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Chapter 346: Revisiting the Globe
🕑 Added 2024-01-09 17:34:12 +0000 UTCAfter the duel’s conclusion, the crowd remained.
Most of it was low-rankers. Cranxiao had been a mountain to them, a devil they couldn’t escape from. But now, that devil had been defeated and even killed by a man whose ranking was close to theirs. The nightmare was over, and the dream began.
How could they not be happy?
“He amazing!” a voice cried out from somewhere in the crowd. “He protected us! He our hero! Our big bro!”
Most didn’t see who was speaking, only heard the words, but it was enough. They were overcome with sentiment. Which of these people wasn’t an overlord back home? They were used to lording over others, but from the moment they came here, their halo had been completely extinguished. They had to endure mediocrity and even suppression.
Yet, now, someone reversed that. To all these fallen geniuses, that person…could only be a hero!
The crowd’s cheers rose to the sky as many approached Jack to congratulate him.
“That was amazing!” “From the bottom of my heart, thank you!” “I will remember this favor. If you ever visit the Sky Eye galaxy, look for me in the Sky Eye faction!” “That was so sexy!”
Those last words had been spoken by a human girl of a rowdy disposition, whom Jack looked at oddly and ignored.
Regardless, the crowd’s heartfelt sentiments touched him. “Thank you for your kind words, everyone. I did what I had to do.”
A man approached; Jack faintly remembered him as Osmu Sosmu, a guy who had been present when Jack attempted the Ceaseless Murder Globe. “There is no need to be modest. You did a great thing! Don Cranxiao was a blight, but which one of us had the strength to kill him? Even if we did, who had the courage? Nobody! Only you! Being our big bro is fitting indeed!”
“Being what?” Jack glanced at Brock, who sported an innocent look and whistled to the side. “Well, thank you all. I appreciate your kind words. In any case, I would like to head to my cabin and recover now, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, of course!”
The crowd quickly dispersed. A couple girls shot him coquettish looks, then pouted when he didn’t respond. Before long, the gathered people were gone—many planning to celebrate in small groups—leaving Jack alone with Brock, Dorman, and the Sage.
“You did well,” the Sage said. His one phrase of praise fell harder than every word spoken by everyone else combined.
“Thank you.”
“Did you practice body tempering, by any chance?”
Jack raised a brow. “Maybe. Do you know anything about it?”
“I’ve heard about it. It’s a troublesome, expensive, yet highly effective process. I assume your Life Drop played a part?”
“Yeah. I used its life energy to temper my body.”
“Fascinating.”
“Wait!” Dorman exclaimed. “You can do that? The treasure I ate contained a tone of life energy—how come it only made me fat?”
“You’re lucky you didn’t explode,” Jack said. “When I get the hang of it, I can try helping you get rid of all that extra energy.”
“Awesome!”
“Speaking of that, Sage…can you tell me what’s the deal with my Life Drop? I’ve been using it openly, just as you said, but isn’t it a bit too useful at this point? Should I be afraid?”
The Sage shook his head. “Well asked. The Life Drop, as you call it, is one of many Life Artifacts. Most are owned by B or A-Grade powerhouses. They are exceedingly rare, but each of them is different. Some can give their wielder extreme compatibility with the Dao of Life; others can greatly increase their lifespan or nourish their Dao Tree. Your artifact, thankfully, is not too useful; it only reinforces your physical body, be it through tempering or a relatively powerful battle form. That is great for someone of your cultivation, but useless for A-Grades. So, don’t worry; your body-oriented Life Artifact will only be coveted by B-Grades—at most.”
“Only by B-Grades?! Sage! That’s terrible!”
“Better than having Elders at your doorstep. You’ll be fine; with the Head Envoy behind you, no B-Grade can touch you in the Cathedral. Of course, if they were to find you outside, things would be different…so you’d best be careful.”
“Yeah, I guess I will be!”
Jack was shaken. A-Grades, B-Grades…those invincible existences might be coming after him?
Was it a mistake to reveal his Life Drop?
I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t have defeated the overseer without the Life Drop. And Don Cranxiao…I could have waited another month or two to fight him, but people would still notice my abnormally strong body.
Whatever. I did what I had to do. As for the consequences, I’ll handle them as they come.
He shook his head. He’d said this phrase a number of times since arriving at the Cathedral—it was a good sign that he needed to get stronger quickly. Both to chase the peak of cultivation, to protect his people from any dangers, and to protect himself from anyone coming after him for the Life Drop.
The Life Drop was a gift and a curse. With it, he would either soar to the heavens, or plunge down to hell. The middle road no longer existed for him.
Exactly how I like it, he thought, eyes sharpening.
“I’ll go rest a bit,” he told his friends. “Tomorrow, I’ll visit the Ceaseless Murder Globe. I’ve been practicing in solitude for too long; it’s time I see what the Cathedral can offer me.”
Defeating Don Cranxiao was a loud statement, but it was not the limit of his strength. If he wanted to ride the high road, he had to stand out as much as possible, secure every benefit he could get his hands on. Thanks to Baron Longform’s kind donation, he already had enough Dao stones to break through, but he still needed some time to prepare.
While doing so, he would awe the entire Cathedral once again.
Jack retreated to his cabin and sat down cross-legged. His strength had risen too abruptly—the battle against Cranxiao had made him aware of a few imperfections in his body and Dao control, which he needed to correct. As he sat in meditation, grinding out imperfections and practicing in his soul world, the hours passed.
Finally, his eyes opened. He was ready.
Seeing him stand up, Brock and Dorman followed. The three of them walked outside, towards the Ceaseless Murder Globe. Before they even arrived, Jack noticed a crowd gathered.
Hmm? Is some celebrity attempting the Globe?
His steps slowed, but as he approached, the crowd turned towards him.
“He’s here!” “Big Bro!”
They made way, greeting him with smiles and raised fists. Jack was speechless. “How did you guys know I’d be here?”
“How could we not know about our Big Bro?” they replied, laughing. “You are the strongest D-Grade we’ve ever seen—we want to see how high you’ll reach!”
Jack narrowed his eyes in thought. He then turned to Brock, who was still whistling sideways. “Brock,” he said slowly. “Did you…”
“Bros must support bros,” the brorilla replied firmly.
Jack sighed. “Fine. Let me have a crowd.”
These weren’t just the people who’d watched him duel. Those were only a few dozen, but now, Jack could see over a hundred people surrounding him.
Even when Lady Min Ling visited the Globe, there wasn’t such a crowd. It was natural; she was already number one, so all the crowd could do was see her go in and out. Her ranking wouldn’t change. For Jack, however, it was different. His final ranking was a hot debate topic; in some ways, it was the spiciest question on the Cathedral right now.
Since he’d defeated Cranxiao, he would almost certainly rank over 811. But by how much? Some people said 800, others said 770. A few brave ones even guessed ranks as high as 730!
Even though Jack cleanly defeated Cranxiao who was ranked 811th, the Globe’s difficulty rose steeply as one advanced. The ranks below 700 were mostly occupied by the Cathedral’s mid C-Grades, who were also geniuses themselves. As much as the crowd supported him, nobody believed that a D-Grade could reach that high.
As for Jack, he also had no idea how he would do.
Passing through the crowd, he recognized a few people. Osmu Sosmu, that once-arrogant man who’d turned into a fan, was present. So were his three friends that Jack had briefly met the last time he was here. As for Jack’s enemies, naturally, none of them were present—who knew what plans they were preparing.
However, Jack wasn’t the only one who knew people. As Brock accompanied him, he suddenly said, “Oh. Hello, Ponytail Sis.”
Jack turned, finding a human girl with blue hair done in a ponytail. She laughed as she greeted them. At the same time Jack turned, however, so did Dorman, and his pudgy eyes widened like saucers.
“The bitch!” he shouted. “What the hell are you doing here? Fuck off!”
She frowned, hurt. “That’s no way to talk to a friend.”
“What friend? You made me fat!”
“You started it.”
“You guys know each other?” Jack asked.
“Damn right we do! That’s the bitch who fed me the fat treasure.”
Her face radiated anger. “As if! You were the one who stole it, and you still have the guts to complain? If you want to know, I paid a high price for that treasure! I trusted you!”
“Please! You clearly placed it where you wanted me to take it.”
“I wanted to see if you were a decent person! Good thing I found out before I helped you break through. Hmph!”
Dorman was about to respond, but Jack raised a brow in warning. To him, the girl was clearly in the right here.
Dorman had once been a conceited, prideful individual. Now, humiliated before a crowd of peers, his pride was rearing its head, and he wanted to lash out and defend himself.
However, he did not do that. To Jack’s surprise, he actually lowered his head and said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have stolen from you. I was just desperate because my planet was at war for survival and I was stuck here getting bullied by everyone.”
His voice remained bitter. Clearly, forcing himself to speak at this point was difficult, but he still said the words, even if he only half-meant them. Jack could appreciate that.
The girl nodded, not saying anything to forgive him. She turned to Jack. “Sorry for that. I’m Esmeralda Polen, ranked 479th. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. However, Dorman aside… How do you know Brock?” He clearly remembered that Brock had called her Ponytail Sis.
“Oh, we’ve met before,” she replied with a wry smile, turning to Brock. “So, this is the big bro you mentioned, huh? Let’s see—is he really is as awesome as you say?”
“Of course.”
“Just so you know, I’ll tell my friend what happens here.”
“Yes.”
Jack raised a brow. “Do I want to know, or…”
“No,” Brock and Esmeralda replied at once, leaving him speechless.
“Okay…”
Deciding he didn’t want anything to do with all these bro antics, Jack finally pushed through the rest of the crowd and reached the Globe’s entrance. The door was open—nobody was inside.
“Can I go in?” he asked the Envoy responsible, a red-skinned creature with four fingers on each hand. It looked a lit like a frog.
“You may,” the Envoy responded. “Would you like to make the Globe transparent? It costs one additional Dao stone.”
“No, thank you,” Jack replied quickly. He had enemies now—showing them his strengths and weaknesses just to excite a random crowd was hardly worth it. Right afterward, however, he noticed another thing the Envoy had said. “Sorry—additional?”
“Every cultivator gets a free run when they first arrive. After that, using the Globe costs a Dao stone. The magic formation consumes a lot of energy.”
Jack hadn’t known that. Thankfully, he had recently acquired twenty Dao stones. With his heart aching, he took out one and passed it to the frog person.
“You may enter.”
Jack spared a final glance for the crowd—over a hundred people, all excitedly staring at him and awaiting his results. They wanted to witness the start of a legend—and Jack was inclined to give it to them.
He raised a fist, and the crowd rumbled with cheers. Brock shouted the hardest.
Then, Jack walked inside the Globe, and the door fell shut behind him. All sound was cut off. He was alone in silent darkness.
His fighting spirit was roused. The irrelevant thoughts went away. The first shadow opponent was formed, and Jack charged.
