Fishing a Needle from the Sea

A hundred years passed in haste; time vanished in an instant.

Yakelis and Helles had been searching for over two hundred years, yet they still had not found Chen Tian.

If they had not known Chen Tian was powerful enough and had a sufficiently long lifespan,

they would have wanted to find somewhere quiet, lie down, and wait for death.

Once Chen Tian died of old age, they would perish with him.

Yakelis occasionally felt resentful, furious at her own lack of strength, which prevented her from using more powerful methods to find Chen Tian.

If she could step into the Venerable God realm, she could directly send her consciousness into the River of Time. Though she would not be able to come and go freely within it, she could at least follow the place where he had vanished and search for traces of Chen Tian drifting away.

Hatred! Nothing but hatred!

Unfortunately, the stronger one became, the lower the chances of further progress in the later stages.

Because cultivation in the later stages depended entirely on one's comprehension.

The higher one's comprehension, the faster one's progress, and the greater the possibility of ascending to the heavens in a single step!

The Eight Universes had existed for an incomparably long time, and no one knew how many truly peerless geniuses had been born within them.

There had also been precedents of people ascending to the heavens in a single step.

Unfortunately, all those who could ascend to the heavens in a single step were eventually buried in the River of Time.

Even ascending to the heavens in a single step could not stop enemies coveting their talent.

Under countless vicious schemes, even with absolute protection, they could not survive. The most recent case in history was during the Universe Competition Yakelis and Helles had participated in.

The first-place winner then had been a genius who towered above the entire field, suppressing every genius present with his strength alone! At the time, people had bestowed upon him the title of Genius King!

For a time, he enjoyed boundless glory, but he also drew assassins lurking in the shadows.

That genius had stepped into the True God realm in less than a hundred years, shocking the entire universe.

To prevent the same thing from happening again, Venerable Gods personally took charge of protecting him—five Venerable Gods, no less! Every one of them was a Venerable God who had left legends behind on the battlefield!

They immediately sealed off all news, hoping to prevent those with ulterior motives from maliciously causing trouble.

Yet in the end, they still failed to keep it contained. News of him spread through all eight universes! Every assassination organization, hostile force, and countless races received the news.

Everyone harbored different intentions.

At the banquet celebrating his breakthrough into the True God realm, the Venerable Gods saw that every guest had their own agenda.

There was no need to guess—it was certainly because of him! Under the close protection of five Venerable Gods, he finally passed through that period safely.

Yet despite meticulous arrangements, an accident eventually occurred. During another mission outside, that genius was besieged by enemies from numerous factions.

Even the God King of that genius's own race was alarmed by that battle! How many years of fortune did it take to produce such a genius? It was a good thing for both the race and the universe, yet he ultimately died at the hands of his enemies.

Rumor had it that the genius had hidden his true strength and had in fact already entered the ranks of True Gods!

Besieged by a large group of True Gods, he fought desperately to break out of the encirclement, luring his enemies into an extremely dangerous Secret Realm.

Inside the Secret Realm, he slaughtered every last enemy! By the time the God King arrived, he was already at death's door.

In the end, the God King brought him back to their race and exhausted every means to heal him.

But they still could not save his life. A divine genius of a generation had ultimately fallen.

Yet he had created a miracle as well. Throughout the ages, only he had managed to break out of the layers of True God encirclement and slaughter them all cleanly.

When Yakelis and Helles learned the news, they also felt regretful. After all, he had been the target of both of them.

They had even planned to challenge him someday.

Yet now, they received news of his death. After that genius died, the God King flew into a towering rage.

In a fit of fury, he entered the Secret Realm, gathered every trace of residual aura into his grasp, then searched and verified them one by one.

Following those auras, wherever confirmation was possible, the God King wiped out all one hundred and six assassination organizations and factions within his own universe! Even under the obstruction of other God Kings, he still traveled to other universes and carried out a massive purge.

In the end, the God King's armor returned drenched in blood, but his left arm remained forever in another universe.

After that incident, no one dared mention it again, fearing the God King might learn of it and bring about their deaths.

After that battle, the God King entered seclusion to recover and never again involved himself in worldly affairs.

The race also settled down, emerged from its grief, and began a new path, continuing to nurture the next generation.

It was simply that someone with such talent would likely never appear again.

"The Universe Competition is approaching. We should avoid it. After all, we don't belong to the Seventh Universe, and it would easily cause conflict," Yakelis said.

As the saying went, wherever there were people, there would be disputes. It was a truth that had remained unchanged for ten thousand years.

Although countless races lived together within the universe and battles often erupted, on this matter, they were unusually united against outsiders.

The universes all shared an unspoken dislike for visitors from other universes.

No one knew when that dislike had begun. It was as though they had been born with it, a loathing that came from the depths of their hearts.

"I'm just afraid that Master is drifting through the universe. What if he accidentally drifts into the territory of some race?" Helles said worriedly.

Yakelis was equally troubled, because there was simply no way to avoid such a situation.

They could only pray that it would not happen.

After a while, Yakelis asked, "Where do you think Madam went?"

"I don't know. Madam said she had matters to handle. It is probably related to her family," Helles said.

Then Yakelis turned her palm over, and a flash of red light appeared as a small bead emerged within it.

It faintly flickered with starlight.

"What is that?" Helles glanced at it.

"This is a Protective Item I gave Madam when we parted. This little bead can sense whether Madam has used it," Yakelis said.

After staring at it for a long while, Yakelis put it away.

"How is it? Is Madam all right?" Helles pressed.

"Madam should be very safe. After all, she has not used the Protective Item I gave her," Yakelis said.

"That's good." Helles chuckled. "Fortunately, Madam is unharmed. Otherwise, once we find Master, it will be hard to explain."

With that, the two accelerated their search for Chen Tian.

The Universe Competition was approaching. When the time came, the entire universe would be extremely busy, and True God-level experts would be flying everywhere.

By then, it would truly be difficult for them to fly about freely while searching.

Either they found Chen Tian before then, or they could only wait until the competition ended. Otherwise, if anything happened during the competition, they might get entangled in a great deal of trouble.

In the vast universe, how difficult was it to find someone with no fixed location, drifting everywhere like a needle in the sea?