Chapter 1218: Contacting Hong Tianqi
Zhu warned, "Zhang Lie, if you want to strike at full force, you must let me know beforehand. I'll set up a pocket space for you to do so."
Zhang Lie pulled out a piece of paper. "Does the unified world have these herbs?"
On the paper was the recipe for the disaster-grade Potion #5.
Zhang Lie had gathered the main ingredients for the potion among the three thousand worlds, and there were only a few secondary ingredients that he now had to find. As the new ruler of the unified world, Zhu boasted an encyclopedic knowledge of everything within, and it would be far faster to ask her.
Potion #5 was different from the four other potions that had come before it.
The recipes for all four of the previous potions were known to Zhang Lie from his past life, and Zhang Lie only had to follow the recipe to brew the potions. On the other hand, he only had rudimentary research about Potion #5, and it would take him significant experimentation, coupled with his understanding of genes and the limit-breaking potions, to succeed.
When Zhang Lie first ascended to the third realm, he didn't have the strength to gather more of the main ingredients. Now, however, with Zhu as the ruler of the unified world, he would be able to source as many of the ingredients as he wanted.
"I'll have to see," Zhu replied, eyeing the list.
"In that case, I'll thank you for your help in advance, Zhu!"
Zhu waved a hand airily. "There's no need to be so polite, Zhang Lie. If not for you, I could hardly have lived past childhood."
Zhang Lie retrieved the special lifeform's carcass from his dimensional storage, roasted it, and then consumed it.
[For consuming the flesh of an emperor-grade beast of a hundred forms, you received one emperor gene fragment. Current total: 1]
Zhang Lie felt warm energy spread through his limbs upon consuming a bite of the special lifeform's flesh.
"So beyond monarch-grade is emperor-grade," he mused to himself.
Zhang Lie continued eating the meat.
[For consuming the flesh of an emperor-grade beast of a hundred forms, you received one emperor gene fragment. Current total: 2]
[For consuming the flesh of an emperor-grade beast of a hundred forms, you received one emperor gene fragment. Current total: 3]
[For consuming the flesh of an emperor-grade beast of a hundred forms, you received one emperor gene fragment. Current total: 4]
As he ate mouthful after mouthful of meat, his stomach felt as though a volcano was about to erupt. Strength frothed; light radiated from his body.
"As expected of emperor gene fragments..."
A single emperor gene fragment was stronger than ten monarch gene fragments. Unfortunately, despite consuming the special lifeform whole, Zhang Lie only received five such fragments.
Zhang Lie: a disaster-grade lifeform
Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), Ninesoul Dragonblade (pinnacle), Blade of the Heavens (pinnacle)
Genes: Basic, 160; Mutated, 150; Superior, 150; Peak, 150; Disaster, 100; Monarch, 100; Emperor, 5
Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Dragonwhale (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster)
Zhang Lie raised his head and asked, "Zhu, can you cultivate more emperor-grade lifeforms?"
"Like the one you just consumed, Zhang Lie?"
"Can you?"
Zhu shook her head. "That was pure chance, nothing more. I can experiment and attempt to figure it out, but it might take me two or three decades."
If she were to dedicate herself to farming, some would surely appear from random chance alone, if nothing else.
"Forget it, then."
Zhang Lie certainly didn't want to remain in the third realm for two or three decades.
"I'll go see if I can find the ingredients you need, then, Zhang Lie." Zhu teleported away in a flash.
Zhang Lie had just returned to where the human hunters were residing and was about to rest when Zhang Hanxiang found him. "Brother, the highest authority is looking for you!"
"Hong Tianqi? What for?"
Zhang Hanxiang shrugged. "Why else? To learn about what happened in the third realm, of course."
"Ah, I suppose so."
Zhang Lie had mentioned the collapse of the third realm to Hong Tianqi and received aid from him. Afterwards, he had been too busy maxing out on monarch gene fragments to report back to him.
"I'll go have a chat with Hong Tianqi, then!"
He strode through the teleportation apparatus and returned to the Zenith Dojo, whereupon Zhang Hong immediately asked, "What's the situation like in the third realm?"
Zhang Lie frowned. "Haven't you heard the news yet?"
It had been quite a few days since the unified world was established. Despite the time dilation, surely some of the hunters who had returned from the third realm had posted about their experience online.
Zhang Hong replied, "I learned of the news on the forums, of course, but I wanted to ask you about how much is rumor and how much fact."
"A crisis occurred in the third realm, but it's been resolved," Zhang Lie replied, "so there's no need for you to worry. I'll go chat with Hong Tianqi for a bit."
Zhang Lie returned to his room, where he attempted to contact Hong Tianqi. Evidently, Hong Tianqi was still busy; his secretary picked up instead.
Zhang Lie said, "If Authority Hong is still busy, I'll call back later."
Unlike before, there wasn't an urgent crisis looming on the horizon, and Zhang Lie could afford to wait patiently.
However, Hong Tianqi's secretary immediately replied, "Please don't hang up, Dojo Leader Zhang. The authority has requested to be notified whenever you contact him. Please allow me to inform him of this now."
"There's no need to rush. The immediate crisis is over, and I have time."
The secretary, meanwhile, had informed Hong Tianqi of the call.
"Dojo Leader Zhang, please wait for five minutes. Once the authority has dealt with his current business, he'll contact you immediately."
"Very well. I'll wait."
Zhang Lie began to surf the web.
The world federation had already sent out word that the third realm was stable once more, but there was no information of the fact that Zhang Lie and the others had unified the three thousand worlds into one.
News of the third realm had always been kept under wraps even on the forums; those hunters who had yet to ascend to the given realm weren't able to access specific information pertaining to that realm.
Zhang Lie glanced at the hunters' reactions to the news.
"So the news that the third realm was about to collapse was real after all! We all thought that the world federation was disseminating fake news—who would have believed that the realm could have just suddenly collapsed?"
"Thank goodness Zhang Lie took preventive measures against such an incident. Otherwise, the third realm might have been finished! Imagine if the hunters of the third realm hadn't evacuated in time..."
"Zhang Lie has saved not only the third realm, but also the lives of all hunters within!"
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