As years passed, Ye Li seemed to have disappeared. Nobody could find him, not even Zhou Fan.
He did not create a race, take over an area, or kill any more beings. He simply disappeared.
Zhou Fan had more or less expected this. He turned his gaze over to the rest of the Universe.
It was time to begin waiting once again. Monty was awake, slithering around Zhou Fan, and Leaf was swaying. It was quite peaceful for a few sextillion years.
Suddenly, Zhou Fan felt something in the River of Cultivation. Looking at it, a large water spout shot out, reaching extremely high before falling back into the water.
Zhou Fan's eyes widened in surprise. A supreme talent had been born. One that could possibly change the current state of the Universe.
It was not a Path Creator, but a cultivator. With the emergence of Path Creators, cultivators seemed to fall into the background, but they were the most powerful existences below the Path Creators. It would only take two major breakthroughs for a Sage realm Cultivator to reach the Great Dao Realm.
Zhou Fan had seen many droplets fly up, some bigger than others. These usually represented the birth of a potential Sage Realm cultivator.
This, however, was incomparable. Even the High Sage from long ago, whose talent was unmatched, could not compare.
Speaking of that High Sage, Zhou Fan still didn't fully understand why he had done what he had done. He had never seemed arrogant or foolish. Perhaps reaching the top of the Universe had given birth to arrogance, but regardless, his downfall seemed sudden.
Zhou Fan, in his curiosity, had even spoken to the Buddha about it.
For the Buddha to immediately cripple him, it seemed unusual.
The Buddha had responded simply. "I had heard of him doing various evil deeds even before he came to me. It didn't seem fit for someone like that to be so powerful."
Zhou Fan felt it a pity that such a talent had been crippled and eventually died, but so be it.
Maybe there had been some sort of scheming or planning behind his downfall, but that didn't matter to Zhou Fan. No matter what had happened, it was unimportant after so long.
But now, Zhou Fan could see another cultivator potentially surpass the Sage realm. After thinking for a moment, he stood up and left. Before leaving, Leaf and Monty joined him.
Zhou Fan stepped forward and stood on a mortal planet. In front of him was a child, and around him were hospital staff and his parents.
It was a newborn baby. Zhou Fan was there, but none could see him.
He had thought about it and decided to teach this child.
It wasn't because he valued him or cared about humanity. It was because of the emergence of Path Creators. Other Paths besides Cultivation were making their way into the world, and Zhou Fan felt like, as the Creator of Cultivation, he should teach Cultivators.
He would only teach. This being's Life and Death would be irrelevant to him. After all, there would always be another talent.
Zhou Fan waited for the child to grow. He lived an average life, neither too rich nor too poor. He did not have too much contact with Cultivation, nor too little. His planet was average as well.
The strongest cultivator was at the Inner World realm. It was better than many planets, but worse than many as well.
When the child was 7, he was introduced to cultivation for the first time. With his exceptional talent, he immediately reached the limit in place for Cultivation speed.
This attracted the attention of many powerful beings once it was revealed.
Zhou Fan wasn't focused on that. Instead, he was looking at how slow the child was Cultivating. Although he had indeed set up the system of limitations on Cultivation speed, things had changed since then.
Cultivation was no longer the sole Path in the Universe.
It seemed that these limits needed redefining. It was too bad that he only noticed it now.
The next day, the Universe shook. Cultivation 2.0 was put in place.
Limits were redefined. They were still released at the Void Traversing realm, but now, the limits on earlier levels had changed.
Qi Gathering Limit - 1 day per level.
Foundation Establishment Limit - 2 days per level
Core Formation Limit - 3 days per level
Nascent Soul Limit - 5 days per level
Soul Formation Limit - 10 days per level
It changed limits while still keeping a certain balance and order to the Universe.
It seemed like a small change, but it truly turned the Cultivation world upside down.
Perhaps the one to feel this change the most was the talented child. By the age of 10, he was at the Peak of the Void Traversing realm. He was only at that point because he was guided by his elders to slow down.
He needed to understand each realm and practice his various powers. Otherwise, he would have a high realm but no combat power.
The child did not have a Divine Physique or an Innate Talent.
All he had was pure, raw, unparalleled Cultivation talent.
The child, while still a child who wanted to have as much fun as possible, listened to his elders. He restrained his speed until one day.
While his elders were lecturing him, teaching him what they knew about cultivation, a being descended from the sky.
They were in space, so there was not really a sky, but he descended from far above and they could not even see where he had come from.
The room, an open structure out in space, fell silent.
Zhou Fan spoke. "How far would you like to go along the path of Cultivation?"
He looked at the child while he spoke.
The elders in the room sighed. They had expected this day. The Child's talent was truly unparalleled. Finally, a worthy Master had come.
Even the Inner World realm cultivator felt the exact same.
He had only been waiting for the day when the Child took a real Master.
The Child wasn't sure how to answer. He looked at his elders with apparent confusion.