Death... and me



"Hey, who's stealing my Divine Energy?!" Celis's voice echoed in the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. Even though he used the Origin Energy Cores, he still relied on regular Divine Energy too.

Rean and Roan brushed him off as Rean switched off the Time Acceleration. Golden light flooded the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm once again, restoring it to the same time speed as the outside world. Obviously, the Divine Energy returned to normal too. "Looks like four times is the limit for this place," Rean remarked.

Roan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, seems like it. If I'm not mistaken, as long as you choose two or three times acceleration, the Dimensional Realm won't run out of Divine Energy completely. It'll only decrease in concentration."

Rean then glanced at the hole in the ground and decided to give it a try. They tapped into their connection with the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm and summoned thousands of Rank One Divine Stones. After all these years, they had amassed hundreds of thousands of these common Divine Stones. If they wanted, they could gather millions by exchanging higher-level ones or selling Rean's Equipment and Roan's Pills.

However, the hole could only fit around ten thousand Divine Stones at a time. But that didn't matter since they could simply refill it as the Circuitry Formation consumed the energy. "Alright, let's turn it on," Rean said as he approached the screen.

This time, the acceleration options had expanded. From five times to seventeen times, there were now 'Rank One Divine Stones' written beside them. "Looks like Rank One Divine Stones can only accelerate up to seventeen times."

"Sister Orb, can we combine Divine Stones with the environmental Divine Energy?" Rean inquired.

[We can, but the speed won't increase significantly. You need to understand that each higher level consumes more energy than the previous one. If you add environmental Divine Energy after activating the seventeen times option, it won't increase by another three times. It'll only increase once,] Sister Orb explained.

Upon hearing this, Rean and Roan gave up on using the environmental Divine Energy. They needed to leave Divine Energy for the people and Demon Beasts in the Dimensional Realm to cultivate, after all. "Alright, let's stick with using Divine Stones only."

Rean activated the Time Acceleration once again, this time using only the Divine Stones to reach seventeen times the speed of the outside world.

*Puff... Puff... Puff...*

Every ten seconds or so, a crumbling sound could be heard in the room. The twins looked at the hole with the Divine Stones and realized that it was the Rank One Divine Stones being continuously used. "Seems like each Divine Stone is only enough for ten seconds of acceleration."

Roan nodded. "We put ten thousand Rank One Divine Stones inside, which should sustain the time acceleration for 27 hours."

Rean sighed in disappointment. "That's 27 hours here in the Dimensional Realm. Time outside is passing seventeen times slower. In other words, ten thousand Rank One Divine Stones are only enough for a little over a day's worth of cultivation. Time is accelerated, but not our cultivation speed."

Despite having a large quantity of Rank One Divine Stones, they were not limitless. Rean quickly calculated the stones they possessed and came to a conclusion. "If we use all our Rank One Divine Stones, we should be able to sustain this level of time acceleration for three weeks. That's equivalent to a little over a day's time outside the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm."

Naturally, this was both good and bad news. While they would save a significant amount of time, they couldn't sustain it for too long. Three weeks meant nothing to cultivators of the Space Bending Realm like them. They would require hundreds or maybe thousands of years instead.

Roan squinted his eyes. "Seventeen times is still too slow. Sister Orb, based on Celis's cultivation speed with our assistance, how long will it take for us to reach the Elemental Space Realm? Of course, we'll be using the Divine Origin Cores all the way."

"Well, without the need to convert Divine Energy into Divine Origin Energy, your cultivation is already around ten times faster. And you're already in the Late Stage of the Space Bending Realm. There's only one more stage before the breakthrough. I estimate it will take around 42 years, give or take," Sister Orb explained.

This wasn't surprising to them. Each level took longer than the previous one. Without the Divine Origin Energy Cores, the twins would need over 400 years to reach that stage. 42 years was already a significant improvement. However, their goal was to open a Spatial Gate, which required reaching the Space-Time Realm. "How long would it take to progress from the Elemental Space to the Space-Time Realm?"

[That's hard to measure since I can't observe your cultivation speed in the Elemental Space Realm. But if I were to guess, it would probably take you between 1000 to 1200 years. It's not a precise number, but it shouldn't be too far off. And that's while using Divine Origin Energy nonstop,] Sister Orb explained. [Don't underestimate that timeframe. Other beings would easily take over ten thousand years.]

The reason for the scarcity of Space-Time Realm experts wasn't solely due to talent. It was mainly because the lifespan of an Elemental Space Realm cultivator was only around 28,000 years. 99.99% of the time, they reached the end of their lifespan before even getting the chance to attempt the breakthrough into the Space-Time Realm. It was only at the Space-Time Realm that a cultivator achieved true immortality. In any case, the fact that the twins would only need 1000 to 1200 years was ridiculously fast.

"Fortunately, we have enough Divine Origin Energy Cores for that," Rean added. "Still, this time..."

Even with enough Divine Energy to power the formation for such a long period, seventeen times acceleration would mean that 70 years would pass outside, more or less. "No choice. Let's try higher-level Divine Stones and see how it goes."