The old man in the black robe glanced at him indifferently and said, "A minimum of a thousand years, perhaps ten thousand. That depends entirely on your own aptitude. If you can never complete the inheritance mission, you will ultimately just grow old alone within and slowly perish."

Ye Chen stiffened for a moment, then immediately, without hesitation, declared resolutely, "I give up!"

The old man in the black robe was slightly taken aback. He raised his eyes and examined Ye Chen closely for a moment, frowning. "Why?"

Ye Chen said in a low voice, "I don't have that much time."

The old man in the black robe raised an eyebrow, a gleam flickering in his eyes. "If that is the case, you don't need to worry. In the place of inheritance, the flow of time is 1,000 times that of the outside world! If you are lucky, spending a thousand years inside might allow you to succeed, equivalent to only one year outside."

Ye Chen froze for a second, his brow tightly furrowed. He lowered his head, pondering for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Once the inheritance is successful, I can control the entire Demon God Palace?"

The old man in the black robe nodded slightly. "Once successful, all the major systems of the Demon God Palace will recognize you as master and fall under your control."

Ye Chen's eyes flashed. "Then let's start quickly."

The old man in the black robe raised an eyebrow. "Wait another 30 seconds, connecting now."

Ye Chen turned his head, patted Kabba's shoulder, and said, "Go wait in the Rune Space for a while."

Kabba shrugged, directly taking the other puppet, and flashed into the opened Rune Space. As the space closed, the old man in the black robe suddenly swept his wide sleeve, and a pitch-black void materialized out of thin air. A terrifying suction force seeped out from within, enveloping Ye Chen's entire body and drawing him directly in.

Ye Chen felt the light flash before his eyes and found himself suspended in a vast expanse of starry sky. The stars here were dazzling, the star field immense and boundless, and he himself was hanging in empty vacuum space, his body seemingly enveloped by a mysterious energy.

Ye Chen’s eyes flickered. He pinched his own skin with his palm and found it slightly painful, realizing it couldn't be a hallucination.

Regardless of whether it was a hallucination or not, Ye Chen would not allow himself to fail. As he surveyed his surroundings, a cold voice echoed in his mind: "The inheritance mission will commence in 10 minutes. Please prepare!"

Ye Chen couldn't help but frown. He looked around at the void and questioned it aloud, "What is the inheritance mission?"

That cold voice resonated directly in his mind: "There is only one inheritance mission: to undergo the tempering of the black hole within the black hole, obtaining 'Ancient Dark Matter,' and then fusing the 'Ancient Dark Matter' into your body. When the 'Ancient Dark Matter' reaches 100% saturation, the inheritance is considered passed!"

"Passing the inheritance mission grants control of the Demon God Palace!"

"Failure results in death!"

The voice carried an irrefutable, powerful resonance.

Ye Chen felt a sense of gravity, his heart growing heavy. "'Ancient Dark Matter'? What kind of substance is that, to be tempered inside a black hole? Are they joking? Black holes are things capable of destroying even stars into ionic energy. Even a peak Divine Spirit expert would likely find it impossible to escape from within a black hole!"

While Ye Chen was pondering, ten minutes passed quickly. In the void before him, a colossal black hole suddenly materialized and hung suspended, radiating a mysterious and heart-palpitating glow across the entire starry sky.

Awe, shock!

A black hole is a celestial body with an extremely strong gravitational pull, strong enough to annihilate any star; even light cannot escape its grasp. Now, such a terrifying entity was slowly opening right before Ye Chen.

This black hole was exceptionally large, about one-tenth the size of the Earth—a micro black hole.

The more matter a black hole devours, the larger its mass becomes. Many black holes in the universe possess masses several times, or even hundreds of times, that of the Sun!

At this moment, as this micro black hole opened, a powerful suction force immediately emerged, operating in an irregular manner, enveloping Ye Chen’s entire body. This suction seemed to come from all directions, pulling at every part of Ye Chen’s frame, as if threatening to draw out his bones, meridians, and blood.

An intense tearing sensation permeated his whole body. Ye Chen felt as if his entire being was being decomposed into countless quarks; his brain throbbed with agonizing spasms, and his body shook violently from pain that pierced through every nerve.

Ye Chen barely lasted a minute before he lost consciousness.

After he passed out, a thin, chaotic-colored energy shield materialized around his form, enclosing his entire body. Within this shield, the gravity from the external black hole was completely blocked, unable to transmit even a fraction of its force inside.

He remained unconscious for seven days. When Ye Chen groggily awoke, feeling his entire body burn as if scorched by fire, before he even managed to open his eyes, he felt a powerful suction reappear around him, pulling at every cell of his body, and the intense agony returned.

Cold sweat beaded on Ye Chen's forehead. He clenched his teeth and fists so tightly that the nails in his palms dug deep into the flesh, and blood flowed down his hand.

Ye Chen felt his entire body being decomposed again, an intensity so unbearable that it defied life itself, overwhelming his consciousness.

There were no other celestial bodies near this black hole. The planets glittering in the entire starry expanse were millions of light-years away and would not be affected by this micro black hole.

He fell into this second period of unconsciousness. It wasn't until the tenth day that Ye Chen slowly regained consciousness. The moment his awareness returned, the chaotic-colored energy shield enveloping him automatically dissipated, transforming into a thin film covering the surface of his body, ensuring he wouldn't be instantly torn apart by the micro black hole.

Ye Chen had only just woken up, his body not yet fully recovered, when it was once again subjected to the gravity's tearing forces. The sensation of pain felt like countless sharp needles piercing his central nervous system. Anyone lacking a firm will would have died instantly from the pain.

Feeling the attraction reassert itself, Ye Chen was like a furious lion; the rage within him was fully ignited. He roared, bellowing as he clenched his fists, staring fixedly at the micro black hole.

"Ant-Man!"

A ferocious aura surged forth from within his body. His genes were switched to the Ant-Man gene. Among all things in heaven and earth, every type of creature possessed unique characteristics. In terms of physical genes, although the switch occurred, his base cultivation remained at the peak of the Demigod realm. However, the power unleashed was 60 times that of a peak human Demigod!

Such was the advantage of the Ant tribe!

With the explosive surge in physical gene strength, the gravitational pull immediately weakened significantly. Falling upon Ye Chen, it felt like mere gentle rain, causing no great pain.

Ye Chen sighed in relief internally. He was currently at the second stage of Superman power, and the duration for activating Superman Mode was 2 minutes and 30 seconds. With three Superman Modes in total, cycling through them allowed him to persist for 7 minutes and 30 seconds!

Ye Chen exhaled and sat cross-legged in space, not moving forward. He vaguely sensed that to advance, he only needed a single thought; otherwise, his body would be fixed in place, unable to move even a fraction of an inch. Otherwise, under such terrifying gravity, his body would have long been sucked into the black hole.

"The master of this Demon God Palace is truly insane!"

"To temper a successor using such a terrifying method—it's no wonder this person fell during the last great war and the Demon God Palace remains unclaimed for countless ages. Just the requirements for the successor are extremely harsh, and with the Demon God Palace hidden mysteriously, coupled with this inheritance mission, it is simply demonic!"

Ye Chen felt so angry he nearly spat blood. Using a black hole to temper someone—was this how one played games?

The gravity from within the micro black hole furiously acted upon Ye Chen, pulling at every inch of his skin, including the blood, heart, and meridians within his body, all falling under the gravitational grip.

As the gravity frantically tore at him, a bizarre phenomenon occurred on Ye Chen's body. Every inch of his skin grew stronger, seemingly undergoing a slow metamorphosis, a process so rapid it was breathtaking, almost visible to the naked eye. Ye Chen felt a rapid transformation within his body, a touch of astonishment in his heart. He discovered that what was transforming wasn't just his physique, but his genes, cells, and within the cells, the nucleus, molecules, quarks, and even the microworlds were all undergoing rapid evolution.

"Gene metamorphosis?" Ye Chen's heart shook. He hadn't expected gravity to have such an effect, capable of spurring a living being toward fundamental evolution.

He frowned in thought, and suddenly, a sharp light flashed in his eyes. "What is driving the body's transformation isn't solely the black hole's gravity. There must be other substances within this gravity; otherwise, the body's genes wouldn't undergo metamorphosis."

Not long after, Ant-Man Mode ended. In the final second before it concluded, Ye Chen activated Lightning Superman Mode, activating it almost without interruption.

Relying only on his inherent body, under this violent gravity, he could last at most a few seconds—managing 2 seconds would already be a great improvement.

Time flowed by. Just as Lightning Superman Mode was about to end, Sky Beast Mode was activated immediately after. After continuously running Ant-Man and Lightning Superman Modes, a severe mental exhaustion swept over Ye Chen’s mind. He forced his eyes open, his brain groggy, struggling to hold on. After 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the power of Sky Beast Mode receded from him like a tide. The terrifying gravity surged over him like collapsing mountains and surging seas. The acute pain instantly overwhelmed his consciousness, and he passed out once more.

He slept for a full month this time.

When Ye Chen woke up again, he used the same method: cycling through the three Superman Modes. After several rounds of tempering, Ye Chen found his body had grown significantly stronger, his mental power was increasing rapidly, and the speed of his mental state's transformation was also extremely fast. He was subtly nearing a breakthrough from the early stage to the mid-stage of the eighth rank of the Sage realm.

While Ye Chen was undergoing his inheritance here, far away on the Ancient Continent, in another super-world, the Imperial City's Purple Flame Palace of the Yan God Empire, one of the Ten Great Empires, had become a scene of uproar. Countless famous generals and the rulers of the thousands of vassal states within the empire had gathered.

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