Chapter 171: Source-Gathering Disk

Transcendental Garen sat alone in the small parlor. He had remained there ever since David left, a look of helplessness shining in his eyes.

David's genius exceeded his expectations, and when David produced the five bottles of 'Elixir of Immortality', Transcendental Garen had roughly guessed the possible direction of that mysterious organization.

Although Transcendental Garen currently held an extremely high status on Rock Planet as the strongest individual on the government's side, his foundation was far from deep.

After returning from the War Star, Transcendental Garen had exchanged all his military exploit rewards for a single chance to break through to the transcendental realm, a transcendental potion, and the corresponding resources provided by the military during the breakthrough.

Perhaps it was his luck, or perhaps it was the brushes with life and death he experienced on the War Star that allowed him to become one of the one-percent miracles.

Transcendental Garen chose not to remain in the military. He held unspeakable feelings toward the War Star—fear, disgust, anger, and hatred. To him, the War Star was the source of all negative emotions.

Many friends who had shared life and death with him had died in battle on the War Star, a memory too agonizing to look back on. Every time he recalled it, he would tremble inwardly.

For the sake of resources, he had defected to the Rock Planet government, which provided him with transcendental resources.

Because his foundation was lacking, most of his cultivation methods were obtained from the Rock Planet government. For a government that originally had no transcendentals, knowledge related to the transcendental realm was extremely scarce.

Perhaps David could accept his guidance during the armored warrior stage, but judging by David's current performance, Transcendental Garen himself understood that there was far, far too little he could teach.

Taking resources as an example, Transcendental Garen could at most support David's consumption up until his breakthrough to the transcendental realm. Without a systematic knowledge framework, David might become a transcendental, but he would end up just like Garen himself—an ordinary transcendental, capable of serving merely as the guardian of a harsh planet.

Transcendental Garen held exceptionally high expectations for David; he did not want to waste David's talent.

Coupled with the issue of that mysterious organization, sending David to Eridia First Academy became the most logical choice.

In the top-floor room, David pressed one hand onto the shoulder of the shadow servant in the void, and the knowledge orb of the God-Imbued Language (99 Mastery) flowed into his body.

As the knowledge orb of the God-Imbued Language (99 Mastery) entered David's body, illusions appeared before his eyes.

First, a massive amount of information poured into his brain, and then he found himself in a study where an elder clad in bizarre robes was imparting knowledge to him.

This knowledge included daily communication, poetry, literature, specialized terminology, and more. David sat in the study receiving one-on-one instruction.

Perhaps because this was merely linguistic knowledge, although the information was extremely complex, the duration of the illusion was not very long. It felt as though at most a few months had passed in the illusion, nowhere near as lengthy as those combat-ability illusions that lasted years or even decades upon entry.

When David opened his eyes once more, it felt as though he had simply mastered a foreign language—and not just the ability to speak and write it, but also the understanding of how to respond correctly in various contexts.

He took out the three books written in the language of the God-Imbued Great World. The words on the covers were no longer unfamiliar; instead, they carried a bizarre sense of familiarity.

'Keri's Diary', 'Overview of Magical Items', and 'Crystal Meditation Method'. The titles of the three books clearly stated their contents.

David first picked up 'Keri's Diary'. When he opened it, he froze, because even with his 99-mastery-level God-Imbued Language, he could not make sense of the contents inside. The character order was chaotic, and there was not a single word that could be read coherently.

"Encrypted!" The most likely possibility immediately came to mind, and a wave of profound disappointment welled up in his heart.

Perhaps he could use his mastery of the God-Imbued Great World's language and utilize a medium-sized server to crack this encryption; such computations would not require many resources for a medium-sized server.

However, the time and energy David would need to expend for this also required weighing whether the cost of cracking it was worth the reward. If he were to develop cracking software tailored to a new language system merely for a single diary, it simply would not be cost-effective.

David shook his head, put down 'Keri's Diary', and picked up 'Overview of Magical Items'. When he flipped open the inner pages and saw the contents inside, he let out a long breath of relief.

The contents of 'Overview of Magical Items' were not encrypted text. From the descriptions to the pictures, David could understand every single detail clearly.

This was a book introducing items with special effects in the God-Imbued Great World, recording thirty-five kinds of magical items, including the spatial ring David had obtained.

The description of the spatial ring was as follows: Spatial rings were magical storage items crafted by using the core of a spatial-capable Zerg as raw material, followed by enchanting. The size of its storage space was related to the texture of the spatial Zerg core and the level of enchantment.

David thought of the spatial-ripping core that Transcendental Garen and Transcendental Daryl had fought over. It seemed that core must have been the raw material for spatial items, though he wondered if the Interstellar Federation's spatial items also used the same raw materials.

He continued flipping through the pages one by one, and a completely different world unfolded before him.

He saw short staves capable of unleashing fireballs whose intensity could melt special steel, masks that allowed breathing underwater, amulets that provided extra strength to the wearer, and necklaces that could heal the body upon activation.

David truly and tangibly witnessed the civilization system of another world—a civilization system entirely different from the Interstellar Federation.

"Oh!" A wave of wild joy surged in David's heart. When he turned to one of the pages, he saw a familiar disc—it was precisely the disc found inside the spatial ring.

The introduction of the disc let him know what kind of item it was: a Source-Gathering Disc, a magical item that used dark crystals as energy to gather special energies in the universe to accelerate one's cultivation speed.

Those six empty grooves were precisely the places to place six dark crystals, and the activation method required a person with a God-given bloodline to activate it using their own energy.

David did not rush to take out the Source-Gathering Disc; instead, he continued reading, though nothing in the subsequent records could attract his attention anymore.

He picked up the final book, 'Crystal Meditation Method'. Upon opening it and once again seeing the chaotic recording method, he closed the book in disappointment.

Casually tossing the three books to the shadow servant, the shadow servant waved a hand, and the three books vanished, having already been stored inside the spatial ring.

David then directed his consciousness into the shadow servant's body and retrieved the Source-Gathering Disc. This time, his physical body easily caught it and carefully placed it on the floor.

From the spatial ring, he took out six dark crystals. He discovered that these dark crystals were somewhat different from the ones he usually saw; their shapes were identical, and they were much purer than the dark crystals he had seen before.

David did not know whether these dark crystals had been processed through special techniques of the God-Imbued Great World or if dark crystals naturally existed in this state. However, judging by the quantity of dark crystals in the spatial ring, there were enough for him to consume six or seven times, so he did not need to worry about the dark crystal issue for the time being.

Placing the six dark crystals into the six grooves, he manipulated the shadow servant to emit a strange beam of energy toward the center of the Source-Gathering Disc, following the instructions in the record.

Then, the Source-Gathering Disc emitted a faint glow, completely enveloping a three-meter-diameter area around it and forming a light-blue orb of light.

Since David was already standing beside the Source-Gathering Disc, he was naturally enveloped by the light orb, and his sensitive perception sensed wisps of strange energy gathering together.

"It works!" Joy flared in his heart. Could it be that he had found a method for rapid cultivation?

Without a second thought, David immediately began practicing the Eighteen Postures of Body Technique. When a set of the Eighteen Postures of Body Technique concluded, his entire body was exhausted, and all joy vanished entirely.

The reason he hadn't practiced the 'Advanced Armored Warrior Body Technique' was because there was no gene repair pod here, and he had no desire to endure bodily damage all night long. Coupled with the fact that he had matters to attend to with Transcendental Garen tomorrow, he naturally wouldn't let himself get injured.

Just as David was feeling disappointed, he suddenly sensed an abnormality coming from the shadow servant.

When he guided his consciousness into the shadow servant's body, he immediately sensed the difference: those strange energies were slowly entering the shadow servant's body, strengthening its ethereal physique.

Although this strengthening was not particularly obvious, David was extremely certain that the energy gathered by the Source-Gathering Disc had an effect on the shadow servant.

Up until now, the shadow servant's only method of growing stronger was absorbing souls, and David had always believed that was the sole way to enhance the shadow servant. But now it seemed the Source-Gathering Disc could achieve the exact same thing.

David walked out of the range of the Source-Gathering Disc, leaving the shadow servant inside. After an hour of consumption, the six dark crystals showed no changes whatsoever.

Of course, this was completely normal. Dark crystals were not ordinary energy sources; their energy was so massive that it could support a spaceship's engine for many years. Unless subjected to attacks that forced the shields up, dark crystals were extremely difficult to consume in a short period of time.