The morning in the Crystal Dome was silent. The world outside had lost its greatest leaders all at once. Anarchy was beginning to take hold of the continent. But inside the Dome, Mò Zhōng swept the limestone floor with the tranquility of a peasant.
The old butler stopped when Zhì Yuǎn appeared on the veranda.
Mò Yán walked right behind her husband. She carried a tray with scrolls, ready to assist the man with his readings, but Zhì Yuǎn did not head for the table. He stopped in front of the courtyard.
"Mò Zhōng. Come here."
The butler set the broom aside, walked to the veranda, and bowed his torso ninety degrees.
"My Lord."
Zhì Yuǎn looked at the hunched old man and then at Mò Yán.
"I took your granddaughter from your sect and gained a dedicated butler," Zhì Yuǎn's rustic voice flowed gently, with pragmatic cordiality. "I feel ashamed. I received a perfect wife and a useful servant, but I skipped tradition. It would be an offense not to pay the dowry, grandfather."
Mò Zhōng raised his face. The title "grandfather" coming from that man made the old man's throat tighten. Behind Zhì Yuǎn, Mò Yán's eyes immediately welled up. The diplomat pressed the tray against her chest, blind with gratitude.
He noticed this and chose not to interrupt the moment. A gesture like that — returning strength and dignity to her grandfather — was worth more than a thousand words of promise.
Without waiting for a response, Zhì Yuǎn pointed his index finger at Mò Zhōng's chest.
He released only a tiny fraction of his Primordial Qi and injected it directly into the old man's Dantian.
The force struck Mò Zhōng's insides. The liquid energy the butler had kept stagnant at the Early Second Transcendent Stage was compressed. The Qi gathered and collapsed, forming a solid core in the old man's stomach — the Inner Star.
The advancement did not stop. The Primordial Qi forced one more step. The old man's perception pierced through his own flesh. When he opened his eyes, he could see the invisible currents of the elements in the air. He had crossed into the Fourth Transcendent Stage — the Resonance of Laws.
Along with the core, his body changed. His wrinkled skin tightened. His thinning hair grew thick and black. His spine straightened in one motion. Vitality returned to the elder the appearance of a thirty-year-old man.
Mò Zhōng fell to his knees. Tears streamed down his rejuvenated face.
"You are now at the Fourth Stage," Zhì Yuǎn said, his voice returning to a direct tone. "You can sense the foundation of things. Don't waste time trying to understand all the elements. Focus on the threads of the Law of Wood. It matches the affinity of your Spiritual Root and your patience."
The thirty-year-old man pressed his forehead to the limestone.
"My life is yours. My loyalty is yours."
"Just keep up the good work," Zhì Yuǎn replied.
Mò Yán could not hold back. She placed the tray on the table, hugged Zhì Yuǎn's back, and hid her tear-streaked face against her husband's tunic. He simply rested his large hand on her head.
Near the hall door, Yù Qíng, Yù Méi, and Bái Wǎn watched the scene. The blue-robed priestess narrowed her eyes. Although her husband always explained everything to her, he had not yet introduced her to this knowledge.
"What is a Spiritual Root?"
Bái Wǎn straightened her posture, clearly pleased to be able to explain something.
"It is a fundamental part of the human body, Sister Qíng. Just as we have meridians for Qi to circulate and a Dantian to store it, we are born with a Spiritual Root. It determines our elemental affinity and the natural limit of our power. Many are born without a root, or with it withered. These people will never be able to sense Qi and will remain mortals their entire lives."
Yù Méi, still chewing dried fruit, raised an eyebrow.
"And the beasts I crush in the forest? Some spit fire, exhale poison, freeze the air… Do they also have this root?"
Bái Wǎn shook her head.
"No. Beasts do not possess Spiritual Roots or developed Souls like ours. Their power comes from Bloodline. Only the rarest awaken some affinity with a Law through species instinct."
Yù Méi shrugged and went back to chewing.
Bái Wǎn looked at Zhì Yuǎn, wanting to show her usefulness.
"Since human Spiritual Perception is highly variable, sects use inscribed stone matrices to concentrate energy and read children's roots with precision," she continued. "The matrices classify roots into grades. There are the Fragmented Root, Opaque Root, Latent Root, Translucent Root, Imperial Root, and Sovereign Root."
Bái Wǎn's cheeks flushed slightly.
"When I was a child, the Celestial Mirror's matrix evaluated my Water affinity as Sovereign Grade. They said it was the pinnacle."
Zhì Yuǎn had already assessed his wives' bodies. The so-called "Sovereign Grade" that Bái Wǎn was so proud of was nothing more than the inflated ceiling of an exhausted lower world. Thanks to the dual cultivation method, she herself no longer possessed a root of that level. He saw no need to correct their ignorance now. Soon enough, they would realize the difference themselves — and, in any case, their cultivation made the concept of a spiritual root practically irrelevant. He had even already formulated methods to actively improve them.
Zhì Yuǎn removed his hand from Mò Yán's head. She pouted and began deliberately rubbing herself against him, clearly trying to divert her husband's attention.
"In any case, the Spiritual Root has other uses," he said, turning his gaze to the wife who was already subtly trying to pull him toward the bedroom. "But before we return to cultivation, I need to consume the energy of this world's Secret Realms. I've already mapped most of them with my perception."
Without preparing horses or flight matrices, Zhì Yuǎn raised his hand in the middle of the Crystal Dome's courtyard. His fingers pulled at the fabric of the world and space tore with a dry crack.
------
The family crossed the silver rift and stepped directly into the core of the Celestial Crane's Secret Realm.
The place had no guardian beasts or traps. The center of the dimension was dominated by a single colossal tree. The massive trunk was dark like pure charcoal, with cracks in the black bark that formed the organic pattern of ancient runes. High above, the canopy spread into a sea of translucent pink leaves, releasing a fine, sweet mist that entered the lungs cleanly and swept the impurities from the veins with every breath.
The group walked to the thick grass beneath the tree's roots. The calm of the place broke the inertia of the journey.
Yù Qíng looked at the pink mist falling slowly and leaned her shoulder against Zhì Yuǎn's arm.
"Let's enjoy the scenery a little, just for us, my heaven," she asked gently. "A moment to rest before you consume this entire world."
Zhì Yuǎn naturally accepted his wife's request. He sat on the soft grass, leaned his back against one of the colossal roots, and closed his eyes, drawing the fragrant air to relax the tension in his own mind.
The rest did not last even ten minutes.
Suddenly, a wet and constant sound broke the tranquility of the place.
Glup… slurp… glup…
Zhì Yuǎn opened his eyes. His belt was undone, his pants pulled down to his thighs. Mò Yán was kneeling between his legs, swallowing his shaft with eager and uncoordinated movements. Her scarlet irises were half-lidded, focused only on serving her husband.
Yù Méi, however, would not be left out. The youngest had squeezed in beside her sister, one hand holding Zhì Yuǎn's balls while her hot tongue slowly slid up the base of his shaft, teasing both her husband and the sister trying to swallow everything alone.
Zhì Yuǎn's large right hand rose.
He gripped the top of Mò Yán's head. His broad thumb pressed against the woman's forehead, firmly locking her movement and preventing her from lowering her face again.
Mò Yán stopped with her mouth at the tip. The diplomat's scarlet irises were half-lidded as she looked up at her husband with raw, submissive, and desperate need to continue.
Yù Méi did not miss the opportunity. Taking advantage of her sister's head being locked, the warrior continued licking. The youngest's hot tongue slid all the way up his shaft, reaching the exact tip where Mò Yán's mouth was stopped, tracing the burning skin with shameless provocation.
Zhì Yuǎn evaluated the two women at his feet for a moment. The corner of his mouth curved into a silent smile. He knew that once he started, it would be difficult to stop anytime soon. Even so, he relaxed his thumb and allowed Mò Yán to descend again.
The two resumed their sucking at once, sharing the space with wet and hungry sounds.
Zhì Yuǎn turned his face slightly to the side. A few steps away, leaning against the dark roots of the colossal tree, Yù Qíng and Bái Wǎn watched the scene in silence. Yù Qíng had her eyes half-open, her breathing slightly heavier than usual. Bái Wǎn, on the other hand, was squeezing her own thighs with her hands, her face lightly flushed as she watched the two sisters compete for their husband.
Apparently, he was the only one who had taken the word "rest" seriously.
------
The sound of friction and suction lasted until late afternoon.
When Zhì Yuǎn finally dressed and tied his leather belt, the grass around the roots was ruined. Mò Yán and Yù Méi were breathing heavily, sprawled on the spiritual grass. Their skin glowed with sweet sweat, saturated with the Primordial Qi they had just cultivated. The youngest, face planted in the grass, was still on all fours with her hips raised, experiencing small spasms while her husband's dense, hot Yang continued to trickle from her intimacy down her thighs. Yù Qíng and Bái Wǎn, still trembling with clouded eyes, were already trying to dress, sated and with a warm flush on their faces.
"I didn't even get to the main course and I already devoured the desserts," he murmured, admiring his wives getting themselves together.
Moments later, Zhì Yuǎn stopped wasting time.
He took two steps forward and stopped in front of the colossal trunk of the charcoal tree, releasing the hunger of his Inner Universe.
The pink sky cracked. A silver fissure cut across the horizon from end to end, as if the world itself were a mirror breaking. The sweet mist stopped falling. The translucent leaves froze in the air.
In the next instant, everything was pulled backward.
The grass, the earth, the giant roots, the dark trunk, the pink canopy — everything was torn from the ground and ground into pure energy. The entire dimension collapsed toward Zhì Yuǎn's chest as if it were water being sucked by an invisible whirlpool.
In less than five seconds, the Celestial Crane's Secret Realm ceased to exist.
What remained was only a dark and silent void, kept whole only by the will of the man who controlled the collapsed space. In the center of that nothingness, a small silver sphere pulsed slowly — the pure root of the Law of Illusion.
Zhì Yuǎn extended his hand and held the silver sphere between two fingers. It dissolved at his touch, flowing down his arm like cold water. Deep within his Inner Universe, a new star lit up in the darkness.
He slowly licked his lips.
"Delicious," he murmured. Then he looked at his wives lying in the void and added with a faint smile: "But it still loses to the taste of you."
Even exhausted, the wives responded with low, sensual moans, as if trying to convince him to go another round. Zhì Yuǎn ignored the plea and raised his right hand. With two fingers, he tore the empty space. The silver rift opened, connecting directly to the hall of the Crystal Dome.
The family entered the portal and the fissure vanished.
Outside, in the lower plane, the disciples of the Celestial Crane continued killing each other in the courtyards, fighting among themselves to decide who would inherit Mèng Lián's throne — completely unaware that the sect's greatest inheritance had just become a stranger's afternoon drink.
------
They returned to the Crystal Dome at the same late afternoon.
While the other wives got themselves ready, Bái Wǎn sat on the veranda floor, unloading the new scrolls she had "borrowed." She looked at Zhì Yuǎn, who was resting in the wooden chair, analyzing his own interior.
"My god," Bái Wǎn called gently and curiously. "You said that when you used your strength in the steel forest, the heavens tried to erase you almost immediately. But when you swallowed the Celestial Mirror's Secret Realm and today, when you sucked the Celestial Crane's Secret Realm, no clouds appeared. Why didn't the villainous heavens see you?"
Zhì Yuǎn stopped tapping his finger on the chair arm and turned his face toward her.
"Because Secret Realms are fragments, Wǎn'er," he replied. "Isolated remnants from the Age of Fragmentation. They are like pocket dimensions forgotten at the edges of this world, containing only incomplete Laws. The Will of the heavens probably ignores them out of pure efficiency. Since I never had problems in our old dimension, I decided to test using my weight inside these realms here as well."
With this certainty secured, the hunt changed pace.
------
The following weeks were dictated by short jumps in the dark. The map of this plane stretched across millions of kilometers of land and sea, but Zhì Yuǎn's Law of Space turned continental distances into a walk to the backyard. He swept across the foundations of the world in mere minutes — stopping only when one of his women wanted to "appreciate the scenery."
He did not swallow only earth and grass. He tore the void into hundreds of Secret Realms. He drank pits of black magma that boiled beneath ancient fire sects. He dried acidic swamps where mist melted steel in seconds. He unraveled forests of bones where the Law of Death still whispered among the dead trees. And he uprooted ice peaks stagnated at the unmapped edges of the world.
One of these realms belonged to an ancient female sect, hidden inside a mountain of eternal ice. When Zhì Yuǎn appeared in the center of the white jade hall, several silver-haired elders screamed in unison:
"Pervert! Die!"
He merely raised his hand and waved. Space bent. All the fairies were ejected into the outside world before they could finish their screams. Then he opened his Inner Universe and began sucking all the Law of Ice energy from the place. The ice palace, the frozen water springs, and the crystal trees were undone in seconds, as if they had never existed.
Yù Qíng, who had accompanied him on this outing, observed the empty hall with contempt.
"Pathetic," Yù Qíng murmured disdainfully. "They lived for centuries locked inside this piece of ice and their first instinct was to scream 'pervert' at a man who didn't even touch them. What a miserable life."
Zhì Yuǎn continued absorbing the dimension in silence for a few seconds before responding.
"They were raised to fear men," he replied calmly. "They probably suffered at the hands of cultivators in the past, or learned from early on that any man is a threat. In that sense, they are not entirely wrong."
Yù Qíng shrugged, still with a cold gaze.
"I know that. But I still think it's pathetic. They prefer to live alone, dry, and bitter, just to avoid risking trusting a man. They lost the best of life out of fear."
She turned her face to her husband, and a cold, satisfied smile curved her lips.
"I, on the other hand, have you for all eternity. And that is something none of them will ever obtain… not even if they begged on their knees."
Zhì Yuǎn let out a low, almost inaudible laugh. He looked at Yù Qíng for a moment, then returned his eyes to the void that remained of the realm.
"Indeed… it's a shame for them."
------
The tactic was always the same. He would enter through the rift, eject any native cultivators into the outside world with a wave of his hand, and suck the core of the entire dimension into his own chest.
The lower world lost its hidden roots, increasing the chaos already consuming the surface.
But inside Zhì Yuǎn, the change was brutal. The void of his Dantian took shape. It still had no end, but the Law of Space was thick, weaving the mesh of his universe after devouring so many dimensional enclosures.
Inside, thousands of stars now shone in the void. Laws that were once only concepts he understood — Poison, Thunder, Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, Earth — now pulsed with force. Variants of Laws from some miniature spaces, such as the Law of Thunder derived from Lightning and Sound, the Law of Illusion born from Light and Mind. What was once a dark void had now become a true ecosystem of absolute rules.
Zhì Yuǎn drew in air on the veranda. He felt renewed. The sensation of being unbreakable, of being invincible, ran cleanly through his blood with every new star that shone.
But he did not dwell on the sensation.
He knew that the power was contained. If he used too much energy or simply released his cosmic weight outside, the villainous heavens would descend and try to kill him on the spot. Invincibility had a ceiling.
And the practical problem demanded its price.
The thousands of stars inside demanded food. They actively burned Primordial Qi to be strengthened, and as if it were an organ in a mortal's body, he had no direct control. At least not yet.
The hunger, however, only grew. In bed, his wives pushed themselves to their limits to absorb his Yang. They benefited enormously, but their bodies could not keep up with the pace. They would pass out from exhaustion, yet his hunger still growled in the dark.
Zhì Yuǎn also noticed another problem while observing his own interior.
The star of the Law of Destruction — his oldest and most familiar Law — now appeared pale compared to the thousands of new stars crowding his universe. His understanding of it remained absolute, but the star itself was weak. It lacked sufficient "Destruction energy" to burn. The small amount that had accumulated over millennia in the old dimension was nothing compared to the entire Secret Realms he had recently consumed.
If he ascended to a higher plane with that weakened star, the power of Destruction — his fundamental Law — would fail against the density above. He would need to find real sustenance to feed it. And at the same time, he would have to restrain his own growth, lest he end up crushing the wives he so deeply revered.