Chromie sighed in relief. If he had allowed those guys to surround him, their fanaticism would have made them lay down their lives to stop him, and if he was stopped for even a short while, Barren Shadow would have definitely descended.
Chromie tried to contain the discomfort brought by the world synchronization and continued trekking forward. While he was able to use celestial magic to borrow a celestial body and link himself with another world, the differences in the two worlds would always cause backlash from the user being unable to rapidly adjust.
In the past, the Hunter’s subordinates could only borrow the power of the Moon Tree world’s projected celestial bodies. The reason why they very rarely borrowed the celestial bodies of other worlds was because of this backlash.
However, Chromie had obtained a tiny bit of the Hunter’s relics. While these relics paled in comparison to the Dim Silent Envoy’s resurrection plot, they had still allowed Chromie to retrieve some of the Hunter’s authorities, which included the authority over this world’s barrier.
This allowed Chromie to more easily link himself to any celestial body, which would also greatly reduce the backlash. If not for this, no one would dare to synchronize themselves to a world with such a severe temporal difference with the Moon Tree world.
…
〖 The shining stars in the sky are either true celestial bodies in close proximity to this world or the projections of Greater Realms over it. Due to the exclusivity of a Greater Realm, that Celestial magic would be essentially useless. The most it would be able to do is find the dim celestial bodies belonging to Sand Realms, which require the coordinates of those worlds 〗
In the past, the Moon Tree world had collected quite a few world coordinates through its conquest, although the majority of them were no longer useful, some of them were still usable, and the will of the Moon Tree had handed all of them over to Chromie.
Chromie had the world coordinates, but no method of inter-world travel. During his observation of the past and future earlier, Negary took notice of Barren Shadow. To his pleasant surprise, he also found traces of Chromie, as well as his celestial magic.
After infecting the outermost layer of the Moon Tree World, Negary was easily able to focus his attention on Chromie after finding traces of him. At this point, he was already almost done analyzing the so-called celestial magic, the reason why he sent Killer J was to take the world coordinates from Chromie’s hands, as one could never have too much of these.
Negary took count of the world coordinates he had collected. He was still weak during his time at the Flame world, so he wasn’t able to record its coordinates. At the time, he even had to rely on the First Flame’s passage in order to leave that world.
He had recorded the coordinates to the Disaster world, but when Negary sent some members of the Impure Hermit Order to take a look a long time ago, they found that it had already been broken apart, the world itself was barren and head, unfit for survival of any living beings.
This was probably a result of Fang Ze’s cruel retaliation against the world when he betrayed it, but this was also that will of the world’s own fault. Regardless, that world had essentially become useless.
Other than that, he possessed the coordinates of the SCR world. This world had now become a training ground for members of the Impure Hermit Order, its 8888 parallel worlds would be more than sufficient to train them into useful people.
Negary still hadn’t taken a look at the other world coordinates that Dim Silence handed over and only sent items that radiated Negary’s information over there. The homeward armor on the SCR world also contained a unique world’s coordinates, but Negary wasn’t quite capable of extracting it just yet.
And finally, the modern-day world that Wang Yuan originally came from. All things considered, Negary didn’t hold too many world’s coordinates in his hand, and the majority of them were also useless. The only benefits for Negary taking over an entire world right now would be to gain a bit more Source Energy and make his Pathway slightly expand. If he wanted a true qualitative change, he wouldn’t find it on these Sand Realms. Like the Seven Gods, unless it was time for them to harvest Source Energy, they would mostly remain in Greater Realms.
In the past, the Moon Tree world could already be considered a mid-level world, as its speed of absorbing Source Energy from space wasn’t slow, combined with the Seven Gods’ restrictive method of farming, it was possible to harvest over 10,000 units of Source Energy once every 100 years.
After Negary had taken over control of the SCR world, to maintain its regular operation, he would most likely be able to spare about 1 unit of Source Energy per 2-3 years, which equated to a maximum of 50 units after 100 years. Of course, he might be able to gain more if he employed the Seven Gods’ method, but it would still be much inferior compared to the Moon Tree world. This was exactly why the Seven Gods made such a big deal out of this fruit.
Source Energy could be considered an advanced form of mana. Almost every spell that existed could be cast by using Source Energy, which would even make it significantly stronger. Additionally, Source Energy could be used to nurture one’s Pathway and encourage its growth, which was the main way that Pathway Entities utilized their Source Energy. Even the growth of a world required Source Energy, one would even go as far as calling it the omnipotent nutrient.
If over 10,000 units of Source Energy were supplied to a single Pathway Entity, they would even be able to take another step forward, which was an extremely difficult task for any Pathway Entity.
However, Negary wasn’t too particularly concerned about Source Energy, this was his advantage as a world virus. After he thoroughly infected a world, he would be able to slowly collect Source Energy from it, which was relatively easier compared to other Pathway Entities.
〖 The Gods’ Offering Day in half a month will be quite turbulent 〗
Over 10,000 units of Source Energy was nothing but the harvest of 100 years, the true goal for each member of the Seven Gods was to remove the other Righteous Gods and monopolize this Moon Tree world farm for themselves.
In the past, they had fought both openly and discreetly countless times, but due to the events of the Great Magus’ death, this competition would soon come to an end, and an owner for the Moon Tree world would finally be decided.
Negary was also looking forward to the conclusion of it all. While he wasn’t as strong as any of the Seven Gods, he had no intentions of backing down after getting so involved in it already.
There was too great of a difference between him and Progenitor Dragon or New Deity during his time at the Disaster world, so trying to compete with them would have been a death wish, but now, he had plenty of leeways even if he lost the competition.
Not to mention, there was actually a non-zero chance of him winning. He was indeed not as strong as any of the Seven Gods, and even if he managed to manifest his Pathway, he would still only be equal to them at most; but he had an absolute advantage over the Seven Gods in other ways.
For example, after the world virus infected the outermost layer of the world, his understanding and analysis of the world far exceeded the Seven Gods, not to mention the other trump cards he had hidden.
〖 Of course, further preparation would be necessary 〗
Negary silently thought. Both Eternal Heat and Life Bearer had secrets of their own. For example, how did Life Bearer take complete control over the Great Magus, and to what extent did Eternal Heat cooperate with the will of the Moon Tree?
Other than that, he couldn’t underestimate the other Righteous Gods either, like Barren Shadow who had actually shown up during the Mana Banquet but didn’t take any actions, suggesting that he was scheming something. Even Red Tears and Eulogy of the Ocean Depths who had essentially entered a coma, or The Unreachable Gate who could do nothing but stall for an eternity, and especially Concealed Demise whose rationality was allegedly in a state of constant absence.
Seven Righteous Gods, each one of them as much of a scoundrel as any other, and Negary perfectly understood this fact as one who profoundly grasped the hearts of others.
