Chapter 172: The Choice of Cultivation

According to this world's cultivation system, after breaking through Immortal, the next step is to establish one's own Divine Kingdom.

At this moment, the barrier of the life core has already shattered, but the inner world it nurtured can still exist as a phantom for a while.

Cultivators must search within the Original Universe's space interlayer for a suitable space fragment, fuse the phantom of the inner world with it, and thereby turn it into a real world.

This is the Divine Kingdom of an Immortal strong one!

As the cultivator's strength rises, the Divine Kingdom will gradually expand, until when breaking through the Universe Strongest it truly evolves into a complete Small Universe.

This is an exceedingly perfect path; as long as one cultivates continuously, there is a chance to walk all the way to the strongest.

Zhou Yang, although choosing the method of Law Fusion, still fundamentally follows this direction in his cultivation system.

However, now it seems he has an additional option: he immerses himself deep in his consciousness, contemplating the Stellar Transformations technique he just obtained from the Meteor Tear.

The more he comprehends, the more he can feel the special nature of this technique!

This technique shares a similar brilliance with the cultivation system that devours worlds; both derive a personal universe by perceiving the changes of the cosmos.

The difference is that in the devouring-world system, when breaking through Immortal, one must fuse one's inner world with a space fragment from the Original Universe, using that fragment as a foundation to establish one's Divine Kingdom.

This means one's Divine Kingdom becomes intricately linked with the Original Universe; the Divine Kingdom must rely on the Original Universe to exist! Even after breaking through to the Universe Strongest and the Divine Kingdom evolving into a Small Universe, this dependency remains.

If one cannot successfully break through the Reincarnation Era in all three cycles and achieve total transcendence, when the Original Universe again enters Great Destruction, his Small Universe will collapse and fade, and he himself will inevitably fall.

In the end, perhaps it is because the Original Universe can only bear strongmen up to a certain limit.

When a cultivator breaks through the Universe Strongest, they can utter Words Become Law, causing the universal rules to retreat.

If they go further, breaking through to Void True God, they can already inflict undeniable damage on the Original Universe.

It is for this reason that the Original Universe's Core Will repeatedly initiates Great Destruction to 'reset' the entire universe, forcing everyone to break through the Reincarnation Era within three cycles and head to the Origin Continent.

This may be a protection of the Original Universe over itself under the Supreme Rules.

Yet the Stellar Transformations cultivation method is somewhat different.

It forces a passage to be opened between one's inner world and Chaos (Hongmeng), directly leaping out of this universe to carve a new Heaven and Earth within endless Chaos! In theory, this technique does not require fusing one's inner world with a space fragment of the Original Universe, and thus is not bound by any of the Original Universe's restrictions.

In that case, perhaps one need not traverse any Reincarnation Era; as long as one's own universe grows sufficiently strong, one can ascend continuously, without being limited by the lifespan cap of the three Reincarnation Eras!

If that were true, the value of this technique would be immense! In this world, breaking through the Reincarnation Era is a hanging knife over the heads of every strong one in every age!

Especially for those strong ones who have endured the three Reincarnation Eras, breaking through the Reincarnation Era is unavoidable!

Sadly, this hurdle is exceedingly difficult; even if one reaches it, success is not guaranteed. Since the endless Reincarnation Era began, only the Dongdi Ancestor and Zi Yue Shizu have managed to break through the Reincarnation Era in this Universe Sea.

And if the Stellar Transformations technique is successfully cultivated, truly opening a new universe free from the Original Universe's limits, wouldn't that be equivalent to pre‑emptively breaking through the Reincarnation Era! "This temptation is truly huge," Zhou Yang's consciousness churned deep within.

He began to rapidly contemplate the feasibility of cultivating this technique.

For this technique to succeed, there are two major difficulties.

The first is how to directly connect the inner world to the Chaos Sea, that is, the so‑called 'Hongmeng Space'.

The second is how to absorb Chaos Energy (Hongmeng Energy) to enlarge one's own universe; Chaos Energy's level far exceeds that of the Original Universe's fundamental law energies and cannot be directly absorbed! Regarding the second point, Zhou Yang does have some ideas.

Yet he hesitates on the crucial first point.

In the original work, Qin Yu progressed from nebula, Meteor, star core, planetary evolution, finally collapsing the cultivated planet into a Black Hole, thereby coincidentally connecting to the mysterious 'Hongmeng Space'.

He then evolved from planetary to star, then to galaxy, star domain, until a world.

If he wishes to switch to the Stellar Transformations method, he must collapse his entire inner world to attempt forming a 'Black Hole' that connects to the Chaos world.

If successful, that's fine; but if it fails, his inner world will collapse completely—let alone establishing a Divine Kingdom, his entire cultivation may be wasted! This risk is truly too great. Zhou Yang closed his eyes and sat in meditation, yet his consciousness kept surging.

Now, two paths lie before him.

One path is to follow the devouring-world system and cultivate steadily; with his talent, transcendence is hopeful, perhaps even a glimmer of reaching the Chaos Sovereign Realm.

The other path is to switch to the Stellar Transformations method; the power of this cultivation technique needs no introduction, but whether it applies to this world he cannot be sure, and switching would entail enormous risk.

One path, stable, with a high ceiling.

One path, risky, with an uncertain future.

Zhou Yang strives to let his consciousness leap out, to think from a detached, transcendental perspective.

"Speaking of it, the original work of the world Swallowed Star never actually mentions any deeds of 'Zhou Yang'; whether this person even exists is uncertain."

"And my transmigration—I went from an ordinary Martial Arts Academy student who could barely become a Warrior, to breaking through, to counter‑attacking, even now surpassing Luo Feng, walking ahead of this world's destined son of fortune."

"All of this is thanks to a miraculous Meteor Tear; without the life yuan power of the Meteor Tear, without its embedded spatial insight, without the defying 'Three Souls Nine Refinements', without the Meteor Tear‑altered Life Record, there would be no Zhou Yang today!"

"Thus, every opportunity I obtained from the Meteor Tear should be applicable to this universe."

"By the way, there's also the Qian Kun Secret Technique, which serves as excellent proof that the basic operating rules of the two worlds share great commonality."

His thoughts kept diverging, but the ideas in his heart gradually solidified.

"Hehe, we transmigrators are not the type to seek a peaceful life."

(End of Chapter)