Chapter 179: "Thunder" and "Aegis"!
Jiang Zhe was on the verge of breaking through to the peak of Domain Lord Rank Nine. In theory, he could expand his internal world to a diameter exceeding 9 trillion kilometers.
This was already very close to Luo Feng's internal world at the peak of his World Lord stage, which reached 10 trillion kilometers across.
Even if he simply used universe crystals, opening up such an immense world would require resources worth at least 1 trillion Hunyuan units.
And Jiang Zhe needed even more costly lightning-element treasures.
10 billion Hunyuan units?
That was like a drop in the ocean—barely enough to push his cultivation progress by one-thousandth.
Half a day later
A young woman named Xiaolu arrived at Jiang Zhe's manor, leading a squad of black-clad attendants.
Don't be fooled by her delicate appearance or the innocent name "Little Deer." Her strength was likely above Marquis-level Undying, even surpassing Jiang Zhe's easygoing teacher Hu Yanbo.
"Your Highness, please cooperate with our procedures."
"I understand." Jiang Zhe nodded.
"Please release your origin force and mental power."
He did as requested, sweeping his force and mind power across the detectors held by the black-clad attendants. The devices gave a pleasant chime, indicating he met the standards for Domain Lord Level One.
If he were still at the Universe Level without a life core, the devices would be scanning him instead.
"Your Highness, please give me a drop of blood. We need to verify whether your genetic structure has undergone any evolutionary leaps."
Jiang Zhe obliged and cooperated through a series of standard tests.
"All checks complete. Your data has been updated across the Virtual Universe Network. You've been removed from the Universe Level Primal Secret Realm and automatically promoted to the Domain Lord Level Primal Secret Realm. We wish you continued dominance in the Domain Lord Qualification Battles, which are over five centuries away."
As she spoke, Xiaolu handed Jiang Zhe a world ring.
"Your Highness, this contains your allocated cultivation resources. If they're insufficient, you'll need to cover the rest yourself."
"I know. Here, take this."
Jiang Zhe handed Xiaolu a lustrous green treasure orb.
Xiaolu's eyes widened in shock as she inspected it, glancing between Jiang Zhe and the orb.
"Your Highness, this is…?"
"Send it to Chaos City. Sell it off. Deposit the proceeds into my clan contribution account. Then buy lightning-element treasures worth 10 trillion Hunyuan units and deliver them to me."
Xiaolu solemnly put away the orb. "Understood, Your Highness. I'll even stream the process live as I offer the treasure to the clan."
Yes—Jiang Zhe had chosen to sell a top-tier treasure—the Emerald Orb—just to gather enough cultivation resources.
He had no choice. The free quota from his teacher, the Lord of Darkness, was already extremely generous, yet still fell short.
His own assets weren't enough either. And he was reluctant to dismantle the treasure points his teacher had given him.
Fortunately, these heavy treasure orbs were renewable resources. Even for his future World Lord cultivation, he'd be relying on these little gems.
Don't mistake these for the twelve heavy treasure orbs that formed the canopy of the Hunyuan Umbrella—they weren't even close in rank. That umbrella canopy was made from the "ancestors" of these heavy treasure orbs, at a far higher level.
The tricky problem of "external assignments"
"Your Highness, there's another matter," Xiaolu said. "According to company regulations, Domain Lords must be externally stationed."
She looked at Jiang Zhe. "Typically this means being posted back to your home universe country. However, your friend Luo Feng already advanced to Domain Lord before you and chose to return to the Qianwu Universe Country. If you also return there, it would infringe on his jurisdiction."
"But you clearly have reasons to return. How should we arrange this for you?"
The black-clad attendants all lowered their eyes and pretended to be deaf and blind—professional to the extreme. They'd served countless core princes but never seen one with this much leeway, where they had to negotiate external postings with him.
Jiang Zhe frowned. "Xiaolu, do I really have to go back with some official title? You know these external assignments are child's play to me. Even World Lord life-or-death trials are little more than games. When I return home, I just want to raise children and meditate on the fundamental laws."
At the peak of Domain Lord, he already possessed an internal world nearly 10 trillion kilometers across, meaning he could freely comprehend the laws of lightning and earth without fear. Once he fully grasped a complete lower law, connecting to the Sea of Origin, he wouldn't accidentally shatter his life core and advance directly to Undying.
As for the tedious missions Luo Feng had undertaken during his external assignment—Jiang Zhe had zero interest. Not even the coveted "Locke Divine Water" could tempt him.
63 billion Hunyuan units?
Sorry—his teacher had already given him a Domain Lord-level quota of 100 billion Hunyuan units.
Xiaolu sighed helplessly. "Your Highness, we still have to go through the motions. And you must carry an official title back—it's a matter of respect. Your identity is no longer what it once was. You need to care about appearances."
Jiang Zhe chuckled inwardly.
It was precisely because he was so detached that he didn't cling to appearances.
"Fine, fine, I'll listen to you." He waved dismissively. "My junior brother isn't power-hungry. Talk to him, have him split the Monitor Envoy title with me."
Xiaolu nodded. "Yes, Your Highness. I'll handle it shortly. Any other instructions?"
"After you secure the D-grade lightning treasures, use the rest of my contribution points to purchase as many E-grade lightning treasures as possible."
The terrifying resource drain of expanding a light-year-scale internal world made Jiang Zhe wince every time he thought about it.
"Understood, Your Highness. Rest assured, we won't disturb your cultivation."
Xiaolu and the attendants bowed deeply, then transformed into streaks of light and departed.
Refining the lightning treasures
Jiang Zhe returned to his stilted bamboo dwelling to begin seclusion.
He sent the D-grade lightning treasures into his Thunder Prison World, refining them to accumulate energy for the Domain Lord phase.
A dozen hours later…
Xiaolu arrived at Chaos City and started a live broadcast for Jiang Zhe, offering the heavy treasure orb to the clan and receiving 35 treasure points in return.
That was enough to secure lightning-element treasures to keep Jiang Zhe cultivating for a long time.
Thanks to the "Nether Blood Egg" inhabiting the Thunder Prison World, its digestion capacity soared. Unlike the Golden Horned Beast, which needed decades to reach the peak of Domain Lord, Jiang Zhe's breakthrough wouldn't be delayed.
Six months later
By then, a total of D-grade lightning treasures worth 35 trillion Hunyuan units had been delivered to Jiang Zhe's estate—surpassing even the wealth threshold of lower Cosmos Venerables.
The purchases were so massive they even caused market prices for lightning-element treasures to fluctuate.
Jiang Zhe often thought, Thank goodness Teacher had the foresight to assign me a dedicated procurement agent. Otherwise, buying from the clan treasury myself would've made me famous for all the wrong reasons.
The harvest of his internal world
In the year 2285 of the Hanxia calendar, Jiang Zhe awoke from his insights into the Thunder God Codex.
Sensing the nearly 10 trillion kilometer diameter of his internal world within the core, he smiled in satisfaction.
"At Domain Lord peak, my internal world matches Luo Feng's at the peak of World Lord. I can't even imagine how terrifying my world projection will be once I reach the World Lord level."
"Even a Cosmos Venerable's spacetime law domain might not compare."
He summoned his Demon Avatar, handed over the life core for safekeeping, then dived into his internal world.
Looking at the massive tree trunk scarred by ten monstrous ghost faces, Jiang Zhe resumed his 9,000-kilometer-tall form and hefted his equally enlarged lumber axe.
"Brother, stop giving me more secret techniques. I can't learn them all. Give me a defensive treasure instead."
"Thunder" and "Aegis"
The axe slammed down.
"Pangu Axe! Taiji Diagram! Chaos Bell! Heaven & Earth Diagram! Wind-Fire Cushion! Exquisite Pagoda! Three Treasures Jade Scepter! Five-Color Flag! Heaven-Flipping Seal! Purple Robe…"
Time to test his knowledge—he rattled off names like he was reading a restaurant menu.
Thunk!
The axe slipped from his hand, shrank back to normal size, and landed on the stone table.
Jiang Zhe returned to his normal size, stepped onto the grass, and picked up a golden light cluster.
His finger brushed it—golden light faded, revealing two objects.
"A lightning orb? And… a round shield covered in beast hide?"
He instantly sensed they were linked, though their exact origins didn't come to mind.
Bonding with new weapons
He experimentally touched the crackling lightning orb.
A surge of ancient information blasted into his mind.
His fingertip throbbed. His soul winced. A drop of blood fell. A wisp of spirit was drawn out, fusing into the orb. Ownership established.
He gripped the orb, squeezed, and it exploded into arcs of electricity that snaked along his fist, forming a three-meter-long lightning spear.
Or perhaps—a lightning lance.
"You shall be called Thunder!"
Next he picked up the round shield, large enough to guard half his body.
It was shaped like a woman's grotesque roaring face, eyes inlaid with earthy gemstones, hair twisting into poisonous snakes, four symmetrical knobs around the rim etched with intricate runes.
"You shall be called Aegis!"
Ready for the next stage
Holding spear in one hand, shield in the other, dressed in a simple white robe that revealed his powerful, sculpted muscles—Jiang Zhe looked like a hero out of ancient Greek myth.
He sparred for a moment, then tilted his head, as if listening.
"Who dares call upon this God-King?"
"…Huh? No one? Must be my imagination. Definitely no one's calling me."
He muttered nonsense, ignoring a certain someone's desperate plea.
"Wait—don't cut the 'connection line'!"
Seeing his Silver-Clad Primordial Spirit about to flip the table and sever everyone's link to the Sea of Origin, Jiang Zhe relented.
"Once I leave the Primal Secret Realm, I'll send it over."
He planned to keep a low profile from now on—raise children, comprehend the origin laws—while letting his Silver-Clad self undergo life-and-death trials, battle Marquis-level powerhouses, and develop ultimate techniques from shared insights.
Preparing for slaughter on Tongtian Mountain
"Thunder and Aegis"—a spear and shield. Perfect for his Silver-Clad Primordial Spirit.
Poor Silver-Clad—he left Earth with a bunch of mere fifth-rank origin force gear, now as worthless as scrap.
But even these couldn't be used yet. Fully activating the two weapons required complete mastery of the entire lightning law and earth law, and they were still a little short.
Climbing Tongtian Mountain
Jiang Zhe exited his internal world and logged into the Virtual Universe.
"Oriana," he said, "send me to the Tongtian Mountain plane."
"Not Tongtian Bridge?" she asked.
"That's for testing law comprehension. I don't want to brute force my way through with overpowered combat strength. Tongtian Mountain is different—there it's all about raw battle. Anything goes."
While his law comprehension was only around Tongtian Bridge Level 15, if he unleashed 50x soul amplitude and Venerable-level willpower, he could easily smash through to Level 18.
(He had 60x total soul amplitude: 50x base + 10x from the Ancient God Blood Crystal.)
But he had no interest in such showy displays.
Oriana nodded. "Understood. Beginning transfer."
The massacre begins
Jiang Zhe appeared on a vast, desolate land and flew directly toward the highest peak of the Primordial Tongtian Mountain.
At the foot of the mountain, a Minotaur, an Ape-Man, and a Snake-Woman were playing cards on a rock.
Seeing Jiang Zhe arrive, they quickly tossed their cards aside and lined up respectfully.
They were still wary—last time he'd completely crushed them.
The Minotaur, clutching a massive dark purple axe, rumbled, "Your Highness, confident to tackle Domain Lord Tongtian Mountain right after breaking through?"
The Snake-Woman added, "Your Highness, your Tongtian Bridge record is still only at Level 12. Shouldn't you clear that first?"
Jiang Zhe shook his head. "Enough chatter. Start the fight—you'll see why I came."
They exchanged solemn looks. The Ape-Man nodded. "As you wish, Your Highness. We won't waste your time."
Whoosh!
Instant kill
The battle exploded instantly.
"Your Highness, look at me—aren't I beautiful?" the Snake-Woman purred seductively.
The Minotaur lifted his giant axe and swung down, tearing the space with a horrific crack.
The Ape-Man, a spiritual force user, sent an arcing blade of mental energy slicing toward Jiang Zhe's neck.
Jiang Zhe didn't move—he only stared.
His deep eyes suddenly brimmed with dark, sinful desire. From a gentle gentleman, he became the embodiment of primal sin.
His lips parted slightly. A single low command:
"Die!"
A willpower strike!
Even without any special mystic technique—just like an ordinary person swinging a punch purely by instinct—his Venerable-class willpower was enough to make an Undying expert reel.
It was like a 25-year-old punching a 15-year-old. No technique required—the raw force alone was devastating.
Total wipeout
The illusion shattered. The Snake-Woman's soul rebounded on itself, killing her instantly.
The Ape-Man's mental energy shattered; his crescent blade fell harmlessly. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.
The Minotaur's mind simply broke, leaving him a drooling idiot.
First stage: instant clear.
Jiang Zhe continued up the mountain.
Neither the guardians at the midpoint (10x stronger) nor those at the summit (100x stronger) could halt his advance.
At the summit
Amid swirling mists, the three guardians' corpses slowly climbed back to their feet.
Still recalling Jiang Zhe's terrifying shout that seemed to rupture the world, they shivered.
"Congratulations, Your Highness."
"Congratulations on conquering Primordial Tongtian Mountain again."
The Snake-Woman couldn't help asking, "Your Highness… was that a spirit attack like illusionists use?"
"Not spirit—willpower."
Jiang Zhe smiled, pointing from his brow to hers.
"A rare willpower strike in the original universe. I only dabble in it, truly."
No top-tier lightning weapons available yet—no Feidian Spear like Yang Ren's, no Zidian Hammer like the Master of Heaven's…
So he had to borrow a bit from other myths instead
---
Thanks "Ethan Epifanie" for supporting us on patreon
[A/N: Want to read more chapters in advance?
Check out my Patreon at "DigitalToons" for early access and exclusive content!
You can read 100+ chapters there in advance.
```And consistent chapter update everyday , 2 chapters every day
``` ]