Chapter 729: High-Dimensional Spacetime

The Lord of Reincarnation stood calmly in the void.

In the dark, vast universe, the sun’s outline glowed at its brightest, like an ancient, eternal furnace radiating endless light and heat, seemingly orbiting a magnificent golden hearth.

"I have simulated countless eras of extraordinary civilizations. Perhaps it's time to see what my true capabilities are," Xu Zhi murmured to himself.

A rumble echoed. A mournful wail followed. The giant octopus emitted furious mental waves, its countless tentacles softly thrashing, stirring the boundless void into ripples as if everything was undulating outwards.

This was a power unimaginable to ordinary Heaven Emperors.

A Heaven Emperor of such a physique could almost sweep aside any overlord in the Heaven Emperor realm; perhaps only a true god could pose a mortal threat to it.

Yet, before it stood a group of ridiculous, ant-like Heaven Emperors. How could it not be enraged?

Even Xu Zhi clearly felt its wrath.

He even heard its furious telepathic roar: "Where did these weak cosmic races come from? Surrender to me at once!"

A group of Heaven Emperors circled around it.

They were like a swarm of ridiculous fleas surrounding an elephant.

"An extraterrestrial fiend?" a revered Buddha, enveloped in a halo of golden light like a small sun, whispered softly with clasped hands. "Such a terrifying being..."

"Heh, a truly astonishing behemoth. How deep are the mysteries of this world? Lord of Reincarnation, what truth are you truly hiding?" A handsome, tall scholar with fair skin, holding a feather fan, spoke. This was clearly the Lord of Nether Mountain, an avatar controlled by the Bodhi Tree of Human Heads.

"Such an immense life form is indeed astonishing! It ought to be guided into my Pure Land for salvation, but clearly, with such a colossal size..." another towering Buddha, radiating benevolence, commented.

However, the players paid little heed to such grandstanding.

"These guys from the Heavenly Human Path and the Beast Path are so despicable, just blathering on, chatting and flattering each other as if nothing's happening, waiting for others to test the waters first." "Shameless!"

"But now that we're on this side, our time flow is the same as theirs. Everyone's thoughts and actions are equally fast. So, this is the entrance to the Heavenly Human Path? The dungeon's time flow is consistent with the Heavenly Human Path!"

"It's highly likely there's also Heavenly Human repulsion here. When we, from the Beast Path, enter the other two paths, we can enjoy their time flow, but prolonged stays will cause repulsion. We probably can't stay here long; this dungeon has a time limit."

"Those sly Heavenly Human Path titans are chatting right now, probably because they've noticed something, knowing we might not be able to wait and expecting us to make the first move."

The leaders of several player factions wore grim expressions.

"Can't you just be honest NPCs?"

"So cunning, always trying to mess with us players?"

They began to discuss tactics for clearing the dungeon, and Yuan Qinghua was among them.

In this situation, the Heavenly Human Path, Mortal Path, and Beast Path factions were engaged in intricate scheming, while the players from the Underworld faction were temporarily not included in this calculation.

Currently, the Heavenly Human Path was the calmest, waiting for the other two paths to act.

"We're not in a hurry either. We're the weakest, and we're better at enduring and biding our time than them. The Mortal Path is much stronger than us, and they also experience Heavenly Human repulsion, so they probably won't be able to sit still and will make the first move."

The players mumbled among themselves. In their view, even provoking Emperor Qi was a profound art!

Although Emperor Qi was restrained by the Three Pillar Gods, how could he tolerate someone from this world touching the giant octopus he had spent a lifetime searching for?

He was always the one stealing from others; now someone was stealing from him?

Seizing the giant octopus would likely trigger a war between the two worlds. This was merely the first confrontation; these player factions would probably have to face Emperor Qi again in the future!

Terrifying divine thoughts reverberated. The sight of these tiny beings surrounding but not attacking utterly enraged the terrifying cosmic octopus. It furiously stretched out its tentacles, spreading them wide, intending to instantly crush these ridiculous, buzzing creatures.

Thwack!

It suddenly accelerated, swinging its tentacles to attack its surroundings, but the tentacles moved surprisingly slowly, and the surrounding Heaven Emperors easily dodged them in an instant.

"For such a colossal being, its tentacles should be its weapons. How can their attack speed be so slow?" "It's as if its thought processes and physical speed are on a different dimension than ours." "Like the feeling of the Heavenly Human Path facing the Mortal Path?"

Countless Heaven Emperors leisurely drifted away, their expressions growing increasingly serious, fearing some hidden danger or that the opponent was deliberately concealing its true abilities. After all, such an immense cosmic life form was truly terrifying and daunting.

As for the Asura Path warriors from the Beast Path in the distance? They were habitually categorized as a separate group to avoid being "infected" by them.

"ROAR!!" The next second, the giant octopus's divine sense let out an earth-shattering roar, "How is this possible?! You are all descendants of ancient gods! How can there be so many descendants of ancient gods?!"

It grew even more enraged.

"Holy cow! Run, brothers! He's furious!" "Terrifying! A descendant of the Stock God! How did he know I was playing the stock market?!" "Hiss! A law-based attack, mind-reading! How did he know I wanted to be the Stock God's son? Run, guys, run!"

In the distance, the Lord of Reincarnation remained calm. Xu Zhi softly asked, "Intelligent Sub-Brain, what does 'descendant of ancient gods' mean?"

A mechanical voice replied: "Unknown. Terminology varies among civilizations, but based on context, it likely refers to the offspring of deities in the cosmos who have completed the Eighth-Tier path."

"'Descendant of ancient gods' means a deity's offspring? Why is it so surprised then?" Xu Zhi paused, bewildered, then said, "The bloodline of an Eighth-Tier deity's offspring, at most, would be purer and their talent stronger, but they shouldn't possess any special abilities, right?"

The Intelligent Sub-Brain answered: "It's not that there are no special inherited bloodline abilities. It's because the insect race's unique advantage allows deities to bypass a cultivation stage."

"What stage?" Xu Zhi asked, utterly perplexed. "Is there an Eighth-Tier path in addition to the Ninth-Tier path?"

The Ninth-Tier path is the path where cells, soul, and body merge, a fundamental method for elevating life's essence.

So, what is the Eighth-Tier path?

Xu Zhi found it incredible.

He seemed to have never encountered this stage before.

While it was possible he simply hadn't noticed it himself, so many ancient deity titans, even those on the verge of breaking through to the Ninth-Tier, hadn't discovered an Eighth-Tier path either.

Suddenly, Xu Zhi trembled, and a realization exploded in his mind. "The Eighth-Tier path is also a fundamental method for elevating life's essence! It's also climbing a certain path... Is it the path to higher-dimensional space-time with accelerated time flow?"

"Precisely," the Insect Race Sub-Brain's mechanical voice responded.

Xu Zhi stood motionless, speechless.

So, Eighth-Tier deities also had to climb a path – the path of thought?

True gods were those who increased their thought speed, cellular speed, and reaction speed...

Ten times... fifty times... one hundred times was the limit.

Was the Eighth-Tier path about climbing this particular path?

Only at this moment did Xu Zhi realize that the Intelligent Sub-Brain had previously mentioned the insect race's inherent advantage: they naturally existed in higher-dimensional thought-space.

However, the insect race was not the only one in the universe with this ability.

Some advanced cosmic civilizations, upon reaching the Seventh-Tier and the emergence of deities, began to climb this path... Thought dimension was the hallmark of advanced civilizations!

When a higher-dimensional being faces a lower-dimensional being, the latter is virtually static. How can they fight?

An analogy was made previously: it was akin to an insect race being coming to Earth, where humans would appear almost as static statues because the insect race stood in higher-dimensional space-time... Killing you at will would be effortless.

Now, everything made perfect sense!

"So that's it? The Eighth-Tier path of thought involves a higher-dimensional being fighting a lower-dimensional being... And the Ninth-Tier path of cells also involves a higher-dimensional being fighting a lower-dimensional being..."

"Because a Ninth-Tier being can distort cosmic laws, it's like manipulating a spread-out anatomical blueprint of flesh and blood."

Xu Zhi's voice was cold.

He had personally witnessed how Ninth-Tier beings, as higher-dimensional entities, could inherently distort the cosmic law field, making it as easy to defeat creatures without law phenomena as tearing wet toilet paper with a finger.

Eighth-Tier represents one dimension of being. Ninth-Tier represents another dimension of being. Each path signifies an ascent in dimension, transforming one into a higher-dimensional being.

Xu Zhi took a deep breath. "This perfectly aligns! No wonder none of us have walked the Eighth-Tier path of deities, because I've always kept their time acceleration at its maximum. No wonder it's said that the insect race is the universe's apex race, because they naturally completed the Eighth-Tier path... Breaking through to the deity realm in the cosmos is harder than we imagined!"

The more he thought about it, the broader his understanding became, and the path ahead seemed clear.

The complete systematic design of a cosmic civilization had now fully unveiled itself.

So, there was an Eighth-Tier path at the Eighth-Tier, not just a dimensional ascension path starting at the Ninth-Tier!

At this moment, Xu Zhi fully grasped all the structural and racial secrets of the insect race. There were no longer any inexplicable principles or constructions.

Knowledge was the ultimate power.

Suddenly, Xu Zhi opened his mouth and asked, "The insect race is the top civilization in the universe because they naturally completed the Eighth-Tier path, reaching 100% mastery... So, in the cosmos, are there any apex races that naturally completed 100% of the Ninth-Tier path?"

The Intelligent Sub-Brain did not answer directly, only pausing before saying, "The universe is vast."

"The universe is vast, is it?" Xu Zhi smiled, refraining from further questions. He then said, "So, when this giant octopus mentioned 'descendants of ancient gods,' it referred to the offspring inheriting Eighth-Tier deities' bloodlines? Their bodies would naturally possess a controllable time-flow talent, allowing them to enter higher-dimensional space-time, inherently making them higher-dimensional beings?"

"Precisely," the Intelligent Sub-Brain replied.

"So that's how it is?" Xu Zhi's gaze drifted, looking towards the enraged giant octopus.

This giant octopus was also a descendant of ancient gods.

It could control itself to enter "thought-based higher dimensions," and its bloodline purity seemed quite high. Its current body moved at 59 times the normal speed. No wonder it was so proud; with such a massive Heaven Emperor physique and being an offspring of an ancient god, it had never encountered any opponent in the Heaven Emperor realm, crushing everything in its path.

"Pure-blooded? How can there be so many pure-blooded descendants of ancient gods, and a whole group of them..." The cosmic octopus furiously waved its tentacles, both shocked and terrified. "Even direct descendants with terrifying talent can't perfectly inherit; their purity is usually around 80 percent. Only offspring born from two ancient gods could possibly achieve true pure-bloodedness..."

Xu Zhi's expression remained exceptionally calm as he gazed indifferently at the cosmic octopus.

"Their thought dimension can be self-controlled to enter," Xu Zhi suddenly interjected. "It's like instantaneously stepping from lower-dimensional space-time into higher-dimensional space-time, instantly becoming a higher-dimensional being for combat."

The mechanical sub-brain replied, "Naturally, it's controllable. They only enter higher-dimensional space-time and become higher-dimensional beings during combat; otherwise, their life force would rapidly deplete. Our insect race, however, is constantly accelerated. A deity can only survive about two and a half months in higher-dimensional space-time, merely eighty days."

Xu Zhi rubbed his nose. "So, deities in the universe truly can live for a full eight millennia, unlike the deities in my orchard who can only live for a little over two months. I thought everyone was like that..."

The giant octopus's expression changed completely, and it became utterly enraged. "Is this your confidence to challenge my Galway Alliance? Even if your bloodline purity is higher than mine, this mere doubling of speed cannot bridge the gap between us! You pitiful, ant-like creatures, await being crushed to death by me!"

Its endless tentacles released golden energy, sweeping across the entire land.

Whoosh. The Heaven Emperors still dared not engage, each using their innate abilities to shift away, scattering softly like a swarm of fireflies.

The next second, the giant octopus's divine sense let out an earth-shattering roar, as if encountering the most terrifying and unimaginable thing in its life. "How is this possible?! You are not descendants of ancient gods, you are all... you are all descendants of worlds! How can there be so many descendants of worlds?!"

In the distance, the players also looked bewildered. They were live-streaming and screen-recording, whispering to each other, indicating their confusion.

"Descendants of senior sisters?"

"Holy cow! How does he know I like my senior sister from our department and want to have kids with her?"

"Nonsense, my senior sister plays Hou Yi like a pro, with six Infinity Blades, she can reach King tier!"

"Mind-reading confirmed!"