Chapter 684: The Evolution Path of a Miniature Universe

Returning to the audience seats, Pearl and the other gossiping women immediately approached him. “Do you know that beautiful woman?”
“No, I mistook her for someone else,” Ye Feng replied with a simple shake of his head. His expression made it clear that Pearl and the others didn’t want to press further.
“Are you okay?” Long Tian could tell right away that Ye Feng must know that woman, but for some reason, he refused to admit it now.
“I’m fine,” Ye Feng said again, shaking his head. His gaze was fixed on the arena, but it was unfocused, clearly as if he were deep in thought.
Long Tian also shook his head and didn’t ask any more questions.

In the dead of night, a thin mist hung in the air. Before midnight even arrived, Ye Feng was already waiting by the Midu River outside the city. He searched his mind for a long time but still couldn’t figure out who the woman who had sent him the message was. However, he was certain she wasn’t Situ Xuan.

As the midnight bell rang inside the city, a small dark figure rushed out of the city gates and sprinted toward the Midu River. Shortly after midnight, Ye Feng saw a dark figure approaching from afar. He knew this must be the person they were waiting for.

The figure was petite, clearly a woman. Due to the mist, it wasn’t until she got a little closer that Ye Feng could see her face. “Are you… Lüluo?!”
It was the woman he had met in the Terror Forest years ago—Situ Xuan’s maid, Lüluo.

“Because my cultivation level isn’t high enough, I couldn’t go to the guest seats, so I could only watch from the audience. I asked you to come out so you wouldn’t misunderstand the young lady. She pretended not to know you for important reasons,” Lüluo said after looking around and seeing nothing unusual.

“I know. She’s getting married and can’t afford to interact with other men,” Ye Feng nodded with a smile, saying he understood.

“No, that’s not it! Listen to me first,” Lüluo said, waving her hands. “The young lady didn’t marry willingly, and she refuses to admit she knows you not because of her marriage.”

“She didn’t want to marry?” Ye Feng frowned slightly. “Could it be her father forced her into a political marriage?”

“Listen to me first. I came out secretly; we don’t have much time,” Lu Luo stopped Ye Feng from asking more questions. “Firstly, this marriage wasn’t forced by the young lady’s father, but by another powerful family in the Virtual Realm. That family’s ancestor ascended to the Supreme Realm long ago and enjoys great prestige there. As a result, that family wields immense influence in both the Middle Principal Plane and the Higher Principal Plane. The man the young lady is to marry is the only direct descendant of their family in the Middle Principal Plane. His father was the previous head of that family in the Middle Principal Plane but ascended to the Higher Principal Plane years ago. His grandfather is the head of their family in the Higher Principal Plane, with extremely high cultivation skills; it’s said he could ascend to the Supreme Realm at any time. That ancestor in the Supreme Realm highly values his talent and sees him as his successor. And he dotes most on this only grandson.”

“He saw the young lady’s face on the street and has been persistently pursuing her ever since. The master doesn’t want her to marry him because he’s been arrogant and domineering since childhood, having ruined countless women—his reputation is utterly vile. But he keeps threatening and bribing her, saying that if she refuses, her entire family will suffer. Left with no choice, the young lady came up with a delaying tactic, claiming that his cultivation is insufficient and that she must surpass the master’s level before agreeing to marry him. She thought this would buy some time, but unexpectedly, that scoundrel went straight to his grandfather in the Higher Principal Plane and had his cultivation enhanced. Now, the young lady has no choice but to marry him.”

“The reason she pretends not to know you is that even if a man tries to talk to her, those men will be secretly eliminated by that scoundrel. She’s pretending not to know you for your safety…”

Lu Luo’s explanation made Ye Feng frown deeply. After a long while, he asked, “What’s that scoundrel’s cultivation level?”

“He was originally only at the Void level, but after his grandfather enhanced his cultivation, he reached the True Entry stage. That’s already above the master, who is at the peak of the Half-True stage,” Lu Luo said, biting her lip. “You’re definitely no match for him.”

“I know,” Ye Feng replied. The six miniature universes within him were only at the Void level, still far from reaching the True Entry stage. If they really fought, he had no chance of winning at all.

“After the Strongest Contest ends, the young lady will be leaving. Take care of yourself!” After explaining everything, the Monstera plant quietly departed, leaving Ye Feng standing there in a daze.

Standing by the river, Ye Feng closed his eyes and took a slow breath. The fresh air filled his lungs, helping him regain some clarity. Shaking his head to dispel his distractions, he then headed toward the city.

Back at the inn, Ye Feng knocked on the door of Long Tian’s room.

“Come in!” Long Tian’s spiritual energy extended slightly, and he immediately recognized Ye Feng standing outside. “What’s wrong with you today? You even sneaked away just now. Could it be you went on a date with that girl?”

“Brother Long, can you explain to me about the evolution of micro-universes?” Ye Feng ignored Long Tian’s trivial gossip questions and got straight to the point.

“What’s the matter? Have you hit a cultivation bottleneck?” Long Tian raised his eyebrows slightly.

“No, I just want to know what to do next. Your past-life memories should be helpful.” Ye Feng shook his head.

“Alright, I’ll explain it to you!”

“Before a micro-universe takes shape, there are three stages: star domain, star realm, and star universe. There’s no need to explain these three stages since you’re already at the star universe level,” Long Tian explained. “After reaching the star universe level, it begins to evolve into a micro-universe. For those at the pseudo-void level, their star universe is in an intermediate state between a star universe and a micro-universe. When the star universe evolves 100% into a micro-universe, one becomes a true-void level powerhouse. But the formation of a micro-universe isn’t the end—it’s not even a starting point. The micro-universe expands as cultivation progresses. Once it expands to a certain extent, life forms emerge within it, marking the true starting point for the development of an internal universe. But usually, only true-void level powerhouses’ micro-universes can give birth to life forms, and those life forms are extremely simple at first. As cultivation advances and one reaches the cave-void level, those life forms can evolve into intelligent beings. Is the entire cultivation process up to the middle main plane clear now?”

Long Tian stopped there, thinking that the cultivation path for the middle main plane had been fully explained and there was no need to go further.

But Ye Feng needed to know about the subsequent steps. “What about after that? What does it mean to enter the semi-true realm, and what does it mean to enter the true realm? And what exactly are the cultivation levels in the higher main planes?”

“Spilling too much on this won’t benefit you at all…” Long Tian had no intention of continuing.
“Brother Long, tell me—I really need to know these things!” Ye Feng’s expression finally turned serious.
Seeing that he wasn’t joking, Long Tian could only shake his head helplessly and continued, “Alright, let’s go on. After developing intelligent life, once evolution reaches a certain level, those intelligent beings will seek ways to achieve immortality. So, following the laws of the universe, they will discover certain cultivation methods, and thus cultivators are born. Only when a micro-universe with cultivators exists can one be considered a half-true realm expert. When cultivators reach a certain level, they naturally ascend to the celestial realm under normal circumstances. But since half-true realm experts have only a single plane within their bodies, as the number of cultivators increases and more reach the level of ascension, the micro-universe evolves to include a second plane. The energy of this second plane is far higher than that of the first, making it suitable for those who have reached the ascension level to reside in. The formation of the second plane signifies that their cultivation has reached the true realm.”
“The emergence of a second plane isn’t that simple, right? What specific conditions are required?” Ye Feng pressed further, assuming that Long Tian, with his ancestral memories, would know.
“There are three conditions: 1. There are over ten thousand species of intelligent life in the micro-universe; 2. The number of intelligent beings exceeds ten billion; 3. At least a thousand people must have their cultivation advance to a level that allows them to ascend to the second plane.” Long Tian’s detailed explanation finally helped Ye Feng find his goal.
“Does that mean that the emergence of a third or fourth plane also signifies that cultivation has reached a certain level?” Ye Feng asked.
“Yes. There are seven levels of cultivation in the higher main planes, from lowest to highest: half-true realm, true realm entry, true realm return, true realm manifestation, true realm veneration, true realm concealment, and true realm breaking. If a micro-universe has two planes, it means one has reached the true realm entry level; if it has three planes, it means true realm veneration level; if it has four planes, it means true realm breaking level. Do you want to continue?” Long Tian asked in return.
“No, but I still have one question—what are the conditions for the emergence of a third and fourth plane?” Ye Feng voiced his doubts.
“There are also three conditions to evolve a third plane: 1. There are over a million species of intelligent life in the micro-universe; 2. The number of intelligent beings exceeds one trillion; 3. At least ten thousand people must have their cultivation advance to a level that allows them to ascend to the third plane.”

“Similarly, to evolve into the fourth plane, there are three conditions: 1) There must be hundreds of millions of species of intelligent life in the micro-universe; 2) The number of intelligent beings must exceed one trillion; 3) At least 100,000 individuals must reach a level where they can ascend to the fourth plane.”
After hearing Long Tian’s explanation, Ye Feng clearly understood what he needed to do next. With the Virtual Treasure in hand, he could even raise his cultivation level to the Break Truth Realm, or even a higher level, in a short time. His cultivation progress would far exceed that of anyone else.