His unleashed aura crashed against the pavilion's protective formations. The Nascent Soul, Yuan Ying, emerged at full stature, mirroring his adult form as it absorbed spiritual energy through nine pools refined in similar vein diagrams.
Spiritual body and Nascent Soul fused completely ~ the body became an extension of his essence rather than independent growth. But soul claimed that independence in existence.
Perception exploded. He observed the Dao's flux, law weaving, domain resonance, and higher spatial folds. His vision entered a higher dimension where every journey he went through till now after entering the world bead appeared as episodes in a vast story.
His sword domain finally crossed the barrier of transcendence. Sword transcends Space realm within sword cultivation. With a thought the intent to sever permeated outside tearing the space around him in effortless grace within his law domain.
His body glowed with divine aura ~ each atom singing purpose, each meridian humming with cosmic harmony.
"It is done."
His cognitive pool bring about instant understanding of his new strength. Physical power reached 26,600 units. With Nascent Soul spirit will, it rocketed from 4,000 to 43,000 units. Higher law layers became accessible instantly.
Spiritual sense exploded from 1,000 miles to 980,000 miles due to soul's descent to the material plane. Resolution reached subnuclear levels ~ he could see quantum soup's super-high frequency motion, energy waves popping in and out of existence within atomic centre at inconceivable speeds.
Natural Lifespan is 3000 years for a normal golden core. But with his body cultivation and higher essence it was near 7880 years previously as mentioned in the System log. But now as he immersed his consciousness into the system to self identify, it began to report as 26700 years, well above the even 18000 years for a peak nascent soul.
The world bead current sector's law layers matched the outside, so he easily broke past the 60th comprehension layer before stopping. A pulling sensation emerged ~ his material body phasing into shadows toward a nearby unrestricted sector.
The same would likely happen in the real world.
He switched to law energy form. The trigger stopped, but returned when the nascent soul returned to the material plane during testing. Keeping it in the astral plane allowed proper existence.
The Jade Soul continued refining energy under split consciousness, slowly transforming into Silver King Soul ~ the next soul stage where he would be devoid of any corruption. His law sense added some sort of new higher dimensional intuition attached to it, but would only be truly perceivable when stepping outside.
He felt tired physically as realm elevation sucked out much of his essence. So the active cultivation continued when he swept out a small mount of high grade spirit stones and absorbing aura of heaven and earth from it. A week has passed when he stood up dusting himself off.
The Final Farewell
Han Chen slipped into his defensive robes ~ the fabric flowing like Taoist silk against his skin. A month had crawled by with him lost in meditation, and his wives had grown restless. They'd been exploring nearby regions, cultivating when the mood struck, but mostly... waiting.
The moment his consciousness stirred, they sensed it through their soul corridor. Joy flooded their connection as they felt the emotional turbulence of his recent tribulation ~ that raw, electric sensation of breakthrough. They prepared a feast of spirit meat and rare wine, and afterward, well... he made sure to remind them exactly how much he'd missed their company.
The next morning, he emerged with reluctance weighing his words.
"Lan'er, Won'ya ~ you need to stay inside this world." His voice carried an unusual gravity. "By my calculations, the moment I manifest in material form out there, I'll trigger this reality's ascension entirely. If you come with me..." He paused, meeting their eyes. "You'd be stranded forever."
Their faces fell, but they understood. They always did.
He transformed into pure law energy and slipped back to Earth. The instant his essence touched the world's boundary, spacetime rippled visibly around his form ~ reality itself recognizing something that no longer quite belonged.
Everything's different now.
His law sense had evolved beyond the previous nothingness into something resembling high-dimensional perception. It pressed against the universe's barrier ~ roughly eight trillion parsecs from his current position. Through this expanded awareness, he could map the distribution of matter and energy throughout existence itself.
He drew in what felt like the final breath of familiar air, then stepped boldly above the cities. People looked up and saw him ~ a silhouette against the sky, human-shaped but impossibly divine in energy form. His robes flowed in the void while his form enlarged yet remained at a comfortable viewing distance. His features are concealed but for the humans below it's as if GOD has presented himself, with the ripples of space near him, and a faint aura he tried to conceal that inducing suppression on every being on earth.
Crowds gathered quickly. Traffic slowed. Office workers pressed against windows.
Let me test something.
He partially converted his energy back to matter in a small area, expecting the universe to immediately pull him into ascension. But nothing happened ~ just a gentle tug, easily resisted.
"Looks like I was worrying for nothing," he murmured. The translation would only occur after I escaped reality itself or was erased. Until then, he had time.
He gazed down at the planet one last time ~ at the sprawling cities, the blue oceans, the white clouds and its deceitful humans. "Thank you," he whispered to... someone. His parents, maybe. His sister. This small ecosystem that had nurtured him. The gratitude in his voice created intents spreading across ripples of warmth that washed over the growing crowd below.
Then he looked up and vanished.
To him, the journey was instantaneous. To those watching, a streak of light disappeared into the void at impossible speed. A minute later, local time, he materialized in the empty space between planets.
Now for the real work.
His mission remained clear: collect the dark energy , unleash the universal seal, set everything free, and finally... erase the past before ascending.
In the vacuum, his law sense touched the universe barrier and he selected the most direct path there. His nascent soul power carved through lower reality's spacetime like a needle through silk. He extended his index finger and watched spacetime bend around it as he passed to the other side, leaving only gentle ripples behind.
Suddenly, he stood before the universe barrier itself.
The energy released by his space-tear seemed to sense his peaceful intentions, merging back with reality instead of erupting. Through their soul corridor, his wives accessed his vision ~ seeing what they called the "source wall." They stared back, through the entirety of existence into the emptiness beyond, amazed by sights no human eye was meant to witness.
After some small talk about the intelligent life similar to humans he could sense but not show them ~ which made them doubt human supremacy. There were traces of evidences pointing to rank two civilizations in space but not more than that since the time is not enough for higher ones to evolve.
Hye Won pointed at the source wall from within his mind space.
"I thought this was supposed to be ever-expanding?"
"It was, until my past self sealed it." Han Chen's mental voice carried a note of irony. "I'll be borrowing the dark energy that accumulated during the seal's lifetime. Should benefit my inner universe nicely."
"What exactly are you planning to do?"
"Absorb dark energy for inner universe expansion."
"Why not just consume a few stars or black holes instead?"
"Ordinary matter can't be removed from within the universe ~ it would create instability, maybe even collapse into a quantum bubble. Dark energy, though... that's acceptable."
"And what happens after you remove the seal?"
...