Starting with Growing Mushrooms

"No, there's another possibility."

Liu Jun continued to study the mushroom soup, the empty bowl, collecting data, and researching the cracks of the Dao.

After an unknown amount of time.

He awoke from his seclusion, looked at Fortuna, and walked out of the lab, "Is the dark matter universe I've asked you to establish rebuilt?"

"It's already rebuilt, and I've recollected 9,990,000 Divine Objects. It was quite a chore."

In the garden outside, Fortuna, who was eating watermelon, said, "Are you planning to raise another Baya Ya?"

This small-scale super universe was recently constructed by building a fishing cage in the nearby Sea of Chaos, attracting a group of fish to self-destruct and build it.

The nearby Sea of Chaos is completely drained, turning into an endless void!

But this super universe is too small in scale, clearly not for God to break through.

It seems to want to raise another small white mouse to pull the carriage ahead.

Liu Jun shook his head. "This dark matter universe is six times smaller than the previous one, and the condensed Dao Fruit Artifact is also six times weaker."

"In theory, it's just barely at the minimum energy level to break through."

Fortuna nodded.

The weaker the flawed Tier Twelve, the weaker its Great Dao Fruit Artifact, and the slower its pursuit speed.

As the pressure of a Tier Twelve, naturally, it's smaller!

"I plan to let you break through," God looked at Fortuna.

Fortuna was stunned and pointed to her own nose, greatly shocked, "Me? Are you serious? You want me to pull the carriage ahead?"

"If you trust me, I'll make you the first Tier Twelve not hunted."

God said indifferently, "The assurance is above Tier Nine."

Fortuna was somewhat tempted by the words, but thought it was too absurd.

The death of Baya Ya was still vivid in her mind.

Once she broke through, being hunted would surely mean her death.

God said, "Though your aptitude is lacking, such a weak Great Dao Fruit Artifact, coupled with your years of practice and familiarity... it's possible. Do you want to try?"

Fortuna was stunned, remained silent for a while, "If you help me break through, what if I become stronger and turn against you? Do you trust me that much?"

God shook his head, "Trust is relative."

"If you first believe my words to break through, then I will equally trust you."

Fortuna was greatly moved, patted her chest, and declared, "After all these years, don't you know my character? Rest assured, I'm going to break through now!"

"Do you trust me that much?" God suddenly asked.

"Because you're the proud God," Fortuna turned around and directly entered that dark matter universe.

God nodded and began to instruct her on the essentials of breaking through, "First, what you need to condense is a Great Dao Pearl..."

Soon, Fortuna began her breakthrough.

The entire dark matter universe, stars converging, all things collapsing.

As a super universe, the 9,990,000 Divine Objects were rotating, beautifully and splendidly converging on Fortuna.

Infinite light converged into a single point.

Bang!

A Great Dao Pearl took shape.

There were no thresholds, no traps at all.

Even just by collecting the necessary Divine Objects, it was 100% successful.

"Dong dong dong!" Fortuna began to collide with her condensed Great Dao Artifact, frantically trying to escape.

Shortly after, cracks appeared in the pearl, and Fortuna transformed into a wisp of smoke and escaped.

Watching Fortuna's disappearing figure, Liu Jun's gaze fell on the newly condensed pearl.

This pearl was very weak!

It barely reached the threshold of Tier Twelve.

It was the disgrace of Tier Twelve.

Far inferior to the usual-sized mushroom soup and dragon bowl.

"Now is the time." Liu Jun took out the dragon bowl, mushroom soup.

The dragon bowl was very shallow, like a lid.

The mushroom soup was deep, arc-shaped, like a round altar.

Took out the pot and lid, directly covering the pearl with a hand.

The two Great Dao Fruit Artifacts instantly fit perfectly, trapping the entire pearl inside.

Dong dong dong!

The pearl soon solidified, starting to frantically collide with the two trapped Great Dao Fruit Artifacts.

Unfortunately.

The pearl was already six times weaker, and it hadn't absorbed its own Artifact Spirit.

How could it compete against two Great Dao Fruit Artifacts that were six times stronger and had devoured their Artifact Spirit?

After several hits, it was still perfectly suppressed!

"It's done!" Seeing this, Liu Jun's lips curled slightly, "Just like I imagined."

In the distance.

Fortuna ran for a while, realizing that the aura of pursuit had vanished.

She was taken aback and squatted in the void for two or three days, discovering that indeed no one was chasing her, only then did she cautiously return.

She looked at God holding a jug of wine, her heart overjoyed, "Did it succeed? Am I free?"

"Yes."

"You're free."

Liu Jun smiled slightly.

Though the most flawed, the weakest Tier Twelve.

But at least it succeeded.

Fortuna was overjoyed beyond measure, showing off her power, her body radiating divine light, "Look at me now, how strong I've become!"

In reality, being a crippled and weak Tier Twelve.

She wasn't that exaggeratedly strong either.

At the very least, in Liu Jun's perception, holding two Great Dao Fruit Artifacts and a heap of produced Tier Twelve Divine Objects, he was capable of fighting.

Liu Jun warned her, "You have a weakness now, once I uncover this jug of wine in my hand, you'll die, that's your fatal flaw."

Fortuna glanced at God, speechless, "I thought you completely trusted me, turns out you're still holding my weakness."

"Every Tier Twelve has a weakness." God said calmly, "This realm is flawed by nature; perfection isn't allowed by heaven and earth!"

"Then it has flaws, you also have to work and then fall with regret."

Fortuna's existence was already a miracle.

It would need at least two Great Dao Fruit Artifacts, sealing her "prison guard" to lock her up.

Moreover, her fatal weakness could be opened by anyone at any time.

At the same time, how easy is it to collect two Great Dao Fruit Artifacts?

This implies the sacrifice of two predecessors, with two predecessors capturing the "warden" before a third successor can attain freedom.

The price of this freedom is too tragic.

Fortuna was elated, "Indeed, in the twelfth tier, someone has to serve time, and now the wardens hunting us are the ones imprisoned."

Liu Jun had a peculiar look, as if agreeing with this logic; the words were blunt but not inaccurate.

Feeling the power within, Fortuna exclaimed, "Then what do you plan to do next?"

God was very calm, "I also intend to break through to the twelfth tier, but before that, I need to prepare an even stronger Great Dao Fruit Artifact prison."

With Fortuna as a precedent, he was confident he could do it more perfectly.

Moreover,

he wasn't content with being the weakest at the twelfth tier; he wanted to verify the strongest Dao Artifact.

And he needed to create a batch of prisons as Dao Artifacts to lock his own God's Dao Artifact.

Fortuna's two punishment tools could only barely contain the "warden."

They were far from perfect.

In Liu Jun's plan, at least twelve Great Dao Fruit Artifacts were needed, wrapped tightly to ensure safety.

As for after the breakthrough, would he be an incomplete twelfth tier?

Liu Jun did not seek completeness.

He thought perhaps the incomplete twelfth tier was the theoretical limit.

"Then let's begin." Fortuna looked excited.

This period was destined to be tedious.

Raising fish everywhere was not particularly technical.

Three thousand years into the Fish-Raising Era.

After a few white mice perfected the path, Liu Jun commenced his breakthrough and succeeded in one go.

His twelve Dao Artifacts were all incomplete twelfth tiers.

Before dying, they all began to crash into the Dao Artifacts, trying to escape.

Even if Liu Jun tried to nurture a few death warriors inside, voluntarily dying in the Dao Artifact without creating cracks to achieve a perfect Dao Artifact...

He did not succeed.

After all, only a strong individual with ambition and dignity could reach this stage.

A brainwashed death warrior, devoid of ambition and grandeur, could not break into this level.

A perfect Dao Artifact, a perfect twelfth tier, seemed never birthed.

His incomplete Dao Artifact—the Ring of God, twelve broken shackles, divine locks, a treasure chest, sealed one by one.

A powerful and profound aura burst forth from him.

God gathered his aura, transforming into an ordinary man who walked softly, "Succeeded."

He was not proud of his breakthrough.

Instead, he felt the twelfth tier was the least risky stage to break through.

"Could this be theoretically the strongest incomplete twelfth tier?" In the distance, Fortuna's eyes sparkled.

"In our system, it's theoretically the most powerful."

"What do you mean?" Fortuna was baffled.

"It's simple; the twelfth tier also has different systems." God smiled, "And systems have strengths and weaknesses."

Fortuna was confused.

"Our Dao Artifact contains over 96% of our twelfth-tier strength."

"And we are just a strand of escaped crippled twelfth tier, only harnessing about 4% of that strength."

Liu Jun spoke calmly, "Other twelfth-tier systems are sure to be incomplete too, perhaps using 6%, 7% of the strength, or even more."

In the boundless void, different universal regional civilizations have different possibilities.

Fortuna pondered the meaning and suddenly said, "Then what should we do in the future?"

Liu Jun's lips curled slightly, "While fishing, I discovered a very interesting new system."

"If we encounter a cosmic collapse and big bang, if recycled, this universe naturally becomes a Super Universe capable of birthing a twelfth tier."

"You mean..."

"I want to create a collapsing and exploding cyclical universe, more advanced than ours."

"No need to laboriously roam the vast void gathering 9,990,000 Divine Objects."

"Their universe can collectively gather all the Law codes, just focusing on the periodic collapse and explosion."

Fortuna was greatly astounded; this is an unthinkable, bold endeavor—a fully automated universe!

Such a universe naturally can birth a twelfth tier.

And, with a cyclical collapse and explosion universe, each cycle is akin to "Alchemy."

Every cycle has the chance to birth a twelfth tier.

A single universe can theoretically endlessly produce twelfth tiers.

"Furthermore, because their model doesn't require going out to fish and eat fish, there is no consumption of Divine Objects.... They don't use the Divine Object system's Dao Artifact to break through to the twelfth tier..." Liu Jun continued calculating.

"It's an unknown, wholly new twelfth-tier type... Unsure how much power it can exert."

This was a completely fresh attempt.

He considered universes needing to fish in the void as far too primitive.

"Doesn't this type of universe need prisons?" Fortuna asked the question she cared about most.

"Who knows?"

Fortuna widened her eyes, "Huh? Is imprisonment ordained by fate?"

"Yes." God gave a slight smile, "Haven't you noticed? A mysterious balancing force restricts us in all things..."

"In our times, it was omnipresent, endlessly confining us in cages, perhaps a kind of force, a great universal trend."

Liu Jun sighed softly.

The universe constantly restricts us.

Even a newly created universe, even if no longer in shackles, should develop an entirely new method to balance each 'man' and 'heaven and earth' scale...

The beings cannot flood uncontrollably.

"Huh?"

Fortuna rubbed her head, "Can't hear, doesn't matter, it's all the same anyway."

"Just sowing a batch of seeds into the void." Liu Jun, with Fortuna, began to step slowly into the far void.

Next, he intended to find ways to complete the twelfth tier.

Even to change the type of twelfth-tier system.

His efficiency was too low, only 4%, a cripple among cripples.

The two softly sighed and vanished into the far void.

—The End.