Age of Evolution

Chapter 368: 368: The Passage of Time

Lin Zhen’s feet paddled the water as his Lightning Wings retracted behind him. Although they were continuously nourished, he couldn’t spread them in the deep sea.

Once he opened his Lightning Wings in the deep sea, the immense water pressure would push Lin Zhen to the ocean floor.

In these two years, Lin Zhen had been living like a fish.

His Dantian energy allowed him to hold his breath underwater, so breathing and speaking were no problem.

He had personally witnessed one by one the Heavenly Star Lists leaving and experienced countless battles underwater.

Fortunately, the Heavenly Star Lists didn’t actively fight each other, so Lin Zhen’s main enemies were the Mutated Beasts, the SSS-level Mutated Beasts, and the Beast Kings.

He didn’t know how long ago Kate from the European Union had left; now, deep in the dark sea, Lin Zhen was the only one left.

Luckily, after so much practice, Lin Zhen’s strength had made another breakthrough.

Besides the light elemental energy, his electric, fire, ice, earth, wind, and metal elemental energies had all reached the edge of resonance with atoms.

More importantly, his spiritual power surprisingly made another breakthrough in the depths of the sea, reaching Diamond Peak!

Now, ninety-five percent of his spiritual power had transformed into diamond!

As far as he knew, even Kate from the European Union had only reached the Late Stage Diamond Peak, which was slightly lower than his level.

Having been reborn once, his soul strength was incredibly powerful, and his spiritual power growth rate was astounding.

Perhaps apart from Yan Qiyue, his spiritual power strength was now the strongest in the world.

In the depths of the sea, not only the body but also the brain must withstand tremendous pressure. Only with strong enough spiritual power could one keep diving deeper.

Thus, Lin Zhen had been constantly strengthening his spiritual power over the past two years, which was also the secret behind eventually surpassing Kate.

Xiao Nuan swam around Lin Zhen using a dog paddle, always in one of two forms: a cute appearance and a battle form.

The battle form was its original Galaxy Beast form, which was how it looked now.

Fifteen meters long with two small sharp horns on its head, sharp claws, and bright golden fur.

Xiao Nuan had now reached its childhood stage. After devouring a large number of SSS-level Mutated Beasts and several Beast Kings, its strength was equivalent to a high-level expert in the Comet Stage.

It could kill anything below the Comet Realm in an instant, which ensured that Lin Zhen was not disturbed. With it by his side, even SSS-level Mutated Beasts hesitated to approach.

When encountering a Beast King, Lin Zhen would work with Xiao Nuan to confront it. However, killing a Beast King was still an extremely difficult task, and each encounter with a Beast King would result in battles that lasted for days.

The current diving depth was eight thousand and five hundred meters.

This was the depth reached by Yan Qiyue a hundred years ago, which proved that Lin Zhen’s spiritual power was still stronger than Yan Qiyue’s back then.

Lin Zhen’s spiritual power explored the Cloud-climbing Vine, as he was looking for better-quality Cloud-climbing Vine fruits.

After exploring a circle at a depth of eight thousand five hundred meters and not finding anything, Lin Zhen felt that his body and mind could barely withstand the pressure. He kicked his feet and soared upward.

With water trailing behind his feet, Lin Zhen reached the surface in a short time.

After resurfacing for a breath of fresh air, Lin Zhen re-entered the water.

However, this time he didn’t dive right away; he merely sat on the Cloud-climbing Vine.

He still had to cultivate something: the Time Stone.

Having the Time Stone for so long, Lin Zhen barely had time to cultivate it during the first two years. Only after all the Heavenly Star Lists had left Bermuda could he practice peacefully, without any disturbances.

He took out the Time Stone from the Dark Star Space, which he had discovered to be the best storage place. It was even safer than the Space Ring, so Lin Zhen stored some important items there.

It was a round stone with intricate patterns radiating out from the center, resembling the rings of a tree.

Lin Zhen knew that these concentric patterns recorded the entire process from a planet’s birth to its destruction.

Planets were born and destroyed here, and the Time Stone was a witness to it all.

He had attempted to cultivate it a few times before, but he couldn’t comprehend the power of time without seeing through the Time Stone completely due to insufficient spiritual power.

Now that his spiritual power had grown stronger, he hoped to make a breakthrough this time.

In the azure seawater, the Time Stone floated in front of Lin Zhen while Xiao Nuan swam nearby. Occasionally, it would release a small amount of urine, marking its territory to deter any Mutated Beasts from approaching them.

Lin Zhen’s spiritual power slowly unleashed, wrapping the Time Stone in diamond light.

As if observing the neutron of a black hole, Time Stone was penetrated, and the spiritual power infiltrated the first layer of patterns.

At this moment, time began to speed up in Lin Zhen’s mind.

The planet’s beginning was just a speck of dust.

This speck of dust grew little by little in the universe, merging with other specks of dust and becoming slightly larger.

Then it merged with more dust and dark matter, eventually turning into soil.

After millions of years, the soil turned into a small, dense clod, which marked the beginning of the planet’s formation, and the Time Stone was created.

Spiritual Power continued to break through, entering the second layer of patterns.

The small clump of dirt grew rapidly, and the Planet Core began to condense. After forming the Star Core, the surrounding dark matter gathered quickly, growing at a fast rate.

Inner core, outer core, rocky layer, crust…

A planet was formed. The third layer of patterns represented the Dark Ancient Era of this planet.

Lin Zhen felt a slight tingling in his Spiritual Power, but he could still endure it.

He saw the planet transform from a molten ball into a solid one, progressing from the Dark Ancient Era to the Primordial Era, and finally the Archean Era. Then, life slowly began to emerge.

However, the evolution of this planet was very different from Earth’s, and the resulting life forms were also different.

There were no lions, tigers, sharks, or birds. The beasts here were Warcraft creatures, Earth Dragons, and members of the Dragon Clan.

The people here had stronger physical constitutions than those on Earth during the Common Era, but they did not possess such advanced technology and civilizations.

In the beginning, they also experienced a cold weapon era. Although humans were the majority, there were many other races as well.

Dragon people, beast people, elves, and dwarves.

War raged across the continents, and conflicts were endless.

Magic and fighting spirit, which could only be seen in fantasy novels on Earth, appeared in this world.

Undead disasters, chaos throughout the world, and then the arrival of extraterrestrial civilizations.

Weak races could not resist the powerful force of extraterrestrial visitors, and they were on the verge of extinction after several wars.

Scenes from a movie flashed through Lin Zhen’s mind, and he felt that his Spiritual Power was on the verge of failing.

“I can’t hold on any longer!”

Lin Zhen had almost seen more than half of the Time Stone, but he could not persist through the final few layers of patterns.

With no choice but to withdraw his Spiritual Power, Lin Zhen was not discouraged.

Although he did not see the later progression of the planet, he already had a feeling that as long as his Spiritual Power could completely transform into diamonds, he would be able to comprehend the Time Stone.

To quickly train his Spiritual Power, he had to continue diving deeper into the ocean, allowing his Spiritual Power to grow further.

“Based on my estimation, the deepest part of the Bermuda territory might exceed 12,000 meters. If I can dive to that depth, perhaps my Spiritual Power can fully transform into diamonds.”

“I need to achieve several goals now: diamondize my Spiritual Power, master the power of time, and resonate with all elemental atoms.”

“Resonating with all elemental atoms may bring my power another step forward. Although I don’t know what level that will be, I have a feeling it will bring me a pleasant surprise.”

As for Lin Zhen’s Dantian energy, it is still at the peak of the Quasi-Star Realm. He has not allowed his Dantian energy to break through, as he wants to accomplish these goals first.

However, there was one thing that made Lin Zhen feel uneasy.

The aliens who had once targeted him from outer space had never been found. Over this period, he had searched almost the entire Bermuda area but saw no traces of the two individuals.

It seems very likely that he had been looking in the wrong direction. After dropping the special potion that accelerated the growth of Mutated Beasts in the ocean, the aliens did not stay in the Bermuda area.

“I wonder where the people from the Tianhe Empire have gone? There is a high chance that they are in the Ancient God City, but I cannot leave Bermuda now.”

Lin Zhen took out the Star-gazing Mirror to gaze at the stars.

With his current Spiritual Power, he could already see the outer edges of the Solar System.

As he channeled his Spiritual Power, his gaze became more distant. Gradually, he saw a magnificent sight in outer space.

That was…!

On the fourth floor of Ancient God City, Tu Ya and Xin Ou were tuning the control panel of the Red Rose.

“Tu Ya, we’ve been here for three years without enjoying anything. This is so damn unlucky.”

“Don’t complain, Xin Ou. People of Earth are very wary of aliens, so we can’t take risks easily. And don’t forget the main purpose of our coming here.”

“Yes, I know. It’s to guide the Empire’s course, and help them find the way. But it’s been three years, and the Empire’s forces still haven’t arrived.”

“Don’t be discouraged. I estimate that they will be here soon. Try contacting them again.”

Xin Ou picked up the radio communicator and mechanically shouted into it.

“This is Earth in the Solar System. I am Xin Ou, an adventurer from the Tianhe Empire. Requesting contact with the Imperial Expeditionary Army. Please respond if you receive this message. Please respond. Ou!”

After saying that, Xin Ou immediately put the radio communicator aside. He had been frequently trying to make contact this way, but had never received a response.

This kind of call could only be received if the other party was within 100 Star miles, which was equivalent to 1 million kilometers on Earth.

However, just after he put it down, a response finally came through the radio communicator.

“I am Ya Xuan, the commander of the Seventh Fleet of the Imperial Expeditionary Army. We have reached the edge of the Solar System you mentioned. Please send coordinates for the Star Domain, Adventurer Xin Ou .”