After that day, Jacob spent more than twenty years dealing with other matters, such as merging with the Astral Lightseed, refining his magic knowledge, and other opportunities he snatched in the Path of Legend.
Furthermore, with the Nightmare Dreamscape Realm opened and evolved, Jacob made significant progress in it. Now, the time difference between the nightmare realm and reality was 10:1, and Nyx can analyze treasures up to the Legendary King Rank!
Moreover, with the Nightmare Dreamscape Realm's increased prowess, Jacob's research on the Dark Being's ability to absorb the life crystals made huge progress, especially with the test subject he had captured from the Path of Legend: Vampire Princess Gracey!
This was probably the second most important reason for this seclusion. The Vampire Race's blood magic greatly interested Jacob, especially after he comprehended the Immortal Chapter.
Now, any kind of blood magic was a breeze for Jacob to learn, and the more new knowledge he got, the more he could quickly assimilate with his own comprehension with the help of the Blood Mage archetype!
Furthermore, with the Nightmare Dreamscape Realm, Gracey's resistance was meaningless. After he had Nyx plan a nightmare conqueror seed in Gracey, he had an endless supply of test subjects. Once the Vampire Princess served her purpose, she turned into his living test subject to sharpen his own ability!
Even at the end, Gracey died without knowing who Jacob was. How could he bypass that Zodiac Soul Contract, and why did he dare to torment and kill her without demanding anything, nor did he seem afraid of her background?
Anyhow, twenty years outside were akin to 200 years in the Nightmare Dreamscape Realm, and Jacob finally cracked the Dark Beings' ability to condense and absorb the life crystals with Blood Alchemy.
Afterward, Jacob used the Blood Shaper to create the same abilities for himself. He called it the Life Bane Wheel, which had two functions: Life Devour and Life Injection.
With Life Bane Wheel's Life Devour, Jacob can not only make life crystals like dark beings by sucking the life force out of a living being, but he can also do the same thing with dark beings as well as natural treasures or anything that has life force!
Furthermore, the life crystal he made was 100% pure and contained the full vitality of his target.
After researching for hundreds of years, Jacob discovered that the life crystal that the dark being formed was not only ranked by the life force of a target but also by how much life force a dark being can snatch from a living being and condense the life crystal.
Jacob had many life crystals he had gathered in the lesser galaxy of Taurus, so he quickly discovered that the lowest purity a life crystal possessed was around 30%, and the highest one had around 70%!
The Vampire Race seemed to be able to form a life crystal with 85% purity with the blood of their targets.
However, as a Cursed Blood Progenitor, he seemed to have gained supreme authority over blood vitality, and with it as a stepping stone, Jacob could snatch someone's life force.
However, he still can't touch the soul vitality that determines a person's lifespan. Nyx's expertise in this area is why she could increase his lifespan.
Jacob also found this strange since even with the immortal chapter, he can't touch soul vitality. Upon asking Immortika, the cursed book playfully yet ambiguously hints that blood vitality and soul vitality are completely different topics and that they hold the truth behind 'life.'
Although Jacob already knew about the connection between the two vitalities, he still didn't expect it to be so complex. Despite the immortal chapter, he only gained control over blood vitality alone.
Nonetheless, Jacob wasn't discouraged. He was sure that he'd eventually decipher the soul vitality. For now, he was content with the blood vitality since it solved his problem of running out of infinity blood.
The life Injection of the Life Bane Wheel's ability was to inject vitality from a life crystal not only into himself but also into anything he wanted. It was like a super healing skill with excellent healing properties and has no side effects like the life medicines.
Still, Jacob had no intention of using it on others since it would be akin to wasting precious drops of infinity blood.
Moreover, Nyx, who had assisted him, was also very interested in blood vitality and how Jacob was able to refine the dark being's stolen vitality since she still couldn't.
But like Jacob, Nyx didn't seem to control blood vitality but only master soul vitality, which gave Jacob more clues about this strange phenomenon.
Anyhow, after almost 2,000 years of seclusion, Jacob had refined and revised everything he had been neglecting, and now his prowess was terrifying even without any external weapons.
On this day, Jacob is finally satisfied with everything and opens the cursed Immortality with determination and hidden anticipation in his eyes.
Jacob said impassively, "I'm ready to start the second phase now. However, I still want to ask if any hidden surprises are waiting for me like usual?"
"Oh, come on, do you think I would hide anything from you?" Immortika's fake, depressing voice rang.
"Knowing you, yes!" Jacob didn't even think for a second before he agreed to this statement. "Hahahahaha..." Immortika burst into laughter, "Alright, I'll give it to you straight. There is nothing hidden there, and it's all written in the second phase. Just one thing, though...hehehehe!" 'I knew it!' Jacob instantly scoffed as he knew there was nothing simple with this damn book. "Shoot!" Jacob coldly barked.
"Hehehe, why angry? It's not a big thing at all, and there is nothing wrong with the explanation. After all, I have my own integrity. It's just that there are some things I can only tell you when he meets certain requirements. Like completing the Immortal Chapter before moving to the second phase and having all the cosmic vestiges...
"Anyway, the thing is, if you integrate with the twelve cosmic vestiges at the same time instead of going through them one by one, you'll have a chance to gain a law ability related to the Zodiac.
"However, let me warn you, if you go through it, that'll create a cosmic-wide phenomenon, meaning every person in the middle galaxies will witness this. If that were all, it wouldn't be so big of a deal, but the true danger lies with the Universal Void.
"Because this phenomenon is special and related to a Universal Godly Scripture, that'll stir up the Zodiac Beasts hidden deep within the Universal Void because they are very sensitive towards it and flood over the middle galaxies like hungry wolves.
"Although the Universal Boundary between the Zodiac Plains and Universal Void is extremely terrifying and can keep the Zodiac Beasts in check, the problem is that phenomenon.
"Because that phenomenon will weaken that boundary until it continues, and if those terrifying Zodiac Beasts crossed over in that time, hehehehe, you can only imagine what kind of calamity it'll bring to the middle galaxies. But don't worry, no one can track this back to you.
"Now, it's up to you whether you want to expose countless lives to this danger for this law ability. Hahahaahaha!"
Immortika's voice was like the devil who wanted to see everything in chaos yet pretended to be an angel by giving a warning to none other than a demon.
After all, if Immortika hadn't revealed this peculiar fact, Jacob was really planning on integrating the cosmic vestiges one by one. But now that he knew there was something like this attached to them, Jacob's mind instantly changed.
Furthermore, after comprehending the Immortal Chapter and spending thousands of years in solitude, Jacob's entire view of life was changed, and it didn't take long for him to decide!