Chapter 317: Nine Thousand Layers of Spatial Dimension
Chapter 317: Nine Thousand Layers of Spatial Dimension (End of Prologue)
Over the course of three long centuries, Longshan Ridge underwent a remarkable transformation.
The territory of the Longshan family expanded again and again, eventually occupying a fifth of the Slan Empire.
If it weren't for the legendary clan head of the Longshan family, who had never explicitly agreed to the Order Church's request to establish a presence in their territory, the Longshan family would likely have become the Longshan Empire by now.
In the Plateau of Kingdoms, the establishment of an empire requires permission from the Church of the Gods—a mandate set in stone by the Gods of the Light Ocean.
However, even without establishing an empire, the influence of the Longshan family today is by no means inferior.
The legendary clan head of the Longshan family was recognized as a demi-god level powerhouse a hundred years ago.
This brought endless glory to the Longshan family.
As long as a demi-god level powerhouse doesn't stand against the Church and secretly collects faith, they can live an extraordinarily comfortable life. When the Pope of the Order Church first learned that the Longshan clan head had stepped into the seventh level of demi-godhood, he worried that they would use their clan's territory to gather faith.
But after observing for a while and even employing the Church's unique means of sensing faith power, he confirmed that there were no fluctuations of faith convergence in Longshan Ridge. Only then did he completely set his mind at ease.
After all, a demi-god who doesn't cause trouble and has little interest in faith is a rare blessing for the Church.
With the tacit approval of the Order Church, the Longshan family's development has been exceptionally smooth.
On this day, countless members of the Longshan family gathered in the clan's training grounds.
"Today should be the day when the clan head imparts the martial arts cultivation technique, right?"
"We finally get to see the clan head! This only happens once every ten years."
"Our current clan head, Lin Yuan, is truly remarkable. He attained the seventh level of demi-godhood before the age of five hundred. I reckon that's a record among the nearby empires, isn't it?"
The members of the Longshan family spoke proudly, their voices filled with fervor.
This wasn't surprising. Before Lin Yuan inherited the position of clan head, the Longshan family was merely a small force curled up in the southeast corner of the empire.
"I heard that the Pope of the Order Church has invited our clan head to join the Church multiple times, even promising to request a subordinate deity position from the Order's main god."
"A subordinate deity! That's a position under the main gods themselves. In terms of status, it far surpasses those deities who reside alone in their divine countries."
"It's a pity that our clan head didn't agree right away. He said he needed time to consider."
"As expected of our clan head! If a main god invited me to become a subordinate deity, I'd be laughing in my sleep, and that's without it being a main god! Any deity would do!"
The members of the Longshan family gathered at the edge of the training grounds, and with time to spare before the clan head's arrival, they started whispering among themselves.
The center of their discussion, of course, was the clan head. As a demi-god who had received an invitation from a main god's church, this was undoubtedly an extraordinary matter.
In the vast Plateau of Kingdoms, there are a number of demi-god level powerhouses. However, it is rare to hear of a demi-god being valued and invited by a deity.
Now, not only has the Longshan clan head caught the attention of a deity, but this deity is also one of the twelve main Gods of the Light Ocean. This honor is enough to make countless demi-gods envious.
Although becoming a subordinate deity means losing one's freedom, it is still a position under one of the twelve main Gods of the Light Ocean.
Throughout history, the number of true gods may have fluctuated, but the number of main gods has always remained fixed at twenty-four—no more, no less.
As the members of the Longshan family continued their discussions, a figure appeared on a tall platform in the center of the training grounds, and they immediately fell silent.
"The clan head is here."
Their gazes burned with fervor as they looked towards the figure on the platform.
In the Longshan family, the Slan Empire, and even the Order Church, the clan head is the only 'heaven' they answer to.
At the center of the platform, Lin Yuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes sweeping over the multitude of clan members gathered at the edge of the training grounds.
"It's been three hundred years," Lin Yuan mused to himself. Over the past three centuries, in addition to his own cultivation, he had also guided his clan members in their practice of the martial arts cultivation technique.
After all, it involved 'passing on' the technique, so Lin Yuan was willing to put in the effort.
With Lin Yuan's occasional guidance, the number of practitioners of the martial arts cultivation technique skyrocketed. Just within the Longshan family, there were over ten thousand members who had reached the third level of cultivation, more than two thousand at the fourth level, and even fifty at the fifth level.
There was even one practitioner who had attained the sixth level, equivalent to that of a legendary knight.
And this was just within the Longshan family. Outside, the number of practitioners of the martial arts cultivation technique was even greater, although they lacked Lin Yuan's personal guidance.
However, the base number of practitioners was high, and the number of cultivators at each level of the martial arts cultivation technique was only greater than that of the Longshan family.
In just three hundred years, such achievements had been made, mainly due to the 'localization' of the martial arts cultivation technique, which focused on excavating the power deep within one's bloodline.
While this approach sacrificed future potential, it was undeniably effective in speeding up the initial stages of cultivation.
The spread of the martial arts cultivation technique was just one of Lin Yuan's many achievements over the past three hundred years, and a minor one at that.
One of Lin Yuan's greatest achievements during this time was in the creation of spatial dimensions—he had reached a staggering nine thousand layers.
Nine thousand layers of spatial dimension—this was a number Lin Yuan dared not even dream of before he began his journey through the myriad worlds.
Even with his heaven-defying comprehension talent, aided by dozens of universal powers, over ten high-level universal powers, and one origin-level universal power, Lin Yuan had only dared to set his goal at a million layers of spatial dimension, and that was with the expectation of spending a thousand years to achieve it.
Even then, this rate of creation—a thousand layers per day—would be utterly unattainable for other ninth-tier powerhouses.
But now, with the emergence of 'divine natures', especially those with spatial attributes, Lin Yuan had the key to unlocking the essential rules of space in this world.
His speed in creating derivative spatial dimensions soared, defying all logic.
To explain it simply, the ninth-tier powerhouses of the main universe's main world had to painstakingly understand each layer of spatial dimension before slowly creating it.
Lin Yuan's approach was different. He only needed to create layers based on the template of this world's spatial dimensions.
In the instant he created a new layer, he immediately comprehended the origin of space related to that layer.
To use an analogy, the ninth-tier powerhouses of the main universe had to create spatial dimensions from nothing, like trying to derive a complex 'formula' without knowing any directions or goals.
Lin Yuan, on the other hand, already had the 'formula', making the process of derivation infinitely easier—the difficulty reduced by multiples.
But nine thousand layers?
Hunyuan created thirty million layers of spatial dimensions, becoming the strongest ninth-tier life form among the Tianyu Tribe. As for nine thousand layers, it's estimated that even among all the tribes in the main universe, including those unique 'special lives,' there aren't many who can come close.
There probably aren't many who can even approach that number.
To be clear, this is about approaching, not reaching or surpassing.
Especially those unique special lives, with their unimaginable depths of talent, are likely few and far between in the vast universe.
These special lives possess an incredible foundation. For them, creating spatial dimensions might not be as easy as eating and drinking, but it's not far off.
Even so, to create nine thousand layers of spatial dimensions, not to mention creating them, just counting each layer would take a very long time, right?
Most importantly, according to the current trend, nine thousand layers are far from Lin Yuan's limit, and there's still a long way to go before reaching the time limit for staying in this world.
Lin Yuan still has a lot of room for growth.
"It's a pity that the demi-god level isn't of much use to me anymore," Lin Yuan shook his head slightly.
Over the past three hundred years, with his two primordial spirits, he had been searching far and wide for demi-gods with spatial attributes, or demi-gods with spatial abilities.
If the spatial origin of this world is divided into ten thousand portions from bottom to top.
Then the spatial origin 'keys' contained within the demi-god's demi-god form only occupy the lower one-third region.
As for the upper two-thirds region, the demi-god's level is too low to see.
And as Lin Yuan gradually mastered the lower one-third region of spatial origin, other demi-gods with spatial attributes had their spatial essence 'repeated' by Lin Yuan.
"The divine nature of a true god should be able to help me take another step forward." Lin Yuan looked up at the sky, or rather, at the spatial layers where the Light Ocean and the Dark Abyss were located.
"There's no rush."
"Let's take it slow."
Lin Yuan's thoughts converged, and although the current demi-god level wasn't as effective as before, it still had some use. He intended to thoroughly understand the demi-god level and the one-third region of the spatial essence that it could glimpse before considering the matters of gods.
"My inner world has reached a size of one billion and eight hundred million li."
Lin Yuan's consciousness descended into his inner world. Over the past three hundred years, he had also absorbed most of the sixth type of liquid from the mysterious gourd - the blue liquid.
In theory, after completely absorbing the first six colored liquids, Lin Yuan's inner world would reach a size of one billion, nine hundred and eighty million li.
"With an inner world nearing two hundred million li, coupled with my current strength of nine thousand layers of spatial dimensions, I should be able to claim the title of invincible in the ninth tier, right?" Lin Yuan thought to himself.
Unlike the eighth tier, the ninth tier does not have the concept of invincibility.
Because battles between ninth-tier powerhouses are not solely about the level of power and energy. It's not a guarantee that you will win just because you have stronger power.
Unless it's a strike like the strongest blow that tears through countless layers of spatial dimensions, ensuring that no matter which layer of the spatial dimension they occupy or flee to, they will still perish. Otherwise, the battles between ninth-tier powerhouses are played out across the various layers of the spatial dimensions.
For example, in a specific environment, Xi Lan, a ninth-tier powerhouse who has created less than a million layers of spatial dimensions, can still hold off Hunyuan, a top-tier ninth-tier powerhouse who has created over thirty million layers.
But that was before.
Now, with the size, depth, and foundation of Lin Yuan's inner world, he can easily suppress other ninth-tier powerhouses, including Hunyuan, who has created over thirty million layers of spatial dimensions.
This isn't invincibility, what is?
"Now, I just need to end this journey and the crisis in the Xuanhuang Secret Realm will be nothing." Lin Yuan thought to himself.
However, doing so would be a waste of this opportunity to traverse worlds, even though he had the coordinates to continue descending. It would require him to expend ten strands of world-breaking source power.
"Time."
Lin Yuan, within his inner world, raised his right hand, and time began to fluctuate, either accelerating or pausing.
"Time pause?"
Lin Yuan's eyes showed a hint of surprise as he had comprehended over two hundred time rule models in the past three hundred years, giving him some understanding of the ability to pause time.
"Can't maintain it for long?"
Lin Yuan tried it out and found that the longer he maintained the 'time pause' state, the greater the backlash from the time rule would be.
It was like a dam that had burst. If you forcibly blocked it, you could temporarily stop the water from flowing down, but as the upstream water continued to accumulate, the eventual breach would cause a more severe disaster.
The same principle applied to time pause.
Forcibly pausing time in a certain area would continuously trigger backlash from the time rule.
With Lin Yuan's current foundation, he could only pause time in a certain area for up to twenty breaths before suffering irreversible damage.
Moreover, this area where time was paused could not contain any extremely powerful life forms.
Pausing time for a rock and pausing time for a ninth-tier life form were naturally two very different challenges.
As his thoughts fluctuated, Lin Yuan looked at the countless members of the Longshan family around him and began to impart the martial arts cultivation technique.
Several hours passed.
Lin Yuan's narration was coming to an end.
Under the enraptured gazes of countless Longshan family members, Lin Yuan disappeared from the center of the training grounds.
Underground cultivation room.
Lin Yuan's figure reappeared.
"In these three hundred years, I secretly abducted a large number of demi-gods, including many from the True God Church. I wonder what impact that has caused."
Lin Yuan pondered in his heart.
In order to better understand the spatial essence of this world and create layer after layer of spatial dimensions, Lin Yuan had abducted demi-gods from all churches except the Main God Church. Among them were many from the True God Church.
This was far more serious than stealing the 'divine crystals' from the True God Church three hundred years ago.
In a situation where the True Gods couldn't interfere in the mortal realm, demi-god-level powerhouses were the strongest force the churches could muster.
As for descending avatars of the gods? That was a last resort, usually reserved for the most critical situations or conflicts between churches.
"No problems so far."
Lin Yuan only pondered for a moment before dismissing the matter from his mind.
If three hundred years ago, Lin Yuan still held some apprehension towards the gods of the Light Ocean and the Dark Abyss, as they were all powerhouses of the same tier.
Now, after creating nine thousand layers of spatial dimensions and with his inner world nearing two hundred million li in size, Lin Yuan was truly—
Fearless in this world.
(End of Chapter)
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