Bounty: 30 Million Source Stones!

In Robert's domain, Gu Ding sat down cross-legged and took out a bottle of Second-Class Body Enhancement Potion from his Storage Space, which he had bought on Gold Silver Island.

Generally, a person's basic physical strength is limited by their cultivation level and won't exceed it by much. However, the upper limit of this limitation varies from person to person. For example, some special races with unique physical talents may have physical bodies that are two major ranks stronger than their cultivation level, or even more.

The Ancient Era Dragon Blood Warrior were one such special race; after their bloodline awakened, their physical strength could surpass three major cultivation levels. Similarly, the descendants of the Rock Queen from the Middle Ancient Era, after their bloodline awakened, could also achieve physical strength exceeding two major cultivation levels...

Gu Ding didn't know if his basic physical strength had reached its limit. So, he planned to drink one bottle of physical enhancement potion first to see if he had reached the limit. If he hadn't, he would drink the rest of the potion to try and increase his physical strength as much as possible. If he had already reached the limit, then he wouldn't need to waste any more potions.

The physical enhancement agent in the test tube was blood red. Gu Ding took a deep breath and injected the red liquid into his body. Gu Ding had long anticipated this sensation; each use of the physical enhancement agent would bring extreme physical pain. But only by feeling pain could it be said that the drug was taking effect. If there was no pain, it meant that the physical strength had reached its limit and that he needed to increase his cultivation level to improve further.

Gu Ding's basic physical strength was only at the level of Four-Star Low-rank God. Even with the four-thousand-fold boost from the Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body's physical realm, he barely reached the level of a seven-and-a-half-star god. However, he injected himself with Second-Class Body Enhancement Potion, which was normally only used by Mid-rank God. Therefore, the pain he felt was much greater than that of Mid-rank God who normally received Second-Class Body Enhancement Potion.

The burning sensation grew stronger and stronger; Gu Ding felt as if his head was about to explode from the pain, and his muscles trembled all over. But he still took out the remaining nine vials of medicine and, with trembling hands, injected them all into his body.

With each injection of the potion, Gu Ding's pain intensified. He could no longer remain seated and began rolling on the metallic floor of Robert's Domain. Even the slightest touch of the metal's coolness brought him some relief. After nearly three hours of screaming, Gu Ding suddenly felt a crack appear in his body. With the appearance of that crack, his body began further disintegration and reconstruction. The pace of disintegration and reconstruction quickly reached a balance. After approximately eighteen hours, the disintegration finally stopped, and the reconstruction was swiftly completed. His basic physical strength finally leaped from Four-Star Low-rank God to a five-star level. The pain lessened slightly, and his screams gradually subsided. However, the effects of the physical enhancement potion were far from over.

On the third day, his physical body disintegrated and reconstructed once again, and Gu Ding's physical strength was further enhanced, rising from Five-Star Low-rank God to a six-star level.

On the seventh day, the physical body of the six-star Low-rank God was finally upgraded to the seven-star level.

On the twelfth day, Gu Ding's physical body was extremely close to the strength of Mid-rank God, but ultimately fell short of breaking through, remaining at the pinnacle of Seven-Star Low-rank God. The effects of the medicine continued, but his physical strength had stagnated. Gu Ding knew that he had likely reached the upper limit of his physical strength; the only way to further enhance it was to increase his cultivation level.

But this result is not bad. With the four thousand times bonus of the Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body physical realm, Gu Ding's physical strength has reached the level of Four-Star Mid-rank God.

On the eighteenth day, the effects of the medicine finally wore off completely, and he felt the excruciating burning sensation finally subside. He let out a long breath and stepped out of Robert's territory.

Walking into the small living room, Gu Ding found everyone there and was somewhat surprised. "Did something happen?"

"Before you finish your cultivation, I gathered them together. I have two pieces of good news and two pieces of bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" the Sea Emperor finally said.

"Uh, whatever." Gu Ding hadn't expected so much to have happened in just one day.

"First, let me share the first piece of good news," the Sea Emperor said, no longer bothering to keep everyone in suspense, since everyone would find out sooner or later anyway. "Gu Ding, your bounty has been significantly increased."

The Sea Emperor projected Gu Ding's latest Bounty Order. It was still the same grinning face showing off his white teeth, but the bounty amount was completely different, more than thirty times higher than the original 9.8 billion Universe Crystal.

"Now I'll tell you the first piece of bad news, which is related to your bounty. Your bounty has reached 30 million Originium, which means that our Pirate Crew has gone from a B+ Wanted Criminal team to an A-level Wanted Criminal team. The Federal Government will send the top 2 regular members to hunt us down, and even the top 3 members."

"If it's just the regular members of TOP2, everyone can barely handle it. But if it's a member of TOP3 attacking, everyone except you will have a hard time dealing with it. Because the members of TOP3, apart from the new members from that year, basically all have the Combat Strength of Peak-rank God."

Sea Emperor's words caused Bigge and the others to frown. Although everyone was getting stronger, Sea Emperor's words were not unfounded; he knew the approximate strength of the other team members. Bigge himself knew that, at his strongest, he was only at the Combat Strength of Two-Star Peak-rank God. To become stronger, he could only break through in terms of cultivation.

Moreover, the Gu Ding Team is different now than before, with two more non-combat members, Miko and Blue. If they encounter a powerful enemy attack, someone will have to protect them, which further weakens the team's overall Combat Strength.

"Let's talk about the remaining two pieces of news." Gu Ding shook his head, not wanting to put too much pressure on everyone, and changed the subject.

"Let me share the second piece of good news. I just received news from Fa Te that they procured all the materials Robert needed in just one day. I impersonated Gu Ding and arranged to deliver the goods to him on the Re Tuo Star. We should be there in about three days, and they should be around the same time. In any case, we'll have the goods in three days, and Robert's ascension to High-rank God will be no problem at all."

"There's another piece of news, the second piece of bad news I mentioned..." Sea Emperor paused here, "I accidentally discovered a rumor on the SkyNet that Stephen Gates have an incurable disease and are critically ill. There are even rumors that they are already dead, but the Gates Family has covered it up. I also found that at the recent high-level meetings of the Fei Nan Si Conglomerate, only Fa Te the Gates Family attended. His explanation was that his parents had caught a cold and were feeling unwell, so they were temporarily unable to attend public events. But I suspect that the rumors might be true."...

"What about the rest of the Gates Family? Doesn't Fa Te have other elders?" Gu Ding frowned. This was indeed bad news, because Gu Ding and the others already considered Fa Te a member of the team.

"No one else has shown up either. Currently, all the projects the Gates Family is negotiating are being handled solely by Fa Te. These include two astronomical acquisition projects, one super financial investment project, and more than seventy other projects of varying sizes under negotiation. The Gates Family has only sent Fa Te for all of these. In principle, even Fa Te's uncles and aunts are not qualified to get involved in those super projects. Those three projects are at the highest level, and only Fa Te's father has the authority to negotiate them."

"I understand, Sea Emperor, dial Fa Te's contact number!" Although Gu Ding didn't know exactly what had happened, he knew that Fa Te's family was definitely facing a major crisis.

The communicator connected quickly, and the notification tone kept ringing. Gu Ding waited patiently.

On the other end of the communicator, Fa Te, sitting on the sofa, put down the documents in his hand, looked at the number on the communicator, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately did not answer.

"He didn't answer. He's probably busy. I'll call him back later." The Sea Emperor said that to comfort Gu Ding.

"Yes, keep an eye on the SkyNet too, see if you can find out what happened." Gu Ding was quite worried about Fa Te's current situation.

Over the next few hours, Sea Emperor tried calling Fa Te's number twice more, but no one answered. Helpless, Gu Ding could only leave messages and send text messages, but they still did not receive a reply.

Three days passed quickly, and Gu Ding and his group arrived at Re Tuo Star ahead of schedule.

Shortly after they arrived on the Re Tuo Star, a spaceship bearing the mark of Chimera beast arrived in the same star system as Re Tuo Star; that mark was the symbol of the Gates Family. The spaceship had barely slowed down when it was surrounded by more than ten mercenary ships...