Chapter 224: Perfecting Rules, Comprehending Life and Death

After the Rule exchange meeting ended, the three of them returned to the Star Dou Great Forest.

During the previous exchange, most of it was theory; now, Jerry had to start conducting his own experiments.

Once a Rule is comprehended, it can be used directly, but it is very difficult for most people to comprehend Rules.

Jerry had studied Arrays and also knew that Arrays were originally born to be used by those who had not mastered Rules, so Jerry prepared to derive Arrays in reverse through Rules.

The first thing he did was optimize the Spirit Gathering Array to increase the speed of spirit gathering.

Because he had come into contact with the Space Rule and the Time Rule this time, he applied these two types of Rules to the Spirit Gathering Array as well.

Jerry felt that the current Spirit Gathering Array was the perfect Spirit Gathering Array.

First, the spirit gathering speed increased by 300%, and one could autonomously choose single-attribute or multi-attribute soul power for spirit gathering.

Then, he optimized the space of the Spirit Gathering Array, allowing more soul power to be contained within the same space.

The upper limit of gravity was also adjusted; now, gravity could reach a maximum of 1200 times.

Of course, Time Acceleration was indispensable; now that Jerry's comprehension of the Time Rule had reached 20%, he could set it to a maximum of 1:2000—one day in the outside world, 2000 days inside, which is five years, five months, and twenty-five days, equivalent to 5 and a half years.

However, Jerry hid the Time Acceleration; it required identity verification, and only after verification could it be activated.

After all, if Time Acceleration were activated and others didn't know, they would go in for a day, and then five and a half years of their lifespan would be gone.

In this world, the lifespans of animals and humans are limited; plants actually have them too, but their lifespans are the longest, and they can truly grow for one hundred thousand years.

Therefore, this Time Acceleration can play a very important role in cultivating medicinal herbs.

Arriving at the Medicine Field, many Fairies were tending to this patch of medicine, but the Fairy Queen was not there; she was likely comprehending Rules.

He directly used his divine sense to contact the Fairy Queen, then told the Fairy Queen that his clones were all busy with other things, and asked the Fairy Queen to send out her clones to look after the Medicine Field.

Because he needed to set up a Time Array, Jerry asked the Fairies to step back; their lifespans were limited, and they could not be wasted here.

Therefore, the Medicine Field could only be tended to by the Fairy Queen's clones.

He directly set the newly developed Spirit Gathering Array on the Medicine Field, with eight types of soul power attribute facilities, no gravity, and 2000 times Time Acceleration.

To prevent this place from absorbing too much soul power and causing the soul power concentration of the entire Star Dou Great Forest to drop, Jerry had one of the Fairy Queen's clones turn directly into a Pillar Supporting the Sky and placed it in the Medicine Field to convert soul power.

With the Medicine Field matters handed over to the Fairy Queen's clone, Jerry arrived at Soul Beast City.

The original small village had now reached the scale of an ordinary town, so he named this city Soul Beast City.

After finding an open space, Jerry began to build Cultivation Rooms; he built one hundred Cultivation Rooms in one go, called over Ditian and the others, and after explaining the usage method of the Cultivation Rooms to them, he handed the management of the Cultivation Rooms over to them.

However, he only gave the Silver Dragon King identity authorization, allowing her to adjust the Time Acceleration; it was usually kept at 10 times Time Acceleration, and if there were special needs, the Silver Dragon King could also activate it if Jerry was not around.

The function of this Cultivation Room directly astonished Ditian and the others.

They had just transformed into Fairies, and all their soul power had not yet fully recovered; now, having this Cultivation Room was undoubtedly saving them a lot of time, and as long as their lifespans could hold up, after cultivating inside, they would directly see a great surge in strength upon coming out.

Time Acceleration is too useful; it can save a lot of cultivation time and can quickly improve the strength of cultivators in the entire world.

With the Soul Beast side settled, human society certainly could not be left behind; human lifespans could be said to be the shortest, but they were also the fastest at cultivating.

Returning to Wuhun City, after speaking with Qian Daoliu, he began to renovate the Cultivation Tower.

However, on the human side, the Time Acceleration was set to 10 times; he dared not set it too high, as lifespans were limited after all.

Don't underestimate this 10 times; the Cultivation Tower was originally rich in soul power, equivalent to accelerating cultivation speed by 10 times, and now with 10 times Time Acceleration activated, the effect was multiplicative—100 times the cultivation effect.

There were too many Floating Small Courtyards now, and Jerry was too lazy to set them up one by one, so he set up 100 separate Cultivation Rooms and gave Qian Daoliu, Poseidon, and Bibi Dong identity authorization, letting them control it themselves.

Then he came to his own Floating Small Courtyard; his own Small Courtyard had seven Cultivation Rooms, which were for his senior and junior sisters to use, each with an Exclusive Cultivation Room. After Jerry renovated them, he explained the new uses to them.

Then he went to Chrysanthemum Douluo's Small Courtyard; now Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo lived together, which saved Jerry the time of having to go find Ghost Douluo again. After renovating the Cultivation Room, he explained it to his master and Ghost Douluo, and then Jerry left.

However, after actually applying these Rules this time, Jerry's understanding of the Rules also deepened.

Jerry waved his hand and directly used Space Cutting; the space in front of him was directly cut into a crack, and Jerry waved his hand a few more times, directly cutting out a door.

The space at the doorway was very unstable, with space turbulence everywhere.

He sensed it with his divine sense, then began to release Space Locking, directly locking the area 10 million kilometers inside the door; this area was locked by space, and the space turbulence inside stopped.

It was a very empty space; Jerry began to use the eight basic Rules, and then land, mountains, rivers, and streams began to appear in the space.

He threw in some plant seeds, then used the Time Acceleration Rule, and soon these seeds began to take root and sprout.

"Jerry, you have opened up a Secret Realm." The voice of the world consciousness suddenly appeared in Jerry's mind.

"I was just trying it out. It seems that a Secret Realm is actually very simple," Jerry said.

"Jerry, you can open up a Secret Realm, but can you give me control of this Secret Realm? This way, the Secret Realm will be connected to the world, and the life born in the Secret Realm will also be recognized by the world, and in the future, it will be able to freely go out into the world," the world consciousness said sincerely, its eyes flickering with anticipation and longing.

"Hmm, that's fine, that would be even better. I was just thinking before about whether or not to put life forms in the Secret Realm to live; now I can rest assured."

"Hmm, the Secret Realm is not large; I can control it very quickly, wait for me a moment," the world consciousness said.

A moment later, the world consciousness replied to Jerry again; the Secret Realm had already been controlled.

"Jerry, now the Secret Realm is completely controlled; you can cancel the door opened by Space Cutting. Now this Secret Realm is equivalent to an auxiliary space of the world; relying on your mastery of the Space Rule, you can directly sense it and enter at any time. If you want others to enter, you can set up a Teleportation Array."

Jerry heard this and thought it was true. After all, after opening a door, to prevent others from entering by mistake, one would have to set up guards; using a Teleportation Array would be even better.

As for Jerry opening up this Secret Realm, he had no purpose at the beginning; he just thought of the former Slaughter City, which was in a Secret Realm, and now that he had comprehended the Space Law, he tried it, and it succeeded.

Jerry entered the Secret Realm; everything was about the same as the outside world, only missing the blue sky, white clouds, sun, moon, and stars in the sky.

However, these were small matters to Jerry; he used the Darkness and Light Laws to give this Secret Realm night and day, and used the Water Attribute and Thunder Attribute Rules to give this world clouds.

Then he used the Time Rule to give this Secret Realm seasonal changes; in each season, various laws were changing and operating stably.

Jerry changed this Secret Realm bit by bit, slowly letting this Secret Realm become a Small World through the Rules he had mastered.

Everything Jerry could think of was set up in this Small World.

Looking from afar, a piece of land was floating on the water, just like a small island.

The only place where it differed from the world was that this Small World was round sky and square earth.

To prevent people in this Small World from running to the edge of the world in the future, Jerry set up a Teleportation Array at the edge; whenever someone reached the edge, they would be directly teleported back to the land.

The gravity of this world was set to 2 times that of the outside, and the time was set to 2000 times.

Then Jerry called over the Silver Dragon King and the Fairy Queen's main body, and the three of them came to this Small World together.

"Jerry, other than some plants, there is nothing else here, is there?" the Fairy Queen said.

"There really is nothing right now, but I have set a 2,000-fold time flow rate here. I brought you two here to accelerate the comprehension of Rules. We shall do nothing, nor shall we interfere with this world; we shall just observe."

After Jerry finished speaking, he took the two of them to a cloud high in the sky, where Jerry placed a Floating Small Courtyard.

Under the 2,000-fold time acceleration, the Small World slowly began to change.

One year in the Main World, two thousand years in the Small World.

Over the course of two thousand years, the three of them put their full effort into comprehending the Time Rule, finally reaching 30% comprehension. Now, the time acceleration could reach 1:3000, and Jerry directly set the Small World's time flow rate to 3000.

During these two thousand years, because Jerry had only placed plants in the Small World, many plants were influenced by the Main World's Rules and directly transformed into Soul Beasts.

However, Jerry paid no heed to this; the three of them stayed in the clouds, comprehending the Time Rule while observing the Small World.

Another year passed in the outside world, three thousand years in the Small World.

Jerry had left clones outside, so no chaos ensued; aside from Cultivation, the clones helped with development in various aspects.

In the three thousand years of the Small World, many Soul Beasts broke through the 100,000-year mark; some died under the Thunder Tribulation, some transformed into human form, and others successfully survived the Thunder Tribulation.

These transformed Soul Beasts became the first batch of humans in the Small World, though they were a bit like primitive people now, knowing nothing.

Seeing some Soul Beasts being struck dead by the Thunder Tribulation when breaking through 100,000 years, the Silver Dragon King and the Fairy Queen wanted to save them, but they were both stopped by Jerry.

During these three thousand years, the Time Rule was also comprehended to 40%. After adjusting the Small World's time flow rate, Jerry let the Silver Dragon King and the Fairy Queen continue observing.

However, this time Jerry explicitly stated that they would not interfere with the development of this Small World; they were merely Observers.

He let the Fairy Queen and the Silver Dragon King observe carefully as, with the passage of time, various lives were born until death, one cycle after another.

Another year passed in the outside world, four thousand years in the Small World.

In these four thousand years, marine life was born, reproduced, experienced Growth, and died—there was so much of it.

Some marine life evolved into amphibious forms, and they began to head toward the continents.

The creatures that headed toward the continents slowly evolved into various forms; many creatures began living on land directly and no longer returned to the ocean.

These creatures that no longer returned to the ocean slowly turned into land-based Soul Beasts.

Great changes also occurred on land.

The Soul Beasts that had transformed at the very beginning passed their lineage down generation after generation, becoming true humans, no longer having anything to do with Soul Beasts.

Until one day, after a human autonomously underwent Spirit Awakening, more and more humans began to undergo Spirit Awakening.

Because too many generations had passed, the Soul Beast bloodline was basically gone, so they could not condense a Spirit Ring.

Therefore, after they reached level 10 through passive Cultivation, they could no longer progress.

Possessing powerful strength, they began to explore the forests.

There were many Plant Soul Beasts in the forest, and their strength was not something these level-10 humans could withstand, so those who went to explore the forest never returned.

The Soul Beasts closed in toward the center of the land, first encountering the Plant Soul Beasts, and both sides began to break out in battle.

Whether they were Plant Soul Beasts or Animal Soul Beasts, countless died in this battle.

During these four thousand years, the three of them comprehended the Time Rule to 50%, and the time acceleration reached five thousand years; the first thing they did was change the Time Rule of the Small World.

These four thousand years were not just about comprehending the Time Rule; other Rules also saw improvement.

The three of them were now more adept at using the Rules.

Although they had improved so much, Jerry did not end the Cultivation.

Another year passed in the outside world, five thousand years in the Small World.

In these five thousand years, the entire Small World underwent changes.

Humans birthed their own writing and language; it is unknown if they were influenced by the Main World, but the final writing and language birthed were the same as those of the Main World.

With writing, there was heritage.

Humans learned to build houses, learned to make clothing, learned to farm, and learned to cooperate.

One day, humans joined forces to kill a hundred-year Soul Beast; at this moment, a Spirit Ring appeared. A bold person reached out to touch the Spirit Ring, and then the Spirit Ring was absorbed, and this human's strength broke through.

The method by which strength could be broken through spread among humans in this way.

More and more people began to hunt Soul Beasts, and many died in the fighting between the two sides.

Caught between the Animal Soul Beasts and the humans, the Plant Soul Beasts gradually became the weaker group.

Animal Soul Beasts acted alone, which the Plant Soul Beasts could still handle, but humans always attacked in groups. As more and more humans broke through to higher levels of strength, it became very difficult for the Plant Soul Beasts to resist.

Not long after, more intelligent Plant Soul Beasts appeared, ordering that the Animal Soul Beasts no longer be bothered and letting these Animal Soul Beasts enter the forest.

The Animal Soul Beasts slowly pushed toward the center of the land, and then they came into contact with humans.

Compared to the immobile Plant Soul Beasts, the lethality of the Animal Soul Beasts was stronger.

The human population decreased significantly all at once, and eventually, all humans gathered together to resist the attack of the Animal Soul Beasts.

In the war between the Animal Soul Beasts and the humans, humans discovered that Animal Soul Beasts also had Spirit Rings, and furthermore, Animal Soul Beasts could be eaten, and some hard parts could be used as weapons.

After withstanding the attacks of the Animal Soul Beasts, humans remained in a defensive state for a long time; after an unknown number of years, the human population increased again.

Although human lifespans were short, humans had a strong ability to reproduce.

Once the population was large, the resources in the center were no longer enough, and then humans began to walk out of the defensive circle to fight and struggle against the Soul Beasts.

Because of the humans' fast Cultivation speed, they slowly launched a counterattack and reoccupied a lot of territory.

Seeing the Soul Beasts suppressing the humans, the Silver Dragon King was very happy, but seeing the Soul Beasts being suppressed by the humans, the Silver Dragon King was very sad; because of Jerry's obstruction, the Silver Dragon King did not go to help the Soul Beasts.

During these five thousand years, the Time Rule was deduced to 60%, finally crossing the 50% hurdle.

After Time control reached 60%, it was truly a world-shaking change, because the time acceleration was now not 1:6000, but reached 1:10000, a direct doubling of the increase.

Now, one day in the Main World was 10,000 days in the Small World, equivalent to more than 27 years; Jerry speculated that with the comprehension of the Time Rule, sooner or later, he could achieve the effect of "ten thousand years in a single glance."

From the birth of the Small World until now, it had been 14,000 years. In these ten thousand-plus years, the three of them witnessed many lives and deaths; the Death Rule was finally comprehended. Although it was only 1%, the beginning of all things is difficult, and it would become easier in the future.

When comprehending the Death Rule, the Life Rule was also accidentally comprehended. There is life and there is death, life and death cycle, from life to death, every process of life from beginning to end—life and death are always accompanied.

After comprehending the Death and Life Rules, they were also directly synchronized to the World Consciousness.

The World Consciousness also came in person to offer its congratulations.

Do not underestimate this 1% of Life and Death Rule; 1% of the Life Rule has allowed more new life to be born on the continent, and where there is new life there is death, so 1% of the Death Rule has also made the world more dangerous.

Because the World Consciousness synchronized the Death and Life Rule, an ancient god of death was miserably tricked; it is the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit that is Parasite-ing in Hu Liena's martial soul and lacks a physical body.

Before the World Advancement, Hu Liena's Cultivation became easier, and the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit was very happy. Because in this way, it would soon be able to reach the Hundred Level and become a god, and it would then be able to fully resurrect.

But accidents often happen at times like this; heaven does not always grant one's wishes, and this accident is the World Consciousness synchronizing the Death and Life Rule.

The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit felt that it had been directly restricted by the World Rule within Hu Liena's martial soul, unable to even come out.

Moreover, the current Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit cannot absorb energy from the outside world, and its Divine Soul is slowly dissipating bit by bit; although it is very slow, at this rate, it will truly die in at most a thousand years.

The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit is now completely restricted within Hu Liena's martial soul and cannot even make contact with the outside world, so it was so angry that it fainted from crying directly inside Hu Liena's martial soul.

PS: Seeking subscriptions, seeking collections, seeking monthly tickets, seeking recommendation tickets!

(End of this chapter)