In this environment, where time and space were in turmoil, most scouting abilities were rendered ineffective. Zhang Nu activated his Eye of Domination to scan the vicinity, using the psychic energy it emitted, which was relatively less affected by temporal and spatial disturbances.
After about half an hour of searching, he finally discerned a floating silver-white castle amid the chaotic flows of time and space. This castle emitted a silver-white glow, maintaining stability even within the tumultuous currents. From the information prompt, Zhang Nu immediately recognized that this was the Void City he had been searching for. This city was built several eons ago and was an ancient existence. Despite its age, it looked immaculately clean, as if brand new.
Back then, why did those ancient races construct such a city? Although Zhang Nu did not know how the Void City was constructed, he was certain that the materials used to ignore the impacts of time and space were extraordinarily unique, and the cost of constructing such a fortress was also incredibly high. It could be said that even powers at the level of an empire would likely struggle to afford such an undertaking.
Zhang Nu learned from the information prompt of the Void City that the ancient races had a very simple purpose for building this city, which could be summed up in two words: world creation. The nature of Void City was akin to a laboratory, with its primary research focus on world creation. Given sufficient energy and a Void Seed, it was theoretically possible to perform a controlled creation of a world.
Creating a world is distinct from creating a space. There are many subspaces in this world, which cannot exist independently; their essence is to function as an adjunct space attached to the main world, thus their laws are similar or close to those of the main world. If the main world collapses or undergoes drastic changes, then the subspaces would naturally cease to exist. World creation refers to the creation of a completely independent world, where the laws, order, and matter can be entirely different, and its entire spacetime exists independently, unaffected by the operation of other worlds.
However, creating a world is easier said than done. The chaotic spacetime and treacherous environment around Void City likely resulted from the side effects of past experiments, and evidently, the ultimate experiment of world creation also failed.
Zhang Nu flapped his wings, drawing nearer to Void City. He could sense a layer of spacetime turbulence around the city, which was a hundred times more ferocious than the external turbulence. Even beings of the Level 6 or 7 legends would find it difficult to pass through, highlighting the turbulence's ferocity.
However, for Zhang Nu, this still did not pose a problem. He activated his sanctuary to unleash the power of spatial-temporal laws, utilizing the silver dragon's strong resistance and control over the law of space and time. He moved through the wild storm like a fish soaring in the wind. Finally, Zhang Nu successfully navigated through the turbulent zone. As he entered the castle, he transformed into his dragon-human form and landed smoothly inside the castle's gate, taking a long breath of relief.
"I finally made it in."
Zhang Nu was well aware of how dangerous this place was. If he did not possess the Spatial-Temporal Dragon form capable of navigating through the spacetime turbulence, or if he was not naturally gifted with spacetime abilities and had not acquired the power of the laws, even with his current strength, it would have been impossible to enter.
After a brief rest, he walked into the grand hall and immediately sensed multiple unusual presences. Undoubtedly, there were monster guards within the castle. Zhang Nu felt waves of spatial fluctuations as numerous rifts appeared ahead. From these rifts, several Void Guardians stepped forth.
Once again, these were the Level 7 overlord monsters! Void Guardians were the highest-level monsters Zhang Nu had encountered so far. Essentially magical beings, their bodies were primarily composed of spatial energy, allowing them to appear and disappear mysteriously and be completely immune to physical damage and most energy attacks.
"Space Halt!"
"Time Stop!"
Zhang Nu unleashed powerful spacetime energy.
The Void Guardians were strong and possessed the ability to teleport instantly. Who knew how many such creatures were nearby, and they could potentially transport hundreds or thousands in a short time. If that were the case, even with Zhang Nu's abilities, it would be challenging to handle so many at once. Therefore, Zhang Nu activated his law powers. He used his sanctuary's power to lock down the nearby space while significantly slowing down the time flow, buying him more time to deal with these monsters in waves.
As expected, although these magical creatures possessed immense strength, they were no match for Zhang Nu in terms of spatial abilities. Zhang Nu first used his sanctuary to suppress them in place and then launched a combination of psychic attacks, soul attacks, and the Death Gaze from his Eye of Death, eliminating them both successfully and effortlessly.
[You've slain a Void Guardian. Gold +3 million!]
[You've slain a Void Guardian. Gold +3 million!]
[You've slain a Void Guardian. Gold +3 million!]
[...]
It must be mentioned, while the Void Guardians were challenging to combat, each possessing a battle capability not inferior to a Level 6 monarch-level being, the rewards for defeating them were also quite substantial. Using his sanctuary and spacetime abilities, Zhang Nu completely gained control over the battlefield. In such a situation, he would eliminate a batch, release another batch, keeping the enemy's numbers and combined strength always within a manageable range.
Without expending much effort, he subsequently eliminated two hundred Void Guardians. Merely from hunting these creatures, he netted five to six hundred million in coins---a figure that would be unbelievable if told, as typically, the total revenue from destroying five to eight regular imperial legions wouldn't even amount to this much.
After annihilating all the Void Guardians, Zhang Nu then withdrew his domain power, ceasing his control over the battlefield. It was fortunate he possessed such strong control abilities; otherwise, had two hundred Void Guardians swarmed him all at once, even with his current strength, he likely would have had to avoid direct confrontation and certainly wouldn't have won so easily.
After clearing the Void Guardians, Zhang Nu continued deeper into Void City. The city, neither too big nor too small in scale, was comparable to the Demon Dragon Castle. From a human perspective, it was enormously exaggerated in size, but from a dragon's viewpoint, it was just another standard palace. Along the way, Zhang Nu encountered no more obstructive monsters and eventually reached a grand hall similar in scale to the Demon King's Hall of the Demon Dragon Castle.
A special object there caught his attention. It emitted a unique aura. This object, floating above an altar, had a prismatic silvery sheen. Sometimes it appeared with dozens of facets, sometimes less than ten, and at other times, it had six or four sides. Its form was not fixed. It also gave off a metallic feel. If one had to describe it, the object resembled a blob of mercury continuously changing shape, appearing somewhat unstable yet radiating a very strong spatial-temporal aura.
[Void Seed] Divine grade material
Description: An extremely rare divine stone containing almost infinite potential and energy, hence also known as the Creation Stone.
At last, he had found it. The heavy burden in his heart could finally be eased. Although Wang Shi had fervently assured that the Void Seed was within Void City, Zhang Nu had remained skeptical until he saw the item with his own eyes, given the rarity of the Void Seed.
From a material perspective, despite its extreme rarity, the Void Seed was not particularly valuable to most people or forces because it couldn't be used to concoct potions, manufacture equipment, or create magical items. In other words, how to utilize its value remained unknown. Even the most advanced and high-end materials, if their use was not understood, only retained value for research and were not particularly lucrative.
However, for Zhang Nu, this item was truly priceless. He had acquired it through the Demon King market for the price of merely two monarch crystals and some gold, a deal that was exceedingly worthwhile.
Without delay, Zhang Nu moved to retrieve it. Just then, a tremendously powerful and terrifying aura suddenly descended upon the grand hall of Void City, unleashing fierce energy in an attempt to blast Zhang Nu away.
Although this was slightly surprising, it was within his expectation. The process of acquiring the Void Seed could not be that easy. Besides, Void City was a Level 7 monarch area, and until now, Zhang Nu hadn't encountered any monarch-level monsters. Now, they had finally made their appearance.
"Who dares to steal the Creation Stone!" echoed a powerful psychically transmitted voice in Zhang Nu's mind. The voice, emotionless and mechanical yet piercingly sharp, could cause severe mental distress, though it was entirely ineffective against Zhang Nu.
[Void King] Level 7 monarch unit
Description: A magical life form composed of void energy, possessing the formidable strength of a monarch.
Zhang Nu saw the space around him distort as massive amounts of energy converged. These energies coalesced into a regal figure, semi-translucent and silver-white, wearing a crown and wielding a greatsword.
Zhang Nu responded calmly, "Do not stand in my way."
The Void King drew his great sword and slashed at Zhang Nu through the void. Instantly, the space around Zhang Nu fractured, as if thousands of sword blades were slicing at him from every angle. With a thought, Zhang Nu activated his domain. All spatial slashes and tears were instantly quelled.
Zhang Nu raised a hand, summoning a temporal black hole that latched onto the Void King's body, immobilizing him. Dozens of invisible sword energies were summoned from all directions, piercing into the Void King's body.
Enraged, the Void King released his energy, forming a silver giant in an attempt to break free, only to be subdued once again by Zhang Nu's Eye of Domination. Simultaneously, Zhang Nu summoned an arcane avatar. A several-hundred-meter-tall giant, wielding a space-time enhanced spear, impaled the Void King.
[You've slain the Void King. Gold +30 million!]
Effortlessly dealing with this Level 7 monarch, Zhang Nu walked over to the Void Seed and gently touched the mysterious divine stone.
At that moment, a prompt appeared: [Detected special material "Void Seed", assimilate?]
Without hesitation, Zhang Nu chose to confirm. The previously stable Void Seed transformed into streams of mercury-like silver liquid that rapidly covered and penetrated into his entire body."