Chapter 166: Lord of Skyseeker's Condition (Part 1)

A few days later, Jiang Chen left the Eclipse Palace with a somewhat dazed state of mind and returned to the Blood Rock Continent.

By this time, not a single immortal spirit remained across the entire Blood Rock Continent.

All high-ranking members of the Immortal Temples, alongside the elites of the Blood Rock World, had been taken captive by Master Eclipse Palace and locked away within the palace, preventing them from interfering with Jiang Chen's "development" of the Blood Rock World.

To a certain extent, this was also a measure to protect the Blood Rock Continent.

It prevented Jiang Chen from completely slaughtering the high-end combat power of the Blood Rock Continent, which would cause the civilization's heritage to suffer a direct "generational break."

For any cultivating civilization, heritage was of the utmost importance.

Geniuses capable of creating a path of cultivation from scratch were exceptionally rare.

The vast majority of geniuses needed to follow the guidance of their predecessors along a path proven to succeed in order to push their talents to the absolute limit.

Master Eclipse Palace taking action to grant Jiang Chen an undisturbed environment where he could freely exploit resources certainly did not come without a price.

In exchange, Master Eclipse Palace required Jiang Chen to promise not to cause large-scale destruction to the Blood Rock World.

This destruction encompassed two aspects: the environment and the social order.

In particular, the region known as the "Ancient God Ruins" was strictly prohibited from being subjected to large-scale development.

Of course, practicing cultivation inside it and searching for ancient treasures left behind by bygone eras was still permitted.

However, unlike other regions, large-scale mining operations and environmental destruction were forbidden within the Ancient God Ruins.

Master Eclipse Palace's exact words were that, for the entire Blood Rock World, the most crucial area was the Ancient God Ruins.

As long as this small region containing the Ancient God Ruins remained unharmed, even if the entire Blood Rock World collapsed, the loss would not be considered significant.

Jiang Chen guessed that this place might well be the ancient "battlefield" where the pinnacle powerhouses of the human race once besieged the natural-born beast gods.

Judging by the fact that the "Immortal Temple" had established its headquarters within the Ancient God Ruins, the secret behind the Blood Rock World's continuous production of "Blood Rock Crystals" probably lay within those ruins as well.

However, Jiang Chen had no intention of delving deeply into this secret.

It was not out of a lack of interest, but rather because Master Eclipse Palace had explicitly demanded that Jiang Chen not cause chaos in the Ancient God Ruins, and Jiang Chen naturally dared not defy the master's commands.

Even though Master Eclipse Palace had appeared extremely mild-mannered in front of him, Jiang Chen would never forget that this was a supreme existence who could truly be called a "big figure" across the entire universe.

The feat of single-handedly suppressing the Blood Rock Continent for endless epochs was merely the most trivial and insignificant matter among Master Eclipse Palace's numerous achievements.

Aside from prohibiting any tampering with the "Ancient God Ruins" and forbidding large-scale disruption of the Blood Rock World's original order, Master Eclipse Palace also gave Jiang Chen a strict deadline: one hundred years.

This was the prescribed time limit during which Jiang Chen was allowed to freely mine the resources of the Blood Rock World. One hundred years would be the absolute limit; regardless of how much he could mine, once the time was up, he had to stop immediately.

After the century expired, Jiang Chen could continue to cultivate in the Blood Rock World and attempt to fuse with more Blood Rock Crystals, but he was no longer permitted to deploy mechanical legions on a massive scale to extract resources.

These demands were hardly excessive.

Compared to the benefits Jiang Chen could reap within the Blood Rock World, the price he paid was practically zero.

Though Jiang Chen harbored some doubts regarding the true motives of Master Eclipse Palace, he readily agreed without hesitation.

With the war against the Immortal Temples concluded, there was naturally no further need for mass military production.

Although the existing forces were insufficient to maintain absolute control over the entire Blood Rock World, a mere century was far too short a time for Jiang Chen to completely develop the entire realm.

After roughly estimating the territory he could develop within a hundred years, Jiang Chen naturally concluded that the scale of his current mechanical legion was already adequate.

All he needed to do was channel all manufacturing capacity into producing engineering machinery and increasing resource extraction efficiency.

Having dumped all these matters entirely onto Jarvis, Jiang Chen entered a state of seclusion.

With a rare "free time" of a century stretching before him, Jiang Chen naturally intended to properly enrich his knowledge reserves while simultaneously boosting his levels on the system interface.

His avatars could also utilize this time to cultivate various secret techniques, study blueprints, and accumulate proficiency points.

There was still a massive backlog of coveted specializations that Jiang Chen could not yet afford to redeem.

After learning about the situation on the Blood Rock Continent from Jiang Chen, Luo Feng also returned to the baleful aura pit within the Ancient God Ruins to enter seclusion, wholeheartedly absorbing the baleful aura in an attempt to fuse with more Blood Rock Crystals.

---

While his main body was in seclusion, Jiang Chen's other two avatars were far from idle.

They continuously ventured into one mission world after another.

During this period, the once-every-century "Qualifying Battle" also commenced, but this game-like affair, akin to children playing, failed to cause the slightest ripple in Jiang Chen's plans.

Both avatars easily secured spots in the Primordial Secret Region—one achieving a flawless victory record, and the other suffering a single defeat, which was handed to him by none other than another of Jiang Chen's own avatars.

Even while participating in the qualifying matches, the avatar "Uchiha Shisui" continued exploring the desperate-grade mission world known as the "Lost Star System."

The avatar "Ersuo" was similarly engaged in a dangerous-grade mission world, doing battle with the indigenous immortal powerhouses of that realm.

Seeking fortune was one aspect, but the primary goal was to elevate his own strength.

Although the combat power of the mechanical legion was formidable, Jiang Chen still hoped to possess more trump cards of his own.

Since the system library could only be entered by the main body, the avatars' diversion into cultivating other systems did not slow down Jiang Chen's progress along the path of "technological advancement."

However, ever since leaving Chaos City, Jiang Chen had not redeemed corresponding specializations for those other systems, nor could he comprehend the Chaos Tablets.

Coupled with the fact that he only had two avatars, splitting his focus across too many cultivation systems inevitably caused his progress to slow down somewhat.

Yet even at a reduced pace, he still outstripped other ordinary geniuses.

The enhancement of innate talent brought by specializations worth several thousand proficiency points had already surpassed ordinary geniuses of the "Primordial Secret Region," reaching the caliber of once-in-a-million-epochs prodigies.

Even with his attention divided, his cultivation pace still exceeded that of geniuses like Boran and Rong Jun.

Nevertheless, the fastest progress of all always belonged to the main body.

Thirty years after entering seclusion following his meeting with Master Eclipse Palace.

Above a baleful aura pit in the Ancient God Ruins.

Suddenly, the faint bloody mist shrouding the pit was tinted with a layer of cyan.

An aura of profound origin laws descended.

Boom~!

Space trembled as a single drop of cyan water materialized out of thin air above Jiang Chen's head, before falling and penetrating his flesh, merging directly with his soul.

Between Jiang Chen's eyebrows, a cyan mark emerged, signifying that he had gained the recognition of the "Wind-Type Origin Laws."

"Finally obtained the recognition of the origin laws..."

Jiang Chen opened his eyes, a trace of complex emotion crossing his face.

Ever since the "Arcane Technology" system had appeared in the system library along with a dedicated "Laws Zone," Jiang Chen made it a point to study these law-related knowledge sets at the very first opportunity during every advancement.

In the preceding tiers, Jiang Chen's upgrading speed had been exceptionally rapid.

However, upon stepping into the fourth tier, the experience bar required for advancement skyrocketed dramatically, and Jiang Chen had not redeemed any new specializations aimed at "accelerating upgrades."

Compounded by the fact that the total volume of knowledge on the fifth floor of the system library was vastly greater.

It took him several decades of alternating effort before he barely managed to reach Tier 4 Level 3.

Only at this moment had Jiang Chen fully mastered all the "prerequisite knowledge" and thoroughly synthesized all knowledge related to the "Wind Laws" within the fifth-floor library.

When Jiang Chen completely mastered the final piece of knowledge concerning the "Wind Laws," his comprehension naturally crossed that threshold, triggering the descent of the origin laws and granting him the Wind Law Mark.

"It seems the limit of the fifth-floor library is precisely the level of just acquiring a 'Law Mark.' Next, I should focus on studying the other laws. Once I have grasped all the law marks, I can move on to researching knowledge from other systems."

Jiang Chen glanced briefly at the bookshelves, his consciousness withdrawing from the system library: "Now that I have gained the recognition of the 'Wind Laws,' my consciousness should be able to enter the Law Ocean of the Wind Laws."

Having attained the recognition of the origin laws and acquired the law mark, Jiang Chen naturally perceived an inexplicable "summoning."

Naturally, this call was not overwhelmingly strong, and Jiang Chen could easily resist it.

Yet when he wished for his consciousness to enter the Law Ocean, he simply needed to cease actively resisting this "call."

Splitting off half of his consciousness, Jiang Chen drifted along in the direction of this special "summons."

Soon, his consciousness manifested in an exceedingly wondrous realm.

An endless expanse of earth imbued with unimaginably majestic universal origin energy.

Every single grain of soil seemed to contain a vast spatial dimension within it, housing countless amounts of universal crystals.

Jiang Chen could sense that the patch of earth he was currently perceiving was merely a minuscule fraction of the entire "Earth."

The Universal Origin Land—the absolute core region that sustained the operation of the entire primal universe.

Only domain lords, or life forms that had gained "recognition by the origin laws," could project their consciousness into this domain.

And that was strictly limited to consciousness alone.

"Interesting, the space and dimensions here seem somewhat different from the primal universe..."

A look of keen interest appeared in Jiang Chen's eyes.

He harbored a strong curiosity to study such a special domain.

Regrettably, only consciousness could enter; there was no physical body, nor any way to bring along various probing and researching equipment, rendering the range of feasible actions extremely limited.

Shaking his head, Jiang Chen suppressed the urge to explore and investigate the Universal Origin Land, letting his consciousness continue drifting along with that special "summons."

Space shifted, and Jiang Chen's consciousness manifested within an endless, boundless cyan ocean.

This ocean represented the ultimate peak of the primal universe's "Wind Laws."

At the same time, it served as the foundational bedrock of "Wind-Type Divine Power."

Immortal spirits who achieved enlightenment through the Wind Laws absorbed and transformed divine power by drawing upon the energy of this Wind Law Ocean, converting it into their own divine power and divine bodies.

Naturally, every other elemental system possessed its corresponding law ocean as well.

It was simply that Jiang Chen had currently only gained recognition from the Wind Laws, restricting his access solely to the "Wind Element Law Ocean."

As his consciousness merged into the law ocean, Jiang Chen could sense his comprehension of the "Wind Laws" rapidly escalating.

Although it still fell far short of the direct comprehension gained from studying the system library, the efficiency was scarcely inferior to meditating before a Chaos Tablet.

If the two methods were combined, the results would likely prove even more astonishing.

"No wonder the cultivation speed of those domain lords is so terrifying..."

A thought flashed through Jiang Chen's mind.

With his consciousness capable of fusing into the law ocean, even without the "guidance" of the system library, he had absolute confidence in rapidly skyrocketing his law comprehension, and perhaps even fully comprehending the complete Wind Laws.

However...

With the "shortcut" of the system library at his disposal, who would willingly waste time painstakingly meditating on the laws?

After merely experiencing it for a brief moment, Jiang Chen controlled his consciousness to withdraw from the law ocean and the Universal Origin Land, returning to reality.

"Pity, the fifth-floor library still cannot impart complete comprehension of the laws; that will likely require the sixth or even the seventh floor..."

Jiang Chen sighed, feeling a slight sense of regret.

Solely in terms of law comprehension efficiency, reading books within the system library far surpassed any Chaos Tablet or Law Ocean.

Yet, judging by the upgrade trajectory of the system library, comprehending the complete laws was merely a matter of time.

Moreover, the variety of "laws" Jiang Chen could master vastly exceeded the mainstream ten laws prevalent in the universe.

In the design of certain mechanical units and magical constructs, Jiang Chen would also incorporate the powers of specialized laws and rules.

For instance, the sixth-tier construct "Dragon's Sigh" of the "Void Dragon Mecha" utilized the powers of the "Law of Destruction" and the "Law of Death."

Of course, because Jiang Chen's comprehension of these two major laws was not yet sufficiently profound, he could not fully unleash their maximum destructive might.

Even so, it was enough to elevate that construct to the standard of the sixth tier.

After letting his thoughts wander for a moment, Jiang Chen's consciousness re-entered the system library to continue researching the laws of the remaining systems.

During his century-long stay in the Blood Rock World, he intended to at least master all categories of laws on the fifth floor of the system library to their absolute limits.

The reason it had taken him several decades after advancing to the fourth tier to finally gain recognition of the "Wind Laws" was not because his speed in mastering laws was slow, but rather because acquiring the "prerequisite knowledge" required to read law-related texts demanded an enormous foundation.

The vast majority of those decades had been spent "laying foundations"—studying magical mathematics, dimensional geometry, and other such "prerequisite knowledge."

The actual time spent delving into the Wind Laws itself had in truth been quite limited.

With the immense volume of knowledge housed within the system library, laws occupied merely a tiny fraction of the whole.

Six years after gaining the recognition of the Wind Laws, the origin laws descended once more, adding a crimson mark representing the "Fire Laws" between Jiang Chen's eyebrows.

By this year, it had already been forty-five years since Jiang Chen entered the Blood Rock World.

Subsequently, at a pace of gaining recognition for a new origin law every five to six years, Jiang Chen garnered the recognition of the water, gold, earth, wood, light, and lightning origin laws in a mere span of just over thirty years.

He successfully collected the law marks of all "eight lower laws."

However, after completely mastering the knowledge regarding the "space laws" within the system library, this time, no origin laws descended.

"Is it that time and space laws do not trigger the origin laws, or is my comprehension still insufficient?"

A doubt sparked in Jiang Chen's mind, yet he did not dwell on it overly much, instead immersing himself once more in the ocean of knowledge within the system library.

In the blink of an eye, the century-long period granted by Master Eclipse Palace had arrived.