"How long will the resources last if we stop strengthening them?"

Amaya asked with a solemn look on her face.

She hated asking that question, anything that benefited the children was important, she understood that well and if she were in Nux’s stead, she too would use resources the same way, even if the resources weren’t directly affecting the children but...

While she understood everything, she, at the same time, also understood how critical of a stage they were in.

Even now, she didn’t know how long it would take for them to find a solution to the problem they were facing, heck, she didn’t even know if they would find a solution at all.

At this point, they needed to save as many resources as they could.

And Shadow understood that, so—

"Thirty years."

She answered and Amaya blinked.

"That’s... fifty percent more..."

Shadow nodded silently.

"So if we weren’t strengthening the children since the start, we would have resources for five more years."

Riona muttered, but this time, Shadow shook her head.

"More."

She spoke directly.

Riona narrowed her eyes, Shadow looked at Nux, who was now counting the number of stars around them and—

"He used more resources when the children were small, if he hadn’t, the resources would have lasted around a hundred more years."

"That’s a thousand years in the Main Universe..."

Amaya muttered softly, looking at Nux.

"Yes."

Shadow nodded.

"But in his defence, the resources Nux used gave the children a very strong, stable foundation, one that almost no being in the Universe, either ours, or the Main Universe would have.

This is also the reason the children grew so quickly, the resources didn’t affect their cultivation, but the benefits the children received boosted their growth."

"Alright, there is no point discussing what has already happened."

Aeliana waved her hand, dismissing the entire thing.

When the attention fell on her, she glanced at Shadow and—

"What about now? If we stop using resources like we have been using, they would last thirty years, correct?"

The Vampire asked.

"Yes."

Shadow nodded.

"And what level would the children reach in these thirty years?"

The Vampire asked.

"Hmm? Most of them should be able to reach... Primordial Stage... or even Transcende—"

Shadow answered without thinking but—

"Divine."

Nux, who had been silent this whole time, spoke and his words instantly attracted the women’s attention.

"Divine...?"

Shadow frowned, as someone who knew quite a lot about the Universe, this answer... didn’t make sense in her mind.

"Nux, all of them are Great Sages or higher and they are barely ten, they have thirty more years to continue growing and you are saying...

They would only reach the Divine Stage...?

That doesn’t make sen—"

"You don’t understand."

Nux shook his head.

He then looked around, not at beings like Sharnoth or Aeliana, but at Thyra, Rune, Melia and the rest of the lot.

The ones who...

Who were once stuck at a certain cultivation stage for years, unable to move up.

"This isn’t a fantasy land."

He began.

"They became Great Sages in ten years, that doesn’t mean they would become Divine in another ten, and reach even higher with more time."

Nux then looked in a particular direction, the direction where the first seed of the Universe was located—

The Seed that represented the Law of Absolute Growth.

The Seed that had now... sprouted into something far far far bigger.

A complete Tree whose roots and branches held literal worlds, it was the base of their Universe, the base that depended on the Law of Absolute Growth or what the people called it—

The Tree of the Beginning.

"One’s rate of growth changes.

You did not sense it because all this while, I have been feeding the Law of Absolute Growth, which is currently only focusing on the children with resources according to the stage the children were in.

At first, the resources required were less, but as the children grew stronger, they needed more resources and I continued to provide those raised amounts of resources, this is why none of you ever noticed anything, this is the reason the little ones continued to grow as fast as they did."

Nux then looked at his wives and—

"But now it’s different.

The thirty years’ worth of resources that we have is for Great Sages, not for Divines or Primordials. The children would be able to grow, even now, but becoming Primordials?

That is highly unlikely.

So don’t get your hopes up."

Nux spoke with a solemn look on his face.

After all, he could tell what the women were thinking, all this while, he had been thinking the same thing, even before the Infinities came up with the same thing.

What the women were hoping for was for the children to reach the Primordial Stage and since Nux would make sure the Laws they comprehended were Absolute, they would be Primordials with Absolute Laws—

Yes.

They would be Immortals.

If they reached that level, Nux wouldn’t even have to leave the Universe to constantly steal resources from the Main Universe since they could always wait for their own Universe to grow and expand on its own, naturally.

That was what Nux was aiming for from the beginning—

Once his children were immortals, he would make a deal with the Infinities of the Main Universe, he would... 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Leave the Main Universe alone.

The race between him and Azriel to become the Universe’s God?

He would abandon it because he now had far more important things to worry about, he was no longer a man who was loved by multiple women—

He was now a father to twenty-four children—

He no longer wanted to chase ’thrill’ that could very well put his life at risk, he...

He did not want his children to grow without their father...

Weak?

Maybe.

But—

Nux didn’t care.

His journey was never about being the strongest or proving he was the strongest, his journey was about being able to live a long, long life together with his family without anyone being able to disturb him.

He had been struggling all this while since he feared that the Infinities would find a way to enter his Universe, but now that he had a stronger understanding of his own and the Infinities’ abilities, he knew that wasn’t possible.

So he was safe.

His family was safe.

That was it.

It was over.

Or...

It would have been over if he had enough resources for his children to become Primordials but...

He didn’t.

He needed more resources.

A lot more than he had already stolen.

And since the Infinities now had a way to stop it, he needed to do something and he needed to do something fast because if his calculations were correct—

If his children could only reach Divine Stage with all the resources they were left with—

Then they only had the same amount of time the Divines had.

Ten thousand years.

That was all he had.

If he couldn’t come up with a way to gather more resources in these ten thousand years...

His children would perish and he would be forced to see it happen right in front of his eyes.

Something that neither Nux, nor his wives had the heart to see happen.

Yes, it was now a race against time.

Nux understood that, and so did the women but...

"I don’t understand—

They have YOUR blood."

Shadow didn’t back down.

"YOUR blood.

You said it yourself, they are the Primordials, true Primordials! Their cultivation speed should be way faster than any being in the Universe!

Why would they need more resources!? They are already being given the necessary resources!"

Shadow asked, losing her cool.

She was comparatively calmer since she had planned everything in her head, but with Nux now putting a bucket of cold water on her plans—

She was panicking, so much that her body had started trembling, a rare sight considering the woman knew almost everything about the Universe.

Nux, on the other hand, just looked at her closely and—

"Their cultivation speed is already faster than any being in the Universe."

He answered calmly.

"What are yo—"

Shadow couldn’t believe the ridiculous statement she just heard, but just as she was about to counter, she froze as she realized what Nux was talking about—

Yes, the children’s cultivation was faster than any being in their Universe because... no other being that was truly part of Nux’s Universe could... actually cultivate...

Heck, other than their children, no other complete, complex, intelligent being that completely belonged to the Universe even existed.

The Universe wasn’t at the stage where such beings could be born.

Yes, there were complex beings that were now part of Nux’s Universe, but they were all... stolen.

And while the Universe supported their cultivation and Nux could even help their cultivation grow using his Law of Absolute Growth without having to spend a ridiculous amount of resources but...

All those beings, despite being part of Nux’s Universe, were foreigners, that fact could never change.

Their foundation would still be that of a foreigner’s, this is why Nux could raise that foundation in whatever way he liked without having to spend so many resources—

But for foundations that came from his own Universe—

For him to grow them—

He would need to change the very Universe, he would need to... grow the very Universe.

And Nux knew that—

"The fact that they carry my blood does not change anything, not for them."

Nux shook his head.