A black planet, the guiding space of life and death reincarnation.
A form of Lin Yuan sat here, observing the endless cycle of life and death in front of him.
"Life is death, and death is life. Life and death are merely different facets of the reincarnation rules. I see, I see now."
Lin Yuan's spirit was brimming with energy as his understanding of the life and death reincarnation rule broke through a certain shackle, reaching a new level.
The Fourth Layer.
The Fourth Layer of the life and death reincarnation rule.
Ten thousand years in the two-dimensional world, and already a hundred years in the main universe.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Lin Yuan comprehended the life and death reincarnation rule.
One hundred years ago, the life and death reincarnation rule reached the second layer. (Or level, stage)
Now, after a hundred years, Lin Yuan's understanding of the life and death reincarnation rule surpassed the third layer, reaching the fourth layer.
"The life and death reincarnation rule only encompasses two major pillar rules: the rule of life and the rule of death."
"But at its core, it explains the reincarnation rule. Without being in this guiding space, it would have taken me more than ten times the amount of time to reach this stage."
Lin Yuan felt quite emotional, though this was due to his Unrivaled Insight. No matter how great the bottleneck or shackle, they couldn't block him for long.
For other evolvers, it was no longer a matter of time. Some wouldn't be able to surpass these obstacles even if they reached the end of their life span.
Not to mention other races, even in human civilization, many eleventh-rank evolvers were stuck at the third or fourth layer of the pillar rules.
To reach the eleventh rank, one had to be the strongest genius of their era.
"This guiding space is of no use to me anymore."
Lin Yuan glanced around at the interweaving life and death rules, feeling no more inspiration because he had already reached the same height as the guiding space's rules.
Simply put, Lin Yuan had completely exhausted the benefits of this guiding space.
"My life and death reincarnation rule has reached the fourth layer, and several other pillar-level fusion rules, like the Great Destruction Rule, are at the peak of the third layer and could enter the fourth layer at any time."
Lin Yuan thought to himself. Studying multiple fusion rules simultaneously might scatter his focus, but the interaction and collision between multiple fusion rules often brought Lin Yuan unexpected progress.
Whether it was the life and death reincarnation rule or the Great Destruction Rule, both were part of the Chaos Rules, sharing the same origin.
"I can inform the Strongest One, Xia Qin, to arrange for a tenth-rank evolver from human civilization to take my place."
Since the guiding space no longer provided any benefit to him, Lin Yuan decided to rent it out. According to the price he agreed upon with the Strongest One, Xia Qin, a single guiding space was worth one hundred million merit points.
"Time to leave."
Lin Yuan turned and left the guiding space.
Outside the guiding space.
Lin Yuan's figure appeared.
In the next moment, a man in a black robe with a stern face appeared not far away.
"Why have you come out?" The black-robed man was taken aback, frowning at Lin Yuan.
The twelve guiding spaces on the black planet allowed each life to enter only one specific space.
In other words, one couldn't enter the same guiding space twice.
Lin Yuan had only been in the life and death reincarnation guiding space for a little over a hundred years before voluntarily coming out. According to the black planet's rules, he would not be able to enter the life and death reincarnation guiding space again.
This made the black-robed man feel a bit regretful. Lin Yuan had taken only fifty years to go from the first layer of the life and death reincarnation rule to the second.
When it came to talent and aptitude, there was no doubt that Lin Yuan was the most monstrous, the most extreme tenth-rank being in the black-robed man's memory.
But, no matter how talented, it was extremely foolish to leave the guiding space before reaching the fourth layer of the life and death reincarnation rule.
"Because this guiding space is no longer of any use to me."
Lin Yuan glanced at the black-robed man and spoke.
"Of no use?" The black-robed man was momentarily confused, then stared at Lin Yuan in disbelief. "You... you've reached the fourth layer?"
Only by reaching the fourth layer could someone say that the guiding space was no longer useful.
One hundred years ago, Lin Yuan had reached the second layer of the life and death reincarnation rule, and unintentionally leaked some of his aura, disturbing the balance of the life and death rules within the guiding space.
This allowed the black-robed man to deduce that Lin Yuan had already reached the second layer.
Afterward, when Lin Yuan reached the third layer and just now the fourth layer, he didn't leak any aura or disturb the balance of life and death within the guiding space. Therefore, the black-robed man wasn't aware of Lin Yuan's specific progress.
"Yes."
Lin Yuan nodded, raising his right hand. The power of life and death swirled at his fingertips, and faintly, a vast reincarnation millstone emerged.
"You've really reached the fourth layer?"
Seeing the reincarnation millstone at Lin Yuan's fingertips, the black-robed man no longer had any doubts, but even so, he found it incredible.
So, he had reached the fourth layer?
On the surface, it looked like Lin Yuan had spent fifty years moving from the first layer to the second, then another hundred years to move from the second to the third, and then another fifty years to reach the fourth layer.
Each level had taken fifty years.
It seemed normal enough.
But breaking through to the next level was far from that simple.
The higher the level, the more time it took to advance each step.
There were countless examples in human civilization of geniuses who reached the seventh rank within a few hundred or thousand years but then spent tens of thousands of years stuck at the transition from the seventh to the eighth rank.
The same applied to the comprehension of fusion rules.
In the black-robed man's estimation, after taking fifty years to reach the second layer, it should have taken Lin Yuan five hundred to a thousand years to reach the third layer.
Reaching the fourth layer should have taken nearly ten thousand years.
And this estimate was based on Lin Yuan's extraordinary talent, shown by his fifty-year leap to the second layer.
But Lin Yuan had taken just fifty years to go from the first layer to the second, fifty more to reach the third, and another fifty to reach the fourth.
This meant Lin Yuan's comprehension speed was increasing exponentially.
"Can you send me out?"
Lin Yuan looked at the slightly stunned black-robed man and asked.
On the black planet, the twelve doors were one-way paths.
One could enter, but to leave? That required the black-robed man's assistance.
"Leave?"
"Alright."
The black-robed man quickly regained his composure. He took a deep look at Lin Yuan, waved his hand, and sent him to the surface of the black planet.
In an instant.
Outside the guiding space, it was empty, with only the black-robed man standing alone.
"In this universe, how could such a monstrous being be born?" The black-robed man muttered to himself. Though most of his memory was fragmented, he knew that Lin Yuan's speed of cultivation was extremely unreasonable.
Outside the black planet.
Lin Yuan's figure appeared.
"Time to go back."
With one step, Lin Yuan left the black planet.
At this moment, this was just an incarnation of Lin Yuan. Compared to his true essence clone, the incarnation's combat power was much weaker, so most evolvers treated their incarnations as disposable.
But in Lin Yuan's view, even a small gain was worthwhile. Although his incarnation was far inferior to his true body, its mastery of space rules allowed it to traverse hundreds of light years in a single step, returning to the Milky Way's main star in a short time.
Then it could merge with his true body, avoiding the minor loss that comes with the dissolution of an incarnation.
Back at Battlefield A101 of the alien races.
Beneath a permanent spatial rift.
Lin Yuan's Yin primordial spirit opened its eyes.
The battlefield where his Yang primordial spirit once resided, Battlefield A098, had been forcibly reduced to a lower dimension by that "white paper" that intruded into the universe, leaving it nonexistent.
Even the Yang primordial spirit had fallen into it.
But regardless, the accumulation of Breaking Boundary Source Power must not slow down.
Once Lin Yuan confirmed that the Yang primordial spirit would not be able to escape for some time, he had the Yin primordial spirit select another large alien battlefield to speed up the accumulation of Breaking Boundary Source Power.
Compared to the absolute safety of the guiding space, large alien battlefields were fraught with danger, so it had to be his clone that ventured there. As for an incarnation? One misstep, and it would be killed by other alien races.
"These past hundred years, the intensity of the war has lessened a great deal."
Lin Yuan glanced at the center of the battlefield, his thoughts spinning.
It wasn't just this large alien battlefield; other large, medium, and small alien battlefields had all seen a significant reduction in the intensity of warfare.
The reason had to do with that "white paper" stretching across the deep space of the universe.
More than ten million powerful beings from all races had fallen into it, which had dealt a considerable blow to the top-tier alliances of the major races.
At the very least, there was now a shortage of war reserves.
Even though a large number of powerhouses had emerged from the two-dimensional world inside the white paper, the damage to their core strength meant it would take a long time for them to recover.
Moreover, the Strongest Ones were all researching that "white paper," and the effects trickled down from the top, resulting in a decline in war intensity on all fronts.
Lin Yuan welcomed this change. The safer the environment, the easier it was to accumulate Breaking Boundary Source Power.
"I now have more than 900 strands of Breaking Boundary Source Power."
Lin Yuan thought of the source power stored within the Gate of Myriad Realms, a smile creeping onto his face.
In a hundred years, based on the rate of one strand every ninety days in the large alien battlefield's permanent spatial rift, Lin Yuan had accumulated 405 strands of Breaking Boundary Source Power.
Combined with the nearly 500 strands he had a century ago, Lin Yuan's total had reached close to 1,000 strands.
"With this much Breaking Boundary Source Power…"
Lin Yuan felt slightly relieved.
With such a large amount of Breaking Boundary Source Power, even if the Yang primordial spirit were truly lost within that two-dimensional world, Lin Yuan would still have enough confidence to face the situation.
Even if the Yang primordial spirit were erased from existence, beyond recovery even with Lin Yuan's Unrivaled Insight, he could still use "custom" transmigration to have the Gate of Myriad Realms bring him to a world where his Yang primordial spirit could recover.
In the myriad worlds and endless dimensions, there would always be a world whose environment could restore his Yang primordial spirit, though it might cost more Breaking Boundary Source Power.
"My current strength should rival that of a third-tier eleventh-rank being."
After a century of cultivation, Lin Yuan had reached the fourth layer of the pillar-level fusion rules, but his profound foundation allowed him to unleash the power of the second or even third layer of the life and death reincarnation rule back when he was only in the first layer.
Now that he had reached the fourth layer, it was likely he could rival the peak of the fifth layer in terms of pillar-level fusion rules.
And the standard for the third tier of the eleventh rank was raising a pillar-level fusion rule to the fifth layer.
"One century to raise my tier—pretty good."
Lin Yuan nodded slightly. Crossing each of the six tiers of the eleventh rank took hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years for any other eleventh-rank being.
And this was assuming they didn't encounter any bottlenecks. Otherwise, it would take far more than just a few million years.
Lin Yuan, however, had only cultivated for a century and had already risen to the third tier, an improvement that was simply astonishing.
The most remarkable part was that Lin Yuan had achieved this not as an eleventh-rank being but while still at the tenth rank.
"Everything has been going smoothly with my comprehension of various fusion rules, but the space-time rule is proving difficult."
Lin Yuan sighed internally as his thoughts shifted.
The space-time rule, fully known as the time-space fusion rule, was the most difficult and obscure of all the fusion rules, with no exceptions.
Comprehending the time-space fusion rule was one of the thresholds for an eleventh-rank being to attempt becoming a supreme existence.
This showed the immense importance of the time-space fusion rule.
Comprehending the time-space fusion rule meant that the time and space within one's internal world would become more stable and complete. This would result in a smoother transformation when the internal world evolved into an internal universe.
Moreover, the time-space fusion rule played a significant role in helping eleventh-rank beings break free from the constraints of the River of Time, allowing them to step out of it for longer periods and giving them more time to attempt breaking through to the ultimate level.
"Perhaps it's unrealistic for me to comprehend the time-space fusion rule while still at the tenth rank."
Lin Yuan thought to himself. Even for an eleventh-rank being, comprehending the time-space fusion rule would elevate them to the fourth tier, and elevating it to the fifth layer would allow them to aim for the supreme level.
Lin Yuan wanted to achieve at the tenth rank what normally only a fourth-tier eleventh-rank being could achieve. This wasn't just about raw power; it was about the pure comprehension of the rules.
In the end, a tenth-rank being was still at a lower level. Unlike an eleventh-rank being, they couldn't easily perceive the fluctuations of the time-space rule.
"Forget it. Even if I don't master the time-space fusion rule, with my Unrivaled Insight, I'll be able to comprehend it quickly once I reach the eleventh rank."
Lin Yuan stopped overthinking it.
Lin Yuan's true body sat cross-legged on the Milky Way's main star.
"The Martial Dao Tenth Rank chapter?"
Several decades ago, Lin Yuan had begun considering the creation of the Tenth Rank chapter.
Since comprehending the life and death reincarnation rule, Lin Yuan had become a tenth-rank being, and now, with the life and death reincarnation rule reaching the fourth layer, he was at the peak of the tenth rank, fully qualified to open the Tenth Rank chapter of Martial Dao.
"My Tenth Rank chapter of Martial Dao must be unique."
For decades, Lin Yuan had attempted to start the Tenth Rank chapter of Martial Dao hundreds of times, but none of the openings were satisfactory.
In human civilization's evolutionary path, from the first to the eleventh rank, the tenth rank was neither the most important nor the strongest in terms of power, but it served as a critical transitional phase.
Especially for those on the path of Martial Dao, the tenth rank was of utmost importance.
"The tenth rank path I follow cannot be replicated. So, the Martial Dao Tenth Rank chapter I create must be applicable to all tenth-rank Martial Dao evolvers."
Lin Yuan's thoughts raced as he rapidly constructed the essence of the Tenth Rank chapter in his mind.
Outside the Milky Way's main star.
A young-looking man with slightly weathered eyes suddenly appeared.
"I've spent all my accumulated merit points, and even taken out a loan in my family's name to secure an additional eighty million merit points. Now, with a total of one hundred million merit points, I can take a step forward."
The man's name was Xuanyuan Fan, an ancient tenth-rank evolver from the Xuanyuan family.
In terms of power, Xuanyuan Fan was ranked in the top ten among all the tenth-rank evolvers of human civilization, far stronger than the deputy tower lord, Nalan, before his breakthrough.
This was because Xuanyuan Fan had comprehended two pillar-level fusion rules, with the life and death reincarnation rule having reached the peak of the first layer.
However, without breaking through to the second layer, Xuanyuan Fan couldn't aim for the eleventh rank. And advancing the life and death reincarnation rule to the second layer wasn't just a matter of hard work—it required external stimuli.
"According to the ancestor's advice, the master of the Milky Way holds a location that can help me advance my life and death reincarnation rule. However, the price for this is one hundred million merit points."
Xuanyuan Fan felt a bit of heartache.
Even though he and the Xuanyuan family had fought fiercely on the battlefield for human civilization, accumulating only twenty million merit points, the amount he now needed was far beyond that.
Had it not been for the Xuanyuan family's credibility, there would have been no way to raise one hundred million merit points. Even if Xuanyuan Fan successfully broke through to the eleventh rank, it would take him millions or tens of millions of years to pay off the debt.
"I wonder what kind of legacy location it is that's worth one hundred million merit points? But the ancestor wouldn't deceive me." Xuanyuan Fan thought to himself.
It was under the suggestion of his ancestor—who happened to be one of the nine Strongest Ones of human civilization—that Xuanyuan Fan made this decision.
"The Milky Way Star Lord... the most talented genius in the history of human civilization, reaching the tenth rank two hundred years ago."
Xuanyuan Fan's mind flashed with Lin Yuan's information and records.
"What a lucky kid..." Xuanyuan Fan felt a deep sense of envy. A legacy location that was worth one hundred million merit points—its true value was immeasurable.
Buzz.
Not long after Xuanyuan Fan arrived at the Milky Way's primary star, he contacted Lin Yuan through the virtual network.
A moment later, a young man appeared in the distance.
"Milky Way Star Lord." Xuanyuan Fan looked at the quietly appearing young man, his expression shifting slightly.
His comprehension of the life and death reincarnation rule had reached the peak of the first layer, so he faintly sensed that within Lin Yuan's body, a vast reincarnation millstone was forming.
In front of this vast reincarnation millstone, Xuanyuan Fan felt as insignificant as an ant, as if he could be crushed at any moment.
"Isn't the Milky Way Star Lord a newly ascended tenth-rank being? Why is his aura so terrifying, and why is his understanding of the life and death reincarnation rule so deep?"
Xuanyuan Fan was shocked. Although he didn't know the exact level of Lin Yuan's comprehension of the life and death reincarnation rule, it was undoubtedly far beyond his own.
"How terrifying. Is this truly the most talented genius of human civilization?" Xuanyuan Fan, who had initially underestimated Lin Yuan, now found himself trembling inwardly.
"Milky Way Star Lord, here are the one hundred million merit points," Xuanyuan Fan said respectfully, transferring the merit points to Lin Yuan.
"Mm."
Lin Yuan nodded and sent the coordinates of the black planet to Xuanyuan Fan.
The star field where the black planet was located now belonged entirely to Lin Yuan. Without his permission, no one—including eleventh-rank evolvers—could enter, as it would be a violation of the laws of human civilization.
"One hundred million merit points received."
Lin Yuan watched Xuanyuan Fan respectfully leave, feeling quite pleased.
At the same time, he gazed into a distant part of the universe—the location of the two-dimensional world.
...
20 chapters ahead on patreon: patreon.com/David_Lord
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