Year 167 of the Immortal Calendar.
Ethan woke up.
He stood up before stretching his body lazily, ''Ah... I fell unconscious in the ground. I wonder how they are doing in the World of Origin, by this time, they must've already achieved the first realm of Immortals.''
This time, Ethan didn't enter the World of Origin to check things. Very quickly, his Omniscience fed back what happened in the time he slept, 'I slept for 16 hours. This is around 666 years in total, ah, I forgot to change the time difference between the Mortal and Immortal Realm.' [1]
'As they say, a day in Heaven, 1.000 years in Earth.' Ethan thought. However, Ethan didn't change the time difference right away, there were more important things to do. His lips curled up into a smile, not only was Heavenly Dao self-sufficient, there was a lot of excess for him to absorb.
Spiritual Energy is the energy that cultivators use to get stronger, they also use them to fight. Because their Spiritual Energy was originated from Ethan, it has the highest quality and purity, as such, their proccess of getting stronger is way easier than ordinary cultivators in the universe.
Once they undergo the Immortal Tribulation, their already high-quality and pure Spiritual Energy is transformed once again. This time, it becomes an extremely special energy known as Immortal Qi. It allows the mortal cultivator to evolve the life level itself, thus becoming an Immortal.
It also must be noted that the way of cultivation is harder than other paths, but their lifespan is way higher than other transcendent beings at the same level. Most of the high-level cultivators and Immortals also have superior battle strength because of their unique Heavenly, Earthen, and Spiritual Physiques.
'Wait... Heavenly, Earthen, Spiritual Physiques?' As Omniscience fed back what happened in the time he slept, Ethan's eyes suddenly widened. He was extremely shocked, from beginning to end, the World of Origin was just going the ordinary cultivation world route.
However, what he just saw changed everything.
Ethan couldn't stop a wide smile to appear in his face, ''Immortal Physique... This is something that simply doesn't exist in the universe at all, the universe is too harsh for a path that has already consolidated itself for billions of years to even give birth to the idea of evolving. In my World of Origin, however...''
''This is something that even I didn't expect...'' Ethan muttered to himself, his shock was hidden by the extreme joy brought to him as he thought of the evolution that was happening in the World of Origin. Heavenly Physiques were powerful to the extreme, each of them could compete with the highest-ranking bloodlines, genes and mutated beings in the universe.
Even to him, who already knew the whole cultivation path, this shocked him. Aside from the extremely harsh environment of the universe, no Heavenly Dao existed in truth, only the 'Dao'. The universe didn't bring down Heavenly Tribulation, Immortal Tribulation.
This was something Ethan created to make the way of cultivators in the World of Origin harder. Ordinary cultivators didn't have their Spiritual Energy naturally of the highest-quality and purity. Only those with Heavenly Physiques would have a somewhat high-quality and purity Spiritual Energy.
They needed to slowly purify it all the way up to the peak of Ascending Decay Realm, and only when they achieved the Pure Immortal Realm would their Spiritual Energy undergo a qualitative change and become Immortal Qi. Even then, it wouldn't be comparable to the Immortal Qi of the Immortals from the World of Origin.
Calming down, Ethan breathed slowly and so did his blood circulation. He stepped in the World of Origin while keeping himself hidden from its beings. This time, however, Ethan didn't stimulate even an ounce of power.
He was just like an ordinary person.
The blood circulation was becoming slower and slower as the seconds passed. Ethan's Body and Soul seemed to enter suspended animation, only Omnipotence and Omniscience kept his consciousness active, and so it summoned the excess energy from Heavenly Dao. Spiritual Energy turned into a long river, and it flooded towards him with lightning speed.
The Mind Power and Energy were mixed together as the path of a cultivator didn't use them separately, but used Spiritual Energy for both the Soul and Body Dao. At this moment, Ethan was undergoing a huge change.
Despite absorbing an endless amount of Spiritual Energy, he didn't step in the Open Body Realm, Spirit Harmony or any other realm of cultivators and Immortals. Rather, the whole path of cultivation was being integrated in a single realm. From beginning to the end, Ethan wasn't going to step in the path of cultivation, sorcerer, or any other path in existence.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
All kinds of [Dao] comprehended by the beings in the World of Origin were known by Ethan at the very moment he started absorbing Spiritual Energy. All physiques, from Heavenly to Spiritual, were assimilated into his body by Omnipotence. The Immortal Physiques evolved from the other ones weren't absorbed yet as they were still evolving.
It was unknown how much time passed as Ethan kept absorbing the excess energy, time was infinitely slow and infinitely fast. It could be a second, but it could also be a million years.
As the time changed from infinitely slow to infinitely fast, Ethan's Body and Soul, originally in suspended animation, trembled lightly. His very Soul trembled, as if it was resisting an unbearable pain. That wasn't the truth, though.
It was trembling because it was an extremely comfortable feeling, as if the shackles holding it were lifted. Ethan's blood slowly circulated through his body, but it was much smoother than before and its circulation was different from before. Instead of being pumped from his heart, Ethan's blood were being generated from the internal space opened up at the very moment he started absorbing Spiritual Energy.
There was nothing but an endless river of transparent Spiritual Energy in the internal space, no Core was formed despite integrating the whole path of cultivation from the living beings within the World of Origin.
And it was at such a moment that Ethan opened his eyes. They were bright silver-colored, and he was even suspected of being born blind when he was born. His eyes held the Knowledge of an entire path, more than a thousand kinds of [Dao] seemed to be reflected in Ethan's eyes, any ordinary being who looked at them would fall in an illusion, as if they were in the very beginning of the universe, if he wished so.
Ethan, still in the World of Origin, felt his own changes quietly before smiling lightly. He waved his hand gently, and a beautiful flower with nine petals, each of different colors, was created out of thin air. It went from a small flower to a huge tree in a single moment, its countless leaves were 'contaminated' with the breath of the [Dao].
''This one... It shall be the first of its kind, the first Tree of Enlightenment.'' Ethan muttered before sending it to a random Floating Island of the Immortal Realm.
Creating it wasn't a big deal, however... It wasn't created by stimulating Omnipotence from the assimilated World of Origin, but Ethan using his own Spiritual Power and Omnipotence to create it.
If before, he could just stimulate the full extent of Omniscience and Omnipotence, Ethan was now able to barely use it with his own energy. Even if he stimulated it, the side-effects would be way lighter than before.
After a moment of thought, Ethan decided to name this unique ''realm'' as [Authority]. It had no limits, the only limits were the paths he integrated from his creations. The [Authority] only had two sub-divisions: Creator and Destroyer, or so he named them.
They weren't exactly sub-divisions, Ethan just named it like that to keep it organized. Using his Authority of the Creator, Ethan would be able to create things even out of the World of Origin, and the creations would be the same as the ones inside the World of Origin. Once they died, they would feed Spiritual Energy back to him.
Though it seemed obvious, both authorities complemented each other. Using his Authority of the Destroyer, Ethan would be able to destroy any of his creations. For now, that was it.
It was the first time Ethan had absorbed and transformed his body, it was simply impossible to go from a mortal directly to an Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God. However, he was already able to partially exert his [Authority] outside the World of Origin.
It must be noted that though he wasn't able to directly attack using his [Authority], Ethan had mastered all kinds of Dao fed back to Heavenly Dao up to now. It amounted to more than a thousand kinds of Dao, and there were many with attacking power. He didn't need to comprehend cultivation and fighting techniques, for Dao is already the ultimate representation of any technique.
From Dao, beings derived techniques that let them comprehend the Dao. For Ethan, creating techniques is an easy feat.
Even, Ethan was a bit curious... To what extent exactly did he get in battle strength? It was a question that he preferred to explore without using Omniscience. Knowing everything also made everything ''new'' extremely dull, only without Knowing it would he able to feel... human.
However, one thing was sure.
He had already surpassed the beings within the World of Origin, for they all worked extremely hard to complete the path of cultivation, and it was integrated in a single being.
''Immortal?'' Ethan muttered for a moment, thinking what he had become. He didn't become an Immortal, because he couldn't absorb Immortal Qi yet, because his Body and Soul had just been transformed by Spiritual Energy, but he was stronger than any Immortal in the World of Origin.
It was also impossible to directly use Immortal Qi to transform his Body and Soul instead of Spiritual Energy, because it needed his consciousness to slowly adapt. Ethan calculated that it would take around a month for his Body and Soul to completely adapt to its new form, and it was a month outside the World of Origin.
This was something required, it couldn't happen inside the World of Origin.
'This is a weird feeling... I'll be able to exert more [Authority] once I absorb Immortal Qi, but I wouldn't become an Immortal. My lifespan, however, would increase.' He thought before simply shaking his head, Ethan would discover it by himself once he was able to absorb Immortal Qi.
Until that moment arrived, Ethan would be lazing around and resting while integrating the evolved Immortal Physiques, new kinds of Dao discovered by the beings within the World of Origin.
''Ah, the feeling of lazing around... I'm finally able to do that!'' [2]
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Note [1]: 1.000 years inside the World of Origin is 24 hours outside, 12 hours is equivalent to 500 years. Rounding 16 hours up, it's around 666 years, that wasn't deliberate. This is a truly funny coincidence, though.
Note [2]: Yes, Ethan is very lazy. As everyone knows, if not because of the humanoid beings at the moon, he would probably be, by now, still with no purpose and would take decades lazing around before even deciding to research more on Omniscience and Omnipotence. This is exactly why this path is perfect for him, he can just laze around while his creations do all the work!