Deep within the Original Universe, far beyond the reach of ordinary minds, lay a hidden realm stretching over 160 million light-years.
At its heart churned an endless ocean—twelve light-years wide—its surface rippling with ever-shifting colors. Ethereal mist rose in a ceaseless dance, like realities being born and snuffed out with each breath of the cosmos.
Floating above this impossible sea was a figure—robed, enigmatic, and radiating a sinister grace.
He was Nine Nether, a God Lord of the Universe Divine Cult and one of the most powerful beings in existence. His allegiance lay with the Source Will itself.
The ocean below was no ordinary sea—it was his true body.
This so-called "Blood Sea" was a unique lifeform, birthed by the Universe itself. The countless beings referred to as his "descendants" were merely other blood-sea-type entities that shared his essence.
Nine Nether's eyes opened. Inside them swirled infinite cosmic laws.
"You need Blood Sea seawater at Stellar-level...?" he murmured.
"But my descendants are all at least World Lord-level now. The weakest seawater I've stored is at the Cosmic level..."
Even so, he complied.
He reached out.
From nothing, a droplet of seawater formed—hundreds of meters in size, glowing with a crimson sheen.
"Where to send it... the Dark Universe? Understood."
With a wave, space distorted. A rift tore open, revealing the entrance to the Dark Universe. The droplet vanished into the tear, carried by the will of a god.
Then, Nine Nether paused.
No new commands came.
He closed his eyes once again, slipping back into silence.
Had he known the Source Will had personally contacted its former vessel—just to deliver the perfect material—he might have been genuinely moved.
Far across the cosmos, a black, twelve-meter egg drifted alone in deep space.
A gentle pulse in the void nudged it toward the same passage.
---
One day later
A rift tore open in the Solar System—quiet, sudden, and without warning.
From it, two massive objects emerged, cloaked in dense cosmic energy.
Then, the passage vanished, as if it had never existed.
No one in the system noticed—except one.
Malrick awoke from his meditation, senses alive with cosmic awareness. The laws of light and time shimmered in his eyes.
One day had passed.
And he had broken through.
His power had reached Cosmic Level, Stage Two.
The Stellar Cores within him had evolved into Nebulas.
More importantly, his comprehension of the Law of Light had deepened—he now controlled the Sevenfold Light Domain.
This wasn't learned through study. It was a gift of his unique nature—a special lifeform whose natural growth intertwined with cosmic laws.
In the Starry Sky World, laws weren't abstract philosophies—they were real, tangible forces. Domain mastery meant fusing your essence with those forces. Most needed years of training to scratch the surface.
But Malrick's affinity was so high that the mere fluctuations of his own energy allowed him to slip past the domain stage and touch the law directly.
He was now capable of sensing and shaping laws with instinct alone.
Physically, his strength had reached 400 billion tons.
A single punch carried the weight of Mount Tai and more.
Yet compared to a true Superman, this was still child's play.
Adult Kryptonians like Clark Kent had been shown moving entire planets—Apokolips, for instance, in Smallville.
In this world, Malrick's power was already enough to classify him among the Immortal-class elites, the kind who might only appear once in tens of thousands of star systems.
He opened his eyes, satisfied with his growth.
One day of basking in sunlight had produced outrageous gains.
He turned, scanning space behind him.
The ripples of spatial disturbance had not gone unnoticed.
Thanks to enhancements from the Source Will, his vision could now stretch across billions of kilometers.
There—near Saturn.
Two objects hurtled through space, wrapped in stellar light.
Malrick smiled.
"They're here."
He instinctively raised his hand, forming circles in the air—attempting to cast the Mystic Art of Portals.
He had the power.
Between his Genetic Primal Energy and the World Energy of his Inner World, he could now perform acts of magic using pure will.
But the portal failed.
Light arcs flared and collapsed mid-formation.
Something was off.
"The spatial laws here must differ from those in the Starry Sky World," he mused.
"Guess I'll do this the old-fashioned way."
He turned his body, activating his Time Bio-field.
Time Acceleration: Engaged.
Light Law Resonance: Active.
With a burst of light, he shot forward—his body vanishing into the void at sub-light speed.
---
Two and a half hours later
Near Saturn's orbit, he intercepted the incoming masses.
Using his energy, he stripped away the cosmic aura.
Revealed before him were two objects:
A glowing, deep-red sphere of seawater, roughly a hundred meters across.
And a twelve-meter-tall black egg, ominous and still.
Malrick grinned.
"My clones."
He double-checked with the Source Will to confirm delivery.
Once verified, he moved quickly.
The Blood Sea was absorbed directly into his Inner World, where his consciousness followed.
His Inner World had grown rapidly—it now spanned 600 kilometers in every direction.
Not quite the scale of Luo Feng's Inner World from the original storyline, but impressive nonetheless for someone at his level.
The crimson seawater hovered in the center of his world.
Malrick surrounded it with World Energy, and immediately received a rush of information.
"This is Cosmic-level seawater... perfectly matched to my current realm. The Source Will really came through."
He wasted no time.
With a focused thought, he triggered his innate ability:
"Begin clone gestation."
The Inner World responded.
Sky and land trembled.
Massive flows of World Energy condensed like storm clouds, rushing toward the seawater.
In seconds, the water vaporized completely.
What remained was a condensed substance—genetic material, shimmering in midair.
The World Energy wrapped around it, condensing into a golden egg-shaped cocoon.
Inside, the raw essence of the Blood Sea began forming into something new—a strange, alien embryo.
All that was left now... was time.
A moment later, a message echoed in his mind:
[Clone gestation initiated. Estimated incubation time: 6,000 years.]
"What?" Malrick blinked. "Six thousand?"
"That's not right. Luo Feng's World Lord-level clone only took six hundred years!"
Then he realized the problem.
"Of course—it's my Inner World. It's way too small."
Luo Feng's clone, in the source material, was a behemoth born into an Inner World a hundred million kilometers across.
Malrick's clone was comparatively smaller—only a few hundred kilometers tall—but even that was a squeeze in a 600-kilometer-high space.
Trying to incubate that clone here was like growing an elephant inside a terrarium.
Just getting it born would be a miracle.
Speed? Not likely.
"I need to grow stronger fast," he muttered. "Sure, the process can't fail once it starts—but six thousand years?"
"That's almost two hundred times longer than both my lifetimes put together."
"I can't wait that long."
---
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