At present, the Devouring Starry Sky Universe remained Bai Yue's primary battlefield. It was there that his future path to enlightenment would be decided, and there was no substitute for that foundation.
That said, remaining anchored to a single universe did not prevent him from stepping into others.
Comprehending complete Chaos Laws was merely the first threshold. Perfecting the Dao Fruit and proving the Great Luo—that was the true destination.
Ever since awakening in the Devouring Starry Sky Universe, Bai Yue had thrown himself into cultivation without pause. Years had passed in relentless advancement, and only now could he finally say that he had stepped onto a stable road. From this point onward, the rest was no longer a matter of direction, but of time and accumulation.
This projection back to his original universe was not an accident, nor a whim.
As his cultivation deepened and his understanding of the Laws grew, his control over the Dao Fruit's abilities naturally became more refined. The worlds he could sense, touch, and eventually step into would only increase. But before reaching that stage, he needed sufficient strength to support even the smallest exertion.
Using minimal effort to produce maximal effect was only possible when one already possessed the ability to define what "minimal effort" meant.
In truth, the Dao Fruit itself was terrifyingly powerful.
Since merging with it, Bai Yue's limitations had never come from the Dao Fruit, but from himself. When he gathered the Ten Great Origin Laws—even without fully perfecting Time and Space—the Dao Fruit's projection and sensing abilities had already undergone a qualitative leap. That was precisely why he had been able to reestablish contact with the universe he once lived in.
Within the Dao Fruit's Original Universe, the internal cosmos had expanded after hundreds of years of accumulation, reaching a scale measured in tens of billions of light-years. Its ability to create and analyze material energy from nothing had grown correspondingly terrifying. However, this was still a matter of quantity.
Compared to quantitative accumulation, qualitative transformation was far more critical.
By Bai Yue's estimation, once his Time and Space Laws were perfected—when he stepped into the realm of a Universe Lord within the Devouring Starry Sky Universe—his capabilities would undergo another decisive leap.
At that point, refining the Lord God fragment left behind by Lianfeng Wang Yuan Bin would no longer be wishful thinking. He might even glimpse fragments of the Lord God's mysteries and, if fortune favored him, obtain coordinates to other worlds recorded within that fragment, sparing him the randomness of blind projection.
Of course, all of this remained conjecture.
Whether it would succeed could only be verified at that time. Fortunately, that time was not far off—at least by Bai Yue's standards. For someone crossing the river by feeling the stones of the Primordial Universe, progress was guaranteed as long as he continued absorbing Origin Laws of Time and Space, fully analyzing their mysteries, and integrating them into the complete Laws he already possessed.
This "not far" might translate to thousands or even tens of thousands of years.
To others, that would be an unfathomable span.
To Bai Yue, it was already an obscene shortcut.
Which Universe Lord had not cultivated for countless epochs? Even Luo Feng, in the original timeline, broke through to Universe Lord when the Primordial Universe was roughly 160,000 years old—but that figure concealed hundreds of millions of years of accelerated cultivation within small universes and inheritance spaces.
Compared to that, Bai Yue's confidence was already blatant cheating.
The Dao Fruit's characteristic of one enlightenment becoming eternal enlightenment, combined with the Original Universe consciousness's relentless exhaustive analysis, ensured that he never stagnated. He was always advancing, always refining, always approaching perfection.
That was why he dared to be confident.
Back on Earth, in the universe he had transmigrated from.
Bai Yue carefully sensed this former body.
Weak.
The sensation was almost unfamiliar.
Under the control of his projected consciousness, his movements felt as though they were stuttering—his mind completed actions instantly, but his body lagged behind by a fraction of a second. It wasn't slow reaction time, but physical limitation.
After some adaptation, his soul consciousness achieved precise control, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to clean the apartment earlier. Still, he could not exert excessive force. Doing so would damage the body—muscle tearing at best, cellular collapse at worst.
He attempted to communicate with the Dao Fruit's Original Universe, which existed at an imperceptible height beyond space, time, and dimension. He tried to transmit energy, even a small treasure, through that faint connection.
There was no response.
Nothing passed through.
The distance was too great—not merely spatial, but separated by time layers and dimensional strata. At present, the connection only supported information exchange. To transmit matter or energy, a stable channel would be required.
No matter how he tried, such a channel collapsed the moment it formed.
Despite the failure, Bai Yue remained calm.
Although material transmission was impossible, the Dao Fruit's core abilities still functioned. The trait of eternal enlightenment applied to this body as well. With cultivation methods from the Devouring Starry Sky Universe, strengthening this physical shell was only a matter of time.
As for analysis and creation, their effectiveness depended on the scale of the vessel. Compared to the Original Universe that could create star rivers in an instant, this body could barely manage a fist-sized stone after an exhausting effort.
Moreover, after several attempts, Bai Yue confirmed that the fundamental structure of this universe differed slightly from that of the Devouring Starry Sky Universe. The discrepancy was not large, but it required reanalysis.
After assessing everything, he finally relaxed.
He wasn't helpless.
He had returned to rise, not to suffer.
With his available abilities clarified, Bai Yue began outlining a plan for this projection.
First: information.
Although he had lived here for over twenty years before transmigration, his former perspective had been far too narrow. Without understanding this world's hidden structure, blindly acting would be foolish.
Second: strength.
He did not yet know whether this universe possessed a cultivation system, nor whether the methods from the Devouring Starry Sky Universe could be directly applied. What was certain was that strengthening the physical body was never wrong in the early stages.
Third: livelihood.
His previous job was finished. Permanently.
Working overtime in a collapsing industry was not how a cultivator lived. In a modern city, money governed food, shelter, transportation, and access to information. Fortunately, with his current abilities, making money was trivial.
After checking the time, Bai Yue grabbed his keys and left.
He drove his aging Focus toward his workplace, planning to settle his resignation first.
Zhucheng City, the provincial capital of G Province, sat in the southwest. Officially a third-tier city, its consumption level rivaled first-tier monsters. Even a simple bowl of breakfast noodles cost over ten yuan.
His company belonged to Guanghui, the largest domestic automobile dealership group—a Fortune Global 500 giant in name only. In reality, declining profits and layoffs painted a grim picture.
In the past, Bai Yue would never have resigned so decisively.
Now, he didn't hesitate.
He knocked, entered the general manager's office, exchanged pleasantries, and stated his resignation plainly.
The manager tried to keep him. There was genuine sentiment—they had built the store together. But once Bai Yue's resolve became clear, the conversation shifted to handover procedures.
Bai Yue recommended his apprentice as replacement.
Approved.
By noon, everything was finished.
Walking out of the building where he had worked for over a decade, Bai Yue felt a weight lift from his chest. The pressure he had carried unconsciously for years evaporated.
The next phase began immediately.
Strengthening his body, gathering information, and making money—simultaneously.
Without external energy absorption, his body relied on food alone. Over the past few days, he had consumed absurd amounts of meat just to keep up. The result was visible: his physical strength increased severalfold.
Measured by Devouring Starry Sky standards, his punching force surpassed 500 kilograms.
Information gathering was harder. The internet was a sea; meaningful data was a needle.
Money, however, was solved.
As the light faded from his palm, a gold ingot appeared and joined dozens of others inside a box. Though small in volume, they weighed several hundred pounds combined.
Gold.
A universal constant across civilizations.
Jewels required certification. Gemstones were troublesome. Gold, on the other hand, was liquid, anonymous, and omnipresent. Every street had buyers. As long as he sold in batches, no one would question the source.
In modern society, gold wasn't just ornament—it was industry.
Bai Yue smiled faintly.
This was only the beginning.