Just as Zong Ze was lamenting, the flickering light barrier suddenly flashed.

"Pop!"

After a dull sound, the light barrier burst like a bubble.

"This damned barrier has finally burst!"

The gloom on Zong Ze's face vanished, and he broke into a smile.

He discovered this chamber several days ago by chance. At that time, the wound on his arm from battle had not fully healed. While studying this barrier, his wound accidentally touched it.

At the same time, a system subtitle appeared in front of him.

[Arcane Affinity—High Level]

[Blood sacrifice to open the barrier]

The hint was simple; it seemed the barrier had detected his talent.

And it's solely an arcane talent. Even with minimal thought, Zong Ze could associate the gray sphere inside the barrier with arcane matters.

As far as he knows, arcane should be a category of mage, like elements such as water, fire, and thunder.

Arcane is a single element, albeit as mysterious and rare as time and space, a fact Zong Ze learned from inquiring with the Water Mage Girl.

However, that gray sphere certainly isn't simple; otherwise, it wouldn't appear out of thin air inside the mountain and be isolated with High-level Magic Pattern Stones.

Just the High-level Magic Pattern Stones alone, broken down into Intermediate and Low levels, can be exchanged for many resources in the market, so the value of this gray light ball makes Zong Ze highly expectant.

Unlike Zong Shen, who has strategy hints, Zong Ze often only gets vague suggestions and has to explore step by step. Luckily, his luck has been good, and his strategic insight has kept his development pace at a leading level.

The barrier absorbs about a dozen drops of blood each day to become saturated, each time dimming a little.

Zong Ze tried to have his warriors or farmers bleed, but to no avail.

Blood from others would just smoothly flow down the surface of the barrier to the ground, and only his blood could be absorbed by it, although only in a fixed daily amount.

He had bled for several consecutive days, healing wounds nearly closing before it's time to bleed again, leading him to bandage his palm daily and endure minor flesh wounds every day.

The hardest part was seeing but being unable to obtain, making it an agonizing wait for Zong Ze, even feeling a day passes like a year, his heart aching with anticipation.

Now Zong Ze finally gets what he wanted, releasing the anticipation accumulated over several days today.

The moment the barrier disappeared, Zong Ze placed his two hands on the stone platform, his eyes staring fixedly at the gray sphere.

The sphere had a peculiar form, appearing somewhat as both energy and gaseous.

The entire sphere was enshrouded with wispy gray gas constantly surging like restless dark clouds.

As Zong Ze stared at the gray sphere, within mere seconds, a sudden throbbing and desire arose in his body, like a compelling, strong allure from the sphere.

However, he couldn't glean any information about the sphere, as if its tier had reached some unfathomable level, further enhancing its mystery and intensifying the longing in Zong Ze's heart.

If Zong Shen were here to use strategy hints to inspect this sphere, he would obtain some useful information.

[Arcane Heart (Unknown)]

[Heart of a powerful Arcane Spirit born in the Void between dimensions]

Unfortunately, Zong Ze could not view this information and could only act on his instincts.

Staring intently at the sphere, his pupils suddenly disappeared after a while.

They were replaced with the same gray as the sphere, with similar mist swirling in his eyes.

Zong Ze's heart began to beat rapidly, matching the pulse of the gray sphere, creating a resonance between them.

Ultimately, Zong Ze couldn't resist the allure of the gray sphere, relinquished all hesitation, and chose to follow his instinct's call; he slowly extended his right hand, touching it lightly with a fingertip.

The instant they made contact, a bond was thoroughly formed.

"Buzz!"

Dazzling gray light erupted, enveloping the whole chamber; after a fleeting moment, the gray light receded as if time reversed, contracting as explosively as it expanded.

But Zong Ze's figure had vanished without a trace, and the gray sphere on the stone platform was gone too.

Instead, a gray light cocoon appeared next to the stone platform.

Evidently, the sphere had merged with Zong Ze, transforming into a light cocoon that encased him.

Above this gray light cocoon, a countdown began from 12 hours.

As the countdown progresses, the aura inside the light cocoon gradually becomes stronger!

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