Back On Earth, the baby started growing, swiftly growing into the body of a typical seven year old(it became a he, growing a penis between its legs after it finished its nurturing phase), looking around innocently, completely unaware of how he turned the realm upside down. He had done so when the cauldron created an unknown death zone in the universe, and he had done so when it was removed. But compared to the storm he was about to bring, both these disturbances could be seen as fairly minor.

Having been nourished by the cauldron for trillions of years(records of the death zone had only been kept for billions, so people outside thought the death zone had only come into effect billions of years ago), the baby was anything but immature. For thousands of years, he had witnessed the rise of the human race, countless entities with different stories, no one could say he did not have life experience. For millions of years, he had seen the cruelty of evolution amongst beings who strived for the top, he had seen that those who did not fight, would die. No one could say he was unmotivated. For billions of years, even before the formation of the Earth, he had floated around in space along with his cauldron, viewing the mysteries of heaven and earth, no one could say he had not grasped the laws which governed this realm. Through the gestation of stars and planets, he had seen and understood laws of the five elements, through the countless millennia and constant traveling, he had understood the mysteries of time and space. Through the nourishment of a universe over trillions of years, he had talent overshadowing all others.

As he thought back on his trillion year journey, he felt nostalgia. Starting a new one meant leaving behind the old, and for this he was sad.

Interrupting his thoughts, he heard a cough in his head, like someone clearing their throat in order to convey the message that they have something to say. Then, he heard a high-pitched, embarrassed voice “You might want to put on some clothes. You--your thing is showing!” Suddenly, a girl appeared in front of him. She had long, pale, tender legs which came together and disappeared into her cheongsam. Her cheeks were flushed which made her even more attractive. He looked slightly abashed as he didn’t have anything to use as clothing, then eventually using his hand to cover his crotch. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am the spirit of the cauldron. I was the one who gave you all the spiritual energy throughout your nourishment period. As of now, you have the body most suitable for cultivation in existence thanks to my efforts. You have no impurities, and your body itself can be considered a heavenly treasure of the highest value.” He had no idea what she was talking about, having never seen any cultivators or heavenly treasures on Earth. Seeing the look on his face, she elaborated, “Your name is Bao Gang(hearing this name gave him a certain feeling of fulfillment, almost as if it fit him perfectly, and for this reason he decided to keep it, even though he felt a bit impetuous that someone else had made a decision for him). Due to certain circumstances, I was tasked with guarding you and making sure you live until you reach my master. These circumstances prevent him from protecting you or having any interactions with you at all. My master is the head of an organization which has beings so strong that the weakest of them would kill any being in this realm if he even sneezed on them. You are to be his successor, and he is waiting for you above the 33 heavens. To get there, you will need to cultivate. Similar to light novels, cultivating will make you stronger, and once you reach a point, you will rise from this realm, which is not even considered one of the 33 heavens, into the first level of the heavens.”

“Cultivating is the process of absorbing spiritual energy and also the process of using it to engrave runes on your self. These runes correspond to laws which govern the universe and allow you to strengthen attacks, defense, speed, and stamina to almost limitless extents. The spiritual energy, after being processed through a cultivation technique, will fill your dantian and will thus allow you to use spiritual energy to strengthen your body, cast magic, etc. For this reason, finding a cultivation area with high density spiritual energy is essential.

Spiritual energy is produced by the laws which govern the universe. First there was nothing, then from nothingness came one, one gave birth to two, two breeds three, and the three created all things. Following this rule, the one, universe laws, are the root of all things. High level universe laws such as yin-yang will give birth to lower level laws like fire and water and the other 5 elements, as well as light, dark, thunder, and lightning. Lower level laws are not just limited to which type they are, but also their complexity. The runes which are engraved by universe laws are more complex if they are higher levelled, and less complex if lower levelled.

Over time, an area which started with high level laws will become a hotspot for lower level laws, especially the lowest, spiritual energy. Spiritual energy is only used for building a foundation in cultivation. It is a mix of all laws, thus losing the special advantages of every single mixed law. By the same token, an area with low law concentration, or a spot where the laws have been absorbed during cultivation, will have lower spiritual energy and law concentration until they have been born again by high level laws

Obviously, higher level laws are stronger and are better to engrave, but are more taxing in the level of comprehension needed. This is where the soul comes into play. The stronger the soul, the better the comprehension and memory. The more attuned to spiritual energy a soul is, the faster laws can be attracted. Both are necessary for engraving laws, but only the attunement to spiritual energy is needed in the beginning levels of cultivation, as low-level cultivators do not yet have use for universe laws. However, after reaching the law inscription stage, if comprehension is lacking, law inscription grinds to a halt as laws can only be absorbed for inscription if one understands the laws they are trying to absorb. For this reason, the realm does not run out of spiritual energy because no one has enough law comprehension to absorb laws such as yin-yang and chaos. Eventually, these high level laws give birth to lower levelled ones and concentration of law and spiritual energy increases once again.

You cannot cultivate here, because I have already sucked clean all laws in this entire universe, and therefore there is not spiritual energy here either. However, over these trillions of years, I have used all of these universe laws to heighten your comprehension and spiritual energy attunement to levels which are almost unreal. A normal baby has 9 months for pregnancy during which they absorb small amounts of law fragments through the air, and also through food which their mother eats, if they eat certain spiritual food. This amounts to less than .00001% of a universe’s resources at a maximum. You on the other hand, had a “pregnancy” of trillions of years with 100% of a universe’s resources. Obviously your soul will outclass all others”

“Oh,” she added. “There are currently around 300,000 cultivators flying here in ships. They will reach here within 3 hours. By then, we will have to leave Earth or risk being found and hunted.” “We have to leave Earth?” he asked, “but won’t the people of Earth be hunted down? Can we bring them with us?” Hearing this, the spirit of the cauldron visibly struggled, making a pouty face, “But my master said that I’m not supposed to help you, I’m just supposed to make sure that you never died. He said that if I did more than this, you would grow reliant on external forces.” Then, as if she had come to a groundbreaking realization, suddenly smiled, “Master said I cannot help you, but you don’t have to worry about the safety of Earth, because once these people start fighting over it, they will have a big surprise!” She looked around mischievously as if to make sure her master was not watching.

2 hours later

Inside the ship, Ji Huang and Tai Ming had been flying for 2.5 hours by now, and having been near the edge of the universe, were the first to realize that spiritual energy had returned to the universe which previously did not have it. The spiritual energy was still nonexistent, but the suction of energy had disappeared allowing cultivators to fly inside the universe. As they used their spiritual sense(a projection of a strand of their soul) to view the path ahead, they found what was at the middle of the universe. An ordinary planet, with 7 billion people living everyday lives. They realized that they could not see the treasure, and came to the conclusion that it must be inside the planet. They also saw a second ship also heading towards Earth from the opposite side of the universe, only slightly further away, but traveling at a greater speed. Realizing that this treasure would be a once in a lifetime chance to become rich, they gear up for battle in case they cannot come up with a peaceful solution to the hunt of the heavenly object.

And so, they waited tersely. “They” refers to all parties in question. For Bao Gang, the next 30 minutes decides the fate of the species which has watched over for thousands of years like a parent, for both ships, this concerns an unimaginable fortune, and for the other 300,000 incoming cultivators, this is a race which they must win, for them self, for their sect, or for even for their race. This treasure can decide the fate of the realm given its heaven-defying absorption of spiritual energy.

And so, they waited.