The Vagrant waved his hand, and a series of glowing, ethereal halos appeared in the air, each radiating a different color and intensity.
"They are formed by hunting the cosmic beasts that roam the dimensions, absorbing ancient inheritances, or forcefully condensing the ambient laws of reality.
When you consume the core of a defeated entity of such calibre, its karmic weight condenses into a ring that binds to your foundation, granting you a supreme absolute law—a skill unique to the entity's nature."
The Vagrant pointed to a pristine white ring. "This represents Ten years of karmic weight. The weakest tier. Mortal."
He pointed to a yellow ring. "A hundred years. The foundation of true cultivators."
The colors shifted rapidly.
"Purple for a thousand years.
Black for ten thousand years—the tier where beasts gain human sentience and the power to shatter mountains.
Red for a hundred thousand years—the tier where beasts gain the authority to cross worlds, realms and dimensions."
The final ring materialized, burning with a blinding, transcendent golden light.
"And Gold. A million years.
The domain of descending deities and apex predators of the cosmos.
Because you cultivate Essence and govern the Quaternary System, the density of your foundation will crush anything lesser than what your body can withstand.
You will require Soul Rings of terrifying weight to advance.
Your path will be paved with the cores of the universe's most dangerous existences."
Soren stared at the golden ring.
The concept of hunting hundred-thousand-year-old entities didn't incite fear; it incited a cold, biomechanical apprehension that was bordering upon existential hunger.
His destroyed body in the physical world was a ruin, but his mind had never been sharper.
"I am the canvas," Soren said, looking away from the rings and directly into the Vagrant's chaotic eyes.
"And their cores will be the ink."
"Exactly," the Vagrant whispered, the entire Soul World beginning to tremble as the metaphysical lesson reached its conclusion.
"However, expecting you to track and hunt youngest cub of entities of such calibre would be impossible for you even after a thousand years of evolving your Quaternary Cultivation System."
Soren nodded at the Vagrant's words. He knew they were pure facts without an iota of insult whatsoever; not that such a being wouldn't stoop so low.
"As such you will need a snare of some sort. Something capable of scrutinizing the infinite variables of the endless cosmos."
Then a ripple appeared before Soren, and from within, a mysterious treasure floated out.
The treasure appeared to be a perfect cube, each side measuring exactly the same length, creating a symmetry that was pleasing to the eye and mind.
It seemed to have been made from a translucent material of some sort, and right at its core, was what looked like a dormant cosmos, with tiny stars and nebulae moving at a nigh-imperceptible speed.
"On my way to you, I happened to chance upon a cosmic phenomenon that people of that Succubus' calibre would grovel for; A Stellar Genesis."
Soren marveled at the Vagrant's words, and with the hypnotic awe evoked by the Cube, he subconsciously blurted. "Woah... But I don't know what that is?"
The Vagrant simply chuckled in amusement, marvelling at how the dynamics of Soren's new personality was indeed a Paradox.
Sometimes he behaves like a wizened being with several lifetimes worth of experience, and at other times, he behaves like any random being his age: naïve and adorable.
'Seems this little Herald has already fumbled his way into attaining the Mystic aspect of his Paradox Dao.
Makes one wonder just how many Changes and Transformations you would have undergone when we meet again.' It thought to itself in the fraction of a fraction microsecond.
"A Cosmic Genesis is what happens when a Universe reaches the end of its Chaos Cycle, consumes itself, and explode to birth a new universe.
However, before that explosion could occur, I halted the process, sealed it all within this cube, and once secure, allowed it to continue its destined process." It revealed.
Soren was once again floored for the umpteenth time.
Not only was he rudely awakened to the realization that while he could now comprehend some features and capabilities of the Cosmic Vagrant, they are all just a tiny fraction, of a tiny fragment of its true capabilities.
Then when the fact that the Cosmic Vagrant was even still a fragment of the Will of the Primordial Mind was added to the mix, his convictions were thoroughly humbled.
After the fall of his pride, the gravity of the hope and responsibility placed on Soren's shoulders finally began to settle in, humbling him even further.
Just how powerful did one need to be to actually subdue a universe, to the extent of affecting its natural process. Not to talk of even possessing a treasure capable of sealing the said universe.
Furthermore, from the way the Vagrant was even holding it, Soren knew for certain that something that is said to hold an entire universe within it couldn't be so lightweight.
The Vagrant chuckled at this point, snapping Soren out of his rabbit hole. It could obviously tell what was going on in his mind, and had even allowed it, just so Soren could temper his mind a little bit further.
Soren then tried to use his Origin Pupils to scrutinize the Cube, hoping to glean a bit of information from it.
However, the halo around his pupils instantly dimmed while the Origin Codex trembled, snapped shut and became unresponsive.
The Cube seemed to be slapping a realization onto Soren's face; it was not just any random artifact, and neither was it the Cauldron of Primal Harmony.
It was simply too dense to comprehend, its nebula swirling at speeds that mocked the concept of time and perception.
Soren felt the loss of energy from both Origin Treasures, but he wasn't deterred in the slightest.
To him, the cube was just a game that had been caught by a hunter and was then baring its fangs at the hunter's child.
"Try visualizing it from a paradoxical perspective, formulate your findings into a conviction, and then try interacting with it once more." The Vagrant guided from the side.
Soren nodded at the explanation but found out very swiftly that it was easier said than done.
Afterall, by all metrics, he was still an unawakened seven-year-old, and as such had no business entering or exiting his soul world in the first place.
He had only managed it because the Vagrant had visited; he had also only been able to traverse into other soul worlds because it had transported him there.
Also, he had only just conceptualized the nature and path of his Dao Seed, that didn't mean he could now use access or use it at will.
However, he had also come a long way since dying, and though he was now a five-thousand-year-old sage with dementia, he still had a feel for what to do, and as such, it didn't take too long for him to figure it out.
Soren reached out, and the moment his phantom fingers brushed the impossibly smooth surface of the Cube, it violently deconstructed.
It didn't break; instead, it scattered into a nebula of starlight, which then flowed into the cosmos of his Soul World, merging so seamlessly with it that Soren almost thought it was lost.
However, upon scrutinizing the cosmos within his Soul World further, Soren realized that past the expanse of dotted multicolored starlight in his view, lay a night-infinite, pitch-black expanse.
The phenomenon gave him a sensation that, his Soul World was now part of a much wider existence, and as such had a nigh-infinite room to grow and expand.
However, the moment the realization of the Cube's existence surfaced within his mind, Soren felt a brutal, bone-chilling emptiness suppress his Soul World from without.
It was like an exact replica of the sensation of a man stepping into space stark naked.
The crushing decompression, extreme cold, and a looming suffocation that perpetually placed his Soul World under a stimulating pressure.
He gritted his teeth, enduring the pressure with the understanding that it was a boon of boons.
He had just witnessed the Primal Goddess step past the atmosphere of his Soul World as if it had no form of protection whatsoever, but now, if even he could feel such crushing pressure, how much more anyone who hasn't been acknowledged by the Cube.
Furthermore, he could also sense that his Soul World was being condensed perpetually and that in itself is a worthy advantage to the current him.
The Vagrant nodded contently, extremely pleased with the outcome.
To say it knew how the Cube would have reacted to Soren's Soul World would have been a blatant lie, much less the fact that Soren would be able to endure and adapt well to its novel presence.
"The Cube will serve five primary functions..." It explained, raising its fingers into the skies.
"...First; Dimensional Scanning.
Whenever you require a Soul Ring to advance, it will map the structural shards of reality, tear open a dimensional rift, allowing you to step into the hunting grounds of ancient beasts of the hidden realms.
Second: Legacy Reanimation.
Whenever you assimilate an entity, it will not merely extract its karmic merits for you, it will also violently deconstruct the entity's memories, its bloodline talents, and Dao legacy.
All of that can be fed directly into your Origin Codex, allowing you a route to perfectly replicate and optimize the Legacy of anything you kill.
The Vagrant then lowered its fingers, just in time for a single razor-thin beam of light to descend and pierce through Soren's Soul World into places unknown.
"A secondary resonance." The Vagrant muttered in confirmation, before letting out another boisterously resonating laughter.
"Good... Good. I didn't choose wrongly.
The blueprint is set.
The laws have been explained.
The cosmic bleeding awaits its Herald." The Vagrant bellowed as it raised its fist, causing the drop of Origin Essence to suddenly blaze with a light that rivaled the sun above them.
"It is time to wake up, Ryujin Soren.
Return to the ruins of your physical shell.
Take this drop of Origin, wipe away the rot of the Oman House, and forge your Spiritual Foundation.
Fret not, I shall be with you until all has concluded.
Your Natural Awakening begins... now."
Then it thrust its hand forward, driving the blinding drop of Origin Qi directly into the center of Soren's phantom chest.
And instantly, an explosion of absolute, silent white light consumed the void.
At first, time itself seemed to freeze, elongating a single microsecond into an eternity of metaphysical absolute zero.
Soren did not flinch as the sanctuary collapsed around him. He looked down at the blinding drop of Origin Qi suspended within his phantom chest, resting exactly where his physical heart would be in the waking world.
It hung with the pervasive weight of collapsed stars, humming like a dormant engine waiting for an ignition sequence.
Then Soren closed his phantom eyes as an absolute darkness rushed in to claim him.
It was time to open his real ones.
Then as if responding to his actions, the blinding white light then began to deconstruct everything.
The simulated stars, the planets, and the swirling figure of the Cosmic Vagrant dissolved into the glare as the suffocating stillness shattered.
And mere moments later, gravity, pain, and the heavy, metallic stench of blood rushed into Soren's consciousness with the force of a tidal flood.