Perception Speed

Outside Xueluo World.

After leaving Venerable Meng Yu's palace, Li Dui quickly logged out of the Virtual Universe.

The things he had said to the Venerable had come from a strange idea of his.

The idea had only occurred to him after he acquired the Secret Technique of Puppet Body of Self.

In the past, if he'd had the chance to become Venerable Meng Yu's disciple, he wouldn't have hesitated. Having someone to guide him and a powerful patron—what could be better? Besides, she couldn't detect the Hula Hoop. That had already been proven.

But back then, he hadn't wanted to draw too much attention to himself, and the talent he'd shown wasn't enough to attract a Venerable. So becoming her disciple had never been an option.

Now that he had a separate body, he had the means to act boldly. Yet he no longer wanted to take a teacher.

This was what he thought.

Why should I take a teacher? Spend all day kneeling and bowing? What would I get out of it? Of course a Venerable is much, much stronger than me. So what?

I don't need guidance to comprehend laws. I don't need guidance to combine laws. The only thing I need guidance on is secret techniques.

But what do I need secret techniques for? Even if I could immediately master or create a Venerable-level secret technique, who would I use it to fight? Would I use it to kill a King-level Immortal? I could slash at him, and even if the attack were incredibly powerful, he'd only lose 20% of his divine body. Impressive, right?

But a King-level Immortal could kill me with a puff of breath.

Li Dui kept reminding himself not to get carried away. He was still an incredibly fragile little guy. So what if his attacks were powerful? Could he kill a whole crowd with one slash? Could he wipe out every enemy within a vast spherical area with a single blow?

All the other guy had to do was hit him with a moderately powerful attack, and he'd be dead. That was why he'd never considered provoking a World Lord before.

Of course, things were different now. His true body could stay hidden. As for his separate body, well, if it had to die, then so be it.

That had been Li Dui's plan. If Venerable Meng Yu had proposed taking him as a disciple right away, he would have had no choice but to agree. Refusing a Venerable's personal tutelage would have been foolish. He would probably be restricted in everything he did from then on. If she kept an eye on him and looked for reasons to make trouble, that would be a real nuisance.

If she didn't bring it up first, he would use the explanation he'd prepared. He hadn't directly slighted the Venerable, so there shouldn't be much of a problem. After all, he'd already promised that if he ever took a teacher, it would definitely be her.

So far, it seemed there wouldn't be any trouble. Venerable Meng Yu was a rather indifferent person to begin with. Li Dui had looked into her beforehand, and she had only a handful of publicly known disciples, most of them from her own race.

With this mess of his more or less settled, Li Dui began dealing with a mountain of unread messages.

Some of the talented people in his cohort whom he barely knew had sent congratulations. He sent them all the same reply.

He ignored the ones from people he didn't know at all. He was one of the top geniuses of the Human Race now. Shouldn't he put on a bit of an air?

Oh? These two. Li Dui carefully read the two messages, which were written in humble, almost obsequious language.

These were the two people the original Li Dui had emailed for help back when he'd been struggling to survive outside Chaos City. He'd considered them his closest friends.

Both of them belonged to the Battle Axe Secret Realm. They'd thought Li Dui was as good as dead, so of course they hadn't been willing to risk coming out to save him. Later, when they saw that he was still alive, they'd brushed him off by claiming they'd been cultivating and hadn't seen his messages.

Now, though, they were probably afraid.

Li Dui laughed and didn't reply. Let them worry for a while.

Next came the messages from eleven King-level Immortals.

Li Dui read them one by one and realized they only had two purposes.

Five of them introduced themselves and mentioned that they served under a particular Venerable. They said they admired Li Dui and that he could go to them if he needed help.

Those five had probably come on behalf of the Venerables behind them. They likely wanted to see if Li Dui would take the initiative to become one of their disciples.

The other six had offered Li Dui pointers in their messages. Five had identified various problems and shortcomings in his blade technique, along with ways to improve it.

One had commented on his movement technique, pointing out several flaws and roughly how he might fix or avoid them.

Those six had one thing in common. They'd all said that whenever Li Dui returned to Chaos City, he could go and attend their lectures.

Li Dui understood. These six were masters. They wanted to take him as a disciple.

Attending their lectures was fine. Becoming their disciple, though? He'd pass.

Li Dui shook his head as he replied to each message. He kept his tone sincere and his posture humble, making sure to show them proper respect.

To the five who had come on behalf of Venerables, he was more direct. He explained that he was under Venerable Meng Yu's care and had received a great deal of support from her. If he took a teacher, he would only take Venerable Meng Yu.

They wouldn't go out of their way to make trouble for him just because they hadn't gotten what they wanted.

All right, he'd taken care of just about everything that needed doing. Li Dui took control of the separate body cultivating among the clouds and continued its journey. It had been there for almost two months.

While the separate body traveled and searched for a target, controlling it with half his consciousness was more than enough. It could still reach nearly a third of the speed of light.

His true body calmed down and continued comprehending the Origin Law of Space.

"Hmm?" Before long, Li Dui opened his eyes, frowning as if confused.

He closed his eyes and resumed comprehending.

"Yikes—" He soon opened his eyes again, gritting his teeth and sucking in a breath. He was thoroughly puzzled.

What was going on?

This was the first time he'd used the "Ring" to comprehend the Law of Space since gaining the recognition of the Origin Law of Space.

First, he'd spent a month creating his separate body and using the Secret Technique of Puppet Body of Self. He'd had to concentrate completely and couldn't afford to get distracted.

Once that was done, he'd plunged straight into the Earth Origin Law.

Everything had gone normally. But just now, something had felt wrong as he tried to comprehend the Law of Space.

The guidance from the "Ring" was just as clear as before. It hadn't changed at all.

But Li Dui found the law extremely difficult to comprehend. It was far more difficult than before he'd gained recognition. He couldn't say exactly how many times harder. By a rough estimate, his comprehension speed was now only one-thirtieth to one-fiftieth of what it had been.

Li Dui tried comprehending the Earth Origin Law.

A short while later, he opened his eyes. That was slower, too, but not nearly as much as the Law of Space. His speed was about half of what it had been.

He closed his eyes again and tried comprehending the Law of Wood. It hadn't slowed down.

He tried comprehending the Law of Water. It hadn't slowed down.

He tried comprehending the Law of Time. It hadn't slowed down.

"Oh..." Li Dui was starting to understand. After gaining recognition from an Origin Law, he'd reached a higher level. Naturally, it was probably more difficult. Laws only got harder to comprehend as one progressed.

For example, with the Lower Laws, gaining recognition at the eighth level of the Heavenly Bridge was enough. The ninth level was already near the peak for a World Lord. At the tenth level, one would have fully comprehended the law and could become an Immortal.

There was another reason, too, he thought, scratching his neck. He was only Universe Rank. His level was too low.

He remembered that when he'd gone from Star Rank to Universe Rank, his comprehension speed had jumped dramatically, nearly tenfold.

That had to be it. Universe Rank beings were no longer qualified to comprehend laws so profound.

Right, even a Universe Rank being who gained recognition from the Origin Law of Space could be granted an extraordinary Innate Secret Technique.

The more Li Dui thought about all the different factors, the more certain he became of his judgment.

The fact that he could still comprehend at one-thirtieth of his former speed was already thanks to how incredible the "Ring" was.

Should he advance to Domain Lord? Li Dui considered the question. Advancing to Domain Lord would probably be like going from Star Rank to Universe Rank. His comprehension speed would jump to another level. If he wanted to advance now, he could do it with a single thought.

But he couldn't. He still had to remain at Universe Rank for a while. He'd only reached a hundredfold gene multiplier, and Xueluo Crystals no longer worked on him. If he advanced to Domain Lord now, he wouldn't be able to take cultivation missions anymore.

What if some other dangerous or Desperate Level Mission offered a treasure that could increase his gene multiplier? Wouldn't he miss out?

Besides, lots of treasures had usage restrictions, didn't they? What if there was something that could raise a Universe Rank being's gene multiplier to two hundredfold, and he'd already become a Domain Lord? Wouldn't he be sick with regret?

No, he had to increase his gene multiplier as much as possible. A strong physical foundation was extremely important, too. If nothing else, the stronger you were, the more punishment you could take, right? That was what Li Dui thought.

What he didn't know was that, apart from Special Lifeforms born with exceptionally high gene multipliers, one hundredfold was practically the upper limit for ordinary beings in the universe. Only Universe Masters could easily break that limit and continue increasing it. He'd completely forgotten this detail from the original story.