Chapter 25: The Weight of Victory Part 2: Adrian whispered softly, "The first one..." "...will be the Originless Emperor." Silence filled the room. His gaze rested upon the countless rare treasures gathered from the Garuda Clan's treasury and the Naga Clan's sacred vault. Ancient divine metals. Star-forged crystals. Bones left behind by forgotten primordial beasts. Heaven-defying spiritual herbs. Each of them was priceless. Enough to drive entire cultivation worlds into war. Yet... Adrian did not move. Instead, he slowly closed his eyes. Countless refinement techniques from Aetherion's memories flashed through his mind. Supreme swords. Divine armors. Ancient pagodas. Heaven-defying artifacts. Puppet legions. Every refinement technique represented the pinnacle of an era. Yet... None of them were what he needed. Those methods had all been created to forge weapons... Artifacts... Or puppets that obeyed their master. The Twelve Originless Guardians... Were none of those. They would possess independent consciousness. Independent evolution. Independent existence. They would not simply follow commands. They would walk their own paths. That was something even Aetherion had never attempted during his previous life. Which meant... Even the strongest Immortal Emperor possessed no experience in creating such beings. Adrian slowly opened his eyes. "I'll have to create everything from the beginning..." His gaze shifted toward the quiet surroundings of his room. Books. Furniture. The familiar walls. Then... He smiled bitterly. "If I refine them here..." "My family won't survive the first fluctuation." Even if he surrounded the entire house with concealment formations... The birth of an Originless Core... The refinement of Originless Metal... The creation of an independent life... Any one of those processes could release terrifying waves of energy. One mistake. One unstable reaction. The entire neighborhood could disappear. That was a risk Adrian would never accept. This house... Was where Adrian Voss had grown up. Not where Aetherion would conduct impossible experiments. He slowly stood. "There is only one place." ... Early the next morning... Everything inside the house remained peaceful. His parents were preparing breakfast in the kitchen. The familiar aroma drifted through the living room. For a brief moment... Adrian quietly watched them. His father spoke casually while reading the morning news. His mother smiled as she prepared the food. An ordinary morning. One he had almost forgotten after everything that had happened. A faint smile appeared on Adrian's face. Without disturbing anyone... He quietly walked out of the house. A few moments later... His figure vanished into the sky. ... High above the clouds... Far beyond the flight paths of commercial aircraft... A colossal shadow silently emerged from hidden space. The Originless Heaven Ark. Its ancient metallic body floated motionlessly between endless layers of clouds. The surrounding sky was silent. No satellites observed this altitude. No aircraft would ever approach this region. Adrian stepped onto the deck. The Heaven Ark awakened. Ancient formation lines spread beneath his feet as though welcoming their master home. He calmly looked around. The endless sky. The sea of clouds beneath him. Nothing else. He slowly nodded. "This is enough." "No one will be disturbed." "No one will notice." With a gentle wave of his sleeve... Formation flags shot into the sky one after another. One. Ten. A hundred. Thousands. Each carried a different purpose. The first descended. Heaven-Severing Concealment Array. The second. Void Isolation Array. The third. Spatial Locking Array. The fourth. Heavenly Tribulation Diversion Array. The fifth. Celestial Sound Isolation Array. Then... Dozens more followed. Energy Suppression Arrays. Spiritual Detection Interference Arrays. Heavenly Sense Distortion Arrays. Void Resonance Stabilization Arrays. Layer after layer... The formations intertwined perfectly. The surrounding space gradually disappeared from the perception of the outside world. Light bent around the region. Space quietly folded upon itself. Spiritual senses passed through empty air as though nothing existed. Even the fluctuations of heaven and earth became completely isolated. Anyone outside the formations... Would only see endless clouds stretching across the horizon. Satisfied... Adrian finally lowered his hand. The Heaven Ark had become the safest refining ground on Earth. No one would be endangered. No one would witness what was about to be born. Only then did Adrian wave his sleeve once more. Ancient refining furnaces appeared one after another. Formation pillars rose from the deck. Spirit-gathering arrays slowly activated. Countless refining tools, stored within the Heaven Ark since ancient times, quietly emerged. Everything was ready. Adrian looked toward the countless rare materials before him. His eyes became calm. Without another unnecessary word... He began preparing for the most difficult refinement of both his current life... And his previous one.