If time had meaning in the place where Lin Tian existed, it would have been impossible to measure.
After the moment he awakened as a soul in the vast darkness between stars, he did not panic, nor did he attempt to act immediately. The habits he developed during his human life remained with him even after death.
Observe first.
Understand the situation.
Then decide what to do.
At the beginning, the universe around him appeared unimaginably large.
Endless darkness stretched in every direction, filled with distant lights that slowly moved across the void. Some of those lights were stars. Others were entire galaxies spinning in silent spirals.
Without a physical body, Lin Tian had no sense of temperature or physical pressure. Yet he still possessed awareness.
His soul floated calmly through the cosmic void.
The strange color emitted by his soul continued radiating softly. It was not blue, red, or white. It was a color that could not exist in ordinary physical space.
The surrounding universe seemed unable to fully recognize it.
If someone had been capable of observing him, they would have noticed something strange: space itself did not interact with his soul normally.
It was as if his existence stood slightly outside the universe's perception.
Across the surface of his soul, the primordial symbols continued to appear.
They were not random.
Each symbol was incredibly complex, filled with layered geometric structures and energy patterns that shifted slowly over time.
At first Lin Tian did not understand them.
But he had patience.
And time was something he now possessed in abundance.
During the first thousand years of drifting through the void, he simply watched.
Stars were born.
Nebula clouds collapsed into new solar systems.
Some stars reached the end of their lives and exploded in massive supernovas.
These events occurred silently in the vacuum of space, but Lin Tian perceived them clearly through the strange connection his soul had developed with the surrounding universe.
Gradually he noticed a pattern.
Every cosmic phenomenon followed certain rules.
Gravity pulled matter together.
Energy transformed from one form into another.
Particles interacted according to invisible structures.
Those structures were extremely complicated, but they were not chaotic.
They followed an underlying order.
After observing these processes for countless years, Lin Tian began comparing them to the runic symbols appearing on his soul.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
The symbols represented the same patterns that governed the universe.
They were like condensed expressions of natural law.
He studied them carefully.
Whenever a star formed somewhere in the galaxy he was drifting through, a new rune sometimes appeared on his soul.
Whenever cosmic radiation flowed through a nebula cloud, another symbol slowly carved itself into the radiant surface of his spirit.
The process was automatic.
Lin Tian did not need to force it.
His soul simply recorded the information.
Over time he understood the reason.
His trait — the power he later named One With the Universe — allowed his soul to synchronize with the informational layer beneath reality.
Every event in the universe produced information.
And his soul absorbed that information, converting it into primordial runes.
Millions of years passed like this.
Lin Tian never felt bored.
His human life had taught him to remain calm even in repetitive situations.
Compared to delivering packages through cold winter streets or working long hours in a repair shop, observing the birth and death of stars was far more interesting.
Eventually he began experimenting.
He focused his consciousness on one of the runic symbols engraved on his soul.
The symbol represented a very simple phenomenon — the attraction between two masses.
Gravity.
When he concentrated on the rune, something unexpected happened.
A small piece of cosmic dust drifting nearby suddenly changed its path slightly.
The movement was extremely subtle, but Lin Tian noticed it immediately.
He repeated the experiment several times.
Each time the same result occurred.
By adjusting the informational structure represented by the rune, he could influence physical reality.
The effect was small, but the implication was enormous.
Lin Tian thought about it carefully.
If he could manipulate the informational structure behind gravity, perhaps other phenomena were also possible.
Energy movement.
Particle interaction.
Even matter formation.
He did not rush.
Instead, he spent another long period studying the runes more deeply.
Gradually he categorized them.
Some runes represented elemental forces — heat, light, electromagnetic interactions.
Some described spatial relationships.
Others described patterns of matter organization.
These discoveries allowed him to understand something important about this universe.
Reality operated on multiple layers.
At the lowest level existed raw information.
Above that information formed structures.
Those structures created laws.
Laws produced the behaviors observed in the physical universe.
This insight helped him create a conceptual hierarchy.
Arts — techniques used by living beings to imitate natural patterns.
Laws — fundamental forces governing reality.
Rules — deeper frameworks that organize multiple laws together.
Authorities — the highest expressions of universal structure.
At his current stage, Lin Tian could only interact with fragments of minor laws.
Even that was already far beyond anything a normal being could achieve.
After countless experiments, he eventually reached a new conclusion.
His soul could observe and influence the universe.
But without a body, his ability to interact with reality remained extremely limited.
He needed a physical form again.
Lin Tian spent a long time thinking about how to accomplish that goal.
Eventually he realized something.
If matter and energy followed informational structures, then theoretically a body could be constructed by arranging those structures correctly.
The runic symbols on his soul contained the necessary instructions.
He only needed to gather the required energy.
Before beginning, Lin Tian carefully selected a location.
He drifted toward the outer region of a quiet galaxy.
The galaxy contained billions of stars, but its outer edges were relatively empty.
That isolation would prevent accidental disturbances during his experiment.
Once he arrived, Lin Tian began observing the surrounding environment for several years.
Old habits from his human life still guided him.
Preparation first.
Action later.
When he was finally satisfied with the conditions, he initiated his first true act since becoming something beyond human.
He began creating a body.
And with that decision, the silent universe around him started to change.