Chapter 925: Drug Development

Everything happened so quickly that the entire battlefield fell silent.

The warlords again marveled at Zhang Lie's strength. He was so strong that his techniques were impenetrable to the eye—they could see that he had done something, and they could see the outcome of what he had done, but the process in between seemed to be obscured completely.

Zhang Lie returned to Gold Comet's side. As he took in Gold Comet's deflated expression, he patted it on the back. "Don't worry. There are plenty of strong foes out there, and you'll have more than enough opportunity to shine."

Gold Comet nodded.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Zhang Lie turned to Xing Ying. "Inform the members of Team Zenith that we're done here—tell them to return."

The warlords could clean up the battlefield without his help. Zhang Lie shattered space and returned to the draconian world.

.

The moment he returned, the draconian sage teleported to his side. "Well? Is everything resolved?"

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes. "Are you underestimating my strength?"

The draconian sage laughed heartily. "I suppose you're right. If you step in yourself, there's nothing you can't handle."

Zhang Lie asked, "Where is the Yeluo research facility?"

The draconian sage teleported Zhang Lie to the entrance of the facility, which was located in the draconian capital. Within the facility, countless spiritual herbs were being cultivated and grown. Quite a number of Yeluo were moving through the facility and watering the plants around them.

Zhang Lie walked briskly through the facility, straight toward the Yeluo chieftain. Subsequently, he handed him a xuluo bone. "Chieftain, can you see if this material can be a substitute for an asura's thorn in this potion that I want to make?"

Zhang Lie handed over the recipe for the peak limit-breaking potion as well as the xuluo bones he had collected. During the war against the xuluo, Zhang Lie had amassed quite a lot of xuluo bones via Li Zongming. Unfortunately, he hadn't managed to collect the bones of the xuluo king, although he did succeed with the four great xuluo lords.

The Yeluo chieftain pondered the question for long moments. "I can't give you a definite answer, your majesty. If you don't mind, would you be willing to leave these materials here? I will inform you the moment I have any success with them."

With the third realm's affairs finished, Team Zenith returned to Mars.

Although almost a month had passed in the third realm, barely two had done so on Mars. After Zhang Lie left Hong Xi with a few instructions, he brought the members of Team Zenith back to Earth.

The disciples of the Zenith Dojo that remained on Mars were able to teleport straight back to Earth via the teleportation apparatus.

Once Zhang Lie and the others returned to Earth, Zhang Lie immediately reported to Hong Tianqi,

"Matters on Mars are resolved."

Hong Tianqi sighed in relief. "As expected of you—your efficacy truly shocks me."

"Will you let me know where you've kept your map fragments in the third realm, then?"

"No problem." Hong Tianqi sent Zhang Lie a series of coordinates via transceiver.

After concerted effort, the galaxy had managed to piece together a simple map of the third realm. Zhang Lie looked at the map and the coordinates that Hong Tianqi had given him.

"This is..." Zhang Lie was shocked to see that the coordinates pointed to a familiar location. "Isn't this one of the worlds I've been to?"

Zhang Lie discovered that Hong Tianqi had left the map fragments hidden in a world to which he had already traveled, in which a battle for kingship had been taking place. "Is this fate?"

He returned again to the third realm, with the members of Team Zenith in tow. Zhang Lie had the other members of Team Zenith continue their conquest of the nearby worlds as he prepared to set off on his journey.

Just as he was preparing the five-colored dragon for travel through space, however, the draconian sage called him back. "I don't know where you're headed, but if you have time, go talk to the Yeluo chieftain. Apparently, he's made some progress with the research you tasked him with already!"

"So quickly?" Zhang Lie immediately dropped what he was doing.

"According to our research, these bones can replace the asura's thorn to some extent. This is the fruit of our labor." The Yeluo chieftain led him to a research laboratory. In a test tube rack was a vial of blood-red potion lined with skeins of gold, which wriggled like worms.

Zhang Lie asked, "How's the efficacy?"

The Yeluo chieftain shrugged. "We've done a few tests on living subjects, but they all died."

"What?!"

The Yeluo chieftain sighed. "According to our research, you need to reach a specific threshold in strength or constitution to be able to absorb the potion without any side effects."

"Just like the other limit-breaking potions, then... those who consume it will likely have to max out their peak gene fragments and superior limit fragments first."

There were a dozen or so people who satisfied these conditions within the Zenith Dojo, but most of them were on Mars. The only ones who satisfied such conditions in the third realm were the members of Team Zenith, Zhang Hanxiang, Yun Bing, Chu Feng, and the others.

Zhang Lie asked, "And will there be any side effects for those hunters who do satisfy these requirements?"

"We can't say," the Yeluo chieftain replied, with some hesitation.

A researcher standing beside him reported, "This is the first time we're making such a potion. Without your recipe, your majesty, we wouldn't have had any idea what to do."

Zhang Lie was a little vexed himself. Although the world at large believed that the limit-breaking potions were his creation, the truth was that he had simply imported knowledge from his former life into this one.

His own proficiency with potionmaking was about on the same level as the Yeluo chieftain—and if the Yeluo chieftain was unable to discern how safe this potion was to consume, it was unlikely he would be able to do so himself. Perhaps there was currently no one in the galaxy who knew more than he did about these limit-breaking potions, but he was less of a potioneer than, say, the Yeluo chieftain.

"If we stall here, we won't be able to make any further progress. Let me call Zhou Ying over."

Zhou Ying asked, "What's the matter, Captain?"

"I'd like for you to be a lab rat—or rather, to test out the newest potion that the Yeluo chieftain has come up with."

Zhou Ying's [Avatar of the Fae] boasted overwhelming vitality, and she had managed to spur its growth by combining with the shaman of the wood spirits. Furthermore, her constitution was well equipped to handle all sorts of spiritual herbs and medicines.

"What potion?" Zhou Ying asked.

"Limit-breaking Potion #4, an experimental version of it!"

Zhou Ying's eyes grew wide. "Captain, you've already come up with peak limit fragments?"

Two days ago, Zhou Ying had heard that Zhang Lie had discovered a post-disaster-grade lifeform by evolving Red Comet. Now, she learned that he was on the verge of producing Potion #4. Either event would rock the Milky Way, both in quick succession—she didn't know what to say.

Zhang Lie shook his head. "Potion #4 isn't ready yet. This is only an experimental version, and it'll have to be tested to see if it's effective."

He brought Zhou Ying to the Yeluo chieftain's research laboratory, whereupon the Yeluo chieftain brought over the experimental vial of Potion #4. He explained, "This recipe is still in its infancy, and we can't be certain of its effects or risks."

Zhang Lie added, "There are two conditions required for consuming Potion #4: to have superior limit fragments, and to have maxed peak gene fragments. Among the hunters of the third realm, only the members of Team Zenith and vanishingly few other hunters besides satisfy both these conditions. Of this small pool of candidates, you're the best suited to potion-testing."

Zhou Ying nodded firmly. "I accept the risk. You've worked hard coming up with these potions to aid our growth so that we might be able to catch up to you, and we can hardly grow strong without risk. As a genetic hunter, I'm more than happy to take this opportunity."