Chapter 1128: The Development of the Times

Chapter 1129: 闻道者，朝生夕死！

**Author:** Three Hundred Jin's Smile

**Last Updated:** July 11, 2020**Word Count for this Chapter:** 6394 characters

The Cloud Star Dao Fruit originates from the Cloud Star Dao Tree species. It is said to come from an ancient, unknown bloodline of the Cloud Star Dao Tree, a lineage so distant it can no longer be traced.

"According to the intelligence given to me by this Stone Man Disc, it was discovered in an ancient ruin so dilapidated it's hard to imagine its original state. His entry was purely coincidental. He enjoyed traveling around with a baby. One day, he passed by an ordinary planet and, as a hidden blacksmith, lived a carefree life there. Due to his upright character, he performed many good deeds on that planet. Suddenly, he received a gift from a phantom, which led him into a ruin where he obtained the Cloud Star Dao Fruit. By the time he recovered, that ordinary mortal planet no longer existed; the spot was completely empty. Even he found it an incredible encounter. It's said the ruin was immensely powerful, exuding an aura so terrifying it could have vibrated him to death. For such a dilapidated ruin, it must have at least tens of thousands to millions of years of ancient history."

Xu Zhi sat at the table, deep in thought.

In places where laws are distorted, matter and rules undergo a mysterious, imperceptible, slow distortion. Any cosmic law there is unreal. Earth's methods of geological dating are completely inapplicable. Even the Stone Man Disc finds it difficult to ascertain the exact ancient age; it could be tens of millions of years ago, or even hundreds of millions.

"Aside from the Cloud Star Dao Fruit having no side effects and being obtained through a fortuitous encounter, Pampa and Yu Sa's heaven-defying bloodlines both have side effects. I'm afraid the Nine-Headed Ancient Mother already knew about these two bloodlines but chose to ignore them, leaving them on this land." Xu Zhi felt the profound weight of history. "Indeed, there are still good things on this land. After all, it's too vast; even the Nine-Headed Ancient Mother couldn't completely clear out all ancient treasures. The Cloud Star Dao Fruit was overlooked, and it's likely there are other such bloodlines hidden here." The Nine-Headed Ancient Mother might appear to be the ancient ruler of this vast star cluster land for ten million years, but she is merely a drop in the ocean.

Bear in mind, the age of dinosaurs on Earth lasted hundreds of millions of years! Ten million years? For the lifespan of an individual being, it's terrifyingly long. But for planets, civilizations, and races, it's too insignificant!

Xu Zhi increasingly felt that individual life is fleeting; only the continuation of a species is eternal. Ordinary sentient races can persist for hundreds of millions of years on barren planets, but a Tenth-Tier Ultimate cannot.

The Nine-Headed Ancient Mother is clearly from an ancient cosmic race with a profound heritage. Although increasingly in decline and with thinning bloodlines, generation after generation has inherited countless glories. It's unknown how many of their ancestors once reached the Ultimate realm, leaving their indelible marks to eternally spread throughout the depths of the universe. This race also demonstrates that individual power is minuscule, but the power of the species continues, striving for eternity.

Xu Zhi felt an intensely powerful sense of vastness, a heavy weight, and a feeling of powerlessness before the immense universe; it was simply too grand.

"Even a great Ultimate being of an era is merely a drop in the ocean! Their demise adds less than one hundred millionth of a new branch to the entire universe."

Xu Zhi saw the end of the vast Grand Dao. A cosmic tree, with dense rules interwoven like a fine net. Each branch, upon closer inspection, bore the traces of over a hundred million Tenth-Tier Ultimates. There were once hundreds of millions of Tenth-Tier Ultimates! Even knowing the universe has existed for twenty billion years, and calculating with ten million years as one Tenth-Tier era, combined with lands so vast that even Tenth-Tier Ultimates struggle to explore them, this number is not surprising; in fact, it feels quite small.

"Breaking through to Ninth-Tier Daoist might make you feel arrogant and proud, but breaking through to Tenth-Tier Ultimate, the stronger you become, the more you discover your own absurdity and insignificance. The 'end of Dao' is not standing at the end of the universe, but standing at the end of your own Grand Dao."

Xu Zhi's voice was cold as he pondered and summarized. He was summarizing the gains from the Cloud Star Dao Fruit, Yu Sa, Pampa, and the Abyss Blue clan's bloodlines, as well as his insights into breaking through to the Tenth Tier. He was also organizing his future path.

The Cloud Star Dao Fruit is clearly a very powerful bloodline, capable of offering players, and even other incomplete or weak Tenth-Tier beings, the possibility of breaking through to a perfect Dao foundation! Yu Sa's bloodline is heaven-defying, but its flaws are too significant: it's incompatible with foreign bloodlines. Only when all five bloodlines are of its own race can it achieve a non-fixed form, transforming into a "Ditto" for targeted strikes. Once other bloodlines are introduced, it assumes a fixed form and is completely rendered useless. Although powerful, Xu Zhi is not currently considering it. The same goes for Pampa's bloodline: it involves vortex-like, inertia-related power laws, offering the strongest physical destructive power, but at the cost of diminished mental faculties.

"Hmm..." Xu Zhi mused, "Once these bloodlines are obtained, why should I be the one to think about them? Give them to the players, and they will evolve them according to the circumstances. Even if there are no surprising evolutions, it certainly won't disappoint anyone. The Cloud Star Dao Fruit in their hands will make them more proactive than anyone else in their quest for survival."

With a light step, Xu Zhi moved. He appeared in the Ancient Lava Domain, surrounded by rolling lava.

At this moment, Caroline, Emperor Qi, and the Three Pillar Gods were gathered there, discussing and organizing the spoils of the battle, as well as various methods for recovering from injuries.

"Where is the Mother Earth Goddess?" Caroline asked.

Emperor Qi snorted, "The Mother Earth Goddess seems to be a manifestation of Heavenly Dream's methods. Although her avatar is dead, her main body is affected by bizarre dark emotions and is currently in a deep slumber. It will likely take some time for her to awaken." Even though she is the Goddess of Incense and Dragon Veins, her own power is too weak. She couldn't even resist the bizarre emotions from the incense and is unable to control her own strength.

"Three Pillar Gods, how great were your gains this time?" Emperor Qi looked at the Three Pillar Gods and started a conversation.

The Three Pillar Gods chuckled and replied, "Four thousand one hundred thirty-seven ordinary incomplete Daoists, and thirty-seven perfect Daoists who willingly pledged allegiance!" They had not fought at all from beginning to end, barely showing themselves, but were ruthlessly "mowing down" everything in the shadows, an extremely dirty tactic. This number was terrifying. Four thousand Daoists, four thousand transcendent great worlds! This was truly like the Myriad Worlds; it meant devouring a full eighty percent of the accumulated foundations of the Fallen Civilization and the Abyss Blue Divine Domain, which had been built up over countless millennia! It was practically emptying out the opponent's entire foundation! If they could fully digest this, they would even have the possibility of fighting against an ordinary Tenth-Tier Ultimate being!

Emperor Zun looked at the Three Pillar Gods and suddenly smiled, "Three Pillar Gods, I advise you not to pursue the trivial while neglecting the essential. You seem to have gained over four thousand Daoists and significantly increased your combat power, but your power is like a castle in the air; it's not lasting. In fact, your chances of breaking through to Tenth-Tier Ultimate are slower than ours." The Three Pillar Gods' combat power actually has no strict division of realm bottlenecks. They are not true living beings but the sum total of a race's destiny. If a "Tenth-Tier Ultimate" exists within the race, then when the race gathers, their combined combat power naturally reaches that of a Tenth-Tier Ultimate. This is a simple calculation: the combat power formed by piling everyone together.

"We are naturally aware of this," the Three Pillar Gods said calmly in unison. "These four thousand fallen Daoists, though seemingly numerous, have their realms essentially capped. Their limits are set; they cannot break through and are no longer worth cultivating. Moreover, within our Buddhist-Daoist race, under the forced high-dimensional spacetime, their already declining lifespans mean they will all perish within two to three years!" When the Three Pillar Gods said this, they couldn't help but feel confused. "We just don't know why we are forced to remain fixed in high-dimensional spacetime. Those fallen Daoists already don't have much lifespan left, and now they are rapidly approaching their demise..."

Upon hearing this, the ancient beings present also frowned, feeling puzzled. Caroline heard this and said, "The Ancient Beyond God once said that this is an equivalent price paid to the mysterious Creator God. I'm not clear on the specific reason."

Beside them, Akina Mountain Speed chuckled and said, chest out, "This is the price of interacting with the Creator God! Seeing the root of the Grand Dao, the true essence of the entire universe... That's why lifespan rapidly depletes!"

"Oh?" Caroline, Emperor Qi, and the others all looked over.

Akina Mountain Speed remained calm and continued, "Seeing the root of the Grand Dao inevitably leads to rapid lifespan depletion and eventual death. You are the revived new generation of the Buddhist-Daoist system and are unaware that in the old Buddhist-Daoist system, there was a saying: 'One who hears the Dao, born in the morning, dies in the evening.' This refers to the price after seeing 'Dao One'!"

Their minds reeled.

One who hears the Dao, born in the morning, dies in the evening!

Caroline, Emperor Qi, and the Three Pillar Gods all felt a jolt in their hearts. This saying perfectly matched the state they were currently experiencing. As things had developed, a mortal's lifespan was merely a hundred years—wasn't that like being born in the morning and perishing in the evening of a single day?

"So that's it!" Caroline's eyes brightened. "This is the price of seeing the Dao, of seeing the Creator God. The Ancient Beyond God didn't elaborate to me before, so it turns out such ancient lore was hidden." She pondered, "So, is this the price after observing the Creator God and it becoming a reality? Do civilizations that have seen the Creator God all have to be forced into high-dimensional spacetime?"

Emperor Qi's expression also subtly shifted, and his gaze towards Akina Mountain Speed softened somewhat. The other party truly knew a lot, and he couldn't help but say solemnly, "One who hears the Dao, born in the morning, dies in the evening. For beings like us, this is completely acceptable and self-evident."

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