The scene shifted.
A canopy of clouds loomed over the city, thick and slow-moving.
From time to time, thunder cracked the sky, rattling the silence that clung to the city below.
Liam rose from his chair with a quiet motion, brushing the light folds of his robe as he did.
Without a word, he turned and headed toward the pond nearby, his steps unhurried, the fabric of his robe whispering against the grass.
He stopped by the water's edge, gazing at the surface for a lingering moment.
Then, as if dismissing the scene with a subtle shift of intent, he dragged the entire space elsewhere.
A flicker of thought passed, and in the next instant, Liam vanished.
He reappeared within the Divine Mind Space, suspended in the air above a floating mass of land.
The vast expanse below shimmered faintly, tinted in hues of ember and gold.
Descending gradually, he took in the evolving landscape of the fiery blade field he'd been cultivating.
It had grown considerably, spanning over ten li now.
Roughly the length of three high school football fields laid side by side, all covered in jagged, flaming flora.
Orderly plating beds lined up in dense rows, each carefully spaced.
Off to one side, five farming puppets stood, awaiting the next set of instructions preloaded into their mechanical minds.
Liam observed them with a small, approving nod. "Even without any real intelligence," he muttered, half to himself, "the basic movements embedded in their cores aren't compromised at all. Still functioning like clockwork",
After all, compared to his newest creations, these 5 were a bit 'outdated'
He took his time walking the area, his gaze moving from row to row as he evaluated the condition of the beds and the overall setup.
Each pass earned a slight nod of approval.
"Once the first batch is fully harvested," he said aloud, fingers brushing against his chin thoughtfully, "I should try planting a second-grade spiritual herb for the next cycle."
His steps were casual, but his expression turned a little as the thought deepened.
"Still… without a proper inheritance slip or even decent guidance, it's going to be a slog."
He exhaled quietly, brows furrowed. "To even qualify as a second-grade Spiritual Planter without those things, it's not something time alone can solve."
"Perhaps joining those forces with complete inheritance might be the way out. However, I disliked being bounded"
That was the real bottleneck for cultivators like him.
Without a teacher, without access to clear paths, advancing in any auxiliary art felt like climbing a mountain with no rope.
Trial and error bled resources.
The cost, time, effort, spiritual stones stacked until it buried most cultivators alive.
Many never made it.
They failed, stumbled again and again, and in the end, remained stuck in place, watching others pass them by.
This was the truth behind those so-called great forces.
They hoarded those complete inheritances like a dragon hoarded gold.
They locked knowledge behind vows, contracts, lifelong servitude. Unless you bent the knee and offered up your freedom, the doors to the next stage stayed shut.
Liam clicked his tongue and shook his head, the thought leaving a sour taste in his mouth.
A breath later, his body faded from the Divine Mind Space.
He reappeared again, this time underground, buried deep inside.
Darkness swallowed everything. Pure, absolute black stretched in every direction.
There was no flicker of light, no hint of structure, just empty silence and weightless void.
He stood still for a moment, trying to get a feel of the place.
Then, the question surfaced in his mind.
If he summoned the Shadow Worm here, for dungeon use, how many could he summon? Was it limited to just one?
And if not, what would be the requirements to summon more?
The question echoed through the cavernous dark.
Theories were meant to be tested.
With that thought in mind, Liam decided to try summoning the Shadow Worm from the pocket space.
A quiet ripple of energy stirred the air beside him.
In the next breath, a round portal blinked into existence, its edges faintly flickering like mist soaked in moonlight.
Then, with eerie grace, a fully grown Shadow Worm emerged.
Nearly two meters long, its entire body slithered out, moving as light as a feather despite its size.
The portal behind it closed without a sound, sealing itself off the moment the creature was through.
Liam stood there, arms folded, watching the worm float midair with an unreadable expression.
"Ugly as ever," he muttered with a crooked smile. "And with that annoying movement ability... it's gonna be a nightmare for those poor cultivators."
He didn't sound concerned, more amused than anything.
With a quiet hum of thought, his system panel blinked into view.
[Dungeon Creation System]
[Name]: Li Am / Liam
[Realm]: Foundation Building Realm [Perfected]
[Lifespan]: 57 / 850
[Universal Essence / Points]: 890
[Dungeon]
Tier 1: 1
[Pocket Space]
Wilden Wolves
Growth Limit: Qi Refining Realm (Peak)Rarity: 0.1Lifespan: 200 yearsSpecial Skills: Blue Claws, Flaming MantleWooden Boar
Growth Limit: Qi Refining Realm (Peak)Rarity: 0.1Lifespan: 300 yearsSpecial Skills: Hardened HideTyphoon Eagle [Bounded]
Growth Limit: Foundation Building RealmRarity: 0.2Lifespan: 700 yearsSpecial Skills: Typhoon Blades, Wind Slash, Typhoon ShieldShadow Worm
Growth Limit: Qi Refining Realm [Perfection]Rarity: 0.1Lifespan: 200 yearsSpecial Skills: Shadow Movement, Shadow Strike, Cocoon of Darkness[Permission Level]: 0%
Everything else in the system looked the same.
Except for the addition of the Shadow Worm, now listed clearly in the panel. Liam's eyes zeroed in on the skills.
Shadow Movement. Shadow Strike. Cocoon of Darkness.
Each name rang sharp in his mind.
He narrowed his gaze slightly but shook the thought off and looked back at the real thing, still hovering eerily in place.
"So…" he muttered, eyeing the worm. "How exactly do I make this thing work?"
The question wasn't rhetorical, he genuinely didn't know. But he wasn't worried either.
Fiddling with the system again, Liam began to probe around. Testing. Trying. Poking at invisible threads until the right one gave way.
It didn't take long.
Turned out, the method was surprisingly simple.
Almost too simple.
He just needed to think about applying the creature to the dungeon.
That's it.
Just intent.
But there was a catch.
Only monsters outside the pocket space could be applied. If they were still tucked inside, the system wouldn't recognize them for deployment.
So in essence, the pocket space was more of a personal vault. A storage chamber.
You kept the monsters there, but you couldn't deploy them directly from within.
With that in mind, Liam focused on the Shadow Worm again.
[It is detected that the host wishes to apply [Shadow Worm] to the dungeon.]
[Automation permission required.]
[Yes] × [No]
"Proceed," Liam responded without hesitation.
The moment the word left his lips, the Shadow Worm vanished.
Gone. Not even a ripple left behind.
On the system panel, its name dimmed to a muted gray.
"Interesting," Liam said softly, curiosity flickering in his eyes.
Something had changed.
He stilled, then gently expanded his divine sense throughout the underground space.
It didn't take long.
He felt them.
Not one, but several.
Shadow Worms.
They were weaving their way through the dungeon's jagged underground terrain, moving effortlessly between rocks and crags.
Within the radius his divine mind could cover, there were quite a few.
Liam blinked, lips curving into a slow, thoughtful smirk.