Revisiting

"The Three Thousand Grand Daos." In the chaotic void, Yaoguang was fully immersed in the evolution of his chaotic world. At this moment, although he possessed all Three Thousand Grand Daos, they were merely seeds, severely lacking in substance and weight. By contrast, his comprehension of the Grand Dao of the Void, the Grand Dao of Time, and the Grand Dao of Karma was exceptionally profound. In other words, he could effortlessly evolve vast expanses of space and time, but when it came to the Grand Daos representing energy, matter, and spirit—such as Creation, the Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Mind, and the Soul—his strength clearly fell short. This predicament forced him to adjust the manner in which his world evolved. "Forget it, let's keep it like this for now. The world I shape doesn't necessarily have to copy the Ancient Immortal Realm. The Ancient Immortal Realm is abundantly rich in matter; with my half-baked mastery of the Three Thousand Grand Daos, bringing that forth is far too difficult... In ancient times as I knew them, there was the concept of a domed heaven and a square earth, and some worlds were structured as planes—such as the Shadow Plane, the Fire Plane, the Nightmare Plane, and so forth. Those planes may be barren and monotonous, but evolving them will be a breeze..." Yaoguang felt a sudden urge to cut corners. Of course, it could not truly be considered cutting corners. Where quality was lacking, quantity could compensate. At worst, he could simply evolve more planes, making his chaotic world surpass the Ancient Immortal Realm in sheer volume. "Hmm, it's like a fat man. The muscle on his body naturally can't compare to that of lean, muscular martial artists, and he'd be no match for them in a fight. But what if this fat man stood three meters tall and weighed a thousand jin?" Reaching this thought, Yaoguang clapped his hands together. It was settled then. He was thoroughly familiar with the paths of Space and Time. "Speaking of which, can I make these planes grow on their own? Ideally through exponential, fission-like growth—now that would be true meteoric efficiency. Otherwise, even after tens of thousands of years, the chaotic world might not grow very much. At best, it would only be slightly larger than the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm. Wanting to swallow both worlds in one bite... er, wanting the two worlds to stop fighting and maintain peaceful coexistence would still be a little out of reach." Yaoguang pondered. To achieve this step... He would need to put effort into the Dao of Karma. The defining trait of karma was connecting the Three Thousand Grand Daos. To some extent, it was even analogous to quantum entanglement. Every cause inevitably yielded an effect. Deducing from this premise, as long as he nurtured one plane as a "cause," it would inevitably evolve a corresponding "effect" plane to some degree. With a shift of his thoughts, Yaoguang swiftly mobilized the power of the Lord of Heavenly Dao to calculate this outcome. Soon, he arrived at a conclusion. It was feasible! If he could truly become the Karma Dao Lord and project the power of the Karma Dao Fruit into his chaotic world, it would be entirely possible to harness the power of karma so that all the planes he evolved in the future would multiply in a binary fashion of cause and effect. "Looking at it this way, the Gate of Karma truly must be breached as soon as possible," Yaoguang realized. Immediately afterward, another thought struck him. In the past, he had essentially been copying the homework of the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm—the Grand Dao of the Void, the Grand Dao of Time, and the other Grand Daos, including the Karma Dao Fruit he urgently needed now. However... Starting from using cause and effect as the core of planar evolution, it seemed... He had already stepped onto a path distinct from both the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm. Could this be considered the student surpassing the master? A faint smile appeared on his face. "Next, I should focus all my attention on breaching the Gate of Karma." He shifted his gaze. Yet another thought crossed his mind. Even with the assistance of the Lord of Yuanxi, it would take the Nine Rulers at least twenty to thirty thousand years to breach the Gate of Karma—and taking forty to fifty thousand years would hardly be surprising. Meanwhile, in the cosmic starry sky... No one could cultivate to the level of a Dao Lord anymore. And the lifespan limit for cultivators of Void Piercing, Void Refining, and Void Shattering was a mere ten thousand years. Ten thousand years... Yaoguang fell silent for a moment before turning his gaze back toward his chaotic world. After a brief glance, he gathered his will near the edge of the chaotic world and closed his hand in the void. The law powers of the Three Thousand Grand Daos surged simultaneously. The power of the void carved out the foundation of all existence from the chaos. Grand Daos such as Creation, Life, Five Elements, Yin-Yang, and Order flowed forth one after another, evolving all things in the world under the interconnecting threads of karmic power, while the Grand Dao of Time ceaselessly accelerated this evolutionary process. Within that domain partitioned from the chaotic world, an expanse spanning over a hundred billion li swiftly took shape. In this territory, countless substances accumulated and condensed into magma and earth under the effect of energy. The magma piled up and soon erupted under immense pressure, shooting straight into the clouds and churning the atmosphere. Accelerated by the Grand Dao of Time, these processes seemed to compress centuries into a single instant. Before long, torrential rain poured down. Land and oceans began to form upon the ground. Immediately afterward, the Grand Dao of Life, the Grand Dao of Creation, and the Grand Dao of the Soul intertwined, giving birth to the earliest life from the depths of the ocean. These lifeforms ceaselessly evolved and grew, gradually transforming into aquatic creatures before crawling onto the shores and walking upon the land under the influence of other Grand Daos. By this time, affected by the Wood Spirit Grand Dao, the Origin Energy Grand Dao, the Lightning Grand Dao, the Evolution Grand Dao, and many others, the land was already covered with a multitude of trees and vegetation, filling Yaoguang's vision with lush verdure. Yaoguang immersed himself entirely in the scene, experiencing this process that was akin to the creation of heaven and earth. The unfolding evolution felt somewhat familiar. Yet that was only natural. Although the entire process was governed by the Lord of Heavenly Dao commanding the Three Thousand Grand Daos, even the Lord of Heavenly Dao was something he had condensed; it would inevitably reflect the influence of its creator to some extent. "So, creating life is this simple. By combining the Grand Dao of Creation, the Grand Dao of Life, the Grand Dao of the Soul, and the Grand Dao of the Mind, one possesses the foundation to create life. However, to guide these creatures to evolve in the direction I desire, other Grand Daos must still be used to influence them..." Yaoguang felt a surge of emotion. In an extremely short period, he had witnessed the birth of a world from nothingness, making him realize that, without even noticing, he had grown to such heights. A creator! A world-creating god! No words were excessive to describe what he was at this moment. Yet the days when he was a mortal... still felt like yesterday. His gaze returned to this world. As the first materially rich world he had created, he still invested considerable time and energy into it. Not only that, but he even deliberately fashioned many interesting lifeforms to ensure the world's biodiversity. Blessed by his favor, these creatures possessed far greater room for growth. Some were even born endowed with all kinds of extraordinary abilities. Perhaps, countless years later, the beings that evolved afterward would revere them as innate sacred beings or primordial deities. And this era where gods gathered would be recorded by future generations in their histories as a Golden Age. Aside from living beings, he also sculpted many magnificent wonders. For example, he hurled several boulders ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of li in diameter into the void, then channeled the Grand Daos to temper them into floating immortal islands, each naturally equipped with spirit-gathering formations. With a touch of mischief, he even carved mountain names such as Shushan, Kunlun, Xianxia, and Qionghua onto them. He threw another massive boulder into the sea, engraving the two characters "Penglai" upon it. Having done all this, he reached out and pierced through the earth, opening a realm deep underground named the Nine Nether. He then carved out a pocket dimension within this world and established the Heavenly Realm. "Speaking of which, aren't there supposed to be Six Realms?" Yaoguang pondered. Yet he felt rather disinclined to move any further. Three Realms would suffice for now; the other three realms could be added whenever he had free time. Or he could simply let the Lord of Heavenly Dao evolve them on its own. At any rate, he had no deep impression of those other three realms. "Now that these modifications are more or less complete, I need to find a dwelling place for myself. I can't live up in the sky, lest I lose touch with the warmth of the mortal world." Saying so, Yaoguang selected a densely forested area and gestured into the void, causing a towering peak to rise from the earth. "It'll be you, Qingluan Peak." Yaoguang descended onto the mountain's summit, sitting cross-legged as he considered what else might need supplementation. Time slipped by swiftly amidst these additions and adjustments. By the time he pulled himself away from the joy of creation, three thousand years had passed in the outside world. "I could have kept going," Yaoguang said. Indeed, his temperament was best suited to quietly building and developing in a secure, guaranteed environment, not fighting and killing. However, now that three thousand years had passed—combined with the three thousand years he had spent on Beihai Star and in the Immortal Realm—six thousand years had elapsed since his arrival in this world. To prevent any mishaps from occurring back on Beihai Star... Yaoguang temporarily entrusted the task of evolving the chaotic world to the Lord of Heavenly Dao as his proxy, while he departed the chaotic world and headed straight for the Ancient Immortal Realm. Because the chaotic world had grown increasingly massive over the years, Yaoguang had deliberately steered it farther away from the Ancient Immortal Realm, so the journey back cost him more than a thousand years. Once he entered the Ancient Immortal Realm, his travel became noticeably smoother. Relying on his power as the Void Dao Lord, with just a few shuttling leaps, Beihai Star was within reach. Looking at this planet where he had lived for over a thousand years, Yaoguang suddenly felt an unexpected sensation... "So small." Beihai Star... was far too small. It was like a village one could not finish exploring in a whole day during childhood, only to return as an adult and find that a few strides were enough to walk across it. This was precisely the feeling Beihai Star gave Yaoguang now. "It's been several thousand years since I last returned to Beihai Star. Still... the transmission jade talisman hasn't shattered, so there probably haven't been any major mishaps," Yaoguang thought to himself. In truth, Beihai Star no longer held much weight in his heart. It was merely a habit, a form of nostalgia. As he unleashed his divine sense, the entirety of Beihai Star fell within his perception. A few thousand years was nothing to the aloof Immortal Kings, and for a Ruler it was a negligible blink of an eye. But for the cultivators on Beihai Star—the strongest of whom were merely at the Void Shattering stage—it was more than enough time for massive changes to sweep through both the Ten Immortal Sects and the Four Great Celestial Dynasties. Among the Ten Immortal Sects, several had been wiped out. Naturally, that did not include the Heavenly Dao Sect or the Nine Cauldrons Sect. What surprised him slightly was that one of the destroyed sects was the Penglai Immortal Sect. "I helped Dao Lord Penglai forge a semi-immortal artifact... Did she not remain at the Penglai Immortal Sect?" After a moment of contemplation, Yaoguang's figure flashed as he entered Beihai Star, appearing before the heavily damaged mountain gate of the Penglai Immortal Sect, which lay reduced almost entirely to ruins.