Chapter Seventeen: Comprehension Achieved

“Is this what time standing still looks like?”
Qu Yi, trapped in the sealed space, seemed unable to move his body, but his consciousness remained clear. The complete state of stillness in that space was fully visible before him.
Having reached the Divine King realm, Qu Yi had quickly grasped the complete rules of space, but he had felt nothing regarding the rules of time. He had long understood that he needed an opportunity to discern the patterns of time’s rules.
Now, Qu Yi believed he had that opportunity.
“Gongye Ming, they have sealed both of us together, thinking I’ll be as helpless as you and remain trapped in this area forever. Alas, the Divine King of the Eight Realms still doesn’t understand the wonders of the cosmic forces. By using the cosmic power of the Inch Realm Universe, I can return directly to it. If I employ the cosmic power of the Five Elements Universe, I can easily shatter this frozen space. But I won’t leave now. I’ll use this chance to comprehend time standing still.” Qu Yi smiled faintly, feeling a bit excited.
Since the Divine King of the Eight Realms thought Qu Yi was confined to one space and his strength had stopped there, Qu Yi would play along and stay in this space. As long as he could understand time standing still, he would surely make those Divine Kings suffer greatly on the Battlefield of Reincarnation.
“Time stands still, space remains motionless—everything halts, the rules of space freeze…”
Qu Yi was inside the space, striving to sense the stillness of time there, hoping to find some clue that could stir his soul and help him discern traces of the time rules.
One hundred thousand years.
One million years.
Ten million years.
Qu Yi continued to ponder, trying to find a clue in this state of stillness, but found nothing. The entire frozen space showed no change. He could only rack his brains, wondering how to quickly uncover the traces of the time rules.
“I must have made a mistake in my assumptions somewhere,” Qu Yi thought suddenly, an idea striking him, ending his random speculation.
Over those ten million years, he kept sensing changes in the surrounding space but found everything unchanged—not the slightest shift. Naturally, in such a static state, he couldn’t detect even the slightest trace of the time rules.
Qu Yi realized he had gone down the wrong path in his cultivation.
“This space is already frozen. Of course, I can sense no changes at all,” he thought to himself.

Suddenly, Qu Yi thought of something and felt a stir in his heart.
“Right, I can use the power of the Five Elements Universe to explore this space and see what secrets lie within.” Qu Yi was somewhat excited, feeling that he would find traces of the time rules.
The power of the universe is the most mysterious yet also the most powerful, surpassing any spatial or temporal rules—it is the core that keeps the universe stable.
At that moment, Qu Yi unleashed the power of the Five Elements Universe, allowing it to flow within the fixed space around his body.
Everything happened silently, unnoticed.
Yet Qu Yi’s soul followed the power of the universe, scanning for any changes in the space.
“Still no changes!” Qu Yi frowned, hesitating for a moment before resolving, “Increase the speed of the power of the universe.”
It was his first time using this power to explore a solidified space, so he didn’t dare use too much force, releasing only a faint stream of energy. But since his soul couldn’t detect any changes, he realized this method wasn’t effective either.
Soon, the entire solidified space was filled with the flow of the power of the universe.
“There it is!” Qu Yi was filled with excitement.
As the power flowed more extensively and faster, his soul finally uncovered the secrets of this space.
“Right, increase its speed even more,” Qu Yi thought excitedly, accelerating the flow of the power even further, intensively impacting the entire space.
The intense fluctuations of the power caused the solidified space to vibrate, resulting in fragments forming. Yet these fragments immediately returned to their original state.
Qu Yi’s heart lit up—he had touched upon traces of the time rules.
“The time rules are simply another application of spatial rules. This state of time standing still essentially means rapidly restoring spatial changes to their original state, making the entire space return to its former condition.” His mind became clear as he grasped a hint of the time rules, giving him a direction for cultivation.
Space is filled with various substances, whose states are constantly changing.
The essence of time standing still is that, at the moment a substance’s state changes in space, it immediately returns to its original state. Thus, on the surface, it seems as though space never changes, as if it remains stationary.

Since Qu Yi had figured out the essence of time rules, he naturally found the threshold to understanding time stagnation and also had a method for cultivation in mind. “Even if other God Kings understand the essence of time stagnation, it’s not easy to achieve it. After all, keeping the material state of an entire space unchanged requires immense energy, and the soul must also be extremely strong. But for me, cultivating time stagnation is much simpler—after all, I can directly use Chaos Energy,” Qu Yi thought happily. Chaos Energy is the source of the universe’s evolution, capable of giving rise to various forms of energy and matter. Naturally, since Qu Yi knew that the essence of time stagnation was the instantaneous change and restoration of material states, he could use Chaos Energy to cover an entire space. If the matter in that space changed, he could use Chaos Energy to transform it back to its previous state, thus achieving time stagnation for the entire space. Acting on this thought, Qu Yi immediately began his journey of cultivating time stagnation.
※※※
On the Three Divine Peaks of Nan Yin Island, Zong Jing, Xu Miao, Qian Mao, Qi Shen, Wu Yuan, and Qing Wu Gui sat together in a stone pavilion, chatting. “Qu Yi was indeed right. The maximum number of beings we can sustain within us is around 10 billion. Now, I can sense that the faith power in my Treasure Realm has surpassed 10 billion, but the number of beings in my body only increased to 10 billion, with no new beings born since then,” Zong Jing said joyfully, even excitedly. Over these ten million years, Zong Jing had gone to the lower world, namely the Treasure Realm, took control of the entire cultivation realm, and thus gained faith power. As a result, he now possessed perfect spatial power within his body. Moreover, Zong Jing was confident that it wouldn’t take long for him to fully understand all spatial rules. “The same goes for me,” Xu Miao, Qian Mao, Qi Shen, and Wu Yuan all said. These four had also gone to the lower world, quickly took control of the entire cultivation realm, and after guiding and educating everyone there, they gained the faith power of the entire realm. Wu Yuan looked up at the sky and saw that Qu Yi’s body remained motionless, with that space still frozen, trapping both Qu Yi and Gong Ye Ming inside. Anger immediately appeared on Wu Yuan’s face.

“Damn it! Over the years, all the Eight Realms Divine Kings have disappeared. No matter how hard I try, I can’t find them. It seems they knew we would come to seek revenge and deliberately hid. They must be somewhere in the spatial turbulence—we just can’t find them.” Wu Yuan’s eyes seemed to sprout flames.

Over these years, Wu Yuan had become increasingly furious. Every time he saw Qu Yi trapped in the sky, an uncontrollable rage would surge within him, making him want to smash the entire divine realm with a single strike. Ever since they were in the cultivation world, Wu Yuan and Qu Yi had developed a deep bond that was even etched into their souls. Now, seeing Qu Yi trapped while he couldn’t locate his enemy, Wu Yuan had nowhere to vent his anger. All he could do was constantly ponder ways to use spatial power to kill all the Eight Realms Divine Kings during the Reincarnation Battlefield.

Qing Wugui also emitted waves of murderous intent, clearly eager to hunt down the Eight Realms Divine Kings and start a massacre right away.

“Wu Yuan, Qing Wugui, there’s no need to rush. After all these years following Qu Yi, don’t you know he’s always managed to turn danger into safety? He’s definitely fine. Moreover, I have a feeling Qu Yi will benefit from this as well. Just wait patiently. Qu Yi will surely surprise us again,” the Artifact God said immediately to calm them down upon seeing their expressions.

Only the Artifact God could persuade Wu Yuan and Qing Wugui. After all, since the cultivation world, he had known them both and had even helped them cultivate, so his words carried weight.

“Wu Yuan, Qing Wugui, rest assured. The three of us swear to eradicate the Eight Realms Divine Kings at all costs. Since they’ve hidden, let’s launch an operation in the divine realm right now. We’ll call on all ascended cultivators to carry out a purge against the native cultivators of the divine realm,” Zong Jing said calmly, his eyes gleaming.

Undoubtedly, since they couldn’t find the Eight Realms Divine Kings to take revenge on, using this opportunity to eliminate the entire native force in the divine realm was also a good way to vent their anger.

Hearing this, Wu Yuan’s eyes indeed turned fierce. He stood up immediately and shouted, “Good! Let’s do it that way. Since the Eight Realms Divine Kings used this method to force Qu Yi out, we can use the same method to force them out. As soon as one of them shows up, we’ll attack together and kill them all.”

Qing Wugui also stood up, nodding in agreement with the plan.

The Artifact God clicked his lips, stood up helplessly, and smiled faintly, “Since you both want to do this, what can we do? Let’s go ahead then.”

Actually, the Instrument Gods can also be considered native cultivators of the divine realm, but they have never built their own forces, so they don’t hold deep feelings for these native cultivators. As a result, they are not actively preventing it now either. In a short while, the cultivators at the Divine General level of Tianfeng Fort received an order to eliminate the native cultivators of the divine realm immediately.