"Good, although Earth humans have suffered heavy casualties, it can also make Earthlings stronger. By the way, you just said that the 20 billion Earthlings are the current population of Earth, have they multiplied so much?" Zhou Hong asked with a bit of surprise. Of course, if he wanted to know, one thought would be enough, but Zhou Hong had never bothered to find out.
"Yes, in the past 100 years, the Earth Federation has encouraged childbirth. In these 100 years, the population has grown from the original 3 billion to 20 billion."
"Not bad." Zhou Hong nodded. His wives and Liu Hua, among others, were all leaders of the Earth Federation. He presumed these policies were made by them.
Zhou Hong did not stay home for long and soon left the sub-world, returning to the outside. For Zhou Hong, the outside was the real world. He had to reach the maximum level in the real world for his sub-world to truly have meaning, otherwise, others could take everything from him at any time.
"Senior Zhou Hong, something bad has happened." When Zhou Hong returned outside, several seniors from the Taigu Academy rushed to meet him.
"What is it?"
"Those two immortals who came from above are gone." said one of the old men.
Zhou Hong feigned surprise and asked, "How could they be gone?"
"I don't know. I just sent someone to bring them something, and they were nowhere to be found. I don't know where they went."
"Oh, is there such a strange thing?" Zhou Hong frowned slightly, appearing genuinely unaware.
"What should we do now?"
"What do you mean, what should we do? What does their disappearance have to do with us? Perhaps they ran off themselves, or returned above. Do they need to inform you if they return to the immortal realm?"
"That's true. It seems they have really left. It's strange, they left after only two days. Is it still necessary for us to help them find that thing?"
"Since they've already left, why bother looking? Quickly withdraw all humans and get back to what you were doing."
"Yes."
The old seniors from the Taigu Academy, having received Zhou Hong's orders, turned and left.
The corners of Zhou Hong's mouth curved slightly. Only Long Xuan knew about this matter, and it was done without a trace.
However, the old seniors just now reminded Zhou Hong. That item the two immortals were looking for, should Zhou Hong himself go and find it, and then claim it for himself?
He guessed that item was not a small thing, otherwise, the Huanglong Gate of the immortal realm would not have gone to such great lengths to send people down twice to search for it.
But if he were to truly search, it would not be an easy task.
"Forget it, forget it. I'll definitely not find it. I'll just wait to ascend," Zhou Hong said to himself inwardly.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Hong's grandfather smiled and said, "Zhou Hong, I have a way to help you find it."
"Grandfather, you're not joking with me, are you?" Zhou Hong was overjoyed.
"Of course not."
"That thing can only be found with the naked eye. How can you help me find it?"
"Heh heh, don't you already have an immortal artifact on you?"
"You mean?"
"Exactly. Release your immortal mansion and use it as bait."
"Bait?"
"Yes, every immortal artifact, more or less, has some spirituality. After being lonely in the mortal realm for so long, when it encounters another immortal artifact, it will most likely come out on its own. Even if it doesn't come out voluntarily, you can easily find it."
"Alright, let's give it a try."
So, Zhou Hong immediately began searching for that item.
With the assistance of the immortal mansion, Zhou Hong could search inch by inch across the entire continent.
However, this was still not a task that could be completed quickly. It would take a few years at the shortest, and several hundred years at the longest. In any case, Zhou Hong had not yet felt the summons to ascend, so he treated it as a way to pass the time.
Time slowly passed.
In the blink of an eye, another 100 years passed.
Zhou Hong still hadn't received the summons to ascend. During these 100 years, Zhou Hong had been searching for that item every day.
After searching for 100 years and not even seeing a shadow of it, Zhou Hong was a little dejected.
"Grandfather, it seems your method isn't working."
"Heh heh, this world is so vast, and you haven't been to every corner. Keep persisting. After all, only when you reach a certain range can the other party sense it."
Zhou Hong sat down on a cliff, seemingly unwilling to search anymore. He was very dispirited at the moment.
"200 years. It's been a full 200 years since I reached the Mahayana stage. When will I be able to ascend?" Zhou Hong looked at the azure sky and murmured to himself.
"Alas!" Zhou Hong's grandfather sighed. Although Zhou Hong had been searching for that item every day for the past 100 years, no one knew better than him how much Zhou Hong was waiting in his heart every day.
"Grandfather, who decides whether one ascends to the immortal realm?" Zhou Hong murmured and asked.
"That's obvious. It must be the founder of this universe. He sets the rules, and this universe operates according to those rules."
"Rules operate? Is it like a programmer writing a program?"
"Heh heh, although I don't know what a programmer is, it should be similar. Like your sub-world, whatever rules you set, it will operate accordingly. However, it must be trillions of times more complex than your sub-world."
"Grandfather, in the immortal realm, are there others who possess sub-worlds?" Zhou Hong asked with some curiosity.
"That's a foolish question. Of course. Many Immortal Kings possess their own worlds, only their sizes differ. Furthermore, the disciples of some prominent families and major forces also have sub-worlds, but their sub-worlds are basically plundered or inherited from their families or the forces behind them. Just like you."
"Oh, oh, so many people have sub-worlds." Zhou Hong was a little surprised, thinking he was the only one.
"Otherwise? A sub-world, to put it bluntly, is just a larger storage space."
"Then why were you previously feared by an Immortal Emperor? And killed by him?"
"Because he discovered that the scale of my sub-world exceeded his imagination, and was even larger than his own sub-world. Thus, he made an unreasonable demand of me. He wanted to annex my sub-world and asked if I was willing."
"Annex?"
"Yes, you could also say it as plunder."
"Then you must have been unwilling."
"Of course I was unwilling. After that, you don't need me to tell you what happened. If peaceful annexation didn't work, then it could only be done through bloodshed. My entire family was killed, and not only that, but even reincarnation was gone. Only I was fortunate enough to escape with a wisp of my remnant soul. As for you, you were an exception. He didn't know about your existence, so I had the opportunity to send you to the mortal realm to reincarnate. But despite that, for safety's sake, I only dared to contact you after you had gone through several lifetimes."
"Mhm, mhm!" Zhou Hong clenched his fists and thought to himself, in the future, he would definitely kill that Immortal Emperor.