Avery eventually woke up from his enlightenment, and his consciousness gradually returned to reality. The first thing he noticed was that his sphere of perception had grown greatly, going from a two meter radius to a ten meter one. It was bombarding him with more information than he could handle, making it hard to concentrate on anything.
It was only after taking some time to accommodate himself to his heightened sense that he was able to calmly sort out his gains.
This had technically been a lower level opportunity than the previous times when he had seen the Tao in person, but this had happened in his own virtual world, so he had been able to make the most of this opportunity. Not only that, but he had also managed to take control and explore a single thing to its peak, instead of just learning a bit of everything.
All this meant that his understanding of the Sil'piceus rune was dozens, if not hundreds of times more comprehensive than everything else he knew. In fact, he could acutely feel that his understanding of it was just barely enough for him to become an immortal.
It appeared that he did not necessarily need to comprehend one of the 3000 Daos to ascend, but that any concept that was understood at a high enough level would do the trick. Now all he needed to do was to inspire his understanding and present it to the heavens, and the gates of longevity would open for him.
It was a shame that he dared not use this false understanding to transcend mortality, but at least it was definite proof that he was on the correct path, and that he was not too far from success.
However, while this was certainly something to celebrate, his mood was dampened slightly by the seemingly insurmountable obstacle that he could feel blocked his way. With his new status as a mortal on the edge of the great breakthrough, he could vaguely sense some of the details of his ascension, and he now knew with absolute certainty that it would be far from a peaceful process.
Each time he moved to inspire the virtual Dao, he could feel himself being targeted, the surrounding laws growing chaotic as an immeasurable tribulation brewed in the sky. If he wanted to fly into the sky, he would first need to be baptized by lightning. This was a serious problem, as Avery had no confidence in surviving this ordeal.
He could hope that this was only a side effect of using a false concept, and that it would not be a problem if he honestly cultivated the Truth, but since he had already heard of cultivators transcending tribulations back at the sect, that seemed unlikely. That left him with the intimidating prospect of facing a calamity normally aimed at the most powerful cultivators of the mortal world, with nothing but a mortal body and a handful of ineffective runes.
He had no Qi or body exercise to protect himself with, no magic power or treasure that could withstand the erosion of dragon power long enough to fend off a tribulation. The only power he had any semblance of control over, mana, seemed incapable of doing anything other than powering up runes. He doubted that even the system's time warps would be able to save him, as he would not even have time to use them before he died.
For now, the only thing he could think of was to use one of the systems given profession tools to somehow protect himself. For example, his blacksmithing hammer should still be laying around somewhere, but how was he supposed to use it to survive heavenly guided lightning strikes? Using it as a lightning rod was out, and electricity was not something he could smash at and break. Perhaps, if there was really no other way, he would just have to cultivate to sainthood as a mortal, entirely bypassing the immortal stage.
This issue required careful consideration and planning, but fortunately, he was in no rush. He did not want to ascend with his current Sil'piceus concept, and it would still be time to worry about this after he had comprehended an authentic Dao. When he finally reached that point, who knew what methods and ideas he would have?
This unexpected heavenly opportunity had brought him a lot of surprise, and he certainly felt like he had made a great breakthrough, but in essence, nothing had changed. He had taken a peek at what's to come, and it would be a great help to him as a reference, but he still needed to walk his path step by step, making sure never to stray away from the authentic Tao, and not losing his way in taking ill-advised shortcuts.
Now that his inner world had suddenly advanced, Avery was eager to try and engrave a rune again. With how close he had been last time, he felt there was no way he would not succeed, but he decided to first check the current state of his inner world. His runes could wait, while his visualisation... could probably wait too, but it just sounded right for him to check on it first. After all, it was the source of his intent.
Looking inward, the first thing he saw was that the virtual realm had expanded tenfold. However, while the limits of the realm had expanded, nothing that it contained had changed. The central planet had not gotten bigger, no new stars had been added, no matter or energy had been created. It was just a huge empty space, with only a deceptively large galaxy in the middle, occupying less than a tenth of the available space.
Other than that, the only notable change was the Sil'piceus plains. Instead of roaming the plains in disorganized groups, most of the Sil'piceus had regrouped around two huge blood lakes, forming a strange city, dominating the otherwise barren land.
Curious to know what in the world had happened while he was not paying attention, Avery traced back history, and discovered that for his inner world, more than five hundred years had passed.
The Elder's original plan of hiding their tracks had failed, as they were ultimately not able to create anything, and were limited to casting simple illusions. After weeks of hard work, they nevertheless managed to make their illusions that looked realistic to their tremor sense, but without eyes of their own, they had failed to make anything that could fool the eyes of their prey.
They never really understood what the problem was, and no matter what they attempted, they never succeeded in luring in prey effectively. As the Owner and number 3 were growing disenhearted, the Elder sunk into meditation, and after spending a long time reconsidering the issue, he finally concluded they were looking at this the wrong way.
The ultimate goal was not to attract prey, it was to find a reliable way to feed their entire species. Their next attempt to use the rune to create meat did not succeed either, but when the Owner cut one of his tentacles off and regrew it with a simple prayer, they knew they had found a source of unlimited food.
It still took some time for this to become an available long-term solution, as the mental strength required to regrow a limb would knock out the average Sil'piceus for a few days, ultimately losing more energy than they gained. It was not until number 3 discovered how to permanently empower the rune using blood sacrifices, earning herself the Title of Priestess, that the Elder's vision truly became reality.
Wasting no time to capitalize on this success, the three of them searched for a place with ample water, before settling down and starting building a great city to house all of their kin and guarantee their safety.
Everything was centered around a great central lake of black blood, and the crude temple that sat on top of it. Each day, the inhabitants of the city would contribute some of their blood to the pool and some of their meat to the community, before worshiping the bloody rune and accepting the great gift of Healing.
Relying on the miraculous powers of the rune and upholding the virtues of cannibalism and self-mutilation, the Sil'piceus slowly ushered in an era of stability, where the only remaining threat to their lives was old age and natural disasters.
