Starting with Growing Mushrooms

Liu Jun furrowed his brows.

Star Realm, Eighth Tier?

What the hell is this?

This Trial Universe’s twelve trials, is the first world so intense?

"What exactly are their abilities?" Liu Jun asked.

"We aren’t too sure either..."

"Where do they live?"

"Not sure."

"Where did you get this information?"

"Everyone says so."

It seemed the other party was just a desert thief from this area, completely unaware of the secrets of top fighters.

The man explained, "My name is Amoka."

"Our First Cosmos world is called the Sand Layer Cosmos, with layers upon layers. We’ve built sand castles, even desert cities... endless underground labyrinths."

"You’ve ascended here; it’s necessary to understand the cosmic rules here."

"After a world ascends, due to more complete rules, the will of the heavens will emerge. You probably aren’t aware of this, right?"

"The Celestial Will Race is a terribly frightening monster. If you haven’t faced them, you wouldn’t know their strength!"

Fortuna showed a strange expression.

Strong?

Do they really think we are bumpkins?

We’ve never encountered them?

We’ve long since undergone the twelve trial ascensions too.

We’ve also encountered the Celestial Will Race and have slain more of them than we can count.

The other continued, with a hint of pride on his face: "But in the face of destiny, there’s no need for you to be too afraid!"

"You latecomers are truly blessed!"

"The will of the heavens in the first world was killed by us, the forerunners of trial civilizations, many years ago, in a process of extreme difficulty and suffering..."

He exuberantly recounted the stories of the predecessors conquering the boss of the first trial’s destiny.

Liu Jun listened, seemingly thoughtful.

They found it so difficult to defeat the bosses of the First Cosmos world?

But of course.

They were ordinary people, with ordinary telekinesis.

Without cheat-like Divine Power, winning was already impressive.

That indeed deserves praise.

He continued, "However, after the will of the heavens dies, after some time a new one is born... The newly born Celestial Will Race is cunning, breeding sand beasts that continuously attack us."

"You probably don’t know, after the Seventh Tier, the cosmic environment starts to change."

"It’s the era of man against the heavens!"

Liu Jun smiled.

We’re also experiencing the era of man against the heavens over here...

No.

It’s not man against the heavens.

It’s gods against the heavens.

We are the gods with Divine Objects, stronger than you mere mortals fighting the heavens!

Fortuna laughed, "You indeed deserve praise, daring to challenge the will of the heavens with your frail mortal bodies..."

Sand Thief Amoka was instantly perplexed.

Mere mortals? Aren’t you human?

Probably never encountered the strength of the Celestial Will Race to speak so boldly.

Sand Thief Amoka continued: "Masters, the environment of this Sand Layer Cosmos is extremely harsh."

"Every once in a while, there’s a frenzy of sand beast attacks under the command of the Celestial Will Race."

"It can be said every cosmos trial is a harsh battle between man and the heavens!"

Fortuna sneered: "And you still recommend us to survive here?"

"Master, continuing to ascend is very arduous."

The other hurriedly explained: "The twelve trials are the twelve stages of world perfection, with the cosmos becoming more complete the higher you go."

"We’re stuck here out of necessity."

"And, do you think it’s all good up there? The worlds above are perfected, but they also face more terrifying Celestial Will Races."

"Our heaven here has the attribute of ’sand heaven’... earth attribute, relatively mediocre."

"I’ve heard higher heavens are even more frightening."

Haha!

Liu Jun showed an expression of considerable interest.

This is the surprise Magaras mentioned...?

It truly is quite the surprise.

Who would’ve thought that in the twelve trials of the cosmos, there’d be a pile of failed civilizations sinking here?

Here too, exists a heap of historical ruins of civilizations?

But.

After all, there’s only one cosmos.

You can’t have twelve trials and thus twelve cosmi, can you?

The man explained, "Ascending to that world, that is the main world!"

"You just charged into our First Cosmos, only then did it materialize for us."

"When you leave here and charge into the second trial, everything in the second trial universe will materialize!"

This native desert thief continued to babble on:

"Should you fail, for instance, at the fourth trial, you can stop there and reside."

"Afterwards, your reality cosmos, due to failed ascension, will slowly fall back layer by layer."

"Returning to its original cosmos."

"By then, due to your failure, a severance appears in the Seventh Tier civilizations of the original cosmos."

"Countless billions of years from now, the next Seventh Tier civilization will follow in your footsteps to reopen the twelve trials, encountering us again, a cycle."

Liu Jun nodded.

If we fail, we wait at the trial where we lost.

We become the NPCs here, waiting for the next protagonist to tackle the world-ascending quest?

How relentless!

Civilizations charging into their demise one after another!

Until one day, a civilization completes the twelve trials in one go, then the cosmos will truly ascend!

Becoming more advanced, more complete...

Just like some mythological novels describe.

Transforming from a lower-tier small world to a high-tier grand cosmos.

But until then.

Who knows how many more civilizations will perish?

One can only say, these civilizations are indeed striving.