Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

A year total.

Yri meditated not too far away from him. As she cultivated the flow of time around her fluctuated without warning or pattern, sometimes it would cease altogether. Yan Zaizen was quite curious about how Celestial’s cultivate and what the next cultivation level of a Ninth Phase Celestial Monarch would be.

Despite his curiosity, he didn’t disturb Yri in her cultivation. Instead, he fully devoted these few days to scour all the information and items within the Source Ring, making a mental catalog of everything within.

He was leaping with joy as he did. The Oneuli Empire’s Crown Prince was tremendously wealthy. The number of resources he had could fuel the cultivation of ten thousand elites to the Fifth-Floor minimum. He found it shocking that such wealth was unused.

Little did Yan Zaizen know, these resources, which the prince couldn’t use, were meant for him, his body specifically. Not only did it have a tremendous amount of heavenly materials and soul crystals, but heavens hearts of a good amount of laws and Fiendgod cultivation resources

There were books, maps, and soul jades containing all sorts of miscellaneous information about the Heavenly Origin Grounds. There was even information about the Celestial Trials established in the Dusk and other nearby regions, even Yri’s trial was listed within, including its difficulty rating and information about the rewards and failure rate.

It was mind-boggling how detailed and numerous the amount of information was within these soul jades. Luckily, his soul was powerful, and his brain had been refined by the Immortal Herculean Method, even if the Heavenly Origin Grounds restricted its powers, it couldn’t remove his empowered base.

"So much...I should refocus my attention." Yan Zaizen slowly mused about how to allocate his remaining time now. His laws foundation had been completely established with his Mortal and World Law avatars reaching their peak states, his soul had reached a bottleneck at the Perfect Astral Soul Realm, and his body cultivation was mostly irrelevant.

Yan Zaizen decided to abandon the Fiendgod Path for now. His internal energy would offer very little benefit to anything at this point. Since he would be leaving this restricted land soon, he’ll just let the Immortal Herculean Method continue to increase it as a secondarily. Not to mention, he felt that Fiendgod cultivation was inferior to the Immortal Herculean Method and the Herculean Path that it offered.

The Fiendgod Path conformed with the Heavenly Path and Laws, but the Herculean Path sought to dominate and exceed it. He remembered the vision he had when he was younger, the Herculean avatar that seemed to look down upon the heavens with disdain. It left a profound mark on his heart.

As for his soul cultivation, he felt frustrated. The Soul Source Path was most definitely broken. In the Source Ring’s dimension were countless soul materials, so he absorbed a ton using his black hole but his soul never advanced.

While he knew that it depended on personal introspection and development, he didn’t feel that he lacked any of that. He knew who he was and held no mental obstruction or false belief. His Dao which contained the essence of himself should’ve pushed his soul’s personal comprehension to its peak.

After all, the Dao could be considered a manifestation of all things him.

Sighing softly, "The broken Soul Source Path...the Divine Soul and Immortal Soul...so much information is known about it, what it does, but even in these numerous soul jades it states that no one has exceeded the Astral Soul Realm in a while..."

He felt that it was truly regretful that the Soul Source Path was broken. There were many soul cultivation arts that had side notes regarding this, even recommendations to cultivate the Heavenly Law of Soul various directions to supplement the soul’s strength.

"There has to be a reason..." The strangeness surrounding this wasn’t small. While the Soul Source Path was broken in the Thirty-Three Heavens, it was also broken in the Heavenly Origin Grounds. When he asked Yri about it offhandedly, she responded with a shrug - she didn’t know.

Celestials didn’t cultivate this Soul Source Path, they cultivated the Celestial Path which incorporated the soul already. What frustrated him more as she said the Soul Source Path had always existed even during her time, but the Divine and Immortal was simply legends across the lands.

Even in the Xiantu Realm, a small Origin Core Realm expert knew of these two levels...

Oftentimes, the lower one’s birth and cultivation legacy, the more ignorant they were. It was this very reason that Yan Zaizen had been learning as he went, with only Pinaka instructing him thus far about the world. Yet...Han Genji knew clearly.

The records existed even in the Anima Syndicate, detailed information on the Divine and Immortal Soul Realms...

"Is the path truly broken or is it a joke?" If the path was never complete, then why the detailed information about its next levels?

"This feels like something Yri would do...haha, " laughing, he said jokingly. However, Yri’s eyebrows twitched but she didn’t do anything else. It seemed that she wasn’t too bothered by his remark. After all, she was a little extreme.

Yan Zaizen decided to refocus on things that actually mattered.

"My heavenly cultivation base is the only thing left, reaching the Ninth-Floor is only a matter of time. In the two...only..." Yan Zaizen went off topic with the last word ’only’ but after a short moment, he shook his head. Continuing along his original thoughts, "two months is more than enough if I create a time zone that’s a...Yri..."

Again, his mind went off its intended path.

The words: "Only" & "Yri" kept cycling around his mind endlessly like a bad taste on ones tongue. It gnawed at him like the pain of thirst.

"Only...Yri...Yri!" Yan Zaizen shouted suddenly, breaking Yri out of her meditation as she glared over at this man calling her name endlessly. If he wanted to do so, all he had to do was remove his clothing and she was ready anytime. At that point, he could call her name as many times as he wanted!

Despite her frustration, her gaze shifted and she only softly said shyly, "Is there something you need?" If it was a normal man seeing such a beauty being shy and saying such things softly, they’d definitely become hotblooded and aroused.

However, Yan Zaizen ignored her altogether. "The Soul Source Path is like the ’Grand Soul, Dao Heart’ Art! It’s not broken, it doesn’t fully exist! A theoretical concept!"

"Pfft!" Yri nearly laughed out-of-character. She didn’t expect Yan Zaizen was that dumb. While she knew what he was going for, an Art was different than a Path. A Path that is accepted by the Heavens could not be incomplete. It couldn’t even have flaws.

As for the Path that Pinaka followed, that was just a failed Path that the Heavenly Gods allowed to exist. They were imperfect by nature hence why they couldn’t merge naturally with the Heavenly Laws. The Sirius Law was the same. For example, Yan Zaizen couldn’t turn a Spirit Form like Pinaka into a Soul. It was disconnected from the Heavenly Laws.

Not to mention, a complete Path allowed one to be Heaven-equalling at least. Being able to reach the Heavenly Creation Realm at least in terms of power or ability. The Astral Soul Realm, even in its perfect form, was far from being remotely close to that.

The Nascent Soul Realm and the Aurora Soul Realm reached the True Essence Realm, while the Astral Soul Realm barely reached the Seventh-Floor Heavenly Genesis Realm. Only the Divine Soul Realm could be classified as heaven-equalling while the Immortal Soul Realm was the peak of such state.

Yan Zaizen furrowed his eyebrows, he was about to say something when Yri interrupted.

"The Soul Source Path is something everyone feels and knows that the Astral Soul Realm isn’t the end, and many Celestial Seers have and could deduce that, even the weakest of them. This is something even I know." Shaking her head, if Yan Zaizen wasn’t who he was, she would ignore him from this point on.

As for Yan Zaizen, his brows furrowed even further. He knew about Celestial Seers as they were deeply noted in those soul jades. They were cultivators of fortune, faith, and karma. It was an odd and enigmatic profession, capable of peering into the inner-workings of these ethereal things and calculate various things, including outcomes.

It was a seer that allowed the Ruin Emperor to determine the All-Immortal Dragon’s state and location, same for the Crown Prince when looking for a Non-Entity Body, and virtually everyone who’s looking or desiring to know the direction of their fate and fortune.

They were mysterious and had incredible statuses. Even more, they could peek into Paths and Laws as well...

Suddenly Yan Zaizen said thoughtlessly, "What if it’s open-ended?"

Yri, "..."

A strange silence permeated the room.