I sank into my old couch, the familiar cushions creaking under my weight. The apartment felt like a time capsule from a life I'd already outgrown. My laptop sat closed on the coffee table, probably still logged into the company systems Bob had cut me off from yesterday. Had it really only been twenty-four hours since my world had collapsed and rebuilt itself?
The world bead pulsed gently within my chest, a warm presence that reminded me of my new reality. I needed to share this gift, but not carelessly. Opening a cultivation paradise to humanity required careful planning.
The central monolith in the Eastern Region was ready. The Heavenly Dao had crafted it according to my specifications, a geometric marvel that would serve as the entry point for Earth's first cultivators. But I needed a location on Earth where people could actually find and access the portal without me standing there like some carnival barker announcing the greatest show in existence.
More importantly, I couldn't just throw open the doors to everyone. The spiritual energy in the world bead was a finite resource, even if it was vast. Wasting it on people who would abuse the power or harm others would be criminal negligence on my part.
I closed my eyes and reached out to the world bead's consciousness. The Heavenly Dao responded immediately, sharing its understanding through images and concepts. The portal system could be programmed with heavenly laws, spiritual filters that would automatically screen potential entrants.
'Can we establish moral criteria?' I asked silently.
The response came as a flood of understanding. Yes, the laws could read the fundamental nature of a person's soul. Anyone with truly malicious intent, those who had committed evil acts without remorse, or people whose hearts harbored genuine darkness would trigger the screening process. They would step through the portal and immediately find themselves back on Earth, confused and unable to reach the world bead's space.
Perfect. That solved the first problem.
The second issue was more practical. Earth's military technology could devastate the spiritual beasts in the Eastern Region, even the stronger ones. A single squad with assault rifles could probably clear out areas that should challenge early-stage cultivators for months. That defeated the entire purpose of creating a cultivation environment.
The Heavenly Dao showed me another possibility. The portal could strip away specific items during the transition. Guns, explosives, electronic devices, anything that relied on Earth's technology rather than personal cultivation. People would enter with nothing but their clothes and whatever natural tools they could craft inside the world bead.
'What about medical supplies?' I wondered. 'Basic survival gear?'
The consciousness conveyed nuanced understanding. Simple items like knives, rope, basic medical supplies would pass through. Complex machinery, chemical weapons, firearms would not. The distinction lay in whether the item enhanced personal capability or replaced it entirely.
'Great! However, we should also allow mobile phones and other communication devices. We can let cellular signals pass through the portal too.' The Heavenly Dao acknowledged my criteria.
That left the biggest challenge. Location. Wherever I placed this portal, governments would eventually discover it. They'd cordon off the area, restrict access, probably try to weaponize whatever they found. I needed somewhere public enough that blocking access would be impossible, but remote enough that initial discovery would be organic.
The solution crystallized in my mind like pieces of a puzzle snapping together. One portal would create a bottleneck that governments could control. But dozens? Hundreds? That changed everything.
I could travel the world, placing portals in every major country. New York, London, Tokyo, Mumbai, São Paulo, Cairo. Each one would serve as an entry point to the same Eastern Region, spreading the opportunity across the entire planet rather than concentrating it in one location.
The Heavenly Dao pulsed with approval, sharing images of portal networks spanning continents. The beauty of the system was its flexibility. If any government tried to build walls around a portal, establish checkpoints, or restrict access, I could simply relocate it. The portal wasn't bound to physical geography. It was a manifestation of the world bead's power, anchored by my will rather than concrete foundations.
'They want to play games?' I thought, grinning at the mental image of frustrated military commanders watching their carefully constructed barriers become useless overnight. 'I can move a portal faster than they can build a fence around it.'
The Heavenly Dao showed me the process. A simple mental command would dissolve one portal and recreate it miles away. If they really had the energy to chase after moving targets and rebuild defenses every few days, I could keep the portals dancing around their territories until they gave up and recognized the futility of restriction.
But how would people actually find these portals? I couldn't rely on word of mouth or internet rumors. The answer came from the world bead itself, elegant in its simplicity.
'A pillar of light,' I murmured, watching the Heavenly Dao's demonstration. Each portal could emit a brilliant column of energy stretching into the sky, visible for a hundred miles in every direction. No one could miss it. No government could hide it. The light would be beautiful rather than threatening, drawing curiosity instead of fear.
That left the final challenge. Once people stepped through, they'd find themselves in a cultivation paradise with no idea how to begin. Most humans had never heard of meridians or spiritual energy. They'd wander around the Eastern Region like tourists in a museum, admiring the scenery but gaining nothing from the experience.
The Heavenly Dao offered another elegant solution. For those who passed the moral screening and entered through the portal, it could inject them with fundamental cultivation knowledge. Not just random information, but specifically the Chaos Genesis Body Art that I practiced. The technique was versatile enough to work with any elemental affinity, giving everyone a solid foundation to build upon.
More than that, the Heavenly Dao could inspect each person's natural aptitudes during the knowledge transfer. Fire affinity, water resonance, earth stability, whatever their souls naturally aligned with. They'd emerge from the portal not just knowing how to cultivate, but understanding their own potential.
'What about advanced techniques?' I asked. The Chaos Genesis Body Art was excellent for beginners, but eventually people would need specialized methods that matched their specific talents.
The consciousness shared a vision of a grand library rising from the earth near the central monolith. Not just books, but knowledge crystals like the ones in Jihasti's vault. Techniques for every element, every body type, every cultivation path imaginable. People could earn access through achievements, completing challenges, or simply demonstrating the wisdom to handle more powerful methods.
The system would be self-regulating. Those who proved themselves worthy of advanced techniques would naturally rise to positions where they could guide newcomers. A cultivation society would emerge organically, built on merit rather than politics or wealth.
I opened my eyes, feeling the weight of possibility settling on my shoulders. This wasn't just about sharing power. I was about to fundamentally change human civilization.
The more I thought about it, the more excited I got! A global network of cultivation portals would revolutionize everything. No more wars fought with bullets and bombs when people could channel lightning through their fingertips. No more famine when cultivators could grow crops in barren soil. No more disease when advanced practitioners could regenerate from nearly any injury.
But excitement couldn't override practical concerns. I needed to find a way to place the portals without being noticed. With surveillance cameras everywhere, if I appeared next to every portal, or took a plane flight to every country just as a portal appeared in those places, that would be too suspicious.
This is where the Heavenly Dao of my world bead gave a potential solution. I only needed to arrive at each location once and leave a portal seed. The consciousness showed me images of tiny crystalline fragments, no larger than grains of sand, that could be dropped anywhere and remain dormant for years. I could choose to open the actual portal there at any time, even long after I had left the area.
The beauty of the system was its subtlety. A portal seed looked like nothing more than a speck of dust or a fragment of quartz. I could scatter them in parks, on street corners, inside buildings, anywhere that seemed appropriate. Later, from the comfort of my apartment, I could activate any seed and watch a magnificent portal bloom from seemingly empty air.
However, that still wouldn't solve the problem of having all my flight records matching up with all of the portal locations. I had to assume the governments were at least smart enough to match that kind of information to me. Even if I could delay the portals, it wouldn't remove the travel records.
If I could cultivate all the way to the Core Formation Realm, the fourth realm of cultivation, then it might be possible to avoid most plane flights. At Core Formation Realm, one could fly with their own power. I could cross oceans without leaving any paper trail, place portal seeds on every continent, and return home before anyone noticed I'd left.
Well, let's not waste time thinking that far ahead. I'd just start by placing one portal here in San Jose. The other portals could come later. Lucky San Jose gets a head start.
I slept in my creaky bed and soon the light of the next morning shined through my window. The familiar sounds of traffic and distant construction filtered through the thin walls, reminding me how different this world felt compared to the pristine silence of the world bead.
Although I wasn't rich, the money I'd saved up wasn't a small amount either. I could at least live in my apartment for another year or two before my funds dried up. Assuming I grew my own vegetables and hunted spiritual beasts for food, I could live indefinitely just off of my own world bead. The Eastern Region had plenty of arable land, and the weaker beasts would provide more than enough meat to sustain me.
Before I began opening portals, I decided to plant some vegetables and cultivate a few more layers. I had purchased several vegetable seeds the night before. Entering the world bead Core Region and utilizing the help of the Heavenly Dao, I tossed the seeds into the designated farm area and accelerated the time flow. Soon vegetables sprouted and were fully grown in seconds. Their taste was exquisite—anything grown in a spiritually rich environment tasted amazing!
I then sat and meditated inside my Core Palace and began cultivating. At layer three, there was one more layer to forge muscles, then the next two layers were dedicated to condensing the bones and cleansing the marrow.
The spiritual energy flowed through my body like liquid fire, each absorption strengthening my bones and cleansing my marrow. Week after week passed in the Core Region, where the dense spiritual energy made every breakthrough feel effortless. The Chaos Genesis Body Art guided the energy through precise patterns, tempering my skeleton until it felt like compressed steel wrapped in human flesh.
By the time I reached Body Tempering sixth layer, the transformation was remarkable. When I tested my strength in the courtyard, lifting massive stone blocks became as easy as picking up paperweights. My bones had condensed to incredible density while somehow becoming lighter and more flexible than before.
'This is just the beginning,' I thought, marveling at how my body had changed. The spiritual energy continued its work, cleansing impurities from my bone marrow and replacing them with something far more refined.
The beauty of the Body Tempering Realm was its simplicity. Every cultivation technique at this realm accomplished the same basic goals: strengthen skin, forge muscles, condense bones, and fortify organs. The Chaos Genesis Body Art wasn't special here because specialization didn't matter yet. Spiritual energy served one purpose, and that was physical refinement.
But the second realm would change everything. Meridian Opening Realm was where cultivators actually opened their energy pathways according to their chosen elements. Once those meridians formed attuned to specific elements like fire, water, or earth, changing directions later would require shattering and rebuilding the entire network. Possible, but incredibly painful and dangerous.
That's why my plan to teach everyone the Chaos Genesis Body Art made perfect sense. They could use it through the first realm without any disadvantage, then choose their elemental specialization when they reached Meridian Opening. As long as they picked compatible elements, they could transition to more specialized techniques later without rebuilding their meridians from scratch.
The system would give me months to establish proper infrastructure. A merit-based library where people could earn access to advanced techniques through achievements or demonstrations of wisdom. By the time the first wave of cultivators needed specialized methods, I'd have everything ready.
During my cultivation sessions, my mind kept returning to the same problem. How could I place portals around the world without revealing my identity? Governments would eventually connect the dots if Ben Mason appeared at every portal location. I needed a way to operate without leaving traces.
The answer came from one of Jihasti's more esoteric memories. Deep in the god's vast knowledge was a technique called the Bone Molding Divine Art. The method allowed cultivators to reshape their skeletal structure at will, changing their entire physical appearance like wearing a perfect disguise.
The technique worked by using your vital energy to soften and mold bone tissue, then condensing it into new configurations. Height, facial structure, body proportions, even gender characteristics could be altered by reshaping the underlying skeleton. Muscle and skin would naturally conform to the new bone structure over time, creating a transformation so complete that even close family members wouldn't recognize the practitioner.
More importantly, the changes weren't permanent unless the cultivator wanted them to be. With enough practice, someone could shift between different appearances as easily as changing clothes. The perfect solution for my portal placement mission.
Unfortunately, without my meridians, I had no vital energy . Fortunately, I had the Heavenly Dao to help me with this. The technique didn't only work on yourself—a person with vital energy could also perform it on others as long as they didn't resist. In my case, the Heavenly Dao could perform the technique on me.
The Bone Molding Divine Art would let me travel the world as different people, placing portal seeds without creating any pattern that governments could trace back to Ben Mason. Each identity would be completely separate, with no physical connection to link them together.
Standing in my palace courtyard, I tested my newfound strength one final time. The stone block I lifted weighed at least three tons, yet I hoisted it overhead with ease. My body had become a weapon that could tear through steel and concrete.
Time to return to Earth and begin changing the world.
I materialized in my bedroom, the familiar scent of stale air and old furniture replacing the pristine atmosphere of the world bead. The digital clock on my nightstand glowed 2:47 AM. Perfect timing for what I had planned.
Standing before my bathroom mirror, I opened myself up for the Heavenly Dao to do its work by sending vital energy into my bones and beginning the transformation. My jawline narrowed and became more angular, my nose broadened and developed a pronounced hook, and I compressed my spine to lose nearly six inches of height. The face staring back at me belonged to someone forgettable, the kind of person who blended into crowds without leaving an impression.
I slipped out of my apartment building through the emergency exit, avoiding the security cameras in the lobby. The streets of San Jose lay empty except for the occasional late-night delivery truck or police patrol. I kept to the shadows, moving with the enhanced speed and agility my cultivation had granted me.
Jeffrey Fontana Park looked different in the darkness. The oak tree where everything had begun stood like a monument to my transformation, its trunk split cleanly down the middle by the lightning strike that had changed my life. Charred bark caught moonlight, creating stark patterns of light and shadow.
I placed my hand against the damaged trunk and reached out to the world bead's consciousness. The response was immediate, warm recognition flowing through our connection. I visualized exactly what I wanted: a portal ten feet wide and ten feet tall, large enough for several people to pass through comfortably.
The air beside the tree began to shimmer, reality bending as dimensional space folded in on itself. A rounded square of swirling energy materialized, its edges crackling with barely contained power. The portal itself was black and devoid of color—certainly someone would have to enter before they learned about the paradise inside.
Now came the crucial part. I established the screening parameters, weaving them into the portal's very structure. Anyone with genuine malicious intent would find themselves ejected back to Earth. Weapons and complex technology would be stripped away during transition. Those who passed would receive fundamental cultivation knowledge and understanding of their elemental affinities.
The portal stabilized, becoming a permanent gateway between worlds. I stepped back, admiring the work. Tomorrow, this spot would become the epicenter of humanity's introduction to cultivation.
I made my way home through the empty streets, bones already shifting back to my natural appearance. Once safely inside my apartment, I sent the final command to the world bead.
A pillar of brilliant white light erupted from Jeffrey Fontana Park, stretching impossibly high into the night sky. The radiance was visible for miles, beautiful rather than threatening, like a beacon calling to anyone ready for something greater.
By morning, everything would change.