The old Galactic New Calendar had become inadequate after the Empire left the Milky Way Galaxy, so the Administrative Council had renamed it the Imperial Calendar, with the Empire's founding as Year One.
Time slipped by, and 570 years passed. For any mature Interstellar Civilization, that was hardly a long time. It might be the construction period of a Super Civilization's megaproject, or the time it took to test a policy, officially implement it, revise it, and eventually end it. For a civilization, it was merely a turn of the page in history.
Yet that short span had transformed the fledgling Empire beyond recognition. Now, it was a Super Civilization spanning 520 Galaxies.
In a state of deep meditation, countless Information Fragments flitted through the Awareness Space like fireflies. Every so often, clusters of them were drawn toward the Rules System, which had formed a special structure in the sea of consciousness. They silently embedded themselves within it, steadily strengthening the system.
A closer look revealed that the rules manifested in the depths of this vast sea of consciousness were clearly formed from countless shifting combinations of information. At a glance, they seemed to explain the truths of the universe.
They were indeed truths of the universe—but truths constructed from Lin Zhichen's understanding. Rules alone held no power, but when combined with energy, they could manifest extraordinary might.
A hundred years in the Material Realm amounted to 1,500 years in the Divine Realm. Those long years of meditation had given Lin Zhichen a new understanding of the energy rules governed by the Demon Saint Akunda. From this, he had extended the original Rules System into an entirely new system. These were no mere branches and leaves, but roots that laid its foundation.
"Energy combined with information gives rise to endless