All the heavens, starting as the ruler of the universe

Outside the Dragon Palace, the sea had returned to its usual calm.

After burying the corpses of the old turtles, Ao Qing turned around and stretched out his hand.

"Brother Lin, these are the golden cores of those cultivators. Do you think they'll be of any use to you?"

Thirteen golden pills lay in his claws, varying in size and luster.

Li Changqing's was the largest, gleaming with gold; the other two, both at the peak of the Golden Core stage, were next, pale gold; the remaining ten, at the early and middle stages of the Golden Core stage, were much smaller and duller in color.

Lin Yan took the golden pills and held them in his palm.

Starlight emanated from his fingertips and slowly seeped into those tiny spheres.

Ao Qing stared at him nervously, her tail wagging unconsciously.

After a long time, Lin Yan raised his head.

"it works."

Ao Qing's eyes lit up: "That's good!"

Lin Yan didn't reply, but just looked at the golden pill in his hand, lost in thought.

"Ao Qing, do your dragon clan also have golden cores?"

"I don't think so. Although I am at the Nascent Soul stage, I don't even have a Nascent Soul."

When Ao Qing transmigrated, he was already at the Nascent Soul stage and did not start cultivating from scratch.

"This golden core is ingenious. It is not only a product of solidified spiritual energy, but it can also leverage a portion of the power of the rules."

Lin Yan lifted up Li Changqing's golden elixir so that Ao Qing could see it more clearly.

Starlight seeped into it, and the patterns inside the golden core gradually appeared—they were not simple energy patterns, but an intricate net, like some kind of ancient rune.

Ao Qing leaned closer to look, his eyes wide with surprise.

"The power of rules? You mean... this thing can be used as a talisman?"

"They're different." Lin Yan shook his head. "Talismans are the embodiment of rules, nodes on the network of cosmic laws. But the power of rules within this golden core is his own 'understanding'."

He paused.

"He cultivated for a lifetime, absorbing spiritual energy, tempering his body, and condensing a golden core. In this process, his understanding of the 'Dao' and his perception of the 'rules' were engraved into this golden core. This is not the rule of the universe, but the rule as he understood it."

Ao Qing nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"So, in the end, cultivating immortality means transforming one's understanding of the rules into the true rules of this world? It means merging one's body with the Dao?"

Ao Qing's eyes widened, as if he had grasped something crucial.

Lin Yan looked at him and nodded slightly.

"It is one way. Cultivate yourself into a part of the rules, so that heaven and earth recognize your way and resonate with you. The ultimate goal of this path is to merge with the way—you are the rules, and the rules are you."

"That sounds amazing..." Ao Qing murmured.

"But it's also very difficult," Lin Yan said. "It requires your Dao to be completely in harmony with the laws of heaven and earth, it requires you to cultivate to the extreme, and it requires you to give up many things."

"However, there is another way."

"Another one?"

"By bypassing the rules and deceiving the will of Heaven."

Lin Yan raised his hand, and starlight condensed into a small vortex in his palm.

"It's not about making yourself a part of the rules, but about transcending them. Don't let the laws of nature discover you, don't let the rules bind you, and go wherever you want."

Ao Qing listened intently.

"This actually works?"

"Of course," Lin Yan said. "Many powerful beings in the world follow this path. They do not pursue unity with heaven and earth, but only transcend them. Their path is independent, unaffected by or restricted by the outside world."

Ao Qing thought for a moment.

"Which one is stronger?"

"It depends on the person."

The starlight in Lin Yan's hand continued to seep into the golden core, allowing him to continue analyzing it.

This time, he saw things more deeply.

Ao Qing noticed that his expression had changed.

"Brother Lin? What's wrong?"

Lin Yan did not answer.

He simply stared at those golden pills, his brows furrowing slightly.

He didn't speak for a long time.

"Ao Qing, you said before that spiritual energy only started to dissipate in the last few hundred years?"

"Yes, according to the old tortoise, although the spiritual energy used to decrease, it could still be maintained. In recent decades, it has been decreasing faster and faster, and it's almost impossible to absorb any more."

Lin Yan nodded.

Do you know what the essence of Reiki is?

Ao Qing was taken aback.

"Isn't it just... the energy between heaven and earth?"

"It's energy, but where does that energy come from?"

Ao Qing thought for a moment.

"Did heaven and earth arise on their own?"

"Yes and no," Lin Yan said. "The spiritual energy or other mysterious energies of every world have a source. Not a geographical source, but a source at the level of rules."

He raised his hand, and starlight flowed from his fingertips, transforming into countless fine threads that spread in all directions.

Those fine threads pierced through the sea, through the void, and through every inch of this world.

"Now that the spiritual energy here is gone, it means that the rules here have changed."

During the conversation, the starlight threads traveled through mountains, rivers, and the sky, eventually converging into a vast net.

"This is..." Ao Qing murmured.

"Methods for investigating the rules of this world."

Before long, the starlight threads returned from all directions and disappeared back into his palm.

Lin Yan looked down at the cluster of starlight, his brows furrowing slightly.

Ao Qing stared at him nervously, his tail no longer wagging.

"Brother Lin? What news?"

Lin Yan remained silent for a few seconds before slowly speaking.

"The rules remain unchanged."

Ao Qing was stunned for a moment.

"No change? What do you mean?"

"That means the rules of spiritual energy are still there." Lin Yan raised his head and looked into the distance. "On this rule network, the rules of spiritual energy have not disappeared, nor have they been destroyed. They are still there, intact."

"Then...why is the spiritual energy gone?"

Lin Yan did not answer immediately.

He simply looked at his palm, where a small fragment of starlight had condensed—it was the aura he had extracted from his golden core.

There are two possibilities.

Ao Qing held his breath.

"The first possibility is that the Heavenly Dao has malfunctioned," Lin Yan said. "The rules are still there, but they can't function properly. It's like a machine where the parts are all there, but the power is gone. The rules governing spiritual energy are still there, but the 'function' of generating spiritual energy has failed."

Ao Qing's heart sank.

"The second type..."

Lin Yan paused.

"The second one is even more terrifying."

Ao Qing's tail tightened.

"Someone has obscured the way of Heaven."

Lin Yan's gaze fell into the distance, into the depths of the void beyond the reach of the starlight.

"The rules still apply, but the spiritual energy generated has not entered this world."

"Then...where did it go?"

"It was sucked away," Lin Yan said. "Not sucked away from the world, but intercepted by something the instant it was created. It's like a river; the source is still there, the water is still flowing, but the riverbed has been diverted. All the water has flowed elsewhere."

Ao Qing fell silent.

Neither of these two possibilities is something he can solve.

"I'm going out to take a look later."

Lin Yan gently clenched his fist, and all the golden pills trembled simultaneously.

"I will change their structure."

Starlight seeped into the golden core, and the ancient runes began to change.

It's not shattering, not melting, but being rewoven—like someone taking a bunch of loose threads, one by one, and weaving them into a new net.

Ao Qing was stunned.

He could sense that the aura of those golden cores was changing.

"Brother Lin, what's wrong with you...?"

"I'm reweaving their rules and patterns," Lin Yan said. "I'm removing the personal imprints of those cultivators, retaining the energy and fragments of rules. Then I'm connecting them together into a whole."

The starlight grew brighter and brighter, and the golden cores began to merge.

It's not that thirteen golden pills become one, but rather that thirteen golden pills form a circle, connected by starlight, creating a complete ring. At the center of the ring is a small vortex.

The vortex was slowly rotating, like an eye.

"This is……"

"A device that can connect to the rules of spiritual energy," Lin Yan said.

He raised his hand, and the halo floated in front of Ao Qing.

"I can only stay in this world for three days. I have things to do. I'll leave this device to you."

Ao Qing stretched out his paw and took it.

"It connects to the rules of spiritual energy, releases spiritual energy for your cultivation, and can be carried with you at all times."

Ao Qing cautiously touched the halo.

The moment the halo touched him, it dispersed, transforming into countless points of light that surged into his body. These points of light traveled along his meridians, finally coalescing again at his dantian—

A halo the size of a fingernail floated there silently. At the center of the halo was a small vortex, slowly rotating.

Then--

A surge of spiritual energy.

It wasn't absorbed from the outside world; it flowed out from within that halo.

It flows continuously and endlessly, far surpassing the life-sustaining spiritual energy emitted by the Dragon Palace's spirit-gathering array.

"Brother Lin... this..."

"Take it. I've already analyzed spiritual energy, and I'll be able to cultivate it in a while. I'll need you to bring me some cultivation techniques then."

Ao Qing nodded emphatically: "No problem, Brother Lin, leave it to me."

------

Outside the Dragon Palace, Lin Yan's figure slowly disappeared.

The next second, moonlight shone down on the sea.

Lin Yan's figure appeared out of thin air and hovered in mid-air.

He raised his head and looked up at the night sky.

Two moons.

One large and one small, hanging side by side in the sky.

The larger one is the original moon of this world.

Its grayish-white surface, covered with meteorite craters, silently illuminates this desolate world.

The smaller one...

Lin Yan narrowed his eyes.

The smaller moon is in the wrong position.

It is not a naturally formed celestial body.

Its orbit is too perfect, maintaining a constant distance from the larger moon. Its surface is too smooth, without craters or wrinkles, like a polished bead.

With a slight thought, starlight surged from Lin Yan's body, enveloping him.

The next second, his figure disappeared from the spot.

When he reappeared, he was already standing on the surface of that small moon.

Beneath my feet was a smooth, mirror-like surface, free of dust, rocks, and any trace of natural landforms.

The surface of the entire moon looked as if it had been carefully sanded, reflecting the cold light of the real moon overhead.

Lin Yan squatted down and reached out to touch the ground.

Starlight seeped from his fingertips, seeping into the smooth surface.

Then he "saw" it.

Beneath this thin outer shell lies a densely packed structure of runes.

The runes were layered and crisscrossed, like a giant net woven from countless threads. Each rune was slowly flowing, emitting a faint light.

Lin Yan stood up, and starlight spread out from his feet, penetrating into the entire interior of the moon.

His consciousness spread with the starlight, gradually "seeing" the full picture of the moon.

It is not the moon.

It is a formation.

A massive array covering the entire sky.

At the core of those runes was a bottomless vortex. The center of the vortex was pitch black, like an eye, coldly watching the world below.

Lin Yan's starlight probed into that vortex.

Then he felt it—

Reiki.

A vast amount of spiritual energy.

All the spiritual energy that disappeared from this planet was transferred to an unknown entity through this small moon.

Lin Yan withdrew the starlight and stood there quietly.

He got it.

The spiritual energy of this world has not disappeared; only the spiritual energy of this planet has disappeared.

The spiritual energy that should have existed on this planet was stolen and transferred to this small moon.

Some of the runes on the small moon continuously transmit spiritual energy to another being.

And that existence...

Lin Yan raised his head and looked into the depths of the starry sky.

There is a person there.

Or, to put it another way, an existence that was once a human being but has now been completely transformed into an energy life form.

He sat cross-legged in the void, surrounded by endless spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy flowed in from all directions like billions of rivers, entering his body and being absorbed, refined, and possessed little by little.

"Um?"

The man who was cultivating suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes were as deep as black holes, as if they could devour all light.

At that moment, a hint of doubt flashed in those eyes.

He sensed that someone was watching him.

He lowered his head and looked at the river of spiritual energy surrounding him.

The rivers continued to flow steadily, converging from countless directions and flowing into his body. He raised his hand again and gently tapped the air.

A rune appeared.

That was the core of the formation he left behind, connecting the nodes he had set up on various planets.

The runes shimmered faintly; everything seemed normal.

He closed his eyes, his consciousness spreading out along the runes.

One planet, then another, then another…

Too far.

He had been wandering in the void for too long and had set up too many nodes.

Some planets are just a thought away from him, while others require years to reach.

He scanned the area but found nothing unusual.

The person watching him seemed to be just his imagination.

But he didn't believe in illusions.

He had lived too long and experienced too much. Those "illusions" that he had once ignored had eventually become deadly threats.

He was silent for a few seconds, then opened his eyes.

"Let's go take a look."

He muttered to himself.

Lin Yan, who had observed everything, was somewhat surprised that the other side could detect his gaze.

"interesting."

Lin Yan murmured to himself.

The fact that the being could sense his gaze indicates that the other party's realm has already touched the edge of the rule level.

However, the fact that the other party could not pinpoint his exact location indicates that his level is still inferior to that of the starlight avatar.

Lin Yan withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the blue planet below.

Ao Qing was still in the Dragon Palace, his dantian filled with the halo he had given him, and he was excitedly absorbing spiritual energy.