Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Chapter 168 Cultivating the Heavens

Yan Zaizen’s eyes were tightly shut. His muscles were relaxed. Within chaotic space, there was only darkness. No air, sound, light, or smells. With his comprehension into the law of space, the ever-present ripping force no longer affected him.

Therefore, Yan Zaizen was currently without his four main senses, but he could perceive so much more without them. In this state, his mind was free and open. It was as if he was floating not in chaotic space but the vast heavens itself. Raising his hand, he caressed the empty space.

"Space is always present but invisible, but at its most primal form, it is untouchable. It is stable to the utmost, housing all, soul, body, and mind as the greatest home."

CLENCH!

Viciously clenching his hand, the surrounding space solidified. It turned into something touchable.

"Time is always present..." His mind calculated, interconnecting with the vast laws beneath the heavens. Since his last closed door cultivation session, Yan Zaizen had felt the law of time, but he couldn’t interconnect with it. It was as if his mind couldn’t grasp its ever-elusive concept.

Chaotic Space, at its core, was the Imperial Law of Spacetime. However, unlike space which is defined by its stability, time here is defined by its instability. It slows down and speeds up erratically. He spent sixty full years here yet only two years passed in the myriad realms.

"Time is always present, but at its most primal form is untouchable but visible. It is chaotic to the utmost, being undefined and distorted. Unsuitable for all things. It progresses soul, body, and mind." His thoughts were soaring in the proverbial clouds. He felt free and at ease.

The concept of space and time was the same as yin and yang, life and death, creation and destruction. They denoted very, very different things yet one without the other can only exist as an incomplete whole beneath the heavens.

Very slowly, his eyes opened. However, it no longer contained its amber-gold luster. Instead, it was filled with a chaotic dark-grey. If space was silver, then time was dark-grey. His eyes seemed to contain the very essence of time. One moment, they would give the feeling of hyper-acceleration while another would give the feeling of halting to the absolute slowest.

"What is time? Time is chaos and direction. What is space? Space is order and stationary." His words were slowly mumbled. As the dark-grey started to vanish from his eyes, so did the vestiges of time.

He found himself floating within a space, but this space was incredibly familiar to him. There were countless motes of light of varying colors dotting the area. Each mote contained a concept. A concept that was born within the heavens.

Heavenly Domain of Law!

When Yan Zaizen first entered here, he was in Han Genji’s mountain home. At the time, it was all so indistinct, but as his cultivation continued to increase as well as the strength of his senses and breadth of knowledge, he perceived it with heightened clarity.

His eyes were drawn to a familiar silver figure at the corner of his vision. Turning, he saw an ambiguous humanoid silver form that seemed to exude peak stability.

"Spatial Form of Infinite Stability."

As he looked at the motes of light surrounding it, he recalled Pinaka’s words. The majority of concepts relating to space were beneath its feet. They floated around as if catering to its whim.

"A concept that governs a majority of other concepts within a heavenly law." Then he looked towards the other batch of silver motes. They were surrounding a single figure as well, but they swirled around it in utter chaos, holding no specific pattern in their flight.

"Another? It’s... Spatial Form of Chaos?" Yan Zaizen was shocked. It seems there were two sides to every coin. He started to feel that the heavens demanded balance. Space and time, life and death, yin and yang. Even within the law itself, there are two parts representing absolute difference and perfect balance.

Turning away, he saw a dark-grey light thrumming in the distance. Unlike the other concepts, this one stood out as if calling for him. He felt chaotic time within this mote of light. Similar to before, it seems he needed to establish a connection with the concept. Afterward, he can house the concept in his soul and harness its power.

Reaching out his hand, his body that seemed infinitely far away, appeared directly in front of this concept. His mind grasped at the concept. When it touched, he could feel his soul and mind become far, far clearer than before. A name appeared into his mind.

"Temporal Wind of Eternal Change."

His mind, soul, and thoughts returned back to his body. His eyes searching the surrounding space, but now, he could see faint dark-grey winds of time. They were wildly inconsistent, always shifting without order or timing.

CLENCH!

Clenching his hand, the dark-grey wind gathered towards his hand. As it did, the progression of his hand, its speed in movement or the pumping of his blood, started slowing down as if it existed on a different timeline.

The dark-grey wind seemed to be the essence of time. If gathered, it slows down the progression of time, but the winds were incredibly sparse in some areas. These areas constantly shifted, causing time within them to be faster in comparison to outside. It seems this was why time was so fast here and slow in the myriad realms. In the chaotic space, these sparse areas of temporal winds was abundant and ever-present.

Whenever his body entered these areas, he could experience varied minutes in seconds of the outside world. However, if he entered one of the few areas with dense winds, time would slow down for him but speed up elsewhere. Despite this, his perception and sense of time remained ever consistent, a second to him was always a second, regardless of the outside progression.

"I see..." Unclenching his hand, the dark-grey wind scattered, allowing his hand to return to normal. He felt that he had gained some insight into this. If the Nascent level allows you to exert minor control, Force level would enable you greater control, and Manifestation level allowed you to draw from the heavens and manifest it. He didn’t know about Domain or Sovereign level, but he had some thoughts.

Domain level likely meant establishing a minor heavenly space that only contains that Heavenly Law. From his assumption, Sovereign level could allow you to draw out a majority of the heavenly law’s power, if not all. It’s probably why they can extract Regalias of Heaven.

"Temporal Wind of Eternal Change?" Pinaka’s voice was shocked. Being interconnected with Yan Zaizen’s soul, she lived with his conceptual laws, so she knew when a new one enters her domain. However, she couldn’t believe it. With this, Yan Zaizen had developed four powerful concepts of World Laws. The laws of life, death, time, and space.

If...he could also do soul.

Just as she thought this, Yan Zaizen’s eyes lit up in sky-blue iridescent light. Internally, his brain was glowing with profound soul fluctuations.

"Truly! A Non-Entity!" Pinaka couldn’t help but feel amazed. She finally and truly understood why every expert wanted a Non-Entity as their secondary avatar. If their perception could be gained, even a tenth of it, the limits one could reach would be extraordinary. With their abilities to mentally perceive laws without any clouding thoughts or confusion was truly heaven-defying.

"Guess...that’s why it’s considered a heavenly mistake." While she was lamenting at Yan Zaizen’s unfair advantage, Yan Zaizen was already back in the Heavenly Domain!

In front of him was a world of sky-blue light. He felt an extraordinary soulforce undulating from the area. There was a myriad of different types of soulforce intermixed within. As he weaved into the world of light, he could sense a familiar aura.

"Phantasm?" Looking around, he found a sky-blue mote that seemed to fade in and out of existence. It had an imperishable feeling to it. It was as if, as long as it wasn’t destroyed, it would survive all time!

As he continued to swim through the light, he felt empty somehow. Suddenly, his mind shook! He discovered something.

There was no soulforce similar to Pinaka’s! Intelligent and self-sufficient. The only one that came close was the aura that resembled Spirit Forms. It seems True Spirits truly do not conform to Heavenly Law! However, in that case, how do they exist beneath the heavens?

As he recalled this, he remembered an important phrase that stuck with him: "Below the heavens are the earths and skies, above the heavens are the earths and skies."

Recalling the Immortal Herculean Method description, how it covers five levels yet the second required an object that denoted the peak of heavenly law...he felt that he glimpsed upon the answer.

"Could it be...? Someone...created a new concept?" This was his first thought. A concept created outside of the 33 heavens but incapable of being accepted or rejected by them! They can only destroy if possible.

He felt his horizons broaden. What was the world above the heavens?

Just as his mind was slowly getting lost in unfathomable thoughts, a bright sky-blue light that seemed to embody everflowing spirituality attracted his attention from afar in the world of light.

"This is?" As his desire to get closer emerged in his heart, he felt the world warp and he arrived directly before a mote of sky-blue light. It seemed indiscernible from others, but also vastly different. With a reach, he felt his soul enliven.

SCREE!!

A clarion cry of all souls resounded suddenly, and he returned back to his body. He breathed out turbid air. This turbid air wasn’t physically stored within his body but previously entrenched deeply in his soul. As it surged out of his body, it went from a small wisp to a stream to a gushing geyser of turbid air!

It erupted from his mouth as if escaping from something within his soul. It looked demonic and if one looked closely, it seemed to contain a myriad of scenes and faces. This continued for thirty hours. For thirty full hours, in an amount that could fill a large lake, turbid air escaped his soul. However, as it entered chaotic space, it was ruthlessly shredded by the indiscriminate force.

Various cries appeared like a bird of various types. When all this happened, Yan Zaizen was terrified. He had a feeling that the air just released was living! If given some time, they could grip his soul in unimaginably terrifying ways.

A name popped into his mind after.

"Ever-Shifting Soul." He murmured. Information about the law that was deep within his brain started to emerge. He discovered it was a concept of processing the soul by purification, modification, and transition. To purify the soul, to modify the soul to ready it for the final step, transitioning the soul to another entity.

Essentially, with this, he could theoretically process his soul into a phantasm! He now understood why, in the Asura Phantom Realm, there was a hell altar and phantasms. It seems this orb allowed the Palace Master to become and create one without consuming millions of souls as a phantom to do so.

With this law, you could even revert back to a normal soul or any soul under the heavenly law! The only flaw? It couldn’t create a soul.

Filled with curiosity, he checked his soul. He found his dark-amber orb sitting nicely in the center, but at his soul form’s brain area, a sky-blue orb was radiating sky-blue light. He felt that his soul had been thoroughly cleansed of any and all impurities. However, when did he...

Oh...

"Soul crystals." It was likely the impurities developed from using soul crystals. While practicing his soul arts, he used a lot of soul crystals to recover his lost soul energy. "Then...those things were?"

He shivered, not wanting to think about it any longer. In truth, soul essence was produced by the soul of the living and dead. For example, the Dead Soul Desert’s sand can absorb soul energy from others and form soul crystals. It’s just in a neutral form that anyone could absorb for their own use. However, this soul essence leaves behind taint and filth in the soul. This could lead to many, many difficulties in soul progression and delay your ability to seek enlightenment.

Taking a deep breath, he steadied his mind. Taking out a small, golden bottle filled with liquid, his gaze grew determined and heated. "Heavenly Law Liquid!"