And to be honest, this reason isn’t far-fetched at all: fourteen contestants pairing off to fight until seven remain, then pairing off again to eliminate one more, would inevitably lead to a bye.
Under normal circumstances, getting a bye would be a good thing, but not here. At this stage, missing out on killing a contestant means missing out on a large number of evolution points.
Now that only four remain, it means he has missed two rounds, losing a sizable number of evolution points as a result.
If not for fully assimilating the power of his incarnation, which currently is equivalent to the strength of a Super Divine Power with a God Level of 19, missing two rounds would still be a loss for him.
So, it’s hard to say whether it’s good or bad, but it’s relatively good for him.
The remaining four contestants are himself, another Golden Ancient Tree Incarnation of his, the Seven-headed Dragon Clan, and another familiar figure, the Lightning Ghost.
That’s right, just like how he leveraged the power granted by Enigma’s mother to liberate the power of his incarnation for a surge in strength, the six-headed dragon he had previously fought also received blessings from the Nine-faced Dragon God Ao, growing an additional head.
The new head has no specific attributes and does not add extra rules to the Seven-headed Dragon Clan; its only function is to significantly boost the clan’s various resistances, particularly against the Time Law controlled by Lin Xiao.
In simple terms, it was a defense against the Time Law he controlled.
Lin Xiao had encountered the Lightning Ghost before; it was one of the strongest opponents in the final levels of the Sky Tower aside from the Ancient Ice Soul, possessing Lightning Power and the ability to forcibly extract an opponent’s power, which seemed very formidable at the time and is undoubtedly even stronger now.
The four contestants have attracted the attention of several Great Dominators, with hidden wills undetectable by those not of the Great Dominators level shifting back and forth; the Great Dominators are buzzing with discussion, preparing their final bets.
Unlike before, where they could bet as they pleased, at this point, each Great Dominator could only bet on one contestant and could not choose multiple.
Differently from before, most Dominators are now quite hopeful about Lin Xiao; not to mention the Time Law he controls, as the mythical and terrifying existence even among Great Dominator levels, Enigma, has made an appearance, the powerful Dominators immediately recognize the relation between them, and it becomes clear how they should choose at this time.
However, there are also a few Dominators who are quite optimistic about the Seven-headed Dragon Clan. His Majesty Nine-faced Dragon God Ao is also a renowned powerhouse in the Chaotic Void Sea. Compared to Enigma, who spends most of the time in slumber, the more active Nine-faced Dragon God seems more palpable and powerful to them.
But the key point is that the Nine-faced Dragon God specifically enhanced the Seven-headed Dragon Clan’s resistance to the Time Law, and combined with their own strength, this is the main reason for their certain confidence.
Besides, there are a few Dominators who support the now even larger Golden Ancient Tree and the Lightning Ghost respectively.
Soon Lin Xiao felt various BUFFs being added to him; although each wasn’t much, about five percent, the sheer number of them made it significant—twenty or thirty five percent increments added up to a considerable boost.
Most were enhancements to various aspects: physique, strength, speed, mana capacity, etc., all combined nearly doubling his power.
The Seven-headed Dragon received the second-most BUFFs, about two-thirds of his.
Both the Golden Ancient Tree and the Lightning Ghost combined didn’t receive as many as either he or the dragon did.
At that moment, the sphere they were in gently descended above the final arena, and the barrier isolating them slowly disappeared, with the four ultimate contestants each taking a corner, now clearly able to see their opponents. Lin Xiao’s gaze immediately landed on the Seven-headed Dragon, which was staring straight back at him.
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He smiled faintly and turned his gaze to meet the hostile eyes of the Lightning Ghost.
Clearly, in their minds, he was the greatest threat.
Then, looking back at the stupendous Golden Ancient Tree within the sphere, he instantly sensed a kindred will.
Turning again towards the eagerly watching Seven-headed Dragon, Lin Xiao smiled lightly and with a thought, the towering Golden Ancient Tree within the sphere suddenly rustled without wind, its lush branches trembling as spots of gold light began to shine brighter and more numerous with the rapid dissolving of the tree’s trunk.
Soon, it transformed into a golden torrent that penetrated the barrier under the watchful presence of all wills, crossing the void and plunging straight into the space where Lin Xiao was.
All the Great Dominators were stunned by this scene, quickly realizing what was happening. Dozens of excited great wills exchanged in the void, and a resounding dragon roar echoed from the aura where the Nine-faced Dragon God resided. A strong will shot out, but was swiftly blocked by an even more formidable will.
The enigmatic overseer of the Evolution Journey appeared before the aura, stating solemnly:
"Although this is unexpected even for me, he has not broken any rules!"
The Nine-faced Dragon God fell silent, briefly negotiating with the overseer to take the Seven-headed Dragon away, but the overseer simply shook his head in refusal:
"I regret that I cannot agree to this."
The overseer showed no consideration for the Nine-faced Dragon God, outright refusing.
Turning back to look at the now fully merged Golden Ancient Tree Incarnation, which had transformed into a Golden Giant even taller than the Seven-headed Dragon, he paused for a long moment before laughing:
"Interesting!"
At that moment, Lin Xiao, who had now fully integrated with the Golden Ancient Tree Incarnation, came to understand just how terrifying the life force he had accumulated was. The thousands of kilometers he had seen were merely it suppressing its own life force; if fully released, its true body would be a World Tree capable of holding a vast number of planes.
To put it simply, if it were placed anywhere else in the Chaotic Void Sea, this Golden Ancient Tree incarnation could become a Golden World Tree supporting all the realms of a medium to small Crystal Wall Universe.
Moreover, the abilities of this Golden Ancient Tree Incarnation were not limited to its vast life force; its true trump card had never been used.
Along with the Golden Ancient Tree Incarnation when exiled was an essence of Gaia’s Will, which he had refined after being banished to the Chaos Territory for a while by the Nightmare’s Will. He obtained an essence of Gaia, and his trump card was leveraging that essence of Gaia for a temporary transition to a higher dimension.
In layman’s terms, he could temporarily transform into a Great Dominator.
Even though it could only last for an instant, that moment was enough for him to vanquish any opponent below the level of a Great Dominator.
Because this move was so terrifying and would consume all his strength once used, he never resorted to it. Unbeknownst to others, he had this secret weapon that he had never used, and fortunately, no one had yet forced him to use it.
```
Having perfectly retracted the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar, Lin Xiao naturally inherited this move.
Similarly, it could only be used once, but the fusion of two avatars made it even stronger, allowing this move to last longer.
However, to be honest, Lin Xiao felt that there might not be much opportunity to use this move anymore. With the two avatars combined, gaining the massive vitality of the Golden Ancient Tree, his greatest weakness was compensated for, and he didn’t believe that the Seven-headed Dragon and the Lightning Ghost could defeat him.
Once he defeated these two opponents, he would be the final victor of this evolutionary journey, ascending directly and becoming the new Supreme Dominator, so there would be no opportunity to use this move by then.
Now he didn’t dare to use it carelessly, and later on, it would not be needed; it was quite the superfluous trick.
"Or perhaps use it in the final battle?"
Only three options remained, but the final competition had to continue, and it didn’t allow him to single-handedly face both due to him suddenly becoming powerful.
The first round had the Seven-headed Dragon challenge the Lightning Ghost, and Lin Xiao got another bye.
He had no objection to this, as it gave him time to review some memories after the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar was banished.
There wasn’t much of value in the memories, the most attractive part being the segment where the avatar refined Gaia Will. Unfortunately, this segment also lacked any thrilling scenes. Gaia Will voluntarily allowed the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar to refine it before losing control, it wasn’t due to infighting.
Unlike these avatars, Gaia Will itself was just a collective of the will of countless creatures from the Main World and did not have a primary consciousness. Typically, once a differentiated will avatar completed its mission and returned to the Main World, it would be immediately retracted.
If an accident occurred causing it to be stranded outside, there was only one outcome: independence.
Given the nature of Gaia Will, once the avatar became independent, it would surely become a super strong being comparable to Super Divine Power in a short amount of time, and it would be easier for it to ascend to Great Dominator than ordinary super strong beings.
Even with Super Divine Power, fusing with the origin of a powerful Crystal Wall System only presents a very small chance to breakthrough that step, but if it is Gaia Will or the will of other Divine Realm civilizations that merges with the origin of a powerful Crystal Wall System, it’s not a surefire success but the chance is over fifty percent, which is easier compared to ordinary super strong entities.
It is well known that avatars are incomplete and will inevitably long for completeness.
What would Gaia Will’s avatar do to achieve completeness?
There was only one outcome: try by all means to destroy the Human Divine Realm civilization and then devour Gaia Will.
This was inevitable.
So, determining that it was banished to the Chaos Territory with no way to leave, and before it became independent, Gaia Will voluntarily allowed the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar to refine it.
Unfortunately, Lin Xiao’s avatar had now reached the peak below the Great Divine Power and couldn’t advance any further, so this benefit didn’t bring him much of a power boost.
After a while, as Lin Xiao was recalling memories, he seemed to notice something and suddenly looked up, a look of surprise on his face.
In the final arena, the battle between the Seven-headed Dragon and the Lightning Ghost had concluded, but the result was beyond his expectations. The victor was not the Seven-headed Dragon but the Lightning Ghost.
This Lightning Controller, of an unknown race, had a move that could extract the opponent’s strength. With this move, it had forcibly sucked away most of the Seven-headed Dragon’s power and suppressed it, killing it in the process.
This was quite beyond his expectations; he had previously thought that the final showdown would be between himself and this Seven-headed Dragon supported by the Nine-faced Dragon God, Ao. Unexpectedly, it fell early.
It must be said that those who made it this far were top-tier powerhouses, and it was uncertain who would win or lose until the last moment.
Once the Seven-headed Dragon was defeated, only Lin Xiao and the Lightning Ghost remained. The Dominators began to hesitate, and many who had favored him were now unsure whether to switch their support to the Lightning Ghost.
Lin Xiao looked up at the void behind him, feeling somewhat regretful that not a single acquaintance among the many Dominators was present. None of the Great Divine Power from the Human Divine Realm civilization were there to witness him taking that step.
He had absolute confidence in becoming the ultimate champion of this evolution journey.
After all, he had fought the Lightning Ghost once before and had some understanding of its methods. That strength-draining move, though it could be called a BUG, was ineffective against him.
As each Dominator made their choice, the final battle also began amidst their secret communications.
With a heaviness underfoot, the spheres carrying the two contestants sank into the void and reappeared in the final arena.
Without any superfluous words, in the final showdown, there is no survival by surrender, and in a fight between two tigers, only one will live. Only one can take in all the power and become the new Great Dominator.
As soon as the countdown ended, the Lightning Ghost reached out and grabbed at the air, and a mass of lightning in the sky swiftly expanded, while at the same time, a huge ring of lightning spread out like a tide, turning into a several-kilometer-high wall of lightning pushing towards Lin Xiao when it crossed more than ten kilometers in an instant.
Lin Xiao flashed and traversed more than ten kilometers, bypassing the Lightning Ghost, only to be bombarded by a ’boom’ as a bolt of lightning struck him from behind, leaving him dazed and unable to move.
The Lightning Ghost, too, was stuck in a state of mental stagnation, with both of them falling unconscious back to back.
Compared to when the Lightning Ghost’s move could stun for just under a second back in the Sky Tower, now the stun from this passive move lasted several seconds.
But compared to the Time Roaming ability’s fifteen-second mental freeze, even if the Lightning Ghost at that moment had evolved to its limit with strong resistance, it still fell short by several seconds.
When Lin Xiao woke from the stun, the Lightning Ghost had not yet recovered. He immediately equipped the Libra Holy Clothes, and drawing the Libra Weapons—the Golden Twin Swords—from behind, he began to slash furiously at the Lightning Ghost.
"Bang bang bang...."
In an instant, thousands of attacks, and the feedback he received was a mass of fine lightning connecting into one.
The Lightning Ghost’s passive talent: every time it was hit, it would bounce back a bolt of lightning, and the power was quite significant.
After enduring thousands of lightning strikes in an instant, Lin Xiao understood why the Seven-headed Dragon couldn’t defeat him—aside from the strength-absorption, this hedgehog-like rebound was quite nasty.
```
The damage alone wasn’t high, but each attack would rebound once, each burst of Dragon Breath reflecting a powerful Lightning Strike. What was key was that the Lightning Ghost possessed no ordinary lightning—their lightning inflicted additional damage to both the mind and the soul, which was extremely formidable.
The seven-headed dragon didn’t have Lin Xiao’s Time Roaming to reverse the damage of the past fifteen seconds, so it could only endure the hits. Naturally, it couldn’t hold out for long.
Time Lock!
With the abundant vitality of the Golden Ancient Tree, it endured a moment of millions of lightning counterattacks, then used Time Roaming to return to fifteen seconds prior, unscathed, while the Lightning Ghost could only bear the brunt of a million attacks within a one-second time bubble under the LV6 Time Lock for a hundred thousand seconds.
Upon release from the time bubble, the body of the Lightning Ghost shuddered violently, its surface covered with countless tiny fissures, from which threads of lightning spilled out.
The recovering Lightning Ghost pointed at Lin Xiao, creating a Lightning Chain that connected to him, beginning to drain his strength—nearly one percent of it in a second.
He quickly fortified himself with a Black Hole Shield, but failed to interrupt the Lightning Chain.
The Black Hole Shield could dispel all negative BUFFs, but the Lightning Chain wasn’t a negative BUFF—it was a sustained casting talent.
Once again he used Time Roaming to appear at the edge of the final arena, a thousand kilometers away. The Lightning Chain didn’t have such a long range, and thus it was directly disrupted.
Reappearing behind the Lightning Ghost, the prepared Lightning Ghost had already reached up toward the sky before the chain was disrupted. The Super Lightning Ball over its head, now a hundred kilometers in diameter, suddenly brightened, as an intensely white column of lightning struck down, hitting the Lightning Ghost squarely, and also hitting Lin Xiao, who had just appeared behind it, knocking him out on the spot.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
An endless barrage of blazing white lightning struck down, Lin Xiao as if stuck in a lightning purgatory, with the terrifying power of lightning continuously assaulting his soul, destroying his physical body.
Seen from the outside, it appeared as though the Lightning Ball above the Lightning Ghost’s head was unleashing a flood of lightning downwards, engulfing both in an endless sea of thunder and lightning.
The wills of the Dominators couldn’t help but draw closer, almost simultaneously expressing their surprise:
"Eh?"
————————————
In the Chaos Sea of Void, XP-4512 of the Crystal Wall System, a mid-tier system recently discovered by the Huge God Regiment.
The enormous Truth Temple clung to the edge of the Crystal Wall System, its powerful force tearing a gap in the wall of this system. The Regiment’s combat teams had been invading through this gap for several decades, and had now conquered one of the two prime material planes in this system. The remaining native gods, led by the son of the Crystal Wall System, were holding the other prime material plane in a stalemate against the Allied Forces.
Lin Xiao’s True Body had descended in this Crystal Wall System for over a decade. With the power of the Truth Temple and the Regiment’s great divine power, they forcefully suppressed the resistance of the system’s origin consciousness. Now, all they needed to do was to kill the native son of the Crystal Wall System and this world would be theirs to control.
However, this step would be somewhat difficult, for the strength of the son of the Crystal Wall System was surely at the limit that the current universe could accommodate. The limit of a mid-tier Crystal Wall Universe was not weak; with home field advantage, the son’s power could almost match that of a God Level 19 Super Divine Power, and he was one of the best among them.
Although the Giant God Combat Team had many Powerful Divine Powers and he controlled the Truth Temple, after suppressing the world’s origin will, there was no spare strength to suppress the son of Crystal Wall System.
The battle had now reached a stalemate, and they couldn’t find a way to deal with the native gods.
After meeting with his subordinates, Lin Xiao decided to hold off for now and return to the War Zone to see if he could cooperate with a peer to conquer this world.
Emerging from inside the Crystal Wall System and returning to the Truth Temple, Lin Xiao sat upon the Throne of Truth, preparing to give an order when suddenly his movements paused, surprise showing on his face. At the same time, a peculiar aura spread from him, rippling through the space around; any powerful divine power presence would have recognized this as an unintentional overflow of his own power.
With a wave of his hand, dazzling crystalline light flew from him, swiftly weaving a net within the vast Truth Temple, sealing off any leakage of aura.
Having done that, he no longer repressed the overflowing power. His divine form uncontrollably expanded, divine light soaring into the sky blocked by the temple’s restrictions, with billions of stars illuminating overhead. He placed his hand on the armrest of the Throne of Truth. Behind the throne, the Chaos Fireball ’whooshed’ into intense flames, and his uncontrolled divine power filled the entire temple, his divine body growing ever larger.
"What has my Incarnation done?"
Lin Xiao closed his eyes tightly, pressing down on the armrest of the Throne of Truth. He could feel that his soul seemed to be undergoing an indescribable qualitative change, a continuous stream of Soul Power bubbling up from deep within his soul, infinite and seemingly unending.
In just a short while, the power that surged from his soul was almost one-tenth of his own soul’s power.
This greatly surprised him; he had no idea what was happening and did not dare to act rashly.
However, as the continuously emerging power from his soul soon exceeded his own soul strength, an idea formed in his mind that he himself found hard to believe...
He found it hard to believe because such a thing was unheard of, and there was no certainty in it.
But apart from this, nothing else could explain what was happening to him now. After all, he currently held two Ancestor’s Marks, which even now continued to supply him with power.
Unlike the Ancestor’s Marks, which continually increased divine power, his own body was now continuously producing Soul Power, but essentially, they were the same.
"Could it be... has one of my Incarnations ascended to great divine power?"
Lin Xiao found it hard to believe, but aside from this, there was no other explanation.
Only ascension to great divine power would reflect back upon the True Body.
He was both hopeful and apprehensive.
The gap between great divine power and Super Divine Power was too vast, even greater than that between True Gods and mortals. If an Incarnation ascended to great divine power, if it weren’t integrated back promptly, there could be a risk of it becoming independent.
But at this moment, he had no idea which Incarnation was causing the issue, nor did he know where it had gone, leaving him clueless about where to start looking.
"No, I must seek aid from my father-in-law!"
```
Once the incarnation gains independence, it’s a huge problem.
No sooner had he thought of acting than he immediately rose to prepare to leave, but just as the thought arose, he suddenly sat back down.
In his Sea of Gods, the Creation Rubik’s Cube, dormant for a long time, underwent a sudden change with the qualitative transformation of his soul, manifesting out of thin air in the center of his sea of consciousness. Intense rays of light burst from the gaps in the cube, emanating various rule auras as the cube rotated slowly.
Lin Xiao stared intently at the Creation Rubik’s Cube. Compared to the threat of an incarnation far away, this cube was right inside his own sea of soul, posing a direct threat to him.
It was certain that the abnormality of the Creation Rubik’s Cube was triggered by the promotion of one of his incarnations to a Great Dominator, which in turn caused his true soul to undergo a qualitative change. This had never happened before.
Lin Xiao quickly discovered that the rule auras emitted from the Creation Rubik’s Cube were different from what he imagined. Instead of the common arcane mysteries, they were... the origins of rules?
"Where did these origins of rules come from?"
Soon, he had no time to dwell on that, for along with the appearance of these rule origins came a piece of information that left him in shock.
At the end of a certain Chaos Epoch, a not-willing-to-perish Supreme Ruler, along with over ten Supreme Rulers and thousands of Great Dominators from the same epoch, forged this transcendent divine artifact to avoid the end of the epoch.
But to their surprise, their actions hastened the end of that epoch. The transcendent divine artifact was not yet completed when the final catastrophe of the epoch arrived, and all of the dominators perished, leaving only this unfinished transcendent divine artifact to endure the epoch’s end.
Afterward, it went through countless epochs and many masters, but none could reach the step of promotion to a Great Dominator, until it fell into Lin Xiao’s hands.
This transcendent divine artifact could only be controlled by a ruler.
As a transcendent divine artifact forged by all the Great Dominators of an epoch, it contained all the rule origins mastered by the rulers of that epoch, along with the transcendent function initially set for the artifact itself.
The original plan was to gather all the Great Dominators’ power to survive the final catastrophe of the epoch after the artifact was successfully forged. However, the final catastrophe came early. The dominators fell, but their power remained, as did the artifact. Now, only the last step was missing: to refine it and fill its core with one’s own being, thus completing the artifact.
At that time, as the master of the Creation Rubik’s Cube, he would possess including over a dozen Supreme Rulers, all the origins of a thousand Great Dominators.
Or to put it another way, from the moment his soul began to metamorphose, the Creation Rubik’s Cube had already been activated, with the origins of thousands of rulers inside the cube starting to provide him evolutionary feedback.
This meant that from now on, his strength would grow ever stronger. Being a Great Dominator was just a starting point, until he fully integrates with the Creation Rubik’s Cube and the residual dominator origins within, until the ultimate treasure is fully unlocked, and he...
"Perhaps, there’s a way to deal with the Twisted Abyss now!"
Lin Xiao thought immediately. With the ultimate unlocking of the Creation Rubik’s Cube and gathering of the residual power of an epoch, becoming a Supreme Ruler was just a matter of time, inevitably transcending the epoch in the future.
Before that, he now had a solution to his greatest problem.
Promotion to a Supreme Ruler, combined with the power of two Supreme Rulers from the Enigma, uniting all parties, and with the powerhouses of the Human Divine Realm civilization, they could face down the Twisted Abyss.
There’s no need to worry about whether the human civilization would be willing. As long as it could confront the rulers of the Twisted Abyss, the human big shots would be very willing.
One must know that it’s a super powerful Crystal Wall System that could accommodate nearly twenty Great Dominators and a Supreme Ruler. If they could conquer it, with the immense strength of the Crystal Wall Universe Origin, they could force the transformation of many eligible powerful beings into Great Divine Power, regardless of any conditions.
This was an irresistible temptation for many powerful beings in the Main World who are stuck at this level. As long as there is a possibility of victory, the Main World will inevitably push for a full-scale declaration of war against the Twisted Abyss.
Half a year later, the Giant God Combat Team Allied Forces, which had been stagnate for an entire six months, restarted their invasion war against the natives. The war soon entered a fierce stage.
The huge Floating City was anchored outside the plane, and Fu Haofei, the camp leader of the Giant God Combat Team Arcanists, was inside the Floating City discussing with several colleagues over a virtual sand table. He was puzzled by the current war situation and, after carefully examining the virtual sand table for a long time, he sighed and said:
"If no force changes the situation, it will end in a stalemate, according to the current circumstances."
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he looked toward Thanatos, from the God Regiment of Order and Earth assigned to the Giant God Combat Team, and asked respectfully:
"What is your opinion, if I may ask?"
Thanatos shook his head expressionlessly:
"This is the divine king’s command!"
Fu Haofei quickly shook his head:
"Your Excellency, please don’t misunderstand, I’m not questioning His Majesty’s command, just a little puzzled."
No sooner had he finished speaking than everyone in the Floating City turned their heads toward the outside. The Crystal Wall passage at the rear twisted rapidly, and a terrifying force emerged, opening wide into a hand that blotted out the sky and grabbed towards the main plane.
From the edge of the main plane, dozens of united God Countries in the center of the native Divine Army burst with dazzling divine light, and an immensely large True God emerged from the central God Country and quickly transformed into a towering titan to meet the giant hand.
The next second, the giant hand grasped the towering titan, and a voice that was all too familiar and full of terror rang out:
"Great Divine Power!"
"This.....!"
There was silence all around. Fu Haofei opened his mouth but no words came out, and when he looked back at Thanatos, even this powerful Divine Power was filled with shock and elation!
At the same time, Lin Xiao, who was in the Truth Temple, was also gaping at Shen Yuexin, who had come specially to tell him, with only her words lingering in his mind:
"I’m carrying your child, you’re going to be a father!"
```