Year 13681

The Federation Academy began recruitment of another new batch of disciples. The population of a super-plane was astounding. Not because of the huge size but because of the powerful plane-will. The population density of this plane was also extremely high. The territory of Liberty Federation was about half the size of Aterna. But its population was probably more than a hundred times Aterna's entire population. In this case, mortals could conceive as long as they were at the right age and had sex at the right time in the biological cycle of females. It should be remembered that these were already comparable to emperor-realm people of Aterna conceiving without any problem. Even purification realm people would procreate without any problems. Only after reaching the conception realm would the races' fertility drop and having a child in a few years was hard. But given the lifespan of these cultivators, it hardly mattered. The real constraints in procreation only appeared after one reached the ascendant realm.

This was the reason why the population of the super-plane was explosive. This was true of other super-planes as well. As a result, the educational institutions accepted yearly batches. In each batch of students, students of a certain age group took the test of the Federation Academy and were selected on the basis of merit. Of course, this was the case for commoners. For noble families who held the helm of the federation, there were no tests for admission.

The headmaster of the academy was an ascendant who had gone through three transformations. Even though he was only in the lower transformation realm, he was quite a valued member of the Black Lotus Sect as he was a grand scholar. Grand Scholars were the highest masters of knowledge even in super-planes. They were responsible for spearheading big and revolutionary research projects. The Federation Academy was quite popular among the subsidiaries of the Black Lotus sect because of his presence. Many people from outside the federation also came to the academy to learn from him.

Michael joined as an apprentice scholar. Even though he had read a lot of books, his knowledge could not compare to beings who had lived and researched for many millennia. But Michael was very young and his knowledge base for his age was already decent. Thus, he was given the position after assessment. He was not eye-catching among the several geniuses that appeared. After joining, Michael completely focussed himself on learning different spells.

The theory of spiritual energy was extremely profound. All the things in the world were built by fundamental laws. But, the laws could interact with each other forming myriad laws. Till a certain stage, these laws remained laws. But then, their combination would start forming miracles. As the complexity of law-fusions increased, new properties emerged which was not found in the basic law ocean. This phenomenon created spirit energy, conscients and other strange things in the world that were not directly related to laws. Spirit energy was also present in the law ocean for it was the source of all spirit. Spirit energy filled the myriad planes - the mountains, rivers, forests and oceans.

Using spells required using spirit energy in specific ways. Forming runic circles, or using it directly to conjure different elements. Spells were basically a method of producing miraculous effects with spirit energy - possible because spirit energy itself was a miraculous combination of myriad laws. When Michael became an apprentice in the academy, all of the academy's spells and research on spirit energy became accessible to him. Michael dived right into it, practising ceaselessly while simultaneously gaining more and more knowledge. He studied almost all parts of the knowledge base of the academy - medicine, treasure refinement, alchemy and cultivation. His progress was extremely fast and even the greatest geniuses would have felt ashamed at this display. Alas, no one was there to see it. His analysis of laws went according to plan and he completed the third chapter of life and death scripture. His comprehension had reached a level where he could reach the demi-ascendant level. But, he chose not to. His spirit pool was also at the same realm of cultivation as his internal energy and it was the ideal time for him to try creating celestial energy. But, to Michael's disappointment, he continuously failed.

But each failure taught him something new. Michael's understanding of the ways of spirit energy initially was very shallow. As Michael practised, he mastered the most fundamental spells first - conjuring wind, forming fire, condensing water and the like. Spirit energy was like the language of the world. The more you knew of this language, the more the world would listen to you. It was not uncommon for spirit masters to bend the world to their will without even using any spells. While Michael's comprehension was low, he made swift progress. By the end of his first year of apprenticeship, he mastered most of the basic spells and even learned quite a few advanced spells. It was around that time Michael understood the principle of spirit energy more or less. He was now a bonafide spirit energy user. But till there was only a general path that almost everyone followed. Further down, he had to craft spells according to his own spirit-path. Michael was aiming to become a celestial. Thus, he went ahead to study the spells that worked on one's body and soul in much greater detail. He studied the ways of combining spirit energy with one's internal energy. While failed miserably, he still managed to keep on progressing in his studies. Meanwhile, his law cultivation reached a bottleneck. And this was not just any bottleneck - it was a major barrier.

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After every three chapters, the jump in endless life scripture was very high. Reaching the fourth chapter would require some epiphany or extreme accumulation. Epiphany could not be sought after. But accumulation could be gained. Michael's current understanding of laws was completely based on endless life scripture. If he continued in the same way, he would never be able to surpass the original creator and will probably never reach the upper transformation realm. To Michael who was extremely weak and facing danger of extermination, any chance at the power of laws was to be taken without hesitation. But now that he had some time on his hands, it was time to explore and deepen his understanding of laws. Laws were vast and boundless. No one had ever managed to completely comprehend a complete law - even the minor ones. Because the law-ocean was simply humongous. Every one of the myriad laws had enough power to perhaps kill higher divinities. Of course, that power could not be tapped into as realistically, no one could ever comprehend a law in its entirety. Thus, even for two people cultivating the same law - say the fire law, their understanding and so their techniques and power would be different. Michael had until now only followed the inheritance. But now, it was the time that he assimilated the inheritance and developed his own understanding of laws. As a result, his combat power was stagnant and did not increase much over the three years, but his foundation became more and more robust. His law understanding broadened and he also progressed on his spirit-path. Michael primarily focussed on the spells to amplify one's body or soul. This was the direction that he wanted to go into. While spirit energy could be used for forming deadly arrays, powerful treasures or conjuring wind and rain through powerful spells, Michael was uninterested in them. The power of spells was mostly spread out on a large scale. Thus, the damage done to individual opponents was not very large.

Michael wanted to focus on his strength. Since he was already not well-versed in spells to attack or defend, there was no reason to invest significant time or energy on them. He was a very powerful warrior and with spells to amplify his body and soul, it would be like a tiger gaining wings. This was also the direction of his celestial path for the future. In the past years, he worked in this direction.

But all this he did in his free time. Michael was an apprentice scholar and his own responsibilities in the academy. He had to give exams and learn new knowledge. He also had to help other scholars with their research. Michael's performance was actually quite good and he swiftly rose through the ranks. His knowledge base also improved continuously. At the end of three years, Michael gave the final exam and was given the degree of an intellectual as well as the position of a teacher in the academy.

Scholars were extremely knowledgeable but also very few. In the Federation territory, there were only about a hundred scholars. As the Federation's population was more than a hundred times Aterna's population and the number of scholars was lower than the number of immortals in Aterna, it could be seen that becoming a scholar was much more difficult than becoming a law-condensation expert. As such, a single scholar generally worked on multiple projects at the same time. They advised and guided other people to do the main work. These people were called the intellectuals. All intellectuals were also very knowledgeable and experienced in research. They only paled in comparison to the scholars. Generally, one only became an intellectual after a focussed study of more than 50 years. Michael was among the youngest intellectuals. After becoming an intellectual, one had a certain degree of freedom in choosing the line or scholar one wanted to work with. After all, each intellectual was a potential scholar. No one knew what such a genius might bring in the future. Thus, intellectuals were also respected in the super-planes.

Michael was also given the chance to work with any scholar that he wanted. He started going through the different scholars and their current research direction. Not many were working in the field of improving body and soul through spirit energy. Some were focussed on spells that transformed the body or added a certain amount of strength for a certain period of time. There was only one person who was working on a unique approach - evolving the body through spirit energy. Michael went through the research of this person and saw immense value in it. The research was talking about a grand spell! It was a grand spell that would completely integrate one's spirit to one's body forming a warrior that would be supported by the world itself! At the same level, all the abilities of the said warrior would amplify and it would become possible to defeat people with higher cultivation base. The research on the spell was currently ongoing. Michael noted down the name of the project and the scholar in his mind:

Project - Golden Body

Scholar - Denise Ramgrid.