Studying the system would be a long but ultimately straightforward affair. He would just have to slowly comprehend it in the same way he studied the Tao, and act according to what he found.
However, on the matter of his inner world, he had bigger plans. It was evident that his current status as a god, despite how grand it sounded, was utterly powerless when it came to adequately developing his inner world.
He had previously been able to accept that his mental realm was nothing more than a cultivation treasure. It helped him gain insights into the Tao, and that was all he needed it to be at the time. However, now that it might a chance for his sanctification, letting it leisurely evolve out of his control was out of the question.
He needed to get rid of his status as a distant creator, and become an active player. By separating an incarnation and sending it down into the world, he hoped it would become a native. Then, he would be capable of exerting some influence and guide the advancement of the world.
This was not only to try and take things into his own hands, to take an active role in the development of his inner world, but also to resolve two of his other worries.
The Elder was still hiding in his dream realm, a frightful creature having successfully concealed himself from the eyes of God, and who knew what he was plotting. He had even managed to somehow extend its tentacles to the real world by parasitizing Avery’s mana.
At this point, Avery was convinced that the Elder was superior to him in almost every meaningful way. Be it wisdom, experience, talent or comprehension, the Elder had it all, and his awe inspiring feats were frankly intimidating.
The creation of the dream realm in particular still stumped Avery. It might technically be inferior to his inner world, but it had been a planned creation, completely different from him relying on freak accidents and a higher power. Meanwhile, Avery didn’t think he had ever intentionally achieved something the Elder wouldn't be able to do. The only thing the Elder might lack would be luck, but luck wasn’t something to be proud of or something one could rely upon.
Avery obviously wasn’t completely comfortable with such a dreadful creature residing in his mental realm, but it hadn't been a big problem either. The Path was large enough to accommodate the two of them. No, the Elder was not an enemy, but he was a risk. It was fine if the Elder merely surpassed him. However, if he one day became a stumbling block on his path, then Avery would be prepared. Nothing would be allowed to stand between him and the Tao.
He had been blindly dancing to the Elder's tune for long enough. It was time to take the initiative and take a leading role in their silent confrontation, and start investigating the dream world. Knowledge was power, and the Elder held a wealth of knowledge that made his creator jealous.
His third and least important goal was to combat his social anxiety. Even if he was to live out his eternal life as a hermit in seclusion, he wanted that to be his choice, and not merely because the prospect of holding daily conversations terrified him.
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As for why he thought descending in the inner world could help him, it was because he never considered the creatures living in it to be his equals. This was not a viewpoint born out of rationality, but it was just the way he felt. After all, he even had a tendency to think lightly of the Elder and his dream world, even while he certainly was a much greater threat to him than those villagers he had been terrified to talk to.
Nor was it a feeling he thought he ought to have. While it was hard to classify their mostly virtual lives, he could see no difference between them and real-life creatures. Fundamentally, the origin of his inner world was the Tao, so surely the essence of the creature was the same, even if the form was not.
However, as was becoming disturbingly common, his emotions didn’t care to align with his beliefs. He was an indifferent deity, holding the fates of millions in his hands, looking down upon these lower beings with little regard for their joys and sorrows. After all, who could blame an author for creating a world full of misery, or a sleeper for dreaming up a dystopian nightmare? These virtual lives were just inconsequential things that had no weight attached to them.
He thought he could take advantage of his irrational feelings. He might have trouble facing people in the real world, but he should be able to converse with these lower beings with no problems, and use those experiences to train up his social skills.
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Avery did not rush to execute his plans. He took his time to think things through, calm his state of mind and make sure his cultivation was stable. Lastly, he bought a lot of precious materials from the system and crafted himself a pendant infused with powerful anti-divination properties. He did not want to be disturbed, so he did his best to hide his existence from any immortals curious about their newly ascended brethren.
When everything was ready, and he felt sufficiently prepared, he carefully executed the Yuan Shen technique he had recently learned. This skill of the seer pathways had caught Avery's eye when he was stuck on the dragon’s back, as he had seen hope of freedom from its description.
“Cultivate your mind into a spirit, entrust it to the Avenue and travel the Three Realms through the Dao.”
It had seemed prohibitively expensive at the time, and he had never had the chance to try it. Thankfully his current wealth meant he no longer had to hesitate before buying something helpful to his cultivation.
He no longer needed it to travel freely through the land of immortality, but he had a new use for it. He wanted to direct the skill inwards, replacing the Avenue with his position as the Tao of his inner world, and using mana that was heavily connected to his mental realm to fuel and anchor the technique. This should enable him to create a spiritual avatar inside his inner world, that would be capable of executing his will and probe the Elder.
It took a lot of experimentation, tweaking the technique to fit its new purpose, but it was well within his skill level. It did not take long for a spiritual phantom to condensed in his inner world, proving his success. His mind had been separated in two, his main body cultivating peacefully, while his avatar had an entire world to play with.
His ghostly form was unaffected by wind or rain, floating elegantly as he wandered the endless plains, until he came across a solitary caravan. He stayed undetected, following and observing them, unsure how he should approach them.
It was only a few days later, seeing a young hawk with a crippled wing stumble and fall as she tripped on an ancient necklace, that Avery suddenly felt a mischievous whim.
Following that impulse, his invisible form flew down, and silently entered the primitive pendant, ready to give that lucky girl a surprise that would change her life.