A man was looking out into the distance on a high mountain peak. His gaze pierced through the veil as he contemplated his whole life that led to this point. Behind him were other similar people wishing him farewell on this last journey that he was attempting.

“Why don’t you turn back, grandfather? No one has been able to ascend higher. You’ll just shorten your lifespan if you attempt and fail like all the others before you.”

“Hah, I’m not afraid of death! I’d rather die pursuing this dream of cultivation!”

The people behind him attempted to dissuade him from his plans, but he was resolute. Soon, everyone else left, and he sat down in a lotus position. The air on top of this mountain was thin, and a constant storm raged above him. From time to time, bolts of lightning would come crashing down, even hitting the man. Yet, he didn’t falter; instead, he used the power of nature to his advantage as he attempted to transcend to the next level.

Days went by, and he kept accepting the gift of lightning from above, his features becoming more haggard the more he attempted to break through. His resolution started to slowly waver as the continuous pain became unbearable. Many times, he wondered if he should have listened to his grandchild, but somehow he mustered up the courage to press on. On the seventh day, he felt something crack in his soul as a massive storm exploded around him.

People called out from afar to look at the mountain peak the elder had occupied. A torrent of immense power was shooting out into the sky and pushing the storm away. Soon, as the clouds parted and the sky was exposed, they witnessed the man hovering up in the air. His body was restored and looking better than ever, as he had managed to reach a new realm of possibilities.

The man would later be known as the first demi-celestial, someone who paved the way for all others to reach this realm. Previously, cultivators could only reach a ripe age of a thousand years, but with his success, that time was increased by ten times. He went on to teach people his ways, and soon others found themselves ascending further. With the path already paved by another individual, the way was now open.

‘A demi-celestial huh? I guess the Immortal realm will be called the Celestial realm if they figure it out…’

Zhang Dong contemplated his own universe that had reached a stage above the nascent soul level. It took his people hundreds of thousands of years to get there, but now they were past the first hurdle of ascension. They reached a similar realm to the Dao Foundation realm, the first realm past the nascent soul realm. It was a bit stronger than the realm his family members achieved but was also harder to access.

His own power skyrocketed after this one man managed to unleash a new cultivation realm. The more of these types of cultivators appeared the more his strength grew. However, this didn’t keep him from growing restless. His mind was split between many places, his own internal world in which he had already reached a ripe age of a million and the outside world where tens of thousands of years had passed.

His children were able to reach the immortal stage with the help of the trial tower and the simplified system quite fast. However, they weren’t truly free of the influence of the world around them like he was. Their souls were entangled in some sort of way, and untying that knot wasn’t an easy task. Probably reaching a new level for them would be quite hard, and perhaps the only way would be inside his universe where the laws were more in their favor.

Zhang Dong contemplated how things were going. After both his children ascended to the immortal level, they all had a heartfelt reunion. However, it felt a bit strange as he possessed all the memories of the clone that spent time with them, so it was as if he never left their side. After filling them in on the plan, the two were eager to help, and many more stations were captured by these two who seemed to be competing for who could get the most.

Huo Qiang, Zhang Zhi, and his wife took a few hundred years more, but they too made it up to the 99th level. After a few failed battles with the elder, they were able to ascend to the immortal level and took their place at his side once more. Station after station fell into their clutches, and soon they managed to capture one-third. At this time, half of his family members along with his two disciples were all immortals. Even the other system holders started helping, and the plan was quickly unfolding.

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‘Things are going well but why can’t I shake this bad feeling…’

Even though things were looking up for their side, he wasn’t sure what to make of it. The possibility of the old god having left this world was there, and it might have even been dead. His cultivation was similar to this being in the sense that they both were universe creators. After being in this realm for a while, he realized that after a certain point, this place was becoming self-sustainable. If he happened to perish, there was a possibility that the universe wouldn’t crumble.

The only real question was about what became of this universe if he perished. If he died during a battle with another universe creator, could he absorb it into his own world? Perhaps his body would just float around in the void, waiting for a person from his cosmos to break through into the immortal world and absorb his previous knowledge. However, he could also be wrong, and everyone within could just perish instantly with him. It was a scenario that was still plausible.

‘Time within the universe usually moves faster than that of the creator, it could be possible for the universe to sustain itself for many years before it crumbled…’

As he was contemplating, he felt something strange; the station along with this administrative chamber he was in began to shake. He spread his senses into the void outside to connect with some of his clones that were on other stations to confirm that this was happening everywhere. The entire universe was shaking, but just as the cosmic-sized quake started, it dissipated as if it never happened. The puppets were stunned for a second before going back to their job.

“Another one? Something is happening, we might not have time to take over everything before I go to the center…”

He gave this phenomenon the name of ‘Universal Quake’ as it happened from time to time. It was a rare occurrence at first but the more stations they claimed the more frequent this phenomenon became. He wanted to examine the central region of this universe but he was afraid to take a peek. If a monster of a cultivator was resting there, it was probable that they would notice his arrival and even his spirit sense.

“It’s too late to stop now and I don’t really have any other options…”

While these tremors were quite intense, he could do nothing but ignore them. The next few decades were a flurry of activity. Zhang Dong, along with his family and allies, continued their campaign to capture more stations. The newly ascended immortals proved to be formidable forces, and the tide of the battle was hopefully slowly turning in their favor. However, the Universal Quakes continued to occur intermittently, creating a sense of urgency among them.

More years started passing, and more good-natured system holders joined their cause, even ones from other cultivation worlds. From thirty percent, it went up to forty and then soon reached half. The moment they had multiple immortal level people on their side, the whole plan hastened, and they finally saw an end in sight. Even though there were thousands of the stations, they had the manpower to take all of them over. Yet, the more they claimed, the worse the universe started shaking. Soon, it was even affecting the other stations, as the puppets couldn’t function in such an environment.

“Multiple system failure, now it’s starting to affect everything at a grander scale, it seems that a collapse of this system is close…”

The system holders that he kept from rescuing were awakening faster, as the puppets weren’t able to process them anymore. Just like he expected, once their souls stopped being recycled in bulk, a more rapid change was taking place. It became clear that after messing up the other stations and rescuing more good-hearted system holders, some type of bug was created, and now the time had come to act.

“I’ll have to take a trip to the central regions and perhaps visit prime earth to face whatever is there…”

Before taking the plunge he headed out of this administrative chamber that he had been stuck in for thousands of years. All the clones that he produced were ordered to retreat as he needed all of his power to face the final opponent. They started out as five and then transformed to twenty a testament to how much stronger he had gotten after reaching this place.

“So this is it, Prime Dong?”

“I guess even I would enjoy a little joke before the end…”

“I know, we are all the same person!”

The clones started laughing as they made one last joke involving his name. They all looked a little bit different with varied clothes and hairstyles as they tried to somewhat distinguish themselves from the original. However, now all of them were turning back into spiritual energy and going back into Zhang Dong’s universe. The moment all twenty had returned, he felt reinvigorated, his power had reached its zenith and it was now or never.

“How can we lose with such a leader!”

“There were a lot of Chiefs but now there is only one, he sure is sparkling!”

He turned around to witness a gathering of many people. There were his children, his lovely wife, his close friends, and family members. The person who had no friends or anything to fight for was a distant memory. He was now surrounded by people who believed in him and cherished what they all had experienced. Even if it all ended now, he could not say that he had lived a bad life. However, many other people were just starting their journey, and so that it could continue for them, he would fight.