Chapter 1439: The Final Secret of the Zerg

"Is the fourth person in the universe about to arrive? Another eleventh-tier spiritual being?"

Everyone revealed a hint of joy.

The Lord of the Longevity Dao Palace, as expected, possessed countless hidden trump cards. He unveiled all the ancient, concealed accumulations, leaving everyone utterly dumbfounded!

"I truly didn't misjudge you. You've remained hidden for 14 billion years, aware of all the universe's historical processes, and you command the most formidable hidden power from the old universe."

Tu Xin quietly asked, "Is the fourth person from the Dimension Clan?"

After all, the families governing the God of Life – the Zerg – and the God of Time – the Time Clan, which is the Longevity Realm – have already appeared. That leaves only the Dimension Clan, which controls one of the universe's three supreme laws.

After all, the mysterious Dimension Clan had been missing. Back then, when the Zerg were defeated and fled, they left behind terrifying legacies and contingencies, with generations of Zerg resisting. So, how could the Dimension Clan's supreme being, after defeat and escape, not have left a contingency plan during the remainder of their existence?

As for killing them, that's simply laughable. Among the Gods of the universe's three supreme rules, none can truly kill another. They are the universe's foundational cornerstones, omnipresent Heavenly Dao Saints. The only force capable of ending them is the universe's Five Declines of Heaven and Man – the universe's grand assimilation of its saints! They can be defeated, but they absolutely will not die; they are destined to live out their full natural lifespan.

Therefore, that ancient clan, which vanished without a trace, must have, like the Zerg, had a final opportunity to act.

"No, it's not the Dimension Clan," the old man said, his eyes lowering.

"Who then?" Tu Xin asked, curious.

"It's the Time Clan," the old man of the Longevity Dao Palace stated. "The fourth person we are waiting for is Ren Jiu of the Time Clan."

As soon as these words were uttered, a storm of realization swept through everyone's minds. Ren Jiu!! Is that not you? Or...

Everyone was overcome by a strong sense of dread. You are not Ren Jiu at all!

"Who exactly are you!?" The Zerg Matriarch, a female, gazed sharply at the old man, completely taken aback by the terrifying scene. "You're not Ren Jiu; who are you!?"

"Hehehe... I've told you before, you are too young... All this time, your resistance has been nothing but a joke. The truth you seek to see is merely an illusion that the victor wishes you to perceive." The old man chuckled, then gently pressed his hand.

*Whoosh!* The distant Sea of Chaos instantly collapsed, transforming into an ink painting of waves, flattening into a sheet of paper. Dimension reduction!

The Zerg Matriarch's pupils contracted sharply. "You are the clan that governs dimensions—the Dimension Clan—who, back then, proved the Dao of Dimension for the universe and fixed its parameters in three-dimensional space-time."

In the distance, Zhi Ji and others' pupils instantly constricted. "When did this happen? You secretly killed our master, Ren Jiu. No wonder you..." No wonder the old man Ren Jiu had always been so distant towards them, and now paid them no mind; he had long been supplanted, his position usurped!

"Alas, my entire scheme has already been seen by an even more hidden mastermind," the Lord of the Longevity Realm sighed, glancing towards Emperor Zun in the distance.

Xu Zhi was also instantly shocked. The real Ren Jiu had been killed by him? So, *this* was the strongest "Old Wang next door" in history? Fortunately, he had been clever enough not to directly confront the Longevity Realm like those simpletons. The Longevity Realm's depths are layered and horrifyingly unsettling.

It turned out that the Dimension Clan had been the true victor all along. The Time Clan, which appeared to control time and had established the Longevity Realm, seemingly holding the home advantage, had also been eliminated just like the Zerg Matriarch, secretly replaced, with Zhi Ji and his subordinates unwittingly serving the usurper.

"You are Zhi Zhu, the ancient innate god and demon who proved the Dao of 'Dimension' for the universe. No wonder you never used the power of time since you took control of the Longevity Realm."

Rong Cheng's expression grew grim. "We overlooked it... but who would dare to question? You have always been mysterious and unfathomable, and never needed to display your power to prove yourself to us disciples."

"The truth about your ancient universe is quite interesting indeed."

Tu Xin, standing nearby, also appeared surprised. He had previously assumed that the old man refrained from using his time-based rules because he knew they couldn't defeat his opponent. Who would have thought he didn't possess that power at all? Instead, he commanded the law of dimension, one of the three supreme laws.

The old man smiled. "Why did you all assume that the race controlling time was the one who emerged victorious back then?"

"Was it because he held the greatest advantage at the time, using his time law to construct the 'great vessel' that is the Longevity Realm? And thereby dominated that battle?"

Everyone held their breath, their gaze fixed on the ancient, eternal being before them.

The old man stated calmly, "The three clans are mutually restrictive... Time inherently restrains life. No matter how formidable a bloodline, it turns to dust when confronted by time. Be you a prodigy or a hero, in a billion years, you'll be nothing but yellow earth and white bones." He continued, "Dimension restrains time. To deal with one who masters the rules of time, I merely need to descend from the fourth dimension and, like an assassin, instantly kill the opponent. That is sufficient."

In that battle, Zhi Zhu knew the terrifying power of the Time Lord who commanded the Longevity Realm. The opponent had used the immense power of time to frantically cultivate countless talents, such as Zhi Ji and Rong Cheng. The geniuses under the Time Lord's command were formidable in warfare, constituting seventy percent of all extraordinary beings at that time. Zhi Zhu's own forces stood no chance of resistance, so he resorted to secret assassination and usurpation.

"It wasn't that he was unprepared for me; he hid within temporal gaps. However, dimension transcends all defenses... That battle, truly, is a complex ancient tale, one that would take me a year to fully recount."

He smiled, then looked at the Zerg Matriarch before him. "Your thinking was flawed from the very beginning. Have you not realized that your Zerg hive is not a race governed by a single life rule?"

The Zerg Matriarch's expression instantly turned blank. "Our Zerg were not a race based on a single life rule from the very beginning?"

"Your Excellency, you must have already figured it out, haven't you?" Zhi Zhu, the old man, raised his head to look at Emperor Zun. "In that battle back then, though space-time was isolated and it was a dimension-reducing sneak attack, outsiders couldn't have witnessed it. However, given your wisdom, I suspect you have already discerned everything from the captured Zerg hive – the true history, that Ren Jiu was long ago ambushed."

"What the hell do I know? He's talking about these historical secrets with me, but I'm not genuinely an ancient being..." Xu Zhi's eye twitched slightly.

"Naturally," Emperor Zun replied, his hands clasped behind his back. "Every cosmic epoch is like a similar bloom; the overarching trend remains constant, though minor details may shift. The era of the Longevity Realm is a destined grand trend; who emerges victorious within it is a trivial matter... That battle obscured the void, so no one truly knew what transpired, nor did I witness it myself... But the clues were too obvious, easily deduced."

Xu Zhi offered an ambiguous response, then settled back to observe.

"Indeed, it's too obvious." At this moment, the Zerg Matriarch's gaze sharpened as she instantly grasped the implication. "My Zerg Matriarch is not a singular race at all; it is a new species forged from the combined fusion of Time and Life, two of the universe's supreme races!"

The Zerg are known for evolving life bloodlines. Yet, strangely, they possess a terrifying rule: Genesis. This allows them to enter a time flow far exceeding that of high-dimensional space-time. It is precisely this horrifying acceleration of time that enables the Zerg's capabilities to be fully unleashed!

After all, no matter how proficient the Zerg are at evolving life, it still requires vast amounts of time for accumulation. Therefore, the Zerg, being reliant on time, could not possibly appear as incredibly formidable as they do now without this unique trait.

"And it's precisely because they possess the characteristics of time that the Zerg hive is immortal, isn't it?" The Zerg Matriarch's expression grew entirely somber. "The truth of history is now slowly peeling away. I should have recognized these various clues much earlier."

Tu Xin's eyes flickered, and with his hands clasped behind his back, his demeanor turned cold. "Indeed. Considering it from their perspective, after the Zerg and Time clans were defeated, watching the great vessel of the Longevity Realm sink into the universe's core, beginning its clandestine journey to the distant future... and knowing both races would be confined to that era until their natural demise, what would have been their optimal move?" He concluded, "It must have been to unite, to struggle one last time, even if it meant death."

Tu Xin elaborated, "As the Longevity Realm journeyed into the distant future, the Time Clan and the Zerg were confined to that particular segment of time. Yet, they remained the strongest powers of their era. Thus, they marshaled the entire universe's resources to research and create the culmination of their efforts – the Zerg."

This, then, was the true history of the Longevity Realm. Through these various clues, everyone now clearly saw the genuine truth of that era. The Zerg, it turned out, were a fusion of two of the three supreme races tied to the cosmic supreme rules. This is why even the Longevity Realm, over countless eons, had been unable to eradicate this persistent 'thorn.' However, for their adversaries, the Zerg posed no fatal threat. Had it not been for the variable introduced by the prehistoric universe, the current Zerg would have merely served as a generational gene bank, providing extraordinary bloodlines.

"The fourth person is Ren Jiu, the one who commands time." Zhi Zhu lowered his head, gently observing the Zerg hive, then lightly pointed. "That fellow is still trapped in a bygone space-time, having been disoriented for far too long. Unless someone seeks him out, he will remain confined within his own prison. He harnessed time, imprisoning himself within a century-long loop that began 14.12037 billion years ago, endlessly reliving that segment of the timeline." He continued, "He entrusted the means to awaken him to the Second Matriarch, enabling his quantum-space-time transfer to the distant future. However, the Second Matriarch was already slain and intercepted, allowing me to seize his prison key. He effectively sealed his own fate."

Time travel! Everyone shivered, goosebumps rising upon their skin. Was this the profound power of the universe's three supreme rules? Each of these rules had left a secret door, and then attained their Dao through that very door. This went beyond what could be described as merely divine; to achieve the Dao by exploiting a loophole in the power of time was utterly heaven-defying.

"It's a form of quantum transfer, in a sense, transmitting one's will into a body within this space-time."

He gently squeezed his palm. "How foolish, how utterly foolish. Even if he hid the key in the most secret place, I would find it over the long ages and thus control his life and death... But was he truly foolish? No, he had no other option. This was his sole gamble, even with a mere one-in-ten-billion chance." He concluded, "But he won his gamble, and therefore, he lives."