Peacefully cultivating under the giant hall's ceiling, Alexander and Lei Diesto. Each sitting cross-legged atop a pyramid, facing one another.

The distance between their pyramids was quite high, but not nearly enough to impede communication.

"Brother Lei, how strong do you think senior Valtos is?"

Glancing over, Lei Diesto seemed lost in thought for a moment, his eyes peering down. After a few seconds, he answered truthfully.

"I cannot say, but I doubt he is below the Earth Transcending Realm or above the Chaos Archetype Realm. If so, then it is my lack of eyes!"

Amused by his words, Alexander smiled slightly.

"Are you saying that because of the information we received? But you're right, I also think this way."

"By the way, brother Lei, were you born in the Celestial Realm?"

Raising a brow in intrigue, Lei Diesto nodded in affirmation.

"Why do you ask? Isn't it obvious? Oh wait..."

"That's right, you must have gotten some information about it. I come from that place below, where those Universes are crowded."

His palm covering his mouth, Lei Diesto was resting on his hand, pondering and assimilating this new information, yet to be fully digested.

"What I'm curious about is... Have you seen anyone or anything ascended from a Universe? To be honest, I expected to find a lot of them, yet..."

"Yet you did not. Correct?" Lei Diesto finishing his sentence, Alexander looked over in curiosity.

"So?"

"No! You're the first."

"Then... how did you do it?"

"Do what?" Lei Diesto felt like Alexander was insulting his intelligence somehow.

"Cultivate to this level! To even step inside the Life Refining Realm, you need a very deep comprehension of the Life Dao. How did someone from this backwater Celestial Realm even manage to do it?"

"What backwater Celestial Realm? You're talking as if you were any better! Your Universes are still considered worse than my Celestial Realm!"

"What do you mean 'your' Celestial Realm? Isn't it Valtos' Celestial Realm?"

After a few rounds of petty bickering, Lei Diesto simply snorted, not wanting to quench Alexander's raging curiosity.

Clicking his tongue loudly in response, Alexander grasped toward the table right in between their pyramids, some distance below.

Soon, a clear bottle filled with dark sand landed in his grasp.

This dark sand looked like a Universe grinded to dust, its outstanding beauty unrivalled.

It was a bottle of Universal Dust. A material used during the first parts of the Half-Universe Realm. Its purpose was to temper the body until a Universe and later on, a Multiverse, could be born within without serious danger.

Not only would a body refined using this dust be more resilient, it would also increase one's affinity with the world and the Origin.

Depending on the opponent's control over Origin Energy, they might not be able to pierce a sheet of paper covered in Universal Dust.

This tempering would greatly help Alexander avoid the earlier dangers he experienced when trying to absorb a portion of Origin Energy.

He still remembered his previous attempt, almost causing his downfall.

Gently and carefully removing the bottle's cap, Alexander put some Universal Dust on his palm. Playing around with the material a bit, he then tried to assimilate it.

This dust was marvelous and incredibly arcane. Alexander was at a loss at first, wondering how a material only influencing the material world could be absorbed without dangers. But it was only in appearance.

'It's like the Origin as well...' This dust could influence multiple dimensions and therefore be absorb safely depending on the mastery of one's Origin Energy.

Instead of playing with it this time, Alexander infused his Origin Energy inside.

The dust only started to show a positive reaction a few days later. Before that, all attempts resulted in the dust sending a repulsive power to his Origin Energy.

It was like trying to forcefully connect two magnets with similar poles. It could be done, but not without pain while keeping some safety.

At some point, Alexander tried to absorb a single speck of this dust. His Divine Sense covering his entire being and much more, he readied himself.

If he felt danger, he would obviously pull out the speck.

'Here we go...'

Embracing the speck with his flesh, Alexander cautiously advanced its progress within himself. Luckily, nothing wrong happened, having already tamed this speck completely.

Now came the important part.

'According to the knowledge given, the first stage is the Universal Body Tempering, and its first layer is the Universal Skeleton. Therefore, I should stick this speck of dust on a bone first.'

Choosing the tip of his pinky finger's bone, he attached the speck on it. This way, even if something bad happened, he would be able to safely dismember his pinky finger to keep most of his body safe.

A successful endeavor later, his tests showing no signs of danger, Alexander continued with the process.

Obviously, he would follow up on his pinky as to delay any possible threat to the utmost future.

It took him many weeks before finally covering his entire hand. Once done, he made both hands face off in a rather crude attrition battle.

The results were not too surprising. His hands were equally matched, but when it came to durability of the bones or Origin Energy tests, the dust covered hands fared much better.

Since it worked for one hand, it would for the other, and spending weeks with great skill he newly obtained, he safely managed to cover the other hand's bones.

He felt like his bones were covered by gloves, but only in his mind. In reality, his bones had started to completely fuse with the dust, turning into this material completely. But judging by the process, it would take a few decades for the process to finish at the very least.

In the meantime, Alexander covered his entire left arm in the Universal Dust in the following months. Each time he completed the process, his skill for this exact method would increase exponentially. The more he did it, the better he got at it.

After the left arm came the right arm, then both legs, ribs, torso, spine, and finally the skull.

In only a few years, his entire skeleton had been covered by a mesmerizing glinting dust.

Such a skeleton would be worshiped by artists for countless years if seen.

As for the benefits, Alexander's skeleton was now much more resilient against Origin Energy, and along these years, the fusing process had proceeded without halt. The bones of his hands were a solid ten percent altered.

It would still take decades for the process to finish for all bones, but something was already starting to change after the first decade.

Since the second layer was Universal Bone Marrow, he had to wait for the fusing to be fully over with. However, when the very first decade finished, his hands changed radically. The bones were almost completely done fusing, but the structure changed completely. Their resilience was raised countless times and he felt the power of the Origin resonate ever so slightly with his hands.

After half a century, Alexander confirmed the first two layers to be fully completed. His bones were perfectly changed and his bone marrow already producing a shiny and mysterious blood. With his Divine Sense, Alexander could witness with admiration his blood turn the same as his bones, a colorful sprinkle of stars surrounded by a membrane of dark blue.

After this process finished, his eyes were also altered, the veins inside turning dark blue as well.

The power he felt literally coursing through his veins was simply too pleasurable. His raw strength had not skyrocketed, but his control over the world had.

His vision changing, he could not perfectly see Origin Energy flowing around him. He did not need to try anymore, his vision was now enough to see it clearly.

The next two layers were easy as well. Using the dust like usual, Alexander covered his muscles, and once they fully transformed, he did the same for his skin.

A few decades passing by, Alexander looked at himself with his Divine Sense.

'I look like a piece of art... but I'm not sure about the look...' Seeing almost his entire body turn sparkly and dark blue in color with stars filled with wonders shining all over him, he was not sure how to feel exactly. His gaze upward, he saw Lei Diesto in the exact same predicament, his thoughts not as silent as his own.

"I look like paint was thrown all over me! Give me back my handsomeness!!"

Pursing his lips, Alexander remained silent.

'He doesn't know what to do either... We'll see how it turns out...'

Focusing on his cultivation, Alexander still needed to deal with the next three stages.

The first one would require a much more valuable resource known as the Universal Fragment.

'Let's see...' Grasping towards the table in the middle of the hall, a dark blue shard filled with countless colors flew into his hand.

'The first layer of the Universal Core Formation Stage, Inner World Tempering.'

Calming his mind, Alexander placed the irregularly shaped fragment in between his palms, making it float above one, below the other.

Feeling its power, Alexander channeled it inside his Lotus Core with attentive care.

The contained power seeped through his inner world's everything, nourishing it fully.

The majestic earth crumbled into a void. The indomitable Heavens shattered into another.

His Lotus Core trembling, it started to show cracks. Without fault, Alexander, during the whole process, kept taking more and more Universal Fragments to feed his internal world's crazed greed.

Time flowing without leaving any traces, no marks for future generations or curious minds, Alexander's Lotus Core broke apart in a flurry of dark energies. A void-like mist covering his broken Lotus Core, the inside was still intact.

Like a chick breaking out of the egg's shell, beside the silver shards of his formerly pristine Lotus Core, a dark blue ball of darkness.

The silver shards dissipating, they served as nothing more than nourishment for the embryonic bead.

Quick on the take, Alexander extended his arm, taking a dark blue crystal from the table. With this Universal Crystal in hand, Alexander fed it to his internal world, now passed the Inner World Tempering and Inner World Metamorphosis layers, stepping into the Fusing Universe layer.

His Universal Core Formation stage completed, he was now in the Universal Core Completing stage.

His void-like bead, acting as a Dantian, out in the open, Alexander needed to do something. His internal world felt like it would disconnect with him at any moment, while even without doing anything, it was madly sucking in anything nearby.

Origin Energy fiercely competing with this power, Alexander's newly birthed hatchling of a Universe was in constant need of food. But the Origin Energy it desperately attempted to feed on was not having any of it, impossible to move.

There was not a magical solution to this, nor was there none. Grabbing hundreds of Universal Crystal, Alexander saw Lei Diesto do the same, his face pale.

Feeding his internal world more and more, Alexander saw the pile on the table diminish greatly.

'This stage is so dangerous! Was I supposed to do it without help? Is it even possible to do it without incredible wealth?!'

If Alexander had not been given so many resources, his internal world might have consumed his flesh already.

'When is this over?' Wailing in his mind, Alexander did not reduce his frenzy, taking away more and more resources to feed his inner world.

It looked like this process would not end anytime soon.