682 Gumo’s Observation

The karmic assault had made him realize the beast hide’s true worth.

The original copy of the Eight Directions Map was an invaluable treasure, one of the 3,000 legacies personally created by Feather Fire Lord. Furthermore, it contained eight spaces for supplementary cultivation.

The beast hide space had been created by the half-step third realm—Liu Mangxing—at great cost to himself, all for the sake of his child. He was clearly very good at isolating karma.

The value of the beast hide space isn’t inferior to the original Eight Directions Map, Xu Jingming thought. As a weakling in the world of high-dimensional lifeforms, the beast hide space was extremely precious to him.

Asinus! You want to completely wipe out all my clones over a small conflict? Xu Jingming’s steely gaze turned frigid.

High-dimensional lifeforms, despite their conflicts, seldom resorted to lethal violence. They all possessed some arcane abilities hidden away, which made the outcome of a battle impossible to predict.

But Asinus, having conducted numerous Abyss Sacrifices, had grown more ruthless and savage with each passing day. Sensing that Xu Jingming was a mere Firstborn at the peak of his realm, Asinus saw an opportunity to eliminate him without mercy.

I’ll sever this karmic thread once I’ve gained enough strength. Xu Jingming could only grit his teeth and swallow his pride. Eliminating a carrier of consciousness was already a taxing feat for him, rendering him no match for Asinus’s genuine form.

…

Asinus, in the center of the sacrificial array formation, waited in silence.

Huh?

Although he wasn’t skilled in the Karma lineage, Asinus could sense that his Heart Realm enemy was still alive.

Despite wiping out many of the scoundrel’s clones, there are still some left. Asinus frowned. I paid a high price for this unexpected failure.

Not being able to kill him, there will be repercussions. He’ll probably retaliate when he reaches the Eternal Realm. Asinus smiled. I have plenty of enemies, one more won’t make a difference.

He didn’t care at all. He had enemies all over, thanks to his countless Abyss Sacrifices.

With the power of the Abyss behind him, Asinus was fearless.

As long as I avoid those half-step third-realm factions, who can touch me? He could take on anyone, as long as they weren’t a half-step third-realm faction.

He knew better than to provoke truly terrifying existences. He had learned that growing up in the Abyss.

As for Xu Jingming, the Heart Realm scoundrel, Asinus couldn’t care less if he reached peak Eternal.

As for the half-step third realm?

The half-step third realm was a rare achievement across a dominion, and the half-step third realm powerhouses from the Heart Realm lineage? They were as scarce as a hen’s teeth.

Asinus, however, was not one to dwell on such uncertainties. He had already accepted his fate, no matter how bad it may be.

Although I’ve reached peak Eternal, I need to go one step further to become an Abyss Overlord. The sacrifices required are astronomical, to say the least. Ten thousand high-dimensional lifeforms or the entire population of three universes. High-dimensional lifeforms are notoriously hard to come by, and each one has unique means to protect themselves. It wasn’t easy for me to gather a mere 72 of them. 10,000? It’s virtually impossible. Asinus’s frustration was palpable.

As for sacrificing all living beings in three universes? Asinus scoffed at the idea. Each universe is teeming with high-dimensional Eternal lifeforms, ready to put up a fight. Even a half-step third-realm powerhouse would struggle to destroy a universe, let alone me.

Asinus was also vexed. He was stuck.

He was so close to becoming an Abyss Overlord, yet so far. The sacrifice required was massive.

And the thought of becoming an Abyss Sovereign? Ordinary high-dimensional lifeforms and cosmic lifeforms were useless. Numbers were useless. It required a special kind of sacrifice—one Asinus was completely unaware of.

I’ll just have to arm myself with stronger weapons and treasures before slowly taking out these high-dimensional lifeforms, he growled, his killing intent palpable. To Asinus, each lifeform was just another stepping stone on his path to greatness.

******

Time passed.

The conflict with Asinus had left Xu Jingming on edge, and the latter chose experimental planets with the utmost care!

He avoided the low-dimensional species that were controlled by natural high-dimensional beings.

He shied away from dominions that were under the thumb of the high-dimensional lifeforms that engaged in the heinous Abyss Sacrifice.

And of course, he never dared to approach anything related to the half-step third realm.

After 28 years, I’ve finally visited the 1,987 neighboring dominions. There are a total of 12,052 experimental universes and planets. Xu Jingming was rather excited. In the later experiments, the number of human criminals on every experimental planet dwindled to 500,000.

I’ve only had two conflicts on over 10,000 experimental planets, Xu Jingming mused, a satisfied smile on his face. I must have quite the level-headed temperament.

Two clashes.

The first had been with Asinus. And then there was the second, with a high-dimensional Eternal lifeform from the Primordial Star lineage, Stork Inferno.

Stork Inferno had destroyed one of his experimental planets without a word, his bad temper getting the best of him. Even his companions had been powerless to stop him.

It was too much for Xu Jingming to bear. He refused to seek revenge on the low-dimensional lifeforms counterparts. Instead, he descended into the Heart Realm, infiltrating the core locations of the species that had caused him so much grief.

They were all guarded by high-dimensional lifeform consciousness carriers.

His unique Heart Realm lineage allowed him to plunder many treasures in revenge.

…

On Myriad Star Island, the dean, Tower Master, Island Lord, and Redmond invited Xu Jingming to a banquet.

“Jingming, it’s been a tough mission for you,” the dean said as he personally poured the wine, “You haven’t taken a single day off in the past 28 years.”

“For the migration of the species, this is a minor sacrifice,” Xu Jingming replied with a serene smile. “Out of the 12,052 experimental planets, only two have been destroyed by Asinus and Stork Inferno. However, before their demise, I had gathered some valuable experimental data. The data from these two experimental planets wasn’t anything noteworthy.”

“It’s already a remarkable feat to filter so many universes,” the dean mused, his words heavy with awe. “We have really done our best for the human race.”

Eternal Tower Master spoke up. “Xu Jingming, have you discovered anything worthwhile in the past 28 years?”

“The top ten experimental planets have shown promising results,” Xu Jingming explained. “Test Planet #1068, in particular, has a survival rate of 96.1% in ten years. Over the past 26 years, the survival rate has only dropped to 92.8%. Considering that the lifespan of planetary lifeforms is only 200 to 300 years, we can expect to make significant conclusions in the next few generations.”

The dean, Tower Master, Island Lord, and Redmond couldn’t contain their joy.

“A survival rate of over 90% is already a remarkable achievement,” the dean said in amazement.

After all, they were the weakest planetary lifeforms from a different universe.

“As per our plan,” Spacetime Island Lord said, “the experiment will continue for a thousand years. We will be able to observe multiple generations and any potential changes that occur.”

Xu Jingming nodded in agreement.

The human criminals were multiplying rapidly on the planet, generations produced every few decades. Over a thousand years was a perfect opportunity to observe the effects of the cosmic environment on human planetary lifeforms.

“If the results remain promising, let’s transfer some cosmic lifeform criminals over and see how they adapt,” the dean suggested.

“Alright, I’ll do a second migration for the top ten planets.” But there was something that puzzled Xu Jingming. “I’ve been to so many dominions and experimented on so many planets over the years, but I’ve never encountered a high-dimensional lifeform of the Void Celestials.”

The Void Celestials were neighbors with humans, so humans naturally had information on Void Celestial high-dimensional lifeforms! Humans also had some information on the powerful high-dimensional lifeforms in the Black Lotus Realm.

“Not a single one?” Redmond was puzzled.

“I haven’t encountered Void Celestials or high-dimensional lifeforms from the Black Lotus realm in the other dominions,” Xu Jingming confirmed with a nod.

The dean said, “We need to find a suitable universe to migrate our species, but the Void Celestials’ methods are much more brilliant than ours. They might not need to employ such experimental means.”

…

Black Lotus Realm.

Gumo’s long and narrow eyes scanned the timeline and the blurred future that lay before him. Countless future branches split off in every direction, making it even harder for him to discern what was to come.

With unwavering focus, he followed one of the future branches and observed what lay ahead.

Huh?

Gumo smiled. After all these years of toiling away, I’ve finally found a better universe. The Starding 1033 dominion, a universe that is 98.3% similar to our own!

I’ll send our species to experiment living there in the future. The results of the experiments will be remarkable. The survival rate of planetary lifeforms across 100 years exceeds 95%, and all cosmic lifeforms survived.

He didn’t need to carry out any experiments himself. With a mere thought, he could observe the results of experiments in the future.

The Starding 1033 dominion shall be placed on the candidate list.

Once we move to a new dominion, we have to consider the attitude of the half-step third-realm powerhouses in that dominion. Gumo frowned slightly.

For the human race, migration was a small matter since they didn’t occupy vast amounts of space.

But for the Void Celestials, it was much more troublesome. If a half-step third-realm powerhouse like Gumo were to follow, the power structure of a dominion would change, and it was even possible for him to be expelled by multiple half-step third-realm powerhouses.

Therefore, Gumo knew he had to be cautious when carrying out the migration.

Gumo had already selected many alternative dominions through his observations of the future. But then, his expression turned nasty. Human Wu Ming? In the future, we Void Celestials are forced to migrate for a second time. During the second migration, we seized the cosmic dominion of humanity’s new homeworld. Our species becomes mortal enemies with humanity!

Human Wu Ming clashes with me many times in the later stages, but I can’t do anything to him?

In another future I observed, I’d tried to wipe him out in the early stages, wiping out the entire human race.

However, I couldn’t kill him. In fact, because we became enemies too early, he destroyed the Black Lotus Realm and all the Void Celestials in just 500,000 years. I died too!

Gumo’s heart trembled as he considered the terrifying existence that had darkness engulfing the endless dominion in that particular timeline.

His growth is unstoppable. Could it be… Gumo fell into thought. As a half-step third realm powerhouse, there was a limit to what he could do. There were simply too many unknown variables at play.

There’s only one thing I know for sure. In that timeline, he will become an Abyss Sovereign in the future. He can easily destroy the Black Lotus Realm and crush me, Gumo thought. I can’t touch this Human Wu Ming.