Ten Years Passed in the Blink of an Eye

The next morning, Yu Duan climbed out of the Nutrient Pod. He felt full of energy, back in peak condition, with a surging strength coursing through his body.

"A new day begins..."

Yu Duan let out a long breath, then casually threw a few punches and stretched his body.

His unhurried movements had no real force behind them, but every punch and kick contained the profound mysteries of the Laws of Light and Time.

Gradually, Yu Duan's aura began to change. For a moment, he seemed to become one with nature—Unity of Heaven and Man.

In this state, Yu Duan's Law Comprehension was at its fastest.

Of course, compared to borrowing insights from the Book of Causality, this method was far less efficient.

Only after a long while did Yu Duan slowly finish his practice. He glanced over at Ku Mixiu, who had appeared at some point.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Mr. Ku Mixiu," Yu Duan said with a smile.

Ku Mixiu bowed slightly. "Your Highness, the great master asked me to bring you these Origin Force battle boots. They should make up for some of your weakness in movement techniques."

As he spoke, Ku Mixiu took a pair of ancient, silver-white boots from his Internal World. Fine Law patterns flickered across them. They were clearly no ordinary item.

Origin Force battle boots were equipment that helped Fighters use movement techniques, similar to flying weapons used by Spirit Readers.

For Spirit Readers, attack weapons were far more precious than flying weapons.

But for Fighters, the opposite was true. Battle boots were worth considerably more than attack weapons of the same tier.

The boots sent by his teacher, King Qinghuan, were the Tamyue Boots, Tier 5 Force Battle Boots imbued with the mysteries of the Laws of Light and Time.

"My teacher really did prepare everything for me."

Yu Duan accepted the Origin Force battle boots. High-tier equipment like this couldn't be used right away. It first had to be nurtured with one's own Origin Force or mental power before it could be wielded freely.

King Qinghuan had seen that his young disciple devoted most of his energy to swordsmanship. He didn't say anything about it, only sending him a pair of Tier 5 Force Battle Boots.

"Also, the great master has set up a special space in the Virtual Universe for training your will. It's much more effective than the secret method for tempering your will that you're currently using, Your Highness."

Yu Duan's eyes lit up. "A space for training my will?"

Ku Mixiu's expression was filled with reverence. "Yes. The great master personally created the Eighteen Layers of Life and Death Illusion. If you can clear all of them, your willpower will be on par with the average Peak King."

Being able to create an array of this caliber meant that King Qinghuan's own willpower was a level stronger than the array's limit.

That was the measure of King Qinghuan's stature.

Yu Duan still knew little about his teacher's standing, far less than Ku Mixiu, who had once been a World Lord in the Core Layer of a peak power.

King Qinghuan wasn't merely a supreme being among the King Level Immortals. He was also the greatest soul master among the countless Immortal Gods under the Virtual Universe Company.

"Let's go take a look."

Yu Duan immediately logged into the Virtual Universe. He found that a new option had appeared among his teleportation destinations: the Eighteen Layers of Life and Death Illusion.

"Tianran, teleport me to the illusion space!"

"Right away, Master!"

"Hmm? Why isn't anything happening?" Yu Duan froze. He was still standing in his manor.

Tianran was also confused and replied uncertainly, "Master, could the Virtual Universe Network be malfunctioning?"

"Malfunctioning? Don't be ridiculous. I've probably already entered the illusion, and you're part of it too."

As someone who had crossed over from another world, Yu Duan knew exactly how formidable the Virtual Universe Network was.

Even after the great will of the Original Universe suppressed Yuan Zu, the Virtual Universe secret technique he had created still spread throughout the entire Original Universe, unaffected.

Tianran hesitated. "So... I'm fake?"

"This illusion really is convincing. Come on, let's see the King Qinghuan in this illusion..."

Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Back in the palace of the real world, Yu Duan's consciousness returned. He opened his eyes.

He glanced at the time nearby. "I spent almost half a month in the illusion, but only about ten minutes passed in the real world."

Ku Mixiu smiled. "Your Highness cleared the first layer with ease. Your willpower has already surpassed the average for Universe Level."

"This method of tempering my will is certainly more effective than enduring pain, but it's also more grueling."

Yu Duan decided to shelve Lianxin Dian. From now on, he could train his will directly in the illusion.

"Mr. Ku Mixiu, let's begin today's training."

That was all a minor distraction. Making progress was what mattered most.

After a night's rest, Yu Duan returned to his relentless training. He wouldn't stop unless his will was pushed to its limit.

In a sense, this was also a way of training his will.

A cultivation life was simply so plain and dull.

Yu Duan's punishing training began to affect a lot of people, especially those closest to him. An Yao and Chi Li were influenced the most.

Gradually, among the Star Level students at the Sacred Land, the Core Layer students near the top of the rankings began pushing themselves harder and harder.

The Immortal Gods responsible for teaching at the Sacred Land were pleased to see it.

But once this group of super geniuses started pushing themselves, the ones who felt the greatest pressure were the geniuses who had yet to cross the threshold of Source Laws.

You were already more talented than everyone else, and now you were working this hard too? How was anyone else supposed to keep up?

As the source of this escalating "rat race," Yu Duan was naturally even more relentless.

He drove himself mercilessly, training and conditioning himself as though he were in hell.

Every day, Yu Duan could feel himself making a little progress.

As his Law Comprehension improved, those small gains became harder and harder to notice, but he was still advancing.

Nothing unusual happened in the first year after the ranking battle.

Over the entire year, Yu Duan took only one day off. That was the day his homeworld, Light Source Planet, braced for the impact of Death Omen Star's eruption.

Through the Virtual Universe, Yu Duan spoke with Master Zhen Li and the others. He discovered that Senior Brother Yan Lun, who had recommended him for the Sacred Land, was also stationed on Light Source Planet.

As Senior Brother Yan Lun put it, he had nothing else to do anyway. Since his junior brother's homeworld was facing such an important event, he might as well stop by and take a look.

If anything went wrong, he could step in as a backup.

Yan Lun was in charge of Chilian God's branch in the Beiming Divine Realm. How could he possibly have nothing to do?

Whatever his reasons, Yan Lun had given Yu Duan real help.

As long as Yu Duan was able in the future, he would repay Senior Brother Yan Lun.

If Yu Duan had still taken a day off in the first year, he couldn't really be said to have attended every day.

But starting from the second year, he truly didn't miss a single day.

He didn't take days off. Even if you added together every hour he slept over the course of the year, it would only come to around 300 to 400 hours.

Nearly ten years passed in the blink of an eye, and Yu Duan was now over thirty.

But because he had been so young when he reached Planetary Level, he still looked like a boy.

Compared to the Yu Duan of ten years ago, however, his temperament had changed noticeably. He was more reserved and profound.

Yu Duan had always been a steady, careful person.

Now, perhaps because his Law Comprehension had improved, he carried an indescribable presence.

After spending enough time with Yu Duan, An Yao, Chi Li, Yalunsi, and the others all gradually grew accustomed to asking him for advice when making decisions.

It was hard to explain why. They simply felt that Yu Duan's judgment was more accurate and put them at ease.

Late at night, at Beiming Sacred Land.

Yu Duan stood in the courtyard, gazing at the enormous stars overhead, his expression unreadable.

The stars glimmered faintly as they moved along their prescribed paths. They seemed to draw in some strange force, keeping the islands at the heart of the Sacred Land perpetually covered in ice and snow.

"Your Highness, are you thinking about the ranking battle in four days?"

Ku Mixiu appeared silently behind and to the side of Yu Duan.

Yu Duan turned his gaze away from the stars and smiled as he shook his head. "Yalunsi is too strong. I'm no match for him, so there's no point wasting energy preparing. As for everyone else, there's even less need."

Yu Duan hadn't been staring into space just now. His consciousness had been submerged in insights borrowed from the Book of Causality, and he had only just emerged, still savoring their mysteries.

At that moment, new writing appeared on the ancient pages glowing with seven-colored light in Yu Duan's Internal World.

"Repaying the borrowed price: fully execute the third level of Light and Time Sword Technique, 'Severing Dusk and Dawn,' 16,164,200 times..."

The price of borrowing had leaped from two million uses of the second level to sixteen million uses of the third.

Yu Duan had previously estimated that repaying the cost of the second level would take around seven or eight years.

But now that he had a teacher, he could no longer decide every aspect of his training by himself. That had affected his schedule, and it had taken ten years.

Considering that the third level was harder to perform and consumed more energy, repaying the borrowed price would actually take around 120 years.

"Over a hundred years... Looks like I'll have to wait until I reach Universe Level before I can borrow more insights."

There were about four years left until the Genius Competition. There was no way he could fill this progress bar in just four years.

So he could afford to ease up a little. Over the next four years, he could work on his weak points in movement techniques, fundamentals, and combat experience.