The Twelve Constellations, Cancer, Aries, Taurus...
Star points forged from one Divine Object after another formed constellations, shining in the sky, weaving together a magnificent Mythical Era.
Even though Liu Jun no longer paid attention to the development of these bottom-tier mortals.
The brilliance of their stories was in no way inferior to the Mythical Era of Xiangtuo Mo, Goliath, and the others back then.
Itâs just that.
Liu Junâs horizons were higher now.
When he was just a village chief, of course he had to care about the trivialities of village life.
But now that he was a King, even the ruler of a whole sea of stars, he wouldnât bother with such trivial matters as dynastic rises and falls.
This made the current Mythical Era of the Twelve Constellations, all those soâcalled mythic heroes, feel rather unreal in his eyes.
"Itâs never quite like the wanderings of youth."
"Standing this high now, I no longer lower my gaze to the dust on the ground."
Liu Jun quietly recalled the various Mythical Eras of the past; a trace of emotion flashed across his face, and he suddenly felt as if he were already very old.
Yet his speed of development was unprecedented.
Compared to the civilizations in the Twelve Trials, he was far, far younger, and still, he inexplicably felt he had lived through a great deal.
After that brief sigh, Liu Jun summoned the Twelve Zodiac.
He did not bother with the petty affairs of the era; he only watched these few leaders and rulers, and if he wasnât satisfied, he simply replaced them.
That simple.
The simulation of Tenth Tier civilizations, the exploration of the voidâthose were the serious pursuits he was after.
At this moment, the many experts were gathered within the Zodiac Divine Hall, looking with a hint of awe at this Heaven Opening God who had just emerged from seclusion once more.
"We greet you, my Lord!"
"We greet you, my Lord!"
Because Liu Jun never involved himself in dayâtoâday matters, some of the younger Tenth Tier Zodiac experts were actually seeing his true body for the first time.
Liu Jun nodded slightly; just returned from his dive, he looked over the crowd. "By now, you can be considered to have truly stepped into the Tenth Tier."
The python at the head of the group, the one with the oldest qualifications, assumed he was displeased that they had not taken action against the Twelve Constellations, and hurriedly said:
"We already have the Twelve Constellations in the bag. Theyâre trapped outside the sky in the void, with no supplies at all..."
"We are fully prepared now. With a single word from you, we can launch a fullâscale assault!"
A few of the Zodiac expertsâ expressions flickered.
Some of them silently cursed the python for being timid and cowardly.
Several had already made secret contact with the Twelve Constellations, planning to raise the banner together and rebel against this behindâtheâscenes ruler.
But the pythonâs cowardice, his refusal to rebel, made them furious at his spinelessness.
Liu Jun couldnât be bothered with their shifting expressions; their moods and schemes over the years held no meaning for him.
He spoke lightly, "Your vision is far too small. You donât actually think I came here specifically to cultivate the Twelve Constellations, only to then target them, do you?"
Everyone froze.
Rightâcoming here just to foster enemies, then racking oneâs brains to kill those enemies...
Thereâs no way someone like him would do something that stupid.
So, for him to come here and occupy this cosmos and its civilization, he must have his own objective.
And that objective absolutely wouldnât be something as petty as killing the Twelve Constellations.
"Now that you have fully stepped into the Tenth Tier."
"There are some things you, as powerhouses, ought to know."
With that, this Heaven Opening God sat on the throne, looked at them, and reached out with a fierce grasp.
Boom!
The next instant, heaven and earth spun.
Everyone realized that the space-time they were in had been shifted.
They immediately showed looks of terror and vigilance.
Could this Parallel Space-Time God be using his Divine Power to make a move against them, to imprison them?
Just as they tensed up in defense, they realized they had arrived in an unknown void.
Off in the distance.
Was a super Chaos fireball, unprecedented in scale.
The entire sky dimmed in its presence; the sight before them made their jaws drop wordlessly.
"So huge..."
"Impossible, thatâs Chaos... boundless, no end in sight at all."
While they had still been struggling in their own little patch of land, they suddenly saw such a colossal Chaos sun, and for a moment they felt like backward tribal natives from some remote corner of civilization.
Pathetic, laughable, pitiful.
"Next, your task is to explore it."
Liu Jun pointed at that ocean. "I donât care what method you use, you must dive as quickly as possible to the depths of that Sea of Chaos and salvage the ruins of ancient civilizations."
The Twelve Zodiac were dumbfounded.
They stared at that immense Chaos, so shaken by this terrifying natural phenomenon that they were at a loss for words.
"This is..."
They felt the heat wave brush across their cheeks, the unique suffocating pressure of Chaos bearing down hard on them. Staring at those turbulent, raging waves, they suddenly felt an incomparable sense of insignificance.
The might of heaven is endlessly vast.
We are endlessly small.
"You have one month to gather information and conduct a basic reconnaissance dive."
"After that, Iâll return and take you back."
When he finished, Liu Jun vanished on the spot, leaving only these few people nervously scanning their surroundings.
They were silent for quite a while.
Only then did the python at their head slowly speak. "I think I roughly understand."
"Understand what?" the Rooster asked beside him.
"Itâs like it found a lake by the roadside, suddenly realized it was very dangerous, and casually raised a few advance scouts to dive in and probe it for him."
Everyone fell silent, suddenly feeling a strange skepticism about their own existence, not knowing what to say for a moment.
So, we were cultivated just for this?
The other side casually raised them to the Tenth Tier, just to have them go diving?
Is this some activity unique to a Tenth-Tier civilization, or is that guy just a diving enthusiast, really into this one thing? Just loves looking for trouble when heâs free, going off to explore some mysterious, deadly natural hazards?
"Say no more, we have no right to resist."
"Yeah. I donât know how they took them that far out, but if we donât obey, thereâs no way weâre making it back now."
Sentence by sentence, they were dragged back to reality.
Over the next few days, they began using their massive reserves of Heaven-Opening Divine Power to attempt their first basic trial dive.
They manufactured oxygen tanks made of Heaven-Opening Divine Power and kept diving down.
Their method was different from Liu Junâs brute-force hard dive; weaker as they were, they started researching techniques.
"Weâll call the vacuum periods when the nearby Chaos undercurrents stop the âwindow period.â"
"Yeah, the window periodâonly when the seafloor conditions nearby are good can we dive more easily."
"But itâs still hard to grasp."
"Everyone, this reminds me of the spatial ocean of a Sixth-Tier civilizationâyou also had to dive..."
"Theyâre almost the same; you have to dive in both cases. Itâs just that one is a spatial ocean, and this is an Ocean of Chaos..."
"So doesnât that mean we also have to build a civilization train before we can get to the bottom?"
"No, Iâm afraid ordinary stuff canât withstand Chaos at all!"
"And the seafloor conditions here are even more complicated. As we go deeper, the pressure keeps increasing... When we ascend, we have to perform heart-rate-based decompression operations."
They really did have some skills, no denying it.
Unlike Liu Jun, who relied on his deep foundation to recklessly risk his life, these people carried out test dives again and again, advancing step by step, extremely steady.
They even worked out a supply system.
One person was responsible for diving ahead, while some people kept shuttling back and forth behind, delivering oxygen tanks for support, forming a long supply dragon.
But they soon discovered that their Divine Object system did not fit the structure of this Sea of Chaos.
They kept recording all kinds of information:
"Looks like, when we go back, weâll have to cultivate more Tenth-Tier powerhouses to help us put together a diving transport team."
"If youâre not Tenth Tier, you donât even qualify to enter the Sea of Chaos as cannon fodder!"
"And not only that, our Divine Object series is very unsuited to diving. We need to develop a diver Divine Object series."
"Thatâs a big field of study."
"No! Thatâs still not enough. We have to establish an oxygen-tank project and a submarine Divine Object project as well!"
The fixed Divine Object series of the Tenth Tier is a profound discipline.
Each fixed Divine Object is like generating an entire series of natal Divine Artifacts.
Only when these Divine Artifacts are combined can they better develop an entire sea region!
In fact.
This was exactly what Liu Jun wanted them to do.
After all, Liu Jun had already realized that diving by himself, fighting solo, didnât work.
Not even relying on his Heart of Origin Transformation could handle it!
Only by cultivating large numbers of cheap fixed-Divine-Object Tenth-Tier powerhouses as cannon fodder, specializing them in diving attributes, would diving become easier.
Liu Jun watched these twelve powerhouses discussing from afar and thought to himself:
"So the hierarchy within the Tenth Tier should look like this."
"A Tenth Tier with a Heart of Origin Transformation can freely alter their Divine Object series; theyâre the leaders and pioneers of a civilization!"
"While the fixed-Divine-Object Tenth Tier is very weak, the grunts of a Tenth-Tier civilization, extremely cheap, helping with all kinds of civilization development!"
Liu Jun silently cursed how outrageous Tenth-Tier civilizations were.
Below Tenth Tier, you donât even qualify as small fry!
After all, only Tenth Tier is qualified to carry out various operations in the boundless void.
While Liu Jun was deep in thought, the coordinated teamwork of these Twelve Constellations had already pushed them down to a depth of 5,000 meters.
On land, even a mortal could casually walk to five thousand meters.
But diving down to five thousand meters under chaotic water pressure was already insanely difficult, to a ridiculous degree!
At five thousand meters, the chaotic water pressure made oxygen consumption enormous; with only a twelve-person team, they were under tremendous strain.
Although these twelve hadnât even seen an entry-level stele yet, they were still performing extremely well.
However, on the twenty-eighth day.
An accident suddenly happened during a dive.
When Liu Jun looked their way, he saw them climbing ashore drenched in sweat, faintly showing that same haunted look Liu Jun had after diving before.
Their expressions were complex, their eyes full of terrorâit seemed something had gone wrong.
"Rat is dead..."
"Itâs all Monkeyâs fault! I told you to work in pairs and pay attention to your diving direction, and you actually lost him!"
"How is that my fault? Down on the Chaos seafloor, visibility is too low. Thereâs no guide rope to mark the way... Beyond ten meters you canât see the other person at all. I blinked, and Rat was gone."
Monkeyâs face was filled with grief as he spoke.
They were horrified to discover that they were actually as fragile as mortals.
It was like walking on a mountain in heavy fog with visibility too low, and they had no compass-type coordinates, let alone pull a guide rope for diving.
Once you lose your sense of direction, even a mere ten-meter separation can mean the other person canât find their way back.
Yes.
Because the Ocean Current is random.
In the sea, up, down, left, right, all directions are hit by wave after wave of tidal pressure; you canât rely on water pressure to determine which way is up for ascent...
Once you lose your sense of up and down and start swimming around blindly, youâll eventually run out of oxygen and die.
And at this moment.
One of them, a dignified Tenth Tier, a ruler of Multi-verse Level dominions, had actually died just because he got lost by a few meters, couldnât keep up, and fell behind?
This diving accident made everyoneâs hearts clench!
It made them truly realize how terrifyingly dangerous this was.
Just then, a voice came from the side:
"Diving without a guide rope, without a compass... you really arenât afraid of dying, huh."
When everyone turned around, they saw a familiar figure.
"Fish Emperor?" Python suddenly blurted out, "What are you doing here?"