# Chapter 36: Who Can Know the Future
Speaking of being late, Joshua couldn't exactly discuss punctuality with a World Will that considered fifteen hundred years ago as "not long ago." After all, the mere act of condensing its will might take half a month. So he didn't continue that topic but instead shrugged and switched to another subject: "Star, you said earlier that because you needed to prepare the reward, you wanted me to wait a while before leaving. Now that you've come to find me, does that mean you're ready?"
Back when Joshua defeated the Mother Beast and incinerated it in the massive flame storm on Neptune Star, not long after, the Dominant Will from the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground began preparing to teleport him and Nostradamus back to Mycroft. This nearly half-destroyed Sage-created artificial intelligence had absorbed the leftover "Psionic Ascension" psionic energy from Joshua, repairing many soul injuries that couldn't heal themselves due to lack of energy. It now had 27% of its peak power and was still recovering.
But just as the Dominant Will was about to penetrate the world barrier and use multi-quadrant teleportation to send the warrior and his group back, the Steel Serpent "Star" appeared and blocked them. Undoubtedly, even with its partially restored power, the Dominant Will was far from a match for the World Will.
This Steel Serpent, which needed Little Light as a condensation point to temporarily possess a clear sense of self, had during this time imitated the light orb's structure, splitting itself to create a condensation point will aggregation body. Taking the initiative to appear, it told Joshua that this time, the warrior had crossed worlds to help its people, filling it with gratitude. So it planned to give everyone generous rewards, but because time was too short, it needed Joshua and the others to wait a while. Additionally, the Steel Serpent Star vaguely expressed hope that Joshua could stay longer in its world and pass down the inheritance of the so-called "Transcendent Path." This might fill the greatest shortcoming of civilizations like the Midgardians, giving them a chance to resist when facing super lifeforms.
Regarding this, Joshua didn't mind spreading inheritance. After all, the Starry World was too far from Mycroft World—there was absolutely no competitive relationship. Even if there were, it would be difficult for the Midgardians to catch up in a short time... Besides, taking an entire race as disciples was indeed quite cool.
But in the end, this plan fell through: First, the free energy in the Starry World and the Steel Force differed greatly from Mycroft World. The original cultivation methods needed large-scale modification to be usable. Second, the Midgardians were ultimately plant life, fundamentally different in life form from Mycroft humans, who were mammals.
With Joshua's foundation, modifying a set of battle qi or life energy cultivation methods suitable for plant life wasn't difficult, but it required a lot of time for deduction and verification. And he was in a hurry to go home—during the half-plane exploration, two Empire legendary experts had mysteriously disappeared. Heaven knows how Israel felt when he heard the news. The warrior estimated that the Imperial Emperor had been having a very hard time lately. If he didn't return soon, he worried the situation might change and cause major chaos.
But even so, Joshua still managed to modify a basic set of methods suitable for plant life to train life energy in less than ten days. He borrowed some knowledge about Druid seedling cultivation and, from the elevated perspective of a legendary expert, explained the essence of life energy. As long as one practiced this cultivation method, the Midgardians' overall physical fitness and psionic energy growth rate would noticeably improve. The only drawback was the extremely slow progress—from the most basic Black Iron to Silver High-rank would take nearly two hundred years, ten times that of ordinary people on the Mycroft Continent. Advancing to Gold Realm was even harder; it was likely that naturally awakened Omega psionic energy users would outnumber any Gold-rank Midgardians that might appear.
Fifty years to enter the gate, a hundred years to start, two hundred years to show results—this kind of cultivation method could only be used by the long-lived Midgardians. Except for being very stable and almost impossible to go wrong, Joshua's temporarily modified cultivation method had no advantages. Yet even so, those Midgardian experts received the manuscript of this cultivation method from the warrior as if it were a treasure, thanking him profusely—after all, slowness was one thing, but having it was another. True qualitative change was never from one to a hundred, but from zero to one.
"Indeed."
The Steel Serpent, entwined with the Milky Way, its head... rather than using such unorthodox methods, it would be better to directly use fists for physical persuasion—at least ten times faster, and no worry about backlash.
So after putting away this fragment, Joshua had already planned to feed it to Little Light as dog food. Last time, after the light orb ate a piece of Steel Shard, it learned void creation. Although currently manifested only as spraying water, who knows what ability it might gain after eating this Steel Shard? He was quite looking forward to it.
As for the problem of waste—Steel Shards simply didn't exist for others. Except for Little Light and himself, almost no one could sense its existence. Moreover, Joshua had a premonition that Little Light, as a nascent World Will, would gain tremendous benefits from absorbing Steel Shards from other worlds. For now, it was still in an accumulation period with no obvious returns, but the warrior had plenty of patience to wait.
The third reward, compared to the previous two, was straightforward and honest. After opening the third energy bubble, Joshua felt a formless yet pure Steel Force surge out and merge into his body—in that brief instant, he found his body's Steel Force assimilation progress directly increased by ten percent, now reaching twenty-seven percent, exceeding one-quarter! Although it seemed like only ten percent assimilation progress, for a legendary expert, this represented at least ten years of hard cultivation. If unlucky, it could even take decades.
After all, for legendary experts, progress might be faster in the early stages of advancement, but the further one went, the more difficult the sublimation of life form became. Even the exceptionally talented Pope Eagle and Emperor Israel had spent long periods at this step.
Because of the rapid increase in Steel Force assimilation, Joshua immediately felt his entire body grow heavier, his weight increasing by at least a third. Due to the nature of Steel Force, the warrior couldn't yet experience the combat power improvement it brought. The only intuitive feeling was the sudden surge in his own mass. Joshua even suspected that some ancient dragons might not be as heavy as him, because he could feel the space around him slightly distorted due to his weight.
"This is the origin power I specially split from my main body, the purest Steel Force with no impurities."
The Steel Serpent Star seemed very satisfied with its reward, twisting its massive head and saying: "You have already reached the bottom that natural evolution cannot reach in individual life evolution. I can only help you speed up progress this way, but that's as far as it goes."
Joshua silently nodded. Star wasn't wrong. In fact, this sudden ten percent increase in assimilation progress had already exceeded his control. The warrior couldn't even speak now, frowning as he exerted all his effort to control his body and adjust the concentration balance of Steel Force within. After a long while, he slowly exhaled, relaxing his tense body and stretching his limbs: "Roughly adjusted... almost made a fool of myself."
"My rewards have been given."
Looking at Joshua, the massive Steel Serpent coiled its body, its Milky Way-like enormous form spiraling beneath the starry sky dome. It spoke in a light tone: "Though somewhat reluctant, the time of parting is about to come. I trust there will be days of reunion in the future. Descendant from the land of saints, I hope by then, you have grown into a reinforcement that even worlds can rely on."
The Steel Serpent Star was indeed a being that didn't like nonsense and acted decisively. After giving the promised rewards and expressing gratitude to Joshua, it straightforwardly prepared to send Joshua out of the world's inner side, letting the Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground pick up the warrior's group. After all, its main body was still spreading news in every corner of the Starry World that war was coming. Soon, the Starry World would be plunged into a grand war sweeping countless galaxies. Compared to that, everything else seemed insignificant.
But this time, it was Joshua's turn to stop the other party.
"Wait, there's one more thing."
Calling out to the Steel Serpent about to leave, the warrior, as it turned its head, pressed his right palm to his chest. The next second, a silver light orb appeared in his palm, which he then raised. Joshua showed the light orb in his hand to Star, whose eyes showed surprise, and slowly said: "I think he is your people. Although I don't know why he could enter my spiritual space, I feel I should return this brave one's soul to you."
At this moment, held in Joshua's palm, was the old Midgardian Alzera from the Mother Beast battlefield, who had used his life to provide the warrior's group with information about being surrounded. After transmitting the message, this former Omega psionic energy user's soul had entered Joshua's Soul Abyss for unknown reasons and fallen into slumber.
Now was the time to return this brave one to his homeland. Joshua believed that the Steel Serpent Star definitely had the ability to send this fragile soul back to the Midgardians' home planet, letting it enter the Mother Tree and reunite with millions of compatriots.
"...Joshua, are you serious?"
But for some reason, the Steel Serpent Star didn't directly take this soul. The World Will clearly expressed confusion and displeasure, somewhat unable to understand: "Do you know what you're giving up?"
And Joshua nodded, calmly saying: "Not completely, but I can guess a bit. After all, in my world, 'Gods' truly exist."
Saying this, he smiled and shook his head: "Although it's just coincidence, the Midgardians' steps were completely correct—New God, temple, monument, spreading doctrine—this set is a perfect foreshadowing. Add to that the soul inexplicably drawn into my spiritual space, even I can guess the general idea, especially since I have personally spoken with several deities and know their special characteristics."
"Then you still plan to give up this opportunity?" The Steel Serpent abandoned the thought of leaving, turning around to gaze at Joshua again, its eyes full of disbelief: "You know, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you are willing..."
"I know." Joshua interrupted the other party, speaking in a clear voice, calmly: "If I were willing, I could immediately become the preparatory deity of the Midgardians. Just spend a few decades or a century accumulating faith, learning how to use it to alleviate divine erosion, and perhaps gain the power to instantly kill a Void Mother Beast."
"Then you still..."
"I am not willing."
Joshua didn't let the Steel Serpent finish. He looked directly into the World Will's enormous vertical pupils, which seemed to reflect countless star rivers, his tone without any hesitation: "I have no intention of becoming the Midgardians' deity, nor am I willing to be led by the nose. If one day I want to become a god, it will be me actively establishing a sect, spreading faith, not borrowing others' hands. I might even create a race specifically to spread my faith."
Saying this, Joshua recalled the Void Mother Beast and the memories engraved in its genetic sequence. The warrior seemed to see its mother body, the evil god that had devoured the entire ecosystem and swallowed the world into its belly. He laughed, the corners of his mouth spreading, his gaze fervent, as if something was burning inside.
"Moreover, who can know whether, decades or centuries later, the me who didn't become a god might be stronger than the me who did?"