Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 189 The Hidden Treasure of the Mountain Hermit, Master of the String Sword

The timeline is moved forward slightly by nearly a thousand years.

As the title of Lord of Time and Space gradually spread throughout the universe, the incarnation of the Death Wheel King, which Hunzhen had left in the primordial universe, also reappeared.

Through his numerous actions, various races in the universe discovered that he had broken through to the level of a Universe Venerable, and his strength was no less than that of a top-tier Universe Overlord.

The supreme treasure "Death Wheel" in the hands of Death Wheel King was finally discovered by a top cosmic overlord with profound experience (in fact, he had been at the level of cosmic venerable for a long time but could not break through to the level of cosmic lord).

The identities of the String Sword King and the Death Wheel King were thus linked together.

During his time as a Realm Lord, he was comparable to an invincible King; during his Immortal period, he was comparable to a High-Level Venerable; and during his Venerable period, he was comparable to a Top-Tier Universe Overlord!

Such potential, if not for the emergence of that one heaven-defying master of time and space in the last ten thousand years, would absolutely make him the most dazzling genius in the last hundreds of millions of epochs!

Even if he is inferior to the Lord of Time and Space, this String Sword King... no, he is now the String Sword Venerable.

This String Sword Venerable has a direct human lineage and is backed by a top-tier race. Among the forces hostile to humans, he is actually more of a threat.

The Sword Master naturally became a prime assassination target for some alien races.

Due to the issue of the Lord of Time and Space, the Machine Race is currently unwilling to escalate the conflict between races and has temporarily suspended similar assassination attempts.

Therefore, it is only natural that the Zerg, who have the highest frequency of assassinating and controlling alien geniuses in the past, are the ones who are most targeting the String Sword Venerable.

The reason for this "exposure" of his identity is that Hunzhen finally intends to take away a treasure that was agreed upon in the bet with Zuoshanke.

Of course, with his foresight, he could easily avoid the attention of most people if he wanted to. At least, it wouldn't be difficult for him to avoid being recognized by a veteran overlord.

The exposure of the String Sword Venerable was ultimately a matter of his own volition; if he hadn't wanted to, he wouldn't have been exposed.

The reason for choosing to expose himself, besides attracting some attention for the Lord of Time and Space as mentioned before, is naturally related to Hunzhen's next move, but it's just a side move.

The reason why Luo Feng wondered if Hunzhen's contact with him "at this time" was because of the recent emergence of the String Sword Venerable. Luo Feng also wondered if what Hunzhen wanted him to do was related to the emergence of the String Sword Venerable.

Of course, in Hunzhen's eyes, Luo Feng's value was not just at the level of a minor kingship, so it was impossible for him to waste it like that. This was purely Luo Feng overthinking things.

As for what treasure Hunzhen obtained from the Mountain-Sitting Guest...

That day, he arrived at the "mansion" of the Mountain Hermit, who showed him his secret collection and said leisurely, "Take whatever catches your eye. But you can only take one item."

Without any further introduction, the man sitting on the mountain went straight to the point, his expression playful.

As for the reason, one only needs to look at the scene before one's eyes to know the answer.

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary small warehouse, with all sorts of oddly shaped "toys" and "miscellaneous items" randomly displayed on the shelves and on the floor.

These items were placed very casually, as if the owner had simply tossed them into the room when they were tired of playing with them.

With just one glance, Hunzhen knew that this was not the main hall where the Mountain Guest collected treasures in the original story. Perhaps some of the treasures had been discarded or were not suitable as decorations, so he had set up another hall here.

Some of these items resemble movable Transformers, others look like palaces built with Lexygen bricks, some are exquisitely crafted ships in bottles, some are snow-themed crystal balls that would be considered old-fashioned as Valentine's Day gifts for girlfriends, and still others look like neck and shoulder massagers for those who work at desks for long periods. In a corner of the warehouse, there's even a dusty Thinker sculpture...

But these items seem to be filled with the memories of ordinary middle-aged men, each exuding the unique aura of a priceless treasure.

Unsurprisingly, the items displayed here are at least ordinary treasures, but judging from their appearance alone, it is difficult to determine their purpose, except for a few exceptions.

Not to mention determining the level of a supreme treasure.

Logically speaking, there is only one way to confirm the true effect of these treasures—recognizing their owner.

However, the look of amusement on the face of the mountain dweller indicates that once Hunzhen recognizes its master, the selection is considered complete.

"Senior Sitting Mountain Guest, aren't you going to explain what these things are used for?" Hunzhen instantly switched into performance mode and asked with a pained expression.

The Mountain-Sitting Guest asked curiously, "Young Hunzhen, our bet only said that I would let you choose any item from my collection, but it didn't say that I would introduce it to you. So, just pick one that catches your eye and good luck."

"Alright, I'll start picking then."

Hunzhen sighed with regret and looked at the treasures in the warehouse.

This helpless act was, of course, just for show.

In fact, with his omniscient vision, he could easily discern the true purpose of these treasures.

Even before he possessed omniscience or even future vision, he could still use the simulation records to glimpse the actual effects of these treasures after the Sims recognized their master.

The actual grade, category, and function of the 1124 treasures in this "treasure trove" have been fully revealed to Hunzhen.

Although the Mountain Dweller had the idea of ​​watching Hunzhen make a fool of himself and waiting for him to pick out a worthless treasure before jumping out with a regretful look and saying that he was unlucky, he did not deliberately hide the good items in his collection.

Even a top-tier power in the primordial universe, with its entire inventory and the treasures possessed by its strongest members, might only have less than a hundred supreme treasures.

However, this is only a portion of the Mountain Guest's inventory, and it already contains more than ten treasures whose value has reached the lower limit of the peak treasure level.

Among them is a supreme treasure palace.

A slightly lesser item is a top-tier primordial treasure.

There's a saying: "Choose the expensive, not the right."

After obtaining that supreme treasure palace, I can go back to the Hong Alliance to exchange it for a few supreme treasure battle blades, thus easily upgrading the Time-Shattering Demon Blade to the supreme treasure level.

However, this choice actually doesn't work well when facing the mechanical god.

Even if Hunzhen could unleash his seventh-tier combat power at its current limit, it wouldn't pose any real threat to the Mechanical Race Father God.

Therefore, in the end, Hunzhen followed the combat style of the mechanical race's father god who manipulated puppets, and chose a special treasure, a special treasure that could affect the operation of the soul on a large scale—the Thinker sculpture.

After completing the recognition process, Hunzhen also learned its true name—"Stop and Think"—but Hunzhen preferred to call it the Thinker Sculpture rather than this humorous name.

Upon seeing Hunzhen's choice, knowing that Hunzhen's number one enemy is the Mechanical Race Father God, and seeing that he chose such targeted equipment, Zuoshanke naturally revealed a meaningful expression.

As the saying goes, one should see through things but not say them. Even if Hunzhen were to choose that supreme treasure palace, it would be of no consequence to the wealthy and powerful Zuo Shan Ke.

He naturally chose to see them off with a smile.

Meanwhile, on the way back, Hunzhen, this incarnation, gradually began to show his talent, his identity was confirmed, and his combat power was comparable to that of a top overlord.

But the battle that truly made him famous was the one that broke out after the Zerg ambushed him, the Sword Master.

At that time, a genius Venerable from the core of the Zerg was the main force of the ambush. She had the special talent of cultivating high-level Venerables at a low cost, thus forming a terrifying army of Venerables.

Two Zerg queens, whose strength reached the level of top cosmic overlords, were also present, ready to ambush the String Sword Venerable and use soul control at any time.

Tens of thousands of high-ranking Zerg warriors covered the sky, including hundreds of extremely rare elite Zerg warriors who had reached the Overlord level.

Such a force would cause even the most powerful overlords to perish.

However, the outburst of the String Sword Venerable stunned the three Zerg Venerables and the many onlookers.

After transforming into the Death Wheel King, the String Sword Venerable unleashed his String Sword Domain once again, instantly covering an area of ​​hundreds of light-years. As if to declare to the Zerg who the true king of swarm warfare was, he launched an unimaginable bloody massacre.

That battle was so fierce that the sky darkened and the stars shattered.

More than 8,000 of the tens of thousands of high-ranking Zerg warriors perished, and hundreds of overlord-level elite warriors also fell.

The three Zerg queens fled in utter disarray. Forget about soul control; if they had been any later, they would have become victims of the String Sword Venerable's sword.

It can be said that he truly made the name of the String Sword Master famous.

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Even top-tier cosmic overlords like the Lord of the Heavenly Eclipse Palace, upon hearing of the String Sword Venerable's achievements, exclaimed, "The younger generation is truly formidable," and bluntly stated, "I am not as good as him."

The brilliance of the String Sword Venerable was unparalleled for a time, and he became famous throughout the universe in a very short period of time, becoming a supernova second only to the God of Time and Space who could be described as defying the heavens.

Many universe masters believe that the Sword Master already possesses combat power at the level of a universe master.

He is no longer the Venerable of the String Sword, but the "Master of the String Sword".

It seems that the master of the string sword himself thinks so?

Just like many top geniuses of the past who reached the level of the Lord of the Universe, since the Primordial Star had not yet emerged and the Primordial Universe lacked a battlefield for top overlords and Lords of the Universe to fight and hone their skills, the Lord of the String Sword quietly set off for the Cosmic Sea.

This move was applauded by many hostile alien races, while causing many alien cosmic lords within the Hong Alliance to secretly shake their heads.

Within the top powers, these newly promoted universe masters, who bear the reputation of geniuses, enter the early stages of their training in the Cosmic Sea. For a long time, these alien universe masters within the top powers will have to become their "nannies".

This time, the blame falls on the alien universe lords of the Hongmeng.

Of course, in reality, the human universe masters in the Hong Alliance are the biggest caregivers. Whenever these geniuses are in danger, it is these universe masters and even the strongest among them who rush to the front.

But to the alien universe lords, isn't this just a matter of course for humanity?

They were the kind of unpaid laborers who had no choice but to do the work, which slowed down their own adventure and treasure hunting progress, so naturally they were dissatisfied.

On the surface, they warmly welcomed the arrival of the Lord of the String Sword, but in their hearts, most of them were complaining about how humans could let such a newbie come to the cosmic sea for training.

In fact, the human universe lords were all vehemently opposed to having the Lord of the String Sword join the Supreme Decision.

When the Lord of Chaos City coughed lightly during the meeting, revealing the true identity of the Lord of the String Sword, these guys naturally chose to keep quiet with strange expressions on their faces.

Recalling the ways in which Hunzhen had weakened the alien races during the reigns of King Xianjian and King Shiyuan, they all guessed that this was probably another scheme by that guy to harm the alien races.

On the surface, allowing the master of the String Sword to enter the Cosmic Sea did not arouse suspicion or vigilance from others.

The strength displayed by the master of the string sword has reached the top of the first tier, and is extremely close to the second tier.

To kill him, one would need to be a fourth-order universe master to have a good chance of success.

Despite the fact that the Lord of Hunzhen Spacetime seems to encounter no one below the fourth rank, in reality, the majority of the universe lords in the universe sea are at the second or third rank.

What kind of people would reach the fourth rank among humans? They would be the Ice Peak Lord, the Dragon Lord, and the Desolate Mirror Lord, all of whom are among the top-tier combatants in humanity, and some would even be leaders of the five major powers.

The powerful figures of the first and second eras, unless they were vying for treasures, wouldn't bother with a newbie like the Master of the String Sword.

The actual adversaries who would actually take action are the universe lords of the hostile forces of humanity in the original universe. However, among these top forces, experts of the fourth rank or above are not commonplace and cannot be easily moved.

Furthermore, the Lord of the String Sword is currently only a Cosmic Venerable, who can be resurrected by the Giant Axe Founder through time reversal. Only methods such as soul enslavement can cause him to perish.

Previously, the top Zerg overlords had tested the Soul Defense ability of the Swordmaster. Two top soul manipulation experts had virtually no effect on the Swordmaster's soul influence during the battle, which shows that it is extremely difficult to truly enslave him with a soul.

For all these reasons, attacking the Lord of the String Sword now would be far too costly and not only not worthwhile, but would also provoke the wrath of humanity.

As for why Hunzhen was able to deceive so many universe masters, including the Lord of the String Sword and a universe venerable, the principle is quite simple.

Back then, Xingluo used the same method to deceive Hunzhen with the Magic Three Thousand. The special feature of the Magic Three Thousand is that when using the corresponding unit of energy, it can cause one's realm to decline accordingly. Its essence and principle is to make the avatar appear no different from a clone in the eyes of outsiders.

The Lord of the String Sword maintains only a fraction of his original strength, which allows him to control his life level to truly drop to the Venerable level, a significant difference from other Universe Lords who use energy avatars.

Moreover, different levels of life naturally result in vastly different life force.

If it were an incarnation of one-tenth of the original body's strength, the universe lord who had witnessed both the Lord of Time and Space and the Lord of the String Sword might be able to detect the anomaly that the two auras were extremely similar.

However, unless the other party has some doubts, they will basically not realize that the two are actually from the same source.

Of course, whether it can deceive the strongest level, especially the mechanical race's father god, is still uncertain even for Hunzhen, who has future vision but has not seen the actual scene.

After all, the differences between true gods are also enormous. The mechanical father god is an engineer, while the giant axe founder is a gladiator. The differences that the giant axe founder cannot see may not be invisible to the mechanical father god.

At least for the first period of time, the Lord of the String Sword's training, though with some setbacks, went relatively smoothly.

And Hunzhen was finally able to move the plan to the next step.

He instructed the master of the String Sword to begin his training in the outer regions of the cosmic vessel, patiently waiting for the opportune moment.

It is likely that the existence of the Lord of Time and Space has attracted the attention of many Lords of the Universe, and the flow of people in the Universe Ark has been quite large recently.

For Hunzhen, who possesses the ability to acquire knowledge and intelligence about the future, the greater the flow of people, the easier it is to obtain information.

It didn't take long before he got the opportunity he had been waiting for.

(End of this chapter)