654 Short 500 Years

Xu Jingming wandered through the massive ruins, taking in the vibrant lakes, mountains, and creatures that surrounded him. Although the legacies are gone, I have gained something even more valuable than an Eternal legacy!

Before arriving at this territory ruin, Xu Jingming had been ignorant of the 152 schools of the Heart Realm. But now, he understood their strengths, weaknesses, and core cultivation methods.

He had newfound confidence and a clearer understanding of his path.

The lakes of emotion and desire are crucial for cultivation in the Heart Realm lineage, and even sin has its place. Xu Jingming gazed at the colorful lakes, knowing he could use them in the future.

Whoosh!

Xu Jingming took off and set off to explore the next territory ruin, soaring higher into the vast chaos.

Time to head to a higher spatial layer. He entered a higher spatial layer and discovered that the area he could explore was a spherical space centered around his territory.

As he flew, he realized that the spatial layer in the spherical space was within his detection range.

In the universe, space is three-dimensional in length, width, and height. But in high-dimensional space, there’s also the spatial layer and the timeline. Ordinary high-dimensional lifeforms can’t cross the timeline, he thought.

Low-dimensional lifeforms lived in a single spatial layer, like a flatbread. However, many spatial layers were like a thousand or even billion-layer flatbread!

The spatial layers had no limit, just like the length of high-dimensional space.

According to human science, the Firstborn realm and the Eternal realm are four-dimensional lifeforms, occupying not only the normal length, width, and height but also the spatial layer.

But the third-realm existences, they are on a whole different level. They are five-dimensional lifeforms, not only occupying the normal dimensions and the spatial layer but also the timeline. They have the ability to unify all their timelines and lock them into one, making them undying.

Being locked onto the timeline meant that their future was secured and everything was sealed. They couldn’t be killed.

Even if the difference in strength between third-realm powerhouses was multiples of one another or even if an enemy were to kill all their clones in a single timeline, the countless timelines of the other party were the same lifeform. Their countless clones in the other timelines would instantly revive the clone in this timeline.

After all, they were all at the third realm. It was impossible for them to wipe out countless clones in countless timelines. Therefore, every third-realm powerhouse who didn’t wish to die wouldn’t die.

It’s no wonder there’s such a huge gap between the half-step third realm and the true third realm. After all, one is a four-dimensional lifeform and the other is a five-dimensional lifeform. As Xu Jingming flew and explored, he couldn’t help but think about how powerful these third-realm existences truly were.

Although the territory established in the Heart Realm was small, he could still sense some similar spatial layers from afar. These spatial layers were also areas that Xu Jingming needed to explore.

The territory ruins of an Eternal are very large, so I can space out my exploration. His trajectory was like a huge sieve with huge holes, but as long as he didn’t miss out on potential territory ruins, it didn’t matter.

…

“Time flies by so fast.” Xu Jingming sipped on a cup of coffee, brewed by his wife.

“It’s true; time is moving rapidly,” Li Miaomiao said with a smile. “It’s been 500 years since you became a cosmic legend.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Xu Jingming said, his emotions mixed. “What I mean is, I feel like these 500 years have gone by in the blink of an eye, like five hours.”

“Five hours?” Li Miaomiao was taken aback. “Think about all that’s happened in the past 500 years. The Xu family has grown to the twelfth generation. How can it feel like only five hours?”

Starting with Xu Jingming, the third generation of the Xu family was Xu Fangjin and Xu Biyun. They were considered late in getting married and having children, as those who did so before the age of 20 were considered fast.

Although many people got married and had children very late after becoming cosmic lifeforms, the Xu family had grown to more than 10,000 members.

This was already considered ‘slow reproduction.’

“It’s indeed like five hours.” Xu Jingming nodded. “Watching the younger generation multiply generation after generation—each having a handful of children and their children having children… In the blink of an eye, there are more than 10,000. It’s like watching a colony of ants multiply. Before we know it, we’ve gone from a few ants to an ant kingdom.”

“Those are our descendants,” Li Miaomiao couldn’t help but say.

“And all of this happened in 500 years,” Xu Jingming said with a smile. “Imagine what will happen in another 500 years. How many people will the Xu family have? 100 million? We’ll multiply like ants.”

“100 million?” Li Miaomiao’s heart skipped a beat at the thought.

“That’s how it is for cosmic races,” Xu Jingming continued. “Some large families’ territories can occupy dozens of galaxies, and the family population is in the trillions.”

“The reason I feel like time is moving so fast isn’t because of my descendants or the expansion of Earth’s territory,” Xu Jingming said. “It’s because my construction of a high-dimensional body has been in the accumulation stage for 500 years.”

The dean and others had given him all kinds of methods for building a high-dimensional body, but the process was highly involved.

Even with Xu Jingming’s quick mind, it had taken him 500 years to make less than 50% progress. It would likely take a couple more centuries to complete.

He analyzed everything, and this was only the first detailed pass! It was the foundation of the accumulation period.

“Becoming a high-dimensional lifeform is no easy feat,” Li Miaomiao comforted.

“It’s like focusing on an analysis question,” Xu Jingming said with a sigh. “When you’re less than halfway through, you look up and see that 500 years have passed. The stronger one’s life is, the shorter time appears.

When a powerful high-dimensional lifeform was focused on a problem, the time spent could be enough for a low-dimensional lifeform to go through the entire process of being born to dying of old age.

“Jingming,” Li Miaomiao grasped her husband’s hand tightly. “Will my life seem insignificant in the grand scheme of your long existence?”

“That will never be the case,” Xu Jingming replied, his eyes fixed on his wife. “Your lifespan will be just as long as mine.”

As the Xu family continued to grow, with their children and grandchildren numbering in the billions or even trillions, Xu Jingming knew he would never know the names of all his descendants.

The best he could do was create fair competition rules for them all. He couldn’t be biased towards anyone.

But when it came to his wife, Li Miaomiao, his daughter—Xu Lixing—and other important relatives, his attitude was entirely different. He would do everything in his power to ensure they lived the best and longest lives possible.

Spawn, Xu Jingming thought to himself.

There were many ways to extend the lifespans of low-dimensional beings to match that of high-dimensional ones. And any legacy was infinitely valuable. Thankfully, he had already obtained Monhado.

The more he learned, the more Xu Jingming realized the true worth of Monhado and Red Lotus Fire, especially since Monhado was the original copy of a legacy.

Just as the dean, Tower Master, Island Lord, and others had believed, they had paid a great price to prepare treasures for Xu Jingming, but they had ultimately profited greatly once he offered the original copy of Monhado.

…

Heart Realm.

Xu Jingming prowled the vast expanse of his territory, delving deep into the many layers of the spherical space surrounding it.

I’ve roughly covered all these spatial layers. Even if there are any gaps in my exploration, the Eternal realm ruins are vast and impossible to miss. In other words, I’m done searching all Eternal realm or higher ruins.

I’ll probably only be able to find some smaller territory ruins through a carpet search, Xu Jingming thought to himself.

After so many years of exploration, I’ve uncovered a total of eight territory ruins. One was a half-step third-realm territorial ruin—Valley Goldstone’s. The other seven are all Eternal realm ruins.

Sadly… the eight territory ruins have all been explored by other powerhouses. There are no treasures or legacies left. Xu Jingming couldn’t help feeling a sense of helplessness.

It was normal for ancient territory ruins to have been explored by others.

Of the eight territorial ruins, Senior Valley Goldstone’s was the most beneficial, he thought. The other seven combined can’t even compare. That old man was like an encyclopedia of knowledge.

It wasn’t just the Firstborn realm and the Eternal realm; he provided plenty of explanations of the higher third realm existences.

An old man who had lived for 150 Abyssal Eras had explored 12 third-realm territory ruins and had received pointers from two living third-realm powerhouses! Valley Goldstone was indeed knowledgeable.

This is also the uniqueness of the Heart Realm lineage. The Heart Realm lineage only needs to find a way to obtain one or two legacies to focus on! Then, they can explore a multitude of territory ruins to broaden their horizons and experience, Xu Jingming thought.

The various systems had their own advantages.

Xu Jingming would quickly surpass the dean, Tower Master, and Island Lord in terms of high-dimensional information accumulation.

As long as high-dimensional lifeforms from the Heart Realm lineage lived long and explored more ruins, they would become knowledgeable. Other lineages were incomparable.

Whoosh.

Xu Jingming’s Cleansing Lotus clone was on a mission, combing through the area with precision and following the established rules.

Speaking of which, Origin lifeforms would feel tired and fed up after constantly exploring for so many years. But for Xu Jingming, reaching the Heart of Cleansing Lotus was just another usual day. He had been exploring for hundreds of years, and it felt like a five-minute stroll to him.

He didn’t feel tired at all and thought nothing of it.

The cultivation of Red Lotus Fire and the construction of a high-dimensional body were all eluding him.

To him, exploring the Heart Realm was a form of relaxation.

Huh?

Xu Jingming looked at the land in front of him and wasn’t surprised to find yet another territory ruin. A new territory ruin?

But instead of rushing in to find the core, he slowly circled the edge of the ruins, examining every detail.

What a small one! Xu Jingming frowned slightly. It’s not even one-ten-thousandth of Granddreamer’s territory ruins or one-millionth of Valley Goldstone’s territory ruins. It should be a Firstborn realm ruin.

In the Heart Realm, more than 90% of the territory ruins were left behind by Eternal realm powerhouses, making Firstborn realm territory ruins very rare.

He died despite already entering the Heart Realm? This made him even more vigilant, knowing that he too must be careful when he became a high-dimensional lifeform in the future. He couldn’t perish at the Firstborn realm like the owner of this ruin. That would be sad.