Thousands of years later…
While Maximus was helping the members of the Order of Maxim reconstruct the Ether Devices, he noticed the Ocean of Knowledge had reached saturation.
Reaching 9% progress, no matter how much energy he put in, the Ocean of Knowledge could no longer progress.
"It seems I have to fool a few more Masters of the Ocean of Law…"
Deducing new knowledge, helping those who branched from his Path, or even integrating Seeds of Path—all were too time-consuming.
Just one complete Ocean of Law had helped his path advance to such a degree.
What would happen if there were a few more?
As for incompatibility from merging Paths of the same tier, as the Master of Knowledge, he could deduce a solution for everything.
Suddenly, Maximus thought of those homeless Devourers.
Like Valoros, most of them were wandering alone, forging a lonely path without anyone or a place to rely on.
As long as he had enough strength and resources to entice those Masters, he could have them directly join his path.
Maybe, in time, the Order of Maxim would reach the rank of a top sect, even rivaling those overlord organizations.
He also thought of Iris.
If merging an Ocean of Law could be a key to breaking the bottleneck in his River of Knowledge, then an Absolute of Law should be able to help the Ocean of Knowledge when it hits a bottleneck.
Shaking off his thoughts, Maximus continued helping the members of the Order of Maxim refurbish the Ether Devices.
After hundreds of thousands of years, with the endless work of the Order of Maxim, he now possessed 67 billion Ether Forges and 1.97 billion Ether Refiners.
These Ether Devices could net him a total of 5 sextillion units of origin energy and 19 billion strands of causality every day.
After being refurbished to match his current strength, these Ether Devices could produce three times more energy than before.
Unfortunately, although refurbishing each Ether Device was faster, it wasn't easier.
Maximus had to personally come out and teach the members of his organization the advanced knowledge of the Rune of Maxim before they could begin to work.
After countless deductions, the Rune of Maxim had already reached the peak of tier 11 runic knowledge.
It could be said that it was the core inheritance of the Order of Maxim.
If one were to master it and engrave it onto any treasure, they could access his unlimited energy.
Maximus also implemented multiple layers of security and permissions for the Runes.
First, the engraved Rune could only work on itself.
It couldn't be exploited as a loophole to siphon his energy for free.
Second, only those who walked the Path of Knowledge would be able to use the treasure forged using the Rune of Maxim.
If others tried to steal and use it forcibly, it would become nothing more than scrap material.
Third, the Rune of Maxim could only be known and studied by those who walked the Path of Knowledge.
No matter in what form, no one could pass this knowledge or any information about the existence of this rune to others.
Thanks to such rules, no other forces had yet penetrated the secrets of the Rune of Maxim.
They could only walk the Path of Knowledge themselves to understand and use the Rune of Maxim.
As for those who walked the Path of Knowledge and then backed out, the third rule ensured their knowledge of the Rune would disappear.
It could be said that the security of the Rune of Maxim was impenetrable.
Even an Overlord would have a hard time deducing the secrets of the Runes.
And even if they deduced its secrets, they couldn't ultimately use them without walking the Path of Knowledge.
Such was just one of the many benefits of walking the Path of Knowledge.
The more walked the same path as him, the faster his Path of Law could advance.
Although he had many shortcuts and alternative ways to enhance his Path of Law, they wouldn't be of use when he reached the point where he needed to advance to the Overlord Realm.
One of the requirements to advance to such a realm was an Absolute of Law.
However, an Absolute of Law without many branches would lack essence and thus be imperfect.
For his advancement to the Overlord Realm, how could Maximus tolerate any imperfection?
Soon after another thousand years, having helped the top members of the Order of Maxim fully master the current peak of the Rune of Maxim, Maximus turned his attention to the Source of Knowledge.
"It's time to merge the Eternal Book!"
Advancing to the ocean level, it was now easier to integrate another ultimate treasure or seed of path into the source of knowledge.
With more abundant space, he would have more room to integrate anything he desired.
Just when he was about to call his family to start working, they seemed to have disappeared in place.
After teaching them the Rune of Maxim, they quietly escaped.
"These guys…" Maximus sighed.
Finding them in the simulated space practicing with all their might, Maximus could only let it go.
After the advancement of his Path, the simulated space had also undergone great changes.
Not only had it become more realistic, simulating thoughts, emotions, and battle intent, but it could now even fully replicate the imperfections of an enemy.
In the past, although the simulated space could replicate everything perfectly, it was too perfect.
While imperfection might seem disadvantageous, in chaotic battles, it could create opportunities to confuse the enemy, potentially making the difference between life and death.
There were also the Ultimate Treasures. Fighting against those prodigies, they could now fully experience the abilities of these ultimate treasures.
In the past, all abilities simulated by the ultimate treasures were based on information from the perspectives of others.
Some of this information was vague, meaning the simulated treasures couldn't fully exert their strength.
Now, with the Ocean of Knowledge, it could fully deduce the abilities of the ultimate treasures by following the traces of laws and causality they emitted.
Although it still wasn't perfect, it had about 90% of the treasures' capabilities.
With a few hundred thousand years remaining before the Dimensional Competition, his family was no longer in the mood to help him.
What they wanted now was to make a final sprint of training before the fated day.
"I can only work alone…"