Pushing Its Limits - 203

With caution, Zhou Fan sent the message through his mortal dao for them to start expanding. If he commanded them to move at their maximum speeds, then they would be able to cover the entire galaxy they were in after about a year.

Due to his caution, however, his mortal dao would take around ten years to completely cover the galaxies. Even when he was done, there would still be galaxies free of his mortal dao's control, but he would soon be able to fix that. It would take a little bit of travel, but it was definitely doable. 

Zhou Fan watched on, using his divine sense connected to his mortal dao, as the bubbles covering the worlds began to expand. He paid special attention to the Zhou galaxy's situation.

From a glance, nothing much had really changed. Despite millions of years passing, it was highly unlikely that anyone had broken through to the lesser dao creation realm. 

It was simply an entirely different playing field that could not be compared to the space shattering realm. It was especially hard due to the fact that they lived within Zhou Fans mortal dao. In order to reach the lesser dao creation realm, they would have to have a deep comprehension of the cosmic dao. The requirement was 1% comprehension. 

Although that number didn't seem like much, it was a giant hurdle for many of the Zhou galaxy's cultivators. Even if a cultivator did reach 1% comprehension of the cosmic dao, they would struggle to break through under Zhou Fan's mortal dao.

Within someone else's mortal dao, breaking through to the lesser dao creation realm was 5 to 10 times harder. Although Zhou Fan had broken through outside of earth, even within earth he wouldn't have had to deal with increased difficulty.

After all, the earth was not a person. Its mortal dao had been naturally formed in some unknown way. 

Even if a cultivator gained 1% comprehension of the cosmic dao and successfully broke through to the lesser dao creation realm, they would not be able to create a mortal dao in the same way that Zhou Fan did. 

Naturally, two mortal dao's couldn't exist in the same area. In order for someone to successfully create a mortal dao, which was a requirement before they could break through any further, they would have to create it within themselves and keep it there.

They could still use the power of their mortal dao, but they could never expand it to planets or other things unless they were outside of Zhou Fan's mortal dao. 

However, if Zhou Fans mortal dao were to truly surpass the cosmic dao, that would be completely different. After all, it would evolve from a mortal dao to something else after a certain point.

Zhou Fan didn't know if that would be after it expanded throughout the whole universe or sometime before then, but if it was sometime before then he would have to keep it inside his body like the people under his mortal dao would.

One thing Zhou Fan barely noticed was that the lesser dao creation realm shouldn't have had the requirement of a mortal dao in order to progress. It seemed that when he chose to form one, the very path of cultivation changed to follow it.

That led Zhou fan to many other questions.

'What is the path to cultivation? Did it exist before me? Am I the creator of cultivation itself? What is Qi? What exactly is the cosmic dao?'

Many such questions flew by Zhou Fan's mind, but it was far too early for him to be able to answer them. 

He continued to watch as his mortal dao expanded.

He could only watch about ten thousand mortal dao planets at the same time before he wasn't able to focus on them as well.

As his mortal dao started to reach about a fifth of the way through the galaxy, Zhou Fan felt a slight feeling of danger flicker through his body.

It wasn't much at all, but it clearly made its presence known. It was as if he was walking near the lair of a sleeping dragon.

Clearly, the only thing that could give off such a feeling was the cosmic dao. Although Zhou Fan didn't halt expansion or even slow it down, he paid much more attention to the cosmic dao.

After a while, his mortal dao covered around 50% of the biggest galaxies. As soon as it reached the halfway mark, he sensed more danger appearing.

If he was simply walking near the dragon's lair before, he was now standing at its entrance. Luckily, this particular dragon seemed to have a good temper.

Once again, Zhou Fan merely increased his caution and let the mortal dao continue expanding. His mortal dao continued to expand.

After five more years, his mortal dao was only a mile away from reaching the edge of the biggest galaxy any planet connected to his mortal dao was in. All the other galaxies had been completely covered and the mortal dao stopped expanding at the edge.

Zhou Fan was able to fully focus himself on this single galaxy near the center of the tree-like galaxy cluster.

As his mortal dao crept closer and closer to the final edge, he started to feel as though some sort of pressure was building up around him. If he pushed the pressure too far, it would immediately explode. This was the first time Zhou Fan felt an actual threat from the usually silently existing cosmic dao.

Clearly, he had started to push its limits. Still, he was no coward. He decided to finish what he started and let his mortal dao push towards the edge of the final galaxy.

Just as the pressure felt like it was going to explode, Zhou Fan's mortal dao reached the edge of the galaxy and he immediately stopped its expansion.

In an instant, the pressure disappeared. By now, Zhou Fan was sweating bullets. He felt a slightly similar feeling to the time when he tried to fully comprehend the cosmic dao.

He wasn't sure exactly what had happened then, but he was now sure it had something to do with the cosmic dao.