While Dana was working to test out the Fyor mapper that I had given her, I went off into the emptiness of space of Earth’s solar system. In order to prevent any future clashes of power, I didn’t want to use domains like evolution as Sanctum had done. Instead, I wanted to use domains as much under my control as possible.

For that reason, I used the core of the Illusion domain. No matter what happened, the Illusion domain was my own power. Even if all the gods in the world died, that would stay with me. Unfortunately, I did not have such a luxury with the other domains.

The second domain was the Transformation domain, gained from none other than Mara. She was an incredible fighter when she really wanted to be, so I was sure that she’d be able to survive for quite a while. At the very least, until someone else ascended with a similar domain.

Finally, the third domain that I chose was the Earth domain, due to how popular it was. I doubted there would ever come a time when I ran out of Earth gods. With this plan in mind, I began crafting my own divine world.

Instead of building this as a standard trinity, I wanted to take it step by step, and then link them all together. Closing my eyes, I focused on my Illusion domain, drawing a set of circuits to create an illusion on a massive scale. Once I had created the path, I simply activated it to create the illusion of a planet in the dark sky. From there, I flew into the heart of the planet, through the illusory layer, and began feeding my divinity directly to it.

The main purpose of this planet would be to serve as an exterior ‘battery’ of divine energy, as well as a collection device. Seeing the planet in the distant sky would serve as a subtle, yet constant reminder for the people, always feeding the energy back to me.

Scarlet pursed her lips as she sat within her palace, looking up at the new star that had appeared within the night sky. Naturally, she knew that this ‘star’ was none other than her father’s new home, a fact which would soon be spread to the rest of the world.

For now, there was no rush in informing everyone. Through her main self, she was monitoring the progress of the planet, and was well aware that it was not done yet. If it were, it would not look like some speck on the horizon, after all.

She let out a long sigh, shaking her head. After subduing the Solii of Fyor and having them agree to allow other races to settle on the twenty-fourth layer, there wasn’t much special for her to do. As usual, she safeguarded the solar system from any random monster god that decided to invade, but those were often years apart.

As for managing her government tasks? She had been in this position for so long that such things had become tedious. Unless it was a major matter, she never needed to personally take action.

I wonder if I should find a new contractor. She muttered inwardly, remembering the time when she had played the role of a mortal’s contracted Martial Spirit. Such contracts were rather rare in the present day, due to the ample opportunity for people to achieve power on their own, causing the Martial Spirit contracts to fall out of favor.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, she shook her head. Unless she found another individual with a talent as unique as the ability to perceive karma, she didn’t want to bother with that again. It was often more trouble than it was worth.

In that case… maybe it is time for Martial Spirits themselves to advance. Scarlet closed her eyes in thought, a small smile spreading on her lips. By now, she was well aware that a Rank Ten Martial Spirit like herself shouldn’t be the final form of a spirit. Rather, it was just the peak of what the Keeper had been able to create so long ago.

While Scarlet did not believe that she would be able to defeat her dad in her current state, she was well aware that she surpassed the power he had at the moment when she was born. Should I try to do it myself, or work together with Irena? No… I want this to be a surprise.

A playful smile tugged at Scarlet’s lips. Alena had long since achieved her own divinity, but she wanted to be able to offer Irena a surprise. For the first time in a long while, she felt like a kid preparing a present for her parents, causing a childlike giggle to rise from her.

In a flash of red, Scarlet’s figure vanished from the palace, appearing on a distant planet within Earth’s solar system. Although this was an uninhabited world, there was no problem with using this as the birthplace of a new Martial Spirit race.

“Now… how far should I push this? It takes fifteen thousand points of ki, condensed in an essence orb, to create a rank ten spirit.” Scarlet was well aware of this point, having created numerous such spirits in the past. At the same time, ki refining had advanced leaps and bounds since that time.

However, even with the creation of essence crystals or bloodstones, or even Blood Heart, nobody had created a higher tier Martial Spirit. Was that because nobody tried? Of course not, there would always be some reckless fool wanting to pioneer a new path.

The problem had to lay elsewhere. Beyond simply fusing raw spiritual energy into a mass of ki. There were even those who tried to refine ki and spiritual energy together to create the same result, but ultimately failed.

Now that Scarlet was personally taking action, she lifted a hand. Boundless ki seemed to erupt in her palm, forming a blood red vortex. “If fifteen thousand ki makes a rank ten spirit… let’s try five hundred thousand, and see what that makes.” She said with that same, playful smile.

A blood gem like what she had just created typically required the combined effort of multiple monks to create, or the full concentration of a single high-level Martial Spirit. As the Goddess of Ki, and one of the oldest Martial Spirits, creating it was a simple matter for Scarlet.

With her other hand, Scarlet opened a gap to the Underworld, drawing in a large quantity of spiritual energy while refining it into similarly dense crystals. The method she was about to attempt could only be truly practiced by one who had almost total control of both spiritual energy and ki. Otherwise, the result would likely be an explosion capable of leveling a small city.

Once Scarlet had the two crystals, she closed the gate to the Underworld and brought them closer together. The blood gem began squirming, seeming to liquify and wrap around the spiritual crystal. “Be good now.” Scarlet said in an almost teasing tone, controlling the ki to not only wrap around the gem but also seep into it. At the same time, she controlled the spiritual energy to ‘soften’ in order to better allow the energies to merge.

The result was an extremely dense, squirming mass of energy within her hands, one which she had to focus in order to fully control. She could clearly feel a reaction within the energy, as if something was trying to happen, but there was something missing. Although the answer astounded Scarlet… she hadn’t used enough ki.

With a deafening blast, Scarlet’s face was covered in soot, her body left standing in a crater hundreds of meters wide. Her cheeks puffed up in a pout, lightly stomping her foot. “Not enough ki? Well… let’s see how big your appetite is!”

Scarlet raised one of her hands, another blood vortex appearing above her palm. This one did not merely stop at creating a small blood gem. Rather, it continued expanding, crazily drawing in the ki that Scarlet fed it. Her eyes were defiant, unwilling to accept that she couldn’t achieve her goal.

From five hundred thousand, to one million, then two million… Scarlet didn’t stop until she had reached five million units of ki condensed into a thumb-sized jewel. She was certain that, aside from the Keeper, nobody would be able to mobilize ki on this scale without substantial help.

In fact, this was likely to be the first time ki had been refined at this level before. When she brought the item down to look at it, it was almost nebulous. The refined jewel was small, but gave off a spiraling pattern of red mist around it. “I’ll call you a blood nebula.” Scarlet said in a proud tone, before forcing open another Underworld gate.

As the problem last time was insufficient ki, she did not increase the amount of spiritual energy any further than she had before. Once she had a condensed jewel worth half a million units of spiritual energy, she closed the gate. At this point, her brows were knit tightly together in focus, bringing the two objects together.

The previous experiment may have been simple to conduct, but this one took her entire concentration to maintain. Even as the Goddess of Ki, this was no small amount of energy that she was manipulating.

Once again, the blood nebula swallowed the spirit crystal, gradually merging with it. “Come on… don’t let it explode… I don’t want to have to explain to dad why I lost a planet.” Even if she felt like the experiment would fail, Scarlet was prepared to send the resulting explosion deep into space before it could go off, that way she could minimize the damage.

However, such a thing proved unnecessary. As the energies merged together, Scarlet found that there was more than enough ki to sustain this fusion, a small smile spreading over her lips. Gradually, she let the excess ki leak out, keeping a tight control over the rest of the energy until she found what seemed to be a perfect balance.

When that true balance was achieved, the hazy red gem she held in her hands felt… alive. Scarlet let loose a bright laugh when she noticed that, holding the gem against her chest. “I knew I could get this to work!” Now, all she needed to do was to solve the last step. Using this item as the core, she needed to give birth to a living spirit.

Though… how was she supposed to do that? Scarlet looked down at the crystal again, her lips pursed in thought. It felt like there was something alive inside, just waiting to be released. If she destroyed the crystal, would she free whatever was inside, or would she kill it instead? Would it free itself after a period of time, or would it remain trapped until the proper catalyst appeared?

Scarlet could think of several methods to resolve the issue. For instance, maybe she needed to insert the crystal into the beating heart of a powerful creature. Maybe it required intense heat or cold. There were simply too many possibilities, and she didn’t know where to start. There was even the chance that waiting too long might damage the object, as well!

As Scarlet was thinking this through, she heard a crisp crack, her eyes going wide in panic. Immediately, she flew away from the planet where she had conducted the test, afraid that the object in her hands was about to explode. Her body turned into a red streak of light that soon left the solar system, not stopping until she was far into the depths of space. Every crack caused her heart to shudder, her panic increasing by the moment.

Once she stopped, she saw that the crystal had been riddled with fractures, and so she threw it with all of her might. Even if she would survive the blast, there was no need to allow herself to suffer that damage.

However, before the crystal had even gone ten meters from her body, it completely shattered. Scarlet’s eyes were wide in shock, braced for an explosion, but… nothing happened. There was no cataclysmic blast of energy, just the gentle drifting of red dust in the air… and a notification window that appeared in front of her.

Congratulations! You have earned an achievement!

For creating a True Martial Spirit, you have been awarded the Ancestor of Blood achievement! Stamina +20, Ki Affinity +5%

True Martial Spirit? Where? Scarlet blinked, looking around in confusion. She couldn’t see anything that could be regarded as a spirit anywhere around her.

A moment later, her eyes went wide in shock. There was nothing that she could see, but she could sense something with her domains of Blood and Ki. Ki itself had begun to subtly change.