The Spaceship in the Chaos Sea
Beyond his combat applications of Time Laws, there was something else Lu Yuan had been meaning to try.
The idea was to use Time Laws to manipulate the flow of time around himself — specifically, to accelerate it and create vast stretches of time for Law comprehension.
If it worked, it would be extraordinary news.
He could use the minimum amount of real time to bring his remaining Fate Laws and Fantasy Laws to perfection.
Just thinking about it, he couldn't suppress a flutter of excitement.
He used Time Laws to bring himself to peak condition, drew a slow breath, and settled back into a cross-legged position.
As he sat, bronze grains rose around him and the River of Time flowed in great currents at his sides, as though he had become a deity of time itself.
His expression blank, he reached into the River of Time. When he withdrew his hand, he held what appeared to be an ordinary crystal.
A Heart of Laws — the same one he had used before.
Through Time Laws, he had summoned it directly from the River of Time.
He studied the Temporal Projection of the Heart of Laws — indistinguishable from the real thing — then activated it with a thought. It dissolved into a profound radiance and merged with his Gene Chain, which now had only two open segments remaining.
Fate Laws.
A Law Space took shape, and his consciousness sank into it. The Wheel of Fate spun within that space while the essences of Fortune and Misfortune swirled endlessly around him in flowing currents.
His mind plunged swiftly into the profound mysteries of Fate Laws.
Yet he kept a sliver of awareness in the outside world.
Around him, beyond the Sands of Time and the River of Time, phantom clocks materialized one by one. Their hour and minute hands began to turn — slowly at first, then faster and faster.
Taking the Gravity Room as his Temporal Domain, he drove his Time Laws to work, and time began to accelerate.
Outside the Gravity Room, one day passed. Inside, two days elapsed.
A 1:2 ratio.
The acceleration did not stop — it kept climbing.
1:3. 1:4. 1:5…
Soon, as he pushed Time Laws to their absolute limit, the ratio reached a staggering 1:100.
For every single day that passed outside the Gravity Room, a full hundred days elapsed within.
To put that in perspective: even the time differential between the Land of Origin and the outside universe was only 1:12.
Combined, every single day of real time would equal 1,200 days inside his Gravity Room — over three full years.
It had taken roughly a thousand years of Origin Time to comprehend Time Laws. If he had possessed this acceleration back then, it would have taken only about ten Origin Time years — less than a single year of real time.
What a terrifying pace.
It was a rate of comprehension no other War God could hope to match.
Let alone other War Gods — even the Mother of Aberration, who had devoured countless universes, would never believe that someone could fully master a rare and powerful Law in so little time.
With this time acceleration, he could comprehend Laws at maximum possible speed.
Excitement flickered through the sliver of awareness he kept outside.
All he had to do now was maintain his Time Laws and immerse himself fully.
He sank back into the mysteries of Fate Laws.
In the Chaos Sea.
Hundreds of Aberrant Touches, split off from the Mother of Aberration, had fanned out in every direction in search of Lu Yuan's trail.
Decades of real time passed as the Aberrant Touches moved at full speed, reading spatial currents and scanning for irregular disturbances — any sign that the Universe Bubble had passed through their area.
Lu Yuan had the foresight to erase the spatial traces of the Universe Bubble's movement in advance, so decade after decade passed without the Aberrant Touches finding a thing.
Yet the Universe Bubble was immense. Even with his Laws Rank strength — even with Time Laws and Stellar Laws at his disposal — moving it had limits.
Irregular movement paths cut the risk of discovery somewhat, but the Aberrant Touches moved faster than the Universe Bubble.
As time passed, the Spatial Clone busy erasing traces sensed a powerful, malevolent aura closing in fast.
The Spatial Clone paused and turned toward the source.
From that direction, a grotesque flesh creature was moving through the Chaos — and it was getting closer by the second.
Lu Yuan's Spatial Clone frowned slightly, cast a glance at the rippling spatial traces, then in the next instant became a streak of light and vanished, reappearing in an entirely different direction.
The moment the spatial displacement appeared, the flesh creature froze, then snapped its gaze toward where the Spatial Clone had materialized.
The Spatial Clone emerged slowly from that direction.
They faced each other. The Aberrant Touch's tentacles writhed in a frenzy, its countless eyes blazing with deeply unsettling light. Its mouth opened and closed, and a strangely seductive voice rang out:
"Found you!"
In the next instant, dark energy surged around it. The power of Dark Laws combined with its twisted aberrant force, and a terrifying aura erupted outward.
It launched itself at Lu Yuan's Spatial Clone.
The Spatial Clone remained expressionless. Power flooded through him, and a Spatial Vortex tore open directly in the Aberrant Touch's path, swallowing it whole in an instant. Devastating force shredded through its body, and blood erupted in all directions.
The Aberrant Touch let out a furious roar. Darkness spread outward, blanketing the surrounding Chaos Sea.
Even the chaotic energy quieted within the Dark Laws domain, as if everything had been swallowed by a space of absolute, lightless silence.
Yet when the darkness reached the Spatial Clone, it seemed blocked by boundless space and could spread no further.
At the same time, deep Spatial Rifts tore open through the Dark Laws domain, fractures spreading across it like cracks through glass.
Lu Yuan's Spatial Clone poured Spirit Power out in waves, unleashing a barrage of spatial blades and Spatial Vortexes that slashed through the Dark Laws domain and hammered the Aberrant Touch relentlessly.
The Aberrant Touch retaliated with its dark force and aberrant power, launching corrosive attacks against the Spatial Clone.
Their battle churned the surrounding chaotic energy into turmoil, and Spatial Rifts opened one after another.
Both combatants were avatars, and each commanded only a single Law.
Though the Aberrant Touch also wielded aberrant force, Spatial Laws outranked Dark Laws in raw power. For the moment, neither side could gain the upper hand, and the battle settled into an uncanny stalemate.
While the fight held its balance, far away — at the location where the Universe Bubble had originally been — the main body of the Mother of Aberration broke into a savage smile and said slowly:
"Found it."
In the next instant, with a single thought, she directed every Aberrant Touch to converge on the direction of the one that had sent the signal.
Even her own main body transformed into a streak of green light and shot off that way.
Inside Sky-Mending City, Lu Yuan's eyes snapped open in the Gravity Room.
Above his head, a black-and-white Wheel of Fate turned slowly. As his eyes opened, the phantom wheel faded and dissolved.
With time acceleration in effect, he had come remarkably close to fully mastering Fate Laws in what felt like an extremely short span.
But part of his awareness resided in the Spatial Clone, and through it he sensed exactly what the clone was experiencing.
*Of all the timing — one of the Mother of Aberration's avatars finds my clone now?*
He exhaled quietly, a touch of resignation in it, then Spirit Power surged around him. Power vastly greater than his clone's rose to the surface.
His main body personally took over, steering the Universe Bubble into motion.
Time Laws locked him in peak condition. Stellar Laws merged with the Cosmic Origin, fusing him and the entire Universe Bubble into a single whole. Spatial Laws activated, and the Universe Bubble began to move.
With Time Laws holding him in perfect form, he pushed the Universe Bubble across a tremendous distance before shifting direction several times.
Each time he changed course, he left a Spatial Clone behind to erase the trail.
He kept moving for several days before finally stopping.
The gap between his new position and the old one was now immense.
And every trace of the journey had Spatial Clones diligently sweeping clean behind him.
Once he stopped, the Universe Bubble settled back into the Chaos Sea, and Lu Yuan slowly opened his eyes inside Sky-Mending City, exhaling a long, slow breath.
He had prepared contingency plans for this situation long in advance.
After all, while he knew the Mother of Aberration's strength, her full array of trump cards was another matter entirely. He had thought through every scenario he could imagine — including this one: what to do if she found him.
As it stood, only one of the Mother's avatars had spotted his Spatial Clone. That was already one of the best-case outcomes he had envisioned.
This scenario was straightforward to handle. All he needed to do was personally move the Universe Bubble to a distant region, and evading her was easy.
Once that was done, he handed the Universe Bubble's movement back to an avatar.
This time, the avatar he formed was a temporal projection — drawn directly from the River of Time through the power of Time Laws.
Its strength was comparable to his own main body.
Moving the Universe Bubble was effortless for it.
With everything settled, he turned his focus back to comprehension.
The sudden interruption had broken his previous Heart of Laws. He reached into the River of Time once more, drew out another, and resumed his comprehension of Fate Laws.
In the Chaos Sea.
The Spatial Clone and the Aberrant Touch were locked in fierce combat when the clone suddenly froze — then dissolved into a mass of spatial energy and dispersed without a trace.
At the sight, the Aberrant Touch went rigid.
The Spatial Clone had simply been recalled.
Not a trace of its presence remained anywhere the creature could sense.
A howl of rage tore out of it, and the surrounding chaotic energy churned in response.
Soon, the Mother of Aberration's main body arrived along with a swarm of Aberrant Touches.
Taking in the now-calm Chaos Sea, she understood immediately: he had slipped away again.
Across her flesh, countless eyes blazed with unsettling light, and her mouth split open in a furious roar:
"Worthless insect! I will find you again — mark my words!"
Now with a direction to follow, the Mother of Aberration directed her horde of Aberrant Touches to trace the residual spatial marks of the Universe Bubble's movement — the stretches that Lu Yuan's clones had not yet managed to erase.
But the trail vanished again after extending only so far, and another furious roar tore out of her.
In her eyes, Lu Yuan was weak but infuriatingly cunning — like a troublesome insect: easy to despise, impossible to catch.
Yet this insect possessed power that intrigued her deeply, and she had no intention of abandoning the hunt.
Time passed.
After Lu Yuan relocated the Universe Bubble another significant distance, he bought himself a comfortable window once more.
This time, with Time Laws at his disposal and time acceleration running, his Law comprehension proceeded at a swift pace.
Five years of Origin Time later, above Sky-Mending City, phantom Wheels of Fate faded one by one until they were gone.
Throughout the city, Gene Warriors erupted in excitement.
"The phenomenon has faded — Lord Lu Yuan has mastered another Law!"
"Fate Laws, of all things… Lord Lu Yuan truly lives up to his name. Not one Law he has ever mastered has been a simple one!"
"But this time, Lord Lu Yuan's comprehension was so fast — surely less than ten years of Origin Time in total? What on earth happened?"
The warriors of Sky-Mending City buzzed with theories, shock plain on every face.
It was not just the ordinary warriors. Even the War Gods — Ruoshui among them — were stunned to see that Lu Yuan had mastered Fate Laws in under ten years of Origin Time.
"Fate Laws. Fully comprehended in under ten years?"
Kro's eyes went wide, disbelief etched across his face.
"How in the world did he manage it?!"
Nuxing stood there in a daze, murmuring quietly:
"Surely the gap between us isn't that wide… is it?"
Everyone was at a loss.
Then Tang Ren, as if something had just occurred to him, spoke up slowly:
"Perhaps… it has something to do with the Time Laws Lu Yuan mastered previously. By using Time Laws to accelerate time, he could create a region where time flows at a different rate — much like the Land of Origin. Within such a region, something like this might very well be achievable."
Those words drew a collective sharp intake of breath from the assembled War Gods.
"Time Laws can do something like that?!"
"What terrifying Law Force. But when all is said and done, the truly terrifying one is Lu Yuan himself, for being able to master a Law like that in the first place."
Even Chiyan couldn't help but let out a sigh.
"Right. That guy is just a monster."
Everyone managed a wry smile.
After mastering Fate Laws, Lu Yuan set his sights on the very last one: Fantasy Laws.
In the Chaos Sea.
The Universe Bubble drifted on, moving steadily through the Chaos Sea and threading between Spatial Rifts.
Not far from the Universe Bubble, in an open stretch of Chaos Sea, a seemingly ordinary silver-white spaceship was sailing through the void.
The interior of the ship was far larger than its exterior suggested — a vast, seemingly boundless grassland stretched out within.
On that grassland, a strikingly handsome black-haired young man lay with his hands pillowed beneath his head, gazing up at a clear blue sky with an utterly unhurried expression.