Jian Wushuang sneered coldly, saying, âYouâre underestimating Ghost Eye too much. He already prepared a backup plan for me, but I need your help!â
âTell me!â
âTake me away and put mJian Wushuang specifically asked Gagarin to help relay a message.
He informed Xiang Yang and the others.
At the same time, he condensed his future guidance for Jiang Ni into a jade slip.
âŚ
It was enough to guide Jiang Ni to reach the level of a demigod.
After finishing all this, he immersed himself in comprehending the blueprint.
This was the fourth metal plate.
It corresponded to the Origin Source of a top-tier Realm Beast.
According to Senior Brother Ghost Eyeâs consciousness, this was the level he had reached.
The Origin Source of a top-tier Realm Beast!
He wasnât sure exactly how powerful each reference point was.
Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Ć0Î˝Ç¤Ö .ĆÎż
But it was close to the Star Spirit.
Above that would be the Origin Source of a peak Realm Beast, perhaps not as powerful as the High Priest.
However, it could certainly suppress the Star Spirit.
Lastly, there was the Origin Source of the King of the Realm Beasts, a power at the level of a God King.
The Origin Source of the World Tree could also reach this level, but its power was limited.
There were records of this in the Gui Yun Vineâs inheritance.
The larger a divine bodyâs power, the more limited it would be.
For instance, a single leaf of the World Tree could represent an entire space-time continuum.
A single World Tree could span an entire Starry Sky.
The internal world was massive.
All of its power came from the World Tree.
Such a colossal divine body was cumbersome to move.
Thus, it was limited.
However, the Realm Beasts did not face this issue.
In fact, many Realm Beasts didnât even bother developing an internal world.
They found it troublesome.
Their own power wasnât enough, yet they would still divide it further.
It was indeed wasteful and troublesome to maintain.
Jian Wushuang, however, enjoyed nurturing his internal world.
Especially in terms of the flow of time.
This was quite similar to the fourth blueprint.
It required constructing a stable flow of time.
For instance, how to establish the unit of a âyear.â
Of course, he was still contemplating the issue of hours.
He was stuck at this step.
One day consisted of twelve hours.
How could it be stabilized without being off by even a fraction of a second?
Jian Wushuang spent ten thousand years studying this problem.
In the outside world, it was only a fleeting moment.
After all, with a time acceleration of a hundred million times,
Ten thousand years had passed.
After several experiments, he finally constructed a stable time system.
Jian Wushuang created the first unit of time. He chose the word âhour,â taking the âshiâ from âshichenâ (the Chinese term for time periods), and because an hour was half of a shichen. Originally, there were twelve shichen in a day, but now a day consisted of twenty-four hours. This change made Jian Wushuang think of the twenty-four solar terms, and how that number corresponded to many other things.
With this basic direction in mind, he began to develop more units of time. At first, he wanted to create larger units, but he realized that the bigger they were, the more unwieldy they became. It was better to work with smaller, stable units. So, he created the âminute,â deriving it from âshifen.â One hour became sixty minutesâno more, no less. This unit was stable, but Jian Wushuang still wasnât satisfied. The numbers felt too small.
His diagrams were incredibly complex, and their mysteries could be divided infinitely. Sixty units felt inadequate. Time passed quickly. For millions of years, Jian Wushuang developed the concept of the hour. He refined it from minutes to seconds. Each minute was divided into sixty seconds, and each second was then divided into a hundred milliseconds. He continued dividing until one hour was split into billions of parts, finally feeling content.
Then he began to countâstarting with the smallest unit. One second required millions of calculations, testing the limits of his thought power. His mind had to keep up. One second, ten seconds, one minute, ten minutes.
âOne hour, timeâs up!â he said aloud.
Though only half a shichen had passed, Jian Wushuang felt as if he had lived through countless eons. This was the allure of time. Understanding it filled him with an overwhelming sense of wonder.
âNow, letâs develop larger units of time,â he said to himself.
A day consisted of twenty-four hours. This unit was too small for his purposes. Inside him, stars revolved in endless cycles. One âsmall cycleâ took five days, and a âgreat cycleâ took seven. This unit of time was more stable.
He mapped it out: one hour, one day, one week. One year, one sixty-year cycle, one epoch. One reincarnation cycle.
What was beyond reincarnation? Jian Wushuang wondered silently.
How many years had he lived? He could no longer remember. He had leaped from realm to realm.
âThe largest unit of time⌠letâs call it a ârealm,ââ he decided.
Though it seemed like a spatial unit, it also contained time within it. Time and space became one. Jian Wushuang fell into a state of transcendence. The fourth metal plateâs diagrams had flowed smoothly in his mind, and now all that was left was to absorb them and transform his Origin Source.
This time, he wouldnât foolishly annihilate everything. Instead, he would preserve his Origin Source and continue using it. After all, more power meant more confidence.
Outside, years passedâone, sixty, a hundred, a thousand⌠Ten thousand years later.
Jian Wushuang slowly opened his eyes. The chaotic force in his breath startled Jormungandr, who stood outside his hut. Jian Wushuang stepped out of the hut and looked again at the river of time and space that flowed around him. His mind was now clear, no longer as muddled as it had once been.
âYou succeeded?â Jormungandr exclaimed in surprise. âItâs only been ten thousand years! Even with time accelerated by a billion times, only one epoch has passed, and yet your Origin Source has already advanced to a new level!â
âYou could tell!â Jian Wushuang was in a good mood.
There were no more bottlenecks, or at least, not for him. Anything that could be accomplished through time alone posed no real challenge to him. His Origin Source had now ascended to the fourth tier, that of a top-tier realm beast. Even in the Land of Chaos, he was now a genius of the highest caliber. Someday, he would become a God of the Starry Sky, equal to the Star Spirits.
The thought thrilled him. A Star Spirit! He recalled how he had once marveled at the Star Spirits, whose every gesture could alter everything around them. In the starry sky, they were truly invincible.
However, he still had far to go before he could match a Prophet. While his foundation was strong, his level still lagged behind. With the condensation of his Origin Source, he had instantly reached the Dao Lord peak, becoming an immortal being.
This time, he wouldnât foolishly annihilate his strength and Origin Source. At the very least, he would wait until he had comprehended the fifth metal plate before doing so. When he crossed into the fifth level, he would truly annihilate his current power.
With that thought, Jian Wushuang could no longer suppress his excitement.
âLetâs go!â he declared.
Using his thought power, he carried Jormungandr with him to the fifth level.
Swish!
The space here was different from the fourth level. Instead of a linear time-space river, it had become a three-dimensional space. Time and space had merged.
âThis time-space is so powerful!â Jormungandr exclaimed, though he had said something similar not long ago.
Jian Wushuang, however, was unfazed. His only curiosity was what awaited him on the sixth level. This level was time-space; would the next be starry space? And what about the seventh level? Could it be the Land of Chaos? And the eighth?
Following this progression, what would the ninth level hold?
The deeper his curiosity grew, the more driven he became.
He pulled out the fifth metal plate. The diagrams on it instantly overwhelmed him. Even with the thought power of a Universe God, he couldnât perceive the full complexity of the patterns. His eyes and intuition both blurred.
If he couldnât even see clearly, how was he supposed to comprehend it?
He thought back to his senior brother, Gui Yan (Ghost Eye), a cultivator at the Mahayana stage, who had comprehended the fourth tier. How had he faced the fifth plate?
Jian Wushuang realized he had been cheating, using the vision and thought power of a Universe God to comprehend the fifth level.
e in the ninth layer of the Nine Prison Pagoda. You donât need to worry about the rest!â The man with the severed arm said truthfully.
However, this request put Jian Wushuang in a difficult position.
The fact that the other party could mention the Nine Prison Pagoda meant that he wasnât lying.
It was highly likely that everything was true.
The only thing troubling him was throwing the man into the ninth layer of the Nine Prison Pagoda.
At the moment, he simply couldnât do that.
Forget the ninth layer, even the fourth layer was a challenge for him.
Seeing Jian Wushuangâs expression change, the man with the severed arm was surprised and said, âDonât tell me you donât know about the Nine Prison Pagoda!â
âThatâs not it!â Jian Wushuang shook his head and said, âItâs just that Iâm still a bit far from reaching the ninth layer.â
âI understand. If you could open the ninth layer, youâd already possess the Origin Source of the Realm Beast!â The man with the severed arm said casually. âTell me, what layer are you at now? Have you reached the level of mastering an Origin Source?â
âThe third layer.â
â?â
The man with the severed arm was furious. âIâve observed that youâve been in this place for over ten thousand years, and in these ten thousand years, youâve only broken through to the third layer?â
âTen thousand years, and youâve only reached the third layer?â
âIs that considered slow, or fast?â Jian Wushuang asked curiously.
This left the man with the severed arm speechless.
In his opinion, with Ghost Eyeâs eye for talent, he should have at least chosen an extraordinary genius. In ten thousand years, breaking through the ninth layer might not be realistic, but the first seven layers shouldnât be a problem.
Who would have thought that in ten thousand years, Jian Wushuang had only broken through to the third layer?
When Jian Wushuang mentioned that he had only made it through the first three layers after capturing a member of the Divine Eye Clan, the man nearly fainted from anger.
âFrom now on, Iâll teach you the Divine Eye Secret Technique!â
âYou?â Jian Wushuang was skeptical.
The man with the severed arm said coldly, âDonât forget who the Divine Eye Secret Technique is modeled after!â
After some thought, Jian Wushuang realized it made senseâthey did share the same origin as the Realm Beast!
âSo, what now?â Jian Wushuang asked. âI canât just stay here forever!â
The man with the severed arm replied calmly, âYou might not be able to move, but this Primordial Star can move!â
âOh?â Jian Wushuang was surprised. âThis is a Primordial Star?â
âYes, in your terms, itâs a divine artifact!â
Jian Wushuang was delighted. If that were the case, there would be no need to search for the domain ship anymore.
With the Primordial Star, he would be invincible in the Ninefold Space-time Continuum.
However, his joy was short-lived as his fantasy was quickly dashed with a cold reality.
The power within the Primordial Star was too limited.
It couldnât even function at its peak.
Even the sea of divine power left by the Universe God could barely drive the Primordial Star. Its speed was decent thoughâit could cross a chaotic world in a single day.
In a hundred years, it could cross an entire universe.
This speed was acceptable to Jian Wushuang.
However, a powerless Primordial Star could only be used for traveling.
At least the man with the severed arm could guide him in cultivating the Divine Eye Secret Technique.
This time, he wouldnât need to capture any more members of the Divine Eye Clan.
Once his strength was restored, he could capture them all when the time came.
Yet, even under the guidance of the man with the severed arm, after three thousand years, Jian Wushuang hadnât even reached the beginner stage of the fourth turn of the Divine Eye Secret Technique.
The man with the severed arm, âGagarin,â was not angry. Instead, he comforted him, saying, âJian Wushuang, you have decent talent, but youâre not suited for cultivating the Divine Eye Secret Technique. Youâre more suited for slaughter!â
âGo, take the Primordial Star and search for powerful Divine Eye Clan members. I have some information for you. In a secret universe-level realm, several powerful members of the Divine Eye Clan are hiding. They may not have awakened yet, but even if your true combat power isnât enough, you should still be able to suppress them with ease!â
Jian Wushuang looked confused and asked, âWhat about you?â
âIâve been lying here for billions of years; a little more time wonât make a difference!â
âGo, leave before I lose my temper!â
Jian Wushuang pouted. He felt the problem was with the other partyâs teaching.