Comprehension Speed

Outside the Xueluo World.

After leaving Venerable Meng Yu's divine temple, Li Dui quickly withdrew from the Virtual Universe.

Those words to the Venerable came from a strange idea that had taken root in his mind.

This idea had only sprouted 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, a backer to lean on—how good would that be? Besides, she couldn't detect the Hula Hoop; that had been proven.

But back then, he didn't want to stand out too much. The talent he displayed wasn't enough to catch a Venerable's eye. So taking her as a master was never even on the table.

Now that he had a split body, he had the capital to act boldly. Yet, strangely, he no longer felt like taking a master.

This was his reasoning.

Why would I take a master? Kneel here, bow there, day in and day out. What am I after? The Venerable is certainly far, far stronger than me. So what?

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

But here's the thing—what do I need secret techniques for? Even if I could cultivate or create a Venerable-level secret technique right now, who would I fight with it? Go kill a King Rank Immortal? One slash from me, even if it's devastatingly powerful, might cost him 20% of his divine body. Impressive, right?

But that King Rank Immortal could kill me with a single breath.

Li Dui kept reminding himself not to get cocky. He was still a super fragile kid. What good was high attack power? Could he kill one with a single slash? Could he kill a whole group with one slash? Could he wipe out every enemy within a giant sphere with one blow?

If anyone even moderately strong came at him, he'd be dead. That's why he'd never thought about provoking World Lords before.

Of course, now it was different. His true body stayed hidden. As for the split body—if it had to die, it died.

Li Dui had originally planned that if Venerable Meng Yu brought up taking him as a disciple right away, he'd have to agree. Refusing a direct Venerable was unwise. It would probably restrict his every move. If she kept an eye on him and picked fights, that would be a huge headache.

If she didn't bring it up first, he'd use the excuse he'd prepared. Not directly slapping the Venerable in the face—that should be fine. After all, he'd already promised that if he ever took a master, it would be under her.

For now, it seemed like no problem. Venerable Meng Yu was a rather aloof person by nature. Li Dui had looked into her beforehand; she had very few publicly acknowledged disciples, and most were from her own clan.

This self-made trouble was basically resolved. Li Dui started dealing with a pile of unread messages.

From peers of the same generation he barely knew—congratulations. He replied uniformly.

From complete strangers—ignored. He was now a top genius of the human race; he had to put on some airs, didn't he?

Oh—these two. Li Dui carefully read two emails, their wording humble and almost sycophantic.

These were the two people that the original Li Dui, back when he was struggling to survive outside Chaos City, had sent desperate pleas for help to—the ones he thought were his closest friends.

Both were from the Battle Axe Secret Realm. They'd thought Li Dui was doomed. Why would they risk coming out to save him? Later, when they saw he was still alive, they brushed it off, saying they'd been busy cultivating and hadn't seen the messages.

Now, they were probably scared.

Li Dui laughed heartily and didn't reply. Let them keep being afraid.

Next came emails from eleven King Rank Immortals.

Li Dui read through them one by one. He found that these people only had two goals.

Five of them not only introduced themselves but also mentioned being under a certain Venerable. They said they admired Li Dui and that if he ever needed help, he could come to them.

These five were likely representing the Venerables behind them. Probably testing to see if Li Dui would take the initiative to become a disciple.

The other six all offered guidance in their emails. Five pointed out various issues and shortcomings in his blade techniques, along with directions for improvement.

One focused on his movement technique, pointing out many flaws and roughly how to fix or avoid them.

These six also shared one thing in common: they all said that whenever Li Dui next came to Chaos City, he could attend their lectures.

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

Attending lectures was fine. Becoming a disciple? No thanks.

Li Dui shook his head and replied to each email. He kept his words sincere, his posture low, giving them plenty of face.

For the five representing Venerables, he spoke more bluntly, saying he was under Venerable Meng Yu and had received much of her care. If he ever took a master, it would only be her.

These people wouldn't go out of their way to cause him trouble just because they didn't get what they wanted.

Alright, the things that needed handling were mostly done. Li Dui took control of his split body, which had been cultivating in the clouds, and resumed its actions. The split body had been sitting there for nearly two months.

The split body traveled and searched for targets. Using half his consciousness to control it was more than enough. Its speed could reach nearly one-third the speed of light.

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

"Hm?" Before long, Li Dui opened his eyes. He frowned, looking puzzled.

He closed his eyes again and re-entered the state of comprehension.

"Sss—" Soon, he opened his eyes again, gritting his teeth and sucking in a cold breath, deeply confused.

What was going on?

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

Earlier, he'd spent a month creating the split body and executing the Secret Technique of Puppet Body of Self, which required full focus without distraction.

After finishing, he'd dived headfirst into the Earth Origin Law.

Everything had been normal. But just now, when he tried to comprehend the Law of Space, something was off.

The guidance from the "Ring" was still clear and unchanged.

But Li Dui found his comprehension extremely difficult—far harder than before he had received the acknowledgment. He couldn't say exactly how many times harder. Rough estimate: his comprehension speed was now about one-thirtieth to one-fiftieth of what it had been.

Li Dui tried to comprehend the Earth Origin Law.

After a moment, he opened his eyes. It was slower too, but not as much as the Law of Space. Roughly half his previous speed.

He closed his eyes again and attempted the Law of Wood. No slowdown.

He tried the Law of Water. No slowdown.

He tried the Law of Time. No slowdown.

"Oh~" Li Dui began to understand. After receiving acknowledgment from an Origin Law, his level had risen, and naturally the difficulty had increased too. Laws always got harder the further you went.

For example, with a Lower Law, reaching the eighth floor of the Heavenly Bridge earned you acknowledgment; the ninth floor was already peak among World Lords. The tenth floor meant you had fully comprehended it and could become an Immortal.

There was another reason too, Li Dui thought, scratching his neck. It was that he was only Universe Rank—his realm was too low.

He remembered that after advancing from Star Rank to Universe Rank, his comprehension speed had jumped by a huge margin—nearly ten times.

That must be it. Universe Rank was no longer worthy of comprehending such profound Laws.

Right. A Universe Rank who received acknowledgment from the Origin Law of Space could even be granted an extraordinary innate secret art.

Connecting all the factors, Li Dui grew more certain of his judgment.

The fact that he still had even a few dozen percent of his original comprehension speed was entirely because the Ring was just that overpowered.

Did he need to advance to Domain Lord? Li Dui pondered this question. Advancing to Domain Lord would likely be like advancing from Star Rank to Universe Rank—his comprehension speed would jump up a tier. He could advance right now with a single thought if he wanted.

But no. He still needed to stay at Universe Rank for a while. Right now he only had a hundredfold gene level. The Xueluo Crystals had stopped working. If he advanced to Domain Lord now, he wouldn't be able to do training missions anymore.

What if other dangerous-level or desperate-level missions contained treasures that could raise his gene multiplier? Wouldn't he miss out?

Besides, many treasures had usage restrictions. What if there was something that could increase a Universe Rank's gene level by two hundredfold, but he was already a Domain Lord? Wouldn't that make him spit blood?

No, he had to raise his gene multiplier as much as possible. The physical foundation was also extremely important. At the very least, the higher it was, the more hits he could take, right? Li Dui thought to himself.

What he didn't know was that, aside from special lifeforms born with naturally high gene multipliers, a hundredfold was almost the upper limit for ordinary universe lifeforms. Only Universe Masters could easily break through that limit and continue to increase it. This detail from the original story had been completely forgotten by him.