Chapter 396: Cultivation 1.2 - 396
After the Heaven sect, many other sects and organizations throughout the Zhou Supercluster began to either move to the great world or create a branch there.
The Buddhist sect managed to get a place in the core realm due to its connection to Ying Xiong. A few other organizations that had connections to members of the cosmic sect managed to get into the core realm, but compared to the amount of space in the core realm, it was essentially devoid of sects.
Ying Xiong personally traveled all around the great world in order to set up many teleportation arrays. Otherwise, not many people would be able to travel around.
Most of the teleportation arrays were free to use as long as a person had enough Qi to activate it. It was a charity from Ying Xiong. There were also teleportation arrays that led to the teleportation hub, which also held many other teleportation arrays that moved to the great world. Like the other arrays in the teleportation hub, however, these required a price to use.
Ying Xiong had essentially taken over the core realm, and only those he allowed to enter dared to. After all, he was the sole god realm cultivator in the universe if you ignored Heaven.
Other than the core realm, the rest of the world was a free for all. Some sects tried to fight against the native beasts and supreme beasts, but others tried to co-exist with them.
Ying Xiong only cared about the core realm, and there were only a few beast races and supreme beasts that he had allowed to live there. They were the races with great potential and those who were friendly to the native humans.
One of the reasons that Ying Xiong cared so much about the core realm was due to the appearance of a resource that Zhou Fan had made. He called them godly stones, a higher version of spirit stones. They had more condensed Qi inside them.
They were useful to even inner world realm cultivators. Ying Xiong had no clue if they were useful to god realm cultivators as he was unable to cultivate any further ever since reaching the god realm.
He had recently gone to Zhou Fan and complained.
"Sorry about that. I completely forgot to increase the upper limit. Give me a bit of time, I may completely update cultivation again." Zhou Fan had responded.
Ying Xiong nodded his head and returned to the core realm.
Zhou Fan seriously thought about it and began to implement cultivation 1.2.
It would just be a minor update. After nearly a billion years of work, cultivation 1.2 was released.
The change that Ying Xiong cared about the most was the increase of the upper limit of cultivation. It was now possible to reach the first level of the true god realm, though Zhou Fan did not know if even Ying Xiong would be able to.
The 2nd change was the only other change. It was the addition of tribulations upon trying to break through certain realms. Zhou Fan did this so that talented cultivators would no longer be able to simply coast through realms. It was a change that affected all living and even non-living things in the universe.
After all, if a tree could cultivate, perhaps a rock could.
There would be tribulations upon trying to break into the soul formation realm, the void traversing realm, the lesser dao creation realm, the inner world realm, the god realm, and the true god realm.
With this addition, many cultivators were extremely surprised. An uproar went through all cultivation worlds.
Those at a lower level believed that cultivation had simply changed for some reason.
Only those in the cosmic sect or with connections to the cosmic sect understood that it was the work of the origin god, even though nobody understood why.
One of the reasons that the Heaven sect was so close to the cosmic sect was the fact that the origin god was revealed to be the creator and father of Heaven itself. This caused them to feel a sense of closeness.
With their connection, the Heaven sect was immediately able to understand what was going on. The sole inner world cultivator of the Heaven sect, the Tian of the current generation, went so far as to ask Heaven about this. Heaven had come to the great world as well since he was not actually restricted to the Heaven galaxy.
It was later reported that the Tian was slapped in the face for daring to question the origin god's actions.
Despite that, Heaven did indeed go find Zhou Fan, almost at the exact same time as Ying Xiong.
Ying Xiong was truly curious as to Zhou Fan's reasons, though he did not really care about the implementation. Any truly talented cultivator, not just in cultivation, but in battle, would be able to pass the tribulations.
On the other hand, Heaven mostly just wanted to see Zhou Fan again.
They managed to find Zhou Fan sitting on a cloud above the core realm. He had been thinking about a few things, including future cultivation updates. He had also been observing the great world as he had been away for a billion years.
"Father." "Zhou Fan." Heaven and Ying Xiong said at the same time. They looked at each other before looking back at Zhou Fan.
"Hello." Zhou Fan said without turning around. "Is there something that you two need?"
"Not really." Ying Xiong said first. "I'm just curious as to why you created tribulations."
"Mostly for fun. Also to make the cultivation journey less smooth." Zhou Fan said.
"Alright. Since Heaven is here, I won't bother you too much." Ying Xiong said as he turned around and left.
"Hello father." Heaven said.
He still had the appearance of an old man with black and white hair, which made Zhou Fan feel slightly weird, but he ignored it.
"It's good to see you again. Did you also come here to ask about the tribulations?" Zhou Fan asked.
"Just as an excuse. I wanted to see you again after so long." Heaven said after a moment.
"I see. It seems that I have ignored you. Let's hang out for a few years." Zhou Fan said as he got up and turned around. "Just one condition, change your appearance."
"Alright." Heaven said as he made himself younger. He looked about Zhou Fan's age. He did not care about appearances as his true appearance was literally an eye.
Chapter 397: Impending Battle - 397
Zhou Fan and Heaven descended down to the core realm. More specifically, they descended down to the Heaven sect. As soon as the members of the Heaven sect saw Heaven and Zhou Fan flying down, they trembled and prostrated themselves on the ground.
They never even imagined seeing Heaven descend one day. They had never seen him before, but one glance was enough for them to feel it.
Zhou Fan and Heaven entered the palace in the middle of the Heaven sect. There, they met the current Tian, named Tian Yer.
They only briefly exchanged greetings before Zhou Fan and Heaven entered the back of the palace.
Heaven had led Zhou Fan there to show him something. Far below the ground, in an underground prison, a man was locked up by immensely powerful chains. The chains were made up of the most powerful natural metal Zhou Fan had ever seen, as well as infused with a bit of Heaven's power. The man being held was at the 1st level of the inner world realm.
"Who is he?" Zhou Fan asked curiously. He had never seen an inner world realm cultivator locked up.
"He is the one who killed the 3rd generation Tian, the one after Tian Fu." Heaven said.
"Why not just kill him?" Zhou Fan asked.
"Because of some things he said. I'll let you see for yourself." Heaven said as he walked into a cell where the man was chained up.
Only then did the man's gaze leave the floor. When he saw Heaven, immense rage bursted out of him.
"Anything you'd like to say now?" Heaven asked.
"Just the same old. I am the one who carries the mandate of Yao Mun. His will has led us this far. He will return." The man said.
"Who is us? How will he return?" Heaven asked.
"I am the one who carries the mandate of Yao Mun. His will has led us this far. He will return." The man repeated.
"Answer." Heaven said.
"I am the one who carries the mandate of Yao Mun. His will has led us this far. He will return." The man repeated.
Heaven slapped him unconscious and left the cell.
"See. I don't know if he is insane, but he claims that Yao Mun is leading him and other people, and that he will return one day." Heaven said.
"Have you looked for Yao Mun?" Zhou Fan asked.
"I have, but could not find anything whatsoever. Not even records of his existence, which is even more suspicious as the man in the cell seems to know him. What if you look?" Heaven asked.
"Why would I do that? It would spoil any interesting developments." Zhou Fan responded.
There seemed to be something going on, and Zhou Fan was absolutely interested in how it would play out.
He and Heaven left the underground prison, which even the current Tian seemed unaware of.
They left the Heaven sect and went to the cosmic sect.
Zhou Fan was quickly recognized, though no one seemed to recognize Heaven. That was until Ying Xiong arrived.
"Why aren't you all greeting Heaven?" He asked.
The members of the cosmic sect were stunned for a moment, before greeting Heaven. Only one person around them was unknown, and if Heaven was around, then it was obviously him.
Heaven just nodded. He had only come because Zhou Fan had led him to the cosmic sect.
Zhou Fan slipped away from the crowd with Heaven and entered his mountain. As he returned, he received a surprise.
Near his courtyard, there was a grave and a man cultivating near it.
"Lu Wei." Zhou Fan said.
Lu Wei opened his eyes and looked at Zhou Fan. He seemed happy, before his eyes were filled with grief.
"Father is dead." Lu Wei said.
"People die on the path of cultivation. You must move on." Zhou Fan said.
"I know. But that does not stop me from mourning." Lu Wei said.
"I see. This is my son, Heaven." Zhou Fan introduced.
Heaven nodded at Lu Wei.
Lu Wei looked at Heaven before speaking.
"He may not understand it. Do you? How would you feel if he were to die?" Lu Wei asked curiously. He naturally knew who Heaven was.
"I too would mourn, though I may actually die if he dies, I'm not sure." Heaven said.
"What do you mean?" Lu Wei asked with confusion.
"I am made from a part of his soul. Who knows what the effects of him dying would be. At the very least, I know that I would lose my cultivation." Heaven said. "That would naturally lead to my death."
"Then perhaps you couldn't relate. Anyway, it is nice meeting you." Lu Wei said.
He turned to Zhou Fan and nodded.
"Good day, Uncle." He said before beginning to cultivate again.
Zhou Fan nodded and entered his courtyard. It truly was a pity that the old man died.
He and Heaven relaxed in the courtyard, bonding as father and son like they never had before. They fished together and ate together for years before finally leaving the courtyard and parting ways.
Zhou Fan sighed. It was good to see his son.
He once again sat on a cloud above the core realm as he thought. There was a lot he wanted to do before breaking into the next realm. That was because, as soon as he broke through, he planned to fight the last difficult fight of his life. A fight against the cosmic dao. He had a gut feeling that, even if he did not provoke it, it would come for him when he broke through.
No matter how passive it was, would it really just watch as Zhou Fan became able to completely overpower it?
He only knew that it was still beyond him now due to the fact that he could not find it.
As far as he could see, there was no battle for him beyond the cosmic dao. That would be the last time, and perhaps nearly the first time, that he actually fought a difficult battle. He was excited.
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