The night the stars fell, the people thought the gods had answered their prayers.
For days, lights streaked across the skies—comets of every color, trailing brilliance that split the clouds.
They fell over kingdoms and forests, across oceans and deserts, sinking silently into the land.
When dawn came, the world was changed.
-----
In the southern desert, three merchants found a scroll of gold half-buried in the sand.
The oldest one reached for it. The moment his fingers brushed the seal, light poured into his eyes.
Symbols burned in his mind, words he did not understand yet felt compelled to repeat.
> "The Dao of Radiance shall guide all lost souls..."
The scroll dissolved into ash, and the man stood trembling.
When he spoke again, his voice was calm, certain, and utterly foreign.
He began preaching of a Golden Path, teaching that enlightenment came through surrendering the self to the light within.
By nightfall, the entire caravan listened to his words in awe.
By the next week, villages along the trade route had begun chanting his verses.
-----
Deep in the ocean's heart, where tier-one beasts hunted endlessly, something luminous sank into coral beds—a crystal sphere, pure and cold.
A leviathan approached it, cautious.
The moment its eyes met the orb, its mind quivered.
A voice echoed within:
> "Serve the Moonlight. Guard the tides. You are chosen."
When the creature surfaced, its roar shook the waters.
It began to gather other sea beasts, and soon a vast migration started toward the center of the ocean.
Sailors watching from distant shores whispered that the sea itself was waking.
-----
Across continents, dreams began to change.
Cultivators meditating at night saw visions of flame-cloaked figures promising power beyond mortality.
Farmers dreamt of silver-eyed strangers teaching them chants that could heal wounds.
Scholars wrote down symbols they had never learned, yet when recited, the air shimmered faintly with energy.
In temples, some priests claimed divine revelation.
In sects, a few elders declared that new Daos had descended upon the world.
The faithful believed.
The ambitious experimented.
And the world grew noisier with unseen whispers.
----
From the world's core, Arin watched.
He saw mortals kneeling before glowing relics, their souls touched by alien intent.
He saw beasts forming patterns in migration—unconsciously aligning to Dao signatures foreign to this realm.
He could feel the spread—subtle, like dye diffusing through water.
> "So this is how they conquer," he murmured.
He traced the energy trails left by each artifact.
Each was bound by a seed of foreign law, resonating with the intelligent beings it touched.
When enough minds followed that resonance, the seed would anchor the invader's Dao into the world itself.
The void's whisper resurfaced in his thoughts:
> "When half believe, the world bows."
Arin frowned.
> "Then belief shall not come easily."
-----
He could not destroy the artifacts—doing so would break the Balance and call retribution from the higher planes.
But he could disrupt them.
Arin began weaving countercurrents into the ley lines.
He thickened the flow of native spiritual energy around the relics, forcing them to struggle for resonance.
He planted instinctive caution in mortal minds—a faint unease toward anything glowing, whispered, or dream-born.
To most, it would feel like superstition; to him, it was defense.
Still, he could not stop curiosity.
For every mortal who hesitated, another stepped forward and touched the unknown.
-----
Months passed.
Across kingdoms, new sects rose overnight—each following a strange new Dao, each claiming revelation from heaven.
The Golden Path Sect in the desert taught peace and light.
The Tidal Communion in the oceans worshipped the Leviathan as a divine messenger.
The Crimson Truth Monastery preached that true power came by embracing the fire within, guided by dreams of a flame-wreathed god.
Their techniques worked.
Even low-level cultivators found their breakthroughs easier, their senses sharper.
Power validated faith, and faith strengthened power.
Arin watched, silent and thoughtful.
> "Their Daos… are integrating into my system," he realized.
"Their laws are parasitic—binding themselves to my world's framework."
He hesitated only a moment before whispering to the void,
> "Then I'll evolve faster than they spread."