Chapter 157: To Eat, or Not to Eat? (Part 2)

Wuchen Continent, Manor No. 114.

A spaceship landed at the entrance of the manor.

"Lord Jiang Chen, we have been dispatched to verify the completion of your cultivation tasks," a staff member dressed in black said respectfully. "May I ask which of the three cultivation tasks on Visca Star Your Lordship has completed?"

Jiang Chen replied, "All three have been completed."

The three tasks on Visca Star all belonged to the "collection" category; obtaining the specified items was sufficient for completion.

Having swept across the entire planet, Jiang Chen naturally gathered all the required task items.

"Please present the 'City Lord's Token', the 'Divine Son's Token', and the 953 kinds of fierce beast materials," the staff member said, taking out a box-like container. "Your Lordship can simply place the task items inside this box."

"Hmm." Jiang Chen nodded, took out a pile of miscellaneous items, and tossed them into the box.

Moments later, the indicator lights on the exterior of the box lit up one after another, with three indicator lights representing the successful verification of the different task items.

The staff member nodded and said to Jiang Chen, "All three tasks have been confirmed as completed. A total of 120,000 points have been transferred to Your Lordship's account. We shall take our leave now."

"Sorry to trouble you." Jiang Chen nodded. After sending off the three individuals, he did not rush back into the manor.

After waiting for a short while, another spaceship landed.

Another staff member wearing the uniform of the Virtual Universe Company carried a large case and approached Jiang Chen. "Lord Jiang Chen, these are the resources you ordered. Please check them and confirm receipt."

Jiang Chen opened the case to inspect the contents. Inside were rows of test tubes filled with a special pale yellow solution—100 test tubes in total—along with a compact, palm-sized device.

"Everything is in order." Jiang Chen quickly left his spiritual imprint on the confirmation document, lifted the case, and returned to the manor.

"With this 'Kraus Solution', I can re-extract and recover the 'Blood Divine Fruit' from the corpses of those immortal gods."

Walking into the laboratory, Jiang Chen instructed his servants not to disturb him, closed the heavy doors, and approached the operating table, where he retrieved the corpse of an immortal god.

Opening the case, he first took out the palm-sized exotic device and inserted tubes into various parts of the immortal god's corpse.

Following that, Jiang Chen picked up a test tube, pulled out the stopper, and a surge of bone-chilling cold air poured out from the tube, making him shudder involuntarily.

"This temperature is truly freezing."

Muttering to himself, Jiang Chen carefully poured the solution from the test tube into the upper inlet of the device and pressed the start button.

The solution flowed through the tubes into the immortal divine body and instantly became active.

Beneath the skin of the immortal god's body, large bulges began to swell and writhe continuously, presenting a deeply unsettling sight.

These swollen bulges merged into a single entity near the chest cavity of the divine body.

The aura emanating from the immortal god's divine body rapidly plummeted.

On the diagnostic instrument beside them, the numerical value representing the "gene level" dropped sharply, plunging from 177 down to 1 within a mere few minutes.

Splat~!

A fissure split open across the chest cavity of the immortal divine body, and a crimson fruit rolled out from within, landing squarely on the operating table.

"The process turned out to be quite simple..."

Jiang Chen reached out, picked up the "Blood Divine Fruit", and examined it closely.

The fruit looked remarkably like a gemstone, exceptionally beautiful.

Had he not just witnessed the bizarre process, Jiang Chen could never have imagined that such an item was refined and condensed from the divine body of an immortal god.

Holding the "Blood Divine Fruit", Jiang Chen suddenly hesitated.

Should he consume it?

Consuming the "Blood Divine Fruit" would directly grant a hundredfold gene level bonus.

Although Jiang Chen was not a traditional route practitioner—meaning gene level bonuses were not as impactful to him as they were to traditional warriors—it would still significantly boost his strength.

Especially after reaching the immortal level, the higher the gene level, the greater the total volume of divine power, and the stronger one's self-preservation capabilities would be.

However, the way this "Blood Divine Fruit" came into being made Jiang Chen feel somewhat reluctant to ingest it.

It felt as though countless parasites had wriggled back and forth and fused within the divine body of that immortal being; the visual process was simply too grotesque.

"Forget it, there are plenty of treasures that enhance gene levels; there is no need to rely on this stuff."

Jiang Chen shook his head, put the "Blood Divine Fruit" away into his world ring, and pulled out a fresh corpse of an immortal god. "Let's continue. I'll finish extracting all the 'Blood Divine Fruits' first, sell them off, and then exchange them for other treasures."

After spending some time, Jiang Chen successfully extracted all 76 "Blood Divine Fruits".

He packaged them together with the other unwanted treasures he had previously acquired on Visca Star and sold the entire lot to the Virtual Universe Company.

However, Jiang Chen kept almost all of the mineral resources mined on Visca Star, selling only a tiny fraction of items he had no use for.

Although the Lord of Chaotic City had granted Jiang Chen the privilege of a "fifty percent discount on exchanges", certain restrictions applied.

Treasures and resources sold back to the Virtual Universe Company were all transacted at their original prices.

Yet, if he wished to buy them back in the future or purchase identical items, he would not enjoy the fifty percent discount; he would first have to buy them at the original price until the quantity purchased exceeded the amount sold back to the Virtual Universe Company, at which point the surplus portion could enjoy the discount.

Normal geniuses enjoyed similar restrictions, such as the primordial secret region's thirty percent discount, the primal secret region's twenty percent discount, and the netherworld secret region's ten percent discount. The purpose was to prevent geniuses from exploiting loopholes by selling items back to the Virtual Universe Company at original prices and redeeming them at discounted rates to farm money.

The miscellaneous treasures fetched a total of 1.2 billion points, nearly one billion of which came from the proceeds of the "Blood Divine Fruits".

As for the remaining mineral resources of various types, Jiang Chen kept every single one.

The legion-style route under the technological system demanded an unimaginably vast quantity of mineral resources. No matter what the material was, even if it wasn't useful right now, a time would inevitably come when it would be needed.

Mineral resources worth over a billion mixed Yuan units were sorted and categorized by Jiang Chen, then stored separately across various world rings.

A world ring of the largest specification, featuring an internal world with a radius of 100 million kilometers, cost over a hundred mixed Yuan units.

However, given Jiang Chen's current wealth, this was mere pocket change.

Through the various battles large and small on Visca Star, Jiang Chen had identified a certain "shortcoming" in his mechanical legion.

That was the scarcity of "high-end combat power".

Even a legion-style force required high-end combat power.

For instance, within the Zerg legion, besides massive quantities of cannon-fodder Zerg, there was typically a proportional backing of "Zerg Overlords" serving as the backbone, which—with a Zerg Mother Queen at the core—constituted a super legion that terrified countless races throughout the universe.

If a legion consisted solely of cannon fodder and a Zerg Mother Queen while lacking the "Zerg Overlords" to serve as its core strength, the Zerg legion would still possess formidable power, but its deterrence against top-tier powerhouses would drop dramatically.

Within the mechanical legion, Void Dragon Mechas naturally served as the absolute core, while Gundam Mechas could be regarded as cannon fodder.

Aside from "immortal puppets" crafted from the corpses of immortal gods, the most suitable "backbone strength" included special "strategic units" such as the [Warp Arbiter].

Both had their respective advantages, but for Jiang Chen, the choice was simple: he wanted them all.

"A single [Warp Arbiter] can control at most a dozen ordinary immortals. Any more than that, and the intensity of the spatial lockdown will be insufficient to suppress the combined efforts of numerous immortals."

"However, much like energy disruptors and similar devices, the intensity of a static field can be entirely amplified through sheer quantity. If one [Warp Arbiter] is not enough, building a few more will suffice."

"And it's not just the [Warp Arbiter]. Other types of strategic units should also be produced sooner rather than later to round out the comprehensive strength of the mechanical legion."

"We also need to manufacture more immortal puppets to serve as frontline combat power. Hmm... let me calculate the cost first..."

As Jiang Chen was calculating meticulously, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he asked aloud, "Jarvis, do you have any ideas regarding the expansion of the mechanical legion?"

Jarvis responded, "Master, the specific configuration of the mechanical legion ultimately depends on Your Master's next phase of objectives. For instance, choosing different mission worlds naturally calls for different optimal configurations of the mechanical legion."

"That is true." Jiang Chen nodded slightly and asked, "You already know the secrets behind the mission worlds that I obtained from my teacher. Based on your assessment, which world do you think is best suited for exploration right now?"

"Analyzing from the perspectives of safety and yields, it is best not to enter mission worlds with excessively dangerous environments, such as the Purgatory Abyss, the Nine Star Sea, or Demon Mountain; those are unsuitable. Worlds where the danger originates primarily from local natives are much more suitable for Your Master to explore. Taking into consideration the abundance of resources, larger-scale worlds are preferable, such as the Blood Rock World, the Green Demon World, or the Flame Ice Continent."

Jarvis quickly put forward several candidate objectives.

These were cultivation worlds possessing special fortuitous opportunities behind them, about which the Sorceress King had provided certain information.

What they also had in common was their immense scale—each was a super-continent with a maximum diameter exceeding one light-year.

"Actually, I'm quite keen on exploring the 'Dead Star' world..." Jiang Chen muttered.

Jarvis immediately reminded him, "Master, exploring the 'Dead Star' right now is not a wise choice! Your self-preservation capabilities are insufficient to guarantee that you won't encounter fatal crises during a deep exploration of the Dead Star!"

According to the data provided by the Sorceress King, the opportunities contained within the "Dead Star" were the ones Jiang Chen considered most suitable for himself.

However, rushing into the Dead Star with his current strength, if the goal was merely to complete the cultivation tasks, it wouldn't be particularly difficult.

Yet, if he wished to uncover the opportunities hidden behind the "Dead Star", even though Jiang Chen already possessed the combat power to slay marquis-level immortals head-on, it still wouldn't be safe.

The issue wasn't a lack of combat strength, but rather a deficiency in self-preservation capability.

The "Dead Star" was a mission world where dangers stemmed primarily from the environment rather than native life forms.

Without adequate self-preservation means, attempting deep exploration carried an extremely high level of risk.

"I know, I was just thinking out loud."

Jiang Chen wasn't annoyed; Jarvis's suggestions were made entirely out of consideration for Jiang Chen's interests rather than any selfish motives.

Exploring the "Dead Star" at this stage truly wasn't a prudent decision.

"Let me look at the opportunities in other worlds..."

Jiang Chen recalled the information provided by the Sorceress King.

In truth, aside from the "Purgatory Abyss", the Sorceress King knew very little about the "hidden opportunities" involving the other mission worlds.

Much of it was hearsay, meaning the accuracy had to be discounted.

Even upon entering a mission world and searching purposefully, there was no guarantee of successfully seizing those opportunities.

Nonetheless, a sufficiently vast world with a high enough energy tier—even without so-called "hidden opportunities"—could bring Jiang Chen astonishing yields simply by plundering various mineral resources.

This realization had stemmed from his experiences on Visca Star, making Jiang Chen aware of an entirely new "path".

Naturally, out of safety considerations, the power tier of the chosen mission world should ideally not be too high.

Ordinary immortals, or even marquis-level immortals, were within Jiang Chen's ability to handle.

Should king-level or universe尊者-level (universe overlord-level) enemies appear, however, Jiang Chen would find himself in grave danger.

"According to my teacher, ordinary planetary worlds do not possess king-level immortals."

"On the other hand, void-continent-type worlds have a much higher probability of housing king-level natives."

"Well, that makes sense. The expanse of a void continent far surpasses that of a planet; it has a larger population and richer resources, naturally making the birth of powerful beings more likely."

"Besides, as my teacher mentioned, guarding a planet or a small special region like 'Demon Mountain' is generally the domain of invincible kings. Those guarding void continents, however, are typically universe overlords. If a native manages to break through to the king level, a universe overlord naturally wouldn't care, but if I were an invincible king and discovered a native breakthrough, I certainly wouldn't give them a chance to grow further; I'd choose to nip it in the bud. The entity guarding Visca Star did precisely that."

"Therefore, at this stage, the priority should still be given to planets. Hmm... ideally planets of a relatively large scale filled with abundant primordial energy."

Recalling the data provided by the Sorceress King and cross-referencing it with the information supplied by the virtual universe system, Jiang Chen selected a few candidate targets.

However, Jiang Chen did not immediately apply to borrow a mission world.

After all, the mechanical legion still needed to be expanded.

On another front, Jiang Chen had also asked Uka to help promote Gundam Mechas, Vulture Fighters, and other weaponry among his friends.

During his time back on the Wuchen Continent, he had already secured a few orders.

Although the order volume wasn't massive, the buyers were geniuses from various secret realms; the equipment they used served as the absolute best "advertisement."

As long as these individual geniuses found them useful and spread the word within their friend circles, word-of-mouth would circulate, allowing Jiang Chen to receive a steady stream of new orders.

This business venture required serious attention as well.

Combined with other factors such as cultivation, Jiang Chen decided to postpone embarking on his next cultivation task for a short while.

Of course, this period would not be overly long.

At the slowest, three to five years at most.

At the fastest, perhaps not even a year would pass before Jiang Chen set foot on the journey to his next mission world.

(End of this chapter)