Once the number of stars under Grey’s control reached one hundred, he finally dissipated his spirit body and withdrew his divine sense back into his sea of consciousness.
He did not even bother to check the extent of his control over them before returning. At this point, his spirit body was already pushed to its limits. Exhausted to the brink and barely capable of maintaining flight.
After subduing the first ten stars, the speed at which he conquered others of similar size had increased dramatically. However, when it ca to larger stars, the difficulty rose sharply. To suppress them, Grey had no choice but to rely on the accumulated pressure exerted by the stars he had already brought under his command.
Only through that overwhelming, layered suppression could he force the larger stars into submission.
When Grey finally opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity, he could not help but release a long, heavy sigh.
Spending over three months seated upon the seventh ice stair had carved an indelible mark into his mind, a mory so vivid and oppressive that it would linger with him for a long ti to co.
If they truly managed to leave this place... if they succeeded in obtaining the Eye of Fate from the corpse of that great expert...
Then everything Grey had gained here, every hardship, every risk, every strange and miraculous encounter, would beco a foundation of unimaginable value in the real world.
It was precisely because of this that Grey did not hesitate.
He stirred the power of the one hundred purple stars within his sea of consciousness.
At his will, the stars responded.
In an instant, the power of the hundred stars surged together like a rising tide, converging into sothing far greater than the sum of its parts. That power descended upon him, granting him a fleeting yet profound authority, an authority that did not belong to mortals.
It was the authority of the laws of the world.
For a brief mont, Grey stood at the threshold of sothing vast... sothing absolute.
Yet, just as he attempted to use that power to lift the restriction imposed upon him by the stairs—
It vanished.
The surging force fell silent without warning, as though it had never existed.
All that remained was a faint ripple within his divine sense.
And then—
His spirit energy was completely drained.
Every last trace of it disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Grey’s expression froze. Shock flashed through his eyes, but his body lagged behind, unable to react in ti. The entire process had taken less than a second—from the eruption of power to its complete disappearance.
Even now, he could not tell if he had successfully activated the power of the world... or if he had rely brushed against it.
"Could this be a mistake? What just happened?" Grey muttered, his brows tightly furrowed, confusion evident on his face.
The spirit energy within his sea of consciousness had always been abundant.
Under normal circumstances, even in prolonged battles where he continuously cast spells and unleashed techniques, he could sustain himself for an extended period without collapsing.
Even when activating his Special Brilliance form, though the consumption increased significantly, it still remained within manageable limits.
But this,
This instantaneous depletion defied all logic.
To have everything drained in a single second simply by invoking the power of the world... it was absurd.
Aside from the intense weakness now coursing through his body, Grey knew one thing clearly, this should not have been possible.
"After all, the power my spirit body used wasn’t spirit energy directly," he murmured, his thoughts racing.
"It was divine sense combined with the aura of the purple crystal. My spirit body shouldn’t have anything to do with this sudden depletion..."
"For over two months, I haven’t used any spirit energy at all..."
His voice trailed off as realization slowly dawned on him.
There was only one plausible explanation.
The consumption had co from activating the power of the laws.
That was the only answer that made sense.
Grey fell silent for a mont before closing his eyes once more, allowing his spirit energy to recover gradually. Only after his reserves returned to their peak did he attempt it again.
This ti, however, he was fully prepared.
He would observe everything.
He would not miss a single detail.
The mont he activated the power of the laws again, Grey focused his mind to its utmost limit.
And once again it ended in an instant. However, this ti, Grey saw it clearly.
A faint sensation erged within him, as though sothing vast and incomprehensible was being summoned through his connection to the purple stars.
The laws responded.
Or rather... they began to respond.
But before that response could fully manifest...
It was cut off.
Abruptly. Completely.
At that exact mont, Grey felt his spirit energy being drawn out at an overwhelming rate, vanishing not into nothingness, but along the faint connections linking him to the stars.
It was not disappearance.
It was consumption.
A failed summoning.
A broken connection.
"I see..." Grey whispered, his eyes narrowing slightly. "So that’s how it is."
"It’s because my cultivation base is too low."
The conclusion ca naturally.
To wield the laws of the world required an absurd amount of energy, far beyond what he currently possessed.
If he were a cultivator in the Soul Ascendancy Realm... or even the Nirvana Realm, then such consumption might be bearable.
But he was neither.
Right now, he was nothing more than a Foundation Establishnt cultivator.
Compared to those in higher realms, he was insignificant.
If he attempted to forcefully use his cultivation base to sustain that power, the consequences would be catastrophic.
His dantian would shatter.
His ridians would collapse into dust.
His Spirit Fires would be extinguished like fragile flas in a freezing storm.
In an instant, he would fall from the path of cultivation and be reduced to a mortal, perhaps forever unable to cultivate again.
That was why his body had instinctively chosen to use spirit energy instead.
It was a protective response.
A safeguard.
But the problem remained, his sea of consciousness was far too limited.
The amount of spirit energy it could contain was insignificant when compared to the requirents of activating the laws of an entire world.
Even though the laws within the stairs were already weakened and on the verge of collapse, the burden of invoking them still exceeded what any Foundation Establishnt cultivator could endure.
Thus, his spirit energy had been drained instantly.
However...
Grey’s eyes flickered with understanding.
If he wanted to overco this limitation, there was only one path forward.
He needed more power.
More specifically...
He needed more stars.
By controlling additional stars and rging their strength, he could amplify the power available to him, using them as a dium to shoulder part of the burden.
Only then could he hope to successfully activate the laws of the world.
But even so, that power would not last.
The mont it was activated, his spirit energy would still be consud at a terrifying rate.
At best, he would gain only a fleeting mont.
A brief window of control before everything collapsed once more.
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