William remained standing in the middle of the endless plain.
The strange world around him had fallen silent.
The two enormous manifestations floating above the horizon had disappeared.
Only the vast emptiness remained.
Yet the realization they had left behind...
Had become impossible for him to ignore.
He had finally understood what this place wanted from him.
A domain.
But not the kind of domain he had previously known.
William slowly closed his eyes.
His thoughts returned to everything he had experienced since entering the mountain.
The Stellar Domain...
And the Galactic Domain.
For a long time, he had believed that advancing from one to the other was simply a matter of increasing the amount of power he possessed.
He had been wrong.
Completely wrong.
The difference was not merely quantitative.
It was fundamental.
The Stellar Domain...
Was a place where a cultivator applied their power.
A space in which their abilities could be extended farther, controlled more precisely, and used with greater efficiency.
Inside it...
A cultivator possessed an enormous advantage.
The surrounding environment became an extension of their strength.
Every movement became easier.
Every technique became more efficient.
Every attack could be amplified.
The domain itself became a battlefield shaped according to the cultivator's abilities.
But despite all of that...
It was still, fundamentally...
An advantage.
A place where one's power could be applied.
A place where one's abilities could reach their greatest efficiency.
The Galactic Domain...
Was something else entirely.
William slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze became serious.
The domain created upon reaching the Galactic level...
Was not simply an area of influence.
It was a special absolute range.
A world belonging completely to its creator.
A range in which the cultivator's understanding, abilities, and existence were integrated into a single absolute system.
It was no longer merely...
"This is the place where my power works best."
It became...
"This is my domain."
And that distinction changed everything.
William sat down.
His legs crossed.
His back straightened.
His breathing gradually slowed.
There was no reason to rush.
If he attempted to force the process...
He would only destroy the balance he was trying to create.
He needed to understand the relationship between his two abilities.
Not merely use them simultaneously.
Not merely combine their effects.
He needed to make them...
One.
His first ability.
His second ability.
Two powers that had developed separately throughout his journey.
Two different methods of exerting influence upon reality.
Now...
They had to become the foundation of something greater.
William closed his eyes.
And began to meditate.
The first year passed.
William barely moved.
His breathing became so faint that it was almost impossible to notice.
His consciousness sank deeper and deeper into his own existence.
He observed his first ability.
Then his second.
He studied every detail.
Every movement.
Every limitation.
Every possible interaction.
He did not attempt to force them together.
Instead...
He allowed them to exist beside one another.
He searched for the point where their principles naturally intersected.
The second year passed.
The process became even more difficult.
The two abilities repeatedly approached one another...
Then separated.
Again.
And again.
Every failed attempt forced William to reconsider his understanding.
He did not become frustrated.
He simply began again.
The third year...
The fourth...
The fifth...
Time became meaningless.
William remained seated within that endless world.
The outside universe continued moving.
The Golden Era continued developing.
Countless beings were born.
Countless beings died.
Powers rose.
Powers disappeared.
Yet William remained exactly where he was.
Meditating.
Refining.
Understanding.
Until...
Something finally changed.
A faint fluctuation emerged around him.
At first...
It was so weak that it could barely be detected.
Then another appeared.
The two fluctuations slowly approached each other.
They did not collide.
They did not resist.
They simply...
Connected.
William's consciousness trembled.
For the first time in nearly five years...
His eyes opened.
The surrounding space seemed to respond to his existence.
A subtle pressure spread outward.
Then vanished.
William looked at his hands.
He could feel it.
The two abilities...
Were no longer completely separate.
They had begun forming the foundation of something new.
Something that belonged entirely to him.
But that was only the beginning.
William immediately entered the next stage.
Understanding was not enough.
A domain had to be constructed.
His first ability.
His second ability.
His comprehension.
His energy.
His existence.
Everything had to be organized into one complete structure.
The process began slowly.
A faint boundary appeared around him.
At first...
It was almost invisible.
A few meters.
Then several dozen.
Then hundreds.
But William quickly discovered the problem.
The structure was unstable.
The moment he attempted to expand it...
It collapsed.
Again.
And again.
Every attempt ended in failure.
The domain refused to stabilize.
William did not stop.
He rebuilt it.
Destroyed it.
Rebuilt it again.
Each time...
He understood a little more.
The domain could not simply be created by pouring power into space.
It needed structure.
It needed absolute control.
It needed to become a manifestation of his understanding rather than merely a container for his strength.
And that was when...
His Eternal Body reacted.
William suddenly felt something awaken deep within himself.
His consciousness was pulled inward.
The world around him disappeared.
A vast image appeared before his mind.
He stood before something impossible to describe.
A domain.
Not his domain.
Not yet.
It was the ideal.
The absolute.
The perfect state toward which his own domain had been trying to move.
His Eternal Body showed him...
The ultimate form of the domain it was capable of supporting.
William stared at it.
For a long time...
He said nothing.
There was no need.
He simply observed.
Every structure.
Every boundary.
Every relationship between its elements.
Every movement of energy.
Every point where its authority extended.
Every detail that made it...
Complete.
It was not a lesson given through words.
It was an answer shown directly to his consciousness.
An absolute example.
A perfect model.
William understood immediately.
This was not something he could simply copy.
His own domain had to be his.
But now...
He finally knew what perfection looked like.
And that changed everything.
The remaining obstacle...
Was energy.
An absurd amount of energy.
The domain he was attempting to construct required power far beyond what his current reserves could provide.
The structure was ready.
His understanding was approaching completion.
His two abilities had finally become connected.
His Eternal Body had shown him the ideal.
But the final barrier remained.
The amount of energy required to cross it...
Was monstrous.
William began gathering everything available to him.
He absorbed energy continuously.
He refined it.
Compressed it.
Stored it.
Then used it to strengthen the structure.
When the energy was exhausted...
He began again.
Another cycle.
And another.
There was no shortcut.
No sudden miracle.
No external power that could simply be handed to him.
The barrier demanded that he possess enough strength to support the domain himself.
So William waited.
And trained.
And accumulated.
One year passed.
Then another.
Three years.
Five.
The amount of energy accumulated within his body became increasingly terrifying.
Yet the barrier remained.
William continued.
Six years.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
The world around him had long since ceased to resemble the place where he had first arrived.
His presence alone distorted the surrounding space.
The pressure emanating from him became increasingly difficult to contain.
Yet he remained seated.
Calm
Silent.
Unmoving.
Until the tenth year...
Something finally happened.
A crack appeared.
Not in the surrounding world.
But within the invisible barrier before his consciousness.
A tiny crack.
Almost impossible to notice.
William opened his eyes.
For the first time in ten years...
A faint smile appeared on his face.
He knew.
The barrier...
Could finally be broken.
The energy he had accumulated over the past decade surged through his existence.
His two abilities responded simultaneously.
The structure of his domain began to expand.
The absolute model shown to him by his Eternal Body remained deeply engraved within his consciousness.
He did not copy it.
He used it as the foundation upon which he would build his own.
The pressure increased.
The barrier cracked further.
Then...
It shattered.
A tremendous wave of energy erupted from William's body.
The entire world trembled.
His domain...
Had finally begun to take shape.