6 months was both a long and short amount of time depending on how it was viewed. For the current Damien, it was ironically both.
His surroundings were oddly silent and still. Despite the fact that all creation revolved in perpetual motion around him, it felt frozen as he passed through the illustrious starry sky.
It was a calming experience. Damien's mind, which was still extremely stressed from his sudden entrance into the Divine Realm, was given the chance to calm down and reflect.
He had plenty of lingering fears about the Human Domain's fate, but he realized that even without him the Human Domain's strength wouldn't decrease by much. Without his Void Physique attracting trouble, they might even flourish.
Besides, he did have an avenue to meet with his wives and friends once more. Damien didn't know the exact date it would take place, but he remembered Tian Yang and Bai Xieren mentioning a Grand Assembly where the Grand Heavens Boundary's forces would gather to prepare for all-out war.
At the time of that assembly, Damien would surely see the people he wanted to see. Until then, he truly did need to grow his strength as fast as possible.
The Elven Domain was already destroyed by the Nox and Eden wasn't far away from joining it. The war was already taking place on a universal scale. If it was allowed to draw out for too long, the losses would be catastrophic.
After reaching this point, these thoughts were shelved. Damien wholeheartedly focused on improving himself.
In the expansive starry sky, Damien was able to freely wield his power at its best state and assess his level and faults. While he couldn't do this with total accuracy due to the lack of enemies and actual battle, he could at least identify the broader issues that he could later define to the last detail.
It'd been three months already.
Aside from strenuously and futilely attempting to heighten his comprehension on the Void and practicing space and time laws, assessing his strength, and purely traveling with no other thoughts in mind, the only other thing Damien did was bind every uninhabited world he came across.
While at first, this seemed like an easy way for him to gain power, the truth was different. These World Cores, despite being plentiful, didn't actually have a great deal of strength and World Force.
A world's strength was mainly made up of two factors: the solidity of its foundational laws and its residents.
These two were entirely related to each other. When a world's laws became more defined, its capacity would increase, allowing it to house stronger practitioners in larger quantities. And with their level cap lifted, these practitioners would in turn become more powerful and contribute back to the world by giving it strength.
This was an unconscious process that most beings didn't even know was taking place, but it was a symbiotic relationship that a world and its residents held. While a world protected, housed, and gave its residents the means to gain strength, the residents would in turn protect the world and give it strength.
However, this meant that uninhabited worlds were unable to grow. While their laws would become more defined with time, the lack of inhabitable atmosphere meant that no practitioners would live in the world, making it impossible to form the positive feedback loop worlds used to grow.
These uninhabitable worlds could contain powerful lifeforms with ease, but they couldn't support and sustain life on their own. The World Force Damien received from these worlds didn't equate to a fraction of even Earth's World Force.
By his estimate, he'd need to bind roughly 1,000 uninhabitable worlds to reach Earth's World Force when he first bound it. Its current World Force, however, would require tens of thousands of uninhabitable worlds to match.
It could be said that for Damien to gain substantial World Force from these worlds, he needed to conquer entire sectors.
However, this didn't mean that he didn't benefit at all. While he didn't gain much World Force, he felt an inexplicable feeling every time he bound a new uninhabited world. It was a feeling similar to dominion.
It made him wonder. Celestial were conquerers, conquerers on a much grander scale than mere kings and emperors. Wouldn't it make sense for there to be some kind of benefit the more worlds he bound?
After coming to this conclusion, Damien's days became much more fun. Before, he and Zara could casually pass the time whenever he got bored by having conversation or playing around, but now, he had another hobby to keep him sane…
Binding World Cores!
The entire process didn't take more than a minute for these weak uninhabitable worlds. Considering that he'd delegated an entire month to side adventures, he had more than enough leeway to do so.
The number of planets manifesting in his spiritual world multiplied rapidly. The red light of the World Core Fusion Reactor shone through the entire space as it took every new world Damien bound into its system.
100…500…1000…
By the time he reached the 1000 mark, three months passed. He was midway through his journey and making decent progress towards Death Emperor Star, perfectly on track to reaching.
Sadly, aside from the occasional spirit ship that passed by, Damien didn't encounter anything special in the starry sky. There weren't even many Space Beasts that dared to approach him after sensing his natural aura.
A bit of the Fifth Primal Sovereign's authority was mixed into his aura after he devoured the latter's body and acted as a natural deterrent for most Space Beasts.
Another week passed in this dreariness. At this time, Damien finally saw something different amongst the monotonous scenery.
It was an inhabitable world!
While this wasn't the first inhabitable world Damien had passed, the rest were only around the level of the Dawn World or a bit higher. This world, however, was different.
His perception of celestial bodies became incredibly sharp as he continuously bound worlds. Even from a distance, while he couldn't tell exactly, he could at least understand that this world was special in some way.
'Finally!' Damien celebrated inwardly. Even if there wasn't an adventure here, he'd still make great gains as long as he could bind the World Core.
Plus, this might be the perfect location to foster Jiao Mei's growth.
Damien's figure rapidly shot through the starry sky, breaking through the world's atmosphere and approaching its surface.
Unlike his entrance into the Dawn World though, his landing was far more skillful this time.
His feet touched the ground silently, his presence completely erased. His awareness spread tens of thousands of kilometers, enveloping around a fourth of the world.
"Hmm, there isn't anything crazy in this hemisphere. A few middle 4th classes and a single person on the verge of leveling into the late stage…but this flow of mana, there should be a more developed continent beyond my awareness' reach."
Damien understood this world to be a smaller variation of the Cloud Plane in both its geography and strength. If his inference was correct, there was no need for him to stay on this continent.
His figure flashed to the far reaches of his perception. He appeared atop a tumultuous ocean infested with terrifying sea beasts, but he paid it no mind. After spreading his awareness once more and finding the continent he desired to reach, he immediately left the sea area.
But never would Damien have guessed…that he'd be returning only a few hours later!
