Of course, having the law comprehension of a High-level Marquis alone did not mean Hu Yanbo had already reached that rank.
Law comprehension was one's "realm," the authority to understand and harness the power of the universe origin.
The strength of the divine body, meanwhile, was the "vessel," the foundation for storing and circulating divine power.
What the system had advanced him was primarily that lofty "realm."
But strengthening his divine body required not only guidance from a higher realm, but also vast amounts of energy to fill and temper it!
This was a "hard requirement" that demanded time or enormous resources, not something that could be achieved in a single leap.
It was like an ordinary person suddenly gaining all the combat experience and skills of a martial arts grandmaster-law comprehension-while his muscular strength and bone density-his divine body-still needed rigorous training and nutrition-absorbing energy-to gradually catch up with his realm.
Hu Yanbo had considered also taking an advance on "the divine body strength of a High-level Marquis."
To the system, however, these seemed to be two entirely separate things.
Law comprehension was a "software" upgrade, the depth of one's understanding of cosmic rules.
Divine body strength was a "hardware" enhancement, an expansion of the energy vessel's capacity.
The system distinguished between them very clearly. Taking an advance on one meant paying back only the cost of that one.
"But this is already enough." As Hu Yanbo sensed the mysteries of the spatial laws in his mind, far beyond anything he had understood before, a faint smile touched his lips.
Realm first, power afterward.
With the law comprehension of a High-level Marquis to guide him, his efficiency in absorbing cosmic energy and converting it into divine power would far surpass what it had been!
Raising his divine body strength from one thousand to three thousand times world lord power was now merely a matter of patient effort and accumulating energy. There were no bottlenecks left.
Besides... his gaze swept over the vast lake of locke divine water inside his World Ring.
With this lake of locke divine water worth billions of mixed-origin units in his possession, "energy" was the last thing he lacked!
He could easily use the locke divine water to forcibly replenish and temper his divine body to the perfect state of a High-level Marquis in an extremely short time!
His law comprehension had already reached the required level. Bringing his divine body strength up to match was only a matter of time.
"Still, there's no need to rush." With a shift in thought, Hu Yanbo suppressed the urge to use the locke divine water immediately.
The slot in the Initial Universe he had purchased this time had cost two hundred million mixed-origin units and allowed him to study in Chaos City for thirty thousand years!
Here in Chaos City, the laws were laid bare and could be perceived clearly, making comprehension far more efficient than in the outside world. It was an ideal place to consolidate his realm and devote himself to cultivation.
Using precious locke divine water to speed up a process that could be completed naturally here would be rather wasteful.
Leaving it inside his World Ring as a trump card to restore his divine body at a critical moment was the best choice.
"Thirty thousand years is far more than enough." Hu Yanbo sensed the exceptionally clear fluctuations of the laws around him.
"I'll slowly absorb cosmic energy here and let my divine body improve naturally."
His mind made up, he hesitated no longer. His figure flashed as he left his residence and headed for the rooftop.
Deep within Chaos City, in the Inner Mansion of the City Lord's residence.
Outside a secluded courtyard stood a seemingly ordinary stone stele. Engraved upon it in an ancient script were three large characters brimming with endless killing intent-"Chaos Ruins"!
Within the Chaos Ruins, corpses littered the boundless land as far as the eye could see. They came in all shapes and sizes, some as enormous as planets, others smaller than humans. Yet every one of them exuded a terrifying aura that made the heart tremble, as though they had all been fearsome beings capable of shaking the galaxy in life.
The thick stench of blood and the aura of destruction lingered without dispersing. Even time and space seemed frozen here.
Standing atop this endless mountain of corpses and sea of blood was a tall, powerfully built man roughly three meters in height.
He wore dark red battle armor, ancient and intricately wrought, covered in scars. Battle boots clad his feet, and a scale-covered tail hung naturally behind him. As it swayed gently, space itself seemed to warp.
His face, covered in strange, intricate markings, looked fierce and imposing. Two fiery red horns on his forehead seemed poised to pierce the heavens.
He was one of the pinnacle existences of the Human Race, the guardian of Chaos City-the Chaos City Lord.
Suddenly, his eyes, calm as the vast starry sky, opened slightly, and an almost imperceptible ripple passed through them.
"Hmm?"
His gaze seemed to penetrate the courtyard and space itself, settling on a figure somewhere in Chaos City who had just emerged from seclusion and was flying toward a rooftop.
"That little fellow named Hu Yanbo? From the Ganwu Universe Country... he became a Marquis in sixty million years. Decent talent."
The Chaos City Lord paid attention to every new batch of arrivals. For those below the Immortal level, whose souls and bodies had not fully fused, he needed only a thought to examine their spiritual imprints and determine their backgrounds.
For Immortal Gods like Hu Yanbo, whose soul imprints had fused into every cell, he devoted a sliver of his consciousness to more sustained observation.
This was standard practice, intended to ensure that the race's resources were not used to nurture spies from the Alien Race, making a laughingstock of them and damaging their reputation.
"Interesting." A faint trace of interest seemed to appear on the Chaos City Lord's eternally unchanging face. "How many days has he been in Chaos City? He's already made a breakthrough, and his divine body is constantly absorbing energy. It seems he won't need long to reach High-level Marquis."
Such a sudden rate of improvement was quite conspicuous even among the Immortal Gods who had come to Chaos City over the long ages.
After all, although the Chaos Steles were Supreme Treasures, they were not universal keys. If they could truly produce powerhouses so easily, wouldn't every Core Member of the five major powers be a Marquis or King Rank?
More often, they provided guidance and triggered the release of accumulated insights.
"And..." With a slight shift of the Chaos City Lord's will, the Virtual Universe Company's highest-level access privileges were instantly invoked. Every record concerning Hu Yanbo, from his birth to his ascension to Immortality, appeared within his consciousness in exhaustive detail-all the information that could be found.
"According to the records, until recently, this Hu Yanbo was only barely at the Marquis level. Although his soul defenses were exceptional, his comprehension of spatial laws was mediocre, and even his divine body had yet to stabilize..."
It was precisely this relatively unremarkable past record that made his current rapid progress seem so abrupt.
"Was it sixty million years of accumulation, unleashed within just a few days of entering Chaos City?"
"Or... did he have some other fortuitous encounter?"
An insignificant trace of doubt rippled through the Chaos City Lord's consciousness, vast as a sea of stars, then subsided into stillness.
To him, this was merely a minor incident worth a little notice, nowhere near enough to warrant much genuine attention.
He only needed to determine whether Hu Yanbo was a spy from the Alien Race. A few anomalies and secrets were hardly uncommon within the Human Race.
He closed his eyes once more, though he still kept a small portion of his consciousness focused on several newly arrived Immortal Gods.
Especially Hu Yanbo.
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