The instant he stepped through the Gate of the Many Realms, Wei Yuan felt a distinct tearing and repulsion, as though every part of his body were being ripped apart, threatening to reduce him to a humanoid figure molded from loose sand.
The previous time he had entered, this sensation had not been so vivid or intense. Wei Yuan realized that on his first visit, the woman in black—the three-eyed bird head's manifestation—had blessed him with her protection, sparing him from directly facing the forces of this world.
Standing on this grayish-black earth, surrounded by vast, desolate ruin, his gaze met only dead stillness. The sky was dim, indistinct between day and night, while distant mountain ranges sprawled across the land like winding, coiled dragons. Now, Wei Yuan's divine sense was far stronger than during his first visit, allowing him to take in far more of the mountains' true scope. This time, it struck him that these were not natural ranges at all, but perhaps the remains left behind by the death of colossal beasts. With that impression in mind, looking upon the mountains great and small across the boundless expanse, he felt as if he were seeing ancient behemoths lying dead one after another.
Abrupt gashes and sheer precipices along certain peaks resembled wounds. Yet what kind of weapon could possibly cleave fissures spanning thousands of li?
Suppressing an instinctive dread in his heart, Wei Yuan bent down and picked up a pebble. Though it appeared intact, its entire internal structure had already been destroyed, like sand loosely held together. With a gentle rub between his fingers, the stone crumbled into shapeless powder and drifted to the ground. In this world, there was neither wind nor water, and thus no clouds. The powder fell straight down, yet not because of weight; this realm had lost even gravity.
Between the finest particles lingered only the faintest wisp of negligible force, like a wounded beast still longing for its severed limbs to reattach. It was this lingering obsession alone that drew the dust back to the earth rather than letting it drift away. His return this time was prompted by a hazy memory that had awakened within him: seemingly, before he was cast out of that world, it had prepared something special. Wei Yuan had come back precisely to find it.
Wei Yuan flew to a higher vantage point and swept his gaze across the surroundings. After surveying the expanse again and again, he suddenly noticed a patch where the coloration differed from the rest of the world. Flying over, he landed on a stretch of flat ground. In the center of this flat expanse lay a small patch of soil.
Wei Yuan leaned down, pinched a bit between his fingers, and rubbed it apart to examine it. He confirmed that this was indeed soil—soil composed of intricate components, not kalpa ash.
This was what the world had preserved at its final moment: a small patch of primordial soil. Looking at this dirt, barely a few feet square, Wei Yuan's heart suddenly grew heavy, tinged with a faint panic.
What Wei Yuan called soil was in truth the sum total of all karma—of latency, gestation, sprouting, growth, and transformation. It was the seed for the growth of a world.
This was the world's last seed of hope, the soil bearing the original karma of this realm. This soil was fundamentally unlike any other; the earth of this world was entirely distinct from that of his home realm. If soil from the home realm were transplanted here, it would eventually develop into another home realm. Only this patch of soil could grow into a world identical to the original one.
Now that there was soil, where was the seed?
The seed was the other reason for Wei Yuan's journey. In Qingming, countless essays had long been written examining karmic luck. Because mortal karmic luck was so widely employed, it had the largest body of research, and with such a vast volume, masterworks were bound to emerge. Wei Yuan happened to have read several such brilliant treatises.
These template Dao Foundations—who could not even perceive karmic luck itself—posited that karmic luck was another manifestation of the world's origin power. It stood above karma, representing the ultimate fruit of all causes: a specific quantity of karmic luck would inevitably guide reality toward a specific, definite outcome.
As mortals survived and multiplied between heaven and earth, transforming the world and empowering themselves, they engaged in a continual process of drawing in the world's origin power. Then, through their own growth, strengthening, or cultivation, they converted that absorbed origin power into karmic luck and dispersed it back throughout heaven and earth. In this process, the world would gradually transform, eventually becoming suited for human survival.
To be fair, these essays lacked solid evidence and read more like idle speculation. Yet Wei Yuan had an intuition that this might well be the truth—or at least very close to it.
According to these essays, mortal karmic luck was the seed—the seed to ignite a lifeless world.
Yet Wei Yuan was not one to accept things blindly, especially the conclusions of speculative writings. Using his divine sense, he isolated a tiny pinch of soil roughly the size of a needle tip, divided it into eighty-one mutually isolated cells, and began experimenting with the various powers at his disposal.
Wei Yuan currently touched upon at least a dozen Great Dao authorities. Although he had not yet ascended to immortalhood and could not truly master them, channeling a sliver of power was well within his capabilities. Thus, he tested them one by one, even releasing a ray of the purest, most refined sword qi into one of the cells.
The sword qi instantly reduced that speck of soil to nothingness, wringing Wei Yuan's heart with pangs of regret. Only then did he realize that his sword path originated from Xihe—and that elder sister's sword path was entirely about destruction, devoid of any constructive creation.
By contrast, the scarlet-gold sword qi of the celestial laurel tree contained a wisp of vitality, completely unlike Xihe's. Unfortunately, while the scarlet-gold sword qi had status, it lacked raw power, and Wei Yuan had long since set it aside.
Going through round after round of powers, Wei Yuan even channeled a trace of the Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar's aura. But the moment this seemingly terrifying aura—capable of overrunning any environment—appeared in this world, it was instantly broken down into countless particles, entirely stripped of vitality.
As for the ancient full moon, it might have been worth a try, but the three-eyed bird head now resided upon it and had long been tainted by the aura of this dead world, rendering it useless.
Having tried every manner of power to no avail, Wei Yuan began introducing different kinds of karmic luck. Yet cultivator karmic luck produced no reaction whatsoever; only when mortal karmic luck was introduced did a slight change seem to occur.
Even so, the change was so minuscule that only after exhausting every analytical method available could Wei Yuan confirm that an extremely faint, highly unstable force was generating between the particles. Yet it was already decaying, far from enough to alter anything.
Wei Yuan infused more mortal karmic luck, but that newborn force continually fell just short, as if missing a crucial element.
Wei Yuan paused, sinking into deep contemplation. The immediate problem was the dearth of clues; he had to grope forward entirely on his own. For reasons unknown, a sudden inspiration struck him, and a small wisp of recently acquired Liao karmic luck appeared in his hand.
When this bit of Liao karmic luck fell, it was like a drop of ice water splashing into boiling oil, instantly bursting into activity. Newborn power surged unchecked through the soil, transforming that speck completely until faint vitality surged within!
With the test proven effective, Wei Yuan poured a vast quantity of mortal karmic luck into the soil—at least several million portions over that small patch a few feet square—followed by all three hundred-odd thousand portions of his newly acquired Liao karmic luck. Sure enough, the patch of earth ceased to be a dead grayish-black and took on a glossy, rich black sheen.
It was the only bright spot of color in this entire world!
At this moment, Wei Yuan finally understood the destiny he had carried since before he was born: to reboot the world.
The newborn seed was still far too fragile. Once ignited by karmic luck, this patch of land separated from the dead world and immediately suffered the erosion of its forces of annihilation and dissolution.
Wei Yuan was prepared. Against world-tier forces of this scale, the most effective tool was undoubtedly immortal power, bar none. Though Wei Yuan had not yet ascended to immortalhood, immortal power was precisely what he did not lack, and he had brought ample reserves for this journey.
Wei Yuan produced finger-sized bone tablets resembling white jade and drove them into the ground in a circle around the seed soil. These tablets were genuine immortal bones, taken from Lu Changhe's body and inscribed with formations designed to sever karma.
Once the formation was set, Wei Yuan gauged the rate at which the tablets drained their immortal power, calculating that they could sustain the barrier for roughly three years. Fortunately, Lu Changhe had had plenty of hardy bones, and Wei Yuan still held an ample supply of bone chips.
Yet as he placed the final bone chip, Wei Yuan frowned slightly, faintly sensing that a wisp of karma had escaped just before the closure sealed shut. It had slipped out without a hint of warning, eluding even his intuitive premonitions. Either the one behind it possessed methods far beyond Wei Yuan's current level, or it was an instinctive reaction of the Great Dao itself.
Wei Yuan sighed softly, knowing that what was destined to come would come. It seemed he not only had to reboot this world, but also fend off otherworldly entities coveting this seed soil, and ultimately vanquish the beings that had destroyed this world in the first place.
Yet all of this fell within his expectations; his resolve had been set the moment he decided to return to this world. Moreover, the allure of rebooting a world was surprisingly immense for him. Setting aside duty and origins, Wei Yuan realized that he genuinely loved exploring the nature of the cosmos, particularly the deepest secrets underpinning existence.
Having arranged the protective formation, Wei Yuan left behind an avatar and returned to the Splendor of the Many Realms.
The three-eyed bird head had receded, though Wei Yuan could still sense her presence. It seemed manifesting and waking drained an immense amount of her energy, leaving her mostly in deep slumber.
"I have planted the seed over there, but how do I maintain the passage?" Wei Yuan asked.
"...Immortal-tier... materials..."
Her energy seemingly spent, the three-eyed bird head murmured only this vague response before falling back into a deep sleep. That hint was enough for Wei Yuan. Reexamining the state of the Gate of the Many Realms, he devised a preliminary plan for reinforcement. The simplest approach was to reinforce it directly with immortal skeletal remains—and that was precisely what Wei Yuan had in abundance. This time, it was the Lu clan's forebear's turn to make a contribution.
Besides the passage, another urgent issue demanded attention: the seed soil lacked sufficient vitality. At present, it was like a single spark, far from capable of catching dry grass and scraps of paper to blaze into a bonfire.
Yet Wei Yuan had exhausted all the Liao karmic luck he possessed; he needed fresh Liao karmic luck.
After a moment's thought, Wei Yuan gave an order to Xiaoyu: find a cohort of condemned Liao commoner prisoners, hold public executions in two Liao pastoral cities before the assembled populace, and have them beaten mercilessly until dead.
Thus, a day later, Wei Yuan acquired another hundred-odd thousand portions of Liao karmic luck.
Still, the problem was not solved. If Liao karmic luck worked, would the fundamental karmic luck of other races also be effective? Might it require adding several more varieties of karmic luck to truly awaken its vitality?
If this line of thinking was correct, Wei Yuan would need not only Liao karmic luck, but also Shaman luck, Mountain luck, and Guiche luck. Just contemplating how to govern so many alien races gave him a headache.
In the midst of his vexation, Wei Yuan suddenly remembered another pivotal race: the Sea Li! Sea women truly were...
Keeping a solemn face, Wei Yuan cast aside the inexplicable, bizarre notion that some almighty being had somehow shoved into his head, and returned to serious matters. The road ahead was long and arduous: not only would he have to build reservations, he would also have to build an aquarium.
Chapter 1311