Chapter 595

A flame burned at the center of Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign’s brow, like a miniature Liyang, as he cheerfully cooperated with Lin Yuan’s takeover of Black Jade Nest.

“I sensed a flaw in my willpower back then and paid a heavy price to get the opportunity to serve as acting guardian of Black Jade Nest. Now that flaw has almost been patched up,” Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign thought to himself.

The unique resource of Black Jade Nest—black jade—was greatly beneficial for a being’s willpower.

But black jade was rare and hard to obtain. Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign needed it, and so did the other Heavenly Sovereigns.

Only by serving as Black Jade Nest’s guardian could one steadily acquire black jade.

Now that his willpower flaw was fixed, Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign had no desire to keep holding on to Black Jade Nest, especially with the newly famous Milky Way Great Sovereign coming to take over.

“With my willpower restored, it’s time to prepare for that final step,” Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign’s thoughts drifted.

In this world, all the Heavenly Sovereigns of the six ancient kingdoms dreamed of taking that step.

It’s said that, in ancient times, there was only a single ancient kingdom. Only later did the second, then third, appear.

Now, six ancient kingdoms stood side by side.

“If I can take that step, I’ll found the seventh ancient kingdom, just like the Ancestor, illuminating the world—eternal and unchanging, knowing past and future…”

Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign longed for this from the bottom of his heart.

Why did the Heavenly Sovereigns obey the ancient kingdoms? All for a better chance at taking that step.

“All these years, I’ve almost saved enough merit—enough for one chance to possess the Ancestor, to glimpse the height and vision of that realm ahead of time…”

Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign had served the Liyang Ancient Kingdom for countless ages, fought in hundreds of full-scale wars with other ancient kingdoms, and reaped the harvest of resource grounds.

He’d finally saved up one hundred billion merit.

Enough to possess the Ancestor once.

“I’ve lived long enough. If I go on, it’ll just be endless repetition.”

Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign knew the risk of attempting that step. Even after years of preparation, and finally possessing the Ancestor, his odds were still almost zero.

But even a sliver of hope was still hope. He figured he should gamble—at worst, he’d end up lost in some time cycle.

Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign gave Lin Yuan a few more pieces of advice. Now that he was preparing to take that step, he had let everything go.

What were conflicts between Heavenly Sovereigns and royals? If he succeeded and founded the seventh ancient kingdom, all those disputes would vanish.

If he failed and got trapped in a time loop, none of it would matter to him anymore.

So the advice he gave Lin Yuan was sincere, with no hidden misdirection.

Once he finished, Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign left directly, disappearing from Black Jade Nest through the space-time teleportation array.

Lin Yuan took over this first-class resource ground smoothly, gaining full control over all its arrays and killing formations.

“This went so smoothly, all thanks to Brother Chibao.” Lin Yuan looked at King Chibao and smiled.

“That’s odd.”

King Chibao frowned in thought.

“Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign has always been extremely domineering. Back when he fought for the Black Jade Nest post, he practically fell out with four or five other Heavenly Sovereigns. That’s why everyone thought he needed black jade so much, and now he just gave it up?”

King Chibao was full of suspicion.

“But he really did hand it over with no tricks—just left directly, and you took over all the formations without any trouble.”

“Whatever Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign’s personality, he treated me pretty well,” Lin Yuan added. “And what he just told me made a lot of sense.”

“It did.” King Chibao nodded. “That’s why I didn’t say anything from start to finish—everything he told you was exactly what you need to know about guarding a border resource ground.”

“Forget it.” King Chibao thought for a moment and shook his head.

“It’s a good thing, anyway. Taking over Black Jade Nest so smoothly saved us a lot of time—I was prepared for a real argument with him.”

“Yes, it’s a good thing.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

To gain a first-class resource ground without any hassle really was lucky.

Even with the emperor’s decree, if someone as strong as Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign wanted to cause trouble in secret, it could have been a pain. That nothing happened was more than satisfying.

“Brother Milky Way, how do you plan to guard this resource ground?” King Chibao asked Lin Yuan.

“I’ll leave an avatar to guard it.” Lin Yuan’s thought moved, and his Yin Primordial Soul stepped out, entering the core of Black Jade Nest to take control of all the arrays and killing formations.

Resource ground guardians rarely used their true bodies—usually it was an avatar, clone, or a subordinate.

Every resource ground had a teleportation array and defensive formations. If anything happened, as long as you held out for ten breaths, it would be enough for help to arrive.

“An avatar is best.”

“It’s a first-class resource ground, after all.”

King Chibao nodded. Even Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign only used an avatar at Black Jade Nest.

A first-class ground was too valuable—a simple clone or subordinate wasn’t secure enough.

“Come, let’s go to the next resource ground.”

King Chibao immediately took Lin Yuan through the teleportation array, heading for his second resource ground.

Deep in Black Jade Nest—

Lin Yuan’s Yin Primordial Soul sat cross-legged.

“So this is black jade?”

A pitch-black, deep jade floated before Lin Yuan.

Faintly, a soul-stirring aura swirled within it.

It would still be tens of thousands of years before the next full cycle of black jade formed, but a little always matured ahead of time, and as guardian, Lin Yuan could take it out.

Just by feeling the black jade’s aura up close, Lin Yuan seemed to experience endless illusions, and his willpower was subtly tempered and strengthened.

“My willpower index is almost seventy million now…”

Lin Yuan thought.

After stepping into the twelfth rank, his willpower index had skyrocketed to sixty million.

Several thousand years had passed since, and he’d raised it by another ten million—an incredible rate of improvement.

Seventy million put his willpower at the peak of the Dominance stage, even just into the Chaos stage.

But for Lin Yuan’s current power, seventy million was actually a weak point.

After all, he could now go toe-to-toe with a normal Chaos Great Saint. Among those, seventy million willpower was nothing special—actually below average.

Which Chaos Great Saint hadn’t lived through multiple cosmic eras? Their willpower was usually over a hundred million.

Still, willpower didn’t impact fighting power as directly as physical strength did.

“Next, this primordial soul’s job is to refine as much black jade as possible and strengthen my willpower.”

Looking at the floating black jade before him, Lin Yuan immediately started refining it.

At once—

A powerful aura surged into Lin Yuan’s soul, invisibly tempering and reinforcing his willpower.

Willpower might not be critical in combat, but it couldn’t be too weak—especially when breaking through bottlenecks. Weak willpower would lead to failure.

The stronger someone was, the more they valued their willpower. Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign had even offended four or five other Heavenly Sovereigns to claim Black Jade Nest, all to fix a flaw in his own will.

The other first-class ground was called Bibo Cliff. Its acting guardian was King Chikui.

Unlike Chiyang Heavenly Sovereign, King Chikui was a core royal who had grown to his peak.

“Hahaha! Brother Milky Way, I just got the emperor’s order—you’re to take over Bibo Cliff. I’ve been waiting here all morning!”

King Chikui was a burly man, laughing heartily and warmly. “Come on, have some of my prized wine. That guy Chibao has never tasted it.”

“Chikui, you say that right in front of me?” King Chibao rolled his eyes.

“So what?” King Chikui didn’t care at all.

“Thank you, King Chikui,” Lin Yuan said nearby.

King Chibao had expected that, of the three grounds Lin Yuan had to take over, Black Jade Nest would be the toughest.

After all, it involved a Heavenly Sovereign king, and a domineering one at that.

The other two grounds? No real trouble was expected.

Bibo Cliff’s acting guardian was, after all, a fellow royal.

The three of them drank and chatted for a while.

Then King Chikui handed over all the formations of Bibo Cliff to Lin Yuan.

He got up and left through the teleportation array.

After King Chikui left, King Chibao laughed.

“Chikui’s probably feeling pretty frustrated right now,” he said with a smile.

“Frustrated?” Lin Yuan looked at King Chibao, thoughtful.

“Wouldn’t you be? To give up a first-class ground like this—if the emperor hadn’t personally ordered it, King Chikui wouldn’t have handed it over so easily.”

King Chibao said casually.

“Does the emperor have that much prestige among the royals?” Lin Yuan asked.

“Do you think a place like a first-class resource ground would fall into the hands of a royal king if the emperor wasn’t biased?” King Chibao asked.

“Probably not.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

If the emperor wasn’t partial, you could only get a first-class ground by your own power.

Even a peak core royal, strength-wise, could at best challenge the Heavenly Sovereign kings—but in a real fight, they’d lose.

“So the emperor leans resources heavily toward the royal family, and in exchange, royal experts must unconditionally support his commands.”

King Chibao said.

The Heavenly Sovereign kings might pay lip service to the emperor’s decrees, but could obstruct him in secret.

But a royal king? They wouldn’t dare.

“I see.”

Lin Yuan understood.

Of course.

To the lofty Liyang Ancestor, the difference between royals and Heavenly Sovereigns wasn’t much at all.

They were all descendants of his blood—after all, even the chance to possess him was open to Heavenly Sovereigns.

“What’s the meaning of this? Even if Milky Way has huge potential, he hasn’t really broken through the Heavenly Sovereign barrier, but the emperor just hands him Bibo Cliff? And Black Jade Nest? That’s blatant favoritism.”

King Chikui stepped out of the teleportation array and returned to his residence, looking rather displeased.

When he was granted his title, he’d only been given a fourth-class ground.

He’d never even had a true first-class ground to guard.

Bibo Cliff was only a temporary assignment.

But now? Milky Way gets two first-class grounds just like that? A first-class ground—one that even most Heavenly Sovereigns only get after earning immense merit. It was a bit easier for royal kings, but still incredibly hard.

“If the emperor’s going to play favorites, what can I do?”

King Chikui sighed. From the royal family’s perspective, Milky Way had a shot at breaking the Heavenly Sovereign barrier—granting him two first-class grounds wasn’t unreasonable.

But the fact that his hard-won acting post was one of them left King Chikui feeling resentful.

With both first-class grounds secured, the remaining second-class ground went just as smoothly.

Lin Yuan left his Yin and Yang primordial souls to guard Black Jade Nest and Bibo Cliff, and sent an avatar to the second-class ground.

Second-class grounds weren’t as precious as first-class, nor as dangerous. An avatar was plenty.

If danger did arise, as long as the avatar held out for a dozen breaths, Lin Yuan’s true body could arrive in time.

“For these three grounds, aside from getting ten percent of the resources produced, I’ll also get merit every ten thousand years.”

Lin Yuan returned to his manor, calculating in his mind.

Each first-class ground would grant a hundred merit per ten thousand years; the second-class ground, ten merit.

So Lin Yuan would earn two hundred and ten merit every ten thousand years.

Two hundred and ten might not sound like much, but it was steady, coming in every ten thousand years.

For a Great Sovereign or Heavenly Sovereign, ten thousand years was just a short seclusion.

Many such experts spent a million years or more in a single retreat.

So that was twenty-one thousand merit per million years—a very considerable income.

Many powerful Heavenly Sovereigns had served the ancient kingdom for hundreds of millions of years and never had two first-class grounds to their name.

“Back to studying the Chaos Secret Pattern Diagrams.”

Lin Yuan focused his mind and went back to studying the diagrams.

With the three he’d obtained, he could already comprehend a stretch into the third stage of chaos.

Time passed.

In a blink, more than half a year went by.

“The twenty-seventh diagram…”

Lin Yuan gazed at a scroll swirling with chaotic energy.

Strands of chaos energy wove together into secret patterns, like a cosmic truth, and countless flashes of insight rose in Lin Yuan’s mind.

Every thread of chaos energy seemed ordinary, yet contained the very source of the dao, intertwining to create endless mysteries.

[Your Unrivaled Insight allows your understanding of chaos rules to soar as you study the Chaos Secret Pattern Diagram.]

Gradually, the twenty-seventh diagram before Lin Yuan’s eyes became simple and clear.

“I see now.”

Lin Yuan’s eyes shone, as if he’d seen blue sky beyond the clouds.

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