Bathed in the gentle glow of golden light, Adarsh opened his divine soul's awareness, extending his divine sense far beyond the confines of his newly born body. His perception swept through the icy veil of the Hidden Ice Realm and out into the vast, desolate expanse of the Forbidden Ice Ruins. What he discovered confirmed his unease—the Realm Tribulation he now faced was not born of coincidence. Its source lay within him, buried deep at the core of his fragile body.
The Blood Lotus, Adarsh realized. But not the body I once forged through endless refinement and sacrifice.
Memories surged through his divine consciousness. He had melted his former Blood Lotus body using his divine power, reducing it to a single drop of golden blood before entering Iram Rai's womb for rebirth. That drop, infused with all the cultivation and essence he had attained over countless ages, had nested within the tiny heart of his new form. And now, it had become a seed.
This Blood Seed had begun to sprout—absorbing spiritual energy and the Ice Rule energy saturating the Realm. Yet in doing so, it defied the natural order of the Origin Land. Unlike every other entity born under its skies, the Blood Seed bore no trace of the Origin Energy Mark. That mark was the Origin Land's silent brand, its claim of ownership and control over all who lived within its domain. Without it, the Blood Seed was a rogue spark—an anomaly in the great tapestry of Heaven and Earth.
Adarsh's expression darkened. So the Origin Land has taken offense... it sees the Blood Seed as a threat to its authority.
The Blood Seed, refining the absorbed power into a strange, ineffable energy, continued to grow in strength. But its defiance of the natural order invited punishment. The will of Heaven and Earth responded with swift hostility. Ice Rules coalesced into tribulation lightning; thunder rolled like divine fury, hammering against the protective barrier Adarsh had hastily erected around himself.
He moved quickly, channeling his divine consciousness to sever the connection between the Blood Seed and the Origin Energy. If he could stop the seed's growth—halt its challenge to the laws of this world—perhaps the wrath of Heaven and Earth would relent. Yet even as he halted the flow, the divine pressure pressing down upon him remained. The clouds above grew darker, more violent.
His divine power, strained by the defense and the suppression of the seed, began to fade. Panic rose within him—a rare sensation for a soul who had once wielded the power of gods. He had no choice. Grimacing, he reopened the channels and allowed the Blood Seed to resume its absorption of Origin Energy. Only then did his strength begin to recover.
But his hesitation had cost him.
A thunderclap cracked the sky, and a massive bolt of tribulation lightning hurled downward, striking his golden shield with staggering force. The protective layer trembled and shuddered under the blow, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. A sharp pain lanced through his small, newborn frame.
It was his first true sensation of pain in this new life.
And before he could compose himself, instinct took over.
"Waa... Waa... Waa..."
The cry pierced the air—raw, involuntary, unfiltered. Adarsh tried to suppress it, but the infantile body refused his command. He cried again, and again, helpless before the primal force of emotion and discomfort.
So this is... my first right as a newborn, he thought bitterly. To cry.
His small body trembled, and his tiny fists curled against the pain as he wailed louder:
"Waa... Waa... Waa..."
Elsewhere, wrapped in the gentle embrace of slumber, Iram Rai stirred. She had been dreaming—a rare, luminous vision of the Soul Transformation Realm. In her dream, she held her child in her arms, watching him grow into a majestic figure of strength and wisdom. He surpassed her in cultivation, honored her with boundless devotion, and guarded her from all harm.
But the dream shattered.
She opened her eyes to a strange, ethereal sight: a luminous white-skinned infant floated in midair, encased in a golden shield and crying uncontrollably. Her gaze dropped to her own body—her womb was flat.
Her heart clenched.
That child... is mine.
Motherly instinct surged through her. She tried to leap toward the baby, but found herself encased in her own glowing barrier of golden light. The shield protected her from the violent forces of the Ice Rule Realm, but she had no idea how long it would hold.
She placed her palm against the barrier and willed herself forward. To her surprise, the shield began to move, gently drifting toward her child. When the two barriers met, they shimmered and merged into one.
Tears welled in her eyes as she floated forward and reached into her storage bracelet. She retrieved two pieces of soft, spiritual silk she had painstakingly prepared for this moment. With gentle hands, she wrapped the cloth around her newborn son and swaddled him securely. Then, she drew him close to her chest, letting the warmth of her body soothe his cries.
Gradually, the baby's sobs quieted. The tremors in his body ceased, and his tiny hands clutched at her robe. Though he no longer cried, he continued to draw in energy—his presence a vortex of spiritual and Ice Rule power.
Thunder still rolled beyond the barrier, louder than before.
Worried, Iram Rai extended her Spirit Sense outward to assess the situation. But the moment her sense touched the outer edges of the Hidden Ice Realm, it was extinguished—snuffed out as if it had never existed. Panic surged within her. The outside world… it's vanished? No… something is blocking even divine perception.
Then she remembered.
Frantically, she reached inside her robes and withdrew a small hexagonal artifact. It shimmered like crystal, refracting the golden light of the shield around her.
The World Holder.
A relic from her past. She had obtained it long ago, at the Spirit Fusion stage. Back then, she had managed to awaken a fraction of its power with her soul force.
Now, without hesitation, she poured the last of her soul power into it. The artifact drank in her strength like parched earth soaking up rain. Her vision dimmed, and her knees buckled, but she pressed on.
The artifact pulsed once—twice—and then flashed with divine symbols.
Just before she lost consciousness, she saw the inscriptions form:
[World Holder] – Godhood Level
Feature 1: Teleportation – Transports the user and designated targets to a predetermined location (limit: twice per year).
Feature 2: Space Shield – Generates a Peak God-Level shield, protecting up to 10,000 square kilometers.
Feature 3: Space Transfer – Can store land and entities within a 10,000 square kilometer radius.
Feature 4: ???
Feature 5: ???
As Iram Rai collapsed to her knees, the golden shield surged in size and strength, encasing them in a dome of divine light as the wrath of Heaven and Earth bore down upon them.