A strange force kept the Silverune frozen in space. The molten platinum stronger than any solid object may defy most physical forces, but it cannot defy gravity.
This was breaking the laws of the Universe, something that the mighty sun and heavenly beings in the cosmos cannot do.
Zoran kept his focus on the Silverun. His desire was merely an abstract form in his mind yet a strange phenomenon converted this yearning into a tangible force that interacted with the physical world.
He ushered it towards him, tempting it with his mind. The soulless object should not even understand his command, much less follow it. Yet so it did.
The Silverune flowed back to the safety of Zoran's hand, as if a vacuum sucked it in.
Cultivation: lightning striking in a cloudless sky, a fire burning inside an iceberg, or a paralyzed man running at mach speed. Simple attraction was the least that cultivation could do.
But every technique needed one thing: Yi energy. Despite its miraculous defiance of the universe, it still needed to follow the basic rule of thermodynamics.
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
Cultivators steal Yi energy from nature, store them in cultivation cores, and use their techniques to transform this energy into miracles of their own desire.
Without Yi energy, there's no fist that break mountains in half, no healing miracle that regrow a whole limb, and no manipulation of gravity or attraction.
Yet Zoran did it. He had no cultivation core. He had no Yi energy.
Zoran pushed the Silverune up using his mind, exerting no energy, using no Yi energy. The blob of Silverune floated up, breaking the laws of thermodynamics.
There was no question. The Law of Attraction and the Law of Power were Universal Laws akin to that of the Supreme Beings.
Universal Laws were the only power that needed no Yi energy for activation.
Supreme beings command Universal Laws because of their mastery of their cultivation that came from millenia of studying and practice. Yet Zoran acquired his laws due to a simple mantra he recited.
Moreso, he controlled two of them; the Supreme Beings only had one each. This was an advantage that could mean the difference between Zoran repeating his demise or the Supreme Beings meeting theirs.
Of course, his laws could not compare to controlling the climate with one firing of a neuron in his brain like the Sky God, or the capability of submerging the world in a tsunami of global proportions like the Ocean God.
He could barely lift the Silverune, much less lift a boulder. But he could already use two attracting forces on the Silverune just two minutes after acquiring this power. He was getting better.
Zoran wasted no time and tested his newfound power. He could bend the Silverune as he wished, but he couldn't control it with enough precision to create distinct shapes. The best he could do was a rough sphere.
Then, he tried to use this force of attraction with other elements like the rocks around him. He found that he could attract and repel rock-like small objects within a 1 meter radius around him.
The bigger and heavier the object was, the harder it was to control. The largest rock he could realistically influence was the size of a coconut.
Next was the iron ore. Since iron was heavier than normal rocks made of granite and sand, he could only control a small portion of the ore. Unlike the Silverune which was in its liquid form, he could not manipulate its shape.
He then tried to compress the iron ore by putting two forces that were parallel but different directions directly between the ore. As expected, he couldn't make a dent except make the outer edges turn into dust.
The limits of the Law of Power were distinct, yet Zoran clearly remembered that the Silverune was more than 1 meter away from him when he drew it in.
Therefore Zoran could only conclude that the Law of Power cannot be explained by logic. It was not surprising. By mere fact that it exists was already a defiance of common sense.
Zoran must have spent more time fiddling with the Law of Attraction than he did mining. He tested its limits and tried to overcome it with various results, but that did not deter him. He was excited. The possibilities were endless.
For now, he had accomplished his goal.
Zoran used the Law of Attraction and floated the silver diamond from his pockets to observe it. This gemstone was enough for him to buy an A-class cultivation core.
It was the holiday season, and most aristocrats were searching high and low for unique and prideful treasures they could boast around in their lavish parties.
With the proper buyers and a little bit of market manipulation and hype, Zoran was sure that he could squeeze enough money from fat whales in the royal district to get an AA-class core or even higher.
This was enough to start his cultivation journey. All that's left was to exit the cave and start a little bit of a rumor about a long lost silver diamond of a famous princess of Renoiva that was finally found after thousands of years.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard a commotion. There was laughter with boisterous energy that did not fit the level of danger and grim that the cave had set on its visitors.
"I think we're lost. Helio, should we turn back?" A man carrying a backpack looked at his notes with confusion.
"Hahaha Drew. We've been going through this cave for years. Don't tell me, have you been slacking off?" Helio, a blond man, laughed with confidence. No worries were shown in his face. He didn't have to, with his shining armor and heavy ax by his side.
Three others laughed with Helio with a mixture of genuinity and wanting to suck up to the blond man oozing charisma.
"I don't know. It's weird. This should have been the right way," Drew answered.
"Hahahaha. Don't worry. I think Drew forgot we are all no longer human."
All five men wore armor, with the blond man donning a red breastplate with a giant sun and 10 rays plastered in the middle. It was made of Adamantium, the strongest metal currently known (apart from Silverune). His blood red ax was no different.
Their bodies exude danger. Zoran looked closer and saw that reality warped like rolling smoke around their bodies. Helio especially, had a stronger and more intense rippling effect around him.
They were no longer human; they were cultivators.
Zoran's experience as one of the top cultivators in his original timeline gave him a keen eye on estimating the strength of his opponents.
There were many techniques: one was the eye-enhancements, an artskill that mutated the eye to see through the body and see the Yi energy flow of a person; another was an artifact like the Yi monocle that could give a rough estimate of Yi.
For experts, sensing the natural fluctuations of the world was enough. Zoran was one of them.
The Yi energy dissipating off their bodies made it easy for Zoran to see their cultivation. Normally, a cultivator must limit the amount of Yi energy leaving their bodies as it only weakens them as time passes on.
The five of them controlled this dissipation like a strainer trying to stop water from flowing. Zoran even hesitated to call it 'control'.
But despite their unskilled and incompetent cultivation, Zoran considered them a threat. He was still a mortal. There was a chasm of difference in strength, even against a first stage cultivator.
Four of them were in the first stage of Body Strengthening, while Helio, the most dangerous one, was in the third stage.
The smartest move was to avoid confrontation but Zoran smiled and walked forward. He was not one to run away from such odds; he welcomed it, especially since he remembered who they were.
"No need to be afraid. Do you think some monster can stand against Helio? Even in the Primordial Sun Dynasty, everyone fears him."
"The Alpha God has blessed me with strength to beat any monster here," Helio replied.
"And, we even have new and improved Adamantium armor, thanks to that Zoran idiot."
"His money wasn't enough to buy me the sword that I wanted. Should we tell him that the price for a cultivation core has gone up?"
"Yeah, not like he can do anything about it."
Zoran smiled. They were the reason he spent years wasting on the mines, delaying his cultivation and hindering his progress.