The Hall of Time, also located on the floating continent of the Voidsky Palace, was a peculiar black triangular tower-like structure. Approaching it, one could faintly sense the distortion of space and time.
Dongbo Xueying flew to the entrance of the Hall of Time.
Inside the entrance lay an abyss of darkness and emptiness. Dongbo Xueying bowed respectfully and said, “Esteemed Venerable, I require time acceleration at a hundredfold rate.”
“Very well,” a deep, ancient voice responded. Simultaneously, a powerful suction force emerged from within the hall, enveloping Dongbo Xueying and pulling him inside with a swift motion.
…
Dongbo Xueying felt a momentary disorientation before his surroundings shifted entirely.
“A planet,” he murmured, observing the desolate, icy world beneath him. The entire planet seemed sculpted from glacial ice, its surface dusted with drifting snowflakes. With a diameter of merely eight thousand miles, it was minuscule in his eyes.
Back in his home universe, such a planet would barely qualify as a decorative ornament within the grand halls of the Dongbo Imperial Manor.
He lifted his gaze.
The dark void was dotted with countless other planets, each orbiting in accordance with an ancient and profound formation. Invisible energies were drawn and concentrated upon each celestial body. As the sole inhabitant of his current world, Dongbo Xueying felt these energies converge upon him.
“Truly extraordinary,” he mused, feeling an unprecedented lightness in both body and soul.
“No wonder the cost is so steep. The cultivation benefits here far surpass even my Golden Robe Disciple’s cave abode,” he praised.
The Hall of Time was one of the few places within the Voidsky Palace where temporal acceleration was possible. Accelerating time within a confined space without disrupting the stability of surrounding laws and mysteries was an immensely difficult feat. In his home universe, time acceleration invariably interfered with the natural order.
Places like the ‘Demon Mountain Universe’ maintained stable laws, but only because the Primordial Ancestor had expended tremendous resources to forge it. Even Void Gods typically resided within the ‘Primordial Demon Mountain,’ as higher lifeforms placed greater strain on the universe.
The Hall of Time was a treasure forged by the Ancestor Tianyu.
Operating it demanded a steep price, so those seeking its benefits had to pay in kind.
For a True God Overlord, accelerating time a hundredfold for a hundred million years required a single Sourceworld Stone—though that duration translated to ten billion years within the hall.
For a Void God, the same acceleration cost five Sourceworld Stones.
For a Unity Realm expert, twenty-five.
And for a Chaos Realm master, a staggering hundred stones!
This was merely for a hundredfold acceleration. A thousandfold rate would multiply the cost a hundred times over.
As for ten-thousandfold acceleration? The price was terrifying. Chaos Realm beings were outright forbidden from such rates, as their very existence placed too great a burden on the Hall of Time. Even the Demon Mountain Universe, weaker than the Hall, forced Void Gods to frequently retreat into the Primordial Demon Mountain. Unity Realm experts had to either remain within the mountain or leave the universe entirely, while Chaos Realm beings were outright expelled.
Of course—
These costs were calculated for a hundred million years. Most cultivators only sought the Hall’s services when pressed for time, entering for shorter durations like a million years, which drastically reduced the expense.
“As a Golden Robe Disciple, I have a thousand merit points, enough for ten million years of cultivation,” Dongbo Xueying thought to himself.
Merit points—
Within the Voidsky Palace, they could be earned by completing missions or contributing eligible scriptures to the Myriad Forms Pavilion. High-ranking members, such as Golden Robe Disciples, Inner Hall Elders, and Pavilion Masters, also received periodic merit point rewards.
Ten thousand merit points equated to one Sourceworld Stone and could be exchanged for various treasures within the palace.
However—
While Sourceworld Stones could be converted into merit points, the reverse was impossible. The palace distributed rewards in the form of treasures or merit points, never Sourceworld Stones.
…
Time was precious to Dongbo Xueying. He needed to return home before the end of the cosmic epoch to ensure Jing Qiu and Yu’er could transcend mortality.
Thus, he cherished every moment. His frequent visits to the Hall of Time would demand ever more resources, spurring him to seek greater treasures.
“Whoosh—”
Dongbo Xueying sat cross-legged upon the icy surface of the desolate planet, the only living being in its frozen expanse.
The insights gleaned from countless scriptures in the Myriad Forms Pavilion now swirled in his mind. He meticulously verified each one, absorbing what aligned with his path and discarding the rest.
This process of assimilation was far slower than mere reading.
It took him over eighty million years to fully digest everything.
“The Dao…”
Standing upon the planet, Dongbo Xueying gazed at the orbiting celestial bodies and smiled. “What eludes comprehension remains elusive, blocking progress for eons. But once understood, the path forward becomes clear.”
After becoming an Overlord in his home universe, he had cultivated for another billion years.
Even during his wanderings through the chaotic void, he had grasped the First Sword of Annihilation—all without guidance, relying solely on his own insights. His achievements were already remarkable.
Now, after absorbing the essence of countless scriptures, he harbored no doubts about the transition from Overlord to Void God.
“An Overlord’s strength lies in purity—of heart, of Dao, of perfection unto eternity,” Dongbo Xueying reflected. “But a Void God embodies vastness, inclusivity, and balance—the foundation of a ‘rule system.'”
For instance, the Path of the Virtual World was but a single Dao.
To ascend via this path, one needed to integrate other mysteries, forming a rule system with the Virtual World at its core.
The cosmic laws themselves were a seamless fusion of countless rules, not a solitary Dao.
To become a Void God—
The Path of the Virtual World had to serve as the nucleus, harmonizing with other rules to create a cohesive system. A single chopstick breaks easily, but a bundle endures. Once a rule system took shape, its ‘rule domain’ would be far more refined and potent.
Other rules, like the Dao of Space-Time or the Dao of Extremes, were mere building blocks, integrated into the Virtual World’s core to complete the system.
Among Dongbo Xueying’s three Daos, the Path of the Virtual World was the most accommodating. Given his current foundation, he was confident he could break through with focused effort.
But—
Once he ascended to Void God, he would forfeit eligibility for the True God Disciple Battles, losing access to treasures like the Spiritfruit of Flowing Heart. This was a unique opportunity offered by the Voidsky Palace, reserved for Golden Robe Disciples who ranked within the top ten of the placement battles.
“For now, I shall focus solely on mastering techniques,” Dongbo Xueying decided. Delaying his breakthrough allowed him to hone his comprehension by wielding weaker rules to grasp stronger arts—a tempering of his wisdom.
Wisdom, after all, evolved through experience and trial.
…
Thus, Dongbo Xueying devoted himself to the *Shadowless Heaven Net*, the *Three Thousand Avatars*, the *Scripture of Divine Radiance*, and the supreme *Thirteen Swords of Annihilation*. Ultimately, he sought to merge the First Sword of Annihilation with his insights into the Dao of Ripples, creating a new chapter of *Storm of the Dao*.
Having assimilated the essence of countless scriptures, his mastery of the Path of the Virtual World, the Path of Slaughter, and the Dao of Ripples had deepened. Even his understanding of the First Sword of Annihilation had grown, revealing glimpses of Ancestor Tianyu’s original intent.
Before, he could wield it without comprehending its creation.
Now, with vastly expanded horizons, he grasped fragments of its design, fueling his confidence in completing it.
…
Time flowed relentlessly within the Hall of Time. Three hundred and twenty million years passed on that solitary planet, while merely three million years elapsed outside. His prolonged stay consumed over three hundred merit points.
“I never intended to become a Void God, yet I’ve deciphered the twenty-first layer of the *Traveler’s Hidden Scripture*,” Dongbo Xueying chuckled, clad in golden robes. Fortunately, unlike rule-based breakthroughs, mastering the scripture required absorbing chaotic void energies to ascend—something he could delay.
With rule-based insights, comprehension alone triggered ascension.
Thus, as long as he refrained from cultivation, he remained an Overlord.
“My new chapter of *Storm of the Dao* is complete, and my strength has plateaued. Delving deeper into my three Daos risks an accidental breakthrough, which I cannot conceal from the Hall’s artifact spirit,” he mused. “Time to depart. I’ve only perused a fraction of the Myriad Forms Pavilion’s scriptures.”
“Esteemed Venerable,” Dongbo Xueying announced, “I wish to leave the Hall of Time.”
Boom—
An invisible force of space-time enveloped him, whisking him away in an instant.
His vision blurred momentarily before he found himself outside the Hall of Time’s entrance. By his reckoning, only six hundred thousand years had passed since his arrival at the Voidsky Palace. With twenty-eight million years remaining until the True God Disciple Battles, time was still abundant.
With his strength at its current zenith and the Second Sword of Annihilation still beyond his grasp, Dongbo Xueying returned to the Myriad Forms Pavilion. There, he reclined with a flask of wine, leisurely poring over countless scriptures—each a crystallized legacy of past masters, living or dead.
Reading them felt like receiving personal guidance from these ancient sages, a sensation that intoxicated him far more than any liquor.
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