they were honest and loyal companions. They contributed all they could to Zen without any reservation.

“No,” Zen shook his head. He knew that the Giants would willingly bring out all the Body-strengthening Jades, but he had no need to absorb their stock. “What about the Sky Water City?” Zen asked.

“A batch of Body-strengthening Jades had been sent here from the Sky Water City. You and Master Elvinia have already refined them. I'm afraid it's quite difficult for them to collect and send more so soon…” the Giant answered regretfully.

Compared to the soul crystal, the Body-strengthening Jades were much more popular. Ordinary Other Shore creatures didn't climb to the higher stages, after all. They needed the Body-strengthening Jades to strengthen themselves, so they didn't have many kept away.

“I see,” Zen nodded in understanding.

After that, he headed over to another inner hall.

Here, Elvinia was also absorbing the Body-strengthening Jades.

She could only strengthen her purified being's body on the Other Shore after absorbing the jade. Elvinia's own body in the Source World couldn't benefit from it. Still, increasing the limit of her purified being's body was good for her—she wasn't planning on slacking off.

Seeing Zen arrive, she crushed the last Body-strengthening Jade and quickly absorbed it. Then, she smiled and turned to Zen. “I've refined all of them!”

Elvinia could feel how much her purified being's body had strengthened—it made her hope for more Body-strengthening Jades.

After Zen had refused her in the Oneness Sky Palace, she had remained rather calm. She knew what Zen was thinking, after all. There was no need to rush. Instead, she went over to her father to offer him comfort.

“We've refined all the Body-strengthening Jades in Stage Fourteen. If we want to collect more, we'll have to ascend to higher stages,” Zen said with a smile.

“So we're leaving this stage?” Elvinia's eyes flashed with excitement.

It was unrealistic to stay in Stage Fourteen, after all. She had long hoped to move on to higher stages alongside Zen.

“There are two more things to see to before we leave,” Zen said.

The Dark Nether Bugs seemed to be strongly attractive to the purified beings. With that, Zen concluded that devouring the Dark Nether Bugs was a way to enhance the purified beings' abilities.

So during this time, he had ordered the Guide Weasel race to enter the Dark Region and communicate with the one-eyed monsters, in the hopes of capturing more Dark Nether Bugs.

Devouring the bloody, fleshy Dark Nether Bugs with some grace wasn't much of a problem—the attraction force of the Dark Nether Bugs came from their blood essence. Elvinia could absorb it after separating it from the bug body.

Aside from the Dark Nether Bugs, he wanted to get his hands on another Other Shore Token.

Zen's Strength God Totem was an Other Shore Token of strengthening type from Stage Thirteen, containing 1, 200 divine megatons of force only. It wasn't weak by any means in Stage Thirteen, but it couldn't meet his requirements now that he was in Stage Fourteen. Besides, the Civilization Artifact in Zen's body could provide much Other Shore Power. So, he had to replace the Strength God Totem if he got the chance.