Lanzang City Lord was also a Universe Master of the Giant Axe Arena faction.
Wu Yun quickly recalled this Universe Master. In the original story, he was mentioned only once, when Giant Axe fell. He had joined Venerable Ancestral Tree and Void Gold Master in rescuing people.
As for his strength and personality, those were unclear.
But regardless, he was a Universe Master, and the human Universe Masters were all fairly strong. Lanzang City Lord's minimum strength was probably on the third tier.
These Universe Masters are pretty interesting. They don't even send their own emails when taking disciples. Wu Yun figured this might be what people called the bearing of the strong.
He wondered just how extraordinary someone had to be for a Universe Master to personally email them and offer to take them as a disciple.
Lanzang City Lord spent most of his time in Giant Axe's Miniature Universe, but he also had a clone stationed in the Primal Universe. If Wu Yun hadn't been taking him as his master, he probably wouldn't have known that such a powerful being lived in the Giant Axe Secret Realm.
In the Dark Universe.
"I'm a World Lord of the Giant Axe Secret Realm, yet the spaceship I'm riding only goes ten times the speed of light." Wu Yun took the opportunity to reply to the messages he'd received, telling the Universe Venerables that Lanzang City Lord had taken him as a disciple.
The Universe Venerables all congratulated him, adding that he was a bright light of the future with limitless prospects.
They'd expected him to fail to become a disciple. After all, a Universe Venerable had almost no chance of competing with a Universe Master.
Especially since Wu Yun was cultivating the Universe Chaos Stele. What he needed most was a teacher who had mastered the laws of time and space.
After seven hours of traveling through the Dark Universe, the spaceship finally reached Nine Star Sea in the Giant Axe Secret Realm.
Nine Star Sea stretched as far as the eye could see, spanning 2.2 light-years from north to south. Nine enormous stars floated above various parts of the ocean, each with a diameter of eight million kilometers.
Within lay the Endless Ocean. It was called an ocean, but its water was so dense that it was second only to that of a white dwarf. Its environment was incredibly strange, and lifeforms could even be born there.
This was also a dangerous mission in the Giant Axe Secret Realm, and its treasures were even more precious than those of Blood Luo Continent.
Tens of billions of kilometers above Nine Star Sea floated a dark-red, spherical palace, where countless spaceships came and went.
Wu Yun's spaceship landed at the palace's docking port. When he stepped out, the staff looked bewildered, since he gave off the aura of a World Lord.
"May I ask why you've come?" the staff member in charge of receiving visitors asked.
Universe-Level geniuses often came to Nine Star Sea for trials. They had to survive in the Endless Ocean for a hundred years to pass, but Wu Yun's aura clearly wasn't that of a Universe-Level expert.
"King Mengchen asked me to come," Wu Yun replied softly.
The lower-level staff naturally wouldn't know about someone becoming a Universe Master's disciple. Besides, all information about Wu Yun was now strictly confidential.
After Kedi's complete fall, every faction had tightened its protections for geniuses.
Whoosh!
A sky-blue figure appeared. It was King Mengchen, a direct disciple of Lanzang City Lord, an Immortal God at the pinnacle of the King Level, and a renowned Soul Master on the Outer Realm Battlefield.
Soul Masters held a lofty status. Even an Immortal at the pinnacle of the King Level could stand against someone nearly Invincible King-level.
King Mengchen smiled. "I've been waiting for you. Come with me."
He enveloped Wu Yun in Immortal Divine Power, then teleported to a pale-blue door. Two Immortal Gods stood guard outside.
"King Mengchen," the Immortal Gods on guard greeted him respectfully.
They held low positions and had stood there for millions upon millions of years, all to earn a few points.
"Go on in. Teacher is waiting for you." King Mengchen couldn't be bothered to acknowledge the two Ordinary Immortals. Smiling, he said, "There aren't many of us in Teacher's faction. At last, I'll have another junior fellow disciple."
The pale-blue metal door stood a hundred zhang high, and its density was frighteningly great. Even an ordinary Star-Level expert would probably struggle to push it open. When Wu Yun entered, the scene before him left him awestruck.
An endless ocean stretched before him, built to perfectly imitate the layout of Nine Star Sea. Beneath Wu Yun's feet lay a path paved with billions upon billions of stellar remains, leading to the edge of the starry sky.
At the far end stood a towering figure. He seemed to rule over time and space, his aura so terrifying that it felt as if he could shatter an entire starfield with a casual gesture.
"Wu Yun, you came from Blood Demon King's territory to the Ganwu Universe Kingdom. In fact, you were already as strong as a Peak World Lord quite some time ago. Am I wrong?"
Lanzang City Lord asked with a smile. His long hair reached his waist, every strand glimmering with silver light. This clone was a Special Lifeform. Although it had a humanoid shape, many of its features remained unchanged.
"I..." Wu Yun's eyes widened. He'd thought he'd kept his secret well hidden. Under normal circumstances, it shouldn't have been exposed.
Who would've thought Lanzang City Lord would specifically use temporal retrospection to investigate what had happened in the past? Now that he was considering taking Wu Yun as a disciple, he naturally had to see whether he was trustworthy.
But the past Lanzang City Lord saw wasn't entirely accurate.
A Heavenly Immortal can perform a minor time-reversal spell, so I could've muddled the past. Fortunately, I didn't try to be clever and do that.
Wu Yun rapidly considered every possible outcome. Someone of Lanzang City Lord's status wouldn't make things difficult for him over such a small matter. Besides, he'd already said he would take Wu Yun as a disciple. Still, Wu Yun put on an anxious expression and said, "Lanzang City Lord, I had my reasons."
"Blood Demon King, I assume," Lanzang City Lord said softly. "It's good to have strength and know how to hide it. If you'd taken an Invincible King as your master in Chaos City, then kept a low profile for tens of thousands of years before gradually revealing your strength, I probably wouldn't have looked into your past."
Wu Yun thought that he didn't want to waste that much time.
He'd already accumulated enough Reputation Points for simulations. Since the number of simulations was closely tied to combat strength, he'd only been holding back because he didn't want to waste his World Lord stage.
"Lanzang City Lord, although I was already strong enough to kill Peak World Lords before entering the Giant Axe Secret Realm, I truly comprehended the essence of time and space after I arrived."
Wu Yun spoke respectfully. "From comprehending their essence to being acknowledged by the laws of time and space, it took me only a little over seven hundred years."
Lanzang City Lord wasn't surprised. In the past he'd seen, Wu Yun had needed to work hard to kill Peak World Lords. His level of cultivation and the time he'd spent training were indeed consistent.
It was because of such talent that Lanzang City Lord had decided to take him on directly as a personal disciple.
"Are you willing to become my disciple?" Lanzang City Lord asked.
Wu Yun immediately performed the formal bow of a disciple and answered, "This disciple is willing."
Blood Luo Continent, Immortal Temple.
In a hidden space within the Elder Hall, Elder Yan and another Universe Venerable elder had joined forces to open the place. It could only be opened with the consent of both elders.
This was where the essence of the entire Blood Luo Continent's people was kept.
The resources within were staggering in number, including over a hundred Heavy Treasures. There were also weapons like the Space-Locking Arm, and even a Special Lifeform was kept there.
That Special Lifeform was asleep.
"Elder Yan, this is the only Special Lifeform we've encountered in hundreds of millions of years." The Universe Venerable spoke with a grave expression. "I hope Wu Yun won't let us down and can reach the level of the Outer-World Race."
Elder Yan replied bluntly, "Wu Yun is the greatest genius Blood Luo Continent has seen in countless ages. We can only believe in him. Do you understand?"
After speaking, Elder Yan carried the Special Lifeform out.
Wu Yun had mentioned not long ago that he wanted to take over a Special Lifeform, and Blood Luo Continent had only one in its stores. It had been captured many years earlier.
The Special Lifeform was only at the World Lord Level. Elder Yan had easily put it to sleep, then slowed the flow of time, hoping to wait until a sufficiently talented junior appeared.
"Wu Yun, this is a Special Lifeform. Go ahead and take it over." Elder Yan arrived outside Wu Yun's estate in an instant and tossed the Special Lifeform onto the ground.
Hearing him, Wu Yun came out as well. He was startled by the Special Lifeform lying there. It was a humanoid creature with two heads.
"Its heads represent its ability to create one clone," Elder Yan explained. "World Lord-level Special Lifeforms are extremely rare. They're practically unheard of even among the Outer-World Race."
What Wu Yun really wanted was the Clone Talent. Gene Multiplier was secondary.
"Thank you, Elder Yan," Wu Yun said gratefully. He badly needed a Special Lifeform capable of creating clones.
Taking over a Special Lifeform wasn't difficult. Wu Yun's soul was at the World Lord Level as well.
The soul and body had to match. If a World Lord tried to take over a Universe-Level Special Lifeform, it would probably collapse because it couldn't withstand the strain.
Wu Yun used the secret technique for taking over a body and easily crushed the sleeping Special Lifeform's soul before taking its place.
"The Gene Multiplier isn't very high, only two hundred times. Compared with those heaven-defying Special Lifeforms in the universe, it's worlds apart." Wu Yun examined his new body.
He stood about six meters tall, but that was only his height at the World Lord stage. It would change after he became an Immortal.
A two-hundredfold Gene Multiplier meant that his basic strength was already greater than that of an ordinary Immortal God, not to mention his King-level Law Comprehension.
After his original body completed the formal bow of a disciple, Wu Yun became an official disciple of Lanzang City Lord. His status was even higher than that of an ordinary World Lord in the Giant Axe Secret Realm.
"You'll rank seventh among my disciples."
Lanzang City Lord said, "Of your senior fellow disciples, only King Mengchen is an Immortal God. The rest are Universe Venerables. According to the Giant Axe Arena's custom, you must undergo life-and-death trials at the World Lord stage. As your teacher, I'm also prepared to provide you with some resources."
Resources were what Wu Yun cared about most.
He didn't expect Lanzang City Lord to give him a Supreme Treasure like Chaos City Lord had, but at the very least, he hoped for something at the Heavy Treasure level.
"I'll grant you three billion points. You can tell me if there's anything else you need." The number of points Lanzang City Lord gave him was exactly the reward for passing Heavenly Mountain as a Domain Lord.
He knew that a self-taught cultivator like Wu Yun was rather poor and hadn't undergone the systematic training of the Giant Axe Arena.
Life-and-death missions and becoming a regional governor were both ways to earn plenty of points. The resources allocated during the World Lord stage were only meant for cultivation.
To arm himself, he would still have to spend points.
"Teacher, I want to take over a Special Lifeform," Wu Yun said directly. "One with the Clone Talent will do. The Gene Multiplier doesn't matter."
"The Hong Alliance doesn't have a suitable Special Lifeform in its stores," Lanzang City Lord said after a moment's thought. "Even the Hong Alliance can't guarantee that a World Lord-level Special Lifeform will always be available. You'll have to get lucky and come across one."
Special Lifeforms were already rare, and those at the World Lord Level were even rarer. They generally didn't emerge until after becoming Immortals. Most of the time, they stayed quietly in Universe Secret Realms.
Even the smallest Universe Secret Realm could rival an entire star system. With countless drifting meteorites and all kinds of dangers, it was a safe place for them to live.
Wu Yun was helpless. He might as well look for a World Lord-level Golden Horned Beast as try to find a Special Lifeform on his own.
Before you continue