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Chapter 1,359.

🕑 Added 2025-04-07 18:00:08 +0000 UTC

Comments

Edgar Segura

The primordial didnt join the ladder.

MacMahon Wenzl

Zac recognizing himself as a troublemaker is peak.

Apickletus

Upgrading Earthly daos by two stages is too optimistic by its own. Zac’s state is the worst of all his dao breakthroughs, both bodies are damaged, the Primo and Roan’s supreme daos also threatens to subvert his daos. Zac just used the void Emp bloodline to suppress the bits of A-grade daos in his human body and the purified C-grade transformation energy in his draugr body.

Jeff McCulley

Skimming some notes, it struck me that the missing ninth sealbearer (assuming Sacred Insight and the Primordial) is likely Kelvinios—the “mysterious” guy on the leaderboard. And that; A. He’s from an A grade faction, the one that… B. Sponsors the Radiant Temple, and that… C. The reason he kept falling on the boards is that he’s an ass, and no one liked working with him. And thusly… D. He’s the weakest of the other eight Flamebearers. And, oh yeah… E. That’s him coming after Ventus, whom Ventus has been avoiding like the plague. Oh, and lastly… F. TOTALLY unrelated Wild Ass Guess…Tavza is about to become a Flamebearer. I mean, seriously. Just a random thought there, completely out of nowhere! More on the Flamebearers later.

Jeff McCulley

The whole inner zone for the Hollow Court appears to be a massive, endless cavern. Roan tucked him away somewhere safe to recover, perhaps even buried in fertile soil.

Jeff McCulley

Or, he ate her item…

Jeff McCulley

Ooh, good point! Hello, Tavza?

Jeff McCulley

The first problem I see is, you’re assuming his bloodline is broken, and we don’t know that yet. Secondly, any time Zac suffers a setback or handicap, he usually comes out ahead later because of it. WAY ahead.

Jeff McCulley

Remember when Esmerelda was talking about finding what she needed in the ruins, before the memory domain fully formed? Well, there are ruins here. The memory domain seems not to be fully formed. What if she’s mad because Zac accidentally ate what she was looking for? THAT would be hilarious!

Jeff McCulley

True!

Tomer Yud

Amazing chapter! as always

Rabauke

Every time I read about a setback like this, especially because Zac went above and beyond to save someone or positively impact many people, it’s a real bummer. As I see it, he chose to take a huge risk mainly due to personal circumstances, but it enormously impacted the empire and its fate. With big risks come big rewards, so I expected a nice payoff at the end of it. Now we have the Dao upgrades, which is nice, and the tempered heart, but in my perspective, these are Zac's accomplishments alone. He was bombarded by the Supremacy’s insights and Dao, and he did the best he could while simultaneously fighting for his life. These accomplishments are a nice tidbit but belong solely to him. He needed his bloodline to survive this, and now it’s broken. The consequences of this are unclear, but they are undoubtedly bad for his cultivation. His ability to use the void has been essential for his survival on many occasions, and now that he has reached the inner courts, it feels like things just have to get harder for him – but why? Where is the balance? If none of these big shots step up and give him something to circumvent this, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I get the whole absolute underdog trial thing, but I read the Twilight Ocean chapters a while ago, and the balance between setbacks and gains felt much better back then. Just my perspectives and personal thoughts.

RWS

That's how you know that Zac really is a troublemaker, even his draugr half is complaining about him. I wonder if both bodies have to be upgraded at the same time to successfully complete his bloodline evolution. Thanks for the chapter.

John

Zac’s gone through Dao epiphanies where he could have upgraded two stages instead of one. He didn’t and I remember it was because he wanted even more time to digest his recent understandings to ensure that his foundations remained stable. What’s the chances he actually upgraded his two Daos twice here instead of once? This isn’t an average Dao epiphany, even compared to his previous ones. Supremacy grade forces acting as grindstones for his Daos, an immensely improved Dao Heart, and an 8 decade long personal Dao/Heart strengthening simulation to review. All three parts playing off one another. And while the Bloodline evolution was a failure it was being used to help power the epiphany in some way which may have also had a boosting effect. That may even be why the evolution failed, Zac was redirecting power meant for the evolution to power the Dao upgrade. I can’t wait for Zac to meet back up with the Margrave. I would think the Margrave remembers Zac and rewards him in some way accordingly. The Imperials and the Margrave specifically seem to be somewhat adept and interested in Void stuff considering how the Margrave arrived to the Mox fight. Maybe a reward Zac is given helps fix the failed bloodline evolution. That way any goodies Zac gets in the trials later go toward actually pushing forward instead of regaining lost potential

Borbino the great

Yeah I think it is and especially it happening to his void bloodline is a huge blow

Gaige Bradley

I think zacs bloodline tried to eat esmeralda which would have triggered a bloodline evolution? My only guess

Joshua Little

Thanks for the chapter.

Tartlet

Is this Zac’s first failed breakthrough? I know he has had some rough breakthroughs, but I can’t remember any outright failures

Andrew

Thank you!

Tommy

Can Zac handle a C grade Zoid Emperor at D grade? I thought he couldn’t. He was well into each grade before his other upgrades.

Jeff McCulley

His Earthly Daos of Life and Desth are now both Middle stage.

Summas76

What was the breakthrough for? Earthly Daos? I feel like I vaguely recall a line saying how he couldnt form one of them at different times because it would leave him out of balance. This was the solution? Or did he just upgrade his Main Branches/Braids?

B-Slam

I think Zac gained quiet a few levels stewing in A gade Dao energy for two weeks, upgraded his Life and Death Daos, sounds like he made progress on the cosmic attainment and no doubt has even more luck then before. Do you think fixing whatever trouble a failed bloodline evolution will be why Zac seriously aims for the Void heritage in Ultom. Where do you think Zac human bodies is at the moment, underground somewhere I doubt it's Orgas that found him.

Alex

DOF probably is designed structurally, the chapters filled in later. Who knows how much influence comments here on Patreon might have in real time? A tiny bit maybe? May Brink be with us :)

Booksaregood

You guys got too hype in the comments so he decided to throw a setback in there.

NiceTryMate

Wonder what new changes his bodies have undergone? Has he gotten a new milestone on his “cosmic attainment” title? Ref: “Zac immediately noticed quite a few internal changes, but dealing with the tribulation came first.” TFTC

Taylor Greenwell

My hope is that since he wasn't actually trying to upgrade his bloodline and it is not like a core upgrade where you are actually demolishing something first and then having to reform it resulting in complete crippling if you fail, that it doesn't actually do anything. He simply stays where he was previously in terms of his bloodline.

Dro

I think he stole a bunch of benefits and energy from the other trial takers but it wasn't enough (the last upgrade needed to eat an entire fortress worth of Limitless-empire quality items from a Monarch-level fortress). So he took everything he could from the trial takers but it wouldn't be enough to upgrade his bloodline to Monarch level. Which, going from what was needed for the previous evolutions, would basically need an entire Autarch-worth of energy and items - ie he ate peak D-grade worth of stuff to advance his void from F to E-grade. He then ate what seemed like peak C-grade worth of items/energy to upgrade it from E to D grade. So seems likely he might need peak B-grade worth of items/energy to upgrade his void to C-grade....

Jeff McCulley

Two of the three Daos, I didn’t see Conflict in the mix. Did I just miss it? Going to reread.

Jeff McCulley

Okay, I’ll bite (pun intended). Why did Zac fail his bloodline evolution? Limited by race level? Not enough munchies? Suppressed by a higher grade? Come to think of it, if he’s not in a memory domain, the only other people around should be sealbearers. The actual Trial folks, from outside. For this Pillar. Er, mostly.

Dro

Just means he'll have to eat a chunk of Ultum when he finally does advance it - or maybe a supreme void treasure he gets before the final part of the arc. Since any benefits he got in the left Imperial expanse should be lower in quality up the rewards/benefits from this court - not to mention whatever heaven-shattering upgrades from the main part of the trial after he's done with this court.

Jeff McCulley

Ditto!

Tom C

Failed bloodline upgrade… knowing Zac this will be a blessing in disguise and whilst painful now, will probably lead to some ridiculous fortune soon enough TFTC

Tyler

I can't recall ever reading about failed bloodline evolutions, but other failed upgrades usually have drawbacks.

Michael

More likely Wa’Zol

Jeff McCulley

That was a fun chapter… …until the “failed bloodline evolution”.

Dirk Gent Lee

Does failing an evolution carry consequences outside of failure? I can’t remember.

Palmer Evans

Karz or Laondio gonna help him out with his bloodline at some point during the trial?

Rayyyn

So he upgrades his daos right? But his bloodline upgrade failed? Poor Esmeralda lol

Tyler

And, perhaps this is what the Tayn's were worried about too. I'm assuming something that can happen in the trial that allows the System to gain Authority that they have.

Tyler

So, it seems each Halo represents Authority gained by the Empire through actions in the Memories. Does the System gain this Authority in reality?

Taylor Greenwell

I am hoping that it just means he stays where he was already for now rather than causing actual damage like happens when a half-step hegemon fails the core formation or when a hegemon cripples their core during an upgrade. It sounds like he successfully upgraded his earthly daos while failing the bloodline evolution since he wasn't actually trying to upgrade the bloodline?

Lex Luther S

Ohhh zac. Well, two weeks have past since zac brought 3 supremacies to help kill a GOD and no doubt mox suffered greatly. Though I wonder what happens to the real Mox, if she's still alive, should her memory domain self die? I imagine it'd be a heavy blow to her authority and heavenly territory. Still though, the gains are insane. Not only did he get to eat up some tribulation lightning but he also broke through with his daos of life and death, giving a much needed boost to his strength. Guess it is a good thing Kaltosa Lu isn't there or zac wouldn't have been able to eat up some surrounding treasures, much to esmeraldas ire. Oops. Welp, a day or two for full recovery and human zacs gonna have to go find ogras and tavza and take care of the other fellows from the radiant temple. Easy peasy, especially after his most recent breakthroughs.

Merc715

Upgraded his Daos, looked like. His Life and Death Daos are likely at middle now.

Taylor Greenwell

What breakthrough was happening? If he wasn't trying to upgrade his core, was it really just his bloodline he tried to evolve or was it something else he evolved successfully while his bloodline unintentionally was on the verge of evolving as well but didn't? And does the failure mean his bloodline is going to be badly inhibited like a half-step hegemon who failed to form a core and therefore was basically crippled?

Lizy Flore

I was smiling through the entire chapter, then I saw the last line and was like “shit.” Thanks for the story!

Alexander Dupree

Shit that’s gonna be a setback. Failing the bloodline upgrade is definitely going to fill him with blockages

Ether Harwell

Yay


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