Earth, United States.
Around five days passed since Ethan's Body and Soul started adapting to Spiritual Energy, also strengthening itself as it adapted. The population of the Immortal Realm increased as five hundred years passed, which is equivalent to 50.000 years in the Mortal Realm. In such a long period of time, it was more than enough for the population to increase to more than ten million.
It was such a silent day to Ethan, he was quietly browsing through his phone, keeping himself updated on the news. Many of them were of common things, and so he started browsing at an extremely fast speed.
Suddenly, the screen that was flashing very quickly stopped, it some interesting news were found by him. Tapping on the phone, he was redirected to a new page, and it had a huge title on it, ''New species found on Australia!''
'What kind of dangerous species appeared this time?' Ethan thought while rolling his eyes, but he quickly became serious as a video started playing.
A reporter stood in a street, a small snake was trapped inside a cage. Of course, it was no ordinary snake, otherwise such news wouldn't even be posted. The snake had two wings in each side of its body and a horn in the center of its forehead, 'This... What kind of species is that? I'm certain that it's impossible for it to appear. Even though Earth is a naturally habitable planet, it's impossible for a species like that to appear!'
Even Ethan was shocked, not to mention the biologists, as they also knew that it was nearly impossible for such a mutation to happen.
Just as he felt it was getting more interesting, Ethan saw that the site it was posted suddenly went off. The news were also deleted, and he couldn't find it anywhere, 'Oh... The government has already started to suppress the news. By now, they must be heading to Australia to capture this species and study it.'
''Hehe...'' Ethan laughed weirdly while thinking, 'My dear government, it seems that you're going to miss this species. Unfortunately, this species is very important for me to research on the plan of these beings.'
It was unknown even to Ethan himself, but he looked like a mad scientist.
After deciding to get that species for himself, Ethan snapped his fingers lightly as an exact copy of himself appeared. It was a clone, but it was no ordinary clone, rather, it was made using the Dao of Time. It was a simple afterimage he left in time, and it would temporarily stay in his sofa, ''sleeping''.
Looking at what he named as 'Afterimage of Time', Ethan felt satisfied before he created a Spatial Door in front of him. At the next moment, Ethan had already appeared in the coordinates where the reporter had recorded it. His Soul Sense suddenly spread, and it covered a radius of ten kilometers, 'Hm... It seems that someone was already sent to get that strange snake... Around 5 kilometers to the east, yes?'
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He let out a small laugh as the past thirty minutes played like a film in his mind, 'Ah, the government is truly desperate to get a hold of these species? Some of their special agents deployed in Australia received the order to directly rob the species. The local government was a step late after receiving the order given by the president. Right now, China agents and US agents are fighting over the species.'
'Australian government was unwilling to fight these two countries over this species. I almost forgot, it is not included in the small amount of major countries that contacted these aliens...' Ethan thought before he stepped in the void, however, it was impossible for cameras, phones and satellites to find him. It was a little trick with the Dao of Space, he called it 'Void Illusion'.
It was a very simple step, but in the next moment, he appeared 5 kilometers away. The combination of physical movement and spatial movement was an extremely useful thing, but Ethan didn't catch the ''new'' species directly. Rather, he was keenly watching as the special agents from China and US fought each other.
A very curious thing is that instead of using guns, they were using knifes, daggers and swords! As his Soul Sense covered them, they kept fighting as if they didn't notice anything, 'Oh, so that's how it is! They're not ordinary humans anymore, they're roughly equivalent to someone at the peak of Open Body Realm!'
Their path was also different, it wasn't cultivation or magic. Rather, it was more like awakening their inner genes, 'Oh, the path of genes! An interesting path, each inner gene awakened and fused is equivalent to a realm. They must awaken their innate gene and temper it with Mind Power or Energy before searching for the next genes.'
'This is a path worth making a world, but I'll do it after the World of Origin. It'll be a huge world separated from the World of Origin!' Ethan's silver-colored eyes seemed to glow before he calmed down such thoughts. After watching the special agents fighting, he quickly lost interest after throughly understanding their path.
Invisible to them, Ethan slowly extended his arms, one to the left and one to the right, all while floating in the void, ''Za... Ahem, Time Stop!'' [1]
In an instant, the special agents of both countries stopped moving. The whole world seemed to be engulfed by an invisible pressure, the leaves of the trees stopped shaking, and so did the birds that were flapping their wings. Ethan was the only being that could move.
Moving in a carefree manner, Ethan moved quietly between the special agents. The mutated snake was kept in a cage made of special materials, and it seemed that in order to compete fairly, the cage was put outside the car. Only the winner between both sides could obtain the snake, ''A pity... They wouldn't expect that someone would be able to stop time and rob this species!''
While his Time Stop was still active, Ethan opened up a Spatial Door and stepped in it. At the next moment, he was back in his house, and the Time Stop was actively deactivated by him.
''You're one wonderful species, aren't you? Hm... It's decided, your species will mutate even more, you shall be called... World-Devouring Snake! Yes, what a perfect name for your species!'' Feeling satisfied with his naming sense, Ethan looked at a huge, empty space.
His new project was going to start!
...
Meanwhile, Australia.
The special agents from China and the US were fighting each other for a while before one of them suddenly noticed something was missing, ''Holy shit! The snake is missing!''
This voice attracted all of them, and they all started sweating after seeing that a third-party snatched the snake right before their eyes. In an instant, they stopped fighting.
A special agent from the US wiped the sweat from his forehead, ''Oh, boy... We're so fucked up, I have just been promoted! This... I'm so unlucky!''
...
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Note [1]: Yes, this is a JoJo reference. Hehe.