Chapter 429: The Power of Cultivation - 429
Zhou Fan could not resist as he shot back, piercing through stars, galaxies, planets, and countless other space things. He only stopped after an unknown time. He did not die. He still had his cultivation, but he did not have any Qi.
Wait!
Zhou Fan's eyes lit up.
Suddenly, the Cosmic Dao appeared. It had truly taken the form that Zhou Fan had imagined it in, though it was now smaller, about the size of Zhou Fan.
"You should have died with dignity. Upon breaking through, you could have been peacefully absorbed, but now you must die like this. So pitiful. Let me ask, what is it like to lose everything you have ever worked for?" The Cosmic Dao asked.
"For someone who just gained intelligence, you sure are annoying as hell." Zhou Fan said as he stood up despite his body being covered in blood.
The Cosmic Dao was about to speak, but Zhou Fan spoke first.
"You are misunderstanding something. I have not lost what I have worked for."
The Cosmic Dao Laughed. "Then go ahead. Do something, anything."
Zhou Fan shook his head. "I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. You see, I was also mistaken, let me enlighten you."
"I never worked for Chaos Qi, I merely comprehended it. It was simply a talent. Given by chance. What I worked for was cultivation, and no, it is not the same."
The Cosmic Dao stayed silent.
"I created cultivation, I did not explore it. It was not there before me, I understand it now. Meridians were an organ from the beginning, I simply chose to use it as a vessel for cultivating. It could have also been the liver, or even the kidney. I can't say how I did it, but I created cultivation as I moved along. It did not exist before me. It can not exist after me. Chaos Qi was the electricity, but Cultivation is the machine."
Zhou Fan paused. The Cosmic Dao opened its "mouth" to speak, but just before it spoke, Zhou Fan opened his mouth. The Cosmic Dao stopped what it was about to say, but words never left Zhou Fan's mouth as it closed again.
The Cosmic Dao waited for a moment, before opening its "mouth" once again, but the same thing repeated.
After the fifth time, the Cosmic Dao exploded. "Are you trying to play some sort of game!? Either speak or die!"
Zhou Fan made a "wait" motion with his hand. "Finally, I grasped your weakness, or rather, perhaps you did."
The Cosmic Dao stopped and looked at Zhou Fan.
"You gained intelligence, and intelligent beings aren't in a rush to kill someone that they deem unable to resist. You've given me time. Thanks." Before the Cosmic Dao could react, Zhou Fan smiled and power burst out of him.
To its great astonishment, the Cosmic Dao was pushed back far away.
"Impossible! I took away your Qi." It shouted as it looked in Zhou Fan's direction.
Zhou Fan walked forward, revealing himself.
Rotating around him was a river. It seemed endless, but in Zhou Fan's hands, perhaps it had an end.
"Without Chaos Qi, my cultivation is an empty shell, but what if I used cultivation to power my cultivation?" Zhou Fan said.
"That makes no sense!" The Cosmic Dao shouted as it attacked with countless gray threads. These threads were made from Chaos Qi and far more powerful than before.
"It's paradoxical, but it works! I got the inspiration from you!" Zhou Fan shouted as he pointed out with a finger.
"Cultivation finger!" He shouted.
The river of cultivation surged around him as a giant finger appeared and moved forward.
It had no color, but was not clear.
The threads were instantly dispersed, but the finger continued forward.
"THIS IS MY POWER! THE POWER OF THE ORIGIN GOD, THE POWER OF ZHOU FAN, THE POWER OF CULTIVATION!" He shouted as the finger continued forward.
The ball that was the Cosmic Dao was hit, and it fell back. Now, there was a visible crack in it.
Zhou Fan stepped forward.
"I am no longer reliant on Chaos Qi, or anything from anyone else. This power is mine alone. A power that started with me and shall end with me. This is the power of cultivation."
Another finger shot out and, without being able to put up resistance, the Cosmic Dao was pushed back again and cracked.
Although the finger seemed simple, each one was the most powerful attack that Zhou Fan could muster up. The river of cultivation seemed to be growing smaller after each attack, but it seemed as if it would outlast the Cosmic Dao.
The Cosmic Dao screamed and resisted, but Zhou Fan was now above even it. Nothing could match him. Eventually, it turned to reasoning.
"You don't understand. I am everything. If I am gone, the nothingness outside will devour everything. We are the only two things. Everything and Nothing. You can't resist the power of nothing." It shouted.
"We'll see. You should have stayed without intelligence. You talk too much."
As Zhou Fan pressed on and attacked with one finger at a time. His body began cracking. He was severely injured beyond understanding.
He was also not recovering, but fighting with everything he had. Every second that passed, his injuries were growing.
Still he knew that he could not simply leave the Cosmic Dao. It needed to end. There was no alternative.
At this point, nearly a fourth of the universe had been destroyed. Zhou Fan's strength was incredible, and although the Cosmic Dao was being suppressed, it was still nearly of equal power.
There was no more suspense or surprise. As Zhou Fan pressed on, the Cosmic Dao slowly shattered. As the ball finally cracked and turned to dust, Zhou Fan waved his hand and it disappeared from the world.
He stood silently for a moment as injuries plagued him. His entire body was cracked like a shattered mirror, but he had never felt more peaceful.
Suddenly, the walls of the universe seemed to begin breaking, slowly moving inward.
Zhou Fan sighed. "I really can't catch a break to heal. I have to deal with this now. At this point, it will be a miracle if I survive."
Zhou Fan moved the river of cultivation, now much smaller, and siphoned off a bit of it. He turned it into the various Qi's and spread it throughout the universe.
"Since the Cosmic Dao isn't here, Qi won't be automatically recycled."
Under Zhou Fan's control, the Qi that he had spread would cycle with life and death, but eventually, the amount of the Qi would decline. There would likely be a very small amount of high realm cultivators who could exist at one time.
Zhou Fan was preparing to go into deep seclusion to heal. Without him or the Cosmic Dao active, this needed to be done.
Zhou Fan siphoned off some cultivation from the river of cultivation again, this time turning it into Chaos Qi. He felt as if the river of cultivation, now a part of his power, had endless possibilities.
The Chaos Qi went to the wall of the universe and reinforced it. It was shabby work, but Zhou Fan was so injured he was about to die. Luckily, it would likely hold on for a while. Hopefully, he would recover.
Suddenly, his mind went blank and he began to fall. His injuries had become too much.
Chapter 430: A Wooden Ring - 430
Zhou Fan's mind was completely unconscious as his body floated in space. After an unknown amount of time, he briefly gained consciousness, but he could not move a muscle.
He could only tell that he was about to fall unconscious again before he did so.
An unknown amount of time passed as Zhou Fan remained unconscious. His mind was completely blank.
—--------------------------------------
As clouds covered the sun, a boy around the age of 12 carried a basket of freshly picked apples down a path. To the sides of the path were endless plains with many trees.
The boy continued to walk through the peaceful surroundings with a sense of calmness.
Suddenly, an exposed wooden stump caught his foot and brought him down. The boy was instantly pushed out of his peaceful mood and cursed at the ground.
"Damn lousy path. Who could have screwed up a path so badly. It's not as if it's a hard thing to create." The boy grumpily picked up apples, but realized that there were only a few around him.
"Damn hill." The boy looked to the side and watched as apples rolled down a hill. "I can't lose these. I've already lost baskets a few times, if it happens again, I'll be fired."
The boy mumbled to himself as he carefully walked down the steep hill. Downwards, there was a more forested area.
It seemed that the forest was where the apples had ended up.
The boy was annoyed, but went down to the forested area. Losing another batch of apples would cost him his job, which would likely get him kicked out of his house. Again.
The boy mumbled as he entered the forested area and picked up apples. "Damn lousy parents, making their 12 year old son pay rent. What a joke."
Suddenly, a cave caught the boy's eye.
"Was there a cave down here?" He asked himself.
The cave was going downwards into a small hill not too far away. Since he was already going to be a little late, the boy decided to enter the cave. After all, he had never seen it despite being in the forested area before.
The boy mumbled to himself. "Perhaps a cultivator is inside. Maybe he'll accept me as a disciple. Imagine that."
He did not hold any hope, but the sudden appearance of an unknown cave gave him the idea at least.
The boy walked up to the cave and looked inside. The entrance was half his height, but inside, it seemed to expand.
The boy looked around before crouching down and crawling through the hole.
"Was this cave revealed by that earthquake?" The boy suddenly remembered the shaking of the ground not too long ago that shocked the village.
When the boy finally entered the expanding area, he was shocked by the inside of the cave. On the walls were sparkling blue crystals that lit up the interior.
The boy's eyes widened as he went up close to the crystals and seriously examined them.
"This… This couldn't be a spirit stone mine could it!?" The boy was shocked, before fear settled in.
Cultivators would kill for a spirit stone mine. It could invite calamity to the entire village. Although it was just a small possibility, the boy was worried that it would happen. After all, he had heard many stories of such things.
The boy wanted to turn around, but he hesitated. He had always wanted to cultivate, but he had never been taught by another.
Although Zhou Fan had put the basic cultivation technique in the minds of all life, it gradually faded to the back of the mind as cultivation society grew.
It was still relevant for beasts, but humans would usually need to either be guided or meditate deeply.
The boy longingly looked at the cave walls before deciding to move further in. At the very least, he could take a look.
The boy walked as he admired the spirit stone mine. There seemed to be hundreds of thousands, though he could not count them. And this was only on the surface. It was also unknown what grade the spirit stones were.
Eventually, the number of spirit stones began to lessen. The boy was surprised. Although he did not know anything about spirit stone mines, he knew that they were usually full to the brim.
"Perhaps a normal cave is connected to it?" The boy had no idea and could only guess.
Eventually, normal stone walls replaced the spirit stone, but the boy went deeper in curiosity.
As he turned a corner, he jumped back shocked. It was hard to believe what he had seen.
He looked again, and saw the same thing.
Leaning against the end of the cave was a person wearing gray clothes. He had gray hair as well, and blood seemed to form a small puddle under him.
After a moment, the boy spoke. "Hello?"
There was no response.
"Sir? Are you dead?"
Once again, no response or even movement.
The boy gained the courage to stop hiding behind the wall and moved towards the person.
As he got closer, he could see an imprint on the ground and the wall that the person was leaning against. It was clear that he had been there for a long, long time.
The boy gained courage as nothing happened. "A cultivator?"
The boy got closer and closer, but suddenly, it looked like a finger on the person twitched.
The boy looked down in shock, but his attention was grabbed by the sudden opening of the person's eyes.
The person's eyes were wide as he looked at the boy. He reached out and touched the boy on the hand before his eyes went limp and his body fell backwards.
The boy finally reacted and jumped backwards, falling onto the ground.
He breathed heavily for a few minutes as he stared at the person.
As everything returned to normal, he calmed down. He turned around and ran out of the cave.
As he did so, he couldn't help but look down at the wooden ring that had suddenly appeared on his finger.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
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