Chapter 202: Idea's - 202
Zhou Fan's idea was to somehow combine a large number of souls into a greater soul. He wasn't quite sure how to do it, or if it was even possible, but it was the only idea he had.
He didn't want to do such a thing since he would need to kill living things in order to collect the souls needed, but he had no other ideas.
If he hadn't thought so deeply about the idea of a universal consciousness, then he wouldn't have too much of a problem with simply giving up and not doing it.
However, as he thought about it more and more, he realized that such a thing would change everything. It could help manipulate the universe itself under Zhou Fans command. He would also be able to completely ignore everything for an immense amount of time and still have the worlds be intact.
Zhou Fan thought of the problem for a very long time, but he still couldn't think of any other way.
Eventually, he simply accepted that he may need to use the soul combining method in order to create the universal consciousness. However, that problem was not without its own issues.
The souls that would be merged could not be weak, mortal souls. Even the souls of void traversing cultivators wouldn't be enough. If he truly wanted to create a universal consciousness, something with the power to watch over the entire universe and simultaneously do millions of things at once, he would at least need billions of god realm souls.
Also, he would need to completely wipe each and every one of those souls to a blank slate. In other words, it was simply impossible with his current strength.
Before completely giving up, Zhou Fan continued to think of other possibilities.
After a while, he felt that it was possible that the cosmic dao could give him some sort of understanding towards a different possibility. After all, it was essentially doing what he wanted to achieve with less interference.
Sadly, he didn't know how long it would take for him to understand something from the cosmic dao. The only thing left was reaching 100% comprehension, but he wasn't confident in facing whatever he had faced the last time.
Another possible option was getting much stronger and using or cutting off a part of his soul in order to control everything. It seemed much less evil than killing a bunch of people, but, once again, he didn't know how long that would take.
There was also the possibility that his mortal dao would naturally gain a consciousness, or he may be able to influence it in that direction. So far, that seemed to be the most preferable option, but that may also be impossible.
Regardless of the method, it would have to wait until he was stronger. The only thing he could do to start making a universal consciousness is lay out a sketch.
After thinking about the things he could do, he decided to first expand the range of his mortal dao on the planets. So far, the mortal dao was only taking up the space that the planet and the sun was within and the immediate area around them. The Zhou solar system was a bit of an outlier since it had an entire space containing multiple planets and a sun.
The mortal dao there had the biggest size out of any mortal dao area in three galaxy clusters.
Since his mortal dao would have to fully cover the entire universe at some point, he decided that he might as well start expanding them now. The mortal dao's size would grow to cover the entire galaxy they were in.
Even if the galaxy had two planets connected to the mortal dao, it would still only reach the edges of the galaxy. That would also cause the chaos Qi in almost every galaxy in the three galaxy clusters to be turned into the various Qi's.
The only reason Zhou Fan didn't expand the mortal dao's area past the galaxies was because he feared that the cosmic dao would not sit by and allow it to happen. He felt that he was already taking a big risk by pushing it this far. Any more and the chance of danger shot up.
He would have to wait until he grew stronger to expand anymore. Although he still may not be strong enough to contest with the full power of the cosmic dao, he was gambling that the cosmic dao would sense his increased power and feel that giving up such a small amount of territory was fine. After all, it had an entire universe under its command. What's three galaxy clusters compared to everything else in existence?
Of course, he was simply speculating that the cosmic dao was in control of the entire universe and not just a certain section. He had never had any way to prove whether it did or not, but he assumed that it did.
Otherwise, he felt that it wouldn't be so unmoved when someone like Zhou Fan began to exist.
Thinking about it, Zhou Fan had also been assuming that it had some sort of consciousness. In reality, the likelihood of it being similar to a non sentient being was also fairly high. After all, it had never really provoked him. The only time he had ever sensed danger was when he was pushing himself too far.
For example, messing with the bit of the cosmic dao in the center of earth before he was strong enough, or nearing the center of a galaxy cluster.
When he wasn't doing anything crazy, the cosmic dao seemed to think of him as nothing more than a rowdy ant.
That was also one of the reasons Zhou Fan felt he could get away with expanding the size of his mortal dao to the edges of the galaxies.
Based on his personal opinion and experience, Zhou Fan believed that the cosmic dao had some sort of consciousness, but was in a constant state of hibernation or something else.
After all, it had most likely been existing since the beginning of the universe. He felt that was likely because it was a part of the universe like his mortal dao was a part of him.
Chapter 203: Pushing Its Limits - 203
With caution, Zhou Fan sent the message through his mortal dao for them to start expanding. If he commanded them to move at their maximum speeds, then they would be able to cover the entire galaxy they were in after about a year.
Due to his caution, however, his mortal dao would take around ten years to completely cover the galaxies. Even when he was done, there would still be galaxies free of his mortal dao's control, but he would soon be able to fix that. It would take a little bit of travel, but it was definitely doable.
Zhou Fan watched on, using his divine sense connected to his mortal dao, as the bubbles covering the worlds began to expand. He paid special attention to the Zhou galaxy's situation.
From a glance, nothing much had really changed. Despite millions of years passing, it was highly unlikely that anyone had broken through to the lesser dao creation realm.
It was simply an entirely different playing field that could not be compared to the space shattering realm. It was especially hard due to the fact that they lived within Zhou Fans mortal dao. In order to reach the lesser dao creation realm, they would have to have a deep comprehension of the cosmic dao. The requirement was 1% comprehension.
Although that number didn't seem like much, it was a giant hurdle for many of the Zhou galaxy's cultivators. Even if a cultivator did reach 1% comprehension of the cosmic dao, they would struggle to break through under Zhou Fan's mortal dao.
Within someone else's mortal dao, breaking through to the lesser dao creation realm was 5 to 10 times harder. Although Zhou Fan had broken through outside of earth, even within earth he wouldn't have had to deal with increased difficulty.
After all, the earth was not a person. Its mortal dao had been naturally formed in some unknown way.
Even if a cultivator gained 1% comprehension of the cosmic dao and successfully broke through to the lesser dao creation realm, they would not be able to create a mortal dao in the same way that Zhou Fan did.
Naturally, two mortal dao's couldn't exist in the same area. In order for someone to successfully create a mortal dao, which was a requirement before they could break through any further, they would have to create it within themselves and keep it there.
They could still use the power of their mortal dao, but they could never expand it to planets or other things unless they were outside of Zhou Fan's mortal dao.
However, if Zhou Fans mortal dao were to truly surpass the cosmic dao, that would be completely different. After all, it would evolve from a mortal dao to something else after a certain point.
Zhou Fan didn't know if that would be after it expanded throughout the whole universe or sometime before then, but if it was sometime before then he would have to keep it inside his body like the people under his mortal dao would.
One thing Zhou Fan barely noticed was that the lesser dao creation realm shouldn't have had the requirement of a mortal dao in order to progress. It seemed that when he chose to form one, the very path of cultivation changed to follow it.
That led Zhou fan to many other questions.
'What is the path to cultivation? Did it exist before me? Am I the creator of cultivation itself? What is Qi? What exactly is the cosmic dao?'
Many such questions flew by Zhou Fan's mind, but it was far too early for him to be able to answer them.
He continued to watch as his mortal dao expanded.
He could only watch about ten thousand mortal dao planets at the same time before he wasn't able to focus on them as well.
As his mortal dao started to reach about a fifth of the way through the galaxy, Zhou Fan felt a slight feeling of danger flicker through his body.
It wasn't much at all, but it clearly made its presence known. It was as if he was walking near the lair of a sleeping dragon.
Clearly, the only thing that could give off such a feeling was the cosmic dao. Although Zhou Fan didn't halt expansion or even slow it down, he paid much more attention to the cosmic dao.
After a while, his mortal dao covered around 50% of the biggest galaxies. As soon as it reached the halfway mark, he sensed more danger appearing.
If he was simply walking near the dragon's lair before, he was now standing at its entrance. Luckily, this particular dragon seemed to have a good temper.
Once again, Zhou Fan merely increased his caution and let the mortal dao continue expanding. His mortal dao continued to expand.
After five more years, his mortal dao was only a mile away from reaching the edge of the biggest galaxy any planet connected to his mortal dao was in. All the other galaxies had been completely covered and the mortal dao stopped expanding at the edge.
Zhou Fan was able to fully focus himself on this single galaxy near the center of the tree-like galaxy cluster.
As his mortal dao crept closer and closer to the final edge, he started to feel as though some sort of pressure was building up around him. If he pushed the pressure too far, it would immediately explode. This was the first time Zhou Fan felt an actual threat from the usually silently existing cosmic dao.
Clearly, he had started to push its limits. Still, he was no coward. He decided to finish what he started and let his mortal dao push towards the edge of the final galaxy.
Just as the pressure felt like it was going to explode, Zhou Fan's mortal dao reached the edge of the galaxy and he immediately stopped its expansion.
In an instant, the pressure disappeared. By now, Zhou Fan was sweating bullets. He felt a slightly similar feeling to the time when he tried to fully comprehend the cosmic dao.
He wasn't sure exactly what had happened then, but he was now sure it had something to do with the cosmic dao.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
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