Chapter 1618: Mastered Time

The lively Tribulation Crossing slowly came to an end.

Jiang Ding gathered with Divine Mechanism True Lord, An Siyan, Jin Jin Lingfeng, Sun-Extinguishing True Lord, and others for a while, then together with Yuan saw these old friends off into slumber.

The time for their advancement had not yet come.

The growth cycle of the Immortal Gate's seventh-tier heavenly materials and earthly treasures still had roughly eight thousand-plus years; that would be when they emerged into the world, when the Tribulation Crossing would occur.

Among these old acquaintances, many had very high Tribulation Crossing success rates—Sun-Extinguishing True Lord, Ten Thousand Mechanisms True Lord, and others, for instance—with success probabilities above ninety percent.

Still, when it came to matters of life and death, naturally every fraction and every iota of certainty counted.

In any case, the Immortal Gate was very stable now and did not need them to risk breaking through.

What went without saying, of course, was… the private feelings of the two Immortal Gate great powers.

They hoped their old friends could accompany them a little longer—even if only in slumber, without speaking, the feeling in their hearts was simply different, not so lonely.

In the future, even if they had to part, please let that time be stretched out a little longer.

"How about we tackle the Grand Void Six Paths Illusion Realm project first?"

Jiang Ding watched the many old acquaintances enter slumber one by one, their figures vanishing, and suddenly said.

The Grand Void Six Paths Illusion Realm was a project begun many years ago, aimed at establishing a Grand Void communication network spanning the entire Ancient God world cluster, so that Immortal Gate citizens could study, live, and cultivate on the network—even separated by vast domain distances, seeing loved ones would be only a single step away, no need to spend enormous time traversing enormous super teleportation arrays.

—Besides, apart from official assignments, many low-tier cultivators could not afford the cost of inter-domain super teleportation arrays.

With the Grand Void Six Paths Illusion Realm successfully brought into the world, the Immortal Gate's slumber technology would achieve a further breakthrough—cultivators' slumber times would be longer, the lifespan consumed less, and they would live longer.

"This…"

"Wasn't the originally scheduled project the eighth-tier military formation?"

Yuan was somewhat hesitant.

Generally speaking, the Immortal Gate pushed all scientific research projects forward simultaneously—not that one was extremely important while others were shelved; in fact, all major research projects were extremely important, touching on every aspect of the Immortal Gate.

Still, even when all were important, there was still a matter of priority order.

That was the reason for Yuan's hesitation.

However, the next moment, he immediately convinced himself.

"On reflection, the Grand Void Six Paths Illusion Realm is more important."

Yuan thought carefully and said: "Immortal Gate citizens are spread across the entire Ancient God Domain. Many citizens, upon reaching adulthood and enrolling in distant Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie universities, leave their hometowns far behind. If they fail to advance to Hua Shen Qi, the chances of returning to their hometown in their lifetime and seeing their parents again are not great."

"They can only contact home through ordinary communication routes with signal delays of up to several decades."

"

"Their entire lives are spent in those Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie—even having children requires sending the fertilized embryos back to the home star for upbringing, otherwise the offspring would not have citizenship."

"This state of affairs has already persisted for over ten thousand years."

"In fact, many regions have already begun to develop local independence consciousness. The Immortal Gate is no longer as simple and pure as in the past, when everyone was simply citizens of one planet, one solar system. Vast distances have changed many things."

"The reason no great upheaval has erupted is that Hua Shen and Refining Void cultivators can afford the cost of traveling back and forth to the home star system."

"This situation cannot be allowed to continue."

Yuan said decisively.

These reasons were naturally very well-founded and factual.

Moreover, within the solar system there were genuine eighth-tier formations, an eighth-tier central formation spirit computer, an eighth-tier Great Sun Sword Master, plus the geographical advantage of the spiritless universe—even if powerful Heavenly Being experts descended, the Immortal Gate would not be overly fearful, and security was temporarily worry-free.

"Exactly so."

Jiang Ding agreed.

The Grand Void Six Paths Illusion Realm drew heavily on the Great Sun Six Paths Reincarnation structure, as well as the Ancient God Path's reincarnation Six Paths Reincarnation research results.

If this project broke through, it would have no small impact on his sword arts, Gong Fa, and sword soul, and would enhance the utilization rate of divine sense, magic power, and rules.

At the same time, the same would hold true for every Gong Fa of the Immortal Gate.

Nowadays, under the influence of the Great Sun Sword Master, the Xian Dao Shi Gao Jie technology of humanity's inherited Six Paths Reincarnation had been applied to every aspect of the Immortal Gate—alchemy, artifact refining, smelting and synthesis, Gong Fa, spells, military formations, and so on—something akin to the foundational theoretical theorems of the four fundamental forces.

……

Between the domains, silence fell once more.

The Domain Sovereign was growing, becoming stronger, continuously rolling out new Xian Dao technological achievements. This Xian Dao civilization was a scientific-research-type civilization; exploring Xian Dao science was simply instinct to it, never pausing for a moment.

Time flowed by like water.

Unknowingly, another two thousand years passed.

On this day, the Great Sun Sword Master sat cross-legged at the edge of the solar system, silently gazing at a scroll before him.

It was a scroll depicting the Zhou Tian of stars across the universe.

Quite ordinary—just a stretch of pitch-black cosmos, countless stars twinkling, among which thirty-six stars shone slightly brighter; apart from that, nothing special.

Frankly speaking, this was not an excellent painting; it looked more like a photograph.

Any famous painting must attend to composition, to mood, to emotion, and if profound inheritance could be woven into it, all the better—such works were celebrated masterpieces among cultivators.

By comparison, this painting was far too ordinary, too crudely crafted, essentially worthless.

However, the owner of this painting was not an artist.

That made it understandable.

"The Space-Annihilating Sword is complete."

"It has already reached the current pinnacle of my own wisdom and that of the Immortal Gate Sword Dao Research Institute—it cannot be strengthened further."

Jiang Ding gazed quietly at the painting before him and sighed softly.

Five hundred years ago, after countless failures, the Dark Matter Laboratory had finally manufactured a tiny amount of dark matter in the lab—or rather, dark matter born from the combination of Xian Dao rules and spiritual energy.

The yin aspect of the Heavenly Dao, corresponding to yang, had been observed by Xian Dao beings.

The final piece of the puzzle in 'Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Yin and Yang'—one of the core theories composing the Xian Dao world—had finally been filled in.

After tens of thousands of years, the embryonic Xian art, the Space-Annihilating Sword, was at last complete.

"The Sword of Spatial Destruction, followed by the Sword of Temporal Destruction,"

"I am already quite confident I can create this sword."

Jiang Ding thought silently.

Time, or rather indirect time, was no longer mysterious in his eyes.

What is true time?

Formless?

Formed?

No one knows.

However, within the inheritance of the immortal art · Sky-Quelling, there is a very unique view.

Time is the flow of matter.

If one regards a Minor Thousand World as an individual, then what is time?

Time is the wind passing through the clouds, the flowing river, the leaves falling from the treetops, the white hair continually appearing on the old man's head and his continually aging body, the child continually growing up, the continually increasing accumulation of magic power within the cultivator's body.

It is precisely because this matter flows that time gains meaning, that the concept of time exists.

Then, how does one control the time of this Minor Thousand World?

Master every flow of matter throughout the entire Minor Thousand World, even the most minute flows involving fundamental particles.

That is all.