Chapter 380: Celestial Event

After accepting his fate, Priam watched thousands of System notifications rapidly appear in his field of vision. Every few minutes, more and more windows popped up.

For every small comet or meteor, he only gained +30 GP. But surely, once his allies started taking control of planets and suns, that number would be drastically higher.

Before long, all 2,120 of his soldiers had successfully become Sages. This earned him the staggering amount of +63,600 GP.

Everything happened in less than an hour. Not a single person even came close to suffering a mental collapse and being forced to return to their physical body. The aura emitted by all those spiritual silhouettes was filled with the deepest ecstasy and pure excitement.

’Use the extra time to meditate and study your celestial bodies. Feel the Essence of Creation beginning to emerge within them; it will be extremely useful to you. Now, you may think it will be easy to conquer more and more of them quickly, but as soon as you return to your physical bodies, you’ll feel an immense rejection. It will take quite some time before you become capable of conquering new ones.’

Everyone turned toward Priam’s silhouette and nodded in deep respect.

The group’s excitement didn’t diminish in the slightest. To them, his voice sounded like that of a true deity giving them guidance.

Everyone there had the ultimate dream of becoming a Sage someday—a peak that 99.99% of people devoted their entire lives to reaching, yet the overwhelming majority failed miserably. It was practically an unattainable goal, truly nothing more than a dream for most people.

More realistically, reaching the high levels of the Mage Master Rank was already equivalent to having made it in life.

But them? In just a few years, they had not only reached that impossible peak, but had also become figures admired and respected throughout the entire sect.

No one there was foolish enough to believe they had achieved all of that through their own merit.

If it weren’t for Priam guiding them, teaching them, and placing everything right into their hands, today—assuming they were even still alive—they would be nothing more than mediocre Mage Disciples, dreaming of the day they might accomplish something, anything, in life.

Because of that, to every single one of those soldiers, Priam had already become something far, far greater than a mere faction leader.

Even Dandara felt something similar, but her situation was different from that of most of them.

Completely unaware of all the silent adoration emanating from his allies, Priam simply turned around to look at his own domain.

In an isolated corner of his Secret World, his 13 comets and 12 planets were lined up. Since all of them had been stolen from his enemies, he hadn’t needed to wait or work hard for the planets to finally begin developing life.

Priam approached the planets.

They were visibly rocky bodies, roughly the size of Earth. There was no water on their surfaces, nor any atmosphere or vegetation. From a distance, each one looked like nothing more than an enormous, rounded, dead rock.

The reason was obvious: there was still no sun in Priam’s Secret World. Without an external source of heat and energy, the surface would never develop anything. However, those planets were far from dead—otherwise, Priam wouldn’t have been able to advance to the next Rank in the first place.

He landed on the surface of one of them and extended his perception into the planet’s interior.

At the center, there was a heated core, just as there should be. And within the cooler crust, multiple ’meridians’ created by the Seed of Creation flowed like invisible rivers. It was around these meridians that small forms of life existed.

They were tiny microorganisms, but they were still alive. The Essence of Creation emanating from the meridians, combined with the heat from the core, was what sustained that underground ecosystem and allowed life to exist there.

That was enough for the planet to be classified as a "planet with life," allowing the Sage to advance. Obviously, the amount of energy produced by a planet filled with complex life on its surface was incomparable.

Priam waved his hand, trying to make the exit appear near one of them.

[Warning: You cannot remove celestial bodies from within the Secret World.]

He sighed in disappointment. He had already imagined this outcome, but now he was certain that he couldn’t simply move his planets into one of the sect’s solar systems in the mortal plane, giving them the conditions to develop, generate life, and produce more power.

On the other hand, stealing planets that already possessed this kind of life and bringing them into his Secret World hadn’t destroyed them; it had merely stabilized their existing state, keeping the underground life intact.

He couldn’t expand anything. But fortunately, he wasn’t far from obtaining his first sun and solving that problem.

After analyzing the interior for a moment, Priam turned his attention to the other rocky planets floating around.

All of them had belonged to the most powerful Sorcerer Priam had defeated and looted. Unfortunately, the man didn’t possess any suns that could be stolen.

As soon as Priam stole the enemy’s Creation Rune, he identified the exact locations of those celestial bodies. He then moved the entrance to his Secret World directly to them, forcibly dragging them inside without needing to directly conquer them at that moment.

Because of this, a few dozen ownerless planets were left floating in his space.

Even without a master, the life within them would be able to survive for some time, until all the Essence of Creation in their meridians was completely consumed.

Those planets were in a situation similar to the ones Priam already possessed—although some of the planets previously controlled by the Sorcerer had atmospheres and low vegetation on their surfaces. With the drastic change in environment, all the surface flora had died, leaving only the life within their interiors.

Priam approached the ownerless rocky planets and began taking control of them one by one.

He needed 30 planets to reach Level 3, the point at which he would finally be forced to create his first sun. The first 10 would take him from the elemental level of the Rank to Level 1.

After taking control of the first 10, Priam stopped. Just like with the Enlightened Rank, it wasn’t possible to instantly advance through several levels.

In the Philosopher Rank, the Sage’s mind needed to go through a long process of nourishment in order to transform into something semi-immortal. With every level he reached, Priam would need to stop and use the Essence of Creation to directly nourish his own mind.

At least now, there was a clear path for him to level up, unlike the Enlightened Rank, where a Sage simply had to wait for their body to be automatically nourished over an indefinite period of time—something that could take millennia depending on the person.

Not that nourishing the mind was a simple task. Many people spent thousands of years of continuous effort on each level. It wasn’t a matter of applying some ready-made nourishment technique, but rather entering the Nirvana state and instinctively guiding their own energy to carry out the process.

Within the Nirvana state, an individual’s consciousness became almost completely clouded, as if they were in a deep dream—a peculiar stupor in which the mind didn’t act entirely rationally.

Nourishing the mind under these conditions required achieving 100% lucidity during that "dream" and actively carrying out the process.

How many people in the world could actually lucid dream on a regular basis?

It was something truly complex. Talent, instinct, and mental ability were essential requirements for success.

Of course, there were probably secret techniques and methods used by the Sages of the great sects to make the process easier. But it was still possible to accomplish it without outside assistance.

As for Priam... he felt he wouldn’t have much trouble.

After all, ever since he was reincarnated as Priam and regained his memories, he had always experienced absurdly realistic dreams in which he relived the memories of his two previous incarnations. In those dreams, he was always fully aware that he was dreaming, maintaining his lucidity the entire time.

As time passed, the frequency of those dreams gradually decreased, until nowadays, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had one.

Maybe it was because he didn’t even need to sleep anymore and only did so occasionally. But during those few recent times, he hadn’t had any dreams.

Even when he entered the Nirvana state for the first time before, Priam had felt completely conscious. So he was convinced that he would be able to nourish his mind at an extreme speed.

After finishing what he needed to do, he turned his attention back to his allies. At that moment, he sensed the dense flow of Essence of Creation emanating from each meteor.

’The amount of Essence of Creation in each one of them has increased considerably in such a short time... this 300% amplification is truly incredible! My planets will probably explode with life as soon as I get a sun,’ Priam murmured to himself, filled with anxiety and excitement to advance as quickly as possible.

---

Hours later, the entire upper echelon of the 11th Branch was in a state of absolute shock.

The news of more than two thousand Sages being born simultaneously left the Elders completely speechless.

Historically, during the tests for the central sect, only a few hundred Sages from all the branches combined would participate, joining the most outstanding members of the headquarters.

Now, however, Priam’s actions had completely turned all expectations upside down.

Mishnar immediately sent an emergency report to the central sect, explaining what had happened and making it clear that Priam was behind the phenomenon. There was no way to hide it, and she had already been ordered to report anything new about Priam beforehand.

When the Central Elders received the news, their initial shock quickly turned into an emergency meeting hastily convened.

Mishnar only received their response some time later.

The conclusion of the upper echelon was that Priam was probably an extremely rare innate Celestial—a legendary figure who appeared only a handful of times throughout history, capable of influencing the very laws of the world through sheer will, even before fully awakening his powers.

Mishnar read it and was frightened. She remembered the fantastical stories about legendary figures of the world. They really did have all those characteristics.

The last recorded legendary figure... was precisely the Sovereign Goddess.

Had her branch actually created someone like that? She couldn’t even believe her own thoughts.

But according to the Central Elders, Priam must have generated a resonance with the laws of the world, which had ridiculously accelerated the advancement of his allies.

As a result, the sect’s plans for the next inner disciple test were drastically changed.

They decided to bet everything on Priam’s potential and would use the event known as the *Spectral Eruption* as the new stage for the test. Exactly one year from now, everyone would be sent there.

Upon reading the order, Mishnar went pale. After taking a breath and recovering her composure, she immediately summoned Priam.

Within minutes, he appeared in the center of the hall.

As he looked at Mishnar, Priam noticed something peculiar about her demeanor. She stared at him silently for a few moments before her stern expression finally softened.

"First... I’ll give you the resolution regarding the case of the Heavenly River Valley Sect," she began, her expression gradually changing.

"Our sect contacted the largest sects in the northern region, requesting their assistance with the investigation. These great sects are responsible for maintaining order and justice throughout the universe whenever the Sovereigns’ Heralds do not intervene."

"The result was inevitable. It was proven that the entire Heavenly River Valley Sect had been receiving benefits from the Sorcerers for countless years. Because of this, they were sentenced to a 500,000-year banishment, with no right to participate in any Celestial Event in the universe."

Priam frowned. "Celestial Event?"

"Yes," Mishnar explained. "Every hundred or two hundred years, all the sects in the universe have the opportunity to participate in various recurring events. Some are extremely high-level, while others are more moderate and restricted to only a few sects. In short, when certain large-scale missions imposed by the Sovereigns are completed, artifacts, legendary treasures, or even fragments of those worlds are blessed by the Sovereigns and brought into our universe."

"These blessings are distributed and managed directly by the Heralds, who announce the arrival of each new event. There are many different types. The most famous is the *Celestial Battle Convention*, which takes place whenever a large collection of treasures has been accumulated. The younger members of the sects, up to a certain age, are then sent to fight for those prizes."

"There are countless formats besides direct combat. Aside from missions to invade other worlds, these events are the primary and most valuable source of resources for any sect. Being suspended from them for 500,000 years is practically a death sentence for the Heavenly River Valley Sect. They were one of the greatest powers in the east, and now they’ll fall to the very bottom... assuming they even manage to survive."

Mishnar paused before continuing, "That’s because their crimes have been publicly exposed to the entire universe. Countless extremely powerful figures who hate the Sorcerers will never accept this sect continuing to exist. I’d even wager that, within less than 100,000 years, the Heavenly River Valley Sect will be completely wiped off the map."

Priam silently nodded. It was a more than deserved end. At the same time, he felt extremely curious about these Celestial Events he had never heard of before.

Mishnar took a deep breath and looked him directly in the eyes.

"Now, let’s get to the main point. Because of what happened recently, our Ironweald Sect has decided to participate in an event that will take place one year from now. It’s an event that only medium-sized sects usually dare to participate in... and historically, ours has always avoided participating in this particular one because of the high risks involved."

Priam narrowed his eyes, paying close attention to every word.

"This event will be the official entrance test for the inner sect, for you and all of your allies."