Li Dui had thought about the Sacred Blood Crystal.
He had figured it would at least increase his genes a hundredfold.
Now it seemed it was definitely more than that.
Just how much was it?
Li Dui vanished from where he stood and appeared in a desolate stretch of space nearly a light-year away.
He threw punches and kicked. Without using any laws, Li Dui attacked relentlessly, relying only on his body's Origin Force.
Could this really be a 1,000-fold gene?
No way. How could it be this powerful? Li Dui was overjoyed.
There was no mistake. His strength was ten times greater than before.
His speed had also reached the level of an ordinary Peak Domain Lord.
It really was 1,000-fold. I've gained a 1,000-fold gene just like that!
Origin Force surged through Li Dui's body as he flew at full speed through space, laughing without restraint.
As the saying went, nothing felt more solid than being powerful in your own right.
Only after a long while did Li Dui gradually calm down and teleport back to his residence.
Once his excitement had passed, a question surfaced in his mind.
Why was it 1,000-fold?
Going from 100 to 1,000 was an increase of 900 times. That was a strange number. Wouldn't it make more sense to increase directly by 1,000 times?
Perhaps 1,000-fold was the limit. That made sense, too. The Natural Beast God had a Perfect Gene, which meant 10,081-fold.
No matter what part of its body the Sacred Blood Crystal came from, it was still only a tiny part of it. Being able to transform a lifeform with ordinary genes into one with a 1,000-fold gene was already incredible.
Even among Special Lifeforms, a 1,000-fold gene was quite impressive.
Gradually, Li Dui's gaze grew resolute. He wanted to advance. There was no point staying at Universe Rank any longer.
The chances of him finding another treasure suitable for someone at Universe Rank that could increase his genes beyond 1,000-fold were too slim if he relied on himself alone.
Then he would break through! The moment he made up his mind, the nebula in Li Dui's dantian began spinning wildly. The massive black hole at its center greedily devoured everything.
With Li Dui's high level of Law Comprehension, advancing to the small step of Domain Lord was no challenge at all.
Soon, his physical strength, his soul, and all his life genes began to evolve. The black hole devoured everything, then slowly collapsed. In the end, it transformed into a gray sphere. This was his Life Core. Inside it was chaos, with Soul Crystals and Force Crystals drifting through it.
He had become a Domain Lord. From then on, as long as his Life Core remained intact, he could recover even if his hands and feet were severed or his body was cut into eight or ten pieces.
For other people, being cut into ten pieces meant they were as good as dead, even if they didn't die right away. But Li Dui was different. He had split bodies. Perhaps one of them could seize an opportunity and carry his Life Core away.
The first thing Li Dui did after advancing to Domain Lord wasn't celebrate. He immediately checked the Hula Hoop, searching through layer upon layer of Flowing Light.
He found it. Another layer—one that had seemed to contain nothing at all, no matter how he looked at it. Now it began to reveal the information it held.
After studying it for a while, he confirmed that this was a path of law fusion. He decided to call it the third layer. It had similarities to the second layer, but also differed from it in fundamental ways.
The second layer described how laws could combine and resonate with each other, supporting, driving, and complementing one another to increase their power.
The third layer was about fusion: how to gradually merge different laws into one. By using the special power created through fusion, a power unlike ordinary laws, one could unleash terrifying might.
The Gold-Space Beast God, the source of the Sacred Blood Crystal, was a Universe Master who had been born with the Gold-Space Fusion Law.
The big shot behind the Hula Hoop really delivered. The potential of law fusion was far greater than that of combining laws. That also meant Li Dui's future potential in the laws would be much higher.
All that was for the future. Li Dui knew very well that he was still weak. He calmed himself and tried to comprehend the Origin Law of Space.
As expected.
I was right. This was even more worth celebrating than advancing.
After becoming a Domain Lord, his efficiency at comprehending the Law of Space had returned. It was about the same as before the Origin Law of Space had acknowledged him.
Another way to look at it was that, before fully comprehending the Origin Law of Space, he first needed to understand three profound mysteries: Sealing, Strangulation, and Teleportation. They corresponded to levels 18, 19, and 20 of the Heavenly Bridge.
Fully comprehending any one of these profound mysteries meant climbing one more level of the Heavenly Bridge. When all three merged into one, he would have fully comprehended Space and become a Venerable.
Each step was harder than the last. Li Dui was now working toward the nineteenth level, and his rate of comprehension was about the same as it had been when he was working toward the eighteenth. In reality, that meant he was progressing faster than before.
The slowed pace of his Origin Law of Space comprehension had troubled Li Dui for over sixty years. Now, that burden had finally lifted. He immediately decided to set aside the other laws and continue studying Space.
That was the fastest way to improve his overall strength.
He could keep his abilities hidden when nothing was happening. But when his true self was facing death, who would care about anything else? The stronger his true self was, the better.
He glanced at the three split bodies guarding him. There was something he needed to deal with first.
He controlled Number One and told his servant he would be going into seclusion and would not receive any visitors.
He also personally informed a few people close to him, saying he would be in seclusion for a year or so. Then he set up an automatic reply for his Virtual Universe emails.
Once everything was arranged, Li Dui had a thought. One of the three split bodies beside him silently fell over. His face instantly paled. The wisp of soul he had previously separated to control the split body had made it destroy itself. Even if he separated another wisp of soul, he couldn't enter and control this split body again.
There was no choice. Li Dui could only use the first level of the Secret Technique of Puppet Body of Self. He could have only five split bodies at a time. To create a new one, he had to destroy an old one.
The secret technique began, and a small bud of flesh emerged from his spine.
I'm going to be a monster for another month, Li Dui grumbled to himself.
A month later, a new split body at Domain Lord Rank 1 stood before Li Dui.
Not bad. It feels much stronger than the old split bodies.
His true self's injuries needed time to heal. Fortunately, the recovery technique included in the Secret Technique of Puppet Body of Self was very effective. The 20% damage to his origin would take only a month to heal.
The technique was rather strange. Li Dui had tried using it to replenish his depleted Origin Force, but it hadn't worked. It could only heal the damage caused by creating split bodies.
Another month passed quickly. Fully recovered, Li Dui took out a treasure he had kept hidden away—the Shankang Fruit.
He had unexpectedly obtained it after killing a Domain Lord in the Xueluo World.
It could restore an entire divine body for a Marquis Immortal. It could also accelerate the evolution of life genes without any side effects.
His true self had already left the Human Race's control, so there was no Nutrient Pod for him to use. Fortunately, Li Dui had this treasure on hand. Otherwise, he would have had to spend points to exchange for something similar and have it sent over. Without that, relying on slowly absorbing cosmic energy, who knew how long it would take to reach Peak Domain Lord?
Absorbing the Shankang Fruit felt incredibly comfortable. Li Dui was so exhilarated he could have flown. No wonder it was worth a million Hunyuan Units.
He didn't need to focus completely on this. Li Dui began comprehending the laws while using Number One to log into the Virtual Universe and continue refining his third blade in the training room. He had put it off for quite some time.
If he hadn't listened to Venerable Jiyu's lectures for a few days, Li Dui really wouldn't have known how to develop his third blade. Before, he had pursued power single-mindedly and taken quite a few wrong turns. Now he could see that many aspects needed major adjustments.
Back then, it had taken three months in a Nutrient Pod to progress from Universe Rank 1 to Universe Rank 9.
Now, going from Domain Lord Rank 1 to the peak required a thousand times as much energy under normal circumstances. On top of that, Li Dui now had a 1,000-fold gene. He had thought it would take much longer.
Who would have thought the Shankang Fruit would be so effective? In just over half a month, it had pushed him all the way to Peak Domain Lord.
That was despite Li Dui carefully controlling the rate of his advancement, afraid that something might go wrong.
Now, Li Dui truly felt powerful.
A few months ago, he had been a Universe Level 9 with a 100-fold gene. His physical strength had been roughly equivalent to that of a Domain Lord Rank 4.
Now, he was a Peak Domain Lord with a 1,000-fold gene. His physical strength was directly equivalent to that of an ordinary Peak World Lord.
His combat strength had increased by far more than just a little.
Peak World Lord, eighteenth level of the Heavenly Bridge.
Among all the World Lords of the Human Race, he would rank among the very best.
Now, he dared say he could overpower an Early Marquis. Though the chances of killing a Marquis were slim, and he could still be killed if he made even the slightest mistake.
But in terms of attack power alone, he could overpower an Early Marquis.
"Awesome!" Li Dui silently gave himself a thumbs-up.
But that didn't matter. Li Dui would never let his true self face a Marquis Immortal. If one showed up, he'd get as far away as he could.
If he wanted to fight, he could use a split body, right?
Before you continue