Chapter 2341 - My Dear, Be Good and Listen
Tianming thought he was going insane. How could there be something that just grants him progress without any effort? His divine wills were rapidly growing, seemingly without any side effects! The most he had to do was stabilize his level by properly cultivating a bit more.
The giantess wrapped her palm around Tianming, seemingly controlling every single albus in his body and infusing them with a kind of unknown energy that seeped through the black membrane to fill them up and make his divine wills grow. It was the biggest growth spurt he had experienced so far, and the thought frightened him. He could almost see the sword and tower-shaped divine wills within his albi being reinforced at a rate the eye could see. He came closer and closer to the astral god stage with every passing second. Perhaps with one last push, he could even send his caelum into the sea of order.
The insane growth made his ears ring; he didn't have to comprehend anything. The giantess just stuffed more and more power into his divine wills, and that was the extent of it. Most of his gains in the short time he was in the Oldgod Domain had been thanks to this mysterious being. Without her, he probably wouldn't even be able to take out Lin Linglin.
He almost fainted from the explosive growth. In the chaos and confusion, he felt completely overwhelmed. When he turned his eyes and looked below, he saw a green humanoid figure beneath the black membrane, lying curled up within the room. He could see the outline of the body thanks to the glow.
"As expected, the astral giantess is in here...." He could almost see her fair skin through the membrane—she was alive! The entire nest shook as countless bee-headed people's feelers shuddered. Then the light began receding and his body felt lighter as he left the palm. Like Xiaoxiao, he felt a deep emptiness in him. It was almost like he was floating above the ground and couldn't find anything firm to stand on.
"My dear, please don't fault me for pushing you to grow. You need even more power to obtain the final finger. Only then can you help me escape my suffering and return to the realm of mankind. Now go. Retrieve the final finger. When you do, I’ll grant you an unthinkable boon," she gently said.
Tianming was awakened by the voice. He could almost see the face of the person through the membrane. It wasn't a bee's face, nor was it an abstract astral glow. Instead, it was the face of a beautiful woman. She gently smiled at him, wearing an expression that could instantly melt anyone's heart. "My dear, be good and listen."
After that, a round gate appeared in front of Tianming and sucked him inside. All of a sudden, he could feel the primeval source all around him again. It suddenly occurred to him that he probably hadn't entered the ring at all. Instead, the ring was probably just a gateway to somewhere else. Even though he could no longer hear the giantess' voice, he still felt a little dazed.
"She wants me to retrieve the final finger and put my palm together with the green palm of light to save her? Is that her goal?" He felt really confused. "So she increased my level time and time again just for that?"
The logic was sound, but he was still filled with doubts and questions. "Why couldn't she just do all that inside the Oldgod Domain? As long as she gave me enough power, I'd have been able to deal with Yi Taoyao and Guchi Xiaoyin without any trouble." It felt like she had given him a taste of the power she could offer to encourage him to find the other fingers and the ring. It was too bad that Guchi Xiaoyin had taken the ring back then, and Yi Taoyao had the middle finger.
"Perhaps it's because I wouldn't have been able to kill Guchi Xiaoyin or Yi Taoyao in the Oldgod Domain to take the ring and middle finger.... Is that why she brought me here? But if she's capable of that, couldn't she just have made the nest kill those two? Why bother with all the fanfare? Come to think of it, I was the one who unlocked the tomb with my Sky Plundering Hand...." Something felt off to him.
"Are you going to fetch the middle finger for her?" Ying Huo asked.
"We'll see."
He ended up back on Meow Meow's back right away. The first thing he did was look for that mysterious ring!
"Oh, it's here." It was on his finger the entire time. Without closely inspecting it, it would look just like an Oldgod Ring. However, he wasn't able to remove it from his ring finger at all. "I can't control it!"
"Something's wrong!" Meow Meow said, turning its head back.
"I don't need you to tell me that. Were you slacking off? How’d you only cover such a small distance in that amount of time?" Tianming asked, glaring at it.
"Umm... I had no choice. I was sleepy," Meow Meow said with a pitiful look.
"Fine, then. Let's stop," Tianming said.
"What are you planning to do?" Ying Huo asked.
"My divine wills grew, so I need to make some breakthroughs. Let's get stronger first without thinking too much about it." With Ji Ji out of commission, their combat prowess had taken a huge hit. He had a feeling that the trials ahead would be even tougher. All of the participants there also had six walnuts in their heads; he couldn't afford to pass on a free power up.
"Alright, go!" The advantages of primeval source soon became clear. It was incredibly easy to absorb and convert. Tianming absorbed a large amount using five of his symbiotic cultivation codexes for maximum efficiency, and the astralforce in his body very quickly rose to incredibly high levels.
"I can't believe the control I still have despite such a huge boost." His astralforce had increased in capacity, causing the minor stella charts in his albi to expand. They were growing more complete by the second, reflecting the rapid growth in his cultivation. "I've reached the ninth level, but I can still go on!"
He went all out with no regard for balance. All five of his astral discs continued growing as his minor stella charts grew brighter and brighter. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Damn, that old monster really did make me break through twice in a row again. I'm at the tenth level now.... Who’d believe me if I told them that?"
What would have taken others a few years or decades had taken less than an hour for him. It was absolutely divine. "This ancestral world is probably hiding even more secrets."
He mustered himself and continued on.