2 years later
The Taotie was currently still in its infantile stage, being a species that takes long to grow up and an even longer time to die. He was currently sitting in his own territory that he claimed with his own strength. He stayed in a natural cave that had dense spiritual energy that constantly entered his body. Even though nobody had taught him, he figured out that if he continued to devour the essence that surrounded his mouth, he would gradually become stronger and stronger. Even during his sleep, he would leave his mouth open to passively absorb the energy that surrounded his mouth. Occasionally the wind would blow some leaves into his mouth and he would wake up with a bad aftertaste in his mouth, but he decided that this was a 'necessary burden.'
The territory he chose was situated near the same valley that he was 'born' in. It was at the very top of a mountain that made him seem like an emperor overlooking the peasants. His territory was not large because he noticed that there were terrifying existences like him or even more powerful than him. About 10 miles out from the east of his territory was a large serpent with wings. He originally thought that it would be an easy kill. He had stalked it for hours before finally taking action, but he was beaten severely and poisoned because of it. He had to stay away for a tens of days devouring essence and creatures just to cleanse his body of the toxins. It made his scalp turn numb, and he never went back that direction and the snake never came to find him either.
----
Millions of miles away
A little kid was running down the hallway like his but was on fire while holding an artifact that was currently glowing. He was of common birth, but had exceptional talent and was picked as a disciple by one of the inner court masters. With his powerful aptitude he rose up quickly and made a name for himself as one of the strongest 'common born.'
"It lit up master, it really did! Look, Look I brought it with."
He had just breached through the door when he started panting and trying to explain the situation. This artifact was given to him by his master and he was told if it ever lit up to tell his master about it immediately. There was a man that was sitting in the corner that was furious at his disciples intrusion before hearing his words and now afterwards it was like he was his loving father smile amicably.
"Bring it over here so I can read what it said."
This was an artifact that he gave to his disciple that sensed 'world energy.' It was a term the Sages Palace had deemed for the creation of world energy. This artifact would be able to sense it and locate it, even giving readings based off the energy intensity.
Taking it from the youngsters hand, he directed his gaze down onto the symbols forming on the surface of the vase. This precious artifact was made into a vase to let the energy go into the top and seal it inside to then extract information from it. It was passed from generation to generation, but was deemed unnecessary because it had never gone off once after its creation. When he heard that his disciple said it had lit up, he was very suspicious at first, but when he read the words that formed on the surface, his skin had goosebumps. It really did detect a world!
" 3,568,790 miles south east, stability: unstable, 9.8 essence energy."
When he read this line of words he almost directly passed out. This was too close! In the entire void that spanned an almost limitless amount of miles, a world popped up basically right next to them. The next line of words though brought him straight from heaven to hell. The essence energy of 9.8 was out of ten, meaning this world was incomparably powerful and full of energy, a great place to cultivate! The troublesome part was the instability, meaning that using long transport formation would still be possible, but the more powerful the cultivator, the bigger the resistance. Those at the peak had absolutely no chance to cross to this world. This vase saved a great amount of lives just with these words, because if those grand people tried to enter, they would undoubtedly turn into nothing.
----
The news the inner court member gave to the sect master gave the whole sect a fright. There was a world waiting to be found, and it had plenty of essence which means heavenly medicine plants and spiritual beasts with large amounts of energy that could be used as pills to help them cultivate. However this was a pipe dream for most. Only the powerful descendants of people in the sect could go because the limit of the stability of the space around the world would directly destroy all of the older members that were more powerful. Although many people were dispirited because of this, some of the younger generation were staring fervently at a portal that was taking place, that would take them directly to a heavenly place!
Directly at the back of the line for people to go into the world was the child who was carrying the vase. He was shivering with excitement and ready to venture off into the new world. The strongest always had to take risk, and he was undoubtedly taking one, along with the rest of them in line.
----
Back at the Toatie's territory
The young Taotie was currently gorging itself on a fiery ox that he had hunted down just outside of his territory to the north, when he unexpectedly felt the energy around him disperse and then reconnect into something that looked like a door into nothing. This door was floating 100 feet above the ground and only 30 feet horizontally away from where the Taotie was trying to conserve his meal to make the taste last longer. This foreign object directly obstructed his eating time!
With a growl he stood up, making his young body that was currently dull turn into a golden splendor. He was now almost 7 feet tall on all fours, and had a spiky spines growing down his tail that could be used to directly pierce into others flesh. Over these past two years his body started to faintly turn golden, especially on his mane. His mane was a fiery gold that made ones eyes start to hurt if looked at for long periods of time. His face had elongated and his teeth were razor sharp with 2 incisors that looked like a saber tooth tigers teeth elongated below his jaw. On the bottom of his legs were power feet and paws that ended in razor blade like claws that had endlessly been covered in blood these past two years.
He was the epitome of what a hunter should look like. He was 7 feet tall but his body was sleek and powerful, ready to sprint at any given notice. His two hawk like eyes were now currently gazing at the doorway waiting for something to happen.