Chapter 3 - Seeds of Creation

Markandeya floated above a vast magma lake, his soul flickering gently like a flame dancing against the wind.

He had survived. He had begun cultivating Qi and Fire. And now, more than ever, he felt something shift within him—not power exactly, but… depth. Like the foundations of a house being laid brick by brick in a realm where a single mistake could collapse it all.

He wasn't in a rush. He couldn't afford to be.

Even if his instincts urged him forward, his cautious mind overruled them with brutal pragmatism.

Rushing meant death. Always.

But curiosity?

That was a different thing entirely.

If this place is the core of the world, does that mean there's a surface? Life? Civilizations?

The thought had haunted him since the moment he woke up, but he hadn't had the capacity to act on it.

Now, with some control over his cultivation and a deeper understanding of this world's mechanics, it was time to explore.

He drifted upward—slowly.

The higher he rose, the denser the rock became, but it wasn't dead. No. It pulsed with veins of spiritual minerals and traces of otherworldly metals.

Here, the energy changed.

It wasn't just fire anymore.

Earth energy. Pressure-forged Essence. Even hints of metal and lightning flowed in patches.

Markandeya paused his ascent. He reached out again, letting his soul thread through a nearby mineral cluster.

A surge of foreign essence invaded his form, but instead of resisting, he let it touch his cultivation spiral.

There was a flare—an overload of signals—and for a moment, everything froze.

> [Chakra Cultivation Path: Triggered]

Base Affinity: Balanced

Energy Nodes: Locked (1/7 Identified)

Cultivation State: Dormant Activation

Chakra? He blinked mentally.

He hadn't meant to trigger that one yet. But his soul's constitution had begun integrating it automatically the moment the right energy touched it.

A realization dawned:

The system doesn't force me to follow a specific order.

It lets me evolve based on what I interact with.

Each energy was like a key.

And his soul… was the door.

Markandeya backed off the mineral cluster, absorbing only a sliver of the energy to maintain stability. There were dangers here. Overactivation could tear him apart.

He floated for a time, processing the new energy flows and examining his soul. The spiral of Qi had now become a double helix—intertwined with fiery elemental strands. And somewhere around it, a faint golden ring shimmered: the dormant sign of chakra awakening.

If I keep absorbing like this, I'll form a cultivation base that defies logic.

But then—wasn't that his very nature?

A soul forged from anomaly.

A system born from the Creator's slumbering spark.

He began to think.

His instincts guided him to absorb.

His survival instincts guided him to hide, to test.

And his curiosity?

It was beginning to evolve into creativity.

What if he didn't just cultivate?

What if he could build?

Not just power for himself… but structures, systems, foundations.

In the silence of the underground, an idea took root.

Can I create something inside my soul?

Not just absorb. Not just harmonize.

But birth a space that belonged only to him.

A realm.

A seed of a world.

He began at once.

First, he halted all active absorption and entered deep meditation.

Then, using the Qi spiral as a central foundation, he carefully layered energy.

Fire for ignition. Earth for stability. Chakra for balance. A fragment of lightning essence for motion.

Like sculpting from within, he compressed these energies into a flicker—a micro-sphere just beneath the spiral's axis.

It shimmered.

Wobbled.

Threatened to collapse.

But didn't.

> [Inner World Seed Formed: Proto-Galactic Core Detected]

Cultivation Type: Faith-Linked Realm

Realm Quality: Infant (Inert)

State: Non-Sentient / Energy Stable / Creation Possible

Markandeya opened his mind in awe.

It wasn't just a pocket dimension. It wasn't a spatial ring.

It was a living space within him—a beginning galaxy, though it had no stars yet. No planets. No life.

But it was his.

His instincts were screaming now. He could feel it:

This seed would become more than storage. It could evolve into a base of power, of creativity, even companionship.

What if I created beings inside this place?

The thought struck him like lightning.

In his past life, he had always enjoyed world-building. Drawing maps. Designing life systems. Imagining entire civilizations.

Here, it wasn't a fantasy anymore.

He could do it.

Create lifeforms, stories, civilizations—and as they grew, their belief in him would feed back into the system.

Faith Cultivation.

And not just borrowed faith—but cultivated faith, from lives born of me.

But he would need to be careful. Any life he created would consume energy. Drain his core. Put pressure on his evolving cultivation.

Yet… the benefits could be immense.

He pushed the idea aside for now.

It was too soon. Too unstable.

He needed more power.

He needed to explore more of the core world. Learn its laws. Gather information.

He drifted upward again, reaching a hollow zone where massive floating platforms of glowing ore created stair-like steps.

A sudden pulse hit him from above.

An unnatural one.

Markandeya stopped.

There, in the sky of the underground world, he saw it—an artificial formation. A construct.

Not a natural mineral cluster or beast.

It was a relic.

A towering monolith surrounded by blue flames, embedded halfway into a dome of crystal.

Its presence disrupted all energy flows around it.

His soul shuddered just from sensing it.

> [Fated Encounter Detected]

Origin: Unknown Civilization

Energy Signature: Mixed Law Fragments

Risk Level: Unknown

Status: Inert (Partial Activation Possible)

Markandeya stared, drawn to it like a moth to flame.

He floated closer, ever cautious.

Even the air—if it could be called that—around the relic hummed with restrained power.

Suddenly, the system buzzed again.

> [System Alert: Entry Requirements to Immortal Cultivation Chat Group - Initiation Met (2/3)]

• Spiritual Resonance Signature: Achieved

• Fated Encounter: Achieved

• Karmic Shift: Pending

So… this was the second condition.

The relic.

A vision bloomed in his mind.

A world of shattered civilizations. Fragmented laws. Stars falling. Time breaking.

It wasn't memory. It wasn't prophecy.

It was… an echo.

The relic's echo.

And in that vision, he saw a young boy standing against a collapsing sky, holding a glowing orb.

That boy looked familiar.

It was… him.

Markandeya gasped and pulled back, cutting the link.

He wasn't ready for that kind of exposure.

Not yet.

But one thing was clear.

This world wasn't just a random spiritual realm.

It was a graveyard of old cycles. A birthing ground of something vast.

And he was part of it.

Maybe even central to it.

He drifted lower, away from the relic, soul trembling with new knowledge.

His cultivation had advanced. His soul had formed a seed of creation. And now, fate was slowly laying the path forward.

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