John still had his cultivation body.

There was a problem with his phantom soul system. It didn't manifest when he had the bodies connected to his private consciousness.

That problem was his sea of consciousness. He could now separate the seas and have the bodies think independently. If he 'cut' the connection. His magic system wouldn't work. So they wouldn't be able to teleport, conjure food, etc.

There were now two sets of consciousness in each existing connection. He had a public consciousness that the world could interact with. He then had a private consciousness. That no one was able to peer through.

In his cultivation body, he had three sets. His public consciousness from his brand new phantom soul. His consciousness generated by his nascent soul. He also had his private consciousness.

John only had a single private consciousness shared with all bodies. He made the system this way so he could continue to use spells in all of his bodies.

You can think of his private consciousness as the consciousness he started with. It was the thing controlling all of his bodies initially. It was the back door in all the phantom souls.

John kept his skeletal body in the infinite maze as a guardian.

He touched his cultivation body and sent him through time and space.

John found himself back in his pocket dimension.

He was less excited about future cultivation. Why? It was because he had accomplished his goal! A world will was no match for his soul system. He would no longer have to worry about the world will rejecting him.

Well, if he used his spells and drew its attention. It would still try to seal him. But that was a pointless game. It could try all it wanted. But it would just be a phantom soul that was sealed.

John had pretty much accomplished everything he wanted to in this world.

He planned to let this body continue to cultivate passively and cut the connection temporarily. Allowing this body to grow up on its own.

Don't worry, he won't have to worry about the body fighting for 'its' freedom. Think of it like artificial intelligence. It will follow the patterns he had set and pretend to be him. But it will never wish to become something more. It would simulate his emotions and plans and carry out methods to accomplish them. But that is it.

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The phantom soul is capable of thinking on its own. But it doesn't know about the existence of a main mind. It is programmed in its logic to never understand the implications of its existence.

Make no mistake. Even when disconnected. It is still acting as 'him'. It just isn't connected to his private consciousness. So it won't be able to teleport into his lab or pocket dimension for example.

But it will retain his skills. This particular body would be more 'alive' simply due to it having a nascent soul. This would make sure it kept its processing power and genius level in formations. It would still be a useful resource to the sect and it would still be capable of cultivating and breaking through the realms.

The benefit of disconnecting was he was able to focus on other things. While it could spend hundreds of years cultivating without any grand plans.

In other words, it freed up some mental space and strain on his soul system.

John looked at all his connections.

He had his private consciousness connected to an intricate family tree of mortals in that world. He had many mortal bodies. He disconnected all of these from his system. They would in the future act independently to their best judgement.

Once all of his other bodies were disconnected.

John felt something he hadn't felt since before his immortality.

A completely clear mind!

He almost cried.

But he was a skeleton and had no eyes.

It had been over a thousand years since his mind had caught a break.

You might think it wasn't a lot of work. But he also was controlling multiple bodies for operation phoenix. Not to mention the bodies he had doing random task, like those in his pocket dimension he had powering formations.

It wasn't through some golden finger like system. This was sheer willpower and multitasking! It was him forcefully evolving his one uniqueness, his immortality, into multiple versatile abilities.

But those days were behind him.

He no longer needed to dedicate so much of his mental space to such trivial nonsense. He couldn't help but be proud of what he had accomplished.

Any normal person would have gone insane from the mental load.

He now had time to think about his future goals.

"What exactly is it that I want?"

Initially, he had just wanted to protect himself.

Well... now he had his own universe and dimension. No existence could threaten his safety as long as he never left.

But not leaving would mean not progressing.

He didn't plan to stop here.

But he also didn't plan to risk himself.

John soon realized what he wanted.

"I want to evolve my life level!"

He didn't care about surpassing other supreme beings.

He never cared about the status of others either way.

What he wanted to do, was something different.

He wanted to surpass himself!

Think about it.

His original ability was just being deathless and immortal.

It was through his ingenuity that he carved this ability into something far greater.

Now he thought about his current reality.

"My ability and phantom souls. It isn't the limit! It is merely the foundation!"

That's right! He planned to stretch his mind again.

He didn't plan to let himself rest in peace. He could now manipulate soul. This was his new ability. So he planned to understand this ability at its core and make it a more versatile ability.

Just like how he made his immortality into almost a hivemind.

He planned to turn his soul system into something far greater.

He was John Destinatus after all.

His reach had increased greatly and the risk he could take had also increased. Messing with entities in the chaos realm? Fighting world wills? Exploring new worlds? It all had become possible!