In the Human domain, at the Martial Evolution Tower.
“Thirty thousand chaos stones...” Lin Yuan considered his own assets.
He currently had only a few thousand chaos stones—those left behind by Cang Weiyang, a Dominance-level powerhouse. To buy that golden box connected to the Mysterious Emperor lineage, Lin Yuan planned to collect the full thirty thousand if possible.
“Looks like I need to sell some weapons,” Lin Yuan thought.
Right now, he owned many spare weapons and artifacts, though most were at the Path-Clearing realm. A few Dominance-level items had belonged to Cang Weiyang.
“I’ll send these items to the Guming Chaos Continent, sell them there, and see if it’s enough.” Lin Yuan selected pieces from his treasury that he would not be using.
If he still fell short, he intended to part with a few Dominance-level trees. As for the Chaos-level treasure he owned, he preferred not to sell it unless there was no other way, since it would be useful once he himself reached the Dominance realm.
“I really do lack chaos stones,” Lin Yuan sighed inwardly.
Strictly speaking, Lin Yuan’s current understanding of chaos energy meant he could refine chaos stones by himself, much like a Chaos Venerable—directly separating them out of the swirling mass of chaos. But it was one thing to be able to do it, and quite another to do so efficiently.
Without the powerful mind and internal universe of a Chaos Venerable, Lin Yuan could probably refine fewer than ten chaos stones a year.
“Time to go.”
Raising a hand, Lin Yuan tore open a spatial fissure that cut through every layer of space, linking his universe to the Chaos Void. Then he threw the chosen items through it. With a single thought, beyond that tear—out in the Chaos Void—he formed an avatar to take them.
Even his avatar now possessed Path-Clearing peak power, more than enough to roam the Chaos Void at will.
Rustle.
With a wave, Lin Yuan closed the fissure of about thirty meters in length.
Technically, once the spatial layers were severed, Lin Yuan could have left a permanent rift if he wished.
“Ninety days per strand of Boundary-breaking source energy… that’s the limit? I can’t boost it further?” Lin Yuan wondered.
Upon reaching the 12th rank, he had attempted to increase the rate at which the Gate of Myriad Worlds gathered Boundary-breaking source energy—perhaps by creating a bigger permanent rift—but it had remained stuck at a single strand every ninety days.
“There must be some unknown requirement for absorbing more Boundary-breaking source energy,” Lin Yuan mused.
At the Martial Evolution Tower, he took the initiative to contact the Goddess of Wisdom.
“Respected human Strongest one, the Goddess of Wisdom is at your service,” came a cool and formal voice.
The three Goddesses of human civilization were originally derived from certain off-world objects that had fallen into the universe—one of the greatest opportunities ever obtained by humanity. Each possessed mental and computational abilities on par with Dominance-level lifeforms, enabling them to support nearly all decisions, large or small.
“Upload the 12th-rank Path-Clearing portion,” Lin Yuan said.
He had essentially completed the 12th-rank section of his Martial Evolution path, so he could publish it. In fact, uploading this portion wasn’t hugely significant—unless Lin Yuan perished, no other martial cultivator would reach the 12th rank anyway.
“I could open up branches of martial cultivation in the future,” Lin Yuan reflected.
A single evolutionary path is like a great Dao. If it’s wide enough, it can spawn many branches, and each branch could theoretically produce a 12th-rank being as well—provided the foundation is robust, like a large river splitting into tributaries that are still wider than most streams.
“Any offshoot Daos generated from Martial Dao will also benefit me,” Lin Yuan recalled from his Ultimate Leap experience. Widespread adoption of one’s path helps sustain one’s own existence, which is much harder than simply living forever.
By uploading the Path-Clearing realm portion of Martial Dao, Lin Yuan’s method instantly became the top evolutionary path among humans. This outcome surprised no one—not the masses nor the other nine Strongest ones; it was perfectly logical.
Martial Dao had already ranked fifth with only up to the 11th-rank portion available. Now that the 12th-rank Path-Clearing segment was out, not being number one would have seemed strange.
…
Within the Martial Evolution Tower.
“Tower Master, this is a comprehensive list of every individual who ever contributed to human civilization but has already passed away,” said Zhang Tianzhi respectfully down below. As the first human to reach the 8th rank via Martial Dao, he joined the Martial Tower the moment it was established.
Although not high in status due to his limited strength, he had earned enough recognition to attract Lin Yuan’s attention.
Lin Yuan glanced at the dense names—billions upon billions recorded there. Though the Star Sea Calendar spanned just over two million years, human history stretched back much further, and countless humans had been born. Even if only a tiny fraction contributed to civilization, that fraction was still an enormous quantity.
“Tower Master, you’re planning on reviving them?” Zhang Tianzhi asked cautiously.
“They contributed to human civilization, so they can certainly be revived,” Lin Yuan said.
Previously, reviving the dead required meeting various criteria: potential, strength, and contribution. That was done partly out of concern for the nine Strongest ones, who would face the universe’s backlash each time they resurrected someone. One or two revivals were fine, or maybe hundreds or thousands, but tens of millions would leave a Strongest one seriously injured.
Now, however, Lin Yuan’s life essence had grown incomparably powerful. Reviving even an 11th-rank lifeform caused negligible backlash. He intended to lower the threshold dramatically and extend it over a far longer timeline. It was a belated benefit for the ancestors of human civilization who had perished.
…
A few days later.
Every human evolver of 9th rank or higher gathered outside the Martial Evolution Tower.
When a Strongest one brings someone back from the dead, it involves reversing the flow of time, the explicit manifestation of time-space rules. Observing it offers insight to those watching.
In the past, whenever the nine Strongest ones performed a resurrection at their Evolution Towers, countless evolvers came to observe. Lin Yuan himself had seen Xia Qin, the Strongest one, revive someone.
“Is the Milky Way Strongest one about to resurrect those who died for humanity in ages past?”
“I hear the scope of this resurrection is unprecedented. Anyone who contributed to humanity at all, no matter their potential or power, is on the list.”
“Unbelievable. How huge must the backlash be?”
Many evolvers whispered among themselves. Now that humanity had taken over the entire universe, resources were no longer an issue.
Xuanyuan, Xia Qin, and the other Strongest ones arrived as well. They had wanted to help Lin Yuan bear the brunt, but he declined.
“Let’s begin.”
Lin Yuan had performed a similar resurrection before in the Immortal World, bringing back loved ones and friends of that dimension. But the Immortal World’s River of Time was distinct from that of the main universe.
The main universe’s River of Time is, strictly speaking, just a tributary of the Chaos Void’s great timeline.
Buzz.
Lin Yuan began moving upstream. Armed with the list of those to revive, he possessed precise knowledge of each target’s life essence. Reaching into the vast River of Time, he pulled them back into the present.
“Awaken.”
With a gentle exertion, over ten billion evolvers were forcibly drawn out and returned to the present era.
Every instant, another ten billion came back to life. In the span of a few breaths, the resurrected had exceeded ten trillion.
“How is the backlash from the universe failing to affect him at all?” the onlookers murmured. Resurrecting billions of lives normally caused turbulence in the Time River and a potent backlash targeting the Strongest one, yet it didn’t even stir Lin Yuan’s robes.
“His life essence is too powerful. I get the feeling that, if we weren’t already anchored in the timeline, the Milky Way Strongest one could probably revive us too,” observed Xuanyuan and the other Strongest ones in awe. They had resurrected people many times, so they knew what cosmic retaliation was like.
Reviving billions of souls in a single move would severely injure any Strongest one. Yet Lin Yuan was doing it repeatedly in an instant, reviving well over ten trillion in mere moments.
“I… I’m alive again?”
“Our civilization actually produced an ultimate being?”
Countless individuals from far earlier periods in human history opened their eyes, recalling that in their era, humans had no 12th-rank existence; they never imagined they could possibly return.
“Me too?”
Among them was a cold-looking man named Ou Yin, who had died at the hands of Black Abyss Qingyu. Judging by his talent and achievements, he would never have qualified for resurrection under the old system.
“The Milky Way Strongest one…” Ou Yin lifted his head to glimpse a towering figure stooping slightly, gazing in his direction, wearing a kindly smile.
“So it was the Milky Way Star Lord who claimed what I left behind on the alien battlefield?” he muttered, piecing things together as a wave of complex emotions rose inside him.
“All done, more or less,” Lin Yuan remarked, scanning the crowds of newly resurrected beings. Then he looked over at the many 11th-rank evolvers and entrusted them with arranging the details of reintegrating these people. With that, he disappeared.
Back inside the Martial Evolution Tower, Lin Yuan sat cross-legged.
“I’ve finished everything I needed to,” he said with a soft exhalation.
“It’s time to explore that Source World.”
His mind shifted, sinking into the depths where the great Gate of Myriad Worlds towered.
...
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