Celestial Clan

After countless teleportation that had left me bored, I finally materialized within the sacred grounds of the celestial clan in the upper world. The patriarch, here has fused with the strongest destiny known to exist.

My guide led me through corridors, until we reached the meeting hall. The patriarch was an ancient figure, his weathered face bearing the weight of eons as he conversed with another cultivator. When we entered, the other man departed with a respectful bow, leaving the patriarch to turn his attention to my companion.

"What have you discovered?" The patriarch's voice carried the authority of mountains. "Why was the heavenly way vibrating with such intensity?"

My guide straightened, pointing toward me with barely contained excitement. "Lord Patriarch, we found the answer. This person obtained that title years ago ~ the very one we've been searching for. I convinced her to come here."

" Where? "

The moment those words left his lips, the patriarch's gaze fell upon me as I met his eyes. His eyes widened with sudden alarm, and I felt the weight of his aura pressing against my me.

"How did you manage to evade my senses?" The patriarch's voice had turned deadly serious, his aura erupting outward like a volcanic explosion. "You stand here, yet I cannot perceive you."

The crushing pressure of his spiritual energy filled the hall. I remained unaffected behind my creation shield, but my guide ~ a realm lord no less ~ staggered under the weight of the patriarch's power.

While the old man struggled to comprehend my presence, I was already at work. Quietly, I copied the heaven suppressing item inside directly into my internal world, wrapping it in protective shields. The immeasurable jade ruler and the book describing the great expanse divine dao ~ both treasures were now mine.

Task completed, I met the patriarch's bewildered stare. "My name is Tao. I was here from the beginning."

The realm lord who had brought me here found his voice again. "Lord, please retract the pressure, this is precisely what I wanted to report."

".....We located the origin of the disturbance and found a complete Mahayana lotus projecting with thirty-six petals in the divine flame realm. He was there, undergoing tribulation. I arrived with other realm lords who could sense him perfectly, but the flame venerate and Huo Venerate present couldn't perceive him at all ~ not unless he looked back at them."

"Is this true?" The patriarch's eyes bored into mine as he began weaving a divination technique, trying to read my fate and past.

"Yes," I replied simply, allowing him to probe. His technique found nothing ~ according to his prophecy, I didn't exist.

" You can leave", he told my guide here and he left expecting some reward for finding precious sky-lord.

"How should I trust you?" Suspicion laced every word. "I don't believe you are from this universe."

" You don't need to believe me then. Something about my physique makes it difficult for others to perceive me, which includes my fate or even sight unless I wish to.."

"...."

" I thought you would not be upfront about it." He said finally, his voice carrying calm, " Now I understand why Saint's disciple told me about you."

My interest sharpened. "You've heard about me?"

"You don't have any fate ~ just like the other one devised by the saint's disciples. But his fate was merely masked. You clearly don't have any." The patriarch settled back to his after pointing to mine, his aggressive posture softening.

"Back then, when someone asked your name to know where you were, Tai Bai used his calculations to locate your current situation, only to find the same result ~ no such existence. But your appearance was shown to me by the person who asked. Later, it matched what the Linglong tower revealed."

"It was Luo Yan, wasn't it?" my voice steady. "She was the only person I directly communicated with in this universe, aside from perhaps killing a few bandits, some witch clan members, and visiting the Linglong tower. And ~ this Taibai who is he?."

The words felt strange in my mouth. I had been talking mostly to myself and Af'u the puppet for years now. This might have been the longest conversation I'd had with another person in five or six years.

The patriarch's expression grew thoughtful. "The destined one's sister with the same name is indeed missing, she might be. Up until a few years ago, before Luo Yan was taken, it was extremely difficult to determine fate and make calculations in that particular realm, even with his ability. He wanted me to investigate, but I entered and found nothing."

The patriarch continued, "I was following the developments and initially thought it was the witch clan or something else. We had no clue. Well its good that you shown yourself now."

"Interesting." I wasn't particularly phased by their search. "Well I am sure about the perception part. So my goal in coming here is simple ~ the person who arranged this visit promised access to certain cultivating opportunities, even if one misses the dream battlefield that's supposed to happen in a few years."

"No, it can wait until you tell me who you are." The patriarch's voice hardened again. "You have no records other than some people meeting you and as an alchemist."

"My name is Tao. I only wish to cultivate. And I believe my actions didn't interfere with any plans of yours, because I kept secluding most of these years"

Silence fell again. The patriarch studied me with eyes that had seen the rise and fall of countless yan years.

The patriarch leaned forward. "We will need a promise from you. Considering you use the internal essence of the universe to cultivate and grow to whatever you are, are you willing to use our help in exchange for looking after this universe in the upcoming crisis period?"

"What crisis?"

"You may have noticed there are increasing numbers of geniuses being born during these times. Then there are the Saint's plans, some flaws in the heavenly dao, the Dream battlefield predicted in a few years ~ it all indicates the universe is about to face some turbulent weather.

Possibly from beings above the universe. You may not know about true Gods, as I said initially about TaiBai he is one. You also mentioned killing witch clans ~ yes, they too are planning something. But the geniuses are only growing up. A little later, we are not sure how many will stand."

The weight of impending catastrophe settled over the hall like a shroud from him. I considered his words knowing exactly what all those were.

"I can help you within my abilities. Now tell me what you can offer?"

" Can your ability conceal others?"

" No it's just me."

" If that is the case, what we need is you to not interact with much with geniuses. The people like TaiBai has already arranged plans for saving the saint, only one unknown fate is enough. Two of you can create a lot of chaos. So your actions can affect since you are not within their design. You can act as one of our hidden backups if things go wrong."

So these people just want me to stay away.

" Well are you saying you would give me opportunities for not interacting with people? Well that's what I was doing all this time.."

"Okay then, If you agree to the ideologies of the celestial clan, we have cultivating spaces here with abundant heaven and earth energy, supreme divine grade weapons, supreme techniques and such. We have more, but you will receive them after a period of trust."

" I don't need any of that"

"....What do you mean?"

" Literally. Let me be honest with you. I don't really have any need to ally with your celestial clan, unless you agree to this. The only reason I came here is because I wish to enter Godly Forbidden Land, because I learned about it from somewhere. Otherwise I am wasting my time here..."

In this universe, there is no actual controller as of now as saint is on verge of death, so I don't expect anyone trying to isolate or prevent me from furthering in cultivation. But if I went to Godly Forbidden land, there is an actual person there.

Even though he wouldn't be able to sense me immediately or attack me, but suppose let's say he found the anomaly during my explorations. I don't know if his place is separated by minor realms or is it a single world. Then I would be depriving him of his control. Up until now my thought is to not annoy a saint thinking I am a worldly virus. Any way I am trying to use his world to my benefit, better to let him know.

" .... Give me few days to think about it. I don't think they will resist you from going there since you have opened full lotus. You can cultivate here in the mean time."

" Ok"

...

I was allowed stay. A week later, I have absorbed whatever knowledge I could from their vast library, I was called over and informed that I will be given opportunity, but it will have to wait a year or two.

Well I it seems I have to change my approach. If his plan is to send them with bunch of Daozi's.

Nope.

" I can't wait that long, I will be a realm Lord by then. Goodbye. Thank you."

" Ms. Tao you jest. It's not that easy for us to convince everyone for this immediately. You will be limiting your potential to heavenly venerate if you didn't stay with us. We have the means to help you go further..."

" Good Bye then.." With that words I used great teleportation before they could sell me any other discussion.

Honestly I have been thinking, If I enter Saint's world, myself would be exposed in one way or the other. Be it going through trouble of trial talismans or teleporting, cultivating chaos Qi that could leak or realm clouds of mine during breakthrough. I will be leaving a lot of traces. A lot of explaining would be needed which I don't really need for.

Coming here wasn't a total waste of time since I got the Great Expanse Divine Dao book and infinity Ruler.

Later portalled directly into the immortal mansion courtyard. From there, I entered the Cultivation Tower to stabilize my transformation at the second level.

Cultivation

After four days of normal time, meaning nearly a year and two months inside tower, a solid landmass appeared on the surface of my internal chaos ocean. The time ratio within my inner world had become controllable ~ approximately ten thousand times faster than the outside world.

My soul had grown significantly in strength, but I had deliberately stopped the transformation to higher fate stars to adhere to TDG world laws, maintaining what I currently possessed. Instead, my soul strength would increase according to the natural mechanics of the current world.

Meaning only cultivating the sovereign energy axis sutra part of the technique.

After all, what would be the point of returning to Tales of Demons and Gods if I became so overwhelmingly powerful and no cultivation steps that everything there bored me to death? The journey was just beginning, and I intended to savor every moment of discovery and growth.

Advantages of my Land of Beginning

Two more months passed inside tower as I stabilized my new realm. Within my internal world, a delicate balance was forming between land and ocean. The land itself was still a conical island floating in the ocean of chaos, shaped by the nature of the World Tree's root system. Without this organic foundation, it would have been mostly flatland. 

The energy within the cultivation tower and the ultimate map of cosmos continued to prove useful. Around 400 stars had been contracted and were directly channeling stellar energy to my inner world. I decided to use the outer wall of creation energy to transform this stellar energy, and the process worked flawlessly. The energy translated completely to solidified chaos energy and appeared as new hollow landmasses rising from the ocean floor.

During this time, with the assistance of the LoHP, I deliberately accelerated the natural progression of life within my world. All sorts of aquatic flora and fauna began to flourish as tiny organisms, creating a diverse ecosystem.

But after establishing this foundation, I stopped interfering. My direct involvement could potentially prevent the emergence of some diverse creatures that might evolve naturally.

The last extinction event for the previous ecosystem had been the transformation from true essence to Qi of primal chaos, which had completely wiped out all existing life forms.

The World Tree root finally made its way to reach the creation energy shield, where I opened small gaps as needed. The moment it pierced through the gaps, far away in the outer domain, the previous portals opened and gigantic tree roots emerged. The World Tree channeled energy to the world bound within creation energy through cross-world divine ability, creating a stable connection to the infinite chaos outside.

After finding out everything working as theorized, the last step is initiated. The extended roots were dissolved into creation energy and the structures were reformed through it again connecting seamlessly back to world tree.

This is because, next time cutting of world to higher dimension within myself, the transformed roots can directly merge back to shield and recreate when needed and even grow. And it can now translate any form of energy beyond chaos and feed back to tree.

To anyone witnessing its true scale within outer domain would be a fascinating. A root appeared out of nowhere in chaos several thousand meters in size seems to disappear slowly only to reappear in a short while later.

Evil Counterpart

My Land of Beginning Life possessed a crucial advantage ~ it won't create an evil intent version of myself as the creator. For that to happen, as in Luo Zheng's situation, there needed to be a fundamental mismatch between the creator and the created world. He was a creature made of chaos and true essence, but his internal world and the beings within were made of chaos Qi, with their internal worlds similar to those in the God Domain.

Normally, a Land of Beginning allowed creatures like Evil Gods to be created ~ beings that could steal the creator's talent and had vastly more time to learn and adapt within the internal world, ultimately becoming insurmountable obstacles.

Cthulhu, or the evil god in Luo Zheng's case, was a collection of all evil thoughts and resentments from his internal world. Its birth wasn't coincidental but rather a world robbery of talents and comprehension. Cthulhu had been formed by the will of Luo Zheng's Land of Beginning Life and couldn't be killed by conventional means.

But unlike him, I wasn't a creature born of equal energy level carrying a holy domain within. I was made from creation energy itself, and my world was bounded by the same energy but internals made of chaos energy.

Stealing from me? You can dream about it.

This meant the creator's talent couldn't be stolen merely due to the fact that my internal world operated on a lower tier system like the ones made of true essence in the God Domain. I wouldn't have the lifelong headache of battling an evil version of myself.

Acts of God

The chaos integration was complete. The foundation had been laid for powers beyond imagination. But next step is waiting for intelligent beings to be born within and form civilizations. Three months has passed on outside. Which meant 25 years has passed for me inside actively devouring chaos from outer domain, and my internal world gone through nearly 2.5 million years. 

During these time internal world expanded to 10,000 miles.

Due to presence of heaven and earth energy from world tree and due to fact that internal beings arise from the power of visualization, the evolution inside was faster than one without. And it favors the creation of humanoid races which are intelligent, similar to its creator.

The first multicellular became fishes, amphibians, reptiles and amphibians within 2 million years. Humanoids began to form in the last 500,000 years and human like species in the last 500 years.

The creatures formed are intermediate beings of chaos energy, they can only visualize true essence for cultivation, but inorder to do that divine trees like one's in God Domain is needed. The current divine world tree produce true essence, that most of them I intentionally converted to Chaos Qi, for the rapid proliferation of land.

The emergence of normal divine trees would take dozen or more millions of years, so the tree seed was helpful.

As soon as humanoid beings showed true intelligence of learning sign languages and drawing, they I appeared in front of them floating in air. And thus I gave them a unified language and a God to pray for. Well it took some time, but hey, they went from eating each other to animals and plants now.

It was fun playing around with them. I gave them fresh farming lands and rain when they asked for, light when they need it. My requirement was for them to reproduce and cultivate.

The stone statues they created for me are all of my current form. Well I also ordered them to stop self sacrifice in the name of asking for wishes after few of them did exactly that under some buffoon's enlightenment. There is much less intelligent beings around and you want to kill them?.

I split single large land mass into multiple continents across chaos sea. Then after a certain level of population, wars began to happen internally and externally with the continents. I paid no heed.

Since I wished for intelligent humanoids to arise faster and develop, I have prevented many extinction events locally in select areas. Besides normal humans, humanoids with wings, and more racial abilities also were developed. Until they formed clans themselves, I left them on their own. 

The world tree gave rise to another animal race that can photosynthesize and live in branches. In the beginning they tried to carve holes into world tree, but with their strength it wasn't possible. I showed them how to build tree houses. They were left to take care of the needs of world tree and the surrounding land. I also made them a protective species as the world tree is now near 10000 meters tall and there is a small ecosystem happening there. Outside interference will ruin it.

Internal beings seem to have intrinsic idea about cultivating body to better themselves. They found unable to cultivate Chaos Qi and switched to true essence automatically but most of them fell near innate realm and no advance further. It was because there isn't much true essence within the world, as I used most of them for expanding land and most importantly haven't laid down the tablets of laws within.

Although the perception of laws where possible, it is difficult in a holy domain and condensation of law power in tablets will help them attune their techniques to ascend to higher realms. I established trial ground for promising talents which would finally lead them to most suitable laws and they could spread it later. No clans existing can be said to form a civilization, but this trial grounds would be present for those who seek knowledge and talent and for those who find it in future.

So after these years civilization finally formed with few people of cultivation divine sea realm. The population was growing very fast because it was the edict from God and I have successfully stepped into Divine Transformation.

After that power of faith began to condense but it was mostly unusable as faith in god and fear also accumulated separately and my realm won't allow use of that energy. However special zones began to form out of this energy. 

Library of Dao's path

During these years, one major change happened was LoHP is no longer separate. It seems consciousness is now grown enough to fully merge with itself. Even though I asked LoHP as a wish back then, the ability was set to comprehend the truth of the world. It seems God judged my intent properly as truth of any world, as I am capable of visiting any.

I have a world within myself, by definition I have crossed heavens as soon as I stepped into Divine extremity. It was more of library of Truth's path. Now I am instinctively capable of recognizing flaws and record it in memory of consciousness. It converges into my comprehension ability.

There is no need to spend time learning it inside mind space, knowledge will seamlessly sync. My perception whether it was soul sense or eyes could see the flaws of whatever beyond the techniques based on learned knowledge. I could see a door deep within my soul, part left of LoHP. But no way to find what it was as it is illusionary.