First arrival, mounting urgency

Thirteen thousand Epoch —this span of time is but a fleeting moment on the scale of the Chaos Cosmic Sea, but for Lin Yi, it is enough for him to complete a great leap.

Before setting off from Mist Sea City, his comprehension of the Chaos Law was at 11.7%. After thirteen thousand Epoch of continuous arduous cultivation, his comprehension of the laws has steadily increased to 20.2%, officially entering the third stage of the Eternal Source Realm.

However, after entering the third stage, he did not rush to condense the third Chaos Seal Pact.

The Misi Crimson Armor Beast ranks ninth. The secret imprint contained in this drop of essence blood is indeed powerful enough. If it is used to condense the third Chaos Source Seal Pact, whether it is to choose its innate secret technique to supplement its attack methods, or to choose a suitable defensive or locking secret technique to make up for its shortcomings, it can raise its combat power to another level.

But Lin Yi wanted to see what was inside Constant Island first.

Wen Xiao had mentioned that Constant Island had a stockpile of essence blood, and the variety was quite complete. If Constant Island had essence blood that was more suitable than that of the Misi Crimson Armor Beast, that would be even better.

If that doesn't work, we can always come back and use this drop of Misi Crimson Armor Beast's essence blood.

Anyway, we've already arrived at Constant Island.

"Approaching the outer identification zone of Constant Island."

The spaceship's intelligent voice pulled Lin Yi back from his reverie.

Constant Island is naturally built upon the Cosmic Sea Wonder, and it ranks extremely high.

Seventeenth.

This ranking alone speaks volumes about its significance.

It should be noted that the Void Crystal Cluster where the Silent Giant City is located ranks only ninety-second among the Cosmic Sea Wonder, a full seventy-five places behind Constant Island.

Although Constant Island is called an island, it is actually a giant landmass.

Its structure is concentric, rising layer by layer from the outside in. The outer ring is a vast ring-shaped area, which is the outer island of Constant Island.

The surface of the ring-shaped area is covered with a dense cluster of buildings, which are of varying heights and styles.

When Wen Qianfei previously said she recommended him to Constant Island, she was referring to the outer islands.

This time, however, he came as an exchange student of the Constant Guard and went straight to the inner island.

A flowing purple energy curtain separates the outer and inner rings of Constant Island.

The light curtain cascaded down from the inner side of the outer ring, like a giant waterfall encircling the heart of Constant Island.

Even from such a great distance, Lin Yi could clearly feel the intense fluctuations emanating from that energy barrier.

Within the embrace of this Energy Waterfall lies the Inner Island of Constant Island.

Soon, outside the porthole, a pale blue film of light was rapidly magnifying.

That was the outermost energy barrier of Constant Island, like a blue Sky Curtain stretching across the void, extending infinitely to both sides from the horizon, enveloping the entire Constant Island and the vast void area around it.

Lin Yi noticed that various kinds of spaceships were floating in the airspace outside this layer of light.

Most of these spaceships are engraved with family crests, each crest representing a family that is well-known in a space domain or even the entire Seventh Constant Domain.

These aircraft were lined up in several neat rows around the light membrane, clearly waiting for permission to enter Constant Island.

The queue moved at a moderate speed, but in an orderly manner.

No one dared to cut in line or cause trouble under Constant Island's nose, even if the people sitting on those spaceships might be direct descendants of some Dao Lord family, they still had to obediently wait in line.

After all, the island lord and the three deputy island lords of Constant Island are all Dao Lord level experts!

Lin Yi naturally followed suit and queued up obediently.

Although strictly speaking, he could use a special passage without queuing, since the Constant Guard enjoy priority access throughout the entire empire, the original design was to facilitate mission execution.

But he's not currently on a mission, so there's no need for him to be so ostentatious and abuse his privileges.

After waiting in line for a while, Lin Yi's golden spaceship approached the blue light screen. A scanning beam shot out from the barrier and quickly swept across the spaceship's hull.

[Detected Constant Guard's exclusive spaceship. Identity verification in progress...]

[Identity confirmed: Lin Yi, Constant Guard of the Silent Cosmos Domain. Authority level: Level 4.]

[Exchange study application has been filed. Destination: Inner Island of Constant Island). Travel authorization has been approved.]

[Welcome to Constant Island. Your spaceship will land along the inner island's dedicated route. Destination: Inner Island Third Reception Hall.]

As the last line of text disappeared from the light screen in front of Lin Yi, a virtual route extended out from the front of the spaceship.

Guided by the beam of light, the golden spaceship passed through the barrier and officially entered Constant Island.

Soon, the spaceship slowly landed in front of a palace on the east side of the inner island.

The palace is not particularly large. In front of it stand two thick stone pillars, with strange patterns carved on their shafts, as if some ancient language had been etched into the texture of the stone.

The berth platform hovered directly in front of the palace. Lin Yi stowed his spaceship and stepped onto the platform.

Ahead, a figure was walking briskly from the palace corridor.

He was a Mechanical Servants wearing a light blue robe.

"Lin Constant Ban."

The Mechanical Servants stopped a few steps in front of Lin Yi, placed his right fist against his left chest, and bowed slightly. "I am Heng Chen, the manager of the reception hall on the Inner Island of Constant Island. Your exchange and study application has been approved. Please follow me into the hall to complete the island registration."

Thank you for your help.

Lin Yi nodded and followed Heng Chen into the palace.

The interior of the hall was surprisingly simple, with only a reception desk carved from a single piece of dark blue crystal.

Heng Chen walked to the back of the reception desk and stood there. He raised his hand and waved it, and a light screen appeared out of thin air.

[Name: Lin Yi]

[Identity: Constant Guard of the Silent Cosmos Domain]

[Access Level: Exchange Student (Inner Island)]

[Exchange Period: 1,000,000 Epoch]

[Start Date: Today]

[Points Balance: 1000 points (Initial Allocation)]

Heng Chen read the information aloud line by line, pausing slightly after each line, as if waiting for Lin Yi to verify it.

After reading it aloud, it looked at Lin Yi and said, "Lin Constant Ban, please inform me immediately if there are any discrepancies in the above information. If it is confirmed to be correct, I will complete the final registration procedures."

Lin Yi's gaze quickly swept over the few lines of information, and after confirming that he found no problems, he nodded. "Confirmed."

Registration complete.

Heng Chen raised his right hand and made a light sweeping motion in the air.

A beam of purple light shot out from its fingertip and then hovered in front of Lin Yi.

It was a badge the size of a thumb, seemingly made of some kind of purple, unidentified metal, with the symbol of Constant Island, a spire surrounded by three arcs, engraved in the center.

Lin Yi extended his right hand, letting the emblem fall into his palm.

The moment the fingertip touched the surface of the emblem, an extremely subtle ripple emanated from it, a sensation identical to that experienced when the emblem of the Constant Guard was first bound to it.

"The Constant Island Emblem has been linked."

Heng Chen's voice rang out in the hall.

Lin Yi nodded and put the badge away.

Then, Heng Chen took out a semi-transparent information crystal from under the reception desk and handed it over.

"This is a detailed handbook for the inner Inner Island of Constant Island. It includes the distribution of various areas, the specific locations and usage rules of all types of training facilities, how to check course schedules, explanations of the trial system, and more. We suggest Lin Constant Ban read the handbook thoroughly before arranging his subsequent itinerary."

Lin Yi accepted the crystal and thanked him.

"Furthermore," Heng Chen added, "Lin Constant Ban's accommodation during his stay on the inner island has been arranged. It's located in the Seventh Court of the East District of the inner island. That's the unified living area for temporary exchange students. The garden is equipped with a private meditation room and a martial arts arena, and the energy supply is within the standard configuration of the inner island. If there are any special needs, you can apply through the badge, but the corresponding Points will be deducted directly from your account."

Lin Yi nodded and wrote down all this information.

"There's one more thing I need to remind Lin Constant Ban. The movement of exchange students within the Inner Island of Constant Island is somewhat restricted. They can freely move around the outer island area, and most public areas on the inner island are also within their access rights. However, the Constant Tower, the main tower in the very center of the inner island, is only accessible to the top 100 students on the inner island. Additionally, access to certain special training facilities is linked to the trial level; please refer to the relevant regulations in the manual for specific restrictions."

"Understood."

Lin Yi nodded slightly, thanked Heng Chen again, and then turned and walked out of the hall.

At the same time, he imbued his consciousness into the Constant Island Emblem.

Heng Chen had just said that the exchange list could be viewed directly through the emblem, but he couldn't wait to return to his residence to study it slowly. Right now, he wanted to see just how large Constant Island's blood essence reserves were.

"Check the exchange list."

Soon, countless information entries poured out of the emblem like a waterfall.

Lin Yi silently examined the document for a moment, and a slight thought stirred within him.

The exchange range of Constant Island is much wider than he expected.

From cultivation aids to various special equipment, from cultivation manuals to secret techniques, the range of products is so comprehensive that it covers almost everything a cultivator needs to progress from the True Source Realm to the Eternal Constant Source Realm.

And Ji Yi noticed that some entries were marked with a small word "heng".

That's a unique mark produced on Constant Island.

However, Lin Yi had no time to pay attention to these things for the time being. He skipped over the complicated information and only searched for information related to essence blood.

The complex list of entries shrunk instantly, leaving only information related to the essence blood of the Chaos Beast.

[Voidless Time Titan Beast (Ranked Second on the Beast Ranking) Blood Essence - 1 Points: 280,000; Advanced Trial Mission ×1; Inventory: 2 drops]

[Radiant Nirvana Mantis (Ranked 3rd on the Beast Ranking) Essence Blood - Points: 260,000; Advanced Trial Mission ×1; Inventory: 4 drops]

[Eternal Constant Fusion Beast (Ranked 7th on the Beast Ranking) Essence Blood Points: 190,000; Advanced Trial Mission ×1; Inventory: 3 drops]

[Misi Crimson Armor Beast (Ranked 9th on the Beast Ranking) Blood Essence - Points: 160,000; Advanced Trial Mission ×1; Inventory: 5 drops]

Lin Yi was immediately overjoyed.

Constant Island did indeed have some essence blood stored up; although the stock was not large, there was still some left.

The only exceptions are the first and fourth ranked beasts; the exchange items for these two beasts are grayed out and marked with the words "extinct".

Furthermore, in addition to the top ten, the amount of essence blood reserves of the tenth to twentieth place is significantly more than that of the top ten, with each type showing a reserve of five to ten drops.

The blood essence of those ranked 20th to 50th each had more than a dozen drops.

Further on, the inventory will increase.

The need for Points naturally decreases as the ranking decreases.

The top ten blood essences require at least 100,000 Points to exchange for a single drop, with the number one item requiring over 200,000 points.

Most of the top 50 players have Points between 50,000 and 100,000.

As for those ranked outside the top 50, the Points points dropped to between 20,000 and 50,000, and the requirements for trial tasks were also significantly reduced.

Most only require a certain number of beginner trials, and some don't even have a trial threshold; you can simply redeem them with Points.

After reading it, Lin Yi had a general idea of the list.

The top-ranking blood essence isn't particularly scarce; most people have two or three drops.

"But at least tens of thousands of Points, plus one advanced trial mission..."

Lin Yi silently repeated it in his mind, then shook his head.

The Points needed to redeem them were still far beyond his current thousand Points.

Moreover, those high-ranking blood essences also come with a threshold for trial missions, at least intermediate or even advanced.

He doesn't even know if these Points are easy to earn, let alone the additional trial conditions.

However, now that it's confirmed that Constant Island does indeed have sufficient reserves of essence blood, it's best to keep this list in mind and make plans after becoming familiar with the various rules of the inner island.

Thinking of this, Lin Yi simply took the information crystal that Heng Chen had given him out of his Divine Kingdom and applied slight pressure with his fingertips.

The crystal shattered, and Information Flow flooded into his consciousness.

The manual was far more complex than he had anticipated, containing everything from a complete map of the inner island to detailed descriptions of the functions of over three hundred training facilities, from the Points to earning points to the trial level system, from the list of instructors for each course to the reservation rules, from the code of conduct for exchange students to the signage for prohibited areas—nothing was too small to be missed.

A moment later, a hint of admiration flashed in Lin Yi's eyes.

The configuration of this Inner Island of Constant Island truly makes it the most prestigious cultivation holy land in the Seventh Constant Domain.

The manual lists over three hundred cultivation facilities, covering all cultivation needs from the initial stage of the Eternal Source Realm to the breakthrough to the Constant Source Realm.

However, these high-level training grounds have incredibly high entry requirements. Not only do they require Points, but they also require different levels of trial attempts. Some of the training grounds that help you break through to the Constant Source Realm even require you to complete top-level trial tasks.

In addition, Constant Island has a rich system of open courses, and the instructors are at least Constant Source Realm experts. Moreover, each of these Constant Lord has their own area of expertise.

These courses are split evenly between free courses and courses that require Points, with a very small number of premium courses even requiring trial attempts.

Even so, this is already an extremely generous treatment for any cultivator qualified to enter the inner island.

In the outside world, the value of personal guidance from a Constant Lord being cannot be measured in terms of Eternal Cosmos Crystal.

Even the direct descendants of those Constant Source Realm families may not be able to receive guidance from the Constant Lord at any time within their own families, let alone freely choose the courses they need most from dozens of Constant Lord.

Moreover, some of the free courses even include those taught by the island owners!

According to the manual, the island lord and deputy island lord take turns giving a public lecture to the entire island every ten million Epoch.

This course has no entry requirements; anyone who is a member of the inner island, including temporary exchange students like him, can participate.

That was a lesson personally taught by the Dao Lord!

When Lin Yi saw this message, he almost instinctively switched to the course booking page.

He wanted to know when the next Dao Lord's public lecture would be.

Although an interval of ten million Epoch is not short, what if it happens to coincide with that?

He soon saw the results.

[Last public lecture by the Island Master: 5 million Epoch ago. Next public lecture expected: 5 million Epoch later. Lecturer: Not yet announced.]

Lin Yi couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

The Five Millionth Epoch.

His exchange and learning trip will only last for one million Epoch.

This is probably what they mean by "if it's not meant to be, don't force it."

After a brief moment of regret, Lin Yi turned his attention back to other more practical information in the manual.

That's Points and trial missions.

Actually, these two can be considered the same thing, because the main source of Points is the trial missions.

The tiered system for the trial missions is clearly outlined in the manual.

There are four levels in total: Beginner Trial, Intermediate Trial, Advanced Trial, and Supreme Trial.

The manual also makes no secret of the varying degrees of danger inherent in the trials. With each level up, the difficulty and risk increase dramatically, and the top-level trials require multiple people to team up and cooperate to complete.

Lin Yi had long heard about the dangers of these trial missions.

When Wen Qianfei first recommended Constant Island to him, she clearly stated that the trials on Constant Island might even be more dangerous than the battles against the Black Silence Beast on the Frontline. Now, the information in the manual has completely confirmed this.

Of course, the rewards for the trial missions are also generous, corresponding to the risks.

Taking the beginner trial as an example, the Points reward fluctuates between one thousand and five thousand, depending on the difficulty of the task and the completion evaluation.

If the completion rate reaches a "perfect" rating, additional Points will be awarded.

The Points reward for intermediate trials has jumped to between five thousand and thirty thousand.

The rewards for advanced trials are even more astonishing, with Points starting at 30,000 and reaching up to 100,000 per mission.

In addition to the extra loot and opportunities that might be obtained during the trials, the manual used a metaphor that Lin Yi found quite apt.

"Trials are the most efficient way to cultivate on Constant Island; Points are merely a byproduct."

Lin Yi understood this principle, but he also saw another fact.

The highest possible Points for the beginner trial is only five thousand.

The essence blood he wanted required over 200,000 Points, which would require completing fifty or sixty trials if he relied solely on the initial trials.

The manual clearly states that although the beginner trial is the least dangerous category, it still carries significant risks.

He also needs another set of data mentioned in that manual.

Advanced trial missions are rare, usually only released once every tens of thousands of eras. Intermediate trial missions are more numerous than advanced ones, but they are not available all the time. The most common ones are actually beginner trial missions.

Within the framework of the trial system, Points and mission levels become factors that require careful consideration.

"From this perspective, a million Epoch is actually not enough for an ordinary Eternal Source Realm cultivator to accomplish much."

Lin Yi frowned and pondered for a while, and roughly figured out why Constant Island was so kind as to give the Constant Guard a chance to communicate with various forces.

As stated in the manual, the exchange students mainly come from the Constant Guard, the Imperial Army, the city lords' mansions of various cosmic capitals, and families that have cooperative relationships with Constant Island.

After these people arrived and witnessed the various cultivation conditions on the inner island, listened to the lectures of the Constant Lord and even the Dao Lord, and saw the various treasures on the exchange list, they would naturally have a personal understanding of the conditions on the Constant Island.

Take himself as an example. Although the Constant Guard has its own training system, only a small number of people can become Constant Guard. The Constant Guard cannot guarantee that its descendants can also join the Constant Guard.

Therefore, Constant Island would naturally become the first choice.

Constant Island and expanding its influence—this is the underlying logic behind Constant Island's allocation of these exchange opportunities.

The timeframe of one million Epoch was timed very precisely.

It's enough for exchange participants to experience some of the facilities, listen to dozens of lectures by Constant Lord, and might even lead to some breakthroughs in their cultivation, but it's not enough to bring about a qualitative change.

It leaves you wanting more.

Then, when the time was up, they saw the guests out.

"A million Epoch... that seems quite urgent for other Eternal Source Realm cultivators, but for me... heh..."

Lin Yi muttered to himself, then followed the cursor to a secluded area surrounded by low crystal walls.

This is where the exchange students are located: the Seventh Court in the East Ward of the Inner Island.

This is a huge courtyard.

In the center of the courtyard is a small circular plaza. The plaza is paved with the same light blue crystal as the outside, but there are several concentric circles on the surface of the stone. The circles are slowly rotating at a fixed frequency, and each rotation releases a very weak energy fluctuation to the surrounding area.

Around the square, there are more than a hundred independent courtyards scattered in a staggered manner.

Each courtyard is different in shape and size, but without exception, they are all shrouded in an independent protective light shield.

Lin Yi's insignia automatically received the information about his accommodation assignment as soon as he stepped into the Seventh Court.

He walked eastward along the stone path at the edge of the square and soon found his lodgings.

The courtyard wasn't large, but its layout was quite elegant.

The courtyard wall was built of light blue crystal stone, and several fist-sized energy crystal cores were embedded on the top of the wall. The crystal cores were emitting a soft white light, enveloping the courtyard in a faint energy field.

On the wall to the left of the courtyard gate was a palm-sized talisman. Lin Yi aimed the Constant Island Emblem and waved it gently before pushing the door open and entering.

The main building is a two-story crystal structure.

The first floor is the reception room, simply furnished, with a round reception table in the center and several antique-style wooden chairs beside it.

The basement level is a training room, almost twice the size of the training room he previously had in the Wen family's East Garden.

Such conditions are quite generous for a residence specifically designed to accommodate temporary exchange students.

However, Lin Yi didn't have much time to savor these details.

He was about to go down to the training room to carefully review the information in the manual about Points acquisition and trial missions before deciding on his next step.

Just then, the intelligent voice of the courtyard management system suddenly sounded.

"A visitor has requested to visit the facility."