Chapter 272: The Harvest of a Hundred Thousand Eons

In this Swallowed Star, beneath the Immortal Gods and above them, they are entirely two different concepts.

The difference between these two is not only reflected in their astonishing power gap, but also in how they perceive the passage of time.

Below the Immortal Gods, even a Boundary Lord can typically live no more than ten million years.

During this time—not short, yet not especially long—these mortally limited powerhouses strive desperately to cultivate, hoping to cross into the Immortal Realm and gain an eternal, endless lifespan.

Through diligent cultivation, ordinary Boundary Lords can greatly deepen their understanding of lower-level laws within this limited time; those with better talent may earn recognition from lower-level primal laws, and absolute geniuses can even achieve extraordinary mastery in their comprehension of higher-level primal laws!

During this stage, each of them cultivates fiercely, improves relentlessly, and progresses at their fastest rate.

But once reaching the Immortal stage, with eternal life, the passage of time seems to lose all meaning.

An ordinary Immortal, if they avoid dangerous places like Cosmic Secret Realms or Outland Battlefields, and merely remain within their clan's territory, rarely encounter any real danger.

Over a hundred thousand eons, for Immortal Gods or even Cosmic Venerables, is utterly negligible.

As a result, after a hundred thousand eons, most eternal-lived powerhouses show no significant change in power compared to before—such as Ji Dian Wang, Tong Ye Wang, Zunzhe Qingping, and others…

But for geniuses beneath the Immortal Gods, this hundred-thousand-eon span is exceedingly long.

Even the Cosmic Human Peak Genius Tournament, held once every five thousand years, has already been conducted over two hundred thousand times.

When Lu Qingshan first broke through into the Cosmic Venerable Realm, the Human Clan had been producing Cosmic Venerables in succession—especially the Virtual Universe Corporation's line, which produced Tian Shi Gong Zhu, Sovereign Beihai, and Lu Qingshan in quick succession—causing tension in the allocation of Peak Genius Tournaments and Stronger Battles; thus, Lu Qingshan was only able to quickly take charge of three thousand tournaments thanks to Zi Hu Zunzhe's assistance.

Now, over a hundred thousand eons have passed, and those three thousand Peak Genius Tournaments have long since ended.

Among these three thousand tournaments, three million geniuses—each astonishingly talented at the Star Level, all capable of entering the top one thousand in the Cosmic-wide rankings—joined Lu Qingshan's ranks.

These three million super-geniuses each possessed talent surpassing Lu Qingshan's before he broke into the Immortal Realm, and their opportunities far exceeded what Lu Qingshan had before his breakthrough.

Yet in the end, among these three million geniuses, only fifty thousand successfully broke through into the Immortal Realm.

Among them, only one, upon breaking through, immediately attained the Law Elder Gan Wu of a Sovereign-level—this was Clement, the top-ranked genius in the entire Cosmic during the first Peak Genius Tournament Lu Qingshan hosted; Lu Qingshan had intended to take him as a disciple, but Clement ultimately became a disciple of Tian Feng Zunzhe.

Clement, after merely a million years of cultivation, broke into the Immortal God Realm with Law Elder Gan Wu equivalent to the Eighteenth Level of the Cosmic Bridge, and his combat power was astonishing—he has now conquered the Nineteenth Level of the Zhouji Cosmic Bridge!

Besides Clement, among the many geniuses under Lu Qingshan who successfully broke into the Immortal Realm, over a thousand others broke through directly as Marquis Immortals—over thirty of them at Marquis Peak, over a hundred at High Marquis, and the rest at Low Marquis.

Of these Marquis Immortals, only three hundred remain alive today, and one among them has successfully broken through to the Sovereign level, becoming Lu Qingshan's Sovereign Immortal!

As for the other geniuses who successfully broke into the Immortal Realm, all began as Immortal Military Lords; now, only twelve thousand two hundred remain alive, among whom twelve have successfully broken through to the Marquis level.

In other words, of the three million geniuses who entered the top one thousand in the Cosmic-wide rankings during the three thousand tournaments Lu Qingshan hosted, only two Sovereign Immortals remain alive today (including Clement), over three hundred Marquis Immortals, and twelve thousand two hundred Immortal Military Lords.

Fortunately, Lu Qingshan holds no official position within the Virtual Universe Corporation, so he requires no large retinue to serve him.

Thus, with these personnel at hand, Lu Qingshan ceased applying to host further Peak Genius Tournaments.

Only now has the Virtual Universe Corporation once again assigned him to host the Cosmic Human Peak Genius Tournament.

But for Lu Qingshan, hosting the Peak Genius Tournament initially felt fresh; after hosting many, it became numbing.

This is perfectly normal!

The Peak Genius Tournament occurs every five thousand years, as does the Peak Stronger Battle; meanwhile, the five major Human Clan factions recruit geniuses through other channels.

Even the most crucial Primordial Secret Realm within the Virtual Universe Corporation's core produces one hundred astonishingly talented Boundary Lords every ten million years.

Over a hundred thousand eons—that's over ten thousand astonishingly talented Primordial Secret Realm Boundary Lords!

Add to that the Boundary Lords from the Giant Axe Combat Arena's Giant Axe Secret Realm, the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance's Glory Secret Realm, and so on…

Absolute geniuses are as countless as stars in the sky!

Yet among them, how many can successfully break into the Immortal Realm? How many can survive until now?

At the Star Level and Cosmic Level, Lu Qingshan thought geniuses who entered the Cosmic top one thousand were already extremely powerful—he himself had tried many times and never made it into the top one thousand.

At the Domain Level and Boundary Level, Lu Qingshan grew even more envious of the core geniuses of the five major factions.

Because they were the same realm, yet those core geniuses, at the Domain Level, had already amassed wealth rivaling that of Immortal Gods; by the Boundary Level, they were even more extraordinary.

Even with his family's long-standing accumulation, Lu Qingshan had to strive for years and expend great effort to obtain the opportunity to enter the Initial Universe for contemplation—something those core geniuses could acquire effortlessly.

After breaking into the Immortal God Realm, Lu Qingshan gained the Heavenly Chat Group as a golden key, yet he still treated these super-geniuses with great courtesy.

For instance, during his time in the Transport Department, he developed slight connections with many core geniuses, including Tian Shi Zunzhe—a potential powerhouse.

After entering the Cosmic Venerable Realm, Lu Qingshan once considered cultivating capable assistants like other Cosmic Venerables, since he could exchange for Can Tian Zao Hua from Han Li in the Mortal World; though it couldn't raise their upper limits, it could still offer meaningful assistance.

Thus, during his first Peak Genius Tournament, he attempted to take Clement as a disciple—but Clement ultimately became Tian Feng Zunzhe's disciple.

Only after Lu Qingshan killed Hei Lang Zunzhe in the Qing Kun Secret Realm and received enthusiastic hospitality from countless Cosmic Venerables did he gradually abandon the idea of cultivating disciples.

Later, Lu Qingshan directly provided Huo Gesi, his favorite disciple, with vast quantities of Can Tian Zao Hua, and even spent hundreds of billions of Hunyuan Units to exchange for numerous cultivation-enhancing treasures, elevating Huo Gesi's Law Elder Gan Wu to Marquis Peak, granting him combat power equivalent to High Sovereign through other means.

With this, Huo Gesi handled affairs for him far more efficiently, so Lu Qingshan had no need to waste effort cultivating new geniuses.

After all, the Corporation would actively cultivate these geniuses themselves; once they matured, they would naturally come to serve under Lu Qingshan—he had no need to worry excessively.

Of course, this was also because, among the geniuses in these tournaments, aside from Clement, no extraordinary talents emerged.

If a terrifying genius like Tian Shi Gong Zhu had appeared, it would be an entirely different matter.

But with the help of the Heavenly Chat Group, his power can continuously rise; even if such a super-genius appeared, he need not take them as a disciple—and they might not even look upon him favorably now…

"Peak Genius Tournament?"

Lu Qingshan slightly shook his head, then merely allocated a sliver of his consciousness to oversee the tournament, after which he paid it no further attention.

Soon after, Lu Qingshan's main consciousness arrived at his Infinite Divine Sea avatar within his divine realm.

Feeling the Infinite Divine Sea avatar, fifty million kilometers in diameter, Lu Qingshan felt boundless ambition!

The Infinite Divine Sea avatar possesses no innate secret techniques; its life gene level is identical to that of ordinary life in the universe…

In short, compared to the Nine Nether Sea of the Nine Nether Lord, Lu Qingshan's Infinite Divine Sea avatar is utterly worthless.

But so what?

Thinking of this, Lu Qingshan recalled his current wealth in the Clan Treasury: 3 Supreme Treasures Points, 2770 Heavy Treasures Points!

Recall that before selling the Arm of Mie Xing Da Zunzhe, Star Stones, and Void Sand, his total wealth amounted to only 3 Supreme Treasures Points and 1957 Heavy Treasures Points.

That means, in just the past hundred thousand eons, he has accumulated over eight hundred Heavy Treasures Points.

Merely these eight hundred Heavy Treasures Points likely rival the entire fortune of Tie Ying Zunzhe, who once teamed up with him to explore the Qing Kun Secret Realm.

But the entirety of Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe's assets represents his entire accumulation over hundreds of billions of eons since he became a Cosmic Venerable!

And although Lu Qingshan's strength is not much greater than Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe's, how could he accumulate wealth in just over a hundred thousand eons that Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe never accumulated even after hundreds of billions of eons?

The most important reason for this is naturally the Endless Divine Sea clone, which has a diameter of over fifty million kilometers.

With the existence of the Endless Divine Sea clone having a diameter of fifty million kilometers, his second clone adventuring in the Cosmic Secret Realm can burn Immortal Divine Power recklessly in battle, and after combat, he needs absolutely no time to replenish his Divine Power.

Just like Kuang Dao Zunzhe and Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe who adventured with him in the Qing Kong Secret Realm back then, it is not even known whether they have fully replenished the Divine Power lost during their battle with Hei Lang Zunzhe and the others.

Yet Lu Qingshan has already been adventuring in the Cosmic Secret Realm for over a hundred thousand eons!

Even other Cosmic Venerables who possess the ability to create clones would not dare to burn Divine Power so recklessly in battle as Lu Qingshan does.

Because even if their clone's divine bodies are relatively massive, they are most likely unable to compare to Lu Qingshan's Endless Divine Sea clone.

Moreover, when Lu Qingshan adventures in the Cosmic Secret Realm, he always carries a portion of the divine body split off from the Endless Divine Sea clone.

Although doing this can compensate for the disadvantage of the main combat clone having a small divine body, it also carries other disadvantages.

For instance, after the Endless Divine Sea clone splits off a divine body, its Divine Power cannot continue to recover, so that over such long ages, the volume of the Endless Divine Sea clone has not increased at all.

In short, if Lu Qingshan did not possess the Endless Divine Sea clone, this super-large 'power bank', he would simply not dare to play like this!

Over these ten-plus thousand eons, more than thirty Cosmic Venerables have successively teamed up with Lu Qingshan to adventure in the Cosmic Secret Realm, yet all of these thirty-plus Cosmic Venerables, just like Kuang Dao Zunzhe, Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe, and Fei Yu Zunzhe, returned to the Human Race's territory to recover their Divine Power due to great battles.

Among them, Kuang Dao Zunzhe and Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe were the luckiest; not only did they obtain treasures like Void Sand, but they also did not lose much Divine Power!

And among the Cosmic Venerables who teamed up with Lu Qingshan, some even gained only a few layers of Treasure Points, then encountered a great battle, losing more than twenty or thirty percent of their Divine Power, and after the battle ended, besides suffering Divine Power damage, they gained nothing!

【66】 Is this unlucky?

Is this bad luck?

Unlucky!

But this is the normal state of Cosmic Venerables adventuring in the universe!

Good luck is rare; even suffering Divine Power damage can only be considered bad luck!

Truly unlucky are those who are killed!

If it is a powerful being with a clone, being killed is slightly better; they merely lose the various protective treasures on their person;

but if it is a powerful being without a clone, once killed, they will not only lose the various treasures on their person but also incur a huge debt because they were resurrected by reversing time and space!

"With the Endless Divine Sea clone, my advantage among Cosmic Venerables is truly too great!"

Lu Qingshan could not help but sigh silently in his heart: "In just over a hundred thousand eons, I have accumulated over eight hundred layers of Treasure Points; if it were a million eons or ten million eons, would I not be able to accumulate seven thousand, or even seventy thousand layers of Treasure Points?"

Thinking of this, Lu Qingshan quickly shifted his main consciousness back to the second clone adventuring in the Cosmic Secret Realm.

Within the Insect Race's territory, in the Ancient God Secret Realm.

In this Ancient God Secret Realm, many ordinary races once lived, and even a powerful race known as the 'Ancient God Race'.

However, the so-called Ancient God Race was actually just an ordinary race; they simply had their entire race submit to a special life form of Lord Realm level within the Ancient God Secret Realm who called himself 'Ancient God'.

That 'Ancient God' was a unique special life form in the universe, born at the Venerable Realm level, with a life gene level more than seven thousand times that of ordinary life in the universe, and later broke through to the Lord Realm.

When the Ancient God Secret Realm was first discovered by Insect Race experts, Ancient God, this Lord of the Universe, was even arrogant enough to want the Insect Race to submit to him.

But how could a frog in a well know the terror of the Insect Race?

Ultimately, the Insect Race Queen personally acted, leading a group of Insect Race Lords of the Universe to directly annihilate Ancient God's soul, and even the so-called 'Ancient God Race' was completely wiped out by the Insect Race.

After Ancient God fell, the ordinary races within the Ancient God Secret Realm either became vassal races of the Insect Race or were directly wiped out by the Insect Race.

However, the Ancient God Secret Realm was fraught with danger; even Ancient God and his Ancient God Race had not explored the entire Ancient God Secret Realm, and combined with the extreme difficulty of developing the Ancient God Secret Realm, the Insect Race abandoned the idea of completely occupying this Secret Realm.

Over time, this Ancient God Secret Realm became a well-known Cosmic Secret Realm in the vast universe, and many experts from the billions of races in the universe were willing to come here to explore.

And in one particularly dangerous area within the Ancient God Secret Realm, three human figures were currently exploring cautiously.

One of them had a resolute face and wore purple-gold battle armor;

another was about two meters tall, wearing a dark blue long robe inscribed with countless secret patterns, and on his back he carried a long sword with a strange shape;

the last one was over eight meters tall, with a burly build, wearing blood-red battle armor, and possessed eight arms!

These three were precisely Wan Jie Zunzhe, Tian Feng Zunzhe, and Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe from the Virtual Universe Company faction of the Human Race!

As early as over four million years ago, Lu Qingshan and the other two had already come to this Ancient God Secret Realm to adventure.

Over these four-plus million years, Lu Qingshan and the other two successively obtained wealth worth over twenty layers of Treasure Points.

Of course, during this period, Lu Qingshan and the other two did encounter dangers.

However, Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe held a top-tier Palace-class heavy treasure borrowed from other Universe Dominators; relying on this top-tier Palace-class heavy treasure, they were able to avoid danger every time.

Precisely because of this top-tier Palace-class heavy treasure, Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe could claim forty percent of the spoils alone when distributing the loot;

as for Lu Qingshan and Tian Feng Zunzhe, who possessed the strength of a High Venerable, they split the remaining sixty percent equally, meaning three percent each.

However, Lu Qingshan was not taking advantage, because many places where danger might exist were scouted by him alone first.

Over the four-plus million years, he had already burned Divine Power to fight five times successively, cumulatively burning more than five percent of his Divine Power; if it were anyone else, they would probably have to return to the race's territory to recuperate.

But for Lu Qingshan, who possesses the Endless Divine Sea clone, the small amount of Divine Power burned was merely a drop in the bucket!

"Wan Jie!"

While cautiously exploring the Secret Realm, Tian Feng Zunzhe suddenly transmitted a voice to Lu Qingshan: "I recall that the Peak Genius Battle is your turn to host this time; should we take a few years to recuperate first?"

"No need!"

Lu Qingshan said with a smile: "My clone has always been in Chaos City; once those little ones arrive at the company headquarters, I will go directly to send them to the Initial Universe!"

"Yes, what is there to care about regarding those little ones?"

Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe, standing nearby, also said with a smile: "By the way, since Wan Jie you broke through to the Venerable Realm, our Human Race has not produced any outstanding geniuses in these ten-plus thousand eons!"

"Let alone Venerable Realm, not even a single Peak Hei Fengwang has appeared!"

"That is true!"

Lu Qingshan quickly nodded and said: "Recently, the most outstanding ones are your disciple, Tian Feng, and the female disciple taken in by Zi Hu Zunzhe; these two have now passed the nineteenth layer of the Tongtian Bridge, which is already quite good!"

"Speaking of which, Wan Jie, you are a bit unlucky!"

Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe soon chuckled and teased, "I recall that the Genius Tournament you held back then was yielded to you by Zifeng Zunzhe. If she hadn't yielded it to you, wouldn't her little disciple have become your disciple?"

"And that disciple Tian Feng took in seems to have been snatched from your hands as well!"

Hearing Lord Lord Tiequan Zunzhe's words, Tian Feng Zunzhe, standing nearby, felt somewhat awkward, then quickly said, "That time was mainly because I got along very well with that little Clement. The Lie Shen Bing he used was created by me, and the Zhouji Chaos Stele he chose was one I had comprehended, so I..."

"It was just a trivial matter!"

Lu Qingshan quickly said, "Tian Feng, you need not care too much!"

For Lu Qingshan, he hadn't even minded when Clement became a disciple under Tian Feng Zunzhe back then, let alone now!

(End of this chapter)