364: The price of the creator: a single sentence that turned stars into gold.

Lin Fan's consciousness floated within his clear Sea of Consciousness.

Before him was the System panel, which had completely changed its appearance.

Ancient and profound, it seemed to carry the death and rebirth of a Universe.

On the panel, a brand-new attribute bar was quietly emitting a faint glow.

【existence value: 100%】

These words felt as if they possessed infinite weight, causing Lin Fan's breathing to hitch.

This was no longer cultivation, magic power, or Divine Soul.

This was the fundamental basis of his existence in this Universe as the concept of "Lin Fan."

It was the initial capital bestowed upon him by the System, the testament of the previous epoch.

【Authority: Tamper with Low-Level Rules, Unlocked.】

【Warning: Each use of this authority will consume your 'Existence' itself as the price.】

Looking at that blood-red warning, Lin Fan felt no fear; instead, an uncontrollable impulse rose within him.

He wanted to try it.

He had to try it.

With a thought, his figure vanished from the Formation core, and in the next instant, he appeared in the cold Void Realm outside the Tian Yuan Realm.

Li Hanyue sensed his appearance almost immediately.

In the Command Hall, she watched the point of light representing Lin Fan light up again on the star map; saying nothing, she projected her entire focus toward him.

She felt that Lin Fan's aura was fundamentally different from before.

In the Void Realm, Lin Fan's gaze swept over his surroundings.

Dead silence was the only theme here.

He extended a finger, pointing toward a floating, dark-brown meteorite about a hundred feet in size in the distance.

It was a common rock composed of silicates and Impurities, the most ordinary thing in the Universe.

Lin Fan's lips moved, uttering three words.

"You, become iron."

Sound could not travel in a vacuum, but this command acted directly on the level of Laws.

【existence value: 100%】

The number on the panel suddenly flickered.

【existence value: 99.999%】

Almost simultaneously, the dark-brown meteorite underwent a visible change.

There was no light, no sound.

Its surface structure began to reorganize, the arrangement between molecules forcibly twisted and altered by an invisible force.

The texture of rock faded, replaced by a cold, hard metallic luster.

Less than a breath had passed.

A piece of discarded space junk had turned into a hundred-foot block of high-purity Profound Iron.

Lin Fan's heart skipped a beat.

He slowly clenched his fist, feeling the terrifying power of altering reality with a single word.

Consuming 0.001% of his existence value...

...in exchange for a massive block of Profound Iron.

This trade... Lin Fan's eyes became brighter than ever before.

His gaze moved past the Profound Iron, looking further into the distance.

There was a discarded planet over ten thousand miles in diameter, withered and yellow, long since devoid of any signs of life.

It had been drifting lonely in this desolate Star Domain for billions of years.

Lin Fan took a deep breath; even the cold void energy couldn't seem to calm his currently boiling Divine Soul.

He raised his hand again.

This time, he used all his strength, issuing the second command clearly, word by word.

"You, become gold."

【existence value: 98.999%】

The value on the panel instantly decreased by a full percentage point.

A power of Laws, countless times stronger than before, crashed down.

The next moment.

Inside the Command Hall.

Li Hanyue suddenly stood up from her seat.

She stared fixedly at the 3D star map before her.

On the star map, the withered yellow point of light representing the discarded planet suddenly erupted with an extremely brilliant golden light without any warning.

That light was so pure and dazzling that the entire star map was dyed into an ocean of gold.

And in the actual Universe.

The withered yellow planet was undergoing a creation-like upheaval.

A golden halo, with the planet's core as its source, suddenly expanded outward.

Everywhere the halo passed, whether it was the magma deep in the core or the mountains and dust on the surface, its material composition was completely rewritten in an instant.

The planet's vibrations stopped.

The flying dust froze.

From the inside out, from core to surface, the entire planet—in less than a breath—completely and utterly became a massive golden planet composed of 100% pure gold, enough to make one's soul tremble.

It floated quietly in the dark Universe, reflecting light from distant galaxies like a teardrop left by a god in the Mortal realm—magnificent, brilliant, yet carrying an unreal, dreamlike quality.

Lin Fan floated before this golden planet, his entire being plunged into immense shock.

Is this... what it feels like to be a Creator?

Excitement, mixed with an indescribable tremor, welled up from the depths of his Divine Soul.

He wanted to test more complex rules.

With a wave of his hand, a cup of clear water condensed from Spiritual Qi appeared before him.

Lin Fan stared at the water, a manic light flashing in his eyes.

"Burn."

The command was given.

【existence value: 88.999%】

The number on the panel plummeted like a waterfall, dropping by a full 10%.

Almost at the same instant, an indescribable sense of weakness suddenly seized Lin Fan's entire consciousness.

It wasn't physical exhaustion, nor was it the depletion of his Divine Soul.

It was a sense of... "unreality."

The colors in the world before him began to fade.

He looked down; the edges of his palms seemed to become somewhat blurred and transparent.

A fear of being erased from the canvas by the world's giant "eraser" left him chilled to the bone.

He immediately stopped the rule interference on the cup of water.

The water merely emitted a slight wisp of steam before returning to normal.

Lin Fan's forehead, however, was covered in a layer of fine cold sweat.

He understood now.

Tampering with material composition belonged to low-level rules; the price was acceptable.

But making water burn violated the fundamental Law of elemental interactions; it was a higher-level rule interference, and its cost grew exponentially.

With his current 100% existence value, he might be able to burn a small stream dry.

But the price would be that he, as a person, would also completely vanish from the Universe.

Calm down.

I must calm down.

Lin Fan forcibly suppressed the agitation in his heart, allowing his thoughts to clear.

His gaze fell upon the depths of his Divine Soul.

There, an almost imperceptible mark was etched onto his Origin like a maggot on a bone.

【Heavenly Dao Mark (Immortal Realm Grade)】

This was his greatest concern.

"System,"

Lin Fan asked deeply in his mind.

"How much would it cost to tamper with or erase this mark?"

On the System panel, cold text slowly emerged.

【Target rule level is too high, insufficient authority, unable to calculate.】

【The existence value required to forcibly calculate has exceeded the Host's current limit. Execute anyway?】

Lin Fan's pupils suddenly constricted.

Simply "calculating" the price would exhaust his entire existence value?

He fell silent.

A long time passed.

He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

He finally understood his current situation completely.

He possessed god-like abilities, yet he also carried Mortal-like limitations.

Was his so-called "laying low" in the Tian Yuan Realm truly safe?

No.

When hunters like the Anomaly Elimination Alliance could use rule-based weapons like True Name Curse Killing that ignored distance, hiding anywhere was meaningless.

True "laying low" wasn't about hiding.

It was about having infinite existence value.

So much that he could treat the erasure by the Immortal Realm's Heavenly Dao as an insignificant debuff, easily modified away with existence value.

So much that he could turn the entire Universe into his playground.

His gaze pierced through the endless void, returning to the fragmented star map coordinates he had firmly memorized in his Sea of Consciousness.

The Tomb of the Epoch.

The wreckage of the previous universal epoch, the burial ground of countless "super users," filled with broken rules and massive amounts of unowned energy.

To others, it was a Forbidden Ground with a slim chance of survival.

But to him... the corners of Lin Fan's mouth slowly curled into the smile of a hunter seeing his prey.

"Buffet, here I come."

The moment he made his decision, he suddenly noticed another mark in his Divine Soul.

That mark was even more obscure and profound than the Heavenly Dao Mark, coming from that indescribable eye that had peered at him from the deepest part of the Universe.

【Unknown Mark】

He instinctively tried to use his new ability to analyze it.

【Insufficient Authority.】