Chapter 3411: Consolidation

Ancient God grinned. The movement unintentionally tore the flesh around his mouth, but he did not seem to even notice. He turned to the other side. "Big Thug?"

Wu Tian sighed. "If you can survive something like this, you’ll probably never die."

"Not necessarily. If you keep acting so recklessly, no one will be able to save you," Hongyan Mavis said with disapproval.

Ancient God looked at Hongyan Mavis. "I won’t."

The woman’s expression softened. "Good to hear."

Finally, Ancient God turned to look at Chu Yi. "Hey, Brother, you’re squeezing me."

Everyone looked over and saw that Chu Yi’s hand was pressing down on the bed. He had inadvertently pressed down on a bit of the flesh that remained on Ancient God’s arm.

Embarrassed, Chu Yi quickly removed his hand. "

Ahem.

Sorry about that. It doesn’t hurt, does it?"

"What do you think?" Ancient God replied weakly.

"Then it doesn’t hurt," Garan Zhiluo stated bluntly.

Lu Yuan let out a sigh of relief. "Alright, you’re still alive, and that’s all that matters. You’re lucky that Little Seven reacted so quickly. He turned back time the moment he saw Master Qing Cao’s face, and he even managed to find you in time. If not for that, you’d be dead for sure."

Ancient God stared upward. "Living like this is worse than dying."

"Your name is Musclehead—you’re not dying."

"I think calling him Little Toughie would make him sound even more unkillable."

"Either way, you’re strong."

"None of you have any sense of class when you speak, do you?" Mu Zhu interjected as she entered the room. She was close to the Three Realms and Six Daos, due to the Origin Progenitor being close to Mister Mu. As Mister Mu’s disciple, Mu Zhu was naturally quite familiar with the Three Realms and Six Daos.

As she walked over to Ancient God, Mu Zhu remarked, "Not bad, Musclehead. Suffering so much humiliation for so many years was all worthwhile."

Ancient God grinned, exposing ghastly white teeth. "Where’s Mister Mu? I need to apologize to him."

"There’s no need for that. While your actions were unquestionably foolish, the final outcome wasn’t terrible. At least, that’s what my master said," Mu Zhu replied.

"You were still pretty dumb," Lu Yuan added.

"Extremely dumb."

"A lot more than just a little."

"Flora, how do you have the nerve to say that? Who was it that charged forward after someone attacked Master? Did you even think to report what had happened?"

"Exactly. There’s strength in numbers. If we’d all gone in together, those Boundary Guardians wouldn’t have stood a chance. But no, you had to be an idiot and rush off all alone. You got yourself sealed, which cost us a top fighter."

"We’re talking about Musclehead right now. Don’t drag me into things. Take it one at a time."

"And what about Blackie? Why did he have to try to show off? Look what happened to him."

"Exactly. Blackie was the biggest idiot of all. If he hadn’t died, Aeternus would have never been able to take down the Heavens Sect so easily."

"Blackie was definitely the dumbest of all. Compared to him, you’re much better, Musclehead."

"Agreed."

"All of us can agree with that."

Hearing the conversation, Lu Yin started to smile. He stared off into the distance, feeling a rare bit of warmth.

Soon, his attention turned to a corner of a distant wall. Wilderness God had been there, but he had quietly left. He had been waiting nearby, but he had never shown himself to the others.

Musclehead’s eyes darted around as he listened to Lu Yuan and the others’ chatter. A long-lost feeling of warmth surged through him, and he laughed out loud. Even though doing so tore his remaining flesh and caused pain to surge through his bones, he could not stop himself from laughing.

Chu Yi laughed.

Lu Yuan laughed.

One by one, everyone joined in. The joy was infectious and heartwarming.

Wilderness God looked back from outside the Heavens Sect. A smile split his mouth open.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Suddenly, he turned around again to face where the void had warped. Someone emerged; it was the Origin Progenitor.

The sight of the Origin Progenitor shut Wilderness God’s mouth tight, and his expression grew cold as he turned to leave.

The Origin Progenitor sighed helplessly. There were some rifts that could not be mended quickly. He looked into the Heavens Sect and took a step forward.

Lu Yin looked over when the Origin Progenitor arrived. It felt as though time had not only rolled back thirty-seven years, but rather as if they had returned to the Heavens Sect era, when humanity had stood at its peak. At that time, the Three Realms and Six Daos had reigned supreme. By human standards, it had been a primitive era.

In the current era, despite the fact that the Tianyuan Megaverse had been developing for countless years, the megaverse was still regarded as rather primitive when compared to other megaverses.

Ancient God had survived almost entirely due to Lu Yin’s actions, and all of the Three Realms and Six Daos were grateful to him.

The Origin Progenitor met with Lu Yin alone. To Lu Yin’s utter shock, the Origin Progenitor slowly bowed. Lu Yin immediately stepped forward and stopped the man. "Senior, please don’t."

The Origin Progenitor replied in a deep voice, his gratitude evident with immense relief. "Thank you for protecting this Tianyuan Megaverse, for defeating Aeternus, for reverting time and saving Musclehead, and for everything else you’ve done."

Lu Yin kept a firm grip on the Origin Progenitor, refusing to allow the old man to bow.

The Origin Progenitor was powerful, but when it came to physical strength, Lu Yin stood supreme. Without fighting against the young man, not even the Origin Progenitor could force Lu Yin to accept his bow.

"This junior doesn’t deserve this. Protecting humanity is simply my duty as a human. I didn’t roll back time just for Ancient God, but rather for the entire megaverse, as well as for myself. Senior, there’s no need for this."

The Origin Progenitor straightened back up and let out a sigh of admiration. "Good. You’re honest and not arrogant. Pillar, you’ve lived up to your master’s expectations. You are humanity’s pillar—the Sky Pillar."

Lu Yin was speechless. "Can you stop calling me ‘Pillar?’"

The Origin Progenitor’s eyes lit up. "Have you reconsidered the name Scruffy?"

"I think that ‘Pillar’ is fine. There’s no need for a change."

"What a shame, what a shame."

Lu Yin realized that he was still too young. He had thought that the Origin Progenitor’s sincere gratitude might allow him to change his nickname.

Scruffy? I just can’t...

Several days later, Lu Yin held the Peaks and Rivers Rock while he tore through the void. The stone was crushed, and Lu Yin entered the Mirari Realm.

He released all of the people that he had brought along, and they curiously observed the Mirari Realm. For those who had never visited the place before, the legendary place incited immense curiosity.

This was a place where time essentially did not exist.

Wei Nu was nowhere to be seen. There was no telling where she had gone.

A small boat could be vaguely made out, drifting along the River of Aeons.

Lu Yin ordered the people that he had brought here to either cultivate in the bamboo forest or to focus on production. As for him, he went to the River of Aeons’ shore, where the temporal mist drifted by.

"Zhao Ran."

The small boat drifted over, and Zhao Ran looked at Lu Yin with cold eyes.

Lu Yin gave her a small smile. "Can you do me a favor?"

Zhao Ran remained silent.

"I don’t want time to reset for the Mirari Realm. Let these people complete everything that they need to do here and then leave on their own. Can you do that?" Lu Yin asked.

Zhao Ran looked off into the distance before looking back at Lu Yin. "Alright."

That was all she said before she rowed her small boat away.

As long as no one else entered the Mirari Realm, time would not pass. When people left, it would be as if a mere second had passed for the outside world, no matter how long the people stayed in the Mirari Realm. In a way, the Mirari Realm was much like an upgraded version of Lu Yin’s die’s Timestop ability. However, if anyone else entered the Mirari Realm, time would reset and synchronize with the new arrival.

Lu Yin had already known that Zhao Ran would agree to his request. That was because she was still wearing a jade pendant around her neck. It was the record of her past life that she had kept with her during her time of amnesia.

Zhao Ran had become the ferryman of the River of Aeons, and as a result, her personality had grown cold when she realized that she was just an aspect of Dukkha. However, Lu Yin knew that the woman still retained her memories and emotions of her time as Zhao Ran.

"I’ll find a way to free you of this place," Lu Yin muttered softly before leaving the Mirari Realm.

When Lu Yin left, he turned around to find all the people that he had taken into the Mirari Realm standing before him.

Only a second had passed for the outside world, since the Mirari Realm’s time had not been reset and no one else had entered. For those who had been in the Mirari Realm, a great deal of time had passed. Everyone who entered had completed their tasks before leaving on their own. For Lu Yin, only a second had passed.

He finally understood how others felt whenever he used his die’s Timestop.

Such a sudden shift was something that most people would struggle to accept.

Before Lu Yin stood people who had successfully converted the Tianyuan Megaverse’s resources into power.

Cultivators from the Five Spirits Alliance, the Nine-Star Civilization, and other civilizations left to make their way to the stone gate.

Lu Yin saw Wu Tian, who had broken through and become an Ortuser. Ancient God had managed to make a partial recovery. However, the man would not be able to recover with just time, so he had been forced to leave the Mirari Realm while still in terrible condition.

Many of the Tianyuan Megaverse’s experts had entered the Mirari Realm and experienced a significant increase in strength.

Of course, not everyone was able to benefit from the additional time. Breakthroughs in cultivation often needed much more than just time.

For instance, Hongyan Mavis and Garan Zhiluo had not gone in. They both needed to break through to the Origin realm, but it was not the right time for them. Simply waiting would not give them the opportunity that they needed.

The same was also true of Chu Yi, Lu Yuan, and many others. For many people, additional time was meaningless.

For peak powerhouses and above, time did little to improve their strength. What they needed was enlightenment.

What delighted Lu Yin the most was how effectively all of the gathered resources had been converted into power.

In the branch stream of the River of Aeons, when Lu Yin had learned about the Spirit Nidus, he had ordered the Transcendent Universe to produce 100 black energy converters. When he gave the order, there had only been twelve energy converters, and the researchers had believed that the maximum number possible was twenty-seven.

However, before the Spirit Nidus’s vanguard arrived, 100 black energy converters had been produced. The accelerated time of the Five Spirits Alliance’s universes and the resources from across the entire Tianyuan Megaverse had been leveraged to achieve this accomplishment.

In the current timeline, a total of 175 black energy converters had been produced. This was nearly double the number that they had produced last time.

If not for a lack of resources, even more could have been made.

There were still only ten people who had benefited from Ye Wu’s symbiotic corpses, as there were simply not enough peak powerhouse corpses that they could use.

The Scourge Occupation also still only had fifty people at the peak powerhouse level. They were only a single tribe, and no matter how much their numbers increased, they only had one insane ancestor.

The Infinity Empire brought an unexpected surprise to Lu Yin with the number of mechas that they had constructed.

Previously, the Infinity Empire had been tasked with increasing their number of ten-ring mechas from seventeen to fifty, increasing the number of eleven-ring mechas from ten to twenty, and raising the number of twelve-ring mechas from six to twelve.

After gathering resources from all across the megaverse, and with the extra time in the Mirari Realm, the Infinity Empire had built eighty ten-ring mechas, thirty eleven-ring mechas, and eighteen twelve-ring mechas. This far surpassed what they had accomplished in the alternate timeline.

The results left the Infinity Empire, which had initially believed their task to be impossible, utterly stunned.

Integrating the resources of an entire megaverse had unlocked their terrifying potential.

The Spirit Nidus had a unified cultivation system, but the Tianyuan Megaverse had the advantage of time. Once that advantage was fully utilized, their strength would continuously rise.

Who could have imagined that the Fifth Mainland, which had once lacked even a single Progenitor and which even one ten-ring mecha could have dominated, currently considered ten-ring mechas to be entry-level combatants? If one did not have at least the strength equal to a ten-ring mecha, they were not qualified to participate in the upcoming battle.

The number of microarrays had also increased significantly, and the results far surpassed Lu Yin’s expectations.

According to Xiu Ming and the other researchers, there had been another breakthrough in microarray technology. Rather than the planned 4,000 microarrays, 5,000 had been produced.

In other words, the Tianyuan Army had grown from the 3,000 soldiers in the previous timeline to 5,000 in the current timeline.

That was an increase of 2,000 soldiers.

Microarrays had the destructive power of a peak powerhouse, just like the mechas, but microarrays could be produced on a much larger scale.

However, cultivators could only use the microarrays as tools of destruction.

Comparing mechas to the soldiers of the Tianyuan Army was no different from comparing a skilled warrior to a massive army.