Alex sat cross legged on a dark stone platform, his breathing slow and even. Around him, the air shimmered faintly with residual energy from his last session of comprehension. He had just finished solidifying his understanding of the eighth elemental law, and his mind was already turning to the next challenge. He was about to start his next session when a soft footstep broke the stillness.

Igris appeared beside him. The Grandmaster’s presence was calm but urgent, his silver robes flowing like liquid mercury. Without a word, he extended his hand, and a gentle force pulled Alex out of his seated position. The cultivation session was over before it had even begun.

"Grandmaster, what happened?" Alex asked, his voice steady but curious. He trusted Igris completely, but the sudden interruption was unusual.

Igris studied him for a long moment, his ancient eyes gleaming with something between pride and solemnity. "If you want to break through to the Planetary Realm, I have something to tell you."

Alex felt his heart rate increase slightly. The Planetary Realm was the next great threshold in his cultivation path. Everything he had done so far, every law he had comprehended, every battle he had fought, was building toward this moment. "What is it?"

"First, tell me how many laws have you comprehended?" Igris asked, his tone deadly serious.

Alex did not hesitate. "I have comprehended the eight elements. Now I am thinking of comprehending the law of space as well."

He did not mention the law of time. That was a secret he carried alone, too anomalous and too dangerous to share. Even with Igris, even with the trust between them, some truths were better kept hidden until the right moment.

Igris laughed out loudly. The sound echoed through the chamber, rich and genuine. "Hahahahaha. I knew it. You could do it."

His laughter faded as quickly as it had come. His face turned grave, and he stepped closer to Alex. The air between them grew heavy with importance.

"I will send you to a special realm," Igris said. "There is a willow tree, eons old, growing at the heart of that place. If you can collect one of its seeds, you will be able to create the highest order inner planet and make it your core. But to achieve this, you must collect the seed yourself, and you must master all nine elemental laws as well."

Alex’s eyes widened. "All nine? I have already mastered eight. The ninth is the law of space, which I was just about to begin."

"Yes," Igris confirmed. "The law of space is the final elemental law. Without it, the seed will reject you. Without the seed, your inner planet will be ordinary. But with both, you will achieve something truly extraordinary."

A spark of excitement ignited in Alex’s chest. "Really? What kind of benefits would it provide me?"

Igris spread his hands as if painting a picture in the air. "It would help you to create an inner universe twenty seven times stronger than normal in the future. Listen carefully. If someone comprehends the nine laws and forms his inner planet using only his own comprehension, his inner universe will be nine times stronger than normal. That alone is considered the peak of achievement. But the willow seed multiplies that foundation by three. Nine times three is twenty seven. You would be three times stronger than even those who form supreme universes."

Alex felt his breath catch. Twenty seven times. The numbers were staggering. In the cultivation world, even a small advantage at the Planetary Realm could determine the difference between life and death for eons to come. An advantage of twenty seven times was almost incomprehensible.

"Grandmaster, is your inner universe also that powerful?" Alex asked.

Igris smiled wryly. The expression was tinged with a rare vulnerability, a crack in his usual composed demeanor. "No. My inner universe is strong, but not at that level. Only the ancestor of the Silvera Clan achieved such a feat. That realm is opened for several multiversal worlds, so the competition is fierce. The tree only produces ten seeds every thousand years, and one seed is of the supreme grade. It attracts all the super prodigies from thousands of multiversal worlds."

Alex understood the implication immediately. He would not be competing against ordinary geniuses. He would be facing the best of the best from countless worlds, all of them hungry for the same prize. The supreme seed would be the target of the strongest among them, but even the remaining nine seeds would be fought over with desperate intensity.

His interest was already piqued. If anything, the danger only made the goal more appealing. "When will you send me there?" he asked.

"The realm will open in one day," Igris said. His voice dropped to a solemn whisper. "So you have roughly one hundred days to master the law of space in that time."

Alex’s face turned solemn as well. One hundred days to master the law of space was a difficult task even for a prodigy. But he had another law to comprehend as well, the law of time, and he had no idea how long that would take. His talent for space was eternal grade, but time was a complete unknown.

"I will try my best," Alex said with a serious tone.

"I believe in you," Igris said. He placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder for a brief moment, then turned and left the chamber. His footsteps faded into silence.

Alex closed his eyes instantly. He did not want to waste any more time. Every second counted now.

"First law of space," he muttered.

He was unsure about the law of time, so he decided to comprehend the law of space before attempting the more dangerous path. If he could secure the ninth elemental law first, he would at least have a foundation. The time law could come after.

The angel behind him flapped its wings. One of its wings now had eight colored lines, each representing a mastered elemental law. The ninth line was forming, faint but growing.

Alex entered his epiphany mode again. In this state, his perception sharpened beyond mortal limits. The world around him dissolved into pure energy and principle. A huge line lit up in his mind’s eye. It was at least five times thicker than the normal eight elemental lines. The law of space was vast and demanding, but Alex felt no fear. He reached out with his consciousness and began to comprehend.

The days passed in a blur of intense focus. He did not eat. He did not sleep. He did not move. His entire existence was funneled into understanding the nature of space, the distances between things, the fabric that held reality together. Concepts that would take ordinary cultivators decades to grasp unfolded before him like maps.

Forty five days later, a chime sounded in his mind.

[Ding! You have comprehended the law of space]

Alex opened his eyes. A smile of relief spread across his face. Nine elemental laws. He had done it. He had mastered fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, light, darkness, wood, and now space. The foundation was complete.

But his relief was short lived. Worry crept back into his heart. Until now, he had been comprehending laws for which he had natural talent. His space talent was eternal grade, the highest possible. But time was a different beast entirely. It was not an elemental law. It was something deeper, more primal, and entirely unknown to him.

"Let us begin the law of time," he muttered.

Instantly, a thick snakelike line lit up in his perception. It was gray in color, shifting and writhing like living smoke. As soon as he entered the epiphany mode, a tremendous pressure landed on him. His soul trembled. His body broke into a cold sweat.

A huge river of time appeared in his perception. It stretched infinitely in both directions, flowing from a source he could not see to an end he could not imagine. The river was made of moments, of past and future intertwined, of every heartbeat that had ever occurred and every heartbeat that ever would.

And then an ancient voice entered his brain.

"You are stepping into the forbidden zone. Leave now, or else you will be captured in the eternal loop of time and if you force even after that, I’ll erase you. An insignificant insect does not have the right to peek into the supreme river of time."

The voice was not loud, but it carried the weight of eternity. Alex’s soul shook with terror. Every instinct told him to retreat, to abandon this path, to never look upon the river again. He could not concentrate. His mind fractured under the pressure.

Just as he thought about stopping, his martial soul stood up.

It had been sitting behind him. Now it rose with terrible purpose. Its 108 wings spread out in full glory, each one shimmering with power. Its form began to grow larger and more terrifying, casting a shadow over Alex’s entire spiritual world. It glowed with an intense light, bright enough to challenge the river of time itself.

Then it wrapped Alex within its wings, shielding him completely.

[Ding! System has blocked the external powers. Host can now continue]

Alex heaved a sigh of relief. His brows were already soaked with sweat. The river of time vanished from his perception, but the gray snakelike line remained. The pressure was gone. The ancient voice was silenced. He was alone with the law.

He began to comprehend.

Deep within the river of time, several supreme wills stirred.

"Someone below multiversal level was trying to comprehend the law of time," a voice said. It was curious, almost amused. "That is interesting. Why did old Han block him? We could have had some fun."

"Humph," the same ancient voice from before said, cold and dismissive. "I allow multiversal insects to glimpse the law of time only because they are barely worthy. Do you think I should allow someone below that level? The answer is no."

"That is right," another voice agreed. "Time is a concept that only our level of existence is allowed to fully comprehend. Anything less is an insult to the natural order."

"But I would like to meet this person before," the first voice said. "Do you have information, old Han?"

"No," the ancient voice replied calmly. "I cannot trace his existence. He is very abnormal. I cannot even find him within the river of time. It is as if he does not belong to existence itself."

Silence fell among the supreme wills. For beings who could see across all of time, the inability to find a single cultivator was deeply unsettling.

The remaining fifty five days passed in intense focus. Alex did not stop. He could not stop. The law of time was slippery and elusive, but his martial soul kept him anchored. Day by day, he peeled back its secrets. He learned to feel the flow of moments, to sense the difference between past and future, to touch the fabric of causality without being swept away.

On the one hundredth day, just as the realm was about to open, a final chime sounded.

[Ding! You have comprehended the law of time. You have gained a time related talent: Time Stop(Chaos Grade)]

Alex opened his eyes. He was exhausted but triumphant. He now had comprehended all the 10 elements.