After renovating the Shadowcrest Castle, Iris finally went into seclusion.
With a billion Ether Forges concentrated within the castle, even a hundred ocean-level powerhouses would have sufficient energy to advance.
As for the Dimensional Library, it still contained more Ether Forges than it could consume.
After over ten thousand years, while Maximus and Iris were away on a trip, the Order of Maxim focused on producing Ether Forges.
This effort caused the Ether Forge count to skyrocket from 5 billion to 8 billion!
At this pace, within a few tens of thousands more years, Maximus would have the resources to support an Absolute's advancement.
Having settled everything, Maximus and his family returned to the task of merging the Seal of Truth with the Source of Knowledge.
Working on such a massive project, time began to pass in a flash.
Twenty-five thousand Years Later...
Connecting the final runic sequence, the Source of Knowledge began to vibrate violently.
The Source of Knowledge, being the origin of all the 'water' that filled the River of Knowledge, was undergoing a massive change.
Adding another source—the Seal of Truth—was like opening an enormous hole, creating a vortex of energy that disrupted the stable source of the river.
Undergoing a catastrophic event, If anyone else had witnessed it, they would have been struck with disbelief.
Fortunately, Maximus had long hidden the Source of Knowledge from the outside perception.
Although most members of the Order of Maxim were puzzled, none dared to question him under his iron rule.
Feeling the Source of Knowledge begin to condense another core, Maximus's expression grew serious.
According to his deductions, integrating the Seal of Truth into the Source of Knowledge was akin to adding another core.
This new core would not only strengthen and enhance the capacity of the Source of Knowledge but also solidify its foundation.
However, there was a massive downside: one more core meant significantly more energy would be required for sustenance.
This wouldn't just delay the River of Knowledge's advancement to the Ocean of Knowledge—it could potentially regress.
Extending his arm, waves of strands of causality began to pour out in surges.
"It's much faster and far more logical!"
"All the clutter and distractions seem to have disappeared, opening a clear path forward!"
While his family marveled at the improvements, Maximus began to filter out the source of knowledge enhancement, not wanting to shock the members of the Order of Maxim.
Seeing it slowly release the enhancement it made to all its branches, Maximus began investigating the enhancement the seal of truth made.
"It's hundreds of times faster!"
With the addition of the Seal of Truth into the Source of Knowledge, his deduction speed had increased exponentially.
Rather than comparing every single piece of information, the Seal of Truth now utilized a process of elimination, drastically reducing the amount of information needed to be analyzed.
If, in the past, it took him thousands of years to deduce a seed of a River of Law, now it only took a few dozen years.
As for the Ocean of Law, what once required hundreds of thousands—if not millions of years- has now been reduced to a mere tens of thousands of years.
For higher-tier knowledge, the Seal of Truth's assistance was less pronounced but still invaluable.
Reducing the time needed to deduce the path to an Ocean of Law by ten times was nothing short of record-breaking.
Checking further, Maximus discovered that the additional core in the Source of Knowledge didn't just improve its deduction speed.
The core had also increased its bearing capacity, energy absorption, recovery speed, and even the quality of the energy it released
Despite still being at the river level, Maximus could already sense the Source of Knowledge beginning to produce power comparable to an Ocean of Law.
"A few more ultimate treasures and the Source of Knowledge might evolve," Maximus thought to himself.
Unfortunately, he couldn't integrate the Eternal Book hastily.
It wasn't that the Source of Knowledge was saturated and needed time to settle—rather, the cost of merging another ultimate treasure was simply too great.
The strands of causality he had spent already numbered in the tens of quadrillions, adding to that the time, energy, and manpower involved.
More importantly, if he merged another ultimate treasure now, the Source of Knowledge might fail to advance to the Ocean of Law before the Dimensional Competition.
Without reaching the next level, no matter how strong or miraculous the Source of Knowledge's abilities, they would ultimately remain limited.
With this in mind, Maximus decided to focus on merging the seeds of law next.
This should be enough to push the River of Knowledge to 99% progress.