Time passes whether there is someone there to observe the changes it brings or not. An aspect of infinity, allowing all the myriad changes that occur. Not only that, but time is also relative. To some, mere seconds have passed, to others, years have gone by. This is exactly the case of Samuel and the rest of the Shattered Realm. To Samuel, he had only blinked a few times, however, the duration of those blinks was enough to change the way the realm functioned and how powers were structured. 17,000 years, not one more nor one less, have passed since Samuel tried the calendar for the first time. The only thing different about him was the amount of power coursing through his body, the runes on his soul, and the effect of his eyes and physique. They had all drastically improved. His hair’s spiritual qi siphon no longer relied on the energy provided by the Heavens, instead it absorbed and converted a weird energy seemingly being produced by the void. If his physique didn’t have this ability, it would not be wrong to assume the entire Shattered Realm would be sucked dry by him. The amount of energy required to reach his current level was unthinkable. But God did this have an even more exaggerated effect on his strength.
His power originally would increase by 5000 times every level of the Mortal Evolution stage, which is simply beyond overpowered, not even being fair in any sense of the word, however, he found a flaw in the cultivation path. The flesh is supposed to be evolved just like the rest of the body. This proved to be the only part he had to actively do something for. The cells in the flesh, for some reason unknown to Samuel, were very rejective of his own qi. Instead choosing to support normal spiritual qi and the Heavens, making it ‘impossible’ to cultivate them at the Mortal Evolution stage. This is the reason why the body requires the improvement of the brain and the creation of a core to forcefully alter the cells of the flesh. This was all a flawed process, however. What was needed, as he found out after a few years in the time sphere, was to bathe the cells actively in your own essence. Not qi. Essence. The very thing that constitutes your being. The building block of not only your body, but also your mind and soul. This thing was extremely obscure, and something, had it not been for the close connection between his mind and soul, he never would have discovered.
Not only that, but he also finally realized why his soul seemed to despise his body so much. It was because of the cells affected by the Heavens, disallowing his essence from merging. So, Samuel merely forced part of his essence that he managed to retrieve from his soul onto the cells, turning them into something he called ‘origin cells’. As he finished turning all the cells in his flesh into these, his body went through a metamorphosis. Every part of his being seemingly transcending beyond what a mortal ever could, achieving the true sense of the Mortal Evolution stage. When he awoke from this transformation, his cultivation speed increased more than tenfold, his Singularity skill became capable of devouring the entire Shattered Realm, as well as it gained another ability. Not only this, but his hair transformed into what it is now, and his time sphere welcomed its first new item. In addition to all of this, his space and ‘gowla’ rune started to form lines, like a tattoo, in a silver-gold color that connected the two. Samuel attributed this to having something to do with space-time, but he was uncertain, as he did not ponder too much on it, rather choosing to finish his cultivation session before doing anything else.
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His power that would originally increase with 5000 times every level now increased with 10,000 times, becoming even more exaggerated. This would have made Samuel’s mood a little worse under normal circumstances, but not only did his mood not become worse, it skyrocketed. He figured that since the name of the stage was Mortal Evolution then this was the true cultivation path, indicating that there are others on this path as well, and only later has it become flawed. This means there will be others that, even if they are not as exaggerated as him, will be incredibly powerful, meaning he has something to look forward to.
Samuel, even before he went into his cultivation retreat, had managed to find a way to have his eyes open without using Singularity, much less now that his eyes had evolved. His control of them was perfect now. As such, he opened his eyes, signaling the end of his life as a recluse. At least for now. Samuel’s spatial sense soon covered the entire realm to see if any of the people he knew before he entered seclusion were still around. He was a little upset at seeing that the young lady who hit him with her carriage, the daughter of the headmaster of the Runemaster Guild, was still alive, as he still despised her. The old man Wilhelm was dead however, as he was not in the Shattered Realm, not its affiliated pocket dimensions. The Strand family was still around and kicking, with Merling and Lukas being at the Enlightenment stage, Quinn being an old lady on her deathbed, being only at the peak of True Cultivation. Finally, was the old man Mike, who was still healthy and fine in the Knowledge Guild. The feeling of seeing time pass for everyone other than oneself was indescribable, or it was, until he saw that time seemed to not have passed at all for Mike either. How could he still look the exact same after 17,000 years? Samuels spatial sense was no longer the mere sensing of objects occupying space, it was more like an omnipotent spirit sense, capable of seeing through everything that exists in the same dimension as him. Meaning he could spy on pocket spaces and potentially other lower realms, granted there were any, but not the higher realm or its affiliated pocket spaces. Yet, even with this, he could not properly see through Mike.
“What is going on with this geezer? Is he some sort of powerful being who has descended to the lower realm? But he seems to truly be at the enlightenment stage. Hmmm, well I can just ask him, can’t I?”
Instantly appearing inside the research quarters of the great Mike Stary, Samuel was bemused at the expression that appeared on his face after arriving.
“Kid? How long has it been? I thought you had turned to dust long, long ago, I was merely letting your courtyard go untouched out of respect for your contribution toward the guild. To think that not only are you fine, you also don’t seem to have aged a single day.”
“You’re talking to me about not aging? You old monster! There is no change in your life essence, nor any fading connection with your soul. Even if you have a lifespan of 100,000 years at the Enlightenment stage, there would still be a difference in those two aspects, yet there is none in you. How is that?
“Real perceptive, Samuel, but the answer to the question is not as complicated or deep as you have made it out to be in your head. I’m immortal. That’s it.”
“What?”