The moment the gray liquid seeped into his body, it spread like wildfire—and just like that, Ian felt his physique, divine power, and even his soul all start ramping up at ridiculous speed.
Just one drop, and Ian realized his physical strength had jumped by at least ten percent, his divine power ballooned by thirty percent, and even his soul had gotten a solid ten percent boost.
He honestly never dreamed this gray stuff he whipped up would be so insanely potent. It was straight-up unbelievable.
He popped another drop into his system, and boom—body, power, soul, all getting buffed again. The energy from the gray liquid was super pure, no sketchy side effects at all.
He still had three drops left, but Ian decided to hold off for now.
Instead, he had the Chaos vortex absorb them directly.
Sure enough, just like he guessed, once the Chaos vortex sucked up those three drops, its power shot up by a whopping fifty percent.
"What kind of power is this? Seriously, this is wild!"
Ian couldn't help wondering to himself.
Next, Ian dragged two streams of gray mist into the Chaos vortex. Three hours later, the mist had turned into ten shiny drops of gray liquid.
He used five drops for himself, let the Chaos vortex have four, and tossed the last one to Selena Owens.
"What is this stuff?"
The gray liquid didn't give off even a hint of aura, so Selena had no clue what it was either.
"Trust me, it's good stuff. Just down it and you'll see!" Ian grinned.
Selena trusted Ian enough to gulp it down without a second thought. As soon as it melted, her body, divine power, and god-soul all got a serious upgrade.
"Whoa! This stuff is magic!"
At her level, even a tiny boost would take ages and mountains of resources—yet one drop of this gray liquid gave her a noticeable upgrade in body, power, and soul.
Ian just ignored her amazement, totally focused on what the five drops were doing for him.
Once all five drops were used up, his cultivation shot straight up to late-stage Mid-Rank God. His soul was still a ways off from the eleventh metamorphosis, but it had definitely leveled up.
As for his physical body, it was literally twice as strong as before.
His physical strength now showed in his speed, defense, and raw power.
Honestly, with his current body, Ian figured he could take down Upper-Rank Gods with brute force alone.
With the Chaos vortex powered up again, Ian didn’t hesitate—he fed three more streams of gray mist straight into it.
The vortex spun wildly, and after just two hours, he had fifteen more drops of gray liquid ready to go.
The stronger the Chaos vortex got, the faster and more efficiently it could refine gray mist into liquid. So this time, Ian just ordered it to absorb all fifteen drops at once.
Sure enough, after the vortex finished absorbing all fifteen drops, its power cranked up another notch.
"Nice!"
Grinning with satisfaction, Ian fed four more streams of gray mist into the vortex. This time, it only took an hour to churn out twenty drops.
Again, Ian didn’t keep any for himself—he let the Chaos vortex gobble up all twenty drops.
Time flew by, and just like that, three more days had passed.
Over those three days, the Chaos vortex devoured hundreds of drops of gray liquid and became at least ten times stronger than before. But it finally hit a ceiling—no more upgrades, at least for now.
Ian guessed this was probably tied to his soul. If he managed another soul metamorphosis, the vortex would be able to power up even more after absorbing more gray liquid.
Even so, the Chaos vortex was now so efficient it could crank out two hundred drops of gray liquid every fifteen minutes.
Meanwhile, over those three days, Selena Owens’s soul power kept leaking away.
"Here, take these!"
Ian tossed her ten drops of gray liquid—enough to keep her going for at least a month.
After handing those over, Ian didn’t bother with her anymore and just threw himself into refining more gray liquid.
As time ticked by, his stash of gray liquid kept piling up.
Two hundred drops!
Two thousand drops!
Five thousand drops!
But when his stash hit ten thousand drops, he’d basically sucked up all the gray mist in the area.
No more mist to absorb? No problem—time to move!
He picked out a spot where the gray mist was thickest and got right back to refining.
When his collection hit thirty thousand drops, every bit of mist within a hundred meters was gone.
And as the mist vanished, his suppressed Divine Sense finally started working again.
Time to move again!
A few more days zipped by.
Ian kept switching spots, and soon he had over a hundred thousand drops of gray liquid.
He didn’t hesitate—just tossed Selena Owens a hundred drops.
Selena finally figured it out: this gray liquid was probably made by Ian refining the mist in this weird pocket space. How much had he made? She had no idea.
But one thing was clear—this gray liquid was an absolute treasure, the kind you almost never see.
She’d already absorbed the previous ten drops, which boosted her body and divine power by about ten percent each. Her soul, though, kept leaking, so it hadn’t gained much.
Just as Ian was happily refining away, one of the ancient beings sleeping deep in the Forbidden Zone suddenly showed a flash of disgust—half-awake, half-asleep, and definitely not pleased.
"Huh?"
Ian froze for a second, feeling like something out there had locked onto him.
"Scram!"
A booming voice suddenly echoed in his mind, loud and impossible to ignore.
"Who the heck was that?"
Ian blinked, glancing around in confusion.
"What are you looking at?"
Selena asked.
"Did you just hear someone talking?"
"Talking about what?"
"Telling me to scram!"
Selena’s face darkened instantly.
"Don’t get me wrong—I mean that voice was telling me to get lost!"
Selena’s expression turned weird, then thoughtful. "The gray liquid you’re refining is obviously pretty miraculous. I bet it’s super rare. Maybe the gray mist actually belongs to someone, which is why they want you gone?"
"That’s possible!" Ian nodded, then grinned slyly. "But hey, they’re the ones who dragged me here. Now they want me out? Sorry, but I’m not leaving that easily!"
"Pfft!"
Selena couldn’t help but laugh at Ian’s shamelessness. "I bet whoever brought you here is regretting it big time!"