Nine Heavens and Nine Mountains

Looking at Luo Zhiyuan and his Space Phantom against the backdrop of the starry sky, Bulieni could not help but smile.

While inside the Time Chamber, Luo Zhiyuan's Shadow Race Clone had already been able to manifest over 50 Space Phantoms, but for his human original body, this was the first time he had stepped into the introductory realm of Shattered Space.

Shattered Space is divided into three parts: Space Lock, Space Strangulation, and Teleportation; Luo Zhiyuan had only practiced the Teleportation portion so far, and had already reached the introductory realm.

His Time Flow had reached the first level of minor completion.

One space law, one time law—two major superior laws—he could now be said to have caught a glimpse of the path. For a little guy at the Star level, Bulieni was still very satisfied.

"Good! Not bad, you have finally entered the path of the space law."

Luo Zhiyuan turned around to look at Bulieni, his mouth stretched wide, looking incredibly smug.

Unable to stand his smugness, Bulieni shouted directly: "Alright, alright, hurry over here, it's time to start the next test!"

Pouting, Luo Zhiyuan muttered as he flew back; couldn't he be happy for a little longer?

"Alright, I'm here, which one is next?"

"The Shadow Divine Weapon, then the Divine Illusion Bead, one after another, no skipping."

Saying "okay," Luo Zhiyuan chose the Shadow Divine Weapon, one of the Nine Great Divine Weapons of the Controller for spirit readers, and a heavy black light wheel appeared beside him.

Using the Shadow Divine Weapon in the Virtual Universe Company did not require nurturing to leave a mental imprint; Luo Zhiyuan controlled the Shadow Divine Weapon and directly shrunk it to wear on his wrist, as he had long since grown accustomed to controlling the Shadow Divine Weapon in this form while inside the Time Chamber.

"Pay attention, the Virtual Warrior also uses the Shadow Divine Weapon, but the mastery level goes from low to high; the 21st one already masters the second level, so let's begin."

Two light wheels, alternating between light and dark, clashed and fought within the space, vanishing in a flash.

Slowly, the sound of Luo Zhiyuan's heavy breathing became clearly audible.

The 15th Virtual Warrior struck him down.

Bulieni roared: "You aren't even proficient in using the first level yet, go back and keep practicing!"

"Now, testing your mastery of the Divine Illusion Bead. You are only allowed to use Mental Shock to attack the Virtual Warrior. If you can cause the 100th Virtual Warrior's consciousness to collapse, it means your Divine Illusion Bead has reached the first level, having doubled your consciousness strength."

This time, the Virtual Warrior stood opposite Luo Zhiyuan, motionless, waiting for his Mental Shock to descend.

Luo Zhiyuan stored the Divine Illusion Bead into his sea of consciousness, closed his eyes to focus, took a deep breath, and unleashed the maximum intensity Mental Shock he could control against the Virtual Warrior.

One by one, the Virtual Warriors fell before him, until the 45th Virtual Warrior, who resisted Luo Zhiyuan's Mental Shock.

"Alright, today's test ends here. You are clear on what level your cultivation has reached, right?"

Luo Zhiyuan nodded and said: "I have a good idea. My law comprehension can still be improved, and my control of the Shadow Divine Weapon also needs to continue to rise. But for the Divine Illusion Bead, I truly have no way to improve it at the moment; there hasn't been any progress for a while."

Bulieni thought for a moment and said: "The execution of the Divine Illusion Bead mainly depends on your consciousness strength and spiritual force amplitude."

"To control the power of the first level of the Divine Illusion Bead, one generally needs the consciousness strength of a World Lord, and a spiritual force amplitude of 70."

"With your current Universe level 8 consciousness strength and a spiritual force amplitude of 60, it is indeed a bit difficult."

Luo Zhiyuan scratched his head and asked: "Then what should I do? Does Teacher have any secret techniques to improve spiritual force amplitude? I can practice those."

After pondering for a moment, Bulieni said: "You now possess the movement techniques, spiritual weapons, and law comprehension; compared to a qualified universe warrior, you are still lacking a soul defense technique."

"Your teacher has some soul secret techniques here that will not only improve your soul amplitude but also allow you to master soul defense techniques and some offensive soul secret techniques."

"It's settled then. From now on, don't worry about anything else regarding your original body; just focus on practicing soul secret techniques. This will be an all-around improvement to your strength. As for the use of the light wings and the comprehension of laws, leave that to your clones."

"Once you fill in this final shortcoming, I will arrange a trial for you, letting you experience the universe in reality to gain some experience."

Luo Zhiyuan clenched his fists and turned to exit the Virtual Universe.

Over the next few days, Luo Zhiyuan's original body began practicing soul secret techniques, but the soul secret technique created by the Light Beast God was extremely difficult. The soul defense technique was even beyond the requirements for his current cultivation level, so he could only start by practicing the soul amplitude secret technique.

The so-called soul amplitude secret technique is a technique that can directly increase spiritual force amplitude.

Under normal circumstances, once one perfectly controls their spiritual force, they can reach a spiritual force amplitude of 100, but this is only the general case. There are some special secret techniques that can further increase spiritual force amplitude; these techniques that break boundaries to further increase amplitude are called soul amplitude secret techniques.

The theoretical limit allowed by the universe is to increase soul amplitude by 100 times, which is 100 times the spiritual force amplitude. Of course, being able to cultivate to 100 times soul amplitude usually requires one to be at least a Universe Venerable level powerhouse.

The secret technique created by the Light Beast God was, of course, a top-tier soul amplitude secret technique that fused the light law and the time law, named Nine Heavens. However, to allow Luo Zhiyuan to get started sooner, the entry requirements for the technique were set very low, allowing even those at the Planet level to practice it.

After Luo Zhiyuan began practicing, it took him a full day, which was essentially 4 years inside the Time Chamber, to increase his soul amplitude by 9 times, bringing his spiritual force amplitude to 900, after which he could not improve any further.

Bulieni told him: "According to the records your teacher left on this set of secret techniques, his Nine Heavens secret technique can be practiced starting from the Planet level of soul consciousness, allowing for a maximum increase of 10 times soul amplitude, which is 1000 times spiritual force amplitude."

"When your soul consciousness reaches the World Lord level, you can increase it by up to 50 times, and when you reach the Universe Venerable level, you can increase it by up to 100 times!"

"Your current soul characteristics are very different from your teacher's, and the light law and time law have not yet been able to fuse with each other, so for now, this is as high as it can go."

Luo Zhiyuan knew that one cannot become fat in one bite, so he quickly smiled and said: "It's plenty, it's plenty. Most people, by the time they reach the peak of the World Lord level, might not even be able to cultivate their spiritual force amplitude to 100. I have already surpassed them by many times, and I have now reached the requirements to practice soul defense techniques."

"Alright, I was originally going to tell you to use the Beast God Essence Blood left by your teacher to change your body and soul characteristics, which would have allowed you to continue improving. Since you say so, let's talk about it after some time."

Nodding in agreement, Luo Zhiyuan said: "That's right, let's talk about the Beast God Essence Blood later. I have always been worried that using the Beast God Essence Blood would cause changes to my body and soul, and if I were discovered by the Chaos City Leader upon entering the Initial Universe, it would cause trouble."

"Chaos City Leader? Who is that?"

"Oh, the Chaos City Leader is the helmsman of the Virtual Universe Company, who has always sat in the only town in the Initial Universe, Chaos City. He is a powerful Universe Master comparable to my teacher. Furthermore, in Chaos City of the Initial Universe, he can be called invincible!"

Bulieni exclaimed in surprise: "Comparable to the Old Mystic and called invincible in Chaos City? Could it be that even the strongest in the universe can do nothing to him?"

Luo Zhiyuan thought about it; the original work didn't specify, but counting all the various means Yuan Zu left for the Chaos City Leader, it should be correct, so he said it shouldn't be wrong, it should be like that.

Bulieni said cautiously: "Alright, then it seems I should be a little careful when I go to the Initial Universe so as not to be exposed. Universe Masters can control a region of space-time and know everything about that region like the back of their hand. I'll just pretend to be a normal intelligent life form when the time comes."

"Come on, we'll talk about that later. For now, focus on cultivating your soul defense technique. This secret method is called Nine Mountains, and it also consists of nine levels. You can cultivate it from the Planetary level all the way to the Universe Venerable level. If you cultivate it to the extreme, even an average Universe Master won't be able to shake your soul defense."

Luo Zhiyuan continued to cultivate the Nine Mountains soul defense technique. He completed the first mountain very quickly, and a towering mountain appeared in his sea of consciousness, guarding it and enclosing the entire sea within its mass.

He felt as if his entire soul had gained a sense of weight, as if he had donned a thick Force Battle Suit for his soul.

Continuing to cultivate Nine Mountains, Luo Zhiyuan spent over a year in the Time Chamber and successfully cultivated the second level.

Inside his sea of consciousness, outside the original mountain, another layer of mountain formed. The original mountain shrank slightly and nested within the body of the second mountain, but the thickness of the first mountain layer had not decreased; instead, it had increased significantly.

Next, he spent over three years in the Time Chamber to successfully cultivate the third level, forming three layers of mountains nested together within his sea of consciousness.

Given the strength of his consciousness at the eighth stage of the Universe level, he could have continued to cultivate the fourth level, but just like with Nine Heavens, he was temporarily unable to proceed further.

Afterward, Luo Zhiyuan spent another two years learning several offensive soul secret methods before Bulieni announced a temporary stop, saying it was time to go out and test the results of his cultivation.

Emerging from the Time Chamber, Luo Zhiyuan felt as if a lifetime had passed. He had stayed in the Time Chamber for 10 years in one go. After 10 years of monotonous cultivation, if not for the occasional bickering with Bulieni, he didn't know if he could have persisted. After all, in terms of his actual age, he was only a little over three, not even four years old!

After coming out, he first contacted the Luo Family using an anonymous account. This time he saw Xu Xin, and under her incredulous gaze, Luo Zhiyuan grinned foolishly and called out "Mom," which left Xu Xin in tears.

Xu Xin couldn't believe that she hadn't seen her son for only a few days, yet he had undergone such a drastic change, becoming a tall, imposing, and handsome young man! Though she had a thousand words in her heart, they ultimately turned into a single cry: "My baby!"

Seeing Xu Xin's tear-streaked face, Luo Zhiyuan felt a pang of sympathy, so he cracked a few jokes to change the subject, then urged Xu Xin to take care of her health before cutting the connection and exiting the Virtual Universe.

Sitting cross-legged on his bedroom bed to calm his emotions, Luo Zhiyuan logged back into the Virtual Universe, this time to test the results of his ten years of cultivation.

PS: Writing about various secret methods is the biggest headache. I spent the whole afternoon trying to think of what would be suitable and had to delay until now. My apologies.

You brothers are amazing; today we directly reached 15th place on the new book signing list for the light novel category! I'm so excited!

I'm going to keep writing. Gentlemen, thank you!