Chapter 569: Four-Dimensional Secret Realm
At the foundational layer of the mental imagery world, the junction with higher dimensions, lies the inconceivable Ocean of Rules capable of communicating with four-dimensional space. It is also the beginning of transcendence.
“Deities are not true four-dimensional lifeforms. Calling them deities is not quite accurate. In fact, deities and Level 5 Immortals are not the same thing. Level 5 Immortal existences include deities; the former is the universal set, while the latter is a subset.
“Logically speaking, deities are Immortal existences, but Immortal existences are not necessarily deities.
“As long as one breaks through the Level 4 bottleneck, briefly enters four-dimensional space, and twists their timeline into a fruit, they are already a Level 5 Immortal existence.
“However, to become a deity, one must possess the divine authority of a True God, which is the rules of a domain;
“Equivalently, to become a Ninth Ring Wizard, one must thoroughly master a relative truth and construct a Ninth Ring spell model that rivals a divine domain. This is a Legendary Immortal Wizard!”
Ace’s voice was steady. The ancient scroll rapidly recorded his words. This would become the foundation of the High Tower Wizards. It was Ace using a wizard’s mindset and the knowledge from his past life to truly understand the process of Immortal advancement.
Although deities successfully advance, they cannot necessarily sort out the underlying relationships. At most, they understand that the Fruit of History is the convergence of their self-history, but they do not understand why it can converge.
Simply put, deities know how to use it but do not understand the principles, whereas Ace not only knows how to use it but also understands the underlying principles.
It might seem like there is no difference, but in reality, because Ace understands the principles, he has the possibility of twisting time again during a repeated advancement.
“If I accumulate enough energy, I can completely enter four-dimensional space temporarily once more. Theoretically, not only could I twist my own past, but I could also twist and change the pasts of others. It’s just that the Kaya gods brand their Fruits of History deep within the Great Source, and the Outer Gods brand theirs into the World Tree, making them very difficult to touch.”
After pondering for a moment, Ace stopped considering specific combat applications. Just exploring the dimension of time was enough to give him a splitting headache.
“Looking at it this way, so-called immortality is only relative. Level 5 Immortality is merely immortality in the three-dimensional dimension. By briefly reaching the fourth dimension and twisting three-dimensional history into a fixed, looping ‘ring,’ immortality is achieved.
“Even if a True God dies, they can return from the long river of history. This is because a True God only dies on a three-dimensional scale. On a four-dimensional scale, their Fruit of History can completely extend into a new future. As long as there is enough energy, this new future can be turned into reality.
“The immortality of True Gods—so this is what it really means.”
Upon truly grasping the profound mysteries within, the so-called immortality no longer held any secrets in Ace’s eyes.
His mind left the Ocean of Rules and the Tower of Rules in his mental imagery world, and his eyes slowly opened in reality. The Dream Realm was undergoing drastic changes, absorbing the power of the Great Source like a whale swallowing water, promoting this demiplane mapped by the rules of the mental imagery world into a sub-plane.
“Immortality has been achieved, but godhood has not, nor has the rank of Ninth Ring Wizard been attained.
“To become a god, there are two paths. The first requires possessing one’s own sub-plane, then branding the domain of dreams onto it and dominating the sub-plane’s planar rules. In essence, one becomes a Creator God, holding all authority over that world.
“It’s just that this authority is domain-specific and unique.
“The other path is to rely on the Great Source. This path requires branding the Fruit of History deep within the Great Source; otherwise, it cannot merge with the Great Source’s corresponding domain.”
Ace did not hesitate. He had never intended to hand his fruit over to the Great Source in the first place. The reason stemmed from a deep-seated distrust and insecurity within him; he could not bear to brand the cause of his immortality into the Great Source.
Hiding his immortality within his own sub-plane, and then hiding the sub-plane in an alternate dimension, was perhaps much more fitting.
With everything under his own control at all times, only then did he feel he could grasp his own fate. At the very least, the cause of his immortality could not be handed over to the world.
Ace did not completely destroy the demiplanes of Alsodin and Alsos. After absorbing the necessary “Dream of Beast Forms” and “Dream of Object Forms,” Ace elevated his own Dream Realm. Subsequently, the entire demiplane drew in massive amounts of mana and a small amount of Great Source power from the Sea of Illusion and Reality.
“Another True God is born.”
Seemingly an ancient existence residing on Mount Kaya let out a sigh.
“How peculiar. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but His method seems different from how we did it back then.”
Another ancient existence also sighed in admiration.
“After all, every True God has their own ideas. Some gods enjoy taking risks and experimenting. I hear this one ascended from a pure mortal. I’d like to see what is so unusual about Him.”
“For a newly ascended True God to understand their own domain is a very long process. You and I both know how difficult that is. Although the path of a Rule God is vastly more correct than that of a Faith God, there are always those who get lost in the wondrous Secret Realm of Rules, unable to find a way out.”
“How long did it take you to explore the Secret Realm of Rules back then? Ten thousand years?”
“Of course not. My understanding of the Secret Realm of Rules was exceptionally high. I got it done in seven thousand years.”
The group of deities began to discuss. For a True God, after achieving immortality, being able to truly become the incarnation of their domain, or even the domain itself, was the key metric for measuring a True God’s realm.
At this level, merely comparing destructive power or influence was not enough. It was more about the ability at the instant of entering the Secret Realm state. And penetrating through a domain was also the key to taking the next step up.
Ace’s commotion alarmed the Kaya gods, but the gods had all received notification from the Lady of the Night and knew this was a new member. Therefore, they all observed Ace while maintaining a baseline of goodwill.
As for the Outer Gods and the Rebel Gods, they had just signed a sacred armistice treaty with the Kaya gods represented by the Lady of the Night, so it was impossible for them to resort to force at this time. It had to be said, Ace chose a safe moment for his advancement.
His Dream Realm, like a brilliant jewel, hovered beside Mount Kaya, blooming with resplendence. The rules of dreams were slowly weaving and merging. That was the foundation of Ace’s path. All of his power was rooted in dreams; everything else could be understood as derivatives of dreams.
After the Dream Realm absorbed enough energy, Ace merged his mental imagery world with the Dream Realm, slowly adjusting his state using the energy.
He felt his mind become incomparably relaxed, starting to drift as if detached from gravity. In just an instant, he arrived in the inconceivable four-dimensional space—a direction that words fail to adequately describe.
One could only say that the Secret Realm of Rules as understood by the gods was, in fact, the four-dimensional space perceived by Ace.
Even reaching the existential level of a True God, being three-dimensionally immortal, one still required sufficient energy to briefly enter four-dimensional space. Without understanding the principles of higher dimensions, initial explorations often yielded no results. The remaining time was spent accumulating energy round after round for subsequent explorations.
Fortunately, True Gods are immortal and imperishable; they have plenty of time to burn.
But for Ace, the problems faced by the True Gods did not exist. The deities of Kaya were like elementary school graduates directly tackling advanced calculus problems, needing to constantly rely on luck. Perhaps they could write down an approximate answer, or perhaps they wouldn’t find the answer for thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years.
Ace, however, brought the underlying principles to higher-dimensional space. He found the correct solution in an extremely short amount of time.
Like an adventurer equipped with a treasure map and advanced detection devices, he effortlessly retrieved the treasure. During his first exploration of the four-dimensional Secret Realm, he had already mastered all the rules of the dream domain in the Kaya World, becoming the controller of rules and the incarnation of the dream domain.
The gods, who were still discussing how dangerous and difficult exploring the Secret Realm of Rules was, suddenly saw Ace’s Dream Realm sub-plane bloom with a pale cyan radiance. They all abruptly fell silent, as if struck dumb.
After a long while, a deity cried out in disbelief: “This is the anomaly of penetrating a domain and mastering the great secrets of rules. How is this possible?”
The Goddess of Elegance, Medea, and her son, the demigod Ronamus, looked at all this in shock. Medea whispered: “Are you certain this newly ascended True God comes from our city-state?”
Ronamus nodded solemnly. “There’s no mistake. That day when I fought the Abyss Archduke, a person suddenly helped, but also stole a page of my script. I investigated through multiple channels later and confirmed it was Him. It’s the true founder of the City-State of Thoth, the wizard Ace who calls Himself the Firelinker.”
Medea said: “Regarding wizards, I do know of them. They are a group of supernaturals born from mortals, sheltered by Thoth. I just didn’t expect the wizard to actually come from our city-state. This Ace is far from simple. With the tacit approval of the Bright Moon Goddess, He defeated the Three Sons of Dream. Achieving immortality from a mortal body, and He actually penetrated the domain in less than a day, becoming the incarnation of dreams.
“Although dreams are not a particularly powerful domain, His talent cannot be ignored. Moreover, the rise of wizards is already a major trend inside the world, approved by the God King. As the pioneer, He will inevitably get a share of the pie in the future. Try to be on good terms with Him; after all, we share some origins.”
Ronamus replied: “Mother Goddess, although we share some origins, there were still many conflicts in the early days. Our city-state also besieged them…”
Medea interrupted directly: “What does that matter? Which faction hasn’t besieged these supernaturals born from mortals? Since He has chosen the camp of the Kaya gods, He will not refuse friends.”
On the other side of the Divine Mountain, there was a training camp where a group of muscular men were constantly undergoing combat training. The God of Great Strength, Norton, told the believers not to stop, while he himself gazed far off, looking at that sub-plane blooming with radiant colors.
“Back then, out of a sudden impulse, I bore witness to His oath with the Five Kings of Northern Salia. Who would have thought that less than thirty years later, that little guy from back then would actually become a True God? It’s simply too unexpected. Even Emperor Augustin of the previous civilization only became a demigod, and relying on the status of dominating the inner side of the world, briefly possessed the strength of a pseudo-status Main God.
“He is probably the only one who took a path not permitted by the gods yet still managed to become a True God.
“No wonder the Bright Moon Goddess favors you so much and strongly persuaded the God King to accept you into the Kaya Divine Court. A deity who can penetrate a domain within a day indeed deserves such treatment.”
Ace was unaware of the gods’ discussions. He had completely mastered the dream domain of Kaya. From then on, He could call Himself the incarnation of dreams. He was basically equivalent to the dreams of the Kaya World; as long as there were living beings dreaming in the Kaya World, He could gain power.
This is also one of the reasons True Gods are immortal. Otherwise, with only the Fruit of History existing and no power supplementation, it would be difficult for a True God to emerge anew from the long river of time.
“Looking at it this way, the path of immortality for wizards is somewhat difficult. Wizards cannot absorb energy from a domain. Once they die, they must use other methods to resurrect.”
Ace did not stop. He pressed on, skillfully detonating the energy in His hands within the sub-plane, and using this energy, re-entered the four-dimensional Secret Realm.
This energy sphere contained the vast majority of the First Flame essence from the thirteen Calamity Sword stars. The power hidden within was completely sufficient to nurture a True God-level Star God. It was just right for Ace to use it to nurture His own Wizard Profession Domain.
Roaming the four-dimensional Secret Realm, Ace was like a ghost, lacking a physical entity here.
In fact, wanting to reside in the fourth dimension long-term was unrealistic; the energy required would simply be too much. Unfolding a single particle from the three-dimensional world could create an entire universe in a two-dimensional world—and this was exactly what Ace wanted to do.
Rule domains are more like informational states. It seemed this four-dimensional Secret Realm had contained many informational states since antiquity. These informational states constituted the so-called rules, the domains of deities.
When deities explore the four-dimensional Secret Realm, they are essentially copying the information from these informational states into the foundational layer of their mental imagery world, which can preserve four-dimensional informational states long-term. That is roughly the process.
But the path of wizards was not entirely the same. The professional path of wizards also required copying corresponding informational states, but they also needed physical objects—truly existing four-dimensional physical objects!
As a three-dimensional lifeform and a pseudo-four-dimensional existence, Ace was like a paper cutout jumping out of a book. He possessed an innate flaw in the fourth dimension: a lack of physical entity.
He injected energy with the exact purpose of dragging a physical entity out of the four-dimensional Secret Realm.
In four-dimensional space, Ace’s existence was highly unique. Even using all his power, he could only move a single particle. Within the scope of Ace’s observation, this was the smallest unit of existence in four-dimensional space: a four-dimensional microparticle.
Ace wrapped this microparticle, simultaneously triggering an energy explosion in the sub-plane. It takes many words to describe, but in reality, it all happened in an instant.
The detonation of the energy allowed Ace to enter and exit the four-dimensional Secret Realm. By injecting all the energy into the four-dimensional Secret Realm, He dragged a four-dimensional microparticle back to His sub-plane and directly unfolded this four-dimensional microparticle.
Unfolding a three-dimensional atom creates an infinite universe in two-dimensional space.
The same applied to a four-dimensional particle. The moment it unfolded, it created an infinite cosmic world within Ace’s Dream Realm sub-plane.
From the beginning of its unfolding, this world was created according to Ace’s will. A brilliant galaxy, just like the Milky Way from his past life. Although this unfolding could theoretically be infinitely large, the energy was actually limited. A four-dimensional microparticle is still a four-dimensional microparticle; the actual matter is also limited.
Therefore, if the created universe was to be habitable and possess strong combat power, it could not be completely infinite—unless matter was distributed extremely sparsely. To achieve Ace’s desired effect, a single galaxy was already the practical limit.
The internal infinity of the sub-plane did not manifest externally. In the eyes of the gods, Ace’s newly born sub-plane, flickering with pale cyan light, merely trembled violently, as if a tremendous force had erupted, and then returned to calm.
Several days later, Ace, wearing a black robe, an elegant wizard’s top hat, and a Nine-Ring Hexagram badge pinned to his chest, appeared outside the sub-plane.
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