Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"Cultivators...we fight to rival the heavens and exceed it, but what happens if you’re told that’s not possible? Are you any different than a mortal without legs told he couldn’t walk? Do we simply concede?" Yan Zaizen muttered to himself. Suddenly, he gnashed his teeth in unwillingness. His fist clenched deeply and his nails dug into his skin.

He recalled his life before this when he was nothing more than a child being told by everyone that he was talentless, worthless, trash and without a future. They would spit insults and words indirectly to him, as if he was unaware, but obviously with hateful intentions. He ran away, far away, to a place where those eyes and words were unable to follow him.

He coldly hmphed, his eyes flashing with dark-amber that seemed to resonate the aura of an*- imperialistic sovereign. Before his gaze, all must bow. Before his steps, his path was his own.

"Wow! I didn’t think there was such trash in this world, and you call yourself a cultivator?" He coldly laughed, attracting the gazes of the younger generation. Ma Xiuren was startled, she didn’t think Yan Zaizen would take this moment to demoralize an individual. She frowned but didn’t say anything.

Yan Zaizen didn’t care about any else’s thoughts, he continued, "You get told your limits and you simply give up just like that? You should end your life right here, right now if that’s the case." He spat out viciously. The young man’s eyes flickered, turning towards Yan Zaizen with a blank look in his eyes. This caused Yan Zaizen to become further enraged.

"Fools like you disgrace what we, as cultivators, represent." His tone grew more and more domineering, his chin rising higher, and the disdain in his eyes intensified. "We represent fighters, fighters against the heavens. We represent builders, builders of our own heavens! We represent creators, creators of our own path! Yet here you are, being told you’re incapable of traveling one path to a certain extent and you’re already willing to give up your life. I guess it wasn’t worth much to begin with."

At this point, everyone was watching him speak his own monologue. They sized him up and some even directly scoffed, as if he what he spoke was pure nonsense. However, Yan Zaizen persisted, ignoring the world’s judgment, "If you can’t become heaven-defying, exceed all expectations, how does one have the ability to exceed the heavens?! To create your own path?!"

The young man trembled slightly and the blankness in his eyes shined slightly. It was only him, it was also Ma Xiuren and a few others as well.

Yan Zaizen couldn’t help but sigh at the mindset of younger cultivators. To him who rose from nothing, he truly believed that nothing was impossible. He had gone from a young man with no future to a god amongst mortals. His originally trashy talent and intelligence were changed by the Herculean Path. In this world, there were paths one could follow to change any and everything!

Before, he couldn’t demolish a mound of dirt, but now...he could crush a planet with a fist! The very aspect of cultivation denotes exceeding your limitations, so why care about some metric?

"Hm?" Yan Zaizen looked at the monolith and noticed that it had changed its characters. On it was the number ’8’.

The others noticed too, their gazes drawing onto the hand on the young man. On his hand that was originally a golden depiction of ’zero,’ there was an ’eight’ character.

"So, your results determine your points." After deducing this, he looked towards the other monoliths. An eight didn’t seem high, but there was no information about the numbers earlier. In the myriad realms, a sixth-floor Heavenly Genesis expert was still exceptional.

"Wait...how come someone among the younger generations received such a low result?" Pondering a bit more, he couldn’t help but be curious. These individuals should be the top younger generation of their faction and thus should receive high results, right? However, this became even more curious after another figure stepped up to the white monolith.

This figure belonged to a beautiful golden-haired beauty, humanoid, and from the houyi race. Her skin seemed to glimmer with a faint, nearly imperceptible traces of sunlight emissions. The Houyi race was known for being able to absorb sunlight into their bodies and souls, capable of obtaining the race solar attribute for any path they decide to partake.

"Physique Grade - Third, Physique POTENTIAL - Five, Energy Compatibility - AVERAGE, Essence Compatibility - BELOW AVERAGE. Projected MAXIMUM Potential in Energy & Essence Path: General-Class!"

"..." The crowd was silent.

"Her results aren’t much greater than...his...how is this possible?" Yan Zaizen was a little startled. Shouldn’t these be prospective Heavenly Commanders, why are all of their results low?

The next result was a divine beast from a coyote race, but his results were even more depressing.

"Physique Grade - Four, Physique POTENTIAL - Four, Energy Compatibility - INFERIOR, Essence Compatibility - BELOW AVERAGE. Projected MAXIMUM Potential in Energy & Essence Path: Lieutenant-Class!"

"Wait! There’s an additional line?" Yan Zaizen was startled slightly, looking at the last line with some curiosity. It read:

"Bloodline Purity & Grade: Four. Primordial Bloodline POTENTIAL - Six. Projected MAXIMUM Potential in Bloodline: Lord-Class."

When those lines were read, the expression of the divine beast turned elated. His face seemed to become ugly in ecstasy, and even the female divine beasts were looking at him with shining eyes.

"Wait...Bestial Path focuses on the Bloodline and Origin Source, correct?" As he recalled the path’s direction, he couldn’t help but click his teeth. For the Bestial Path, they focus on refining and purifying their bloodline, attempting to reach their ancestors.

In legends, all divine beasts originated from a single ancestor, a single existence, and was later born as its spawn with various evolutions. It’s because of this that divine beasts could mate with any and all beasts, even if they aren’t connected to their specific race. It may be difficult, but plausible in a similar way as a Lycah being with a Gunyu.

"So they were measured by the potential of their bloodline and how far it can reach in relation to their ancestor? Interesting," pondering, he felt like he understood a little bit about how divine beast talents were decided. Unfortunately, the Bestial Path isn’t something he could traverse.

It also made sense because those who cultivate the Bestial Path cannot cultivate the Essence Path. They both required the origin source, one added to their essence and the other added to their bodies.

"Could it be that...the Bestial Path rival the Heavenly Path?" After thinking up to here, he felt like he glimpsed into the heavens. In all the paths he encountered thus far, the Bestial Path was the only path he didn’t have the ability to traverse if he wished to. There were even different classifications for talents. As a Herculean, the only path he couldn’t traverse was paths that conflicted with his own.

Many others started to take the lead, including divine beasts, but besides that young female from earlier, no other person was capable of being classified as Commander or Lord-Class. However, they had end scores from six to fifteen, with the fifteen belonging to the potential Lord-Class divine beast.

Then, Bajie walked towards the monument. His white hair, black body, and crimson eyes truly made him stand out. As he walked, Tayla, the one who had made a bet with him earlier, had eyes suffused with determination and nervousness.

Yan Zaizen was truly curious about this Bajie. He looked like a younger variation of Syi. In truth, he may actually be Syi’s descendant.

With a quick motion, his hand was placed firmly on the monolith. The glowing light released and surrounded Bajie entirely. When the glow retracted, everyone stopped their respective thoughts and turned towards the results.

"What is this?!"

"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!?"

"NOOOO!!!" Tayla shrieked, her eyes suffused with madness. Her eyes were filled with desire and also a little bit of hatred as she looked towards Bajie. It was as if her eyes were hating the fact that Bajie didn’t lay with her at this very moment, chasing her skirt, and becoming hers and hers only.

Yan Zaizen’s response was different than all others, even Ma Xiuren who had slightly widened eyes, "Oh! That’s quite impressive." He calmly regarded with a serene expression.