Days melded together into a blur as I sat on the throne, tinkering with my body. The only thing keeping me from dying of boredom during the long months of relative inactivity was the gradual and consistent improvement that the advancement of the Spirit Body Cultivation technique brought.
I occasionally focused my Spirit Sense outward, just enough to see how things were progressing outside, paying attention to my team, the village, the rifts that occasionally opened, and the little prodigy slowly advancing his Cultivation.
Felix, under the watchful eye of Bram, already reached the Spirit Accumulation III at the young age of eleven and some. Even the biggest geniuses back in the Myriad Beast Sect were at least sixteen years old by the time they achieved the same.
However, this advantage he had by beginning his Cultivation journey years earlier than his peers would soon be washed away as his speed of progress would remain linear while the requirements for the next step would go exponential. The higher he climbed, the harder it would get. Just like I needed hundreds of Souls to take a single step. There was just no way around it. Not if we wanted to remain the strongest, anyway.
While the kid was still barely past the starting line, his progress, despite the great ability to absorb and repurpose Qi, was already two or three times slower than it should have been. And while I did what I did because I felt sorry for the little guy and also out of curiosity, I would not stay by his side to see the experiment to its conclusion.
Centuries would go by while he climbed, and by that time, I would already be among the stars, or dead. He would be a piece of my legacy left behind. A whisper of a legend.
Of course, he could just as easily decide to toss aside his gifts and advance fast like the rest, but then he would become just as fragile, and weak. I hoped he would push himself to the limit, but ultimately, it was up to him.
I saw him often antagonizing the swine, climbing on it or pulling on its hair. He even tried punching it a few times, but the hide of the beast was like stone and the tiny fists didn’t even tickle.
The swine remained motionless, having surrendered to its fate, taking the punishment from an ant without so much as a peep.
[The swine…]
I focused my Spirit Sense on the sleeping beast drilling through its natural defenses like a bullet through wet paper. I focused on its modified core, its Dantian, and just observed.
[It’s been so long. More than a year?] I rubbed my face, feeling the short beard that was growing, and shifted on my throne. [It’s still working. No changes after the short period of adaptation. Hmm.]
I willed the throne to move and circled around the sleeping giant a few times.
By my observations, the spatial storage was still in perfect working order even after much time had passed. The growth of its body seemed unchanged as I fed it every so often, unbothered by the modifications I had made.
The experiment did not last long enough to fully settle my doubts, but I was not about to wait decades just to see if the changes I did would have unwanted side effects. I had already waited more than a year, and that was long enough.
If anything happened down the line, I would deal with it as the problems arose, as per usual. I was confident I would be able to fix anything that could happen to my body.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
[I’m going to leave for a while.] I announced loudly.
“Leave? Is anything wrong, Master?” Bram asked. He kept close to me whenever he was not busy training Felix. He spent most of his time in meditation, trying to resist the pull of a Dreadstone brick.
[Nothing that should concern you. I’m just going to finish a minor body modification I started long ago. I should be back in no time. Keep this place steady in my absence, alright?]
“Yes, Master!” Bram stated firmly. “Safe travels.”
I gave a nod and then willed the throne to lift higher off the ground and fly into the sky.
For what I wanted to do, whether it would be dangerous or not was irrelevant, I simply needed space to be alone in case things went awry. Also, I needed complete focus as I would be operating on myself, and privacy was paramount.
After flying for half an hour or so at a decent pace, I found a relatively flat spot and landed. The throne moved back into one of my rings, and I stood up straight, performing a few stretches.
Qi began to gather, and I created a copy of myself, handsome and perfect in every way that mattered.
Familiar eyes stared at me as I nodded. [Let’s do this.] The clone nodded back.
I tossed aside my clothes and then began to grow. My body expanded over the course of a few seconds, reaching the height of a small mountain. I waved my hand and the ground shifted, forming a large mound I used as a pillow as I lay on my back.
The clone jumped on my chest where the crystal core poked through my skin, and I hummed a bit as I mentally prepared myself for what was to come.
The plans were made long ago, and the designs checked and rechecked a hundred times. There was nothing left to do but to finish what I had started. My blood-red skin split open and the muscle peeled back, revealing the pure black skeleton beneath.
The ribs split off from one another, giving core access to my clone. Actually, after seeing the sheer size difference, my core being like a full-sized house compared to the little guy, I summoned a few more doppelgangers to help. It would have been too slow otherwise.
With but a thought, a grand barrier expanded across the land, with me at the center. As it was hastily constructed, it was not the best while requiring a lot of Qi, but with the energy reserves I had, and the short duration it would have to be active, I was not worried. It just had to prevent any sneak attacks or wild beasts from bothering me.
Finally, after the preparations were complete, it was time to begin. My clones moved like an army of slightly oversized ants and got to work.
I scowled as tiny blades of ultra-concentrated energy began scraping the outer layer of my core. That was the problem with being nearly indestructible. Every modification that required me to carve my body was beyond aggravating. Like nails on a chalkboard, just worse.
I shuddered and cringed as the unpleasant sensations spread through my body, but I had to lay perfectly still for the work to continue, so I had no choice but to endure. Apart from raw pain, carving my core was the worst sensation I ever experienced.
0/10 would not recommend.
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After the rune carvings were complete, and the channels were smoothed out, it was time to paint the web of inscriptions. For that, I used only the purest Celestial Metal. I heated it up, melted it, and then slowly poured it over my core with a gravity well centered on it, pulling everything to the middle.
The molten metal and crystal merged perfectly with each other, and as the transformation was complete, I felt a separate space open up inside me. With instant regeneration, I accelerated the recovery process and achieved what took the swine months, in less than an hour.
I took the rings from off body and focused on the new feeling inside me. At the surface of my chest, I felt like a whole new universe had opened up. A whole new world. The separate storage space each relic could hold depended on the quality of materials and the strength of the core used as its base.
From my calculations, I was expecting a large storage space, however, when I truly felt the sheer vastness of it, I was speechless. Compared to it, the rings I wore were but a drop in the bucket. The size disparity was immense.
[Yeah, well… That’s something.] I chuckled and began to shrink. The metal sigils merged with my core were compressed and unnaturally changed shape and density, remaining perfectly proportional to the size of my core. Such actions had a much greater demand for Qi than simple shape-shifting, but the advantages I gained were more than worth it.
I smiled as a thought entered my mind. Never again would I be lacking materials. I would take everything, leaving nothing behind. My growth required mountains of resources, and I finally had a place to store them all. Safely, inside my core.
[Now… I just need a proper weapon.]