Chapter 222: Three Worlds

The clear, bright daylight shrouded this square, which was empty and offered an unobstructed view.

"What are you looking at?"

The woman in black robes with white hair looked at Lin Qing with a half-smile and said, "You are the first to rush out of the maze; the second will take a while longer."

Lin Qing breathed a slight sigh of relief and said, "It seems my luck is not bad."

"Luck is not bad?" The woman in black robes with white hair laughed. "Your luck is actually slightly poor. From your starting position to the maze's end, you passed through a full twenty-seven black hole channels."

"Twenty-seven is considered a lot?" Lin Qing asked.

The woman in black robes with white hair said casually, "The one with the best luck had a starting position separated from the end by only two black hole channels, but his strength was far inferior to yours. Even with only two black hole channels, passing through would be very troublesome."

"Only need to break through two black hole channels?" Lin Qing was stunned.

"More than half of the people only encountered around twenty black hole channels," the woman in black robes with white hair said. "If your strength did not rival that of a Void Creature, exceeding the maze trial's limit, it would be impossible for you to be the first to rush out of the maze."

Lin Qing understood.

The time he spent rushing out of the black hole was almost negligible; the time was mainly spent on traveling.

As for combat... in the maze, besides Turs and the other two, he had also killed several trial participants who came to deal with him, but the battles often ended in an instant.

However, after killing a batch consecutively, perhaps the news spread, and the trial participants he encountered afterward avoided him at all costs.

"My Lord Mirror."

Lin Qing couldn't help but say, "I heard the first trial participant to rush out of the maze receives a special reward?"

"Giving it to you now is fine too," the woman in black robes with white hair said. "Actually, this reward is using the Universe God Heart to deduce and strengthen a Divine Technique for you, pushing it to its theoretical limit."

"Deduce a Divine Technique?" Lin Qing's eyes lit up as he asked, "Can it be World God?"

"No."

The woman in black robes with white hair said, "World God is already the strongest Divine Technique deduced by the Universe God Heart; it is already the theoretical limit."

Lin Qing pondered for a moment and asked, "Can Divine Techniques of other Divine Offices be deduced too?"

"Yes," the woman in black robes with white hair nodded, then reminded, "However, the deduction opportunity of the Universe God Heart is quite rare. Even across the entire Void Sea, such an opportunity might not be encountered for countless years; you must cherish it."

Lin Qing nodded and said, "Then please deduce the combined Divine Technique of the Commander of Troops, 'Primordial Annihilation,' for me."

Primordial Annihilation could be used in conjunction with World God.

Although he could also strengthen the Divine Techniques of the Black Flame Clone and the Blood Cauldron King Clone, having other clones strong was not as good as making the strongest original body even stronger.

"Primordial Annihilation? Indeed, it is a good Divine Technique."

The woman in black robes with white hair nodded slightly, then closed her eyes. Her spiritual intent seemed to penetrate this towering Shanfeng at that moment, causing the entire Shanfeng to tremble slightly.

After a while, she opened her eyes and said, "Done. Will you accept the inheritance now?"

"It's done already?" Lin Qing was stunned. "I thought I needed to demonstrate Primordial Annihilation once."

The woman in black robes with white hair laughed and retorted, "Didn't you use it inside the maze? Everything is recorded by the Universe God Heart. For an eighth-level Divine Technique, the Universe God Heart only needs an instant to completely recognize and restore it."

Lin Qing understood, then said, "Then I will accept the inheritance now."

"Let's be clear beforehand: deducing your combined Divine Technique to its limit may not necessarily be a good thing."

The woman in black robes with white hair said, "Although the power is greater and can rival World God, the cultivation difficulty is also much higher than before. Moreover, in the future when you become a Void Creature and create the sequel to Primordial Annihilation yourself, your understanding will inevitably be affected by this perfect state, adding an unnecessary burden. If your comprehension is insufficient, you may end up in a situation where you can neither reach high nor settle low."

"Good, I understand," Lin Qing nodded slightly.

"Quite confident," the woman in black robes with white hair sized up Lin Qing. "Indeed, you have even successfully cultivated World God."

She said no more, tapped her fingertip, and a beam of seven-colored light appeared out of thin air, directly entering Lin Qing's mind.

A shock ran through Lin Qing's mind, and he received this newly deduced 'Primordial Annihilation.'

Compared to the original version, this new version of Primordial Annihilation actually added one final step—collapsing and condensing all energy to form a state of nirvana like a black hole, not only utilizing the essence of the previous energies but also integrating all life-type energies from the sixth level to the eighth level.

World God is stronger than other combined Divine Techniques because it integrates with one's own living body; the living body naturally contains infinite possibilities, which is why it allows World God to be utilized to an unimaginable extent.

It is rumored that another perfect combined Divine Technique, 'Genesis,' also utilizes all energies of the relevant faction, unifying all phenomena into chaos, which is why it is called perfect and is sufficient to rival the complete form of World God.

And now, the new version of 'Primordial Nirvana' is the same.

"Just right, I understand the essence of all life-type energies."

Lin Qing had some realization. "I am only missing the final step: integrating all energy essences into Primordial Nirvana, turning everything into a state of nirvana..."

He silently chanted in his heart: "Order."

On the Entropy Reverser panel, the new version of Primordial Nirvana was indeed recorded.

After all, he already possessed all the conditions required for an advance; he was only missing the final step.

And this step is theoretically the most difficult.

"Advance: New Version Primordial Nirvana."

Lin Qing's heart stirred, and he closed his eyes. As a massive amount of information merged into his mind, various realizations arose accordingly, and he gradually understood how to integrate all energy essences into Primordial Nirvana.

In a short while—

"Done." Lin Qing showed a hint of a smile and opened his eyes.

Now, Primordial Nirvana is also a powerful method not inferior to World God; if encountering an environment where World God is difficult to utilize, Primordial Nirvana can also produce better effects.

Moreover, once these two are used simultaneously, his strength will be even greater than before.

"Excellent." Lin Qing was in a very pleasant mood.

As for after becoming a Void Creature?

Although creating a Divine Technique oneself relies on oneself, and the Entropy Reverser cannot advance an unachievable future, he also thought of a method to use the Entropy Reverser to help.

Besides... one must first become a Void Creature anyway. In any case, he has an infinite lifespan and plenty of time, so there is no need to rush.

As long as he becomes a Star God, his combat power will be strong enough.

"How is it?"

The woman in black robes with white hair looked at Lin Qing, showed a hint of a smile, and asked, "Is the Divine Technique deduced by the Universe God Heart perfect to the extreme?" "Indeed," Lin Qing nodded.

When a Divine Technique reaches this level, it is the true extreme.

Not a single flaw; the whole was perfectly natural, so flawless that he could find not the slightest place to alter, for even a slight change would diminish the power of this divine technique by an incalculable amount.

This made his heart somewhat uneasy.

Could he truly create such a perfect divine technique in the future?

"Huff!"

At this moment, another figure appeared within the plaza shrouded by this heavenly light.

Lin Qing glanced over and saw a long-haired man with sharp horns atop his head, tiny fangs visible at the corners of his lips, a pale complexion, and a mysterious, noble aura.

After seeing Lin Qing, the long-haired man frowned slightly, then shook his head gently and spoke: "I heard you easily annihilated Turs and others, suspected to possess the peak strength of the Tenth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan? Indeed, you are faster than me."

Lin Qing looked at him but said nothing more.

Among the Divine Children of this batch of Star God trials, there was clearly no peerless genius of the strongest 2.9-level civilization; even Turs possessed the strength of one who had just entered the Tenth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan, so the peerless genius of a 2.9-level civilization would likely not be inferior to him.

If such a genius existed, they could use the exact same method as him; unless their luck was very poor and their starting position and destination were far apart, they would not have arrived so much later than him.

No mistakes, one sentence, one release, one content, all in one view!

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

As time passed, one trialist after another emerged from the labyrinth.

And at this moment, the gaze of each trialist toward Lin Qing was completely different from before; there was no longer any sense of superiority when facing a lower-level civilization, nor did they dare to show any contempt.

In the past, they thought Lin Qing had at most the strength of the Ninth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan and could only be considered average in this Star God trial, so naturally they did not care.

But now they discovered that even Turs, the contemporary strongest genius of the Ancient Wheel civilization and someone originally very likely to pass the Star God trial, had been easily annihilated by the other party!

This feat, achievable almost only by geniuses of a 2.9-level civilization, left them completely stunned.

Such a monster, who would dare to provoke?

After the news spread, some geniuses and Divine Children from other civilizations actively came to make his acquaintance, but Lin Qing was naturally too lazy to pay them any mind.

If these people could become Star Gods, they might hold significant influence in their civilizations in the future.

But with him present, the Star God trials of others were destined to fail.

If they could not become Star Gods, even if they could become Void Beings in the future, they would merely be ordinary Void Beings, and their status would be incomparable.

As far as he knew, among these Second-Level civilizations, the number of Void Beings such as Nine-Star Civilization Emperors and even Progenitors was astonishingly large.

"Lin Qing, is your strength really this strong?"

Tuoluocha, the only one who knew Lin Qing before, could not help but say: "I thought you came to the Star God trial just for the opportunities to comprehend the Void; I didn't expect you could actually succeed."

It could be said that ninety-nine percent of the Divine Children who participated in the Star God trial never thought they could succeed; they came only for the benefits of the Star God trial. As Tuoluocha had said before, the trials of the Star God trial would involve many opportunities and benefits that even Second-Level civilizations did not possess.

About five hours later—

"Huff!"

As another trialist appeared in the plaza, the woman in black robes with white hair spoke: "Very well, the preliminary selection phase ends here; a total of three hundred and twenty-seven people have passed the preliminary selection."

Three hundred and twenty-seven?

Lin Qing pondered silently, "Out of more than two thousand people, only three hundred and twenty passed?"

He estimated that one would need strength close to the Ninth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan to have a slight chance of passing this labyrinth; yet so many people were eliminated?

"Then, begin the God Selection phase."

The woman in black robes with white hair did not waste time; her gaze swept over the many trialists, and then she pointed with her fingertip, causing three dark, vortex-like spatial gates to instantly appear within the plaza.

"These three spatial gates correspond to three worlds used for the God Selection trials."

The woman in black robes with white hair pointed at the first spatial gate and said: "The first spatial gate connects to the River of Heavenly Void; this world is absolutely safe, and what you must do after entering is... fishing."

Fishing?

Lin Qing listened carefully.

"Fishing rods are hidden near the banks of the River of Heavenly Void."

The woman in black robes with white hair said: "What you must do is find these fishing rods, then fish, catching various fish or items from the river. Of course... as a cosmic wonder, the River of Heavenly Void hides various strange Void mysteries; the fish and items drifting within the river move along the hidden currents of the Void. What you must do is find the patterns, otherwise you will catch nothing."

Her gaze swept over them. "The items and fish you catch will also yield different point rewards."

"A fishing competition?" Lin Qing muttered silently.

"And within the second spatial gate, dangers are everywhere."

The woman in black robes with white hair said: "The second spatial gate connects to a world of pure darkness. There, there is no free-floating energy, meaning once your energy is consumed, it cannot be replenished, and both physical perception and mental force perception will be weakened to near disappearance, leaving you able to rely only on your sensation of the Void."

She smiled. "In this dark world, you need do nothing; as long as you can survive the sneak attacks of dark monsters, you will receive points. The longer you survive, the more points you will get."

Dark monsters?

Lin Qing's heart stirred, and he formed some thoughts.

"Let me remind you, the strongest monsters in the dark world possess the strength of the Tenth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan, and they are all immortal and indestructible existences; you cannot kill them even if you try."

The woman in black robes with white hair spoke with a half-smile: "What you need to do is survive. Everyone has one chance for instantaneous teleportation to immediately escape that dark world, but escaping also means giving up."

She then pointed at the third spatial gate and said: "Behind this final spatial gate lies the Mirror World, and what you must challenge is yourself. The mirror image, as a shadow of the Void, is almost identical to you, except it lacks abilities such as clones or resurrection. Whatever you can do, the mirror image can do as well. At the same time, the mirror image can hide in the depths of the Void, launch instantaneous sneak attacks, and only needs a tiny amount of time to break off combat."

The many trialists all frowned slightly.

An identical mirror image that can also launch instantaneous sneak attacks?

How is it possible to win?

"Yes, it is impossible to win."

The woman in black robes with white hair seemed to see through everyone's thoughts and smiled: "Therefore, you have one chance to set the strength of the mirror image. The mirror image's strength can range from 10% to 100%."

"Of course, defeating a mirror image with 10% strength yields only 10% of the point reward, while defeating a mirror image with the maximum 100% strength yields ten thousand points."

The woman in black robes with white hair said leisurely: "The trials behind these three great spatial gates are as described. Theoretically, you can obtain a maximum of ten thousand points in each world, and you have only one chance to enter each world."

Her gaze swept over them as she said: "The one with the highest final points will be the new Star God. If multiple people have the same points, a final life-or-death battle will be initiated."

"Then, begin."

(End of this chapter)