Taking another advance

With Xu Zhen's departure, the changes to the Prepayment System immediately appeared in Hu Yanbo's mind back in reality.

[Prepayment System]

[Follow-up requirement for the advance: receive in-depth instruction from the creator of this secret technique. Completed!]

[Advances currently available: one]

Seeing "one" light up again, Hu Yanbo finally felt the weight lift from his heart, and he could not stop the corners of his mouth from rising.

What a windfall! he cheered inwardly.

First, he had confirmed that his available advances could keep refreshing.

Second, the difficulty of fulfilling the follow-up requirements was manageable.

He had thought approaching a King Rank expert for instruction would be an enormous hassle. Yet thanks to the convenience of the Virtual Universe platform and the Universe Mercenary Alliance, he had completed it this quickly!

The speed had exceeded all his expectations.

The Virtual Universe Network really is a wonderful thing!

Senior Void True King was refreshingly straightforward, too! Hu Yanbo silently gave him a thumbs-up.

Still... this system really is rather domineering. With his worries eased, Hu Yanbo began pondering the system's unreasonable logic. Just as Senior Xu Zhen said, the mysteries behind the qualitative transformation in soul defense on the seventh floor of the Void Tower aren't something you can grasp after a single lesson!

Practicing secret techniques takes vast amounts of insight, painstaking effort over time, and, crucially, personal talent.

Thinking back to the original story, Luo Feng had a teacher guiding him and a Chaos Stele to study. His advancement had already been absurdly fast, yet mastering profound secret techniques had still taken time.

But this system, Hu Yanbo mused, not only gave me the complete fruits of mastering the secret technique in an instant, it could also forcibly make the appearance of those "fruits" reasonable! This isn't merely reversing cause and effect-it's forcing causality itself!

The discovery left Hu Yanbo exhilarated.

Practice reveals the truth! Hu Yanbo's eyes shone. Now that he had an idea, he had to test it. Let's try the next target!

He focused his mind and quickly identified one of his current weaknesses.

He needed to fully stabilize his physical cultivation, which had only recently reached the Immortal Body realm, and truly step into the Early Marquis level!

Only recently had Hu Yanbo barely comprehended one minor category within the three great mysteries of Space Law. Teleportation, for instance, could be subdivided into numerous categories such as Inanimate Object Teleportation, Space Resonance, and Body Merged with Void... only after mastering them all could one gain the ability to teleport.

What Hu Yanbo had comprehended was Space Resonance, which had given him the ability to form an Immortal Body. However, he was still far from fully stabilizing it.

Thus, he could only be called a "barely qualified Marquis."

Fully forming and stabilizing it would take tens of thousands of years at the shortest, or hundreds of thousands-even millions-at the longest.

Only by gaining a deeper understanding of Space Law could he more perfectly integrate the spiritual imprint deep within every cell.

Otherwise, with his unstable Immortal Body, an opponent only needed to possess strength at the "near-King Rank" level, or attack power approaching King Level, to inflict irreversible damage on his Immortal Divine Body!

Demon Hand King happened to be precisely that sort of dangerous opponent.

During his last escape, he had only barely withstood Demon Hand King's attacks by relying on his Immortal Level plant lifeform, preventing them from reaching the divine body sheltered beneath it.

If he could take an advance on "a fully stabilized Immortal Body meeting Early Marquis standards," not only would his survivability soar, but his control over his divine body and his use of divine power would improve as well!

It was undoubtedly an excellent choice!

[Name: stabilized Immortal Body (Early Marquis standard)]

[Follow-up requirement for the advance: travel to the Initial Universe and study a Chaos Stele.]

[Advances currently available: one!]

[Take the advance?]

[Yes/No]

I really can take an advance on it! A surge of delight filled Hu Yanbo. This so-called "stabilized Immortal Body" essentially meant gaining a deeper mastery of Space Law.

That, in turn, would integrate his soul more completely with his body.

If I can even take an advance on consolidating my law comprehension...!

An even wilder thought instantly sprang up in Hu Yanbo's mind. Then why don't I take an advance on an even stronger ability? Like directly comprehending the complete mysteries of teleportation?

He immediately concentrated, trying to lock onto his target:

[Teleportation: one of the three great mysteries of Space Law. Unavailable for advance.]

No? Hu Yanbo frowned slightly, but he was not discouraged. Then taking an advance on becoming a King-level Immortal would work, too!

[King-level Immortal: the third tier of Immortal Gods. Unavailable for advance.]

Still no! Hu Yanbo tried several other options, such as advancing to the High-level Marquis realm or obtaining a Peak Secret Technique, but without exception, the response was "Unavailable for advance."

Looks like reaching the top in a single leap isn't allowed. Hu Yanbo quickly accepted reality. That's fine, too! A meal has to be eaten one bite at a time, and a road traveled one step at a time. As long as the available advances keep refreshing, I can climb quickly, step by step!

As a sixty-million-year-old Immortal, and a transmigrator familiar with the main storyline of the Swallowed Star World, he had that knowledge to draw on.

Hu Yanbo was still very confident that he could work with the Prepayment System to rapidly increase his strength.

Since I'm here, I want to shake up this starry expanse, too!

I just wonder whether the Prepayment System's restrictions will loosen as my strength increases. Will the number of available advances increase as well?

Then, for now, let's solve the immediate problem of staying alive! Hu Yanbo made his choice!

"Take the advance—stabilized Immortal Body!"

[Yes!]

Inside the magnificent hall, the instant he mentally confirmed his choice, an indescribably profound sensation swept through his entire body!

Hu Yanbo could clearly "see" and "feel" the spiritual imprint deep within every cell of his divine body. Previously somewhat indistinct and unstable, each imprint now seemed to be engraved anew and reinforced by the most precise power of law!

Every imprint became incomparably clear and resilient, merging perfectly with the immortal divine power that formed his divine body, without the slightest resistance!

His soul was no longer a clearly discernible, unified core. Instead, it dispersed completely, imprinting itself into every most fundamental unit that made up his divine body-every single cell!

As long as even a fragment of a cell remained, and the spiritual imprint within it had not been completely annihilated, he could instantly absorb cosmic energy and reconstruct his divine body!

Furthermore, this reconstruction consumed so little divine power that the cost was almost negligible!

This was a true Immortal Body! The signature ability of a Marquis Immortal!

Only now had he truly stepped into the Early Marquis Immortal level.

And because he was a soul master, his combat power was a step higher still, comparable to that of a High-level Marquis.

"Phew..." Hu Yanbo let out a long breath!

Both his strength and his survivability had improved enormously in a short span of time!

Sure enough, having a cheat is what makes venturing through a world like Swallowed Star viable! he reflected, filled with emotion.

If he had followed his original cultivation path, how many tens of thousands of years of arduous training would it have taken to go from barely qualifying as a Marquis to truly stabilizing his Immortal Body, and then fully mastering his soul defense? How many life-and-death battles would he have had to endure? How many precious resources would he have consumed?

Yet now, in just a few short days, he, Hu Yanbo, had leaped from the brink of having his soul scattered into oblivion to becoming a powerhouse who had mastered a top-tier Soul Defense Secret Technique and truly stabilized his Early Marquis cultivation!

His survivability had undergone a earth-shattering transformation!

Now, even if he encountered Demon Hand King again, as long as Demon Hand King did not burn his divine power in a desperate all-out assault, his physical attacks would not harm Hu Yanbo at all.

And with the Void Tower guarding his soul, Demon Hand King's Soul Attack posed no threat either!