Chapter 47 Initial Exploration of the Subsidiary Universe

Traveling in the dark void, Xu Jingming suddenly smelled a peculiar scent. Upon catching this scent, Xu Jingming felt a heat rising within him. His life instinct sensed danger ahead.

"Little Jiu, I feel like something's not right up ahead," Xu Jingming said.

"This aura... it should be the aura of a certain place within the subsidiary universe," Little Jiu responded.

"First, let's traverse in high-dimensional form and observe from a high-dimensional perspective."

With a thought, Xu Jingming prepared to escape the spacetime of the subsidiary universe.

However, upon attempting to escape, he sensed that the spacetime layers were different.

If the spacetime layers of the true universe were more vast and inclusive, then the spacetime layers of this subsidiary universe were thicker, more restrictive, and stronger in their binding force. The number of spacetime layers was several times greater, and their intertwining made the degree of restriction more than ten times stronger. "Hm?" Xu Jingming attempted to escape, but embarrassingly, he couldn't break free and enter a higher dimension.

"I'll try again."

"The restriction is this strong?"

Xu Jingming tried more than ten times in a row, but he simply couldn't break free.

"How can the spacetime layers of this subsidiary universe have so many more layers than the spacetime layers of the true universe?" Xu Jingming couldn't believe it. "The feeling of restriction from these spacetime layers is at least ten times stronger."

"This situation is quite rare," Little Jiu said.

"Rare?" Xu Jingming asked.

"Yes," Little Jiu responded. "The true universe, and even other universes within the higher-dimensional space, are formed in similar environments, so their spacetime layers are generally similar! There won't be much difference. It's like the spacetime extracted within the Spacetime Sand—although it's from other worlds, it's still similar to our universe's spacetime."

Xu Jingming nodded.

"When high-dimensional lifeforms open up an inner universe, they generally reference the surrounding universe spacetime that they live in."

"But the spacetime of this subsidiary universe has such a big difference from our true universe." Little Jiu speculated, "It's possible that the high-dimensional lifeform who created it came from a very distant place. The structure of the universe spacetime layers that they were familiar with is completely different from our universe's spacetime."

"Came from a distant place?" Xu Jingming pondered.

"Some high-dimensional lifeforms are not from our universe. Like the Primogenitor of the Prison race, like the high-dimensional lifeform, the Heavenly Python, that the Eternal Academy Tower Master killed—they are all from outside the universe," Little Jiu said. "The creator of this subsidiary universe might also be from outside the universe! It's just that they ultimately died within our universe."

"Perhaps they were killed by a high-dimensional lifeform from our universe, or perhaps they fled to our universe before dying," Little Jiu said. "There are all sorts of possibilities. But it's clear that their understanding of spacetime layers is different from ours here. It's more complex, thicker, and the restrictions are stronger."

Xu Jingming nodded. "I'm still not strong enough. I can't even travel in high-dimensional form in a different spacetime environment."

"Master, then you have to be more careful," Little Jiu reminded.

"Yeah."

Xu Jingming's figure constantly shuttled through the void over short distances, continuously adapting.

"It feels different. Our true universe is more tolerant, making traversing easier, but it's also easier to stir up spacetime turbulence. The spacetime here is more stable, with smaller fluctuations. Although the traversing distance is shorter, it won't be easily interfered with," Xu Jingming also noticed the changes.

Different spacetimes also have an impact on the techniques of the spacetime lineage.

While advancing, he familiarized himself with it.

Before long...

A fiery-red world appeared before Xu Jingming.

"Gugugu~"

In this fiery-red world, there were volcanoes, constantly erupting with lava. The flowing lava illuminated the entire world in red. The surrounding temperature was no less than that of the center of a star. Xu Jingming felt even more heat.

"That is?" Xu Jingming observed carefully and immediately noticed the special existence in this fiery-red world—a tree!

Within the flowing lava, there grew large trees, each reaching an astonishing height of tens of thousands of kilometers. If placed on a planet, they would be like world trees.

"Hundreds of volcanoes, naturally surrounding only six giant trees," Xu Jingming noted. "Each of these six large trees seems to be the core of many volcanoes."

The six large trees all bore black-red fruits, some large and some small. The smaller ones were estimated to be close to one kilometer in diameter, while the larger ones were closer to three kilometers in diameter. The six large trees seemed to have hundreds of black-red fruits!

"Little Jiu, what kind of fruit is this?" Xu Jingming asked. "Among the universe treasures I know, there has never been this kind of variety."

"The fruits nurtured by ordinary subsidiary universes are not this big." Little Jiu said, "In my memory, I once saw a super-large fruit, a fiery-red fruit with a diameter of over 1 kilometer. Its value was probably 8 million merits."

Xu Jingming understood. "The value isn't that high. The Black-White Fruit that the Eternal Academy Tower previously opened for exchange, only the size of a fist, cost 5 million merits each."

"The value of universe treasures can't be judged solely by size." Little Jiu said in puzzlement, "However, such a large universe fruit is indeed rare. I've never seen a fruit with a diameter of three kilometers before."

"Let's try picking one," Xu Jingming was tempted.

Whoosh.

With a single blink, Xu Jingming had already reached the treetop of the nearest large tree. With a stretch of his hands, dozens of strands of the Primordial Battle Armor's colored threads flew out, instantly wrapping around two adjacent giant black-red fruits.

"Buzz." Xu Jingming tugged hard, but failed to break them off.

Chi chi chi!

Only when the Primordial Battle Armor's threads severed the connection point of the black-red fruit did Xu Jingming instantly store the two giant fruits into the Primordial Battle Armor's space.

Just as he stowed away the fruits...

"Hm?" Xu Jingming felt as if the surrounding world had solidified, as if he had been frozen like a bug. "I have to leave quickly." Xu Jingming tried spacetime traversal, but he couldn't traverse at all. He could only escape as quickly as possible.

"I just came to take a look and grab two fruits. I've only explored the tip of the iceberg of this subsidiary universe... It wouldn't be worth it to lose my life, would it?" Xu Jingming thought to himself.

Dying in a subsidiary universe wouldn't be a big deal.

He wouldn't lose his things!

It would just be a little embarrassing.

"Believe in my strength, believe in Little Jiu's protective abilities." Xu Jingming thought, fully transforming into a ray of light and flying away into the distance.

"Who are you?"

An invisible fluctuation rang in Xu Jingming's mind.

At the same time, the earth in this fiery-red world churned, and one massive figure after another crawled out, a total of six massive figures. Each figure was over a million kilometers tall, resembling upright apes with flames burning on their fur. Even the combined heat of hundreds and thousands of stars couldn't match the heat and terror of these figures.

"Whoosh." One of the towering figures closest to Xu Jingming suddenly swung its huge arm. The swing tore through spacetime, crossing a distance of millions of kilometers.

Although Xu Jingming was flying at extreme speed and changing direction nimbly, he couldn't match the speed of the arm's swing.

While escaping, Xu Jingming also manipulated the cosmic source power to suddenly form a Cosmic Prison.

A Cosmic Prison only 300,000 kilometers in size only trapped part of the arm. This Cosmic Prison was also a move of Xu Jingming's at the peak of the tenth level.

Rumble~

The towering upright ape's swinging arm shook slightly, forcibly crushing the Cosmic Prison, but its speed was also affected.

"Boom." Xu Jingming's entire body shone brightly, endless light illuminating all directions, striving to stop and interfere.

Even more colored threads erupted from his body, enveloping all directions. The surrounding time flow was changing, and space was twisting.

"Bang."

The giant palm crushed everything with irresistible force, crushing the endless light and shattering the colored threads' obstruction. Xu Jingming, however, instantly disappeared, burrowing into the spacetime rift.

"Boom~"

A large portion of the spacetime layers in an area shattered. Naturally, Xu Jingming, who was hidden in the rift, couldn't escape either.

Since he hadn't escaped to a higher dimension, he obviously couldn't escape this strike. The giant finger swept across Xu Jingming, who was protected by countless colored threads. At the moment of the sweep, the threads immediately borrowed and deflected the force.

Whoosh!

Xu Jingming was slapped away!

"Hm?"

The towering ape was slightly puzzled, perhaps wondering why it hadn't slapped him to death?

However, Xu Jingming was slapped out of the fiery-red world and into the dark void. The towering ape didn't chase after him. The six giant towering apes looked around before returning to their original places and sinking back down. Since their birth, their purpose was to maintain the order of this fiery-red world.

Xu Jingming was a little dazed from the slap.

He stopped in the dark void and blinked his eyes.

"Master, don't worry. The cosmic spirit won't leave its place of garrison," Little Jiu said.

"No matter what tricks I used for that slap—Cosmic Prison, Origin Point Disintegration, Infinite Domain, even if I stuck into a cosmic rift to escape... it was useless. It crushed everything with one slap," Xu Jingming shook his head. "Too strong."

Little Jiu also agreed: "Yes, we've only explored the beginning area of the subsidiary universe, and we've already encountered six cosmic spirits, each over a million kilometers tall. I don't even have any records of cosmic spirits this big in my memory."

"The fruit is huge, and the cosmic spirit is also huge. You've never seen anything like this in your memory," Xu Jingming murmured.

"I guess the creator of the subsidiary universe must be a high-dimensional lifeform of an exceptionally large size," Little Jiu said. "Moreover, the power of those six ape-like cosmic spirits was too terrifying. Under normal circumstances, the cosmic spirit in the core area of the subsidiary universe is the most powerful."

Xu Jingming nodded.

He had originally planned to explore it preliminarily, but he didn't expect that the cosmic spirit he encountered in the starting area would slap him away.

"Fortunately, my strength lies in resisting frontal attacks. I can even withstand attacks from cosmic legends for a while," Little Jiu said. "Only attacks targeting the power of the mind can I not completely block."

"It looked terrifying when I was slapped, but I wasn't actually injured much," Xu Jingming laughed, "I was just a little dazed when I was hit."

While speaking, Xu Jingming also returned.

"Master, what are you planning to do next?" Little Jiu asked. "Do you want to ask someone to help with the exploration?"

"No need."

Xu Jingming laughed, "When I reach the tenth level, I'll be able to better utilize the strength of the Primordial Battle Armor. I'll come and explore again then."