Time Flows, Hong's Will!

At the same time, other races reacted with equal speed.

After all, no one wanted to be left off the list when the Sky Screen reappeared.

Deep within the Zerg territory, inside the Queen Palace.

The Zerg Queen withdrew her focus from her insights into the Eternal Pearl, reclining on her crystal throne to listen to her subordinates' reports.

In just a few seconds, her mental network received tens of thousands of screening reports. Each had passed through several layers of automated filtering, leaving only a few rows of names presented before her.

"World Lord level 9, and they have actually fused a trace of the Gold Law and the Space Law? Prioritize their cultivation!"

"World Lord level 5, and they have already gained the recognition of the Time Law? Prioritize their cultivation!"

"Just stepped into the World Lord level, and they have already comprehended the essence of all Space Laws? Prioritize their cultivation!"

The Zerg Queen looked through the information in her hands, filtering out everyone with potential, marking them for priority, and then distributing them to the various Universe Master Zerg Mothers to be cultivated in batches according to specific standards.

She strove to ensure that every ounce of resources was utilized to its full value and that the potential of every genius was unleashed to the greatest extent.

"Yes, Your Majesty," a Universe Master Mother, dressed in transparent purple gauze and possessing breathtaking beauty, bowed and replied.

The Machine Race, Demon Race, Crystal Race, Prison Race, as well as the Demon Beast Alliance, Starry Sky Behemoth Alliance, Snow Border Alliance, and others—regardless of whether they were races, alliances, or secondary powers.

Their current focus, aside from defending their territories, was the vigorous cultivation of the geniuses within their ranks.

Time flowed on.

Undercurrents surged within the Primal Universe.

Countless geniuses were making preparations for the Sky Screen that would appear a million years later.

In Chaos City, on the rooftop of a certain residence.

Luo Feng sat cross-legged on the rooftop, his brows slightly furrowed.

Since returning from the inner hall of the City Lord's Mansion, he had sat on this rooftop for seven full years, his mind constantly revolving around the first layer of the Seven Changes of Yan God—the Scale Armor Chapter.

The Seven Changes of Yan God took the true form of the Beast God as its core template, and the first layer, the Scale Armor Chapter, corresponded exactly to the nearly indestructible natural scales on the Beast God's body. It was not about layering the Space Law onto the Gold Law to create a coating; rather, it was about making the space and the gold element mesh together like interlocking gear teeth within the same flow of laws, inseparable from one another.

But this was too difficult.

It was more than an order of magnitude harder than his initial entry into the Way of the Beast God.

Luo Feng had attempted no fewer than one hundred thousand simulations. Using the scales of his Golden Horned Beast clone as a template, he had constructed layer upon layer of law networks on the surface of the scales using the Space Law, attempting to fuse the Gold Law and the Space Law into one in the form of scales.

Yet, every time he reached the final step of construction, the two laws would clash violently at the microscopic level of the scales—the Gold Law tended to solidify into a physical shell, while the Space Law instinctively tried to tear the surface into fissures. The two refused to yield at the critical point, and in the end, either the scales would disintegrate or his entire body would shudder violently, several times even injuring the universe circulation within him.

The scale shouldn't be a hard shell. The reason the Beast God's scales are indestructible isn't because the outer shell is hard, but because every fiber of the scale is the result of the natural fusion of the two laws; there is no distinction between inside and outside. Space seeps into the scale, and the scale expands the space; it is a single entity.

This epiphany came late, but it came just in time.

In the umpteenth simulation, he abandoned the inertial thinking of forcing the Space Law to accommodate the surface of the scales. Instead, while the scales were still in a semi-virtual state, he held back his origin energy and allowed the thinned-out Space Law to flow backward, weaving it through the primordial Gold Law from the very beginning.

The fusion of gold and space was not something applied after the scale had formed; it was fused together while the scale was still a rough embryo.

He raised his right hand, and the origin energy crystal ball and soul crystal ball within his body vibrated simultaneously, the universe circulation composed of 72,000 filaments slowly echoing the flow of laws of the vast outer universe.

A faint golden glow emerged on the surface of his palm, and within that golden glow, spatial ripples flowed faintly.

The golden glow gradually solidified, transforming into a palm-sized golden scale, its surface flowing with wisps of transparent patterns.

That was the external manifestation of the fusion between the Space Law and the Gold Law.

A single scale.

It looked like nothing more than a palm-sized golden scale, thin enough to be translucent, with only a few extremely fine and faint transparent ripples within the patterns.

But Luo Feng knew that this was the prototype of the Scale Armor Chapter.

Once the Scale Armor Chapter was mastered, he could cover his body with a layer of Beast God scales at any time. This layer of armor would not only push his defensive power to a whole new level, but more importantly, it proved that his Way of the Beast God had moved from simple artistic conception to the stage of substantive mastery.

He stared at the scale that was still vibrating slightly for a long time, until the last trace of spatial ripples on its surface stabilized, before slowly lowering his right hand.

"This is only the first step of the Scale Armor Chapter. From a single prototype scale to a complete suit of armor, there are countless more attempts and restarts in between."

Luo Feng stood up, his joints popping, yet no trace of frustration could be seen on his face.

Within his internal world, the Golden Horned Beast clone had also completed the condensation of its first batch of scale prototypes.

Unlike his Earthling main body, the scales of the Golden Horned Beast existed naturally.

For the Golden Horned Beast, the Scale Armor Chapter of the Seven Changes of Yan God was not creating something from nothing, but rather completing a qualitative transformation on the basis of existing scales.

It fused the inherent scales of the Golden Horned Beast with the artistic conception of the Beast God, elevating the defensive strength by an entire level from the genetic level.

Under the comparative verification of his Mosha Race clone, the combat power of the Golden Horned Beast had soared to a level that even Luo Feng found hard to believe in just over a thousand years.

With his current comprehensive strength, an ordinary peak World Lord could not even block a single strike from him.

An undying military lord? He could defeat them as well!

On the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, on a nameless planet.

Yang Yu sat cross-legged atop a mountain peak manifested by the Jin King Palace, the Fire Dao swirling around his fingertips quietly fading away.

Through the subtle resonance of the Nine Tribulations Manual, he had just happened to perceive the entire process of Luo Feng condensing his first scale.

From the formation of the raw scale embryo to the infusion and intricate weaving of space laws, the process lasted only a few breaths, yet the underlying deductive fluctuations numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

The patience, comprehension, and instantaneous decisiveness in weaving and controlling the laws that Luo Feng displayed throughout the process left him with nothing to criticize.

"Over a thousand years to master the Scale Armor Chapter—faster than I anticipated. As expected, Luo Feng's comprehension only grows more heaven-defying as time passes."

He lifted a wine pot to take a sip, his gaze piercing through layers of space-time, seemingly landing on the black-haired youth in Chaos City who was still examining the prototype of the scale on his palm.

Yang Yu nodded slightly, withdrew his gaze, and sank back into the bottleneck gap within his body that was being slowly pried open by the Hunyuan Void Fire Spirit Fruit.

Illusion Sea.

The most core trial ground for willpower within the human race.

Twenty islands floated within an endless ocean of illusions, each corresponding to a level of willpower test.

The first nine islands targeted Universe-level willpower, the tenth through fifteenth corresponded to Domain Lord-level, and the sixteenth through nineteenth were the threshold for Immortal-level willpower.

As for the twentieth, that was the willpower pressure of a Universe Venerable.

For countless epochs, any genius who could reach beyond the tenth island at the Universe level would be solemnly recorded in the core archives of the Giant Axe Martial Arts Arena.

Until today.

Above the Illusion Sea, twenty brilliant pillars of light erupted in succession.

Each pillar represented the collapse of an island's illusion.

The pillars shot into the sky, illuminating the gray void as if it were broad daylight.

The Immortal guards stationed at the edge of the Illusion Sea initially looked up with indifference, assuming some World Lord was attempting the trial.

But then, the pillars for the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth islands rose one after another, at an impossibly fast frequency.

The guards began to stand at attention.

Immediately following, the density of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth pillars became blinding.

By the time the seventeenth pillar lit up, the monitoring system of the entire Illusion Sea had automatically pushed the information to the highest management of the Giant Axe Martial Arts Arena.

Several King-level Immortals awoke from their respective cultivation chambers, their consciousnesses connecting to the monitoring feed to gaze at the ocean of illusions where pillars were constantly erupting.

The pillars continued.

The eighteenth, the nineteenth.

Then, under the stunned gaze of every observer at or above the Immortal level, the twentieth pillar roared into the sky!

The entire starry sky was illuminated.

"Illusion Sea... all twenty levels cleared?"

A King-level Immortal's voice trembled. "Whose trial record is this? A peak World Lord or an Immortal?"

No one answered.

Because the monitoring system clearly displayed the trial-taker's identity information: Hong. Universe-level 9th rank, core member.

The entire Giant Axe Martial Arts Arena was in an uproar.

The news swept through all the upper echelons within a single incense stick's time.

Void Gold Master dispersed the screen before him, his figure vanishing from the spot in an instant.

Lord Lanzang opened his eyes in his deep abyss palace, a trace of imperceptible shock flashing across his usually calm face.

Even the Founder Giant Axe, who usually remained in deep seclusion, stopped his comprehension of the God-Slaying Axe secret patterns and cast his gaze toward that sky-piercing pillar.

"Seal the information," Void Gold Master said, his golden hair falling to his chest, his voice devoid of emotion. "All guards on duty at the Illusion Sea are to sign the highest-level confidentiality agreement. Anyone who leaks this privately will be treated as a traitor to the race!"

Lord Lanzang nodded solemnly and then withdrew.

Elsewhere among the peak leadership of the universe, the Zerg Queen, the Machine Father God, the Beast Ancestor, and other heads of peak races received secret reports from their respective spies within a very short time.

The contents of the reports were shockingly consistent: this person was at the Universe level when clearing the twentieth island, but his willpower had already reached the King-level limit!

The Zerg Queen stroked an Eternal Pearl, remaining silent for a rare few seconds. "Humans... it is the humans again," she whispered, a complex and unfathomable light swirling in her beautiful eyes.

The Machine Father God input this new data into his evaluation model for humans, marking a line on Hong's profile that was so calm it was almost cold: "Growth trajectory unpredictable; suggest adjusting priority to the highest level."

The Beast Ancestor did not speak, merely glancing at Lord Juefeng. The meaning in that look was simple: keep a close watch on this person.

The Founder Giant Axe spent less than an incense stick's time thinking before making an unexpected decision: he was going to Earth, personally.

"In the same era, two extraordinary little fellows were born on Earth. Luo Feng was taken as a named disciple by Chaos, and now Hong has revealed such heaven-defying character—this is definitely not a coincidence. That planet might be very special; I must go see it with my own eyes."

He did not speak these words to anyone else. Void Gold Master only received the message that a divine power avatar of Giant Axe was heading toward the Milky Way Galaxy.

Before long, Giant Axe's avatar had crossed layers of space-time barriers and stood with his hands behind his back in the star dust belt at the edge of the Solar System. Looking down from this height, the water-blue planet was wrapped in a layer of barely perceptible spatial folds—not a seal, not a restriction, but a more ancient and natural structure, as if this planet had been a palace embryo placed into the universe from the very beginning.

He took a step, crossing the boundary of the Solar System in one stride.

But before his second step could land, the space in front of him split open without a sound.

It was not a tearing—but rather a parting, sliding aside like flowing water to reveal a towering figure over ninety thousand kilometers tall.

The figure sat cross-legged atop a mountain peak, two transparent horns growing from his forehead. Not a shred of divine power leaked from his body, yet the fluctuations of the laws throughout the entire Solar System fell silent for a beat, as if even the speed of light had slowed by a fraction.

"Mountain Sitting Guest." Giant Axe halted his steps, his voice carrying a hint of respect, though wariness dominated.

"Giant Axe." Yang Yu's tone was indifferent, as if greeting an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time. "This planet is mine; you would do well not to interfere."

Giant Axe's brows furrowed imperceptibly. He naturally knew of Mountain Sitting Guest—the Sky Screen-certified strongest being in the Primal Universe, an existence at the God King realm.

He and Original Ancestor had analyzed Mountain Sitting Guest's strength repeatedly over countless epochs, and the conclusion was always the same: unfathomable. But knowing that was one thing; standing face-to-face with him was another.

"Is the uniqueness of Earth related to you?"

Yang Yu did not deny it. "Earth was an experimental site I modified in my early years. The life forms born there are naturally outstanding in temperament and comprehension; this is the result of the great effort I spent modifying it, not a coincidence. However, you need not intervene in their growth trajectories; let them cultivate on their own."

Giant Axe remained silent for several breaths.

God King realm.

Facing these four words, even he, the second-strongest human certified by Sky Screen, had no certainty of victory.

But what kept him silent was not fear, but curiosity.

What kind of experiment required a God King to spend hundreds of millions of years laying the groundwork?

"I understand," he finally spoke. "I will not touch the geniuses on Earth. But Hong and Luo Feng are already core members of my human race. You surely cannot stop humanity from nurturing its own geniuses."

Yang Yu lifted a wine pot and took a sip, offering no reply as his figure quietly melted back into the void.

When Giant Axe tried to look back at the water-blue planet once more, the faint spatial folds that had wrapped around the Solar System had already closed back up, as if they had never parted at all.

Giant Axe stood in the void for a moment before turning to leave.

Upon returning to the Giant Axe Martial Arts Arena, he immediately summoned Void Gold Master.

The two majestic figures spoke in a secret chamber, though no one knew what was discussed. It was only known that when Void Gold Master walked out of the chamber, his expression carried a touch of solemnity, a hint of surprise, and a trace of irrepressible anticipation.