Chapter 22

After the god vanished, Yunji opened her hand to see something unexpected, the little light Zhousi had sent her was actually a divine weapon,

it was gold-white bow molded after two snakes which was surprising since Yunji's spirit beast was actually a snake, it was the crystal crowned basilisk which had reached level 10 as well.

her bow was partial to the space elements enabling hero comprehend the space laws ten times faster than she previously had been.

Hong on the other hand recieved bronze hammer no diferent from his previous hammer except this one was a divine weapon, it was decorated with a myriad flying phoenixes.

he could feel the heat emanating from the hammer and it was precisely the heat from Phoenix fire, with the radiation form the hammer the phoenix inside his sector was highly happy and it concentrated instantly.

as a blacksmith the hammer also helped him comprehend a doferent aspect about forging jus by studying its craftsmanship and sensing its purity and makings. this was a level of forging he hadn't recahed yet

next the weapon seemed impartial to the laws of time, although he hadn't reached demigod level yet, he had been at level 99 for a few years now, if it wasn't for his Phoenix having an insufficient level he would have already become a demigod.

he stored his weapon in his sector as he focused on Zise once more, Zise was returning to the ground, the spirit beast had divine Ted form him however his body had changed, although he was still 12 years approaching 13, his physique resembled that of a seasoned athlete.

his muscles were fully defined and ashe got closer, hong felt theirs on his skin rise. Zise had already reached the elemental resonance stage yet he hadn't even obtained an elemental core.

this made him wonder jus how powerful Zise would be when he had his elemental core, he grabbed the boy and covered him in his own over garment, the rod descended and as it did, it shrunk down until it vanished as it touched Zise's skin.

Hong led the boy to his room to rest for the night ahead of the journey the next day, that night the elders discussed the implications of Zise being storm god Zhousi's heir.

that would cause a lot of chaos so they decided it was better to keep it a secret for the time being and wait until he reaches level 7,

even if he raises a level each year he will be atleast 16 a the time, however it was hard to raise a level every year especially once one reaches level 4 and above.

Yunji says that for Zise it's a possibility however she wants him to delay his breakthroughs, Hong says that once a core forms delaying cultivation isn't so easy.

he tells her that the most they can am delay him is rising one level in 2 years, beyond that he will not be able to stop his own growth unless he cripples his own cultivation.

they discuss what his training would be now that he had recieved the recognition of the greatest weapon in the universe.

at the time Zise had no idea what was happening, the following morning he joined them for breakfast a changed person, he looked different they had breakfast before they escorted him to the academy entrance,

there several students were heading to their classes which had yet to conclude, in the mean time two people were waiting by the entrance, these were Gong Lan and Xiao Yun,

although Zise half expected them to appear with an entourage of people he was glad they had come alone, as he wanted to go join them Hong told him that they wouldn't be travelling with him.

his mom says that they will meet him in Xiang Nan city at the end of the fifth day, the three then headed to a carriage that awaited a short distance away.

suddenly Zise understood why the two students were alone, their entourage was in the carriage as well. he joined the two of them who seemed genuinely pleased to meet him.

on arrival Gong Lan asks whether Zise has performed a miracle and reached level 4 already. Zise says that he is yet to reach level 4 but he is at level 39 already,

Xiao Yun asks asks him how he managed to jump nine levels in a mere five weeks and Zise says that he was already cultivating level 3 he just hadn't obtained an origin crystal yet.

when he did his mana jumped by six levels and during the past month he indulged in severe training as well as consuming heaven and earth treasures and meals that allowed him to rise to his current level.

this was an engineered lie to cover for his sudden increase in strength, both his two teachers had come up with it to help him explain whenever asked as well as make people think he is weaker because of the heaven and earth treasures he consumed.

the two didn't seem to notice anything so they simply wished him luck in the upcoming competition, although he had said that, they both had experienced his strength in the competitions before.

therefore even though he had used some heaven and earth treasures to elevate his strength it doesn't negate the fact that he was still stronger than both of them individually,

maybe together they can beat him but they also didn't know just how powerful he was, during the fight he had shown just one defensive skill and despite being at rank 42 Xiao Yun couldn't break it when he was still at rank 37.

at present she had risen to rank 43 but he had risen to 39, it was safe to say he had gotten stronger, his physical appearance alone attributed to the fact that he had gotten stronger and faster in the least.

as they were waiting they were joined by an unknown cultivator, he introduced himself to them as Jia Yi, he said he came form Xiang Nan city and his task was to lead the three of them to the city.

he told them that each time the competitors have to travel to the city on foot, it serves as the test to their individual capability.

if they cannot make the journey to the city on foot then there is a big possibility they would not be able to handle the pressure and strain of the competition.

he says that his job is to make sure they arrive in the city without any incidents, with that he leads the three of them on the journey,

they head to the city however they don't take the public safe path the carriages use, since they were on foot and all cultivators they take a direct path through the forests.

only cultivators can take that path seeing as the path goes through several chaos beast hunting grounds. he tells them that they can think of it as extra training for themselves.

with him in the lead they head into the forests, for the first day they walk straight through it no problem, they traverse a wide area without encountering a chaos beast or anything of the kind.

that night they find a place to camp, during the day Zise had examined his body properly and realized that although it didn't have a quantitative change,

it had recieved a qualitative change, he felt different. of he had been called special before, now he actually felt special. his staff was located at the center of his sector however it felt different now.

it looked camouflaged, like it had recieved a boost from the thunderbolt and retained the features of the allow rod however to him it felt different.

whenever he approached it he didn't feel like he was close to a weapon but rather a living object and it wasn't a tool.

whenever he approached it he felt like he was looking at lightning in its purest form, it was exhilarating but at the same time terrifying he felt the changes in his body, he hadn't gotten stronger per say or faster.

however his bones, muscle tissue, blood vessels, blood essence and meridians had all contracted, they had become much more compact and strong.

his physical strength remained the same however at this moment he could release more of his own strength, previously although he could feel his own strength be could only unleash a portion of it as that is what his body could take.

he was waiting for his breakthrough to level 4 as the improvement could help him unleash his full potential, however this little merge with a divine weapon allowed him to obtain just that.

what he had believed to be the peak amount of mana he could absorb turned out to be nothing, with his body changed, his mana sublimated.

his body was absorbing mana at five times the original speed and condensing it ten times better, his mana was almost solid when it gathers in his sector.

also its rate of depletion during use slowed down drastically, he could now last twice as long as he previously did which in a fight makes all the difference.

that evening Jia Yi tasked Zise and Gong to be on watch, one of them would stay up first while the other will take over in the middle of the night.

Zoe volunteered to be on watch first mainly because he needed the time alone, the dragon in his sector had woken up so he tasked it with keeping a look out.

besides it was much better than him at that, he pulled out the spirit essence fruits, there were five of them and he wanted to take the first one at this exact moment, dragon told him that although Yunji's advice was right, it doesn't work for him.

the dragon told him to absorb a fruit at each breakthrough for maximum benefits, Zise then turned the two crystalline objects the dragon had insisted on buying.

during his little comprehension session with Zhousi the dragon had already absorbed the biggest one, the dragon told him they were called crystal lightning fruits and besides the thunder god, those fruits hold the purest lightning eseence.

when taken by a lightning elemental be it a beast or a cultivator, it does something unexpected. the dragon tells him that the crystal must be absorbed before the formation of the elemental core.

at that time it would help a cultivator formulate a. blood essence core, if absorbed after that it would be helpful however majority of its power would go into the elemental core.

however with Zise owning a blood essence core before an elemental core a rare occurence is observed.

the crystal will allow him to simulate the presence of not only an elemental core but also a spiritual core. this will allow him to not only sense elemental attributes before his breakthrough but also use them.

in addition it will come in handy when Zise builds his spiritual strength as he can start building that as early as the fourth level, all cultivators start the growth of their spiritual strength at level 7.

for his case it will be different, similarly it will grant him some form of immunity towards spiritual attacks from powerful opponents in the future.