However, just as said before, all ten opponents are random, unless one has exceptional luck and all ten happen to be weaker opponents.
But the likelihood of that is small; anyone who has made it this far would not have terrible luck. It is impossible for someone to have luck so good that it’s like they’re cheating, encountering only weaker opponents ten times in a row. Therefore, it is inevitable to face opponents stronger than oneself.
So, luck can only help you encounter weaker opponents as much as possible, but it can’t prevent you from facing those stronger than you. This is when absolute strength is required.
The best scenario is to have strong abilities combined with good fortune; it’s impossible to pass purely on luck.
Zhuo Jing belonged to those with exceptional luck, though not quite the super Europe Emperor, destined by fate. Still, the strongest opponent she had faced so far was at Rank 7, and she had not yet encountered a Rank 8.
With the Time Talent copied from him, even as a newly promoted Rank 6, she could overcome a whole rank and defeat a Rank 7 opponent, not to mention those of the same rank—as they stood no chance. The Time Talent was simply too overpowered. Lin Xiao, having faced so many powerful opponents, had seen only a few posed a real threat to him.
As time went by, after continuous battles with Evolvers of Other Races, more and more Evolvers perished. The number of Human Evolvers on the Ancient Platform fewer and fewer, and by the time Lin Xiao reached the eighth round, there were less than fifty people left on the platform.
At this stage, all the surviving Evolvers were Rank 7 or above, and he also saw two Rank 8 Evolvers who had rarely shown themselves before.
From the Human Camp, there were only two Rank 8 Evolvers, one male and one female, both already strong before entering the Evolution Journey World. They inherited their own strength, which made them much more powerful than their peers and allowed them to go further.
The man’s name was Abarta, said to be a Dominator from a world outside the Chaos Territory, his True Body equivalent to Powerful Divine Power.
The woman’s name was Peng Yi, with an unknown background.
By this phase, even taking into account all Races, the lowest rank among the Evolvers was Rank 7, with no Rank 6 present.
It was not just elimination, but also because after defeating so many opponents, even those who had just advanced to Rank 6 were evolving to Rank 7 one after another with the surge of Evolution energy.
After passing eight rounds and defeating eight strong opponents, even Lin Xiao and Zhuo Jing had evolved to Rank 7 with the substantial Evolution energy from the last round.
All Talents advanced a level after reaching Rank 7, but it did not induce a qualitative change.
But Lin Xiao had a premonition that during his next evolution, all his talents would undergo a monumental qualitative change. That would be when the Origin of Time within him would become terrifyingly powerful.
As time elapsed again, the ninth round, a nameless Race’s strong Evolver who reached Rank 7, victory!
The tenth round, a fallen Angel comparable to Medium Divine Power with twelve wings, another victory!
After finishing this round, Lin Xiao received a notification that he could now choose to preserve all his power and leave.
Two days earlier, he had given Zhuo Jing the same advice; after ten rounds, she would have power equivalent to Medium Divine Power and could choose to keep this power to leave, either returning to the world she was born in or heading to the Giant Divine Crystal Wall System to wait for him to complete the challenge and then find her.
At that time, she hadn’t made a decision, and Lin Xiao did not want to forcibly change her will. After all, the way out was suggested to her, and how she would choose was her own matter.
After ten rounds were complete, there were no anomalies, but for many days afterward, no more opponents presented themselves.
Only when each Evolver finished their respective matches and the number on the Ancient Platform dwindled, fewer and fewer, until only about a dozen people were left alive, did he learn that he had completed the ten challenges early due to a high matching frequency. Everyone had finished the ten challenges, and together with Zhuo Jing, only sixteen survived.
It was then that they received another notification: the last choice to stay or to leave.
This was the final choice; once they opted to stay, they could no longer leave. What would follow was the ultimate battle with less than a one percent survival rate.
Only one victor emerges from the Evolution Journey, with all others becoming nourishment for the growth of the final winner.
At the edge of the Ancient Platform, Lin Xiao and Zhuo Jing stood quietly together. The vast platform of several dozen square kilometers felt extremely desolate with only sixteen people on it.
Beyond the platform, what was once the endless Void filled with Darkness now featured several enormous suns. Those were the platforms of other Races, all gathered together at this final stage.
In the distant Void, Lin Xiao, with his powerful vision, saw massive distortions. He vaguely sensed the terrifying will within those colossal twists, wills that were even stronger than his True Body. If he wasn’t mistaken, they should belong to the wills of unknown Great Dominators.
Every Evolution Journey brought forth a Great Dominator, inevitably drawing the attention of some grand entities, including Dominators from powerful Divine Realm civilizations among them.
Although they seemed unable to intervene with the competitors inside...
Lin Xiao wasn’t sure if they could intervene, as the power of the Great Dominators was too prodigious, beyond his comprehension.
Feeling the heart-palpitating Power fluctuations in the Void, Lin Xiao asked Zhuo Jing, who was in his arms,
"Could you tell me why you chose not to leave but to continue?"
This puzzled him; although she had copied his Time Wandering Talent, along with Time Acceleration and Time Lock, these were surely not enough to see her through to the end. Not to mention anything else, how could she face him?
Moreover, making such a choice would also embarrass him. The next phase isn’t about the fight between races; it’s an all-out free-for-all. Perhaps at some point, they might even have to fight each other. What then?
He definitely wouldn’t pull any punches to make it to the end, but the idea of killing her with his own hands was too cruel. After all, they had been together since the start of their Evolution Journey World, relying on each other for so long. Killing her would surely break his heart.
He wanted to know what she thought, so he looked down at her.
At that moment, she was curled up in his arms, appearing delicate and gentle, utterly endearing.
When he asked her, she didn’t answer; instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her eyes, bright as stars, gazed into his. After a brief moment of eye contact, she leaned in to lightly kiss his lips.
His hand slipped under her clothes to touch the warm, smooth skin and groped a handful of softness, kneading it. As the passion rose in both of them, he picked her up by her bent legs and carried her back into the room.
Two hours later, Lin Xiao looked at Zhuo Jing in surprise as she shared her talent with him:
Destiny:
Effect one: Temporarily designate a target to share one of their talents with, and the shared talent between oneself and the target increases by one Rank, scaling with both parties’ Ranks.
Effect two: Temporarily seal one’s own talent in order to permanently strip away the highest-ranked talent ability from a designated target for a duration of three months.
Effect three: Permanently sacrifice oneself, either to evolve a designated target’s talent or to strip an opponent of all talents and skills.
"Hisss!"
The first two effects were not much different from before, but the third, newly added effect was somewhat terrifying.
Evolution and increasing by one Rank are completely different concepts; increasing by one Rank merely strengthens one’s current condition, while evolution causes a qualitative change in the ability.
It was too powerful.
"But if you want to help me, you can do it now; there’s no need to take the risk and continue on, right?" Lin Xiao asked, quite puzzled.
The petite woman curled up in his arms, Zhuo Jing, looked up to explain:
"This is the new change in my talent after evolving to Rank 7. I also know that if I can evolve to Rank 8, the evolution will be even more powerful. I know you possess the Time Law, and if you can push your Time Law to undergo a stronger evolution, you will definitely defeat all your opponents and emerge as the final winner. With the Time Law in your grasp, you can revive me then."
Lin Xiao didn’t say a word; he just held her tightly in his arms.
In this moment, thousands of words could not express his feelings.
Three days later, the time for deliberation came to an end, and a voice without emotion suddenly appeared in everyone’s ears:
"Congratulations to all on reaching the final stage of the Evolution Journey World. The final stage has no rules and will proceed with random challenges. The teleportation starts now!"
Lin Xiao looked down at the woman in his arms one last time as an unseen force began to separate them, lifting them slowly apart.
With a loud ’crack,’ the Ancient Platform began to glow brightly as the massive platform slowly split and crumbled.
Columns of light representing the final contestants shot out from the crumbling platforms into a vast central sphere of light, vanishing into it in an instant.
When Lin Xiao opened his eyes again, he found himself standing on a crystal panel suspended in the void. It was encased by a layer of clear light, forming a sphere. All around him were similar crystal spheres, extending endlessly into the distance, forming a curved line that circled around a massive central sphere, resembling a honeycomb of concentric layers.
Inside each sphere stood a figure; a glance revealed that there were perhaps a thousand of them.
This was the innermost circle. Behind it, separated by a thick layer of light, were massive distorted rings. Some contained profound darkness, some seethed with various colored energies, and some had majestic, indistinct faces silhouetted within them.
Most rings were empty, but a few held enormous faces that watched over the contestants below, resembling spectators in an arena, with those below as the gladiators.
Looking around, Lin Xiao could no longer find Zhuo Jing’s figure. At this point, he was not in control of his fate, and all he could do was hope she would survive.
However, the chances were slim. Lacking powerful racial talents and the extra strength of a true body like other powerful beings, Time Wandering was powerful but not enough to defy fate alone.
Just then, Lin Xiao vaguely felt an intimidating will focusing on a crystal sphere not far from him. Immediately after, three beams of light entered the sphere, and he could faintly see a winged humanoid within, waving excitedly.
"What’s this?"
Following this, more beams of light fell into the crystal spheres. Concurrently, distorted visages began to emerge within the massive twisted rings, and just a glance at them filled him with a chilling dread.
```
With his current strength, just looking at it made his heart tremble, and it was very likely an existence at the level of the Great Dominators.
Right there, Lin Xiao suddenly felt a powerful thought sweep over him, and a voice rang out from nowhere in his ears:
"Human, I have placed a bet on you, and you can choose one advantage!"
As the voice fell, three rays of red, green, and blue light descended in front of him, and simultaneously three options appeared before him.
Red: Instantly recover 25% of maximum vitality, usable once per battle.
Green: Instantly recover 25% of maximum spiritual power, usable once per battle.
Blue: Instantly recover 25% of maximum mana, usable once per battle.
Lin Xiao instantly understood that an unknown Great Dominator had taken an interest in him, placing bets on him.
This was quite unexpected to him because the evolution degree he had displayed was only Rank 7, and among the thousands of evolvers still alive, there were several hundred of Rank 8, and normally it wouldn’t have been his turn.
When in doubt, ask. He tried to inquire:
"Your Majesty, does every contestant receive bets?"
However, there was no response.
It was then that he saw the winged humanoid creature, who had received bets from the Great Dominators before, receive another bet from an unknown Great Dominator, with three more rays of light descending into the crystal sphere it was in.
Then, one after another, more Great Dominators placed their bets, and more rays of light fell.
Clearly, this was a very powerful evolver, highly valued by these unknown dominators, and definitely a formidable enemy.
As time passed, more and more unknown Great Dominators placed their bets one by one, and Lin Xiao noticed that the strength of those favored contestants grew as more rays of light fell. It was evident that each Great Dominator offered them different choices, not just the recovery options he had seen; there were likely options that directly increased strength.
Unfortunately, he arrived too late, his evolution degree was not high, which was an important reference parameter, resulting in him not being highly regarded in the eyes of the Great Dominators. Aside from one Great Dominator who placed a bet on him at the beginning, no other dominators bet on him until the final battle commenced.
The space twisted, and he was now appearing amidst a cluster of shattered plane fragments.
It was as if a large plane had been shattered into countless irregular piecemeal planes floating in the void, and he appeared directly on the edge of one such fragment, with hundreds of kilometers of piecemeal planes behind him and a cold void ahead, with countless pebbles floating in the void.
Looking up into the distance, obscured by the plane fragments, there was a column of light piercing the sky, and he naturally knew that it was the location of his opponent for this round.
As the ten-second countdown ended, the column of light disappeared, but Lin Xiao could clearly sense a violent aura rapidly approaching.
"Libra Gold Armor!"
With a light shout, dazzling gold light emerged from his body, quickly forming an extremely luxurious set of Golden Armor.
Facing such a formidable enemy, Lin Xiao equipped the Libra Golden Armor for the first time.
It took less than two minutes for him to see a blood sphere, mixed with blood-red lightning, bursting through a plane fragment and appearing in the void not far away, revealing itself to be a humanoid from a race like the Insect Race, evolved to Rank 8.
Despite being an insectoid, its body lines were mostly crystallized, even energized, with the two antennae on its forehead directly energized into an actual substance, not looking ugly at all.
Seeing that Lin Xiao was only Rank 7, its gentle face seemed to smile, immediately turning fierce.
With a distant clasp of its palm, Lin Xiao felt the space around him being twisted by an invisible force rapidly pressing down upon him.
"Boom!"
The plane fragment he was on, within a range of several kilometers, was directly crushed inward into a mass by the collapsing force, and the fiery antennae on the insectoid’s forehead suddenly brightened, and the sphere’s temperature soared. The pebbles visibly reddened at a speed visible to the naked eye, melting into a giant magma ball.
With hands clasped, pulled apart, the palm’s blazing red light twisted violently, growing brighter and brighter.
"Boom!"
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A laser-like bright column of light struck the magma ball, vaporizing a huge hole in the center, leaving it empty.
Seeing this, the insectoid’s expression changed slightly; with a downward press of its right palm, everything within nearly a kilometer radius, with it at the center, was solidified by a tremendous force, and a distorted black stream of light with a strong attractive force suddenly appeared about six hundred meters behind it, rapidly approaching.
"Found you!"
```
He turned and extended his palm towards the stream of light, gripping in the air once again. Centered on the light, space within a hundred meters violently distorted and, with a twist of his wrist, was brutally torn away.
However, the light within the torn space suddenly vanished. The Insect’s expression changed once more as a shield of light composed of countless runes materialized before him.
"Boom!"
A Grand Power slammed into the shield, causing light to burst in all directions and revealing Lin Xiao with his palm pressed against it:
"Time Dilation!"
A ring of invisible light exploded, and the air around the world swiftly turned viscous. The Insect’s quick reactions plummeted, while Lin Xiao’s own responses and speed surged by 500%.
A smile spread across Lin Xiao’s face that made the Insect’s heart quiver. With his right hand, he grabbed the handle of the Gold longsword attached to the Armor fanning out behind his head and pulled it free, the dazzling golden glow flashing as it mercilessly slashed down.
"Clang!"
A circle of light barrier, which appeared out of nowhere, blocked the sword strike.
Without hesitation, he slashed again. The Insect vanished in a flash, even within the Time Dilation, appearing a thousand meters away in the void.
"How interesting!"
Lin Xiao was well aware that this wasn’t the Insect’s own ability but a life-saving BUFF granted by some Dominator betting on this Insect. The light shield just now and the forced blinking indicated that at least two Dominators had favorable views of this Insect and had made their bets.
But this did nothing to change the outcome.
Although his Evolution Degree was only Rank 7, if he included the power of Incarnations he had digested over the years, his overall strength was no lesser than any Rank 8 Evolver.
It was unfortunate that there wasn’t more time; if he had managed to fully assimilate the strength of all his Incarnations, his power might have reached the level comparable to that of Super Divine Power.
With a thought, he utilized Time Roaming to instantly cross thousands of meters, appearing behind the Insect. He swung his sword, decapitating the Insect whose head was locked in time.
But this wasn’t secure; at their level, losing a head didn’t equate to death.
Within the level 5 Time Bubble, time flowed at ten thousand times the speed of the outside world. A single second outside meant ten thousand seconds inside, giving him ample time to slowly simmer his prey.
The Insect’s Soul strength was incredibly potent, but after enduring hundreds, if not thousands of strikes, it couldn’t hold on any longer. In fact, after just over twenty sword strikes, it began to show signs of collapsing.
A second later, the Time Bubble vanished, and the Insect’s Soul and body were completely disintegrated, turning to ash.
The moment he killed the Insect, a surge of Evolution energy far more potent than before entered his body. Lin Xiao found his Evolution Degree skyrocket by 35%, greatly enhancing his strength.
Given his current Evolution Degree, killing two more Rank 8 Evolvers would enable him to break through to Rank 8 in one fell swoop.
Indeed, risk and reward coexisted. While facing significant danger, the benefits gained from victory were substantial.
Returning to the final arena, Lin Xiao distinctly felt an increased number of inquisitive gazes upon him, but no new Great Dominators placed bets on him. It was, however, the prominent figure who had bet on him right from the start that placed another wager.
Looking around, he noticed that many of the Crystal light spheres surrounding the central arena had dimmed significantly, indicating a large number of contestants had been defeated, and defeat naturally meant death.
Unfortunately, Zhuo Jing was too far from him. Separated by more than a dozen positions, he couldn’t discern whether she was still alive within the light spheres.
Not long after, the second round of competition began. This time, the teleportation destination was a vast Piecemeal Plane, and his opponent was a Rank 7 Evolver.
To have reached this stage as a Rank 7 surely meant this was no ordinary Rank 7.
Either they possessed a talent as powerful as his own, or they had been a formidable being even before embarking on the Evolution Journey; their Evolution Degree combined with True Body Strength was not inferior to any Rank 8 Evolver. And the one before him was a combination of both past and present.
As the countdown ended, a whoosh was heard as hundreds of identical Incarnations split off, each one just 20% weaker than the original creature, all emanating the same aura. Each one, seemingly with independent intelligence, acted uniquely, making it impossible to discern which was the True Body.
But there was no need to discern; Lin Xiao directly plunged into the crowd with Time Roaming, unfolding the Time Stasis Field to encompass all the Incarnations.
Time Stasis Field LV2: Freezes time within a 500-meter radius, granting the user the effect of Time Acceleration and Time Bubble at the current level whilst in the field, lasting 4 seconds, usable once per day.
Now within the Time Bubble, time sped up by ten thousand times; four seconds equated to forty thousand seconds, or eleven hours, which was more than enough time for him to do anything.
Just like with the previous opponent, when the Time Stasis Field faded, every Incarnation turned into dust and vanished.
Then came the surprised and inquisitive gazes. His outstanding performance had attracted the attention of several Great Dominators, and at the close of the second round, Lin Xiao received bets from three Dominators.