"Hmpp..." Di Jun exhaled as he slowly opened his eyes. The overwhelming radiance of the Sun Law had subsided, and the sunfire that had scorched the void withdrew.
A profound stillness settled over the divine realm as if the fabric of space itself sighed in relief.
He turned his gaze inward. A subtle gleam flickered in his eyes. "Just two million more years to reach the peak... No, one million," he murmured, correcting himself, an excited smile touching his lips.
Then he turned around and looked at his children, who sat in silence, radiating a soft, golden light.
Each of them teetered on the brink of a breakthrough. Just one more nudge, he thought, and they will set foot on the true path of the Law.
Hovering high above the blazing divine sun, Lex stood in silence, his gaze fixed on the ten golden crows in the distance.
His eyes glowed faintly and a gleam of amusement flickered in his eyes.
"Oh, now it begins," he said calmly, as if announcing the start of a cosmic game.
"What begins?" Luna asked, circling him curiously.
Lex offered a small, knowing smile. "The reshuffling," he said cryptically.
Without offering any further explanation, he turned around. "Let's go."
With a shimmer of power, the two of them vanished from the skies above the divine sun and returned to Origin Island.
Back in the void, Di Jun stood silently behind his children. With a flick of his hand, he conjured a golden barrier to hide their auras from prying eyes. The barrier stretched across hundreds of thousands of miles.
Then, his eyes turned toward them. Initially, his countenance was composed, but it swiftly shifted to one of pride as his children one by one opened their eyes.
Golden faint sun law runes shimmered within their irises. An unmistakable aura of breakthrough hung in the air—they had reached the threshold of the Law Bearer Realm.
Di Jun's smile widened into a grin and his pride turned into laughter. "Hahaha! Mine is the first bloodline to step into this realm.
My strength grows, and my dominion shall follow." His eyes burned with ambition.
"The era of the Solar Throne begins now," Di Jun murmured with a smile. With ten Law Bearers rising from his lineage, expansion of his domain was inevitable.
Though they could not yet compete with the Primordials in the early stages, their potential was undeniable.
Then the youngest spoke up. Her voice was uncertain, yet filled with wonder. "Father… I can see something."
Di Jun turned toward her.
"Threads," she whispered, her eyes wide and faintly glowing with newfound perception. "I can see them...no, not just threads, but Law threads."
She couldn't explain how she knew. But she instinctively did. "They're flickering… disappearing and reappearing."
"You've reached the threshold," Di Jun said, his voice steady. But inside, he could feel his blood essence surging and boiling with a primal stir. Something was changing.
"My blood essence is teetering on the edge of further refinement. What a powerful opportunity the Creator left me with," he thought.
The chubby one reached out curiously, his fingers brushing the air. His hand passed through the threads like mist. "I perceive them… but they slip through me, Father. Why is that?"
"That's normal," said Di Jun. "These aren't physical; they're the purest expressions of reality. You're perceiving their essence, not their form."
The eldest turned to him. "What now? How do we advance to the Law Bearer Realm?"
Di Jun placed his hands behind his back and his expression turned solemn. "Start by focusing on the Sun Law. Of all the threads, it should be the thickest and most familiar to you. Reach for it, but not with force; reach for it with resonance."
His children nodded in unison. One by one, they closed their eyes and extended their consciousness into the void.
A golden sun-law thread snaked through the void, flickering in and out of existence like a whisper of reality before gently curving toward the youngest.
It drifted into her temple without resistance and disappeared into her mind.
Di Jun's eyes narrowed with satisfaction. "She's accepted," he muttered under his breath.
Moments passed. Then, Di Jun felt it.
One by one, they connected to the Sun Law.
He then looked at the others, when he also sensed their success in connecting with the sun laws, he gave approving nod.
"Good. Now, slowly begin the merging process. Remember, even though I embody the law, the law does not listen to me. You must earn its acceptance," he said.
He then turned and scanned them again, his gaze sharp yet proud.
Before they could do it, the eldest broke the silence. "Father, what do you know about the Celestial Tribulation?"
The moment the word "celestial" was spoken, Di Jun's expression shifted subtly.
The air around him grew heavier. His eyes dimmed slightly as if he were reaching into a rarely touched part of his memory.
"Celestial tribulations, of course! What was I thinking? I was too eager and too proud. I forgot that the Celestial Mandate still looms," he thought, his gaze growing distant.
He then turned towards them and began "I believe they're connected to the Celestial Mandate. As you have discovered through the laws. Although I haven't witnessed one myself yet."
"And as you approach the threshold of a major realm and strive to progress, your ability to alter fate increases—and that's when they appear. They don't come to stop you; they come to test if you're worthy."
He paused, then added with a touch of gravity,
"Of course, no one truly knows how the test works. Since you're the first pioneers among the lesser beings."
"But to us, the Celestial Mandate is a restriction, a curse. It is a punishment imposed by the Creator for our failure as guardians."
"What roles?" the eldest asked, his tone both cautious and curious.
"Well, obviously, it's being guardians. Are you not listening?" the chubby said naively, scratching his head.
"No," Di Jun cut in, calmly but firmly. "He's right to ask."
He paused, then continued, his tone darker now.
"At first, our roles felt meaningless. They were just titles without weight. But the more we lived, the more our responsibilities shaped and chained us."
"What began as guardians turned into erosion. We found ourselves dissolving into the very laws we embodied. We became less ourselves and more them."
His fingers curled slightly.
"The Sun Law didn't just bend to me. I became it," said Di Jun, his voice deep and reflective.
"The longer I embodied it, the more of myself I lost. That is the price of power bound to the laws. So we chose another path. We pursued our own goals, abandoning the roles the Creator gave us. Though, I won't lie, most of those goals still boiled down to gaining more power."
"Do you still embody the Law of the Sun?" the lean child with the elongated limbs asked, his voice curious.
"I do," Di Jun replied. "Not just me—everyone of my kind does. It's woven into the core of who we are. We cannot abandon it, nor would we want to. The power it grants us is undeniable. But we always strive to resist its erosion."
The eldest frowned. "But wouldn't you have become even more powerful by fully embodying the Law?"
Di Jun let out a soft chuckle and said. "That's an insightful question."
He paused before answering. "Yes, we would have grown stronger. Far stronger. But what good is power if you can't enjoy it? If you no longer recognize who you are?"
He turned, gazing toward the divine moon. His eyes met the Moon Goddess's. When he spoke, his voice was quiet but heavy with meaning:
"Power without self…is just another kind of prison."
"Suppress the breakthrough for now. We must prepare for the celestial tribulation. We still don't know what it truly is," said Di Jun as he soared toward the sun, his children following close behind.
•••••
Deep within the Dream Galaxy, Kismetor sat alone in a vast, silent chamber surrounded by swirling strands of cosmic energy.
Immersed in the mysteries of the Destiny Laws, he meditated with unwavering focus until, suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
"What is this feeling?" he murmured, his brows furrowing.
Without delay, he closed his eyes once more and his consciousness surged forward, immediately connecting to the River of Fate.
There, in the endless current of destiny threads, he scanned the weave, trying to see the cause of what made the Destiny Law tremble.
However, the longer he searched, the more urgently the Destiny Law vibrated. He stopped actively searching and relied on his instincts letting destiny guide him. Immediately, his gaze fixed on a single, thick thread: Di Jun's destiny.
The instant he focused on it, a bolt of intuitive clarity struck him. "So, the disturbance comes from Di Jun."
He examined the thread more closely, eyes narrowing with scrutiny.
"What! A Middle-Rank Eight Law Bearer, already?" he exclaimed. Disbelief flickered across his face as he sensed Di Jun's true strength.
A moment later, he composed himself, organizing his thoughts with practiced calm.
"Perhaps he discovered a Monolith, but even so, this rate of advancement is unnatural."
A deep furrow formed on his brow, the confusion genuine and rare.
His gaze deepened as he threaded further into the weave. That's when he saw them—ten smaller threads entwined within Di Jun's thread.
Di Jun had hidden their existence, but Kismetor could see them easily.
"Descendants," he murmured, voice low and thoughtful.
He pushed deeper into the thread, as he sensed that there was more hidden beneath the surface of Di Jun's fate than mere cultivation advancement.
••••
Within the palace, as Di Jun made final preparations for the coming tribulation, a sudden shift in the air prickled his senses. His eyes narrowed.
Then, immediately, a wave of divine consciousness surged from him, scanning every hall and chamber of the Divine Sun Palace with pinpoint precision.
"Someone's watching," he thought, but despite sweeping all over the sun, he found no trace of the intruder.
"No time to waste," he murmured and without another word, he vanished.