The Peerless Tang Sect: Heavenly Heart Douluo

In the vast universe, countless celestial bodies gather and disperse, ultimately leaving behind only one enormous planet, brimming with immense energy.

On this planet, after tens of millions of years of evolution, various cultivation systems have flourished and competed for dominance.

To facilitate comparisons between different systems, this planet divides cultivators into classes.

The first tier represents the weakest beginner. On this planet filled with powerful energy, even the weakest creatures can reach the first tier once they reach adulthood and consciously absorb the energy of heaven and earth to strengthen themselves.

The second tier is an advanced level above that. Martial artists temper their physical bodies and undergo a complete transformation, mages cultivate their spirits and touch the nature, and other sects also have their own methods of definition. This is the second tier, which can effectively utilize the energy between heaven and earth, rather than simply absorbing and refining it.

Third-tier powerhouses can refine the energy of heaven and earth to undergo a deeper transformation, easily crushing hundreds of second-tier cultivators. Upon reaching this stage, the lifespan of most cultivators in various cultivation systems will begin to change and be extended.

The standard for fourth-tier powerhouses is partial energy conversion, such as a martial artist's physical body or a mage's spirit. When their most relied-upon combat and cultivation vehicles are converted into energy, their efficiency in utilizing and absorbing the energy of heaven and earth will greatly increase.

The lifespan of powerful beings at this stage will be extended as much as possible with the replenishment of the energy of heaven and earth, without external interference, and they will no longer be troubled by the physiological phenomena of ordinary beings.

Whether it's the fifth or sixth rank, it's about expanding from the initial energy transformation to other parts until the cultivator's physical body, spirit, and soul are all fully energized. Once a cultivator completes this stage, they can truly be considered to live as long as the heavens.

As energy becomes more complete, all kinds of means and combat power will increase dramatically and change rapidly.

The seventh rank is another level. With complete energy transformation, cultivators, regardless of their original race, are now completely transformed. Their human strength can rival that of dragons, and there is no longer any difference between races.

However, such a powerful being would also lead to a significant decrease in reproductive ability, because after being fully energized, the essence of procreation is actually to split one's own original energy in order to create an existence that bears one's own imprint but has no consciousness of its own.

Therefore, experts above the seventh rank rarely have offspring. For them, lifespan is endless, so what is the point of having offspring if there is no need for inheritance?

The seventh order pursues quality.

After their physical body, spirit, and soul have all completed the process of energy transformation, what they seek is to continuously borrow a large amount of energy from heaven and earth to refine these three elements and make them even stronger.

This stage is also the stage where cultivators are most likely to die, but not because of problems with their cultivation, but because of external forces.

Although the energy of heaven and earth is abundant, it is too scattered, and its absorption and refinement are quite complicated. Even for a seventh-order powerhouse with a long lifespan, simply accumulating strength to reach the eighth order is a very troublesome matter.

Therefore, they often choose another, faster way: hunting down other seventh-tier powerhouses.

Because a seventh-tier powerhouse has already completed the complete energy transformation, the energy left behind after being obliterated will not disappear. And this vast and pure energy, which has lost its self-conscious control, is much easier to collect and absorb than the energy of heaven and earth.

Therefore, on this land, the ones most likely to fight to the death over resources are the seventh-tier powerhouses. To each other, other seventh-tier powerhouses are the most valuable resources, far more convenient than trying one's luck in searching for rare and precious materials.

The energy of an eighth-tier powerhouse's body, spirit, and soul has been pushed to its limit. While they can continue to improve the purity of their carrier's energy at this stage, they have a more rapid way to enhance their strength.

That is the power that carries the laws of heaven and earth.

A body, spirit, and soul composed of pure energy allow an eighth-tier powerhouse to bear the power of the laws of heaven and earth without being assimilated by them.

The abilities of a powerful being who has mastered the power of laws far surpass those of someone at the seventh rank.

Every move they make is aided by heaven and earth, and every word they utter is imbued with law. Such powerful individuals often dominate a region on this planet, without interfering with each other. Otherwise, if they were to fight, the resulting destruction would be unimaginable.

Ninth-tier powerhouses are even rarer, with only one emerging every ten thousand years. This is because ninth-tier powerhouses wield the power of rules; in other words, they wield the Great Dao itself.

While it's possible for an eighth-tier powerhouse to possess a similar mastery of the laws of nature, such as the laws of water or the laws of the sea, this is absolutely impossible for a ninth-tier powerhouse.

All laws are derived from rules, but the Great Dao to which the rules belong is unique. On this incredibly vast planet, the number of Great Daos is fixed at three thousand. This means that among countless beings, at most three thousand Great Dao Masters can be born.

However, these powerful individuals discovered that outside their planet lay a desolate space devoid of any spiritual energy.

At the same time, they also discovered that beneath this great, immeasurably vast land they inhabited lay an extremely terrifying power.

That power was far more terrifying than the Three Thousand Great Daos, and even they dared not make contact with it rashly.

However, because they could sense this terrifying power in the darkness, they were constantly expanding and merging their own path.

Whether it's generating more variations of laws to strengthen the original Great Dao rules, absorbing unclaimed Great Dao rules, or seizing the Great Dao of others.

They wanted to get closer to the great being hidden at the heart of the world.

A tenth-level expert is called a Dao Lord.

By leveraging one or more fundamental principles, they can create their own unique world and universe on this singular planet, thereby establishing a new order of rules and exploring the path forward.

There are only a handful of such powerful individuals.

However, no matter how they deduced, they gained nothing. Where was the path to the tenth level?

No matter how much they expanded the small worlds under their control, they could not achieve a new qualitative change. No matter how much they accelerated the generation of beings in the small worlds, no matter how much resources they invested, it was like a bottomless pit, devouring the hopes of the Dao Lords.

In the midst of despair, the first ever eleventh-tier powerhouse was born.

A Dao Lord, wielding control over a thousand Great Dao Rules, forcibly achieved a qualitative leap through quantitative change, elevating himself to a realm surpassing all living beings. It was at this moment that the darkest hour for this planet arrived.

While this eleventh-level expert was comprehending and consolidating his own realm, the other Dao Lords began hunting and usurping each other's power, and at the same time, lower-level cultivators also suffered.

The power of laws and rules possessed by ninth- and eighth-tier powerhouses was plundered, while lower-tier beings were powerless to control their own destiny.

The overlap and friction of the Great Dao, the conflict and fusion of the laws, will cause large numbers of living beings to perish under various terrifying calamities of heaven and earth.

Strangely enough, no matter how devastated the world is, the chaotic space and laws will be repaired on their own the next day, and the number of living beings born in nature far exceeds the number of the dead.

However, the Dao Lords, blinded by bloodlust, paid no attention to these 'mortals' who were as low as dust.

Ultimately, after the darkest era, three eleventh-tier powerhouses emerged, but their existence also led to the complete eradication of tenth-tier powerhouses.

It was at this moment that the planet, which was enormous and majestic even to an eleventh-tier powerhouse, shattered.

"How is this possible?" an eleventh-level expert said in disbelief.

No matter how intense their clashes were, they never intended to destroy the world they inhabited, or rather, they didn't believe that the world itself would be destroyed because of their battles.

This planet, this world, is simply too big and too powerful, even for an eleventh-tier powerhouse.

"No, it's the aura of the forbidden, it's Him!" Another eleventh-level expert could not hide his horror.

Even though they are the strongest in this world, the years they have lived are only a few tens of millions.

The exact time this planet has existed is impossible to trace back—hundreds of millions of years? Billions of years? Or tens of billions of years?

What can be traced back to are nothing more than some relics that have left behind fragmented traditions.

These relics played a crucial role in the early development of spiritual civilization during this era.

For example, it can provide insight into the path ahead, offer inspiration, or introduce new systems of spiritual practice.

As some of the earliest cultivators in this world, these three eleventh-tier powerhouses had experience exploring ruins in their youth.

However, those ruins that were left behind, which were at most sixth or seventh rank fragments, were no longer of any interest to them, who had been Dao Lords for nearly ten million years.

Only then did they realize why the cultivation civilizations that existed before their time had completely disappeared, leaving only broken ruins.

As they witnessed the liberation of the forbidden aura, some of their deeply ingrained beliefs, or rather, their thoughts that had been locked up by the taboo, were liberated, and things they had previously ignored came to mind.

That is, the cultivation civilizations before their time were destroyed because of taboos. At the same time, there was not only one cultivation civilization before their time. The relics with different styles and complex inheritances could not have been left by just one era.

Thinking about it this way is terrifying. How many generations of cultivation civilizations existed before this? What was the meaning of their destruction and existence? Why was their current cultivation civilization able to be born in a desolate place?

"Perhaps we are all going to die here." The last eleventh-level expert sighed sadly. Witnessing the forbidden, just by witnessing it, they could not even muster the slightest thought of resistance.

Soon, all their thoughts ceased, and everything in the world stopped operating under the forbidden power.

"It failed again. The 36,747th experiment was terminated because no one else could follow up. Subsequent attempts were made to improve this defect."

A faint celestial sound reverberated across the planet, and simultaneously, from first-order beings to eleventh-order supreme powerhouses, all were reduced to dust and merged into the exploding planet.

Within the planet, a giant, emotionless maw swallowed them one by one, digested, summarized, integrated, and modified them before spitting them out again, reshaping them into a new universe. Subsequently, the evolution of the stars symbolized the destruction of yet another cultivation civilization, while also foreshadowing the imminent birth of yet another cultivation civilization.

And this giant mouth, needless to say, is none other than Huo Yuhao.

After his breakthrough, Huo Yuhao was unwilling to continue attempting to cross timelines. Instead, he wanted to calculate a new breakthrough method by considering as many evolutions and variables as possible.

Thus began this experiment, which was conducted on the scale of the entire universe.

Various cultivation civilizations and cultivation systems flourished and competed with each other, but ultimately began anew amidst a period of desolation.

In different experiments, the superficial rules and variables in the universe are constantly being modified, but the only constant is the underlying logic common to all universes.

Tens of thousands of experiments failed to give Huo Yuhao any new inspiration on how to break free from the constraints of the world. Suddenly, he found himself becoming a new god of eternity and creation.

Is this really the only path? To pin our hopes on another version of ourselves? Or countless other versions of ourselves? How ridiculous.

As Huo Yuhao thought this, the countless stars in the universe changed constantly according to his will.

Sometimes it transforms into a single, complete planet, and sometimes into countless planets with scarce energy and fierce competition, where life is born and dies, and buildings stand and decay.

Amidst countless variables, what is constantly accumulating and growing is Huo Yuhao's own power, while at the same time, the constraints of the universe itself are also increasing, rising together and becoming difficult to break through.

Through experiments conducted by others and through his own experiments, he went through hundreds of thousands of attempts, some lasting tens of thousands of years and others hundreds of millions of years, but he failed, failed, and failed again.

Huo Yuhao's own timeline is constantly moving forward and branching, but there is no visible glimmer of hope.

As for pinning your hopes on your past self? A brand new beginning, brand new possibilities, and a future many times greater.

There's no point in hesitating now, so let's begin.

Huo Yuhao did not stop the continuous evolution within his own universe, and at the same time, one of his consciousnesses began to trace back to his past.

Towards that familiar yet strange planet, towards my former home, towards that self who knew nothing. (End of Chapter)