A Sudden Whim

After spending nearly a month, Shi Yan finally managed to feel his way out of the maze surrounding the Silver Token Space.

"Swoosh!"

Shi Yan, clad in bright white scaled battle armor, slowly emerged from a wall of light that pierced through heaven and earth.

The surface of the light wall rippled like a lake's surface, sending out wave after wave.

"A month just to get out... If this weren't the core region, even traveling from the outer perimeter of the Universe Boat to the Void Wormhole deep in the Inner Domain wouldn't take me this long, would it?" Shi Yan let out a self-deprecating laugh.

Still, he couldn't blame himself. The spatial traps in this maze shifted unpredictably, sometimes appearing out of nowhere. Even Shi Yan couldn't react in time before being teleported elsewhere.

Fortunately, the intelligence on the Universe Boat left by the Three Saints Palace included an algorithm for predicting the teleportation directions of these spatial traps.

This algorithm was extremely complex. Without any information at all, groping in the dark would require endless time to slowly figure things out. If luck was bad, even three reincarnation cycles might not be enough.

But with the specific algorithm in hand, and given the processing speed of a True God's mind, the calculations were relatively easy.

Even so, it had still taken Shi Yan a full month.

Looking around, he found himself in a void space.

"This Silver Token Space is deep within the Universe Boat's core region. To get from here to the Inner Domain, the nearest route still passes through 146 areas..." Shi Yan recalled the map left by the Three Saints Palace and muttered to himself.

These so-called 146 areas, in the terms of the Universe Ocean, were 146 dangerous zones—the kind that posed a threat to the vast majority of True Gods.

And this was already the shortest route, including several shortcuts Shi Yan could only take thanks to the Silver Token.

Without the Silver Token in hand, the number of areas he'd have to pass through would at least double.

As he pondered, a two-story elegant silver pavilion appeared beside him—the Guardian Tower.

"This Guardian Tower has been modified and reinforced by successive generations of masters. Aside from being unable to directly engage in combat, it's comparable even to a God King-level flying palace. It's perfectly suited for traversing dangerous zones."

With that, Shi Yan flew into the Guardian Tower, entered a meditation space on the second floor, and simultaneously directed the tower to follow his planned route.

"That General of the Universe Boat really knew how to cause trouble... Even on his deathbed, he had to activate the 'Module Defense' mode on the Universe Boat." While controlling the Guardian Tower, Shi Yan couldn't help but complain.

The Universe Boat was originally a super war fortress. Under normal circumstances, it required a large number of personnel at different levels to operate, so naturally, it wouldn't have all sorts of deadly traps inside.

This had long been one of the points of debate among the various races of the Universe Ocean over whether the Universe Boat was an artificial construct.

It was only from the Memory Stone left by the Old Sage that Shi Yan learned that the many dangerous zones inside the Universe Boat belonged to the so-called "Module Defense" mode. This mode was typically activated when the interior was breached by enemies or when some personnel rebelled.

When energy was abundant, even Eternal True Gods couldn't recklessly charge through these dangerous zones.

But now, after countless epochs of abandonment in the Universe Ocean, the Universe Boat relied only on some Chaos Airflow and the occasional discarded Miniature Universe drifting by to replenish its energy—far from sufficient.

With energy in short supply, the power of the "Module Defense" mode had greatly diminished.

Of course, the Universe Boat had actually been directly destroyed by the power of the Primal Universe. So when the General of the Universe Boat activated the "Module Defense" mode before his death, it was purely to make things difficult for the Universe Ocean beings who would later explore the Universe Boat.

Still, Shi Yan felt that the General had somewhat overplayed his hand.

"Without this 'Module Defense' mode, I doubt the Origin Will of the Primal Universe would have allowed this damaged Universe Boat to drift near the Primal Universe." Shi Yan let out a wry smile.

The Origin Will would never let Universe Ocean lifeforms easily obtain information about the Origin Continent or higher-level guidance. Without the Module Defense mode, the Universe Boat would likely have wandered the Universe Ocean for endless ages without ever approaching the Primal Universe.

Take the Jin World, for example. If not for the emergence of the World Beast, the Origin Will wouldn't have guided the Jin World here. And as soon as the World Beast calamity ended, it immediately guided the Jin World away.

In truth, now that he knew more, the Origin Will's way of doing things was still relatively easy to understand.

After letting his mind wander for a moment, Shi Yan quickly refocused. Leaving only a fraction of his consciousness to control the Guardian Tower's flight, he sank most of his awareness into cultivation, beginning to organize the insights gained from the Book of Three Lives.

"Once I've finished organizing my insights into the Path of Time, I'll start comprehending the Path of Heart Power, and then I'll attempt the Time Envoy Cultivation Method." Shi Yan made his plan.

"Swoosh!"

The two-story elegant silver metal pavilion flew through the core region of the Universe Boat. Along the way, whether it was harsh environments, dangerous traps, or suddenly appearing puppet creatures, none could pose any obstacle to the Guardian Tower.

All barriers were broken through. The Guardian Tower flew steadily along the route Shi Yan had planned, while its master's strength steadily improved.

While Shi Yan was on his way out of the Universe Boat's core region, on the other side, Qing Huan, who was exploring the Inner Domain of the Universe Boat, was also busy.

Like Shi Yan, Qing Huan was using a pseudonym while roaming the Universe Ocean—calling himself "Lord Liuyan."

This was a necessity. By now, everyone in the Universe Ocean knew that Shi Yan had been forced to flee into the Universe Boat's core region, and whether he would ever reappear was uncertain.

As the only Universe Master under Shi Yan's protection, Qing Huan had long been marked for death by the God Eye Race.

As for the many forces in the Primal Universe, while they hadn't acted hastily yet, if they happened to encounter him in the Universe Ocean, they would likely be more than willing to quietly do the God Eye Race a favor.

Thus, the title "Lord Fengtian" was certainly out of the question.

Of course, unlike True Gods—whose numbers were so small that any addition or loss was conspicuous—there were thousands of Universe Masters roaming the Universe Ocean, far more than True Gods. By using a false name and slightly disguising his treasures, Qing Huan managed to avoid recognition as long as he acted cautiously.

For example, the Dark Master from the original story had roamed the Universe Ocean for countless epochs without revealing his human identity until the great battle between the Primal Universe's human race and the alliance camp. Even Galaxy Overlord Luo Feng had roamed under the alias "Lord Liejin" for centuries, only being exposed when he encountered an alien strongman who had seen him before during a battle.

Thus, by concealing his identity, Qing Huan lived quite comfortably in the Universe Ocean. Over time, "Lord Liuyan," who could exert Fifth Order strength thanks to his treasures, gained some fame in the Universe Ocean and even befriended a few Universe Masters from different races.

"Liuyan, how about it? Want to go explore the Flowing Cloud Sea? Millions of epochs ago, a Peak Supreme Treasure once emerged there. Maybe this time, luck will fall on us."

A massive beast that looked like it was made of dark red magma spoke to Qing Huan from a corner of the first pillar area in the Black-Veined Stone Pillar Space.

The magma beast looked quite ferocious, but at this moment, its fierce head was covered in a fawning smile.

"Yes, Liu Yan, if the three of us join forces and roam around, as long as we don't run into a Universe Supreme Being, we'll have few rivals in the entire region." Beside the lava beast, a strange cubic lifeform seemingly condensed from ice also urged Qing Huan.

These two were Universe Masters Qing Huan had befriended during a chance adventure, both beings from the Primal Universe era. Each possessed strength at the top of the third tier and led powerful races of their own.

The lava beast was called "Lord Banyan Fire," while the ice cube was known as "Lord Ripple Crystal."

They came from different races but had unexpectedly compatible temperaments and were skilled in combined combat techniques. Together, they could unleash power at the fourth tier.

But in the Universe Ocean, where experts were as numerous as clouds, even the two of them had to keep a low profile when working together.

"Heh..." Qing Huan, repeatedly urged by the two, merely chuckled lightly and said, "It's not as simple as you make it sound. That Flowing Cloud Sea has a Lord Jueyun from the God Eye Race stationed there long-term. Have you two grown a pair of bear hearts and leopard gallbladders lately? Daring to offend the God Eye Race?"

The two Universe Masters exchanged a glance at this, then Lord Ripple Crystal gave an awkward smile and said, "Liu Yan, it's not as serious as you say. The Universe Boat isn't the God Eye Race's territory, and the Flowing Cloud Sea is so vast. Can Lord Jueyun, a single Universe Master, really monitor every spot? At worst, we'll just steer clear of Lord Jueyun."

"That's right. Even if the God Eye Race is overbearing, this is just a small matter. Why make such a big deal of it?" Lord Banyan Fire chimed in to support him.

Glancing at the two of them, Qing Huan fell into thought.

He knew why these two were so enthusiastic. First, because there had been recent disturbances in the Flowing Cloud Sea, and many Universe Masters had received word. Quite a few were heading there now.

As the saying goes, the law cannot punish the many. The God Eye Race might be domineering, but with the Flowing Cloud Sea now a mixed bag, unless they wanted to make enemies of a large number of Universe Ocean forces, they had to accept this situation.

Second, it was to build a good relationship with him.

Right now, Qing Huan had set up a persona before them as a lone young Universe Master.

Cultivating ties with such a Universe Master was a common practice for Universe Masters like Lord Banyan Fire and Lord Ripple Crystal, who led powerful races.

After all, if by the end of this Reincarnation Era the two of them still hadn't broken through to True God, their races would need to find a True God to pledge allegiance to, or else the entire race would perish along with the era.

The True Gods of peak races couldn't even relocate all their own people, so they naturally wouldn't bother with others. As for lone True Gods, ordinary Universe Masters like them had no standing to speak with them.

Thus, they tried their best to befriend promising Universe Masters like Qing Huan.

Cast a wide net, plan for the long term.

That way, when the Reincarnation Era ended, if they came begging to him, the chances of him agreeing to let their races lodge in his Miniature Universe would be higher.

Qing Huan was well aware of these intentions of theirs.

After pondering for a moment, Qing Huan, who had originally been about to casually refuse, suddenly had an idea pop into his mind. The words on the tip of his tongue took a turn: "Alright, then notify me when it's time to set out."