# Chapter 2988: Only Time Is the Cruelest!
Because Jiangnan could cultivate in the Life Forbidden Zone, he never wasted any real-world time!
Every time the Six Paths Spirit Refining Method advanced a little, Jiangnan would perform a Black Flash to go verify it!
By the time he returned, he had already mastered it. In the eyes of Li Daoyan and the others, this was completely inconceivable!
But it also meant that Jiangnan had to spend long, long years within the Celestial Palace Star World!
Jiangnan wasn't incapable of time travel, but that would kill off future possibilities. Although there was a time flow difference between the two worlds, under long-distance time travel, the Wanzu Xingkong World would still develop synchronously.
So unless necessary, Jiangnan wouldn't engage in time travel.
Moreover, advancing the Six Paths Spirit Refining Method required Jiangnan's personal participation!
He had come here to improve himself; time couldn't be wasted. The stronger he was when he returned, the greater the chance of handling everything.
But... the long, long years were indeed torture for the young Jiangnan!
For Li Daoyan and the others, who had experienced long lives, thirty years was nothing—a blink of an eye!
But for Jiangnan, it was a span of time that exceeded his entire life's length!
This feeling was terrifying—when the time you consider important gradually shrinks as a proportion of your entire life!
In the end, after more than three hundred years had passed, when that most passionate, most memorable time only accounted for one-tenth of your total life, would that experience still be as important as before?
The more he thought about it, the more afraid he became!
Of all things in the world, only time is the cruelest!
In the end, Jiangnan couldn't help but return to Xianzhou Star, to that "Xiao Nan's Home"...
Seeing the familiar scenes before him, memories of the past flowed through his mind—everyone working together to build the house, Wu Liang causing trouble, Cheng Bao'er leaving tooth marks, Da Lang Mie running out crying...
These events felt like another life to Jiangnan; they had happened over thirty years ago!
If he included his experiences in the Life Forbidden Zone, what Jiangnan had gone through was far more than this...
Jiangnan touched the engraved words on the doorplate, his eyes full of tenderness!
The yard was overgrown with weeds, the rooms covered in dust, golden vines climbing the walls. The entire Xiao Nan's Home was shrouded in the breath of time, blending into the surrounding environment!
Jiangnan grinned:
(˵¯͒◡¯͒˵)"Hey~ if Xuexue and Lang Mie saw that I hadn't cleaned the room for so long, they'd scold me when I got back. I'll just tidy it up~"
"I still have many little surprises to find..."
So Jiangnan rolled up his sleeves and eagerly began to clean!
He mowed the grass alone, swept the dust alone, wiped the furniture alone, organized the empty rooms one by one...
During the process, Jiangnan actually saw many places that might hide little surprises—under the kitchen counter, inside cabinets, behind the stairs, in the cracks of the floorboards...
But Jiangnan restrained himself and didn't pull them out. After all, only thirty-odd years had passed; there were still many, many years to go!
He would slowly search, find them one by one...
Otherwise, if he dug them all out at once, there would be nothing left to discover later!
He was busy until late at night. Jiangnan returned to his room and flopped onto the bed!
The night was very quiet. The only sound was the breeze brushing through the trees outside the window...
Jiangnan gently stroked the bed board, smelling the faint wooden fragrance, seemingly lost in memories!
But lying down wasn't very comfortable—something was poking him. He reached behind him and pulled a small carved wooden plaque from the crack in the bed!
Jiangnan couldn't help but let out a wry laugh:
(•́ω•̀٥)"Good grief, could the hiding be any more obvious? It's like they didn't want me to find it this late..."
But the corners of Jiangnan's mouth involuntarily curled up. He sat up and examined the wooden plaque closely!
On the plaque was carved a prohibition sign!
Four big characters above it:
"Handwork Prohibited!"
As soon as Jiangnan saw it, he couldn't hold back!
(๑˚≥ꇴ≤)ﾂ"Pfft hahaha! What the hell? Da Lang Mie's masterpiece, right? How did you come up with that?"
On the back of the plaque were small words:
"Hey there, handsome—you wouldn't want to accidentally end up exchanging matter, would you? So! Handwork Prohibited!"
"Be a good boy~ This great Lang Mie won't mistreat you~ Think of me with all your might. Preserve your strength, come back and fight—fight, you hear~"
"When you see this wooden plaque, you'll already be in another starry sky world, right? I don't know if that world will be exciting enough to keep you from getting bored, but I know you'll miss me a lot. So go ahead and miss me—don't hold back!"
"Because when you're thinking of me, I'm definitely thinking of you too! mUa~"
Jiangnan looked at it, and tears blurred the world!
His voice was choked:
(ᵒ̴̶̷̥́～ก)"Pfft~ Wh-who would do something like that? That's completely unnecessary worry, okay?"
Jiangnan rubbed his eyes, picked up the little wooden plaque, and gently kissed it.
"mUa~"
Then he hugged the small plaque tightly against his chest, curling into a ball...
The room was filled with silence, only Jiangnan's murmurs echoing:
"I... miss home..."
...
Time slipped away quickly. The Celestial Palace Star World had a fast time flow, but the Wanzu Xingkong World on this side was frighteningly slow!
Jiangnan had spent over thirty long years there, but less than half a year had passed here!
For Zhong Yingxue and the others, Jiangnan had only been gone a few months. The matter of repairing the house still felt like yesterday!
But for the Starry Sky Races, this period hadn't been easy!
Jiangnan's departure was no secret to beings of Xun Zu's and Jiang Fan's level—it couldn't be hidden even if they wanted to!
Ever since Jiangnan left, the Finality Legion had been putting on full force!
They pushed the finality defense line with all their might!
The Origin Machine, the Cross Holy Wing Machine, the Giant God Soldiers, and countless mechanical legions all joined the fray!
If it were only these, the Carbon Alliance and Matter Alliance could still hold their ground!
The problem was that Jiang Fan no longer sat securely in Finality City. He personally took action to clear away obstacles!
For difficult points, tough lines to crack, or anything that hindered the execution of the finality plan—
Jiang Fan would directly intervene and suppress them, using overwhelming, absolute strength to remove the obstacles!
Now that Jiangnan was gone and Xun Zu wouldn't act, who in the entire starry sky could stop Jiang Fan?
Wanxiang was utterly useless—he didn't dare step out of the Dimensional Gap at all!
Even as support, he only dared to assist from within the Dimensional Gap, not step into the three-dimensional starry sky!
As for Xiao Chuihuo, he had clashed with Jiang Fan once during this period!
The result was defeat!
This outcome wasn't really surprising. Old Man Xiao had indeed created his own path, endlessly cycling through creation and destruction!
Planck temperature, melting rules—it was incredibly formidable!
But formidable didn't mean it could stop Jiang Fan!
Jiang Fan was still getting stronger. In the earlier Qing Er incident, Jiang Fan had shed all restraints—both his main body and clones were fully "bleached"!
Now Jiang Fan was a merciless, emotionless deity!
To achieve his goals, he analyzed rationally and then executed!
You see, the only thing currently limiting Jiangnan was wear and tear! The ultimate purpose of cultivating the Six Paths Spirit Refining Method was to increase his tolerance to wear and tear, thereby raising his capacity limit for Realm Source Energy!
But Jiang Fan completely disregarded wear and tear!
The reason he couldn't create a world was simply that the one outside was just a clone—like a rootless duckweed!
Even if Xiao Chuihuo were stronger, he couldn't stop the fully deified Jiang Fan!
Moreover, during this period, Xiao Chuihuo had no Realm Source Energy to supply or fuel him!
His strength growth rate could never match Jiang Fan's!
Even more terrifying was that Jiang Fan could transmit weak ability stars condensed by his clones to his main body in the Life Forbidden Zone!
When he transmitted those stars back out, the ability stars had already been cultivated to their limits!
That meant Jiang Fan could crush stars infinitely, condense ability stars infinitely, without considering the cultivation process!
The main body would naturally complete the cultivation of ability stars within the Life Forbidden Zone!
With such a Jiang Fan, who could stop him?
But strong as Jiang Fan was, his power still wasn't enough to kill Xiao Chuihuo!
Old Man's endless cycle wasn't for nothing!
Nevertheless, the gap in top-tier combat power still made the Carbon Alliance and Matter Alliance suffer heavy losses!
If you couldn't stop him, you couldn't prevent Jiang Fan's actions!
After Xiao Chuihuo's first clash with Jiang Fan, to prevent Xiao Chuihuo from obstructing him again, Jiang Fan began avoiding direct confrontation!
Jiang Fan would suddenly appear at a stronghold, causing large-scale destruction, killing, and removing obstacles!
By the time Xiao Chuihuo rushed over, Jiang Fan had already finished and retreated!
One side was actively attacking, the other passively defending—the advantage was obvious without saying more!
Because of this, the finality defense line was pushed back again and again! The Carbon Alliance and Matter Alliance retreated step by step!
Many races' home star domains were forced to relocate!
In the starry sky, many places had turned into nothingness and pitch black, with not a trace of light!
Because all matter had been sent to the Final Black Hole, becoming its accretion disk!
Such a starry sky was truly too desolate!
However, the Dimensional Star City wasn't without counterattacks!
Zi Yuan's ability came into play—she could predict the locations Jiang Fan would attack, but she couldn't dream of them every time!
Xiao Chuihuo could prepare in advance and go stop Jiang Fan. But if faced with such a situation, Jiang Fan would just demolish them by force!
Xiao Chuihuo wanted to block him but couldn't—he could only delay time and reduce losses!
The gap in top-tier combat strength was the most painful!
You knew it, but there was nothing you could do!
Afterward, Yang Jian changed his strategy. Whenever Jiang Fan attacked to remove obstacles,
Xiao Chuihuo would attack Finality City in turn!
He would destroy the accretion disk of the Final Black Hole, using Planck temperature to massively evaporate the dense matter of the accretion disk!
Making the Finality Legion's matter collection efforts pointless!
Under these circumstances, Jiang Fan had to return to stop him; otherwise, wouldn't the matter have been collected in vain?
Also, critically, the connection between Jiang Fan's clone and main body required neutron star colliders to create black holes for the Final Black Hole to swallow, generating disturbances!
Only then could Jiang Fan maintain his supply of Realm Source Energy!
This was one of Jiang Fan's weaknesses!
With this tactic, the Carbon Alliance and Matter Alliance managed to regain some initiative!
Turning passive into active, they finally slowed the Finality Legion's offensive!
But this slowdown couldn't last long either...