Three Hundred Thousand Years Later…
Thanks to the Seal of Truth accelerating their decision-making, on average, they could merge a seed of the River of Law within a few hundred years.
However, the more seeds of path merged into the River of Knowledge, the harder it became to integrate another.
After working and merging seeds of path for hundreds of thousands of years, Maximus and his family managed to integrate a total of 275 seeds of the River of Law.
[River of Knowledge – 99%]
Staring at the River of Knowledge, stuck in a bottleneck just as he had expected, Maximus couldn't help but sigh.
After merging 200 seeds of path, the progress of the River of Knowledge had come to a standstill.
Even after adding another 75 seeds, there was no further movement.
"What's wrong, husband? Still no progress?"
They had long known that Maximus's path had reached a bottleneck.
Despite this, they had worked tirelessly for hundreds of years without complaint.
Yet, even with their efforts, Maximus's path remained stagnant.
"Maybe we could break through using the seeds of the Ocean of Law,"
If seeds of the River of Law didn't work, perhaps seeds of the Ocean of Law would.
With dozens of such seeds of path, they didn't believe that a mere River of Law couldn't break through.
"No, it'll take too long. We don't have enough time to implement it before the Dimensional Competition,"
Merging a seed of the Ocean of Law into a River of Law was far more difficult than merging an ultimate treasure.
Maximus calculated that it would take hundreds of thousands of years to integrate even a single seed of the Ocean of Law.
Without at least four or five seeds, he wasn't sure it would be enough for the River of Knowledge to break through.
"Don't worry; I've already thought of a solution," Maximus said in comfort as he noticed their worry.
He had long realized that he couldn't rely solely on the seeds of the path to condense the Ocean of Knowledge.
"That man should have already made his decision by now…"
In a secret void space, Valoros, the Lord of Truth, slowly opened his eyes after a long period of deduction.
"No lies… that man was true to his word," Valoros muttered with a sigh.
A hundred thousand years ago, a message had silently reached him.
It bypassed his layers of veils and protective arrays, mysteriously appearing in his hands.
Initially, Valoros was wary, yet, reading the message, he found himself more in disbelief.
The message claimed that if he surrendered, he would be provided with a surefire way to advance to the Absolute Realm.
A guaranteed way to reach the Absolute Realm? Even the Overlord didn't possess such methods.
However, after countless years of deduction—analyzing every nuance, every potential pitfall, and the price of such an offer—Valoros found himself still in disbelief.
According to the message, the sender truly had a way to help him advance without any major disadvantages besides becoming their subordinate.
The terms of the subordinate agreement were also surprisingly light.
Beyond merging his path of laws with theirs, there were no other stipulations.
He wouldn't even be bound to follow their orders and could act freely.
Path merging was a common practice among the major organizations of the Aeon Plane.
With the merging of rivers, oceans, and absolutes, as long as sufficient energy was available, breaking through bottlenecks became far easier.
Faced with such a favorable offer, Valoros couldn't help but feel excited
Yet, out of caution, he thought of seeking a guarantee from a third party.
"Malgron… it seemed he had regained his memory. It's time to use such a piece…"
While Valoros was attempting to contact Malgron, Maximus and his family were reviewing their harvest after merging hundreds of seeds into the River of Law.
Integrating seeds of path was like planting in barren waters.
It transformed the River of Knowledge from a monotonous flow into a thriving ecosystem of paths—richer in quality and more diverse.
Unfortunately, not enough time had passed, and the Source of Knowledge had yet to nurture these seeds of the path fully.
Once these paths were fully nurtured, Maximus would gain mastery over all their abilities.
By then, the River of Knowledge wouldn't need to rely on the power of causality to overwhelm opponents.
Instead, it could directly crush them with its inherent power.
Beyond the increase in raw power, these seeds of path also accelerated the advancement of the River of Knowledge and its branches.
His family, having a sufficient supply of strands of causality, already pushed their path of law through 29%.
If not for the bottleneck they were facing, requiring more accumulation, their progress would be greater.
As for the Order of Maxim, they went from having fewer than a handful of Masters of the River of Law to hundreds of them.
This surge in powerhouses also filled the Shadowcrest Family's foundation.
With hundreds of Masters of the River of Law to their name, the family's reputation further skyrocketed.
After checking on their progress, Maximus and his family decided to take a well-deserved vacation.
Over the past hundreds of thousands of years, they had tirelessly worked, but every thousand years, they allowed themselves a brief respite to explore the outside world.
As they were enjoying their break, Valoros successfully reached Malgron.
Feeling the familiar aura, Malgron recognized his old friend instantly.
"Valoros, my friend! I didn't expect our meeting to be so soon!" Malgron laughed, pulling Valoros into a tight embrace.
Though Valoros had once used him for some experiments, their friendship of billions of epochs was not easily broken.
"It's my honor that you still remember me," Valoros said, bowing slightly.
Valoros had long known Malgron's true identity.
However, due to his cautious nature, he made sure that as soon as his clone perished, all its connections would be severed.
If not for the rare opportunity to advance to the Absolute Realm, he might never have met Malgron in his life.
"Nonsense! If I ever forgot you, I might as well forget who I am!"
Before Valoros could explain his purpose or request a favor, Malgron eagerly began recounting tales of their past adventures, dragging Valoros into nostalgic memories.
Seeing his friend unchanged after all this time, Valoros couldn't help but smile.
"You truly are Malgron…"