Celestial Venerable Ce and Lord Yu An exchanged a glance, their thoughts perfectly aligned through silent understanding.
Though they held a measure of apprehension toward the Golden Horned Beast, it was only apprehension. After all, they were currently flying far away, placing them well outside the reach of the beast’s ‘Nine Roar River.’ Without the pressure of the Nine Roar River, they could easily accelerate a hundred times the speed of light in the original universe, ensuring the Golden Horned Beast could never catch them.
But no one wished to flee like a stray dog, constantly chased and driven into desperate retreat.
“We harbored no intention of enmity with you,” Celestial Venerable Ce’s aged voice resonated. “It was only the overwhelming killing intent of Venerable Ba Jian that compelled us to follow him.”
The Golden Horned Beast gazed toward the two distant figures and boomed, “Might you enlighten me on how you arrived here? And how much do you know about this perilous land?”
Lord Yu An’s spectral voice drifted over. “Throughout history, many powerful beings have been trapped in this absolute realm. Most were adventuring in cosmic secret realms and were accidentally teleported here through myriad strange means. Some others were simply drifting through the cosmos, suddenly swallowed while navigating normal starry skies, only to find themselves in this forbidden domain.”
“There is no pattern,” Celestial Venerable Ce’s aged voice added.
The Golden Horned Beast fell silent.
After a moment of quiet contemplation: “Has anyone ever left?”
“Neither Lord Yu An nor I possess clones. Once trapped in this absolute realm, our avatars disintegrate. Thus, we know little of the outside world... However, we know of Venerable Cang Hua, who possessed the ability to create clones. His avatar outside did indeed observe powerful beings entering this forbidden land and subsequently reappearing in the outside world.”
“Venerable Cang Hua?” the Golden Horned Beast questioned. “Where is he?”
“He ultimately abandoned that avatar body and one supreme treasure, self-destructing to leave,” Celestial Venerable Ce stated.
“Are there others trapped in this absolute realm?” the Golden Horned Beast pressed.
“Yes.”
“Quite a few,” both Celestial Venerable Ce and Lord Yu An confirmed.
“Where are they?” The Golden Horned Beast looked across the expanse toward the pair.
“They must be scattered throughout this vast, desolate stellar expanse. As for their exact locations? The alien powerhouses frequently drift and change position; we cannot confirm,” Lord Yu An replied.
“How large is this absolute realm?” The Golden Horned Beast posed the question that concerned him most.
“The diameter is nearly one hundred thousand light-years. It appears as an utterly ordinary sea of stars,” Lord Yu An sighed. “But no matter how far one flies, you can only traverse the area within a hundred thousand light-years. Once you pass that boundary, you inexplicably find yourself flying back into a previously traversed star field—it’s like an inescapable maze, one you fly within forever.”
Luo Feng was inwardly startled.
Nearly one hundred thousand light-years in diameter? A labyrinth?
Since it resembled a maze, the fact that these alien powerhouses had still managed to map some of it suggested they had been flying within for a very long time.
“This is a colossal cage,” Lord Yu An looked pointedly at the Golden Horned Beast. “We alien powerhouses are its prisoners, eternally confined, unable to escape. You are the Golden Horned Beast; you must possess the ability to clone. If you are willing to abandon your supreme treasure, you could certainly self-destruct your divine body and leave.”
Celestial Venerable Ce’s aged voice advised, “Golden Horned Beast, I urge you to self-destruct. You have a clone, after all. After you are trapped here for boundless eons, you will understand the torment of permanent confinement. As for supreme treasures—as long as you live, there is always a chance to recover once you get out.”
“Roar~~~”
The Golden Horned Beast let out a roar that echoed across the stars. “Celestial Venerable Ce, Lord Yu An, I will not make such a decision lightly by self-destructing. I shall take my leave first.”
Whoosh!
The churning, endless golden tide vanished, and the Golden Horned Beast disappeared. A figure cloaked in black materialized out of thin air and rapidly accelerated into a streak of light, flying away at great speed.
Looking toward the distant streak of light as it faded from view.
“Venerable Ba Jian has fallen,” Celestial Venerable Ce murmured with a soft sigh.
“Who can we blame?” Lord Yu An scoffed. “He usually bullied us both. Hmph, to meet his end at the hands of that Golden Horned Beast—serves him right.”
...
In the vastness of space.
The Demon Killer clone sat cross-legged on an asteroid, transformed into a stream of light, wandering aimlessly through the stars.
“To actually kill a Universe Overlord,” the black-clad Luo Feng mused to himself with quiet amazement. “It’s fortunate that this is an absolute realm where no contact with the outside world or summoning of aid is possible. Otherwise, a Universe Overlord wouldn't die so easily.”
Universe Overlords were exceptionally difficult to kill.
First, they could flee if the situation looked dire! Even if various circumstances prevented escape, they could buy time and immediately call for reinforcements. If Venerable Ba Jian had fought the Golden Horned Beast on a Primitive Star, at worst he would have sustained injuries, and other powerhouses from the Nine Domain Alliance would have instantly rushed to assist.
But in the absolute realm, summoning aid was impossible, leading to Venerable Ba Jian being utterly destroyed.
“Among the many Universe Overlords in my human race, some have no record of killing another Universe Overlord. Yet, I have just ended the life of one.”
“Haha…” The black-clad Luo Feng chuckled, shaking his head. This time, after killing Venerable Ba Jian, the Golden Horned Beast’s divine body had only dropped below the 42% threshold, stabilizing at 41.9%.
Whoosh!
Seated on the asteroid, he continued to fly rapidly through space.
In the blink of an eye, more than two months passed. Within Luo Feng’s boundless divine kingdom, before the golden temple hovering above the endless Nether Sea.
“Finally accomplished,” Luo Feng stood up.
It took over a year, but he had finally mastered the Sixth and Seventh Tribulations of the Nine Tribulations Secret Tome. Of course, this speed was due to the small size of his Earthling body... The Golden Horned Beast clone was still only cultivating the Sixth Tribulation, having barely made an opening. Clearly, the evolution of such a massive divine body was extremely slow.
“When I mastered the first five tribulations, my divine body gene level was 48x. After merging 100 Blood Luo Crystals, which should have increased it a hundredfold, it seems the effect began to diminish gradually in the later stages... only pushing me to the 3000x level.”
“I have now cultivated two more tribulations.”
“My divine body is around 9800x—not yet at the perfect gene level.”
Luo Feng let out a faint sigh.
Clearly, the enhancement to genes provided by the Blood Luo Crystals was not perfectly compatible, at least for his Earthling main body! The ‘Golden Horned Beast,’ however, achieved 100% compatibility!
The first seven tribulations of the Nine Tribulations Secret Tome had brought his gene level to 192x... and the utility of the 100 Blood Luo Crystals had only provided an increase of about 50-fold.
“9800x.”
“Even among the truly unique special life forms in the universe, few can be this powerful. I should be content. Moreover, there are still the Eighth and Ninth Tribulations awaiting me in the future! I refuse to believe that after mastering the Nine Tribulations, I still won’t reach the perfect gene level,” Luo Feng anticipated secretly. “And my Golden Horned Beast clone will surely use this opportunity to instantly reach the perfect gene level.”
The Golden Horned Beast clone was already above 6000x previously!
The Sixth and Seventh Tribulations were immensely powerful, and the Blood Luo Crystals held 100% compatibility with the Golden Horned Beast... If nothing unexpected occurred, he was certain to achieve the perfect gene level.
“At that point, the Golden Horned Beast will be truly heaven-defying.”
“At the very least, he will then be able to unleash that unbelievable innate secret technique, ‘I Am the Universe.’ Luo Feng looked forward to that day, though based on the time required, the Golden Horned Beast would likely need to cultivate for another hundred years to fully master the Sixth and Seventh Tribulations.
“Only a hundred years or so.”
“It will pass in a flash.”
...
Across the vast expanse of stars.
The black-clad Luo Feng sat cross-legged on the asteroid, seemingly moving at high speed, yet relative to the immensity of space, he was merely drifting slowly.
“Whoosh~~~”
Suddenly, countless ripples stirred in the space ahead.
“What?” Luo Feng, sitting on the asteroid, carried by inertia, passed directly through the layer of ripples without resistance. But as his divine body swept past the ripples, an invisible force grazed his body, even penetrating his World Ring and directly affecting the Golden Horned Beast’s divine body.
Nothing could be shielded.
He was completely ‘brushed’ over by the ripples once.
The sensation of those ripples sweeping across the divine body was excruciating, like layers of knives scraping against the flesh. When he flew past this layer of ripples, the Demon Killer clone was left with only about 30% of its divine body.
“What terrifying stellar ripples.”
“What was that?”
“This, this… the cosmos has changed?” Luo Feng was astonished to find that after passing through the ripples, the starscape before him was entirely different.
The previous starscape was similar to normal universe space, with stars generally separated by vast distances and ordinary planets.
But this realm of stars...
It was so incredibly vibrant and beautiful. Distances between individual stellar systems were much closer, forming intricate, magnificent patterns, even allowing Luo Feng to vaguely perceive the subtle presence of law-pattern nuances woven within these countless planetary arrangements.
“There is another starscape hidden within the absolute realm?” Luo Feng mused to himself.
Sitting on the asteroid, Luo Feng flew slowly, soon approaching the first closest planet.
That planet was earth-yellow and appeared ordinary.
But Luo Feng sensed it briefly...
“This planet, entirely earth-yellow, devoid of any life, with a diameter of 21,000 kilometers...”
“Star Tear Gold!”
“It actually contains a ‘Star Tear Gold’ ore vein!” Luo Feng, his face pale, sat on the flying asteroid, staring at the lifeless planet in astonishment. “The reserves are incredible. If I were to devour it, even my massive Golden Horned Beast divine body could recover up to 80%.”
Luo Feng found it hard to believe.
Star Tear Gold, while a G-grade metal, was exceptionally rare among them. Rumor had it that when a supermassive star finally collapsed into a black hole, it would yield a single metal—Star Tear Gold. This metal was known as the teardrop of a star. Although it was G-grade, in terms of utility, it was far more precious.
Luo Feng had never seen an ore vein composed of such a valuable metal, practically comprising an entire planet! Even a Universe Overlord-level divine body, despite its colossal size of thousands of kilometers, could recover 80% of its mass by devouring this planet.
“Whoosh!”
Luo Feng vanished instantly, and the Golden Horned Beast materialized.
Swoosh!
The Golden Horned Beast shot off the asteroid and flew rapidly toward the earth-yellow planet.
A moment later—
As he was about to reach the earth-yellow planet, the Golden Horned Beast was already close to a golden planet in the distance. A purely casual stretch of divine power extended out to sense it, and the resulting detection stunned the Golden Horned Beast: “What? That golden planet contains a ‘Void Stone’ ore vein? The reserves are phenomenal; its value is nearly comparable to the Star Tear Gold on this planet.”
“Boom!”
The Golden Horned Beast landed on the earth-yellow planet, raised its massive head, and looked out at the countless planets suspended in the star-sea: “I examined two planets, and both possess precious ore veins. And this mysterious temporal space holds countless other planets—do they all possess valuable mineral deposits?”
: Chapter One Complete! RO