Chapter 829 Three Years in Half an Hour
After a brief moment of disorientation, Kael found himself back in the Blood Jade Galaxy.
“What...?”
The scene before him left him frozen in disbelief.
Arthur, Adrian, and the others stood in the void, surrounded by drifting corpses. Most of the dead were low-ranking cultivators who had never reached the Planetary Realm. The bodies of the Qi Refining disciples had swollen grotesquely in the vacuum of space.
Adrian and the others had managed to protect Rook and a small number of cultivators below the Planetary Realm, but no more than that.
Reaching the Planetary Realm merely allowed a cultivator to survive and travel through space in their physical body.
Without Inner Cosmoses of their own, they could not shelter so many weaker cultivators in the void.
“Quickly. Everyone inside.”
Kael swept out a hand, drawing all the survivors into his Inner Cosmos before vanishing from space as well.
Once inside, Adrian and the others laid more than a hundred bodies in neat rows.
“How did this happen?” Adrian asked, his brow creased with worry.
“I...”
Kael had no time to explain. He drew out a jade bottle and pulled out its stopper.
“You’re going to use Immortal Spirit Liquid to save them?” Rook asked.
“What other choice do I have? They died because of me. No matter how much Immortal Spirit Liquid it takes, I have to try.”
Kael forced open the first corpse’s mouth. The body had gone completely rigid, and it took considerable strength to pry the jaw apart.
“But they’ve been dead for three years,” Rook said. “Can Immortal Spirit Liquid really revive someone after all that time?”
“What?”
Kael wondered if he had heard him correctly.
“You’re saying I was gone for three years?”
He rose and stared at Rook.
“You didn’t notice?”
Rook looked just as confused as he was.
Kael stood motionless for several seconds before the answer came to him.
Crossing the gray boundary must have activated some form of temporal law.
He had spent less than half an hour traveling through that gray expanse, yet three years had passed within the Blood Jade Galaxy.
Cold dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
Even so, Kael poured a drop of Immortal Spirit Liquid into the corpse’s mouth.
Vitality immediately spread through the man’s body, beginning with his lips before flowing into his head, chest, and limbs.
But the man had already been dead for three years. His soul might have entered the cycle of reincarnation long ago.
The Immortal Spirit Liquid could restore his body, but what about his soul?
Would Kael have to return to the River of Oblivion within the Phantasmal Oasis and search for it?
No. That would never work.
He had found Shenzo’s soul in the River of Oblivion only because it had never escaped Skyfire Planet’s gravitational field.
These people had died in open space. He had no idea where their souls might have gone—or on which planet he was supposed to search for them.
Pain pulsed through Kael’s head as he swept out his right hand.
All the corpses froze solid before being transported to Frostwind Valley within his Inner Cosmos.
“Kael, what exactly happened?” Rook asked. “Why were you gone for three years?”
“It’s a long story.”
Kael recounted everything that had happened, leaving out nothing.
“What? Astral Mountain can actually escape the Blood Jade Galaxy?”
Adrian and the others stared at him in astonishment.
Countless powerful cultivators throughout the galaxy had devoted their entire lives to escaping the Blood Jade Galaxy and avoiding the fate of eventually being devoured by a black hole.
Yet Kael had succeeded before even reaching the Real Deity Realm.
“Doesn’t that mean you can leave the Blood Jade Galaxy whenever you want and eventually advance to the Real Deity Realm?” Adrian asked.
There was something in his voice that might have been envy—or perhaps jealousy.
“What would be the point of escaping alone if I can’t take the rest of humanity with me?”
Kael shook his head.
“Not necessarily.”
Aethera’s voice came from the Blackcloud Tree.
“Oh? Do you have a way for me to take all of humanity out of the Blood Jade Galaxy?”
Kael turned toward her at once.
“There may be one possibility.”
“You aren’t about to suggest that every human cultivate to the Real Deity Realm, are you?” Rook asked. “Creating an entire world from nothing would be easier.”
“No. I believe this has something to do with the level of Kael’s Inner Cosmos. If it becomes stable enough, the Heavenly Laws may no longer be able to expel everyone the next time he leaves the Blood Jade Galaxy.”
Kael focused entirely on her.
“Then how do I stabilize my Inner Cosmos?”
“That, I don’t know,” Aethera admitted. “But continuing to expand it can’t be the wrong approach.
Once your Inner Cosmos grows larger than the Blood Jade Galaxy, it will become an independent world in its own right.
At that point, the laws of the Blood Jade Galaxy will no longer be capable of restraining it.
“Consider a planet whose mass surpasses that of the star it supposedly orbits. Could it still be called a planet? At that point, the star would be the one orbiting it.”
Aethera spoke with calm certainty.
“That makes sense,” Adrian said slowly. “But expanding an Inner Cosmos until it rivals the Blood Jade Galaxy could take longer than we can imagine. The black holes may devour the entire galaxy before then.”
“It may not need to become that large,” Aethera replied. “Even if Kael’s Inner Cosmos reached only one ten-millionth the size of the Blood Jade Galaxy, the galaxy might no longer be capable of restraining it.”
“What do you think, Kael?” Lucian asked eagerly. “Is there anything we can do to help you expand it?”
An ordinary Planetary Realm cultivator had only one way to expand their Inner Cosmos: continuously pouring Origin Power, treasures, and rare elements into it.
It was an extraordinarily time-consuming process.
Kael was different. As long as he possessed enough Eternal Points, he could continue expanding his Inner Cosmos.
“I doubt there’s much you can do. For now, I need to visit the other galaxies and determine whether their humans are still being oppressed or enslaved. If they are, I’ll deal with every race responsible.”
Kael’s voice turned cold.
Expanding his Inner Cosmos required vast quantities of Eternal Points, and killing powerful cultivators was the fastest way to acquire them.
Even so, Kael would not hunt innocent cultivators merely for points. He would take those points only from rulers and high-ranking experts whose crimes against humanity had been proven.
“Kael, what does that have to do with anything?” Rook reached out and pressed a hand to Kael’s forehead. “Did crossing the boundary of the Blood Jade Galaxy damage your brain?”
Of all humanity, Rook was probably the only person who would dare treat Kael so casually.
Lucian and the others could only watch in silence.
“That’s enough.”
Kael knocked Rook’s hand aside.
“Remain inside my Inner Cosmos. While you’re here, make sure those frozen bodies are properly preserved.”
With that, Kael left the warmth of his Inner Cosmos and reappeared in the frigid reaches of space.
He summoned the Machine Race vessel and set a course for Starhound Valley.
Once aboard, Kael opened his status panel.
[Eternal Points: 16.32]
He immediately invested all his Eternal Points into his Inner Cosmos.
[Human Monarch: 813.369]
[Eternal Tier 2: 20%]
[Stage Twenty of the Fiendgod Transformation: 100,000,000/200,000,000]
[Grand Celestial Manifestation: 1/100]
[Sacred Skin—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Tendon—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Muscle—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Organ—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Sacred Bone—Fortification: 10,000/20,000]
[Supreme Divine Craftsmanship: 4,500/5,000]
[Divine Alchemy Dao: 50%]
[Basic Inner Cosmos: 516/1,000]
[Myriad Spirit Eye Tier 1: 15/100]
[Sound Spirit Root: 5%]
[Machine Spirit Root: 5%]
The Machine Race vessel carried Kael to Starhound Valley in little more than a moment.
He had already flattened the canyon, but his attack had not killed every cultivator within it. A considerable number of high-ranking Starhounds had survived.
More than a dozen Stellar Realm Starhound cultivators now hovered above the ruins, staring down at the devastation with grief-stricken faces.