Chapter 440

In the Ocean of the Universe, boundless chaotic currents drifted endlessly.

In a region near the Primitive Universe, its membrane wall was being continuously torn apart.

Even though the Primitive Universe constantly repaired itself, it could never fully heal this tear, for within the membrane, a black hole—the strongest in the entire Primitive Universe—was relentlessly ripping it open.

Swish! Swish!

At that moment, two towering figures suddenly appeared in the Ocean of the Universe outside the Primitive Universe; the crushing pressure of the chaotic currents was immense, yet to them it felt like a gentle breeze brushing past their faces.

One of the two wore a black battle armor emitting a faint glow, the other wore dark golden battle armor—these were Lu Qingshan's main battle body and his second avatar.

Although the Original Star was still in its opening phase, the quantity and quality of the treasures emerging had already begun to decline noticeably, so he had ordered both his main body and second avatar to enter the Primitive Universe to explore.

Whoosh!

Lu Qingshan immediately teleported to a stretch of empty space.

In this void were thirty-nine twisted spatial portals—naturally formed cosmic wormholes that allowed passage across unimaginable distances.

"This time, exploring the Ocean of the Universe, my main body and avatar must not travel together!"

Looking at the thirty-nine spatial wormholes ahead, Lu Qingshan thought to himself: "Otherwise, if I encounter mortal danger, all my supreme treasures could be lost at once!"

After all, aside from the supreme treasures he was currently using, Lu Qingshan possessed few other resources or spare artifacts.

Although his current strength made him relatively safe even within the Ocean of the Universe.

But in the Ocean of the Universe, there were not only the strongest from other alien universes, but also countless perilous zones—even the strongest cosmic beings could not claim absolute safety, let alone Lu Qingshan at his current stage.

If Lu Qingshan's two avatars traveled together, they might both perish simultaneously.

After all, Lu Qingshan's survival capability was already extremely strong; if facing ordinary danger, even his weaker second avatar could escape.

But if facing true mortal peril, even both avatars traveling together would be useless!

Should both of Lu Qingshan's avatars perish at once, restoring his current strength would require vastly more effort.

Therefore, it was better for the two avatars to split up—so that even if one perished, the other could still retain considerable power through his supreme treasures.

"Given that…"

After a brief moment of thought, Lu Qingshan made his decision: "Let my main battle body carry the Purple Thunder Cleansing Demon Sword, the Bamboo Forest Demon-Slaying Armor, the God-Slaying Formation Diagram, the Chaos-Suppressing Demon Tower, the Dragon Soul Battle Boots, and the Futo Heart Lamp, and head to the Endless Sand Sea within the Cosmic Boat to meet the Master of Huang Jian!"

"As for the second avatar, there's no need to venture into the Three Absolute Dangers anymore—just carry the Flowing Light Starfall Sword, the Nine Heavens Thunderstriking Armor, the Rending Sky Cloud-Treading Boots, and the Nine-Shadow Soul-Devouring Bell, and explore only lesser-dangerous zones; this way, splitting up will certainly be safer!"

After making this decision, Lu Qingshan's main battle body and second avatar immediately separated and entered different spatial wormholes.

The second avatar headed for the lesser-dangerous zone known as the Sunset Canyon in the Ocean of the Universe, while the main battle body set off toward the Endless Sand Sea within the Cosmic Boat to rendezvous with the Master of Huang Jian.

Teleport! Teleport…

Spatial wormhole! Spatial wormhole…

Flight! Flight…

Switching between various travel methods, after five days of travel, Lu Qingshan finally met the Master of Huang Jian in the Endless Sand Sea within the Cosmic Boat.

After reuniting, Lu Qingshan and the Master of Huang Jian began exploring together within the Endless Sand Sea of the Cosmic Boat.

However, the resources they acquired during this exploration in the Cosmic Boat were far inferior to what they had gathered on the Original Star.

Lu Qingshan and the Master of Huang Jian explored the Endless Sand Sea for nearly five million years without encountering any truly astonishing supreme treasures.

Of course, during those nearly five million years of exploration, they did gain some other rewards—collectively amounting to over a thousand Ordinary Ordinary Zhibao Points, so it was certainly not wasted effort.

Until the five million three hundred thousandth year of their exploration in the Endless Sand Sea, they finally encountered a scene where a peak supreme treasure weapon had emerged.

Yet when they discovered the emerging peak supreme treasure weapon, two other factions' cosmic lords had also spotted it.

These two factions included two cosmic lords from the Sea Eagle Clan of the Second Cycle Era, and Jingyan Zhuzhu of the Divine Eye Clan from the First Cycle Era.

Although Jingyan Zhuzhu was alone, he possessed fifth-rank power; the two cosmic lords from the Second Cycle Era were both fourth-rank, nearly equal in strength to Lu Qingshan and the Master of Huang Jian.

Thus, the three factions plunged into fierce combat over the treasure.

Although Jingyan Zhuzhu was powerful, two fists could not fend off four hands;

Lu Qingshan's duo and the two Sea Eagle cosmic lords could coordinate with each other, yet they could not break free from Jingyan Zhuzhu's entanglement with his peak domain-type supreme treasure.

After a fierce battle, the three factions finally reached an agreement on the distribution of the peak supreme treasure weapon.

The peak supreme treasure weapon, valued at approximately eleven hundred Ordinary Ordinary Zhibao Points in the Human Clan's treasure vault, was awarded to Lu Qingshan and the Master of Huang Jian; however, Lu Qingshan and the Master of Huang Jian gave away treasures worth eight hundred Ordinary Ordinary Zhibao Points to Jingyan Zhuzhu and the two Sea Eagle cosmic lords.

This arrangement seemed to disadvantage Lu Qingshan and the Master of Huang Jian, as they received fewer than a few dozen Ordinary Ordinary Zhibao Points.

But the accounting was not so simple!

Because peak supreme treasures were exceedingly rare—even the most ordinary peak supreme treasure weapons were so.

If this peak supreme treasure weapon were offered in exchange to alien cosmic lords in the Hong Alliance who lacked such weapons, they might offer thirteen hundred or even fifteen hundred Ordinary Ordinary Zhibao Points in return.

Had Jingyan Zhuzhu and the two Sea Eagle cosmic lords not already endured long ages and possessed ample supplies of ordinary peak supreme treasure weapons through themselves and their factions, Lu Qingshan's group would have found this transaction extremely difficult.

After this fierce battle, both Lu Qingshan's and the Master of Huang Jian's divine bodies sustained significant damage.

This naturally had no effect on Lu Qingshan, and the Master of Huang Jian had previously cultivated a great divine body avatar, so he quickly replenished his divine energy and resumed exploring the Ocean of the Universe with Lu Qingshan.

Thus, time continued to flow.

While exploring the Ocean of the Universe with the Master of Huang Jian, Lu Qingshan also diligently cultivated.

For instance, fighting against powerful beings encountered in the Ocean of the Universe to hone himself;

For instance, continuing to receive the Beast God inheritance within the Zushen Sect, comprehending other Beast God Dao principles he had not yet fully understood…

During this time, Lu Qingshan's Infinite Divine Sea avatar also continuously chatted in the group, accumulating points.

Once he had saved enough points, he would seek a suitable opportunity to activate the Enlightenment Boost function within the group; when points were insufficient, he cultivated slowly on his own.

Thus, time slipped away silently, and soon the Original Star's closing time arrived.

The closing of the Original Star was certainly significant for cosmic lords insufficient to enter the Ocean of the Universe, but for powerful beings like Lu Qingshan who had already begun exploring the Ocean of the Universe, it was merely a minor matter.

Even if the Human Clan, the Insect Clan, and the Mechanical Clan had jointly slain nearly four thousand cosmic Venerables and nearly five hundred cosmic overlords from the Meng Yao Zu alliance during the Original Star's opening, to the true high echelons of the four peak factions, this was still just a minor matter.

After all, the greatest pillars of the four super-factions remained the cosmic strongest beings, with perhaps a few cosmic lords added.

Of course, the fact that the Meng Yao Zu alliance's fallen cosmic overlords had not yet been resurrected through reversed time had indeed affected the Meng Yao Zu alliance.

But then again, the time since those cosmic overlords perished was still far too short.

If not for the opening period of the Primordial Star, their deaths—even after tens of millions of eons—would naturally be irreversible, impossible to restore through time reversal.

Moreover, neither Meng Yao Zu's nor Zhen Yao Zu's small universes showed any anomalies, so the Human Clan, the Insect Clan, and the Mechanical Clan had no urgency to escalate their efforts against the Meng Yao Zu; after all, conflicts between such supreme powers inherently affected the entire cosmos, and haste was out of the question.

For instance, when the Northern Frontier Alliance was formed, the Lord of Black Lotus and others had plotted for an extremely long span of time.

It was rare indeed for forces like the Meng Yao Zu to unite and launch an immediate assault on the Human Clan shortly after Luo Feng obtained the Duan Donghe Legacy and the Giant Axe Founder perished.

After all, if they did not act swiftly, the Human Clan might produce a new supreme cosmic power in short order after acquiring the legacy—making it far harder for them to strike against the Human Clan later!

Now, the Human Clan, the Insect Clan, and the Mechanical Clan could not yet determine the exact circumstances befell Meng Yao Zu and Zhen Yao Zu, so they naturally would not rashly launch a decisive battle.

The best strategy was to focus the main combat force on Cosmic Zifeng Zunzhe and Cosmic Baizhu, slowly simmering the frog like warm water.

Thus, time continued to flow.

One eon, ten thousand eons, a hundred thousand eons, a million eons, ten million eons…

Time passed; in the blink of an eye, over two billion eons had elapsed since the Primordial Star's closure.

Two billion eons was undoubtedly an extremely long span for ordinary life.

Even Jie Zhu-level masters with lifespans of ten million years had already perished over two million times.

But for beings standing at the pinnacle of the cosmos, two billion eons was far too brief—too insignificant to mention!

Even the lingering effects from the previous opening of the Primordial Star had not yet dissipated; those who had obtained the core components of the Supreme Treasures during that time still relentlessly gathered the remaining parts—such as Huang Jian Zhi Zhu, who had acquired the core body of the True Soul Lantern…

At this moment, within a supremely dangerous region inside the Cosmic Vessel's inner domain, two figures were relentlessly striking a defensive light barrier.

One was an immense silver-white serpent, surrounded by hundreds of millions of serpent shadows, twisting the surrounding space into swirling vortices;

The other was a strange, monstrous beast with a serrated shell, appearing utterly ferocious.

These two figures were none other than the two supreme cosmic powers of the Primordial Universe's Meng Yao Zu: Meng Yao Zu and Zhen Yao Zu.

Over a hundred billion eons ago, they had begun striking this defensive light barrier in this dangerous region; today, the transparent barrier before them had finally grown unsteady, and it seemed it could not hold much longer.