New Life

Ye Muxuan lay on the bed with his eyes open, staring blankly.

One second, two seconds...

One minute, two minutes...

One hour, two hours...

After enduring what might have been eighty cycles, or perhaps ninety, across more than a hundred thousand years of endless time—at least, for a young man in his teens or twenties who had once been able to walk freely, it might have been hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of years; it was an incredibly long time—Ye Muxuan had lain there so long that he had become numb to whether the time passing was a second or two, a minute or two, or even an hour or two. He had lost all sense of it!

But what was the point of lying there forever?

Only when that thought finally surfaced through his numbness, and he realized he had gone some time without slipping back into that recurring dream, did Ye Muxuan slowly sit up.

He lifted his eyes. The surroundings were unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar. Lowering his gaze, he saw dried blood still caked on his battle armor. His entire body reeked of blood.

He reached out, curled his long fingers into a fist, then opened his hand. After doing this several times, he felt the vast, surging energy within him. Closing his eyes, Ye Muxuan took a deep breath, almost as if he could suck all the air out of the surrounding space!

In truth, forget a World Lord—even Star Rank and Universe Rank beings could cross the stars with their physical bodies. They had long since advanced beyond the need for oxygen to survive!

He slowly breathed out, as if expelling all the emotions he had accumulated over those hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years!

When he opened his eyes again, he saw sunlight streaming in through the window. Beyond it, he could even make out the millions of World Lords inside the hall of the nearby Barracks Base!

This time, he hadn't fallen into that repetitive dream again!

Ye Muxuan rose to his feet. He had already repeated this experience dozens of times, enduring hundreds of millions of years. This body was no stranger to him! The only difference was that during those dozens of previous cycles, he had been like a second personality within this body. He could clearly sense everything, but couldn't control it. Now, however, he could feel that he was the body's sole owner!

As for the original Muxuan, it seemed that after suffering severe injuries from that Soul Attack, his soul and consciousness had gradually faded away while Ye Muxuan was trapped in the recurring dream!

Or perhaps the gradual dissipation of Muxuan's consciousness was exactly what Ye Muxuan had experienced in those repeated dreams!

Ye Muxuan lowered his head and examined the bloodstained armor he had worn in his final battle. Its surface was covered in cracks. He tore it off with his bare hands, stripping away all his clothes along with it.

He walked into the indoor pool in the next room and stood beneath the water pouring down automatically from above. He let it wash away the stench clinging to his body—as if washing away the emotions of nearly a million years, too!

He felt no unnecessary emotion. His heart was as clear as ice. Dozens of cycles through the recurring dream, and the nearly million-year-long confinement that would have driven anyone mad, had forged a heart as cold and keen as a blade!

Once he had washed himself clean, Ye Muxuan returned to the master bedroom, draped a large bath towel over his shoulders, and stood before the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, gazing toward the Barracks Base hall nearby.

There were millions of World Lords there, just as many Domain Lords, as well as a small number of Universe Rank beings and Immortals!

His gaze lowered. The window framed Ye Muxuan's silhouette, with mottled sunlight streaming in behind him.

"Villa 08563245, bring me Set Meal 05726, and change the drink to 6127." Ye Muxuan's voice rang softly through the villa as he looked at his reflection in the window.

"Yes, Master!" The villa's built-in AI system responded immediately.

About ten minutes later, the villa's front door opened, and a robot brought in the set meal Ye Muxuan had requested. It was fortunate that it was a Smart Robot. Any other lifeform that dared to enter without the villa owner's permission would be killed by the Barracks Base's AI system!

Inside the Barracks Base, there was absolute safety—unless the Venerable guarding the Outer Battlefield on behalf of the Human Faction fell, and the entire Barracks Base was overrun along with them!

Type 6127 Beverage was actually a kind of liquor. The tiny bottle, no bigger than a palm, cost ten thousand Military Merit to redeem through the Military System! An ordinary World Lord was worth a hundred thousand Military Merit!

Muxuan himself hadn't been fond of alcohol, so he had never redeemed any. Ye Muxuan was different. As someone newly reborn, he needed a little mental stimulation.

Only when he felt the liquor fill his mouth and wash over his taste buds with its cool, refreshing smoothness did Ye Muxuan truly feel alive again!

Seated in the living room, Ye Muxuan calmed his mind and sensed the vast quantities of items in his World Ring.

He was Muxuan, and yet he wasn't! And from now on, he would no longer remain on the Outer Battlefield!

The World Ring held everything Muxuan had collected during more than a hundred thousand years on the Outer Battlefield! Of course, the most important items had been stored in his Internal World. Ye Muxuan had now taken all of them out and placed them in the World Ring as well.

There were countless spoils of war and items redeemed through the Military System! He had more than a hundred million spaceships alone! Most of them, however, were C-class ships, little more than cannon fodder on the Outer Battlefield! Their numbers might seem impressive, but they were practically worthless.

The weapons, armor, and other items he had acquired were also piled haphazardly in the World Ring.

Secret Techniques, weapons, armor, spaceships, Auxiliary Plant Lifeforms, and Auxiliary Metal Lifeforms—these were among the greatest expenses for any powerhouse, usually accounting for half, or even seventy to eighty percent, of their total wealth! When an Alien Race was killed, its Secret Techniques couldn't be obtained, and its Auxiliary Lifeforms would die with their master. But weapons and armor could still be salvaged.

Of course, there were also all kinds of strange spoils of war.

For more than a month, Ye Muxuan didn't leave the villa. Instead, he organized everything he owned. Among his most valuable possessions were the items redeemed from the Military System's treasury—things that might not even be available at auctions in the outside world, not even in a Universe Kingdom—as well as some spoils Muxuan had acquired over the years. The Star Gravel Sand alone was worth eight hundred thousand Hunyuan Units. He had more than one treasure of that caliber. There were also a few little things Muxuan treasured greatly. All of these had been stored in his Internal World.

The rest of his vast collection went into a new World Ring, except for necessities, rare items scarcely found outside, and goods and materials that would be difficult to buy at short notice. He had his Intelligent Optical Brain estimate the value of everything else, then contacted buyers from within the Military System and sold the items to them.

Every day, countless Cosmic warriors entered the Barracks Base, while many others chose to retire. Ye Muxuan's actions were nothing out of the ordinary. At most, the personnel who came to collect his items would realize that he was probably planning to retire.

But Ye Muxuan had been a free agent for more than a hundred thousand years. Choosing to retire was his right, and the internal personnel had no grounds to interfere.