Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2416 Each in his own way

Mid Sector 105—Savage Galaxy

"Hmm hmm hmm~" Jabba swaggered leisurely through the dense thickets with relaxed steps, moving between the tangled vegetation as naturally and comfortably as though he were merely taking an ordinary stroll through his own backyard.

This place was the Beast Garden, one of the most dangerous places in the entire universe, a terrifying stronghold where most of the beasts throughout the universe that had reached the formidable rank of Dominator could be found, and among all those Dominator-ranked beasts gathered here were undoubtedly some of the strongest and most powerful of their kind.

Yet despite being surrounded by such overwhelmingly dangerous creatures, Jabba continued moving forward with a carefree smile on his face as though none of those dangers concerned him in the slightest.

Rumble

"Oops!" Jabba abruptly stopped when he suddenly felt a powerful earthquake spreading through the ground beneath his feet, only to realize a moment later that the ground itself had actually begun rising upward with him still standing upon it.

But after the initial surprise, Jabba quickly realized exactly what was happening and casually patted the surface directly beneath his feet as though reassuring a familiar creature. "It's all right, Shelly, it's me."

Then, "Hop!" He pushed himself off from the side and jumped away, crossing a distance of several hundred meters before landing safely back on the ground, then turned around, looked upward at the enormous creature behind him, and waved casually. "Goodbye, I'll come visit again."

At that moment, Jaba was looking upward at the gigantic head of an enormous turtle that had risen high enough to completely block out the sun above him, while its neck alone stretched to an astonishing height that seemed to embrace the clouds themselves.

Even so, the gigantic beast merely responded to Jabba's farewell with a deep, resonating, "Oooooom—" before slowly moving its enormous neck away from him and beginning to search elsewhere for another prey.

"Good Shelly." Jabba nodded approvingly after watching the enormous turtle move away, then calmly resumed walking through the Beast Garden. "I'll need his blood again soon. It's been extremely useful."

Silence

At that moment, Jaba suddenly sensed an unusual presence somewhere beside him and immediately turned his head toward its direction, then raised his hand and waved with a broad, friendly smile despite the unmistakable layer of sweat that had already appeared across his forehead. "Good morning, Wolfie."

At that moment, Jaba suddenly sensed an unusual presence somewhere beside him and immediately turned his head toward its direction, then raised his hand and waved with a broad, friendly smile despite the unmistakable layer of sweat that had already appeared across his forehead. "Good morning, Wolfie."

At that moment, an enormous eye roughly the size of an entire house was wide open behind the trees and staring directly toward him. There was hardly any proper way to describe the terrifying appearance of that gigantic eye as it gleamed through the vegetation other than to say that Jaba himself had nearly wet his pants the first time he had encountered that sight.

"...." The enormous beast continued staring silently at Jabba for a short while without making any other movement, then eventually closed its gigantic eye once again.

"Phew..." Jabba immediately placed one hand over his chest and released the breath he had been holding before turning away and continuing along his path. "These missions really shorten the lifespan..."

Jabba continued making his way through the Beast Garden while going through more of these encounters and exchanging similar greetings along the way, until he eventually arrived before an enormous swamp stretching across his path.

Then, without immediately moving any farther, he simply sat down.

Afterward, Jabba looked toward the enormous swamp before him and called out loudly enough for whatever was hiding inside to hear him clearly, "I know there's a beast somewhere in here watching me right now. Come out. This swamp is next along my path."

Silence

Siiiiilence

BOOOOOOOOM

At that moment, after the prolonged silence, the surface of the swamp suddenly exploded with tremendous force as an absolutely gigantic python violently emerged from beneath the water.

Its initial charge wasn't directed toward Jabba sitting nearby, but instead went straight upward toward the sky, almost as though the enormous beast was deliberately displaying its colossal size and overwhelming strength before doing anything else.

Within a single moment, the python's head had already risen high above the clouds, while its colossal body completely blocked everything within Jabba's field of vision, making it seem from where he sat as though the seemingly endless Beast Garden surrounding him had suddenly disappeared from sight altogether.

Yet despite the terrifying sight towering before him, Jaba continued sitting exactly where he was without attempting to move away, the sweat already soaking the back of his clothes while his outward expression nevertheless remained remarkably steady.

"WAAAAAAAAGHHHHH—"

Whoosh

The gigantic python unleashed an overwhelmingly powerful roar that violently shook the entire surrounding area and immediately silenced all the other sounds that had previously been coming from the Beast Garden, then it gradually began lowering itself again while coiling its enormous body around itself until, finally, it brought its colossal head down close to the seated Jaba.

Its head alone was comparable in size to an entire village, while numerous long tendrils descended from it and resembled an enormous green beard, with several other beasts actually clinging to those tendrils. Even the simple breaths leaving the python were deadly...

But despite bringing its enormous head so close to Jabba, the python didn't immediately attack him. Instead, it began carefully examining the tiny figure before it, looking him over and sniffing him closely... apparently puzzled by how someone like him had somehow managed to reach this deep into the Beast Garden while still alive.

Jabba swallowed hard beneath the overwhelming presence of the enormous creature, but he nevertheless did his best to maintain the stability of his outward appearance and prevent his nervousness from showing too clearly, then raised his head toward the python and smiled. "You're strong, Lord Snake, even stronger than Wolfie. Your blood will make an excellent test subject."

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHH—"

The instant the python heard Jabba mention the word "blood," its attitude changed and it immediately prepared itself to launch an attack.

Every once in a while, some damn dwarves would come to this place, restrain the enormous python against its will, and steal a quantity of blood from its body, but that absolutely wasn't going to happen today, and it certainly wasn't going to happen at the hands of someone as weak as the person sitting before it!!

"Here we go." Jaba spoke as he watched the enormous python prepare to attack him.

Jabba's pupil immediately began rotating as numerous numbers and strange symbols appeared across it one after another, and only a short moment later, the Cosmic Identity Card appeared.

But strangely enough, despite Jabba directing the ability toward the enormous creature before him, the information that appeared wasn't about the Savage Behemoth at all, but instead consisted entirely of information concerning Jabba himself.

And what appeared wasn't fundamental, important, or defining information about him such as his name, his history, or anything else of that nature. Instead, only a few extremely simple pieces of information emerged before him, describing nothing more than how the gigantic creature currently perceived him: Human, Dangerous, Food.

This was Jabba's identity from the perspective of the gigantic python standing before him, reduced to those few simple descriptions that represented exactly what he meant in the creature's eyes.

"Hmph!" Jabba reacted immediately, quickly waving his hand and deleting one of those pieces of information without hesitation, directly removing the description: Dangerous.

Then, in the place where that description had previously existed, he replaced it with an entirely different one: Friend.

Afterward, Jabba reached into his ring and took out the enormous thigh of a beast before casually throwing it through the air toward the gigantic python. "Eat up, my friend, and fill your belly!"

"....?!"

The enormous beast abruptly stopped right in the middle of its attack, its movement coming to a halt before it could continue toward Jabba.

It spent several fractions of a second attempting to comprehend what had suddenly changed within its perception and what exactly had just happened to make everything feel so different... but despite trying to understand it, the python couldn't make sense of anything at all.

Then Chomp the python caught the enormous beast thigh that Jabba had thrown toward it and swallowed the entire thing whole in a single bite without leaving anything behind.

Afterward, the gigantic python slowly lowered itself toward the ground and began wrapping its enormous body around Jabba with unmistakable affection!

But judging by Jabba's condition at that moment, he didn't seem particularly ready or capable of returning that same affection...

"Bleeergh—" Jabba suddenly vomited while tightly clutching his head with both hands, his eye spinning in an extremely strange and unstable manner while the energy throughout his body scattered chaotically in every direction, making him resemble an infant desperately attempting to control something far greater than himself.

"Hssss—" The gigantic python immediately released a soft and worried hiss when it saw Jaba's condition, clearly wanting to do something to help its newly recognized friend but having absolutely no idea what it was supposed to do.

"Cough, cough—" Jabba struggled for a moment before finally raising his head and calling out toward the concerned creature, "I'm fine... I'm fine..." Then he began inhaling and exhaling rapidly in an attempt to recover, his breathing gradually becoming more stable and controlled with every breath. "Damn it, I reached level 20 a while ago and I'm already close to breaking through to level 21, yet this process is still incredibly difficult!"

"Hooo~" Jabba finally released a long sigh after his condition stabilized somewhat, then turned his head toward the gigantic creature beside him. "My friend, can you protect me for a little while until I regain my balance?"

"Hsss—" The snake responded with a quiet but clearly affirmative hiss, apparently having no objection whatsoever to protecting its new friend... After all, it wasn't every day that it suddenly gained a new friend out of nowhere!

Glow Glow

"Hmm?" Jabba noticed the sudden reaction coming from his Sound Ring and turned his attention toward it. "What do we have today?" Then he sent his spiritual sense directly into the ring to examine the message and closed his eye while doing so.

Only a few seconds later, Jabba slowly opened his eye again, but instead of immediately doing anything else, he simply allowed himself to fall backward. Poof His back struck the ground as he remained there motionlessly, staring upward toward the sky.

It was impossible to tell exactly how much time Jabba spent lying there in complete silence before he finally opened his mouth and spoke. "You did it, Shaddad. You became a Nexus State using the path you created yourself... What an achievement." An unmistakable trace of envy that he simply couldn't prevent from appearing gradually emerged across his face as he continued staring upward. "Master must be proud of you."

"....." Jaba remained lying in that exact position for several additional seconds as though giving himself enough time to process the news, before finally forcing his body back into a seated position. "Hop!"

Then Jabba reached into his spatial ring and took out an enormous book along with an epic pen, immediately preparing himself to continue his own work. "All right, so this is a competition, then. Let's see which one of us can help Master more!"

Jabab opened the enormous book bearing the title Explanations and Foundations of the First-Stage Master Law of Identity.

Then he turned through its pages until he reached a fresh page located beyond the middle of the enormous book, and under the protection of the gigantic python surrounding him, he immediately began writing voraciously.