Fang Chang's hand unconsciously wrapped around Zhu Zhu's slender waist. "Don't worry, I came back this time to take you with me."
"Ah? Take me with you?" Zhu Zhu had long suspected that Fang Chang must have come from the Divine Realm. For him to say he wanted to take her with him now...
"Are you saying you want to take me to the Divine Realm? But isn't that a place only gods can go?"
"That is true. The power in the Divine Realm is too potent. Without the strength of a god, one certainly cannot reside there for long."
"Then..." Zhu Zhu hesitated, believing that since Fang Chang had said it, he must have a plan.
"Naturally, I must first help you become a god," Fang Chang said, gently pushing her away. He then produced two items from out of nowhere and placed them on the table in front of her.
"I found these two things specifically for you. Eat them quickly, then focus on refining them into your body. I imagine it will be enough to help you achieve godhood."
Zhu Zhu blinked as she looked at the two objects before her. Both were wrapped in black cloth. One was large, about the size of an adult's head; the smaller one looked to be the size of a child's fist.
She carefully unwrapped the larger package first. Inside was a piece of dried, golden meat.
"What creature's meat is this?" Zhu Zhu couldn't help but ask. The aura emanating from the meat made even her, a level ninety-seven Titled Douluo, feel a sense of fear.
Moreover, the meat seemed to have some connection to her bloodline, making her feel an inexplicable sense of sorrow.
"Dragon meat," Fang Chang said, not specifying that it was the flesh of the Golden Dragon King. In truth, even if he had, Zhu Zhu likely wouldn't have understood the significance.
"Dragon meat?" Zhu Zhu covered her small mouth. There were many soul beasts with draconic bloodlines, but those that could truly be called dragons were extremely rare, and most were incredibly powerful.
Furthermore, for the meat alone to possess such might, its owner must have been at least at the god-level...
In other words, this was the flesh of a divine dragon!
For a mere Titled Douluo from the lower realm like her, this gift was truly precious. But Zhu Zhu didn't stand on ceremony. She readily picked up the dragon meat and swallowed it in several large bites.
Since Fang Chang said these two items could help her become a god, it was worth a try. After all, it concerned whether she could stay by his side.
As the dragon meat went down, Zhu Zhu felt a warmth rise from her abdomen and spread throughout her entire body. It was an indescribably comfortable feeling, and even her soul power began to boil.
Before she could even fully refine it, she felt her soul power surge once again, directly breaking through the shackles of level ninety-eight.
The flesh of a divine dragon really works! Zhu Zhu marveled inwardly, her feelings for Fang Chang deepening even further.
Little did she know, this wasn't the flesh of an ordinary divine dragon, but that of the Golden Dragon King. The Golden Dragon King was an avatar of the Dragon God, the former ruler of the Divine Realm, making his bloodline almost equivalent to the Dragon God's own.
Zhu Zhu's true form was a Dragon-Spider, possessing a portion of the Dragon Clan's bloodline. After consuming the Golden Dragon King's flesh, her draconic lineage evolved—this was the true benefit.
Next, she eagerly opened the second package. Inside was a small vial of dark red blood.
"What is this?" Zhu Zhu asked with a frown. She felt that this item seemed to be related to Fang Chang; it carried his aura.
"My blood essence," Fang Chang didn't hide it, directly revealing the truth.
This small vial contained blood essence he had extracted from his own body, also meant to help Zhu Zhu break through.
As the strongest spider-type soul beast in the world with the noblest bloodline, the effect of his blood essence on Zhu Zhu was likely even more potent than the piece of Golden Dragon King's flesh.
"What? I can't accept this!" The moment Zhu Zhu heard it was Fang Chang's blood essence, she immediately refused.
As a fellow soul beast, she knew very well how much damage extracting blood essence could cause to the original body. She couldn't bear to see Fang Chang suffer such an ordeal for her sake.
"Silly girl, I've already extracted it. Do you think I can just put it back?" Fang Chang rubbed her head with a gentle smile.
"Besides, even if I took it back, it would be useless to me now."
Seeing that she was still unwilling to consume it, Fang Chang continued, "Don't worry. I'm different from you all. My true form is the Undying Evil Spider Emperor. I specialize in self-recovery."
"This bit of damage isn't a serious matter for me. I've already fully recovered."
"Really?" Zhu Zhu finally looked up, her eyes slightly red as she gazed at Fang Chang.
"Have you ever seen me lie to you?" Fang Chang spread his hands helplessly.
"Hmph, you have," Zhu Zhu retorted with a look of dissatisfaction. "Even the name you told me was fake. You still say you haven't lied to me?"
This... Fang Chang was speechless for a moment. If he were to be precise, he probably had lied to her many times.
"Alright, hurry up and consume it," he could only change the subject, urging Zhu Zhu to quickly take the blood essence.
Zhu Zhu looked at the blood essence before her with complex feelings. In truth, she had often resented Fang Chang for abandoning her, leaving for more than thirty years.
But upon seeing him today, all the resentment she held over the years vanished in an instant. Seeing everything he had done to bring her to his world moved her even more.
She took a deep breath, picked up the small vial of blood essence, and downed it in one go.
The energy contained in this blood essence seemed even more violent than that of the dragon meat.
The moment Zhu Zhu consumed it, blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Fang Chang immediately circulated his divine power to help her regulate her breathing and absorb the power from the blood essence.
This state continued for about two hours before the power within Zhu Zhu's body finally calmed down.
At this moment, her soul power had grown again, almost on the verge of breaking through to level ninety-nine and stepping into the realm of a Peerless Douluo.
Zhu Zhu slowly opened her eyes and wrapped her hands around one of Fang Chang's arms. "Thank you."
"What's there to thank between us? For now, you should stay here in seclusion and focus on completely absorbing the energy from these two items," Fang Chang patted her shoulder and instructed.
"Once you've absorbed them completely, even if you can't become a god directly, you'll be very close. At that point, I'll figure out another way for you."
"What about you? Are you leaving again?" Zhu Zhu keenly sensed the meaning behind Fang Chang's words, and her grip on his hand tightened.
"I didn't say I was leaving," Fang Chang quickly comforted her. "It's just that I still have some matters to attend to on the Douluo Plane, so my main body will be gone for a while."
"But during this time, I will leave a clone behind to protect you. Wherever the clone is, I can sense everything."
"Oh..." Zhu Zhu's eyes revealed her reluctance. A clone was still just a clone, and he was leaving so soon after arriving.
But she could roughly guess Fang Chang's identity and knew that the matters such a great figure had to attend to were surely not trivial. No matter how reluctant she was, she couldn't press him to stay.
And just as Fang Chang had said, he only stayed at the Spider God Academy for one night before leaving again. Upon his departure, he left a clone in Zhu Zhu's room to act as her guardian.
His main body, however, headed straight for the Land of Extreme North.