Time lost its meaning long ago.
Arin had stopped counting the cycles when his world finally reached a stable state — land, sky, oceans, and a functioning biosphere. Spiritual energy now flowed naturally through everything, circulating like blood in a body. He had long noticed that its concentration wasn't uniform.
Near the sea, the air held only faint traces of it — enough for simple creatures and hardy vegetation to thrive.
Further inland, the concentration increased steadily, and life grew larger, stronger, and stranger.
At the heart of continents and in the deep trenches of the ocean, the density of spiritual energy was extreme — a place where even plants showed signs of predatory behavior.
The pattern wasn't random. It had formed when Arin used the flow of spiritual energy to shape the planet's balance.
The "step-ladder" of energy created natural tiers of evolution.
Now, he hovered above his world in silent observation. He didn't interfere much anymore.
He only watched.
---
Over ages, the world evolved beyond his expectations.
Every living being carried traces of bloodline energy — a genetic power he'd introduced long ago. Over time, it began to change and regulate itself.
Species didn't just grow stronger; they grew efficient.
He began to notice something unusual: lifeforms started to hit invisible limits.
Some creatures, after reaching a certain level of growth or energy saturation, suddenly changed — their bodies reorganized, their strength multiplied, or their instincts sharpened. It wasn't evolution through reproduction. It was transformation within a single lifetime.
Arin studied this for centuries.
He discovered that within every creature, the bloodline energy generated an internal "limit" that built pressure as they grew.
When the pressure exceeded stability, the organism released it through a physical or energetic shift.
He called this the gene threshold — a self-created evolutionary mechanism to prevent stagnation.
When a creature broke through its threshold, its body and brain restructured slightly to handle higher levels of spiritual energy. Some gained new organs or abilities; others became smarter.
The stronger a being became, the higher its intelligence grew.
It was a slow, automatic process — a natural law the world had created on its own.
---
Then came something that genuinely surprised him.
In regions where spiritual energy was thick — deep forests, high mountains, or ocean depths — some creatures began to develop advanced behaviors. They learned from mistakes, adapted faster, and passed behavioral patterns to offspring, not just through instinct but through altered neural structures.
When Arin examined them through energy perception, he realized why.
The flow of spiritual energy in their bodies was strengthening the neural network.
Every experience left a physical mark. Every struggle literally shaped the brain's energy circuits.
He named the phenomenon energetic neuroplasticity.
Energy wasn't just food — it was information.
The world had discovered a way to think.
Arin was impressed. "They don't need my guidance anymore," he thought. "Life is finding its own path upward."
---
Among thousands of evolving species, one group of small inland primates began showing distinct signs of accelerated adaptation.
They weren't particularly strong or fast, and their bodies were fragile compared to inland beasts. But they had one major advantage — energy flexibility.
Their bloodlines allowed them to survive both in low and moderate concentrations of spiritual energy.
They could migrate freely between regions without dying from overload or starvation.
Over time, this flexibility turned into a survival edge. They learned cooperation, tool use, and eventually — simple communication.
They spread toward the coastal valleys, where the climate was mild and the energy density low enough for stability.
Arin had seen countless species rise and fall, but this one was different. They didn't just adapt to the environment; they altered it to fit their needs.
They built shelters, used fire, and started forming early social groups.
The true turning point came when their gene thresholds began to shift.
Unlike beasts or monsters, these primates didn't evolve to grow claws or scales.
Their thresholds targeted their brains — increasing neural density, refining sensory control, and improving memory.
Each generation grew slightly smarter than the last.
And one day, they began to ask questions.
---
Arin watched silently as a small group of these creatures gathered around firelight one night. The flames reflected in their eyes, and for the first time, he saw something deeper than instinct — curiosity.
They didn't just fear the fire. They studied it.
They tested it with sticks, observed how heat changed food, how it burned wood.
They learned.
He realized then that they were no longer bound by pure instinct. Their minds had crossed an invisible boundary — they could now retain and build on knowledge consciously.
This was the first true sentience.
He continued to observe over countless seasons.
Their communication evolved into language.
They began to teach.
When faced with danger, they planned together.
When one of them died, they mourned.
No other species reacted like this.
Arin had watched hundreds of lifeforms break their thresholds and gain power, but none had developed emotion and reason together.
It wasn't strength that defined them — it was their awareness of weakness.
---
In one inland region where spiritual energy concentration was moderately high, a sudden lightning storm struck a mountain range filled with crystal ore. The energy pulse spread through the valley.
A small tribe living nearby was caught in it. Most of them collapsed, stunned.
But one individual — a young male — survived. When Arin looked closely, he realized the man's body was flooded with raw energy.
For a brief moment, his gene threshold ignited.
His body adapted, but more importantly — his brain expanded its energy activity exponentially.
His awareness reached beyond what any of his kind had achieved.
When he opened his eyes, he could see spiritual energy — faint glowing streams running through the air, soil, and his own veins.
He didn't understand it, but he could feel its movement and control it slightly through breathing.
Arin immediately noticed a reaction — when the man guided energy into his body, his threshold stabilized and even strengthened. The energy reinforced his life force instead of consuming it.
It was primitive cultivation.
When he later returned to his tribe, the others instinctively began to imitate his breathing pattern. Over generations, this became a ritual, then a tradition, then an early form of cultivation method.
---
While the humans spread and built societies, the other inland and oceanic creatures followed their own path.
The higher the spiritual energy concentration, the stronger and more intelligent the beasts became.
Some oceanic species developed telepathic communication.
Some mountain beasts began using elemental energy naturally.
But they remained what they were — individualistic, powerful, and bound by territory.
Humans were different.
They were weak, but adaptable.
Their strength came from cooperation and curiosity.
And because their bloodline wasn't fixed to one element or form, they could cultivate almost any type of energy.
The more Arin studied them, the more he understood — the others might dominate nature, but humans were the only ones who could transcend it.
---
He floated above the world, watching firelight and early villages forming across the coastlines.
Near the ocean, life remained peaceful and ordinary — low spiritual energy kept everything stable.
Deeper inland, powerful creatures ruled. Humans avoided those regions, but Arin sensed they would eventually return, driven by curiosity and ambition.
> "Weak," Arin thought, "but limitless. Fragile, yet self-correcting."
For the first time, he didn't see his creation as an experiment.
It had become a system that could improve itself — evolve intelligently, not by design, but by will.
He named them Humans, and quietly marked the day as the beginning of a new age.
The Age of Sentience had begun