Chapter 1234: The Second Bottleneck
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The 64th one!
The 65th one!
The other candidates in the life and death corridor might have been slower in speed of comprehending the Rhinoceros Emperor Game, but with the passing of time, the number of great beings reaching Duan Dong River’s expectation was increasing at an alarming rate. One by one, golden shadow palaces were appearing within the life and death corridor. There were already many of these scattered all over the place.
Candidates within the life and death corridor would occasionally carry out discussions secretly via voice transmissions.
“The time given to decoding the Rhinoceros Emperor Game is unexpectedly long. From the looks of it, Duan Dong River is intent on gathering more candidates for his heir. The number is now close to 70!”
“True. After all, an heir not only requires the ability to comprehend. There are other areas to consider; even if Luo Feng may be at a slight advantage now, it is no cause for worry. Our East Emperor Holy Land already has nine who have met the baseline requirement! Moving forward, we will gain an even greater advantage!”
After all, studying the Rhinoceros Emperor Game was an extremely tedious and difficult process. It was almost like a continuous soul attack, which was why, based on the difference in their willpower, most of these great beings would take a break from time to time, although the length of time taken for their breaks varied.
******
Within the virtual universe.
“There are 69 who have already met the expectation.” Primal Chaos City Leader, who was seldom worried, started to show traces of anxiety. “And the more time that passes, I believe the number of candidates will also increase! Given this rate of development, Luo Feng’s advantage will gradually shrink.”
“What should we do?”
“We want to get hold of the inheritance, yet our chances are continuously lessening.”
Eight universe masters and Huge Axe Creator had gathered. The eight universe masters were all high-level leading figures of the human race, like Darkness Master, Void Gold Master, Deserted Mirror Master, and Qing Dong Master. Although they were all at different places—be it Tilted Peak Sector or Universe Boat, and not at the Boat of Mausoleum—they were constantly concerned about everything happening at the Boat of Mausoleum.
Everyone knew that this round of inheritance was a silent battle! This battle would determine who could transcend the reincarnation era and determine the owner of the third holy land universe!
“Stop getting frustrated over this.” Huge Axe Creator laughed heartily and added, “It is pointless for us to fret over this. Let Luo Feng comprehend at his leisure! As for us… let’s take our minds off this by going on other adventures and roaming elsewhere. If we simply stare on aimlessly, what if this inheritance lasts for 10,000 years, or even longer?”
“True.”
“But—”
“All right, all right, all of you should get back now,” Huge Axe Creator said with a wave.
******
Among the individual planes, with fog winding around them, there were many stone pillars, and every one of them bore a three-dimensional virtual shadow.
Luo Feng and the man in the white robe, Teacher Origin, were in the same space, but of course, Luo Feng was not the least bit aware of Teacher Origin’s presence.
“The first 2,000 stages are so tough.” Luo Feng was standing before the three-dimensional virtual shadow of the 2,000th endgame.
It had been 3,000 years, and during this long period of time, there were other candidates who had subsequently managed to meet the baseline requirements. This had definitely dealt him a certain amount of pressure, and he also started to understand Duan Dong River’s intentions. Apparently, Duan Dong River did not wish to place all his bets on Luo Feng for the time being.
“This round of inheritance! Since I am already in the lead, I must work things to my advantage and make this inheritance mine.” Luo Feng was very resolute. “Since I started studying secret techniques and Rhinoceros Emperor Game through a compare-and-contrast method, my speed of comprehension has obviously become much faster.”
After he had decoded the 1,000th endgame, he had started a new studying method. 80 percent of his time was spent studying the Rhinoceros Emperor Game while 20 percent of his time was spent on studying the secret technique of the Ninth Deep Abyss, with occasional sessions put aside for honing his willpower…
Indeed, according to the feeling he had, the secret techniques and the Rhinoceros Emperor Game did share a common point. Upon comparing and contrasting the two, Luo Feng was able to gain more understanding, thus increasing his speed of comprehension. The previous 1,000 stages took him 500 years. If he went by his normal speed, then to successfully decode the first 2,000 stages, he would need a time period that was ten times longer or even more.
Yet now, he only took 500 years, which was five times the original time to quickly succeed in decoding the first 2,000 stages.
“Seems like this Luo Feng…” The man in white robes looked toward Luo Feng from a short distance away, smiling as he nodded in approval. “Soon, he will be able to finish decoding the first 2,000 stages. Given his comprehension, his fundamentals, to be able to create a combination of strongest techniques will not be difficult for him at all. How impressive.”
The man in white robe was full of compliments for Luo Feng.
Probably most of the other candidates within the life and death corridor did not know this, but Teacher Origin, upon spending 3,000 years studying Rhinoceros Emperor Game (after adding on 10,000 times of accelerated time velocity, which would make it 30 million years), had come to know more than them.
Rhinoceros Emperor Game was highly demanding on one’s ability to comprehend! Was highly demanding on one’s ability to deduce! In short, if one was able to understand the Rhinoceros Emperor Game in depth, then the law of comprehension, law of studies, and creating secret techniques and such would no longer be difficult tasks. From the looks of it, most of the candidates had now managed to break through and meet the baseline requirements, but that was merely the first bottleneck.
The bottleneck for undying godly souls—the first 500 stages!
The bottleneck for universe knights—the first 1,000 stages!
The bottleneck for universe masters—the first 1,500 stages!
The bottleneck for universe supreme masters—the first 2,000 stages!
“Great beings with high aptitude would have no difficulty breaking through the first bottleneck if given sufficient time, just like how every universe supreme master is able to find a path that is unique to him, to create his own miniature universe. Universe supreme masters have strangely high abilities to comprehend, so long as enough time is given, every single one of them will be able to decode the first 2,000 stages.” The man in white robe was aware of this point. “Yet that was only the first bottleneck… The second bottleneck requires a length of time that is calculated in multiples of ten; every period of time required would be calculated in terms of ten times. Or when moving forward, it might be impossible to achieve a breakthrough no matter how much time is used up.”
For instance, a universe master who was studying the 1,998th stage… He was unable to decode that stage!
Then given 10,000 years, 100,000 years, one million years… or even to the extent of one reincarnation era, he might never be able to decode that stage! Because he had reached his limit. Unless his basic ability to comprehend underwent a fundamental change.
“This Luo Feng passed the first bottleneck so easily. Now, he has already reached the second bottleneck.” The man in white robe nodded quietly. “And, at such a fast speed, obviously this is still far from his limit. Indeed! Indeed, he is the most hopeful one in becoming the next universe supreme master. If he manages to get Duan Dong River’s inheritance this time, I believe there is a great possibility of him transcending a reincarnation era in the future.”
The man in white robe could not hold back a smile. All these years, he had been here studying Rhinoceros Emperor Game, so every move Luo Feng made did not escape his eye. And which virtual shadow Luo Feng often studied was no secret to him either.
He was very clear of the rate at which Luo Feng was improving.
******
Luo Feng had accepted the inheritance for over 3,000 years. There was dead silence in the life and death corridor as numerous golden shadow palaces were scattered about randomly. There was also an ocean of candidates surrounding these shadow palaces. These golden shadow palaces represented the great beings who had met the baseline requirements.
Ding! Dong!
A familiar sound rang and resonated deep within every great being.
All the great beings raised their heads.
“Must be the 70th one now.”
“The 70th one to meet the expectations. Who can that be? It must be from our primal universe, right? It can’t always be the first reincarnation era and two holy lands.”
“Must be from our second reincarnation era.”
One by one, everyone was silently speculating.
Apparently, great beings from the two holy lands and first reincarnation era had dominated a majority of the candidates who had passed the baseline requirements. The second reincarnation era and primal universe were on the losing end, with fewer representatives.
“I… am delighted.” Duan Dong River’s voice sounded.
“What?”
Every great being felt a tremor rumbling through their hearts. Even those few who were sidetracked studying the Rhinoceros Emperor Game had to stop for the time being to look up. Delighted? Duan Dong River was delighted? Such an event was unprecedented.
Duan Dong River, suspended in midair, was smiling as he looked down at the dense crowd of close to 100,000 great beings from various clans looking up at him expectantly. Duan Dong River announced with a smile, “Human form Milky Way has broken through the second bottleneck… and reached a whole new level.”
Hua!
An uproar surged. Everyone turned to look at Milky Way Horde Leader, Luo Feng, who had almost been forgotten throughout the long years.
“Rise!” Duan Dong River pointed afar.
At that moment, a crystal pillar appeared with a kakaka sound from the ground beside Luo Feng. When that crystal pillar had fully emerged, its surface started to radiate a dazzling red light. The hazy red light converged with the golden light-ray palace from before, and then, the entire light-ray palace dazzled with two hues of lights—red and golden.
The golden-red palace enshrouded Luo Feng.
Luo Feng was also slightly taken aback. This was the differential treatment for someone who had met the requirement? Right. He had just decoded the 2,000th stage, but still…
Luo Feng was shocked. The other groups were even more shocked, and all found it hard to understand. Originally, they had thought that even after meeting the requirement, everything would maintain the status quo. But from the looks of it… everything was different.
“I have said before.” Duan Dong River looked at all the shocked expressions of the candidates and said, “The more stages decoded, the more advantages gained, and this will bring more benefits when accepting the inheritance. All of you have passed the first bottleneck and are considered to have met my baseline requirement… Of course, that is merely a baseline requirement. If you can’t even meet that, then you certainly have no right to advance.”
“As for breaking through the second bottleneck, like the human Milky Way,” Duan Dong River started to elaborate, “even for all of you candidates, you all can be categorized into four different levels. Let me come up with four names for these four levels. They will be the peripheral candidates, elite candidates, core candidates, and heirs! Those who have previously met the requirements are merely considered the peripherals. Those like the human Milky Way will be considered as elites. One level up will be the core. And further up by one more level… one becomes an heir. Then there is no further need to compete further. I, Duan Dong River, will hand over my inheritance right away.”
Duan Dong River looked toward the seven universe supreme masters. “The seven of you have long ago bred your own miniature universes. All of you have very strong powers, so naturally, you all have to deal with a higher bottleneck. For you all… so long as you can decode up to the 6,000th stage, you can obtain the inheritance right away. Of course, I guess that the possibility of any one of you who wish to break through and reach the fourth bottleneck to become an heir within my expected timeline, or to directly move on to decoding the 6,000th endgame is extremely, awfully low.
“Which is why you all have to work even harder at decoding. Those who have decoded more… At different levels, the inheritance that you all get in contact with later on will also differ. For instance, now, the chances that human form Milky Way have to obtain the inheritance is greater than you all by ten times or even 100 times. Unless you all achieve your breakthrough to the second bottleneck soon as well. Work hard.”
Silence. Every great being present understood…
So, this was how it would be.
The number of stages decoded, more or less, really did make much of a difference—and a very fundamental one, too. Decoding more would even enable one to directly gain the inheritance without having to progress through all four levels. And then, all the other great beings would be considered to have failed and be eliminated!
The first bottleneck… the second bottleneck… the third bottleneck… the fourth bottleneck… If one could not even make it past the first bottleneck, then elimination was the only result. Elimination, in other words, meant annihilation!
This sent everyone into a state of discreet anxiety. Especially knowing that Luo Feng had broken through the second bottleneck. They were left in solicitude.
The second bottleneck? Luo Feng quickly quelled his heightened emotions and started to think calmly. The first bottleneck is the first 1,000 stages, the second bottleneck is the first 2,000 stages, could it be the third bottleneck is the first 3,000 stages? That means, breaking through the first 4,000 stages, I can become an heir right away?