"Hmmm? These couple of people seem to be very strong...?" Fang Xingjian asked.
"You should be aware that from tier one of the Divine level onward, one must clear the Nine-Tiered Heavens to level up. Therefore, most of the Divine level experts are able to reach tier four of the Divine level in just a few years or even just a few months. There are very few people who would stay at the same level for very long."
The red-haired young man said, "Don't be unwilling to give in. They attempted to strive to clear the trial earlier than we did, so the accumulation of their strength would—of course—be greater than ours. Furthermore, although the conditions for cultivating in this world aren't much, there has been a great amount of technological research done. They've been at tier four of the Divine level for a very long time, and each of them has a deeper and more unfathomable cultivation than the other.
"Although their strength didn't increase by too much, they've reached a depth in the microscopic realm that far surpasses what we've reached."
Fang Xingjian did not comment on this and just asked, "Then what is the reason that you guys have not been able to clear the trial after all this time?"
The red-haired young man sighed again while wearing a bitter look on his face. He shook his head and did not answer Fang Xingjian's question. Instead, he said, "I'm Luo Haonan. I haven't asked you for your name yet."
"I'm Fang Xingjian."
"Xingjian..." Clearly, it had been a very long time since Luo Haonan had found someone to talk to. After all, the natives here were too different from him. Thus, he had no desires to share his thoughts with them.
As for the other Divine level experts, they had arrived much earlier before him and had their own social circles. Moreover, they had taught him a few lessons previously, so he was a little fearful toward those seniors.
Now that Fang Xingjian had arrived, Luo Haonan felt like an elder brother to him and thus came to greet him, sharing the grievances he had been feeling.
"It's all because of the natives in this world," Luo Haonan said. "Although the natives in this world aren't that strong, they've got a grasp on an extremely high technological prowess.
"12 years ago—two years before the first onslaught—a guy who called himself the Divine Emperor appeared on the planet and brought along a tremendous amount of high technology skills.
"Our mission—the condition to clear this world's trial—is to guide the development of history and change it. We're to change the entire Earth into a cultivating civilization. However, the Divine Emperor's existence is our greatest obstacle. As long as he is around, there's no way that this planet can become a civilization that focuses purely on cultivation."
Fang Xingjian understood it now. After he arrived in this world, the target whom his Sudden Inspiration sensed that he needed to kill was probably that Divine Emperor. Right now, the seven tier four Divine level experts in the Qiu Dao Alliance were unable to do anything to that Divine Emperor. Clearly, he had some kind of strong powers.
Luo Haonan continued, "We don't know where that Divine Emperor got his hands on those high technology equipment. He has an almost endless supply of robot armies and even small-scale space battlecruisers.
"As you know, this Earth has already experienced the first onslaught. So, right now, the lifespans of all the living creatures on the planet are all accelerated. Staying outside the safety zone for one day will cause a person to lose one year of their lifespan.
"It's not worth it to fight against his robot armies outside."
Fang Xingjian understood now. It seemed that the other Divine level experts, who had come from other parallel worlds, were not immune to having their lifespans flowing at an accelerated pace. It seemed that this environment was advantageous to Fang Xingjian.
However, Fang Xingjian was still a little puzzled. "People at tier four of the Divine level are able to move at light speed and even distort space. After reaching the microscopic realm, there would also be all sorts of remarkable abilities. Despite this, is there still no way of dealing with him?"
Luo Haonan shook his head. "You'll find out when the time comes. But there's one thing I can tell you. Qiu Dao is only the first amongst us seven to arrive in this world, but he isn't the first Divine level expert to arrive on this planet and in this world.
"Before him but after the first onslaught, a Divine level expert came to this world. But..."
Saying this, Luo Haonan's gaze turned extremely solemn. "He was killed by the Divine Emperor."
Fang Xingjian nodded and said, "Then what plans do you guys have now? If you continue to drag this out and stay here, you'll never be able to attain a breakthrough to tier five of the Divine level. And if the Divine Emperor continues developing more high technological equipment, he'll probably just continue getting stronger."
"That's right." Luo Haonan shrugged. "But Lord Qiu Dao seems to have his plans. We, who are weaker, can only wait for the others to make the decision."
Naturally, Fang Xingjian was unwilling to wait for the plans of others to mature. He did not have seven or eight years to waste here. Still, with how unclear the situation was, it was impossible for him to just head over and kill the Divine Emperor directly.
Therefore, with a flash, a clone of his darted out from his body, preparing to gather information about the Qiu Dao Alliance and that Divine Emperor.
Using his illusory arts to conceal this, Luo Haonan was unable to detect Fang Xingjian's actions.
Therefore, over the next few days, Fang Xingjian stayed in Litian City. There was no news from Qiu Dao and the other five Heavenly Generals. It seemed that they did not view Fang Xingjian—the new Divine level expert—in high regard.
Fang Xingjian's clone continued gathering information about this world while his true form kept on discussing cultivation paths and the martial arts profoundness with Luo Haonan. Occasionally, they would also have exchanges about the differences between the parallel universes they came from.
The parallel world that Luo Haonan came from was also a place that was similar to Earth. However, that place had a strong martial arts culture. They also had Mages and the Church of Universal Truth, but the Mages were suppressed by the Church and had no way of shining out.
Under Fang Xingjian's probing, he found out that Luo Haonan's world did not seem to be connected to Miracle World. Instead, the Nine-Tiered Heavens existed on Earth itself.
The understanding of many of the world's secrets in Luo Haonan's inherited legacy was also above that of Fang Xingjian's.
"The Nine-Tiered Heavens projects one to another world to change the other world's history as well as its past and future," Fang Xingjian said. Then he asked, "What objectives does Brother Luo feel that this has?"
"Countless parallel worlds are connected together, and they change each other," Luo Haonan said with a grin. "It's said that these are the work of the 13 demonic gods."
"Oh?"
"The 13 demonic gods are the supreme existences in the countless parallel universes. It's because of them that the timelines, which originally did not interfere with each other, get tangled together," Luo Haonan said with a sigh. "But this is just the beginning. Have you heard of the Ring of Time? It's said that countless universes are being connected by these supreme existences so that they can set up a massive Ring of Time for their fights.
"More and more worlds are getting connected together. Then once they form the Ring of Time, these worlds—as well as the living creatures in them—will all enter that endless cycle and be sealed completely.
"However, these supreme existences are clearly not in agreement with each other. Each world is like a chess piece, and the entire chess board is like that of go. After the countless worlds have been connected and the Ring of Time has been activated, it will be as if a large area of chess pieces are getting eaten up. These supreme existences keep on changing the past and future on the chessboard of this multivariate universe. Through connecting different universes and activating the Ring of Time through changing the timelines, they try to seal each other's powers."
Luo Haonan then smiled. "But these are just legends. Hehe... Using endless timelines as chess pieces and the endless universes as the chessboard to change the past and the future... If there really is a war like this, it'll take up several ten thousand years, and we would have little to do with it. It's a waste of time to even be thinking about it."Otherwise also known as weiqi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)