"Yes!" Haiji Dao answered confidently, adding, "But almost no one can truly master them."
"What do you mean?" Lu Sheng inquired.
Haiji Dao glanced at him and said, "The division of the strength of laws is blurred; there are no clear standards. However, there is one law that is universally recognized as the most powerful among known laws."
"Which one?"
"The Law of Spacetime." Haiji Dao said, enunciating each word clearly.
"The law of spacetime can also be divided into the Law of Time and the Law of Space. The forces of time and space are the two most common and mysterious forces in the universe."
Haiji Dao paused, then said, "We are constantly enveloped by these two forces. We can feel the passage of time at every moment. The existence of our bodies and consciousness, every subtle movement, receives feedback from space. And no one has ever truly mastered these two forces."
"Time... space..."
For a fleeting moment, Lu Sheng felt as if a door was slowly opening before him, revealing a brand new world. "No one?"
"No." Haiji Dao shook his head. "Those who can wield the power of space... are even rarer and more precious than those with a Sovereign-level Extraordinary Physique. They've never appeared in the history of the Celestial Serpent galaxy. It seems there were some in the Universe, but I don't know if it's true. As for the power of time... I have never heard of it. Perhaps it's not a power that a single life form is qualified to wield."
Yes, the power of space was one thing. But the power of time... This immense power that sustains the entire universe, if it could be controlled by an individual life form... Lu Sheng couldn't imagine where that concept would lead.
Even a Domain Lord-tier level 16 martial arts grandmaster couldn't achieve eternal immortality. In the vast starry sky, the boundless universe, beneath the river of time, how many astonishingly talented geniuses have been buried?
When Lu Sheng first entered the world of martial arts, still a student at Baihe City Middle School, he would occasionally overhear his teachers discussing the universe and the cosmos in class. Each time, he inevitably felt a profound sense of his own insignificance before the vastness of the universe.
Then he set foot in the starry sky, he achieved level 12 in martial arts, he could easily kill level 13 opponents and challenge level 14. He even possessed the power to completely destroy a planet. This feeling of insignificance had been absent for a much longer time. But now, even though he possessed more than one type of law power, before such immense power Lu Sheng still felt as insignificant as a speck of dust.
However, he couldn't help but think: If he could master these two powers, or even just one of them, it would likely increase his chances of victory in the inevitable life-or-death battle of the future. Even if it wouldn't work, at least it could buy more time for this universe…
For ordinary people, the power of the laws of time and space is indeed far beyond their reach. But Lu Sheng is different. He has an entire universe as his backing.
"The Dream Space Universe might still contain remnants of these two powers."
His heart skipped a beat, and he felt an urge to immediately enter the Dream Universe to search and verify, but he didn't show it on his face.
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After explaining these things, Haiji Dao briefly discussed the Star Spirit Flower merchant guild. The Star Spirit flower is a unique creature in the universe. It grows by clinging to planets, drawing on the immense power released by a planet's demise.
With each planet's core it devours, it produces a purple, star-shaped fruit.
The more it devours, the more precious it becomes. It's said that the founder of the Star Spirit Flower Merchant Guild was lucky enough to pick a Star Spirit flower during a space voyage, and the resulting wealth he amassed from it marked the beginning of a superb merchant family.
Descendants of the family adopted the star spirit flower as their family crest and the symbol of the merchant guild, a practice that continues to this day.
The guild conducted vast business operations and had connections with several level 14 Chief Star Elders in the Celestial Serpent galaxy. The fact that they were able to board the Star Spirit Flower spacecraft on this trip was a personal arrangement facilitated by Chief Star Elder Mokodo.
After a casual chat, Haiji Dao rose to take his leave. Since their sparring session in the self-healing alloy room of their previous spacecraft, he had been treating Lu Sheng with equality, even a touch of respect. After all, although Lu Sheng was only level 12, but his martial arts prowess was undeniably superior to Haiji Dao's. The strong are respected in the starry sky, so Haiji Dao's respect wasn't surprising.
But the guild members likely never imagined that among this trio of "master and disciples" the strongest would be Lu Sheng, the "disciple."
.
After sending Haiji Dao away, Lu Sheng's eyes flickered with an inexplicable glint.
"The laws of space and time... the power of space and time."
He eagerly entered the Dream Space universe, then summoned the power of the universe's origin to begin searching for the whereabouts of these two powers. First, he began with the power of space.
"Search for a powerful individual in this universe who has mastered the power of space."
"Searching..."
The progress bar, manifested by the consumption of the universe's origin power, slowly moved forward. Lu Sheng stared intently, a mixture of nervousness and anticipation welling up in his heart.
Soon, the search was complete. A series of names appeared before Lu Sheng. He felt surprised and delighted. He hadn't expected to get so many results. Indeed, Haiji Dao said that only a star domain could possibly nurture beings who commanded the power of space, but Sheng was now facing an entire universe, an area infinitely larger than a single star domain.
When his eyes fell on the first name on the list, he was suddenly stunned. His expression froze, as if he had seen something incredibly incredible. The person ranked first on the list was... the Lord of the Celestial Billow Star Domain.
"… teacher," Lu Sheng muttered.
He had never imagined it. His mentor, Yang Yizhou, was actually the most quintessential master of spatial power.
"Teacher's Dao is the Four Extremes Dao...
"The Four Extremes Dao..."
Lu Sheng muttered silently, sitting cross-legged. He immersed his mind in the sea of consciousness. Deep within his memory, sealed was a gift from three supreme martial artists from another universe. Two senior brothers, and his mentor.
All along, Lu Sheng had been accepting this gift step by step. He attempted to build his own Dao, one that could transcend level 16, based on the foundations these three had laid.
He had absorbed the Daos of Wang He and Duan Yifeng quite smoothly. He was gradually gaining ground, gradually approaching their core. However, he had only grasped the basics of his mentor Yang Yizhou's Dao of the Four Extremes. Because this Dao was too obscure and difficult for him, he had only swallowed the teachings he had received without carefully digesting or absorbing them.
Now, as Lu Sheng once again attempted to receive this inheritance, a new change emerged. The treasure buried deep within his memory stirred slightly. It emanated an unparalleled four-colored light. This light pierced through the layers of his consciousness, passing between his brows. Finally, before his eyes, it manifested as a gaunt, elegant, white-haired old man, his aura like a drifting cloud on the horizon.
The old man looked at him with a smile. "You've reached this point sooner than I expected."
Then, he reached out and gently tapped the starry sky ahead, slowly speaking, "What are the Four Extremes?"
"Swish!"
Infinite four-colored divine light emanated from Lu Sheng's body. With a single finger movement from the old man, it converged and ascended into the sky. Instantly, the entire dark and silent starry sky was illuminated with a magnificent beauty.
Lu Sheng, however, turned a blind eye, his eyes fixed on the old man before him. Suddenly, tears welled up in his eyes.
"Teacher, finally... I see you again."
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Translation notes by dhoo - That's a dense chapter, with interesting world building bits: we learned about the Law of Space, the Celestial Billow Star Domain and Willow Keel (Yang Yizhou), and the fancy Star Spirit flowers.
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The Law of Spacetime
時空法則, shíkōng fǎzé
The Law of Time
時間法則, shíjiān fǎzé
The Law of Space
空間法則, kōngjiān fǎzé
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The power of time and space
時間和空間之力, 和 and, 力 force
The power of space aka spatial power
空間之力
The power of time
時間之力
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The universe
宇宙, yǔzhòu
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The Dream Space Universe
夢境宇宙, mèngjìng yǔzhòu: 夢境 dreamland dreamworld dream 宇宙 universe
Dreamworld sounds good, but it's a name for theme parks, it doesn't seem to fit the universe full of zombies that Lu Sheng accesses in his dreams.
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The Celestial Serpent galaxy, aka Serpentine/Serpentarius/Serpentitis (manhua) galaxy, Heavenly Snake galaxy, Tianshe Star System
天蛇星系, tiān shé xīngxì
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Star Domain, Celestial Billow, Willow Keel
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Star Domain: What lies beyond Lu Sheng's galaxy is referred to as "the Star Domain beyond". In other words, there are other galaxies out there. A Star Domain is a cluster of galaxies aka Stellar Systems.
星域, xīng yù: 星 star 域 region, domain
星域那邊: 星域 star domain 那邊 beyond
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Celestial Billow Star Domain aka Heavenly Wave Star Domain or Tianlan Star Domain: Lu Sheng's Celestial Serpent galaxy belongs to the Celestial Billow star domain.
天瀾星域, tiān lán xīng yù: 天 heaven, sky 瀾 wave, billow 星域 star domain
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Willow Keel aka Yang Yizhou or Willow/Poplar One Boat: Lu Sheng's master.
楊一舟 yángyīzhōu: 楊 poplar, willow, Yang (surname) 一 one 舟 boat
恩師楊一舟, ēnshī yángyīzhōu: 恩師 master, greatly respected teacher 楊一舟 Willow Keel
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- DomainLord: Willow Keel is a Domain Lord. He is the Lord of the Celestial Billow Star Domain.
天瀾星域之主, tiān lán xīng yù zhī zhǔ: Celestial Billow 星域 Star Domain 之 's 主 zhǔ master, Lord, emperor
域主, yù zhǔ jí: 域 domain 主 lord
"Even a Domain Lord-tier level 16 martial arts grandmaster couldn't achieve eternal immortality." - Domain Lord-tier is 域主級, yù zhǔ jí: 域 domain 主 lord 級 level
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- Four Extremes Dao aka Four Poles Dao: Willow Keel's Dao is the Four Extremes Dao, 四極之道. We'll learn more about it later.
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Star Domain vs universe
In this chapter, Haiji Dao explains that there might be some people with the power of space, beyond the Serpentine galaxy, in the wider star domain. The phrase star domain had already been used before in this novel, especially when Lu Sheng's potential or his level 16 master were involved.
In chapter 577, Mokodo told Lu Sheng: "You are the most outstanding genius our Hundred Great Star Regions have ever seen. In the future, an entire star system or even a star domain will be your true stage. You must not let impulsive actions hold you back here."
In chapter 587, Haiji Dao explained: "The current ruler of our Serpentine star system possesses a Sovereign-level extraordinary life form physique. He is the only Sovereign-level being in our star system to date. As for the Eternal-level... I've only heard of that tier. I don't truly grasp the power of the Eternal tier. I suspect an Eternal-tier being could only be born from a star domain itself."
In this chapter, we learn that: "a star domain could possibly nurture beings who commanded the power of space, but Sheng was now facing an entire universe, an area infinitely larger than a single star domain" - Finally, now we know that the Tianlan star domain is not the whole universe, it is only a part of it, a cluster of galaxies aka star systems.
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Vocabulary memento, cf chapter 530 and other earlier chapters
The choice of the words Region, District, System, Domain are arbitary. Star Field is a pretty name that I'm still thinking of using to replace one of the others. And I still think maybe "stellar" would sound better than "star".
Star Region 星區, e.g. 亞木星區 (Lu Sheng's Yamu aka Little Forest aka Sub-Jupiter region), Polo (Saya's Polo Star Region), etc.
Star District [never written in Chinese] are a cluster of star regions: 百大星區 (Hundred Great Star Regions aka the Hundred Great Star District, is comprised of 100+ star regions), 狩獵之弓 (the Hunting Bow is comprised of 10 star regions)
Stellar System 星系 aka galaxy, e.g. 天蛇星系 Celestial Serpent (thousands of Star Regions, maybe 3,000 as in the number of star regions in the StarNet system accessible from the guild's starship)
Star Domain 星域
this universe 宇宙
Interdimensional Battlefield 异空战场: there are several battlefields per galaxy, there is one in the Hundred Great Star District.
the Dark Side universe 陰暗面宇宙
Level 11-12 is the typical level for the Speaker and representatives of a Star Region like Yamu or Polo. Level 14 is the level of the Chief Star Elders of a Star District like Hundred Great; the Hunting Bow is a special district since it's in the center of the Serpentine galaxy, where the galaxy Lord is. Level 15 is the level for the Lord of a galaxy aka Star System like the Celestial Serpent galaxy. Level 16 is the level of the Lord of a Star Domain like Lu Sheng's master.
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Chief Star Elders aka Chief Star Masters, General Star Commander, etc.
總星長, zǒng xīng zhǎng: 總 head 星 star 長 elder
"The guild conducted vast business operations and had connections with several level 14 Chief Star Elders in the Serpentine galaxy." 十四級總星長級的人物: 十四 14 級 level 總 head 星 star 長 elder 級 level 的 's 人物 figure, person. Well, literally, it doesn't have to be a Chief Star Elder, it says Chief Star Elder level/tier.
Chapter #565 which introduced Chief Star Elder Mokodo was entitled "Hundred Great Battle District Chief Star Elder" - 百大戰區總星長, bǎi dà zhànqū zǒng xīng zhǎng: 百 hundred 大 big 戰 battle 區 region 總星長 Chief Star Elder - The Hundred Great (百大) is made of the Hundred Great Star District (百大星區, led by Chief Star Elder Soyas and made of 100+ Star Regions) and the Hundred Great Battle District (百大戰區, led by Chief Star Elder Mokodo).
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Powerhouse aka grandmaster
強者, qiángzhě: the strong aka a powerhouse
The domain lord is a "level 16 martial arts grandmaster". 武道十六級的強者, wǔdào shíliù jí de qiángzhě: 武道 martial arts 十六 sixteen (十 ten 六 six) 級 level 的 of 強者 powerhouse
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The Sovereign-level Extraordinary Physique
Extraordinary Physique levels indicate how innately gifted someone is. The Sovereign-level is above Immortal-level (already extremely rare) and Monarch level, see my Glossary or Haiiji Dao's explanations in chapter #587.
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The Star Spirit flower
星靈花, xīng líng huā: 星 star 靈 spirit 花 flower
This planet-size flower gave its name to the Star Spirit Flower merchant guild.