Chapter 2698: Level 2 Black Zone(2)

’That was a bit of overkill. A trillion years’ of Eternal Essence would’ve been more than enough,’ Yuan thought to himself as he absorbed the Eternal Essence it left behind, which only took several seconds.

Once he was done, Yuan started moving again, chasing after his next target.

Seeing him leave without warning them, the observers snapped out of their daze and hurriedly chased after him.

A few minutes later, Yuan encountered another Void Specter. This time, it resembled a boar, but its body was absolutely massive, rivaling a small mountain in size.

However, a second later, two trillion years’ worth of Eternal Essence descended upon the mountain-sized Void Specter, flattening it in the blink of an eye.

“Heavens! He defeated a Colossal-grade Void Specter with a single move! It didn’t even get a chance to attack!”

“Has he always been this powerful?! I refuse to believe that he’d grown so much in such a short time span!”

“Where is his power even coming from? His cultivation is only at the Sixth Ascension!”

The observers were so shocked that they couldn’t keep their voices down, despite having remained completely silent throughout the entire journey.

’Is that power from his original world?’ Ironwoman wondered inwardly. His abilities seemed so otherworldly that she couldn’t think of any other explanation.

Yuan continued defeating Void Specters one after another. Even after encountering more than a hundred of them, he had yet to see two with the exact same appearance. It was almost as though each one was unique in its own way. Some bore similarities to others, but none were ever completely identical.

After spending a few weeks in the Level 2 Black Zone, Yuan suddenly stopped hunting and turned to face the observers.

“I know I was only approved to enter the Level 2 Black Zone, but I overestimated this place. It’s far too easy, so I was wondering if we could head to Level 3 instead?”

“…”

Although every observer had their face covered, their disbelief was still painfully obvious.

“It’s not that simple,” Ironwoman said, shaking her head.

“To enter the Level 3 Black Zone, you need to be accompanied by people who are qualified to go there, and none of us here meet that requirement.”

“So it’s too dangerous even for you, huh?” Yuan remarked.

“I’m not invincible, after all.”

“How many people even meet that requirement, anyways?” he then asked.

“Less than five people…” she responded.

“That’s… quite low.”

“It is. In any case, if you want to go to Level 3, you’ll have to go back and speak with General Mei.”

“Alright.”

With no other choice, Yuan returned to his training.

Although the Void Specters there yielded far more Eternal Essence than those in an ordinary Black Zone, they were also much more spread out, making them significantly longer to find. Because of this, Yuan wasn’t actually gaining Eternal Essence much faster than in the Black Zone.

“I haven’t seen any tunnels so far. Do they even exist in here?” Yuan suddenly asked.

“They do, but they’re exceedingly rare,” Ironwoman replied. “They’re also extremely dangerous and difficult to clear. Even the ordinary Void Specters there can rival a Void Guardian from a regular Black Zone.”

“Sounds like the perfect place for training…” Yuan remarked, hoping to find one soon.

However, eight months passed without Yuan encountering a single tunnel.

“Yuan, we need to start heading back,” Ironwoman eventually said to him.

“We were only authorized to remain out here for a year at most. If we leave now, we’ll be approaching that limit by the time we return.”

“Okay.”

Although Yuan had increased his Eternal Essence by another trillion years during this training session, the gains were far below his expectations, leaving him unsatisfied. Unfortunately, despite being significantly more dangerous, the Level 2 Black Zone had yielded results that were barely any better than those of an ordinary Black Zone, not to mention the lack of tunnels.

A little over two months later, Yuan and the others returned to Gaia’s Heaven.

“I’m going to report back to General Mei now. I’ll let her know about your desire to visit the Level 3 Black Zone while I am at it,” said Ironwoman when they returned to base.

“Thanks.”

As for the Midnight Squad, they vanished without a word.

Once he was alone again, Yuan didn’t head straight home. Instead, he went to the training hall to see how much closer he had gotten to clearing the 48th floor.

Meanwhile, Ironwoman briefed Mei Feng on Yuan’s training session as they watched the recording together.

“This guy… Has he been hiding this much strength from the very beginning, or did he gain it after the recent incident?” Mei Feng muttered with a baffled expression as she watched the recording of Yuan effortlessly sweeping through the Level 2 Black Zone, treating it no differently from any of the lower-level zones.

“I don’t know, but I can tell you this—he feels like a completely different person now. It’s like watching a beast that’s finally had its shackles removed,” Ironwoman replied.

Mei Feng sighed aloud, “His strength is beyond what I was anticipating. I don’t know what to do with him now…”

“About that…”

The Ironwoman proceeded to tell her about Yuan’s desire to visit the Level 3 Black Zone.

“Level 3 Black Zone? That would mean…” Mei Feng rubbed her eyes and sighed again. “I’ll speak to the Supreme General later.”

Some time later, Yuan left the training hall and made his way home.

“I still have a long way to go before I can clear the 48th floor…” he sighed.

Suddenly, he came to an abrupt halt when he noticed a group of soldiers loitering in front of his building like a bunch of solicitors.

“They are…”

Yuan noticed that they were all low-ranking soldiers. More importantly, he recognized many of their faces from the recording of the recent recruitment.

Sure enough, they were all soldiers who had recently left their respective cities to join Gaia’s Heaven’s military in hopes of getting closer to Yuan. However, because they had been required to complete boot camp first, none of them had been able to approach him until now.