World Origin

As the Calamity Behemoth wreaked havoc across the globe, Zhu Shen had already located the Gaia Consciousness of the Parasyte world.

The Gaia Consciousness, or rather, the planetary will of the Parasyte world, existed within another subspace of this world, just like Zhu Shen.

It could also be described as the subconscious ocean of all intelligent life on the planet.

Through the Reincarnators, Zhu Shen had absorbed a vast amount of the Parasyte world's destiny. Since his own essence also belonged to a planetary will, and the Parasyte world's destiny was currently in chaos—what the Immortal Dao civilization would call "disordered heavenly secrets" signaling the arrival of a great catastrophe—the subconscious ocean, which should have remained completely hidden under normal circumstances, was successfully sensed by Zhu Shen.

Having fully integrated his descended will into his Ten-Tails avatar, Zhu Shen waved a hand to form a spatial black hole. With a gentle step, he arrived within the planet's subconscious ocean.

It was a gray, hazy space where neither sky nor underworld could be seen; the entire expanse resembled a vast, nameless ocean.

What flowed through this ocean was not ordinary water, but the subconscious minds of countless living beings across the planet.

These subconscious thoughts contained kindness, malice, obsessions, and everything in between, encompassing all seven emotions and six desires. If an ordinary person were to catch even a single glimpse, their mind would be shattered into dementia by the sheer influx of countless thoughts.

Naturally, none of this could shake Zhu Shen's mind in the slightest.

With a single stride, he crossed the spatial distance to reach the very pinnacle of the subconscious space. A massive "sun" hung high above, providing light to the entire realm—this was the World Origin!

The orb-like World Origin resembled a star that emitted no heat. Its interior was chaotic, occasionally refracting colorful illusions of all things in the world, and at other times reflecting formless, nameless laws of heaven and earth, leaving one dazzled and mesmerized.

Zhu Shen suppressed his excitement, knowing that at this point, the World Origin was already within his grasp.

Because as the Calamity Behemoth was slowly eradicated, the Gaia Consciousness's final counterattack had proven futile.

Although this was its home turf, the fact that its very lair had been breached showed just how weak it had become.

The Gaia Consciousness existed within the subconscious ocean below. No matter what stormy waves or mental shocks it unleashed across the space, they were suppressed by Zhu Shen with a mere flip of his hand!

At this stage, Zhu Shen could already be considered half-master of this space.

Instead, the consciousness itself became increasingly chaotic and unable to act independently, forced to submit to Zhu Shen's will.

Two choices now lay before Zhu Shen:

The first was to completely devour the World Origin for his own, gaining a massive amount of destiny in one go before leaving this world.

Deprived of its World Origin and suffering a collapse of destiny, this world would soon face an irreversible decline. It might be a mass extinction, an extraterrestrial impact, or some other apocalyptic crisis. In any case, with the World Origin gone, all low-level life in this world would perish, and the planet would slowly become a dead star until this small universe gradually withered away.

The second choice was to link the Main God Space with the Parasyte world's destiny, effectively branding it with his own will, assimilating it as a part of himself, and leaving the World Origin within this realm.

This would yield far fewer points than the first option, but the benefit was that it preserved the hope for the living beings of this world.

With the World Origin and destiny still intact, the planet would continue to function. Whenever a genius was born, or as the world's technology and civilization progressed, the resulting destiny would feed back into Zhu Shen.

Without a moment's hesitation, Zhu Shen chose the second option.

After all, this was the destiny of an entire world; sustainable development was the true path to greatness.

While he suspected that various gods and demons in the myriad worlds certainly destroyed planets and universes to refine them for their own use, that was not his path.

Most importantly, having a world as a reserve base—how many Reincarnators could he select from it?

How much profit could they bring him as they campaigned across the myriad worlds?

And how much destiny could a powerful world itself provide? Building a robust Main God Space that could sustainably generate destiny to strengthen himself—that was the path he intended to walk.

Perhaps there were other similar organizations that destroyed and plundered the myriad worlds, but that was a path destined to make enemies of everyone.

What Zhu Shen wanted was simply to develop low-key, strengthen himself, and perhaps, when he was strong enough, find a way back or uncover some hidden truths.

Returning his thoughts to the current situation, as Zhu Shen branded his origin will into the World Origin, he received a system notification:

[World Origin of the Parasyte world mastered. Massive destiny gained. Total points accumulated: 500,000!

Ding!

Perfect S-rank rare item "Law Fragment" detected!]

Law Fragment? What was this? Curious, Zhu Shen drew it out.

Floating quietly in Zhu Shen's palm was a strange, chaotic aura, resembling a tiny, white, shimmering river of stars.

As Zhu Shen sank his mental will into it, he understood the importance of this Law Fragment.

A Law Fragment—or more accurately, a fragment containing a trace of the universe's fundamental laws.

According to the Main God Space's classification of realms, the Fourth Rank is the Rule Realm, while the Fifth Rank is the Law Realm.

Rules are the basic principles followed by all things in every universe (note: each universe here is a world, such as the Ninja World or the One Piece World).

Laws are the cornerstones that compose the universe; beneath the laws, they manifest as thousands of rules.

As for the various "laws" often formulated by mortals—such as economic laws or the law of the jungle—they were merely borrowing the name.

Using the legal system of a mortal world as an analogy, Laws are like the constitution of a country, the fundamental law of a world;

Rules are equivalent to specific legal codes, such as civil law or criminal law.

It can be said that rules operate under the laws, while laws transcend rules.

Every country has its own laws, just as every world has its own laws.

And what about the Fundamental Laws? They are equivalent to international law that all countries must obey—the laws universal to the myriad worlds. They have different names in different cosmic civilizations: Deva Path, Creator, Yahweh, and so on.

Laws are the fundamental truths of heaven and earth that only Tier 5 existences begin to touch, while Origin Laws are the essential principles that can only be comprehended at Tier 6. Although this was merely a tiny fragment containing less than one-billionth of the Origin Law, its status was incredibly high.

Zhu Shen had previously exchanged for Quantum Control, which was effectively the ability to manipulate quantum rules. If he continued to cultivate and comprehend these, reaching the Law level or even the Origin level, he would become an immortal existence.

By then, he would be free to travel through the myriad worlds without fear of anyone's schemes, truly living up to the name of a Main God.

The Law Fragment currently in Zhu Shen's hand contained the law of [Cell].

It could control the division, evolution, and potential of the cells in flesh-and-blood creatures, making it extremely powerful for such life forms.

Of course, its limitation was that it was significantly weakened against non-flesh energy bodies, mechanical beings, and the like.

Although Zhu Shen's essence was similar to a soul-will existence, he currently only possessed the Ten-Tails clone as a vessel.

Yet, there was no doubt that this Cell Law Fragment would be of immense use to his future bodies, so he chose to absorb it without hesitation.

The moment he absorbed the fragment, Zhu Shen's soul seemed to traverse a galaxy composed of countless universes, arriving at a mysterious place within the Origin Universe Sea.

This was a strange dimension where countless spherical universes—some brilliant, others dark and chaotic—were intertwined. Some resembled writhing black mud, others like masses of rotting flesh, and some were normal, sphere-like universes.

In this vast cluster of universes, there existed a bizarre and indescribable entity, situated in the parallel space of countless strange universes. It was shrouded in chaotic darkness, appearing as a massive, churning, festering black cloud. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a colossal mass of flesh.

It possessed countless giant tentacles and a mouth dripping with slime. Combined with its massive body that even universes could not rival, a single glance from across the endless void made Zhu Shen feel as if his soul were freezing!

Yet, this high-status existence seemed completely unaware, seemingly indifferent to the gaze from a distant universe, instinctively breeding one deformed and terrifying mass of flesh after another...

[Ding!

System detected foreign energy intrusion; emergency defense mechanism automatically activated!

Beep! 100,000 points deducted to eradicate unknown meme contamination.

]

A sense of clarity, radiating from the depths of his soul, spread throughout his entire body.

Zhu Shen snapped back to reality. He froze for a moment, and after realizing what had happened, he was immediately struck by a deep sense of lingering fear.

There was no mistake! That bizarre image, that appearance which could not be looked upon directly, the most sinister existence in the mysterious side of the universe... No, he must not think about it!

Even though the contamination had been eradicated by the system, Zhu Shen forced himself to banish the thoughts from his mind.

Because if he continued to dwell on it, he felt his own body would turn into a tentacle monster or some indescribable rotting flesh.

He gave a bitter smile. He had never expected that absorbing a common C-rank world would involve an S-rank Origin Law fragment. Even more absurd was that this fragment pointed toward a high-status existence from the Cthulhu mythos.

It was truly an unexpected situation, but presumably, that Outer God had no interest in doing anything.

After all, its only joy was breeding life; beyond that, everything seemed irrelevant to it, and it cared for nothing. This applied even to the life it birthed itself, let alone an Origin Law fragment from countless universes away.

Even if it did take notice and sent some offspring, Zhu Shen would not back down. After all, if he retreated and feared everything in the myriad worlds, how could he pursue his own Dao?

After assimilating and absorbing the world's origin, the raging waves in the subconscious ocean slowly subsided. Like the clearing sky after a rain, the entire world began to calm down.

The Gaia Consciousness was no longer violent; instead, it developed a faint sense of reliance and recognition toward him.

Upon confirming that he had completely seized control of the Parasyte world, Zhu Shen let out a long breath.

Spending so much time and energy just to take down a D-rank world—this path of the Main God across the myriad worlds was not easy!

[System Prompt:

Because the Host's essence is identical to the World Consciousness, a personal descent will trigger massive resistance from the local World Consciousness.

If you merely send Reincarnators or a clone to perform the final step of recovering the World Origin, the difficulty will be significantly reduced!]

Hearing the system's thoughtful explanation, Zhu Shen's eyes lit up. That's right, he could send Reincarnators! If the main plot progressed smoothly in the early and mid-stages and the absorbed Luck reached a critical point, he could issue world missions for the Reincarnators to recover the World Origin. Their lives and deaths were in his hands; he didn't fear them failing the mission.

Otherwise, if he had to intervene every time it came to absorbing the World Origin, he would be worked to death in these myriad worlds. Sending Reincarnators (tools) was the right way forward!

Thinking of this, Zhu Shen wanted to return to his home in the Ninja World's Origin Space and hide away.

For a veteran shut-in like him, this trip out to relax was indeed refreshing, and the feeling of relaxing after being cooped up for who knows how many years was truly great.

But just like traveling in his past life, after the relaxation came a mental exhaustion. He just wanted to go back, lie on his bed, play on his phone, or sleep, and he could go out for a stroll again whenever he had the energy.

Anyway, he had already located several worlds he hadn't visited yet!

[Ding!

First-time assimilation of World Origin complete. System has obtained High-Level Energy. World positioning +10. Currently located worlds: 6/20

]

Huh? The system could be upgraded? Zhu Shen was surprised.

"What is High-Level Energy?" Zhu Shen asked.

[Based on sample information, when Reincarnators change the established plot and destiny of a world, the deployed sub-systems (Reincarnator Assistant System) automatically absorb energy (i.e., points). This is Low-Level Energy.

When assimilating or absorbing World Origin, the energy obtained is High-Level Energy.

High-Level Energy can be used as Low-Level Energy and can simultaneously strengthen system functions.]

Strengthen system functions? Zhu Shen rubbed his chin. The system really only had two functions: World Travel and Fantasy Manifestation.

All the great power of the Main God Space originated from these.

If these are also two Laws, then is obtaining the World Origin simply a process of completing those Laws?

Zhu Shen felt a vague intuition that his hypothesis was very close to the truth.

If they truly were two Laws, then why would they transform into a system and become his golden finger? Could there be a mastermind behind the scenes?

[The host is the first generation host of this system. As for the origin of the system, information is insufficient and cannot be answered.]

Headache, such a headache. Since he couldn't figure it out, he stopped trying. Zhu Shen was broad-minded anyway; regardless of the reason, he would simply continue to practice his own Dao!

Having thought this through, Zhu Shen's mind felt much clearer.

He calmed down to take stock of his gains from this trip: excluding the two A-rank abilities he had exchanged for, the points recovered from the World Origin barely covered that expenditure. If he factored in the unexpected meme contamination and the mission rewards given to the Reincarnators, he had truly suffered a massive loss!

At the thought of this, his heart ached, and he could only console himself:

It's fine, it's fine. The system has upgraded, the Law Fragment is a priceless treasure, and controlling a D-rank world offers endless benefits...

With the inventory complete and all matters settled, Zhu Shen took a single step and returned to the Parasyte reality.