Chapter 174: The Long Years

Virtual Universe, halfway up Lei Ting Island.

The residents here were the upper echelons of one branch of the Virtual Universe Company—magnificent beings who had each stepped into the cosmic Venerable Realm.

At the entrance of one extremely lavish palace, a figure clad in purple-gold battle armor suddenly appeared—it was precisely Lu Qingshan, who had flown up from the foot of the mountain.

Ever since Lei Huanwang had brought Lu Qingshan to pay his respects to Venerable Yao Guang, Lu Qingshan had already obtained the authority to teleport directly into Venerable Yao Guang's divine palace.

It was just that previously he had always teleported into the cultivation grounds within the divine palace; this time, since he wished to request an audience with Venerable Yao Guang, he naturally still had to go through the main entrance.

"Lord of Ten Thousand Realms, the Venerable long ago gave orders that you may enter as soon as you arrive!" The two Immortal Gods responsible for guarding the great hall, upon seeing Lu Qingshan appear, promptly bowed respectfully and said.

"Mm!"

Lu Qingshan gave a slight nod, then stepped into the divine palace.

Soon, Lu Qingshan appeared in the great hall within the divine palace.

The great hall was extremely spacious. At this moment, seated upon the towering throne in the center was a dignified figure—precisely Lu Qingshan's Ancestral Master, Venerable Yao Guang.

"Ancestral Master!" Lu Qingshan stepped forward a few paces and bowed respectfully to Venerable Yao Guang seated upon the throne.

"Rise!"

Venerable Yao Guang gestured for Lu Qingshan to stand, and at the same time said with a smile: "Qingshan, you've come to me this time—is it regarding your teacher's matter?"

"Speaking of which, before Lei Huan went to that Star Glory Secret Realm, he even came to ask me about it!"

Before Lu Qingshan could speak, Venerable Yao Guang continued: "I had originally thought that Star Glory Secret Realm was quite safe, but I never expected something like this to happen!"

"After Lei Huan and the others perished, I did invite a close friend to go to the place where they fell. Unfortunately, the alien cosmic Venerable who killed them had already left!"

Venerable Yao Guang had not gone personally, mainly because his true body was currently adventuring on the Primordial Star, which was why he had invited a close friend to rush over and investigate the situation.

"It seems Ancestral Master still values Teacher quite highly!" Upon hearing Venerable Yao Guang's words, Lu Qingshan secretly thought to himself.

He had originally assumed that after learning of Lei Huanwang's fall, Venerable Yao Guang would only wait for Lei Huanwang's resurrection. He hadn't expected the other to have also invited a close friend to inspect the place where Lei Huanwang and the others had perished.

"I have already inquired previously. The resources Lei Huan owed the clan from his previous fall were settled long ago. I estimate it won't be long before the cosmic Lord of our clan reverses time and space to resurrect him!"

Venerable Yao Guang said again: "So you fellow disciples have no need to worry at all—you only need to wait for a period of time!"

"This disciple understands!"

Lu Qingshan promptly nodded and said: "However, this disciple has come to see you, Ancestral Master, also because there is a small matter I wish to trouble Ancestral Master with!"

"Oh?"

Upon hearing Lu Qingshan's words, Venerable Yao Guang was slightly surprised, then spoke again: "Tell me about it!"

Although he quite appreciated Lu Qingshan, this grand-disciple who possessed a clone, without knowing the specifics of the matter, he would not rashly promise anything!

"It's like this!"

Lu Qingshan promptly said: "This disciple plans to apply for a Four Directions Divine General quota. However, the procedure for applying for a Four Directions Divine General inheritance quota within the Hong Alliance is simply too cumbersome, and this disciple also cannot find suitable guarantors and recommenders. That is why I have come to consult you, Ancestral Master!"

"Four Directions Divine General inheritance?"

Upon hearing Lu Qingshan's words, Venerable Yao Guang was slightly taken aback: "Qingshan, didn't you just accept that Spirit Wind Divine General inheritance? Why do you want to accept a Four Directions Divine General inheritance again?"

"Ancestral Master!"

Lu Qingshan promptly answered: "That Spirit Wind Divine General inheritance cultivates a soul amplification secret art. Besides being adept at soul attacks, this disciple is also quite skilled in swordsmanship, so I wish to accept another Four Directions Divine General inheritance!"

"So that's how it is!"

Venerable Yao Guang nodded slightly, then continued: "Qingshan, actually, after accepting the Spirit Wind Divine General inheritance quota, you can create your own Psychic Weapon attack methods. There's no need at all to waste wealth applying for another Four Directions Divine General inheritance quota!"

"However, speaking of which, this time the Spirit Wind Divine General inheritance opened, and although our human clan produced a cosmic Hegemon, those of you who accepted the Spirit Wind Divine General inheritance together with Venerable Jiu Feng can be considered to have suffered a loss!"

"Moreover, you possess a clone. When adventuring in the cosmos, you can take more risks, and the speed at which you accumulate wealth is considerably faster than peers of the same level. You won't lack the funds needed to accept an inheritance either!"

At this point, Venerable Yao Guang paused slightly, seemingly communicating with other powerhouses.

A moment later…

"Done!"

Venerable Yao Guang looked directly at Lu Qingshan, then said with a smile: "I've already arranged everything for you. Later, you may directly apply to the Hong Alliance for the Four Directions Divine General inheritance quota. As for the guarantors and recommenders, just fill in my name for all of them!"

Upon hearing Venerable Yao Guang's words, Lu Qingshan immediately bowed respectfully and said: "Many thanks, Ancestral Master!"

"It's merely a trivial matter!"

Venerable Yao Guang casually waved his hand, then said with a smile: "Actually, if this quota were decided by our human clan alone, you could easily pass by applying yourself! However, our human clan is, after all, the dominant force of the Hong Alliance, so normally when inheritances open, we also set aside a few quotas for those alien powerhouses. That is why the decision-making authority for inheritance quotas has been placed in the Hong Alliance!"

"And those guarantors and recommenders are generally used to block those alien powerhouses, as well as some human powerhouses who are not core members of our five great factions!"

"This disciple understands!" Lu Qingshan promptly nodded and said.

This was the difference between having a background and not having one!

Those with backgrounds, like Lu Qingshan, needed only Ancestral Master Venerable Yao Guang to put in a word to obtain an inheritance quota;

whereas those without backgrounds had to spend a great deal of favors and wealth to apply for a quota!

"Qingshan!" Venerable Yao Guang promptly looked at Lu Qingshan seriously: "There is one more thing I must remind you of!"

"Ancestral Master!" Lu Qingshan listened attentively.

"Accepting a Divine General inheritance can certainly allow your strength to advance greatly. Combined with your tenfold life gene level, it is even enough to make your combat power comparable to a Hei Fengwang extreme powerhouse!"

Venerable Yao Guang said quite solemnly: "But you must understand that the help from these external forces is far inferior to the help that higher comprehension of laws and more powerful secret arts provide to oneself!"

"Especially comprehension of laws—it is extremely important for every powerhouse!"

"Only by possessing sufficiently high comprehension of laws can your strength become more complete, more powerful, and even break through into the cosmic Venerable Realm!"

"This disciple understands!" Lu Qingshan promptly said respectfully.

"Alright, you may take your leave!" Venerable Yao Guang instructed.

"This disciple takes his leave!" Lu Qingshan said respectfully.

……

Within Chaos City.

Having returned to his residence, Lu Qingshan promptly applied for the Four Directions Divine General inheritance quota.

Perhaps because Venerable Yao Guang had given prior notice, as soon as Lu Qingshan applied for a spot, it was quickly approved.

He only needed to wait until the inheritance of the Four Divine Generals opened, and then he could go to receive the inheritance.

"It is good to have a backer!"

After sighing that he had easily obtained a spot for the Divine General inheritance, Lu Qingshan immediately began planning his cultivation schedule again: "Now that I have secured a spot for the Divine General inheritance, I only need to wait calmly for the day the inheritance opens!"

"And during this upcoming period, besides accumulating the points needed to receive the Divine General inheritance twice, I must use the rest of my time to diligently comprehend the Time Origin Law and quietly research my own created secret techniques!"

"I will strive to fully comprehend 'Time Stop' after receiving the Four Divine Generals' inheritance; by then, my strength should be sufficient to seek revenge on those few enemies who once killed me!"

Thinking of this, Lu Qingshan quickly resumed his secluded cultivation journey within the Chaos City.

His original body cultivated low-key in the Outer Battlefield; aside from enjoying sparring with some strong ones, he spent the rest of his time slowly accumulating wealth. Besides no longer killing Hei Fengwang Immortals, when dealing with those Hei Fenghou Immortals, he relied mainly on ambushes, striving for a one-hit kill to deny the enemy any chance to send out a message;

The Infinite Divine Sea clone continued to divert a sliver of consciousness to the water group to obtain points, while also using various resources to exchange for points from other group members;

As for the second clone, it stayed within the Chaos City, quietly comprehending the Time Origin Law, while also diverting part of its consciousness to connect to the Virtual Universe, creating more exquisite sword techniques, body techniques, and soul attack methods under the guidance of his grandmaster Venerable Yao Guang!

Thus, Lu Qingshan's three clones each fulfilled their duties, constantly improving his overall comprehensive strength.

Time flowed endlessly; in the blink of an eye, several million years had passed.

During these several million years, Lu Qingshan's three clones cooperated with each other, constantly improving his strength.

Virtual Universe, Lei Ting Island, halfway up the mountain.

Inside a cultivation arena within Venerable Yao Guang's residence.

At this moment, the scene inside the cultivation arena had been simulated into a desolate planet, and surrounding this desolate planet were countless mysterious green lines shimmering with light.

In the center of these dense mysterious green lines stood a human figure clad in a purple-gold long robe, gazing from afar at a strange beast over a thousand kilometers long that looked like a giant green caterpillar.

These two figures were none other than Lu Qingshan and the five-hundredth opponent he encountered while creating his second soul attack method, the Green Line Devouring Worm!

The Green Line Devouring Worm was a special lifeform, extremely rare in the universe, with a population that was even more exceedingly scarce.

Even many ancient existences who had lived for endless ages had never seen one with their own eyes!

Moreover, the Green Line Devouring Worm mastered at least three major innate secret techniques...

One innate secret technique was its strongest survival method, 'Myriad Clones'; although the clones it produced were far inferior in strength to the original, being killed had absolutely no effect on its own strength;

Naturally, a single such clone was inferior to a clone like Lu Qingshan's, but the sheer number of thousands upon thousands of clones made this innate secret technique even superior to most innate clone secret techniques!

The Green Line Devouring Worm's second innate ability was 'Rooted to the Planet'!

It was said that after the Green Line Devouring Worm activated this innate secret technique, it could rapidly restore its divine power by absorbing special energy within the planet, so this innate secret technique's effect on the Green Line Devouring Worm was fully comparable to Origin-class supreme treasures, and even surpassed them!

As for the Green Line Devouring Worm's third innate secret technique, it was 'Control Life Puppets'!

It was said that the Green Line Devouring Worm could infiltrate other strong ones' bodies through its clones, and once the timing was mature, it could transform the opponent into its own life puppet, an effect fully comparable to Soul Enslavement!

At this moment, Lu Qingshan had already been fighting this Green Line Devouring Worm for over twenty thousand years, yet he still could not defeat it.

However, as time passed, the threat the Green Line Devouring Worm posed to Lu Qingshan grew weaker and weaker; it seemed that its defeat by Lu Qingshan was merely a matter of time.

Buzz!

With a mere thought, the Green Line Devouring Worm instantly split off a stream of ethereal immortal divine power that seeped into Lu Qingshan's body, intending to completely assimilate Lu Qingshan and turn him into its life puppet.

"Still the same old tricks, petty skills, not a shred of freshness!"

Lu Qingshan's body, where an ancient bronze bell formed by a soul defense secret technique existed, merely swayed slightly, shattering all that strange divine power the Green Line Devouring Worm had seeped into his body.

"Since that is the case, then you shall also taste the might of my second form, 'Soul-Slaying Sword'!"

Having shattered the Green Line Devouring Worm's attack, Lu Qingshan shifted his mind, and formless, ethereal immortal divine power instantly seeped out, directly drilling into the body of the Green Line Devouring Worm not far away.

After Lu Qingshan's constant research, this second form of 'Soul-Slaying Sword', though not yet having crossed into the top tier, had long since possessed might that the first form could not compare to!

Buzz!

Facing Lu Qingshan's soul attack, the Green Line Devouring Worm floating in the starry sky above actually paused slightly, as if completely controlled by Lu Qingshan's soul attack.

Seeing this, Lu Qingshan's heart likewise rejoiced.

He knew that when he had previously used 'Soul-Slaying Sword' to attack the Green Line Devouring Worm, the opponent had struggled fiercely; it was impossible for it to be this calm as it was now.

Immediately after, Lu Qingshan increased the output speed of his ethereal immortal divine power, intending to crush the opponent's soul defense in one go.

Inside the Green Line Devouring Worm's body, Lu Qingshan's ethereal immortal divine power had long since transformed into countless illusory small swords, then gathered together to form a giant illusory sword, which directly slashed fiercely at the Green Line Devouring Worm's most fundamental soul origin.

Although the Green Line Devouring Worm still resisted Lu Qingshan's soul attack with all its might this time, it was ultimately completely overwhelmed by those illusory small swords, which penetrated every fraction of divine power within its body; subsequently, all life imprints completely vanished.

Meanwhile, the Green Line Devouring Worm's original body outside, as well as the countless green lines rooted in the planet, also completely lost their life aura.

"Hahaha... succeeded, finally succeeded!"

Standing above the desolate planet, Lu Qingshan gazed from afar at the corpse of the Green Line Devouring Worm not far away, his heart filled with emotion.

"If this were in reality, completely killing a Green Line Devouring Worm of the same tier would be basically impossible!"

Lu Qingshan couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "However, this is within the Virtual Universe; I only need to destroy its original body, and its countless clones will naturally perish along with it!"

"Regardless, this Green Line Devouring Worm has finally been defeated by me, and my 'Soul-Slaying Sword' second form has now officially crossed into the top tier!"

And just at this moment...

"Qingshan, well done!"

Accompanied by a majestic voice, a figure clad in a white long robe quickly appeared before Lu Qingshan; it was his grandmaster, Venerable Yao Guang.

Seeing this, Lu Qingshan immediately bowed respectfully and said, "Grandmaster!"

"Qingshan, you have finally raised this second soul attack method to the top tier!"

Venerable Yao Guang nodded slightly and said, "Although it took a bit longer than your teacher and I expected, it has finally succeeded!"

"This is already the level of most self-created secret techniques by Hei Fengwang Immortals; as for the third secret technique, you must at least wait until your comprehension of the Time Origin Law rivals the level of the twentieth layer of the Heavenly Bridge before you can continue creating it!"

After hearing Venerable Yao Guang's words, Lu Qingshan's heart also sighed slightly.

To accumulate points for the upcoming Four Divine Generals' inheritance, during the past several million years he had only activated the Dao Elder Gan Wu Boost function once, and the duration was merely ten days; most of his time was spent comprehending the Chaos Stele to improve his comprehension of the Time Origin Law.

But unfortunately, his accumulation in the Time Origin Law at that time was still relatively weak; even after using the Dao Elder Gan Wu Boost function to comprehend the Heavenly Thunder Chaos Stele once, he ultimately failed to achieve a huge breakthrough.

Precisely because of this, the speed at which he now creates a top-tier soul attack secret art is much slower than when he created the first form last time, only equivalent to the ordinary level among Hei Fengwang Undying.

While various thoughts flashed through his mind, Lu Qingshan also quickly said, "This disciple being able to create the second form of a top-tier soul attack art is also thanks to the guidance of Grandmaster!"

"Hahaha, this is merely what I ought to do!"

Venerable Yao Guang said with a smile, "Lu Qingshan, your soul attack secret art can now be considered to have some accomplishments, and combined with the top-tier sword art you created before, you can already be considered quite remarkable among Hei Fengwang Undying!"

"After you receive the inheritance of the Four Directions Divine Generals, your strength will naturally grow even stronger! Right now, the biggest shortcoming on you is still your comprehension of laws, so the most important thing for you next is still to quickly enhance your comprehension of the time origin law!"

"Although this is very difficult, I believe you have the potential for it!"

"This disciple will certainly work hard, striving to break through as soon as possible!" Lu Qingshan replied very seriously.

In fact, the improvement of law comprehension is often the more one progresses, the more difficult it becomes.

Lu Qingshan had previously comprehended all the essences of the time origin law, so raising his comprehension of the time origin law to the eighteenth level of the Tongtian Bridge would naturally not be too difficult — it was merely a matter of time.

But among those Hei Fengwang Undying who could break through the eighteenth level of the Tongtian Bridge, which one had not comprehended all the essences of the time or space origin laws?

Yet even so, for them to break through the nineteenth level of the Tongtian Bridge is as difficult as ascending to the heavens!

Fortunately, Lu Qingshan had already used the Enlightenment Blessing function once before. Although he did not break through immediately, he did find the opportunity for breakthrough, and it should not be long before he can smoothly step into the next level and then reorganize his own divine power!

(End of this chapter)