Starting from Station Fifteen, each of the maps became incredibly vast, and not all monsters within them were powerful.
Just like the normal world, there were both strong and weak monsters.
The seven to eight meters tall monster before him would have been considered a small BOSS in the previous Valley of Death, but here, it was just cannon fodder below the average. Lin Xiao clenched his fist and hurled it out. With a ’boom,’ the intense sound echoed as Powerful Divine Power pressed against the air, creating a punch that blew the target into pieces, scattering its flesh all around.
Without so much as glancing at the twitching remains on the ground, he dashed forward, disappearing tens of meters away.
Soon, he arrived at the edge of a plateau, where a vast canyon extended downward, with a dilapidated railway track stretching out into the distance below.
Here, the radiation intensity rose rapidly, already two to three times stronger than at the station.
Squinting, he looked into the distance on the right, where, beneath the thick radiation clouds, there seemed to be a large, moving shadow.
He quickly looked to the left, where a gigantic creature with wings that spanned several hundred meters flew past in the sky. Its wings left behind a long trail of radiant green light, indicating an astonishing intensity of radiation in the void.
"This is kind of ridiculous," he muttered.
Evolvers below Rank 4 could only be ordinary people in this world; only those above Rank 4 would barely manage to enter.
"I wonder how many world BOSSes there are on this map, whether they’ve respawned, or whether they’ve been snatched up by powerful individuals from other races."
In the journey of evolution, only maps marked as three stars and above have world BOSSes. Generally, killing one would grant a substantial amount of evolution rewards and high-tier equipment. A map like the Oblivion Plateau was considered very high-level, and even he would receive an extremely high evolution reward for killing the world BOSS there. It was essential to compete for.
However...
"First, I need to find the gathering area of the human evolvers on this map," he decided.
Lin Xiao scratched his head and continued forward along the remains of the rusty railway track.
The Oblivion Highlands was neutral territory. According to the information he’d gathered over the years, it lay at the junction of over a dozen evolver civilizations’ borders and was a crucial transit route and coveted strategic location. Any civilization wishing to attack another’s main city would have to go through this map.
Many powerful evolvers from different races thronged this map, with most establishing gathering spots for their own race’s evolvers.
Lin Xiao’s primary reason for seeking such a gathering spot, besides finding a safe zone and initial base, was to inquire about his next destination.
Theoretically, this layer was where Rank 5 evolvers trained, with the occasional Rank 6. Lin Xiao had encountered one such Rank 6 evolver on the previous map, but they passed by on their mount, high above him, leaving his many questions unanswered.
With strength reaching Rank 6, evolution became increasingly difficult. It had taken him half a year to advance to Rank 6, and in another half year, he had only improved by four percent.
That pace was unacceptable. If the power of Rank 6 evolvers was equivalent to that of a True God, there surely had to be Rank 7, Rank 8, and even Rank 9 ahead.
Since the Oblivion Highlands was the last stop of the train, there were no deeper maps beyond. Surely this map wasn’t sufficient to support evolution to Rank 7 or higher; there must be new evolution maps to which those disappeared advanced evolvers had gone.
From his interactions with the occasional evolver over the years, Lin Xiao knew that within the Oblivion Highlands, there was a gathering spot for humans. All human evolvers who had not transcended the ordinary maps were there, and someone there would know how to leave and enter a higher-tier world.
"Boom!"
A pure steel shell, spinning rapidly with a drill-like tip, blasted towards Lin Xiao in an instant. The massive shell, wider than his body, tore through the air, leaving behind faint ripples in its wake.
However, he didn’t even glance at the shell approaching him, for the Black Hole Shield activated earlier had already absorbed its formidable kinetic energy. The shell deflected and flew aside, also deflecting the dense sharp steel bullets that followed.
He curiously observed the mutated humans guarding the shabby outpost; they were indeed humans but altered by intense radiation. Their exposed bodies bore various mutations, like extra bones, keratin growths, deformed limbs, additional organs, and so forth.
The reason he had not returned fire was the flag hoisted above the outpost, marked with the emblem of the human gathering spot, indicating that these natives were essentially his own people.
After identifying himself, the outpost ceased fire, and he was allowed to pass through.
Riding in a dilapidated jeep, it bumped and rattled for dozens of kilometers, until it arrived at a fortress built between mountain ranges. A figure leapt down from the top of the nearly hundred-meter tall colossal city wall and landed steadily in front of him, loudly saying,
"I’m Reese, the new recruit receptionist for Sanctuary Fortress. Welcome to your arrival!"
"Lin Xiao, just got to Oblivion Highlands."
"Come on, let’s talk inside."
Reese waved his hand towards the city wall, and the castle lowered a basket.
"Are you here to take a look around, brother, or do you plan to stay for a long time?"
Without waiting for a response, Reese curiously turned back and saw Lin Xiao’s figure fading slowly like an apparition and, surprised, he turned his head to see him already on top of the city wall.
"Wow, what kind of technique is this?"
Riding the basket up to the hundred-meter-high fortress wall, he asked curiously, looking at Lin Xiao who was observing the steampunk-style architecture inside the fortress:
"Teleportation?"
He nodded,
"You could say that."
Pointing at a gigantic spire inside the fortress hundreds of meters tall, wrapped in surging lightning energy, he asked:
"What is that?"
Reese glanced at it, saying with pride:
"The Lightning Spire. It can gather lightning energy from a hundred miles around and possesses the ability to kill world bosses."
"Very powerful!"
"Of course."
The two of them chatted as they entered the fortress; most of the time he asked, and Reese answered. However, when he inquired about how to enter the higher-level maps, Reese was stunned, and he asked in surprise:
"You want to go into harder maps? Are you at Rank 6 now?"
Lin Xiao nodded.
Reese shook his head and said:
"If I were you, I wouldn’t choose to go into the high-level maps."
"Why?"
"It’s simple, we’re now in the late phase of this iteration of the evolution journey; there’s not much time left for us. If we stay here, we’ll be safe even when this iteration ends. But if you want to continue onward, once you enter the high-level maps, you will enter the most brutal phase of elimination. Once the final victor is decided, the majority of the losers will likely become the offering to the victor."
Hearing this, Lin Xiao frowned and immediately realized the person from that world had duped him.
They were still trying to trick him into coming in even though this iteration of evolution was about to end—such malice warranted punishment.
But now there was no way to trouble him, nor was there time to seek out others for trouble. He needed to get a clear picture first and asked:
"How do you know it’s the late phase of this iteration of the evolution journey, and do you know what stage it’s at?"
Reese laughed and said,
```
"I know it’s simple because several experts from my original team have already gone in; we are still in contact, so, of course, I know," he said.
He paused for a moment before continuing, "As for the stage, although it’s not yet the final decisive stage, it’s close because more than one Rank 8 Evolver has already emerged. Rank 9 is equivalent to the progenitors or the great divine power, which is the last stage in the journey of evolution."
Lin Xiao understood everything without needing to ask further. With Rank 9 being the Great Dominators, Rank 8 was the last stop on the journey of evolution, the decisive one.
Now that there were quite a few Rank 8 Evolvers, and considering that the final battle had probably already begun, entering now would mean certain death for him.
If it were another Evolver, the vast majority would stop and end their journey of evolution.
But Lin Xiao could not; he had compelling reasons to go.
As his strength continued to grow and he gradually mastered more powerful Time Laws, he could clearly sense that other part of the Time Law that resonated with him, deep within the world.
Simply put, deep in the Chaos Territory, there was a portion of the Origin of the Time Law that he had to seize for himself.
The outcome of the evolutionary journey was not important; he must obtain the Origin of the Time Law.
According to the rule that every life only had one chance to participate in the evolutionary journey, if he couldn’t acquire it this time, there would be no opportunity in the future.
Therefore, he had reasons that necessitated his advancement to the next stage.
Of course, he couldn’t share this reason with others; he could only say he wanted to give it another shot.
After listening, Reese was stunned for a while, looking at him as if he was looking at a fool, but didn’t say anything. He just told him, "If you must go, I definitely can’t stop you. Just want to tell you, once you are in, there’s no chance of regret. Considering the current situation, your death is inevitable."
Lin Xiao nodded earnestly, "I know, but I still have to go."
"Alright then!" Reese sighed and said, "Since you are intent on courting death, I won’t stop you. Getting into the advanced map is simple. Reach Rank 6, then kill any World Boss at the Oblivion Highlands on your own. Remember, it must be solo. Afterward, a World Pass will drop, and using it will get you to the next stage."
"Oh, and a single pass has five slots; you can bring four teammates along with you."
"Give me a map marked with the World Boss locations, please."
"You’ll have to wait a month."
Reese waved his hand, "The World Bosses were killed a while back; it’ll be about another month before they respawn."
"Then I’ll wait a month."
"Heh, this month I’ll make sure you enjoy yourself thoroughly. By the end of it, you might no longer wish to go and court death."
"Perhaps!"
The next day, inside a private castle within the fortress, Lin Xiao rose from the super king-sized bed in his hundred-square-meter room. As an Advanced Evolver at Rank 6, he had already achieved the highest level of strength and, upon arrival, was granted high status and treatment. He could have anything he wanted. These Advanced Evolvers, who have no hope of reaching the end and no desire to enter a higher world, pursued pleasure to its utmost limits.
Unfortunately, these were not what Lin Xiao needed, though he did not reject them.
```
He got out of bed and tidied up, then used the facility inside the fortress to write a letter to Zhuo Jing.
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In the letter, he told her about the situation of this evolution journey, asking for her choice whether to stay here or to enter it with him.
Although the evolution journey had already reached the late stages, with Rank 8 Evolvers already appearing, in theory, someone like him at only Rank 6 didn’t stand a chance. Going in would be a death sentence.
But he wasn’t ordinary, his strength was not just that of Rank 6; he also had the sealed power of his incarnation.
This incarnation used to have a strength not inferior to Powerful Divine Power, and over the years, he had gradually recovered some of it. As the evolution degree increased, the recovery sped up, and after one more evolution in a higher map, he estimated it would fully recover. By then, even if he only had the evolution degree of Rank 7, combined with the full power of the incarnation and the Time Law, it wasn’t impossible to contend with those Rank 8 Evolvers.
The most crucial thing was that his other Golden Ancient Tree Avatar was still alive; he could sense it was still out there. By combining the power of the two incarnations, it wasn’t inconceivable that he could reach the very end...
He received a reply from Zhuo Jing ten days later, with only two words:
"Wait for me."
It took less than five days for Lin Xiao to see her again, her figure highlighted in tight leather armor, her bothersome long hair now cut short into a more nimble and spirited look, making her appear both wild and beautiful, like a gorgeous female leopard.
Reaching out, he ruffled her small head and said with a smile,
"I’ll ask you one more time before we leave, do you want to come with me?"
"Just to be clear, it’s now the final stage of the evolution journey, and you hardly have any hope left. It will be extremely dangerous to go with me, but you’ll be safe if you stay here."
She smiled broadly, took his hand, and said,
"Wherever you go, I’ll follow."
"Then good, we’ll wait a few more days."
Early the next morning, Lin Xiao opened his eyes, pulled his ’big weapon’ out from within her, put on his clothes, and was getting ready to take a shower when he turned to see her awake, stretching out a pair of jade arms to him from the side of the bed.
He stepped forward to pick her up, straddling her at his waist and entering the bathroom, soon followed by some sounds not suitable for children.
More than two hours later, freshly showered and after breakfast, they were fully armed and ready to set out again.
There was still plenty of time before the World Boss respawned, but before that, no time could be wasted; he needed to make her stronger during this last period.
At this point, Zhuo Jing’s evolution degree was 85.22% of Rank 5, which didn’t seem much less than his Rank 6, but the actual gap was huge, both in terms of evolution degree and strength.
The closer they got to the end, the more evolution energy was required, and crucially, there weren’t that many high-level monsters left to farm, making growth slower towards the end.
It was fortunate that it was already the latter stage, and those who remained had lost the motivation to grow and rarely ventured out for trials. In the secluded areas of the Oblivion Highlands, plenty of powerful monsters remained, including some whose strength was comparable to the World Boss but lacked the title of World Boss — super monsters.
With the map obtained from the Human Fortress, Lin Xiao led Zhuo Jing straight to the nests of these powerful monsters, targeting those that had lived for a long time to help her grow.
He didn’t need to anymore; with his current strength, in this little time, he could at most improve by one or two percent, not enough for a qualitative change.
In most cases, it was Zhuo Jing who dealt with the monsters on her own, with him flying support; she could handle most of them.
After evolving to Rank 5, her Talent had grown even stronger; now she had Time Roaming at LV7, as well as Time Lock at LV4 and Time Acceleration at LV6 — akin to a mini version of him. With her powerful Time Talent and the opportunities she gained through the years, her strength was superior within her rank, very powerful, and ordinary newly-evolved Rank 6 Evolvers might not be her match.
As time went by with every passing day, her strength continued to increase. After a full month and a half, and with the World Boss refreshed for a month she finally evolved to Rank 6.
Fortunately, there were now few adventurers interested in risking the fight against the World Boss. In the past, before even the respawn, numerous teams would be lying in wait — a month later, not even a hair would be left.
After one last trip back to the Human Fortress, Lin Xiao sought out Reese to ask some final questions, then after making all the preparations, he took Zhuo Jing, bade farewell to Reese and the other Evolvers in the fortress, and set out on the road to hunt the World Boss.