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*****
"The Dao of Spiritual Runes."
As the lord of his own heaven and earth, Su Wen understood the system that had evolved within his realm very thoroughly.
The so-called Dao of Spiritual Runes was the path of spiritual patterns.
It followed the spiritual system, relying on spiritual power to draw spiritual runes as a means to mobilize the power of heaven and earth.
The drawn spiritual runes were modeled after the eighty-one heaven-and-earth runes and the subsequent three hundred and sixty spiritual-dao runes that had evolved within Su Wen's small heaven and earth.
The path of spiritual runes encompassed thousands of elements; it was the evolution of all Su Wen's insights and the result of the small heaven and earth's self-evolution within the universe.
The strongest runes among them were naturally those Su Wen excelled in. This was especially true for the heaven-and-earth runes, which were eighty-one runes evolved from several systems Su Wen had gained insights into. Among the spiritual-dao runes, one hundred and eight were evolved from Su Wen's own insights, while all the remaining runes were evolved by the small heaven and earth itself from many other systems.
Su Wen immersed himself in the evolution of his small heaven and earth, sensing the path of spiritual runes within it and enhancing his own insights.
At this moment, the small heaven and earth began to feed back into him.
The evolution of a small heaven and earth was much faster than that of a small world, and its efficiency was higher as well.
The evolution of a small world lacked any evolution on the level of rules; even if there were rules, they were merely a framework to bind the small world. In contrast, the small heaven and earth already involved the four-dimensional level. Rules could not bind it at all; they merely served as its bedrock and the foundation of its derivations.
With Su Wen's breakthrough, the small heaven and earth was also deriving new elements. Along with Su Wen's insights, the small heaven and earth evolved the system of the Dao of Spiritual Runes. As it blended with the universe, it naturally evolved many things that Su Wen had never comprehended before, bringing feedback to him.
This time, Su Wen spent a whole month gaining insights before he completely received all the comprehension involved in the path of spiritual runes.
Even so, he had not fully mastered it and still needed subsequent digestion and understanding.
Su Wen had been in secluded cultivation for half a year. Feeling a bit restless at this point, he prepared to end his seclusion.
Upon leaving seclusion this time, he also intended to explore the Dao of Life.
The feedback from the small heaven and earth was too strong. As long as he promoted the advancement of the small heaven and earth, his insights would improve rapidly. Therefore, aligning with the evolution of the small heaven and earth was extremely important.
The spiritual-dao runes had already derived spirituality. What Su Wen needed to do now was to promote the condensation of this spirituality, causing them to birth a spiritual glow and possess their own intelligence.
The God of Knowledge.
Perhaps, unlocking intelligence and enlightening all living creatures could also be counted as the responsibility of the God of Knowledge.
Realizing this, Su Wen instantly drew a massive amount of power of faith from his small heaven and earth.
He did not absorb this power of faith, instead letting it continue to drift within the small heaven and earth.
Returning to the Douluo Planet, Su Wen found the Silver Dragon King.
When it came to nurturing life, the Silver Dragon King should know a thing or two.
"Nurturing life?"
The Silver Dragon King frowned. She looked at Su Wen, not understanding why he would bring this up.
"I mean a plane nurturing intelligent life."
"Oh."
The Silver Dragon King nodded, understanding Su Wen's meaning, and fell into deep thought with a frown.
"The birth of intelligent life is usually a long process of evolution over countless years. If you want to achieve it in a short period, you can only use some templates to nurture them."
"Templates?"
"Just like the appearance of soul beasts on the Douluo Continent. Using the bloodline of divine beasts as a guide, it evolved into these numerous soul beast races."
Su Wen understood the Silver Dragon King's meaning. It meant introducing foreign species.
Life forms nurtured and born within the small heaven and earth from foreign species could also be counted as living beings of the small heaven and earth.
Through generations of reproduction, these species would also adapt to the rules and system of the small heaven and earth, thereby completely transforming into species unique to it.
But unfortunately, Su Wen did not want to create these species in the small heaven and earth just yet.
What he needed right now was to condense the spirituality of his spiritual-dao runes.
"Condensing intelligence..."
An idea flashed through his mind.
Forging!
"In the original work, the forging arts developed in later generations seemed to have the concepts of Spirit Forging, Soul Forging, and Heaven Forging. Spirit Forging creates life, Soul Forging grants inheritance, and Heaven Forging truly bestows a soul."
Su Wen had no intention of establishing the profession of a blacksmith. He was merely using his understanding of forging--the progressive relationship among Spirit Forging, Soul Forging, and Heaven Forging--to try to deduce a method to assist his spiritual-dao runes in evolving true intelligence.
"In forging, the most fundamental aspect is still the final Heaven Forging. It channels the power of the laws of heaven and earth, utilizing thunder tribulations to temper the metal, allowing it to be infused with the laws of heaven and earth. Once it gains the acknowledgment of the laws, it truly possesses a soul."
"In that case, how should my spiritual-dao runes channel the laws of heaven and earth?"
No, that's wrong.
The small heaven and earth is entirely my own, why do I still need to channel the laws of heaven and earth?
Su Wen directly communicated with the three hundred and sixty spiritual-dao runes himself.
The eighty-one heaven-and-earth runes that had hidden away earlier were also found by Su Wen, and he communicated with them as well.
This was a collision of souls, a blending of the three domains of essence, qi, and spirit.
The three small worlds respectively divided forty-nine of the eighty-one heaven-and-earth runes, while the remaining thirty-two runes scattered into other corners of the small heaven and earth.
As for the spiritual-dao runes, only one hundred and eight of them sought out their own places and fell into the three small worlds, seemingly transforming into rules suitable for the development of each of the three small worlds.
And these heaven-and-earth runes and spiritual-dao runes that had found their foundations all possessed an even stronger sense of spirituality.
The remaining spiritual-dao runes did not fit the three small worlds.
Su Wen had already anticipated this.
"I still need to open up new small worlds."
However, opening up a small world was not as simple as just saying it. Doing it once or twice was fine, but if he opened up too many, Su Wen himself would not have any extra power to integrate into them.
His three small worlds of essence, qi, and spirit were themselves the manifestations of his three types of energy. When he opened those small worlds, his own essence, qi, and spirit were integrated into them respectively.
"To open up additional small worlds, I will need the injection of external energy. But where can I find so much external energy? Moreover, it needs to span multiple domains to fit as many of my spiritual-dao runes as possible."
While Su Wen was dealing with this headache, a spark of inspiration flashed.
The Abyss!
Within the Abyss, there were one hundred and eight levels. Every level had a different abyssal race, every level had an abyssal monarch, and at the same time, every level was equivalent to an independent small world.
Wasn't this perfectly suited for what Su Wen needed right now--individual reference points with different rules, different races, and different systems to fit as many spiritual-dao runes as possible?
"Rank 97 soul power. Compared to over half a year ago, it has only increased by two ranks. The increase isn't large enough."
Since the increase wasn't large enough, it wasn't a good time for Su Wen to go looking for the Abyss for now.
Su Wen abandoned the idea of seeking out the Abyss at this moment. He relaxed a bit on the Douluo Planet, observing the development of the soul master world and sensing the changes across the entire soul master community.
It wasn't just the soul master world. With the overall strength of soul masters increasing and soul beasts no longer being slaughtered on a massive scale, the destiny of the entire Douluo Planet was unprecedentedly prosperous.
Not only that, but Su Wen had also developed a Cosmic Energy Conversion Grand Array.
The conversion grand array had no other use than allowing the soul masters training in the academies across various regions to work together, operating the array to directly draw energy from the universe for their cultivation.
This was harder than directly absorbing heaven and earth origin energy, but the effect was also more obvious. The soul power of the soul masters became more condensed and powerful.
Furthermore, there was also Su Wen, a Master of Culture, guaranteeing that the probability of becoming a god in the future could be higher.
Su Wen hadn't been vague or ambiguous about it; he had explicitly stated in the academic community that absorbing and refining cosmic energy for cultivation was helpful for breaking through to the God rank in the future.
Even if one did not aim for the God rank, they could still benefit from it in their future cultivation, which would be of no small help to soul masters breaking through their own upper limits.
"With the hard work of the soul masters, the energy volume of the entire Douluo Planet is also rising. Although it is minuscule compared to the millions of years of accumulation of the Douluo Planet, it is an active promotion."
The driving force coming from within the plane was far more intense than the stimulation from an external push.
After observing on the Douluo Planet for a month, Su Wen re-entered his state of secluded cultivation.
This month of observation had also allowed him to discover some peculiar cultivation directions among certain soul masters.
The soul master system was very miraculous. Martial souls came in all shapes and sizes, and there was even the possibility of mutation, which would derive far too many miraculous martial souls.
During his month of observation, Su Wen also utilized the unique characteristics of the academic community to experience and comprehend the abilities of these martial souls, giving him some direction toward opening up new small worlds.
At the same time, he also found a method to seek out his direction.
"The Thirteen Golden Halberd Pages, every form contains many profound meanings. I can use each profound meaning as a core to open up a small world."
Though if he did it this way, every small world would truly be just a seed, and opening them up would be similar to creating an aspace.
An aspace, because it possessed the seed of a profound meaning as its core origin, would have the potential to develop toward a small world.
However, it was still a viable method.
If there was a matching spiritual-dao rune, then once the spiritual-dao rune integrated into it, the development of the aspace would be equivalent to the enhancement of the spiritual-dao rune.
Su Wen acted as soon as the thought occurred. He left the Douluo Planet and returned to the barren planet where he held his secluded cultivation.
Above his head, the Heavenly Book emerged.
A small heaven and earth faintly materialized within the Heavenly Book.
Open!
Open, open, open!
Su Wen opened up spaces time and time again, creating small aspaces one after another, stuffing the spiritual-dao runes into them individually to integrate them.
Without the supplement of external energy, these aspaces could not directly become small worlds, but they had their advantages--namely, while requiring vast amounts of energy, they could also help Su Wen rapidly nurture these spiritual-dao runes.
Comprehending the Thirteen Golden Halberd Pages and opening up aspaces, three months slipped by just like that.
Even so, he had only opened up sixteen aspaces, and the spiritual-dao runes integrated into these aspaces numbered only around thirty.
There were still over two hundred spiritual-dao runes without a home.
Su Wen was utterly exhausted.
"The cultivation of this small heaven and earth is truly not easy."
Yet, he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Over the course of three months, the development of the aspaces he had opened up earliest had been very smooth, expanding by more than double. The spirituality nurtured by the two spiritual-dao runes at their cores was not inferior at all to the spiritual-dao runes integrated into the three small worlds of essence, qi, and spirit.
The development of the aspaces was also the development of the small heaven and earth.
As the aspaces gained the ability to independently evolve and upgrade, it was equivalent to installing small motors within Su Wen's small heaven and earth, driving the small heaven and earth to absorb external energy to grow stronger.
"Fortunately, the growth of the small heaven and earth is driving the increase of my soul power."
Su Wen had been busy all this time comprehending profound meanings and opening up aspaces, to the point that even his soul power cultivation had been delayed because of it.
Fortunately, the development of the small heaven and earth was still driving the increase of his soul power.
In fact, it was because he knew this that he dared to invest all his energy into opening up the aspaces.
Looking at it from another angle, every time Su Wen opened an aspace, he was actually providing a new source of power for his own cultivation.
This, too, was a form of cultivation.
"It's much slower than cultivating with full effort, but it's acceptable, and the harvest from this kind of cultivation is greater."
Su Wen was already twenty-six years old, which had already surpassed the age at which Tang San became a god in the original work.
However, Su Wen believed that even if the Sea God were to compare them, the current Su Wen was stronger than the Tang San who developed according to the original work.
One inherited the legacy of predecessors, while the other was self-taught and pioneering; the two simply could not be compared in the same breath.
"Relying entirely on the feedback of the small heaven and earth, it will still take me three months to break through..."
Su Wen frowned. Although he could practice while idle, the efficiency was actually not high. He re-calculated that if he cultivated with all his might, breaking through to Rank 98 soul power would take less than a month.
At the center of his brow, the Heavenly Book imprint emerged.
Within the imprint, the mark of a Sea God Trident materialized.
"Sea God?" Su Wen was surprised.
Why was the Sea God contacting him at this time?
"Senior Sea God, is there something the matter?"
"Su Wen, are you driving the transformation of the Douluo Planet?" On the Sea God's side, his tone was somewhat anxious.
Su Wen was stunned.
What's wrong? Weren't you just confidently saying before that raising the Douluo Plane into a God-rank plane was no big deal?
"This is different! If it devours the Abyss, it will advance directly. Could the God of Destruction possibly abandon the birthplace of the Douluo Divine Realm?" the Sea God said urgently. "But now you are slowly raising the Douluo Planet, letting it transform on its own. The God of Destruction has every opportunity to put a stop to it."
"When a subordinate plane breaks through, although there will be disputes caused by lifespans, it can always be resolved, can't it? If a God-rank powerhouse has the protection of the Divine Realm, the probability of condensing a divine position with a longer lifespan is greater. Isn't this a direction to strengthen the Divine Realm?" Su Wen asked, puzzled.
He actually had this doubt before, but he hadn't brought it up.
The Sea God took a deep breath and explained to Su Wen, "Because the Douluo Divine Realm was shattered. Every expansion within requires the progress of the Divine Realm itself to accommodate more divine positions, rather than the condensation of new divine positions driving the progress of the Divine Realm. Do you understand the difference in this?"
Back when he, the Sea God, was able to become a god, it was precisely because the Divine Realm had developed to be strong enough to have the qualification to condense a new First-Class God position.
"Ever since the battle with the Dragon God back then, the Douluo Divine Realm was very severely shattered. It is in a broken state, rather than just being inherently this weak. Condensing a new divine position will not promote the essential enhancement of the Divine Realm; instead, it cannot be sustained by the Divine Realm. Unless the Divine Realm recovers on its own and increases its capacity little by little, only then can new divine positions be condensed."
"Therefore, the recovery of the Divine Realm can only be long and slow."
"Unless, it fuses with an external Divine Realm."
"..."
"So, the inability of subordinate planes to break through to the God rank is actually just a rule of the Douluo Divine Realm, and other Divine Realms don't actually have this kind of suppression?"