The second Innate Secret Technique Jiang Luo gained by devouring the Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline was "Blink"!
It had three levels.
First level: Nine Lines
Second level: Ten Thousand Lines
Third level: Space Blink, which was true instantaneous teleportation.
Jiang Luo smiled. "I see. The so-called Ten Thousand Line Flow might have been created by studying the Green Line Devouring Insect's Innate Secret Technique."
The Green Line Devouring Insect could use this ability to turn into countless streaks of green light and switch places with its true body within a certain range.
Whether used to attack or escape, it was an extremely powerful movement technique.
At the second level, it could turn into tens of thousands of streaks of green light, blinking and shifting around within a range of tens of thousands of kilometers.
In essence, it was a special kind of Phantom Body.
The true body could pass through distorted space and switch places with a Phantom Body.
After figuring out the transformation he had gained from devouring the Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline, another of Jiang Luo's bodies walked over to the Doukou Crystal Fetus.
It, too, circulated the mutated Mysterious Heaven Skill and used its secret art to devour bloodlines.
But neither the Doukou Crystal Fetus nor the Life Crystal Core at its center reacted at all.
"As expected, it won't work." Jiang Luo wasn't disappointed.
There was a limit to the level of bloodline the Mysterious Heaven Skill could devour.
Doukou was a Special Lifeform with a Gene Level a hundred times that of a human.
Even though its Life Crystal Core hadn't fully matured, its life level still far surpassed Jiang Luo's.
Moreover, Doukou was essentially a Special Lifeform somewhere between a flesh-and-blood lifeform and an Energy Lifeform.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill could only devour the bloodlines of flesh-and-blood lifeforms.
"Looks like I can only pin my hopes on the Great Devouring Art from the Eternal Life World or the Heaven-Devouring Demon Art from the Shrouding the Heavens Universe..."
Jiang Luo inspected the "star," formed from countless crimson strands of wish power, inside the Wordless Seal, and shook his head slightly.
One trillion strands of white wish power could condense into one strand of crimson wish power.
One trillion strands of crimson wish power could condense into one strand of yellow wish power.
He had already asked the seal before. Both the Great Devouring Art and the Heaven-Devouring Demon Art were divine techniques above the yellow level.
He would have to keep developing life-bearing planets and cultivating faith.
Although he had purchased 16 star systems, after more than 20 years, he had developed less than one percent of them.
A single star system had hundreds of billions of stars. The number of suitable life-bearing planets ranged from several hundred thousand to over a hundred million.
Turning most of the life-bearing planets in all 16 star systems into sources of faith would take quite some time.
"Fortunately, after devouring the Green Line Devouring Insect bloodline, this clone can return to the Huanming Star Sector and work with the Ten Thousand Feather Tree. That should greatly speed up development."
Jiang Luo planned to have most of his clones leave the Gulun Secret Realm and focus on developing life-bearing planets and expanding his sources of faith.
Time flew by, and another year and a half passed.
Three of Jiang Luo's bodies sat cross-legged in a secret chamber.
One clone seemed to be in agony. Its whole body trembled, one eye wreathed in white flames and the other in crimson flames.
The crimson flames came from the Flame Star Behemoth bloodline, while the white flames came from the drop of Heavenly Radiance Marrow he had swallowed.
The flames alternated between red and white, creating an eerie sight.
Boom!
The clone seemed to turn into a torch. White flames engulfed its entire body, burning its flesh to ash!
All that remained was a drop of white liquid floating in the air—the Heavenly Radiance Marrow.
"Another failure..."
Jiang Luo's true body shook its head slightly. "Even with the Burning Technique, fusing a powerful material like Exotic Fire is incredibly difficult. One mistake, and I'll explode."
Over the past year, he had already lost two clones trying to devour and fuse the Heavenly Radiance Marrow.
Fortunately, as long as one of his eighteen sub-bodies remained alive, he could recreate all the others.
He still had plenty of Locke Divine Water, enough to quickly nurture clones that had exploded.
But he could feel that he was very close to completely fusing with the Heavenly Radiance Marrow.
The second attempt had lasted longer than the first. He had even made it to the final step.
"I'll definitely succeed within three years!"
Once he successfully used the Burning Technique to fuse with an Exotic Fire material, he could greatly improve his mastery of the profound mysteries of the Law of Fire.
He wouldn't need to cultivate or ponder it at all.
By devouring and fusing with Exotic Fire materials through the Burning Technique, he could quickly master the complete Fire Origin Law.
That would let him devote all his attention and energy to the Space Law.
Unfortunately, the Burning Technique only worked for cultivating the Law of Fire. Otherwise, Jiang Luo really could have devoured his way to becoming a True God.
Suddenly—
Wu He's excited voice rang out in Jiang Luo's mind. "Master, a gigantic floating proclamation has appeared above Gulun Continent!
"The Cosmic Humans' Peak Warrior Battle is about to begin!"
The enormous proclamation appeared not only above Gulun Continent in the Virtual Universe but was also clearly visible from Sacred Island.
In an instant, all the Universe Citizens on Gulun Continent and its affiliated islands erupted in excitement!
"The Peak Warrior Battle is about to begin!"
"Bolan's performance 5,000 years ago was incredible. Our Gulun Universe Kingdom only had 'Sword of Life' Yi Feng, who barely made it into the top twenty of the Genius Battle. I wonder if an unparalleled genius will emerge in this Strong Ones Battle..."
"There definitely will be! The Strong Ones Battle is much more exciting than the Genius Battle. Every time, a dark horse comes out of nowhere!"
"I heard the Kingdom Lord took on a new nominal disciple. Maybe he'll be the hope of our Gulun Universe Kingdom in this Strong Ones Battle."
"Heh, you've got it wrong. Apparently, Jiang Luo impressed the Kingdom Lord with his performance at Star Level, but he advanced to Universe Level right after becoming the Kingdom Lord's disciple. It's only been two years. Our clan ancestor said Jiang Luo might make it into the top thousand among the 1008 Universe Kingdoms, but probably won't get any higher."
"The strongest is probably Ji Chen from the Ancient Wheel Hall. He's Marquis Huanming's disciple..."
"My father said the Gulun branch of the Huanyu Clan has produced a Universe Level genius. He might be even stronger than Ji Chen!"
In the Virtual Universe, at the heart of Gulun Continent, a mountain range towered into the clouds.
In the plaza before an ancient stone hall.
The 195 Universe Level members of the Ancient Wheel Hall had gathered there, each visibly excited.
Most of them had never even seen the great Kingdom Lord in person.
Jiang Luo stood among them.
He was even one of the main attractions.
His status as the Kingdom Lord's nominal disciple was one reason.
Although he hadn't challenged the Trial Tower since advancing to Universe Level, based on his performance in the Star Level Trial Tower, he was sure to rank among the top of the 195 Universe Level elites—at least in the top five!
Ji Chen, Kunmo, and Jiang Luo were the three most closely watched geniuses among this batch of Universe Level members.
When the Gulun Kingdom Lord, who looked like a young man with long hair, emerged from the ancient stone hall, the plaza fell silent.
He was one of humanity's oldest Universe Country Lords, and his prestige was unrivaled.
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" The Universe Level elites bowed in unison.
After giving Jiang Luo an extra glance, the Gulun Kingdom Lord said calmly, "In this Strong Ones Battle, I expect every one of you to make it into the top thousand in the Gulun Universe Kingdom.
"Anyone who fails to reach the top thousand will be eliminated from the Ancient Wheel Hall."
The Gulun Universe Kingdom had always cultivated only the best of the best—the elite among elites and the genius among geniuses.
In the Gulun Kingdom Lord's eyes, making it through the World Zone qualifiers meant nothing.
Only geniuses who could enter the Giant Axe Arena or Virtual Universe Company were worth cultivating in the Gulun Secret Realm.
"Those who make it into the top 1,000 of the final battle will receive contribution points based on their rankings. With those points, you can choose one treasure for free from the Universe Kingdom Treasury." The Gulun Kingdom Lord spoke softly.
A free treasure?
Quite a few people's eyes lit up, and they grew excited.
The Gulun Universe Kingdom had a long history.
So long that the five great powers hadn't even been established back then.
The Universe Kingdom Treasury held many treasures that couldn't be found anywhere else—not even at the Virtual Universe Company or the Giant Axe Arena.
Unfortunately, they couldn't be bought with Universe Coins.
They could only be obtained with contribution points.
For beings below the Undying level, the Genius Battle and Strong Ones Battle were practically their only opportunities to earn contribution points.
"Go back!"
Whoosh~~~
Space shifted, and the 195 Universe Level geniuses vanished from the plaza.
With a thought from the Gulun Kingdom Lord, the master of the Ancient Wheel Hall, Marquis Mo Yan, and King Shaluo, a broad-shouldered man clad in scale armor, appeared before him.
"Teacher!"
The Gulun Kingdom Lord nodded slightly. "How has Jiang Luo been progressing in his cultivation over the past two years?"
Marquis Mo Yan hesitated. "Junior Brother hasn't asked me about the Fire Origin Law at all lately, so I really don't know."
Beside him, King Shaluo chuckled. "Looks like Junior Brother Jiang has devoted all his energy to the Space Law. No wonder he's progressed so quickly.
"He's been asking me about the Nine Heavens Atlas lately. It seems he's turned his attention to the Ten Thousand Line Flow movement technique."
"What?" Marquis Mo Yan froze and frowned. "Hadn't he already begun to grasp the Space Strangling path? He can even use Space Imprisonment now. Why isn't he continuing to deepen his understanding? Why has he turned his attention to another path within the Space Law?"
King Shaluo shook his head. "I criticized him at first, too, but the boy's progress in Ten Thousand Line Flow really is astonishing. I think he may already be close to reaching the Nine-Line Flow level."
"Nine-Line Flow?!" Marquis Mo Yan's eyes widened.
In terms of the profound mysteries of the Law, Nine-Line Flow was on par with the lowest level of Space Imprisonment.
But they represented paths corresponding to two different advanced mysteries of the Space Law.
One was teleportation, the other Strangulation.
Normally, someone studying the Space Law would focus on one path and gradually delve deeper until they fully understood one profound mystery and gained the Space Law's recognition.
Yet Jiang Luo was studying the paths corresponding to two profound mysteries at once!
And he was progressing rapidly in both. His comprehension...
The Gulun Kingdom Lord was also slightly moved. A look of satisfaction appeared in his eyes. "It seems the boy really does have a talent for understanding the Space Law."
The Space Law talent he had gained by having a clone possess the Flame Star Behemoth wasn't enough to explain such rapid progress.
The clarity of his perception of the Law was one thing.
But comprehension was the most important thing.
Otherwise, wouldn't every member of the Mosha Clan, favorites of the Space Law, become a Space Venerable?
In truth, most Mosha Clan members struggled even to become Undying, let alone Universe Venerables.
He had only accepted Jiang Luo as a nominal disciple not because he was dissatisfied with the boy's opportunities or talent, but because he wanted to observe his comprehension a little longer.
The Gulun Kingdom Lord thought, I'll see how he performs in the Strong Ones Battle. If he satisfies me, I'll accept him as a personal disciple.
Before you continue