17 - Rank 1

Baiyun and Jailiang made their way to the competition venue. They crossed paths with many cultivators who mostly ignored them due to their tattered outfits. They looked to be rolling in mud. The venue was nearly empty except for the roaming guards and the resting cultivators.

They both approached the exchange booth. The appraisers in the booth didn't recognize them with their outfits, but when they shared their names, he recognized them. His behavior shifted from nonchalance to a bit of respect.

Baiyun and Jailiang dismissed his behavior and poured out the corpses they had stored in their ring. The corpses piled up to form a mountain, especially the three corpses of the rank 2 beasts, which attracted immediate attention.

The duo had hunted two more rank 2 beasts before they returned.

The amount of corpses surprised the appraisers, as not one team or individual brought this much corpse. The most amount of corpses brought today was a pack of flaming wolves, and some other low-ranking monsters by a group, but this was a piled hill. The pile was mostly made of spider spawns, so the appraisers understood that the duo had killed a colony. They moved from the spider spawns to the main, three rank 2, including the Poison crawler.

First was a Gale Wolf which is nimble and cunning, and the second was a big Silver-back Gorilla, strong and brutish. These two were alone which made it simple, but not easy. They both made the duo run for their money. If Baiyun's poison dagger and exploding Kunai didn't slow them down, one of them would have died.

"Please exchange all of them quickly," Jialiang asked politely.

The appraisers didn't delay and called the others on reserve. They moved quickly yet carefully through the corpses. They checked the status of the main ingredients such as core, poison sack, muscles, and skin. They allocated points based on how intact and how damaged the parts were. It took the twenty appraisers nearly an hour to go through the pile of corpses. The spider spawns were sliced and diced, but some ingredients were intact. The Poison Crawler missed half of its head. Gale wolf's fur was burned, purple spots due to poisoning, and a whole lot of slicing on its skin. Gorilla's whole body was crisp due to explosions, and its back was painted with cuts.

Due to these things, the value of the three Foundation Realm beasts reduced, and the hundreds were very small individually but they piled up. The total amount of points earned came to 2342 points. The three beasts earned 1460 points in total, while the rest came from the low-rank beasts. With their points entered in the Banner of Valor, their name jumped to the top, taking the first place.

"Well done, Baiyun. You never cease to amaze," a voice praised from behind.

Baiyun and Jialiang turned to the addressee, a young man in purple robes with golden dragons adorning it. The young man had a slender build, and the robe hid his stature. His golden hair was tied into a bun and his purple eyes looked straight at Baiyun.

"We greet Prince Zhihao," the appraisers bowed.

"'We greet, brother Zhihao,'" Baiyun and Jialiang greeted.

Prince Zhihao dismissed the appraisers with a gesture and patted Jialiang's shoulders, "Your sword skills are getting better."

"Thank you, Brother," Jialiang replied.

"Keep up the good work, I will see you guys at the end of the competition. I know that this will be a fierce competition with Elder Brother joining, but let's do our best," Prince Zhihao stated.

"We will remember your words, brother," Baiyun and Jailiang accepted the advice politely.

"I will take my leave and let you rest," Prince Zhihao said before he turned and left with his guards.

Baiyun and Jailiang stood still watching the prince's retreating back. The rivalry between the siblings was on fire, but some of them still treated them like siblings or at least humans. But Baiyun and Jialiang couldn't let their guard down since they didn't know when someone will backstab them.

"Let's restock the supplies and exchange points for some resources before we leave," Baiyun advised and walked away.

Jailiang gave a bow and took his leave. They would leave to their own camp and refresh before they leave by the night. The night was dangerous as it was safe in the forest of this great demon forest. They would also be able to cover their tracks and lose tails.

---

Before God created light, there was void, and his word brought light to the world ruled by darkness. His words not only birth creation but also life. The light, life, took form in the void, illuminating the darkness for eternity to come.

The birth of a star is a slow and delicate process. It might take millions of years for it to even take shape and then condense. It was a slow yet miraculous process.

At the beginning, a star is nothing but a cloud of dust and gas floating around. And in rare conditions due to external or internal displacement, these dusts and gases break their equilibrium with gaseous expansion and gravity and start attracting each other. This process is very slow, and the mass of nebula then forms the protostar which is a clump of mass.

It's the beginning of the star's birth.

This protostar continues to attract others and gain mass. This happens over millions of years where the protostar slowly gathers as much nebula as it can. Sometimes, this creates a cloud or disk of matter orbiting around the protostar.

After millions of years, when the mass of the star has reached a tipping scale and pressure in the core becomes so high, the atoms start to collide. When the collision reaches a threshold, a nuclear reaction called nuclear fusion happens where two light atoms create a heavier one in an exothermic (heat-releasing) reaction.

The protostar then begins to emit light and heat, entering the main sequence. This was what happened or was happening in the Virtual Dantian.

{Image stolen from Printrest}

Lijen watched as his core grew denser and denser with the addition of the primeval essence. The Massive acceleration disk poured all its matter into the core. The core was getting hotter and brighter with time.

Lijen could feel that he was near, so near to the ignition.

After what felt like hours, the first fusion happened. The primeval essence fused in rapid collision creating something more dense, more primal, more powerful, and this was just the beginning. The fusion of primeval essence created so much light and power that it was starting to destabilize the core.

Lijen strained his mind to keep the core together. If he was not warned by the system that this would happen when the core goes on a rapid ignition, he would have blown up or would have restarted from scratch again.

The explosions continued until a final, massive explosion and an expansion of pressure.

A force that made others kneel before descended on the lone mountain, crushing weaker creatures to paste. Those with weak cultivation strained to even move while the stronger ones moved away from the mountain.

The sudden pressure was not a singular phenomenon, but the Qi in the air shifted, and the vortex of Qi now covered about 200 miles in radius, instantly draining anything and everything of Qi. The beasts below rank 1 were losing their cultivation slowly as their refined Qi moved out of their body. If not resolved they would lose cultivation gradually.

The Earth Verdant Serpent looked up in alert as the pressure descended. He released his own pressure of his rank 4 core. The pressure was negated in the cave but not before the lower rank chickens lost their lives. Chickens in low Rank 1 and Rank 0 instantly lost their lives while the stronger ones managed to keep their life.

If the Verdant Serpent hadn't released his pressure, all of them would have died a gradual and painful death. Roaster heaved in panic, his eyes turned to the now meat paste that was his family. He didn't know what evil he had done to experience this.

'Vengeance won't do you well,' Serpent advised before going to sleep.

Verdant Serpent with all his years of living knew what the Roaster was going through. This was the world of the beast; death was always at the doorstep. Holding grudges won't do anyone good, especially when you are weaker.

---

I watched my now core in amazement that I felt similar to when I learned how big the universe was. I felt so minuscule as it was incomprehensible.

That was the feeling my core gave. The gigantic orb of radiance that pulsed with so much power. It single-handedly lit up my whole Virtual space. The black was no longer empty; now it had a star with a cloud of Nebula orbiting it.

It looked so beautiful and miraculous that I could only stare.

This was my core, this was mine.

It is freaking awesome!!! Are you seeing this system?!!! I have a freaking star in my stomach!!

I couldn't contain my joy at all.

[ I do see it ]

I kept watch as the cloud of nebula just orbited the star now. I don't know how much time passed when I kept staring at it, but I felt that I need to add more. I want it to look more beautiful, I want it to look like the Milky Way, I want it to at least look like the Solar system.

Hey, System! Can I create more Stars and Planets?

[ More planets and stars? ]

[Sure, why not?]

With the confirmation from the system, I started to gather the nebula and clump them together. Unlike the core, I didn't need to worry about these as it was fine as long as they stuck to the shape. The gravity of these would not affect the star.

I created my first planet and placed it next to my core. I watched as the Planet fell into my core and got absorbed. I created another and placed it a bit further, but the core ate it again.

It keeps eating it.

[ Physics ]

[ Not enough Orbital velocity to keep the object from falling into the sun ]

I forgor

Then I made another planet, but instead of just placing it stationary, I threw it. The planet got caught in the Star's gravity well and began its orbit before it spiraled into the star and got eaten. But I wasn't done yet. I wanted to do this, so, I kept going until one of my small planets stabilized on the orbit.

Determining the orbital velocity and getting the hang of it. I finally created 10 different planets with different sizes and threw them around the sun and finally stabilized. They were not orbiting like how the kids make their solar system but in different axis. But I couldn't create moons for the planet due to the clumps just collapsing.

The Solar system was created, but if I keep adding, I might create a whole star system. But I would need to form other stars and planets.

[ Don't even think about it ]

Okay, (＿　＿)

[ If you want to create another star, You will destabilize your core ]

[ You have to wait until your body stabilizes before you even try ]

Okay, ( ^ _ ^ )

[ Now get out ]

With that, the system kicked me out of the Virtual Dantian, and I woke up from my slumber. I felt like I had a good night sleep with the things that happened in Virtual Dantian felt like a dream. I still don't understand how he does that, but I am happy.

I moved my conscious to look at my core, which was now a solar system. My core still had the planets resolving around it with an outer shell of nebula orbiting it.

Now to check my growth, System open status.

___

[} Status {]

[ Name : Lijen ]

[ Ex points : 0 ]

[ Rank : 1 ]

[ Cultivation stage : Primordial Core Formation ]

[ Age : 1 ]

[ Race : Black hatchling ]

[ Gender : Male ]

[ Bloodline : ??????? ]

[ Cultivation method : Stellar Genesis ]

[} Skills {]

[ Dead bite ] [ Stupid charge ] [ Rattled brain ] [ Death Dive ] [ Tail Whip ]

[} Items {]

[ Token ] [ Earth Verdant Serpent Scales × 2 ] [ Idiots guide to Dragon's Breath ] [ Survival Guide of Bare Grills ] [ Mighty Steel Legs ]

___

~Hmmmmm~ I got to rank one and my Exchange points has return to 0.

Maybe I could ask the serpent for more scales and exchange them for points. I could get the elemental mastery and some other with it. But before that lets check the Manuals.