Calamity Race Territory.
After leaving the Milky Way main star, the black-robed figure hurried back. The black robe he wore was a gift from the Ancestor, able to mask every trace of his presence. Unless someone deliberately investigated, even a Rank Twelve Strongest One would overlook him.
Deep within the Calamity Race domain lay a certain hidden realm. The black-robed figure arrived at this place.
“How did it go?” a voice spoke silently at his ear.
“Ancestor, I’ve informed the Milky Way Star Lord of everything,” the black-robed figure answered respectfully.
“Good.” The Calamity Race Strongest One nodded.
“Ancestor… I’m a bit confused.” The black-robed figure hesitated, then spoke.
“Those Rank Twelve powerhouses from the other peak races plan to deal with the Milky Way Star Lord together. We’re not taking part, which I get, but why go out of our way to alert him?”
That was the heart of his puzzlement. There was no doubt about the Milky Way Star Lord’s potential.
Under such circumstances, the Calamity Race’s refusal to join in might be seen as simple disdain. That was barely understandable. But outright warning him? To what end? If the Milky Way Star Lord were to die prematurely or fail at his attempt to reach the Strongest One, it would benefit the Calamity Race too, in that there’d be one fewer peak Path-Clearing enemy in the future.
“You think the Milky Way Star Lord is so easy to deal with?” the Calamity Race Strongest One asked casually.
“Is he not?” The black-robed figure was baffled. A dozen Rank Twelves were collaborating, even prepared to use that strange drop of blood. With such a force, even if they couldn’t kill him, they could cause him serious harm.
“You don’t understand. Keep this matter to yourself.”
The Calamity Race Strongest One had no wish to elaborate. Having said that, he fell silent.
“Yes, Ancestor.”
The black-robed figure bowed deeply.
In a mysterious place beyond sight, a plain wooden hut stood alone. Someone was seated outside, eyes deep as he gazed into the layers of Space-Time before him.
“Do you really think the gaze that peered here not long ago was from that young Milky Way Star Lord?” came a voice from inside the hut.
“Yes.” The Calamity Race Strongest One outside the hut spoke.
“That’s impossible,” the voice within objected.
“To spy on this location, at least the peak of Sixth Stage in Space-Time is required, plus a high-grade Space-Time treasure. The Milky Way Star Lord is only Rank Eleven, so how could—?”
“Don’t forget about all those rule models in the Rank Eleven Martial Arts chapter,” the Calamity Race Strongest One outside replied.
“No one except Humanity’s nine Strongest Ones has actually seen those rule models, so we have no proof that the Milky Way Star Lord’s rule comprehension is at such a high level,” the voice inside still sounded dubious.
Indeed, the nine Human Strongest Ones had seen them and confirmed that Lin Yuan’s rule comprehension surpassed theirs. But none of the alien Rank Twelves had laid eyes on them, so they had no firm basis for judging Lin Yuan’s progress in rules.
“Space-Time Sixth Stage peak comprehension doesn’t come so easily. For so many years, not a single Rank Twelve has managed it. Are we to believe someone at Rank Eleven has reached it out of the blue, right before the Rank Eleven Martial Arts chapter appeared?” The Strongest One outside the hut smiled faintly.
“I doubt it’s mere coincidence.”
“If the Milky Way Star Lord truly has peak Sixth Stage Space-Time, those Rank Twelves can’t possibly seal him off, let alone use that weird blood to harm him.”
“I warned him about their plan because there’s no downside for us,” the Strongest One said leisurely.
“If they cannot lock him in Space-Time, he can simply disperse his avatars at will. That bizarre blood becomes useless.”
Inside the Mysterious Emperor Secret Realm, Lin Yuan sat cross-legged.
“It’s been so long since the Eleventh Transmigration ended. I still haven’t visited the Devil Jade Space,” he suddenly remembered.
He was curious about the reward for clearing the seventh floor of the Black Tower within the Devil Jade Space.
Thinking this, Lin Yuan acted. Out in the cosmos, one of his Sun Primal Soul’s avatars split off a trace of mind and instantly descended into the Devil Jade Space.
Buzz.
The Devil Jade Space was as calm as ever. Lin Yuan appeared directly before the towering nine-level Black Tower. As the only surviving “sequence” member of the Devil Jade Tower, Lin Yuan had high authority in that space and could appear anywhere he wanted.
“The seventh floor?”
Lin Yuan glanced at the imposing tower in the distance. Before his Eleventh Transmigration, he had tried to tackle the seventh floor but failed.
Space-Time at the Sixth Stage indeed belonged to the Rank Twelve Path-Clearing domain, yet Lin Yuan was only Rank Eleven in life level. The seventh floor of the Black Tower was meant for those at Path-Clearing, so he couldn’t fully clear it back then.
A humanoid statue named Shen Ji smiled.
“You plan to try the seventh floor again?”
“Yes,” Lin Yuan replied.
In truth, he intended to go straight for the eighth floor. Now that he possessed Seventh Stage Space-Time and the chaos rule, he felt certain about beating the seventh floor.
“Then go ahead.”
Shen Ji said no more. He wanted to see how Lin Yuan would handle it.
The seventh floor of the Black Tower, as created by the Devil Jade Tower Master, could only be attempted by some Path-Clearing experts. Lin Yuan was just Rank Eleven—ordinarily, he shouldn’t even be able to step foot on the seventh floor. Yet he had almost cleared it previously.
“All right.”
Lin Yuan instantly transferred to the entrance of the Black Tower’s seventh floor.
“This is too easy.”
At a glance, Lin Yuan dissected the entire floor. All of its Space-Time mazes and barriers, so challenging to most Path-Clearing beings, now felt no more than child’s play to someone at the Seventh Stage of Space-Time.
Whoosh.
He took nine steps in a row. Each step carried him past large segments of the seventh floor, and on the ninth he reached the “end.”
“What?”
Outside the nine-level Black Tower, Shen Ji was stunned. He had been expecting Lin Yuan to navigate the labyrinth, eventually hitting a snag near the end. Instead, Lin Yuan went straight to the finish.
He couldn’t comprehend it. If he hadn’t confirmed that Lin Yuan started from the beginning, Shen Ji would have suspected he’d used administrative privileges to skip to the end.
“Seventh Stage Space-Time comprehension?”
Shen Ji double-checked and found it to be true.
Clearing the seventh floor requires at least close to the peak of Sixth Stage Space-Time. Yet Lin Yuan had breezed through with just a few steps, meaning his Space-Time comprehension was far beyond Sixth Stage—he was in the Seventh Stage domain.
Shen Ji felt as if he were dreaming.
When Lin Yuan arrived this time, Shen Ji had prepared himself to see Lin Yuan pass the seventh floor. But he had assumed Lin Yuan would reach something like the peak of Sixth Stage. Seventh Stage? The Devil Jade Tower Master’s own Space-Time attainment had reached Nine Stages. For an Eleven-level lifeform to have Sixth Stage was already outlandish enough. Seventh Stage?
Swish.
Shen Ji appeared at the seventh floor’s end.
“Congratulations.”
He gave Lin Yuan a complicated look.
“I’d like to try the eighth floor,” Lin Yuan said.
“Sure,” Shen Ji replied after a pause, holding back any remarks.
For any other Devil Jade Tower member—indeed, any standard Path-Clearing expert—he would have offered a warning. The seventh floor was made for Path-Clearing, while the eighth was for peak Dominance beings. And the ninth floor? That was for a top Chaos-level expert, one step below the Chaos Grand Saints themselves.
But with Lin Yuan… Shen Ji decided to stay quiet.
Whoosh.
Lin Yuan immediately entered the eighth floor, and Shen Ji began to observe. This floor was filled with endless Space-Time vortices. After a brief inspection, Lin Yuan strode through over half of it with ease, relying on his Seventh Stage Space-Time insights.
“The second half…”
He stared ahead at the denser layer of Space-Time vortices. Even with Seventh Stage comprehension, it wouldn’t be easy to break through.
“I’m still too weak in terms of life level,” Lin Yuan thought.
The eighth floor’s test wasn’t strictly about life level, yet Lin Yuan sensed a gap between himself and actual peak Dominance beings.
“Chaos.”
With a single thought, roiling chaos energy surged out of the void, coalescing around Lin Yuan’s mind-projection body. It forcibly raised his life foundation for a short time.
“Chaos energy? Chaos rule?”
Watching from the seventh floor, Shen Ji fell silent. He knew what he saw. If it were during the Devil Jade Tower’s heyday, the chaos rule wouldn’t be that surprising. But now? At Rank Eleven, Lin Yuan was using chaos rule?
Rumble…
With that chaotic energy, Lin Yuan pushed deeper through the eighth floor until only one ten-thousandth remained.
“This spot...”
Lin Yuan stopped and studied it carefully.
“If my life level were just a bit higher, I could get through,” he muttered, then vanished on the spot.
Back on the seventh floor, Lin Yuan reappeared.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish,” he said with a sigh.
Shen Ji stood there, expression stiff. An Eleven-level lifeform nearly completing the eighth floor—a test designed for peak Dominance—yet sounding apologetic? He didn’t even know how to respond.
“This is the reward catalog for clearing the seventh floor,” Shen Ji said at last, regaining his composure.
“Let me have a look.” Lin Yuan’s eyes brightened as he browsed.
The seventh floor’s rewards mostly consisted of Dominance-level treasures and techniques. After careful selection, Lin Yuan chose a secret art known as the Abyssal Eye.
It wasn’t a physical or soul-based offensive method, but one that attacked the target’s spiritual will. With Lin Yuan’s current mental strength, using the Abyssal Eye could drastically affect even Rank Twelve Strongest Ones.
Afterward, Lin Yuan’s various avatars roamed around the universe and the chaotic void, sensing and studying different rule fluctuations.
Meanwhile, he also pondered how to conquer the eighth floor. He was only a hair’s breadth away from the “end,” and could cross it at any time with a slight upgrade in his life level.
Time passed.
In a flash, one hundred years had gone by.
...
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