Stepping Across the Threshold of the Space Source Law

"Ah Mu, are you still going to the Giant Axe Fighting Arena? With your current strength, there's no point in taking part in life-and-death battles anymore." Having calmed down, Babata looked at Shen Mu and voiced his doubts.

"Even if you want to attract the attention of important figures, wouldn't it be more suitable to visit them directly and display your Law Attainment?"

Shen Mu nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. Then I'll put the life-and-death battle training aside for now. As for everything else, we'll talk once I gain some insight into the Space Source Law."

The Azure Dragon Avatar could handle comprehending Laws. As for Shen Mu himself, he would naturally study secret techniques and hone his combat experience.

Virtual Universe, Slaughterfield.

Amid the boundless starry sky, Shen Mu stood tall in a set of Azure Battle Armor.

"Set opponent: 10,000 vicious beasts, 'Bloodfur Mammoths,' Star-Level first stage!"

The surroundings abruptly shifted, the entire space blurring before instantly transforming into a prairie world.

At the far end of the grassland, massive blood-colored beasts appeared out of thin air one after another, unleashing earth-shaking roars.

Countless blood-colored beasts trampled the earth as they charged rapidly toward Shen Mu, making the entire prairie shake violently. Every blood-colored mammoth possessed sharp tusks, crimson secret patterns lighting up across them as they unleashed some kind of secret technique.

Shen Mu charged straight toward the ten thousand Bloodfur Mammoths. His figure flickered like a streak of light along the ripples of space, and each sweep of the spear in his palm slaughtered swathes of blood-colored beasts.

The battle lasted several minutes before ending. After all, there were ten thousand vicious beasts; relying on a single spear made killing them somewhat inefficient.

Upon the bloodstained prairie wasteland, Shen Mu put away his spear and lightly tapped the air with a finger. "Set opponent: 10,000 demon beasts, 'Nine-Headed Serpents,' Star-Level first stage."

The scene around Shen Mu shifted once more, and ten thousand ferocious nine-headed snake monsters roared as they charged in to kill him.

Unlike vicious beasts that fought solely on instinct, demon beasts possessed intelligence and combat experience no weaker than humans'. Naturally, they also had combat techniques and force exertion matching Star-Level ninth stage.

Roar! Howl!

All manner of roars and mournful cries echoed through this space.

Shen Mu's figure slaughtered through the snake horde like a swimming dragon, his spear infused with the power of the Water Law lashing out like a dragon's tail.

The battle took nearly twenty minutes to finish. Shen Mu began setting the opponents for the next battle: 1,000 metal lifeforms, Tolo Warriors.

As a transmigrator, although Shen Mu did not remember many details of the original work, he remembered the opponents in the Genius Battle Trial Towers quite clearly.

The seven floors of the Trial Tower were, respectively, Bloodfur Mammoths, Nine-Headed Serpents, the metal lifeform Tolo race, the powerful cosmic creature Flying Hou, Machine Race puppets, the Starry Sky Behemoth Cang, and the insect race mother nest.

However, Shen Mu did not know the specific difficulty of each Trial Tower.

Therefore, the simplest and most direct method was to raise the set targets' realms directly, gradually moving up from Star-Level first stage to Star-Level second stage and onward. There would always come a point when he could no longer win.

Two months later, in the Slaughterfield.

At the center of a vast desert lay a patch of greenery. Suspended above it was an enormous sphere, roughly sixty meters in diameter.

The sphere was uneven and bumpy, droplets of green venom trickling down from it and falling upon the desert sand with hissing, corrosive sounds.

Around the sphere, several thousand elite insect race warriors guarded it. At the same time, a vast horde of ferocious insects, dense as a black tide that blotted out the sky and covered the earth, surrounded Shen Mu and attacked him.

"Die!"

Shen Mu gave a sharp cry, and six phantom bodies condensed around him, splitting up to fight.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a dazzling pillar of light tore through the sky, illuminating this stretch of desert as it shot toward Shen Mu.

"Too slow."

Shen Mu's six figures danced and crisscrossed through the air, easily evading the beam unleashed by the insect race's Combined Attack Technique in an exceedingly strange posture.

From atop the spherical mother nest flew a Mother Empress about six meters tall, her entire body pale and crystalline like crystal, with a pair of butterfly-like wings behind her.

"Ah..."

A naturally melodious chant spread outward, containing an indescribable power of seduction. In that instant, even the rugged desert became incomparably exquisite.

Invisible psychic power quietly infiltrated Shen Mu's consciousness.

Within the boundless spiritual world, a pale-golden giant tower slowly revolved.

This Void Tower had two levels in total. Its entire body was crystalline and faintly golden, with secret patterns faintly surfacing over it. It seemed perfect and flawless, layer upon layer protecting the soul core within.

Although Shen Mu had cultivated the "Void Tower" manual for only a few months, relying on the formidable will brought about by dying and being reborn twice, as well as his introductory insight into the Water and Space Laws, he had successfully cultivated the two-level treasure tower realm.

Buzz!

The instant the invisible psychic power made contact with the Void Tower, it spread outward like a membrane, pulling Shen Mu into an illusion.

Shen Mu only felt the scene before him abruptly change. He had reappeared on Earth, where the Golden Horned Beast ravaged the skies, while he himself was merely an ordinary Warlord-level martial artist.

"Break!"

Shen Mu's psychic power and will erupted. In almost the blink of an eye, the entire illusory world began to tremble and collapse—but it was already too late.

In that instant when Shen Mu lost focus, the resplendent Combined Attack beam instantly engulfed him and annihilated him.

On Light Source Star, inside the meditation room of the tranquil manor, Shen Mu opened his eyes as his consciousness returned to his true body.

"I still lost to the Star-Level ninth-rank insect race broodmother. My resistance to illusions is still too weak."

The Void Tower's two-layer Pagoda Realm granted Shen Mu formidable soul defenses and resistance to illusions. Soul and illusion attacks from opponents at the same level were almost completely ineffective against him.

Against the illusion attacks of an ordinary Star-Level ninth-rank Mentalist, Shen Mu could disregard them entirely—even if the other party's spiritual force was 256 times stronger than that of Shen Mu, who stood at the peak of Star-Level first rank.

The first-layer Pagoda Realm possessed soul defenses that could be called invincible at the Planet-Level. The second-layer Pagoda Realm corresponded to the Star-Level, and so on. If one could cultivate to the sixth-layer Pagoda Realm, then even among Undying Gods, their soul defense would rank among the best.

But Shen Mu's opponent was no ordinary foe. It was a Star-Level ninth-rank insect race broodmother. Every insect race broodmother was a born master of illusions, and its level was far higher than Shen Mu's.

Even with the Void Tower's defenses, Shen Mu could not simply ignore the opponent's illusion attacks.

Faced with the encirclement of thousands upon thousands of insect race warriors, Shen Mu lost focus for only an instant—and the result was being instantly killed.

"Take it slowly. Tempering my will and cultivating the Void Tower both require time."

Over the past two-plus months of seclusion, Shen Mu's Azure Dragon Avatar had repeatedly used the secret technique of 'Teleportation' within the Inner World, comprehending the mysteries of spatial fluctuations.

In the end, Shen Mu successfully gained a trace of insight into the Source Law of Space. Though that bit of insight might not even count as scratching the surface, it still meant he had crossed the threshold of the Source Law of Space.

"It's been more than half a year since I became a student of the Qianwu Dojo. It's time to attend a class."

Back in February, when Shen Mu first traveled to the universe, he had also signed up to become a student of the Qianwu Dojo. It was already September now, yet he had not attended a single class. He could not let that money go to waste.