The first wave of connections reached only those gathered upon the Void Platform. As the final golden tendrils dissolved seamlessly into the chests of the millions present, Adrian closed his eyes, instinctively bracing his consciousness for a strain.

Yet, as he stood at the center of the dais, the crushing mental strain he anticipated never arrived. Not even a slight bit of strain was there.

Instead, his mind felt vast, cool, and perfectly stable. He turned his perception inward, analyzing the myriad of connections anchoring themselves within his consciousness. As Adrian observed the web of golden links, he didn't feel like there was any strain to him at all.

"Was it because my willforce is already incredibly dense, bolstered by the Chime of Consciousness, that I am able to handle this strain?" Adrian thought, observing the stability within his mind. "Or is the minuscule fraction of willforce incoming from the millions of people here actively nourishing the connection, offsetting the burden entirely?"

Adrian had no definitive idea, as his understanding of his consciousness and the deeper mechanics of the [Crown of the Source] was still developing. But at least, it worked flawlessly for now.

He opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the millions of faces looking up at him with awe and trust.

Next, he planned to do this for the rest of his empire, world by world.

Adrian lowered his hand, and the ambient white-grey essence around him settled into a gentle, pulsating rhythm.

"What you have just accepted into your hearts is a fragment of my own foundation," Adrian began, his voice carrying effortlessly across the platform and echoing through the flawless connectivity of the Origin Net. "Through this connection, a minuscule portion of your willforce flows to me. In exchange, your comprehension abilities will drastically increase."

"The rules of reality, the arcane truths that once seemed impossible to grasp, will now unfold before you naturally. You will learn faster, you will grow stronger, and you will break through the bottlenecks that have held you back for lifetimes."

"But I ask this of you," Adrian's voice deepened, "Use this for good. Use this power to protect one another, to build our future, and to prove that our civilization is not merely a fleeting spark waiting to be extinguished in the dark."

"From this moment forward, everyone who has connected with me is no longer just a citizen of an empire."

He raised his voice, a sound that seemed to shake the very stars visible through the transparent barriers of the platform. "You are the foundation of the Origin Sect! Soon, you will no longer be the mortals the universe believes you to be. You will ascend in power. You will shatter their unbreakable ceilings. And you will stand against the universe with me!"

The crowd erupted into euphoria. Millions of voices screamed in a unified, roaring crescendo of loyalty and unyielding defiance.

"ORIGIN SECT! ORIGIN EMPEROR!"

Adrian allowed the deafening roar to wash over him, a faint, genuine smile touching his lips. Slowly, deliberately, Adrian took a step back on the dais.

And then, Adrian bowed.

It was a deep, respectful bow, a sovereign bowing to the very people who had entrusted him with their lives and their souls.

The cheering caught in the throats of the millions present. For a fraction of a second, shock paralyzed the venue. For an Emperor, a being of such unfathomable power who had just conquered a foreign galaxy, to bow to them was a gesture that defied the cruel, hierarchical logic of the entire universe.

novelbuddy is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

In an instant, the crowd responded. The rustle of fabric echoed like a thunderclap as millions of people dropped to one knee, bowing their heads in perfect unison. It was a mirror of respect, a silent, unbreakable vow that they would follow him to the very end of existence.

With that breathtaking display of unity, the meeting ended.

But Adrian's task had only just begun. The first wave of connections had reached those on the platform, but his empire spanned a larger part of the galaxy. He needed to ensure that every citizen who looked to him for protection received the same foundation.

Then, Adrian began to travel world by world to establish connections with his people.

Over the following days, Adrian utilized his mastery of space to traverse the Milky Way. He appeared in the skies above the sprawling orbital cities of the Origin Capital, the massive agricultural planets bathed in artificial sunlight, and the heavily fortified military stations guarding the void.

Wherever he arrived, he activated the [Crown of the Source]. Blinding explosions of golden light erupted from his hands, raining millions of golden tendrils down upon the citizens who waited eagerly in city plazas and rural settlements alike.

As he did this, the flawless connectivity of the Origin Net broadcasted his journey live across the entire galaxy. And it was not just the citizens of the Origin Empire who watched the live feed.

Across the Milky Way, the citizens of the other vast empires: Lexaria, Duranthian, Volkrith, Emberion, and Scaelith, watched the golden rain descending upon the Origin worlds.

Years ago, Adrian had deliberately chosen not to allow many of the clans from these empires to join his Origin Empire. First of all, he was not trying to completely break other empires, and back then, many of these clans were still deeply entrenched in their prejudices, constantly desiring to war against rival clans and hoarding knowledge for themselves. He had left them to govern their own territories, stepping in only to maintain the overarching peace and prevent mindless slaughter.

But it had been more than fifteen years of peace now within the Milky Way galaxy.

Under the supremacy of the Origin Empire, the cultural landscape of the galaxy had fundamentally changed. The younger generations had grown up watching the prosperity of the Origin worlds. The older generations had realized the sheer futility of their old wars. Even the rulers of these empires were following Adrian like they were his followers back in the Andromeda galaxy.

And the staggering scale of the universe that Adrian had just revealed to them made their past clan disputes seem embarrassingly petty.

So now, witnessing all this, a shift occurred within them. They no longer wanted to be bystanders. They wanted to help Adrian.

Billions of petitions flooded the Origin Net. The elders and the ordinary citizens of Lexaria, Duranthian, Volkrith, Emberion, and Scaelith sent desperate, impassioned pleas, begging to be allowed to stand under the banner of the Origin Sect.

When Varik presented the overflowing data streams to Adrian, a warm smile graced his features.

Adrian accepted them.

He altered his route, and he spent days traveling within the entire galaxy, pushing his spatial traversal to its limits. He visited the grand worlds of Lexaria, the heavily fortified, militant worlds of Duranthian, and the bustling planets of Volkrith, Emberion, and Scaelith.

On every single world, he extended his hand. The golden light of the [Crown of the Source] showered down like a celestial blessing, establishing connections with billions of beings. The scale of the invisible web anchoring into his consciousness became astronomically vast, an ocean of faith and intent that defied logical measurement.

As the final world received the golden threads, Adrian hovered alone in the quiet void of space, looking out at the glittering stars of his home galaxy. He closed his eyes, turning his perception inward to the very depths of his mind.

There, the mysterious golden dot of energy was pulsing. Yet, even after connecting with an entire galaxy, it just pulsed. It did not expand; it did not transform into a new shape, and it had no other reactions.

Adrian frowned slightly. He couldn't begin to understand if he had truly improved. His lack of knowledge about the mastery of consciousness, the specific stages and mechanics that existed beyond the Chime of Consciousness, didn't let him identify the exact changes occurring within his own mind.

He knew he had accumulated an ocean of willforce, but he had no metric, no universal standard to measure it against.

Still, Adrian didn't worry.

Maybe his countless new connections and this unfathomable increase in willforce would help him stand against them, or maybe it wouldn't. Adrian didn't know for certain what tricks the Major Sects held. But he believed that he would not be as weak as someone who had just ascended into the first stage of the mastery of consciousness.