“Then that concludes today’s lecture.” Xing Hai rose to his feet, bringing the lecture to an end.

“We will never forget the Star Emperor’s kindness in imparting his teachings!” Hundreds of millions of people beneath the lecture platform knelt respectfully. Not one of them rose.

“You may leave now.” Xing Hai swept his sleeve, and everyone stood at once. After bowing to him three times, they orderly filed out through the portals scattered around the edges of the plaza.

This was the Star Emperor Palace, deep in the heart of the endless chaos. The myriad worlds had endured countless destructions and cycles of rebirth. Generation after generation, peerless experts had risen to prominence, unmatched in their age and renowned throughout history. Some had even led their worlds to invade others, conquering them in the end and establishing glorious divine dynasties that ruled over multiple worlds.

Yet no matter how defiant of heaven they were, in the end they still fell beneath the merciless blade of time.

Even peerless experts grow old and fade.

Even immortal legacies gradually die out.

Even glorious divine dynasties crumble and decline.

Only the Star Emperor Palace endures forever.

The destruction of worlds and the collapse of the universe couldn’t affect it in the slightest.

Even a combined assault by World Lords couldn’t break through the Star Emperor Palace’s defensive formation.

Even the annihilation of the endless chaos was no more than a mayfly trying to shake a tree.

Xing Hai had built the Star Emperor Palace with his own hands. The world honored him as the Star Emperor, but no one knew when Xing Hai or the Star Emperor Palace had first appeared, or how long they had existed.

That was because the oldest surviving records only went back to the World Lords’ united assault on the Star Emperor Palace, thirty thousand epochs ago.

Back then, the World Lords believed Xing Hai had built the Star Emperor Palace in the endless chaos to spy on its secrets and achieve eternity. So they decided to pool their strength, sacrifice countless lives in a blood offering, and use forbidden arts to forge protective barriers that could withstand the chaotic energy. With those barriers, they would enter the endless chaos, seize the Star Emperor Palace, eliminate Xing Hai, and share the secret of eternity.

If only they’d known the history from a hundred thousand epochs ago, they wouldn’t have made such a mistake.

The endless chaos was nothing more than something Xing Hai had created to separate the outside world from the Star Emperor Palace.

Before the endless chaos existed, life in the myriad worlds had been utterly miserable. The laws Xing Hai naturally released suppressed them. For tens of thousands of epochs, not a single world’s inhabitants could reach the realm of Deities. There was no difference between upper and lower worlds.

Only after the endless chaos was created did peerless experts begin to emerge in world after world. The chaos itself had very little destructive power. For the most part, it simply kept Xing Hai’s laws from spreading beyond it and suppressing everything outside.

But its destructive power was weak only by the Star Emperor Palace’s standards. To World Lords, it was still deadly.

Trapped within the chaos, the laws gave rise to countless powerful treasures. World Lords flocked into the endless chaos like moths to a flame, seeking their fortunes. But their strength only let them explore its outermost reaches. They didn’t dare venture inside.

The Star Emperor Palace, meanwhile, lay in the deepest part of the endless chaos. The quality of the treasures surrounding it was easy to imagine. So some people guessed Xing Hai had lucked into a treasure that made him immune to the chaos, allowing him to hide in its depths, gather treasures, grow stronger, and extend his life.

Yet when they attacked all at once, the Star Emperor Palace’s defensive formation didn’t even tremble.

Xing Hai appeared outside the formation in an instant and lightly pointed a finger at them.

The World Lords vanished. Only their spatial rings remained, floating in midair as the chaos slowly tore them apart.

After that, no one dared covet the Star Emperor Palace again.

Xing Hai had once told them how he’d broken through the World Lord realm, but not one of them had succeeded. Some had even severed their seven emotions and six desires, only for their souls to be annihilated. In the end, Xing Hai could only conclude that the path each person took to break through to World Lord was unique.

In the past few epochs, he’d taken the initiative to open portals, allowing these World Lords to enter the Star Emperor Palace and listen to his teachings, giving them a glimmer of hope for breaking through.

To become an eternal existence, reaching the World Lord realm was only the beginning.

People said Xing Hai’s strength was several major realms above that of a World Lord. That was why even a combined attack by over a hundred million World Lords couldn’t break through the formation.

Of course, being several major realms above them would indeed be enough to do that. But Xing Hai was far more terrifying.

Inside the Star Emperor Palace, Xing Hai had been cultivating for half an epoch. At his level, cultivation could no longer increase his strength by even the slightest amount.

All Xing Hai was doing was deepening his understanding and searching for a way to grow stronger.

“The reason I can’t break through seems to be... emotions.” He opened his eyes and let out a breath. With his strength, there was no way his judgment could be wrong.

In the beginning, Xing Hai had been no more than an ordinary World Lord. But after he provoked a powerful enemy, all the friends and family in his world were killed, and the world itself was ultimately blasted apart. His strength fell by several major realms along with it.

As he fled, he gradually severed all his seven emotions and six desires. With nothing left to tie him down, he devoted himself entirely to the pursuit of strength. His cultivation advanced rapidly. He made not a single mistake in battle, killed one enemy after another, and eventually stood at the pinnacle of that epoch, surpassing the World Lord realm.

Back then, he’d known his strength hadn’t reached its limit. So he established the Star Emperor Palace and drifted through the universe, accumulating strength over millions of epochs.

In his eyes, World Lords were hardly any different from mortals.

But now, the ridiculous truth was that the only way to grow stronger was to find a way to recover his seven emotions and six desires.

He hadn’t felt anything for millions of epochs. Getting those feelings back would be incredibly difficult. He couldn’t achieve it through cultivation alone. He’d have to find another way.

Xing Hai began to observe the people beyond the chaos, watching their lives from birth to death. He saw it all, and this observation lasted for several epochs.

But his emotions didn’t seem to have returned at all. He was just as he’d always been.

Xing Hai simply gave up for the time being and turned to other things. No one across the myriad worlds could withstand a single blow from him. He did seek greater strength, but he wasn’t in a hurry.

That day, after finishing his lecture for the World Lords of a new epoch, Xing Hai came up with an entirely new idea.

Why not enter the myriad worlds and experience the lives of mortals firsthand? It should be more effective than simply watching them.

As soon as the idea came to him, Xing Hai put it into action.

He searched through the myriad worlds, filtering out those that did not meet his criteria one by one. Any world without mortals would not be considered by Xing Hai.

After all, Xing Hai himself had walked the path from an ordinary mortal to where he was now.

Among the worlds that remained, he preferred lower worlds.

In the end, Xing Hai chose an ownerless world. It had many different power systems, but magic was the main one.

That was just what people in lower worlds called it. In middle and upper worlds, all power systems were collectively known as the path of cultivation.

Floating outside the world barrier, Xing Hai considered what identity he should assume while living in this world.

After all, a person’s identity could send their life down a completely different path.

Just then, a crooked, wavering beam of white light pierced through the world barrier. It flickered in and out, fragile and unsteady.

Xing Hai caught it in his hand.

“Summoning magic...” He instantly understood what the beam was. It was probably the method Mages in this world used to summon familiars. Once a familiar was summoned, a contract had to be signed. There was only one chance in a lifetime.

Familiars were a great help to Mages. They could fight, brew potions, scout, and help with everyday tasks. There was an old saying in this world:

“A Mage with a familiar might not reach the peak, but a Mage without one never will.” That alone showed how important familiars were.

Every Mage had to complete their familiar summoning before reaching adulthood. Once they came of age, their one chance would be gone.

So whenever Mages used summoning magic, they gave it everything they had, trying to form contracts with powerful young beings from other worlds. Adult beings were too powerful and would fight back, making the chance of success almost zero. That was why most people chose young beings instead. They were easier to contract with, and the bond between Mage and familiar would grow stronger, allowing them to fight in better sync.

Of course, those so-called other worlds were merely spaces between world barriers. Only World Lords could pass through the barriers.

But for some reason, this beam had passed through the barrier. If Xing Hai hadn’t caught it, the fragile spell would’ve been destroyed at once by the chaotic spatial storms in the universe.

If that happened, this Mage would lose the only chance they had in their life.

By then, Xing Hai had already made up his mind. He would become this Mage’s familiar.

A chance encounter like this—wasn’t that fate?

Xing Hai pressed the beam into his left hand and, taking the lead himself, completed the contract.

The character “Xing” appeared on the back of his hand, marking the contract’s completion. Xing Hai had signed an equal contract.

He was willing to be a familiar, but a master-servant contract was out of the question. Even if the contract couldn’t restrain him at all, with Xing Hai’s status and strength, how could he become someone else’s servant?

Once the contract was complete, a spatial passage opened before him. It led to the Mage.

Xing Hai instantly stopped time throughout this region of the universe. He moved the spatial passage inside the world barrier, stepped through, and let time flow again. If he’d stayed outside, he could’ve passed through the world barrier himself, but the passage would’ve collapsed immediately and badly hurt the Mage.

Since he’d entered right beside the world barrier, he had to move through the spatial passage at the speed set by the summoning magic. Otherwise, the passage would collapse again.

It really was a lower world, Xing Hai thought.

He ran into trouble while traveling through the passage.

A burly man with wild hair and an unkempt beard stood in the middle of the spatial passage, blocking Xing Hai’s way. His expression was imposing, his build broad and powerful, and he held a massive hammer in one hand. Thunder rolled around him.

“What is it?” Xing Hai’s eyes were as still as a placid well. It seemed the man before him was one of this world’s Deities.

“Why did you enter the spatial passage from outside the barrier?” The burly man gestured at Xing Hai with his hammer, his tone unfriendly, though inside he was extremely tense.

The Deities of this world all knew about the world barrier, but they weren’t strong enough to pass through it. And the closer they got to the barrier, the harsher the environment became. Even they risked dying if they made one wrong move.

Xing Hai had only stopped time outside the world. He hadn’t expected the burly man, who happened to be passing by, to notice when he moved the spatial passage inside.

In all these years, no living being had ever come in from beyond the barrier. Xing Hai was the first.

The Deities knew nothing about the outside world. The burly man’s first instinct was to eliminate Xing Hai.

But only after entering the spatial passage did he realize that he couldn’t sense even a trace of Xing Hai’s strength.

Could someone with no strength at all pass through a barrier that not one of the Deities could cross? The answer was obvious.

The man before him was definitely far stronger than he was.

“At the very least, I need to keep him busy for a while.” The burly man had already made up his mind. He wasn’t trying to defeat Xing Hai. He just needed the noise of their fight to draw the other Deities’ attention. If they all joined in, surely things would go much better.

The time when he should’ve reached the Mage had already passed by a long while.

“Anyone who blocks my way dies.” Xing Hai slowly uttered the four words. He didn’t want to waste time.

“Then you’ll have to prove you’ve got what it takes!” The burly man burned his divine body. The thunder transformed into a golden dragon. With a roar, he appeared behind Xing Hai in an instant and unleashed a devastating strike.