The Eternalverse trembled.
In the heart of the Originverse Throne Realm—a realm built upon the fused essence of the Multiverse, Metaverse, and Eternalverse itself—a presence stirred. Across countless layers of reality, stars flickered. Universes stuttered. The laws of causality, time, and space bent. For the first time in over a trillion quadrillion epochs, the sealed awareness of a single being flickered to life.
His name was Xerath Aeonshade.
The Founding Paragon of the Originverse Sect.
A being that once stood at the peak of the Ninth Sub-Eternal Level—the last threshold before stepping into the Eternal Gate. A realm so high that even the Eternal Clans of the higher realms dared not speak his name lightly.
Now, his eyes opened.
And with that act, ninety-nine million realms collapsed in the lower metaverses.
Entire timelines ceased. Civilizations older than galaxies crumbled. Space cracked and folded into primordial silence.
The Source Realms—the realms at the boundary of reality and nonexistence—screamed. Incomprehensible laws buckled.
He had awakened.
---
The Forbidden Shard
It began with a ripple—a flicker in one of the lowest sanctuaries of the Originverse Sect: Earth, the Holyland of their foundation. This planet, forgotten by most, was sacred, sealed from all higher-tier cultivation beyond level 99.
And yet it had become the cradle of destiny once more.
A child, Lin Fei, was born there. Marked by fate. A cultivator unlike any other. A genius who soared through the mortal ranks to peak level 99 within a mere five decades—an impossible feat in the lower cultivation world.
But Lin Fei did not know.
He did not know the land he lived on was the birthplace of the Originverse Founding Paragon.
He did not know that his actions were watched by ancient avatars hidden across dimensional seams.
And he did not know that the shard embedded in his soul—a fragment of an Eternal Truth Core from the Outer Eternalverse—was a piece of forbidden knowledge.
When he was killed by a concealed agent of fate—or perhaps by destiny itself—the shard returned to the temple deep beneath the Earth Sect.
And that was the trigger.
Xerath, who had meditated in eternal silence beyond form and concept, suddenly felt it.
The path beyond Eternal.
A truth no being had ever comprehended. A signal from beyond the veil.
He absorbed it.
He did not awaken immediately. The process took a thousand years, yet not a moment passed in the observable world.
Then, he opened his eyes.
And eternity quivered.
---
Power Beyond Power
Unlike others, Xerath did not possess blood descendants. He had taken no wives. His disciples were spread across realms, but none shared his lineage.
His will alone sustained the sect.
His avatars—countless and mighty—each one a peak-tier entity in their designated zones, only ever a single step below his main body's cultivation.
The Law of Avatar Reflection forbade equivalency. His avatars could never reach Half-Step Eternal. But they pulsed with power unmatched by all below him.
As his true self rose into Half-Step Eternal, every avatar resonated with divine comprehension.
Some ascended in a surge of light.
Others burned into nothingness, unable to survive the purity of revelation.
But those who survived...
They remembered.
They returned to their stations with renewed clarity and surged power. They began cleansing their domains, purging instability, absorbing the karmic detritus of collapsed universes. They executed the will of the Paragon.
Across the layered realms, their voices echoed:
> "The Founder awakens. The Law has changed. The Originverse reign resumes."
---
Earth: Cradle of Terror
Back on Earth, the tremors began.
It was subtle at first. The sky wept golden light. The oceans hissed and whispered in languages unknown. Then it escalated.
Mountains shattered. Rivers reversed. Cities vanished.
The entire planet convulsed with the weight of ancestral law. Mortals dropped into comas. Cultivators, even peak level-99s, bled from their eyes, their souls unable to comprehend the resonance.
Deep in the core temple, the Shard Vault activated.
A thousand protective seals shattered.
The shard—now reintegrated into the Will of the Founder—hovered in the air, pulsating with gray flame and eternal truth.
The elders stationed on Earth—Supreme, Prime, and Saint-tier—knelt in agony as a single breath emanated from the depths of the holy chamber.
A voice emerged.
It was not loud.
It did not roar.
But it thundered in every strand of law, karma, and fate.
> "The shard has shown me what lies beyond."
> "I am no longer a prisoner of the Eternal Sub Cycle."
> "The Originverse shall no longer sleep."
---
The Realm Collapse Counter
From this moment forward, every passing second saw the collapse of ten thousand unstable realms.
Not because of malice.
But because their foundational laws could no longer support Xerath's breath. His mere awareness collapsed under-realms, dissolved false constructs, and burned unworthy planes.
The Realm Stabilization Bureau, formed by competing Eternal factions, scrambled to erect barriers.
> "Seal the Obsidian Ring Universe!" "Quarantine the Omega System Cluster!" "He's moving again!"
But none of it mattered.
Xerath Aeonshade, the Half-Step Eternal Paragon, had taken a single breath.
And the cost was millions of realms.
---
Within the Sect
The sect hierarchy realigned.
All disciples from level 1 to 999 were reassigned to their appropriate levels: Outer Disciple, Inner Disciple, or Core Disciple, based on cultivation level.
All elders below 100 million cultivation were stripped of authority and sent to undergo karmic reflection.
A new edict spread:
> "Those who cannot resonate with the Founder's new truth shall be relegated to mortal realms until rebirth."
The Saint Ancestors, dormant for eons, stirred.
The High Ancestors, each the size of galaxies, began to rotate their astral forms.
From the Eternal Thrones of Aether, the Supreme Codex was released. All sect-wide formations activated. War Altars rose.
The first full sect mobilization in over ten trillion epochs had begun.
And at the peak of the Throne Realm, Xerath whispered:
> "Send the Avatars." "Let them bring the law back into balance."
> "Let them remind all of what we are."
> "We are the Originverse Sect. The hand of order. The edge of eternity."
And so, they descended.