Arslan watched as a large particle in his Existence moved towards a massive transparent ball. It was his Mind Spark, and he could feel the Momentum that was integrated into his very Existence being drawn to it. This resulted in him losing the instinctual use of Momentum, the automatic movement that came from his body’s natural rhythm. From now on, he would have to trigger it manually with his Mind Spark.

However, all was not lost. Since he was in the Path Integration stage and had even reached its limit, Momentum would still be part of him, just a moment’s notice away inside his Mind Spark. Meanwhile, his mind was on the Science Path. From his understanding, this Path was based on all the laws that were not mystical in nature. It was an umbrella Path, encompassing many Paths. Momentum was just one of the physical forces, while Science encompassed all of Physics and other subjects of reality.

But he still didn’t understand how cultivating this Path was possible. The Path book said that the worthiness of the Path would reduce the space required, but he was sure it would still take up too much space. From the looks of it, he had to select a Pathway first. He didn’t want to move towards more energy-related subjects, so he chose Pathway 1.

There, he was confronted with checkboxes, listing his next subjects for study. All of them needed to reach the Path Integration stage. He found many different subjects, but what captured his attention were the four fundamental forces of the universe: Electromagnetism, Gravity, Strong Force, and Weak Force.

These were also the most studied subjects in the Empire, making it fairly easy for him to accomplish them. With his above-average Mind Spark size, it would be relatively easy to understand them to the Path Integration level. Then he would see where it would lead him.

***

Damon looked at the spaceships behind him. He nodded, and the space cleared, sending them to pre-allocated stations. The world he had arrived at was Luvi 2, and he would have to act to ensure its safety and train those who had joined the war.

It was also the place that Arslan wanted to be protected. This world was fairly modern, with governments ruling different regions. They used various technological marvels for transportation, but people still cultivated.

He looked at the panel listing the recruits. Many of them were at the 3rd stage, likely wanting to use this opportunity to progress beyond the bottleneck faced by every cultivator. Not everyone was able to unite their body and mind. Most couldn’t pass this stage due to not having a higher percentage of the Progenitor Bloodline in them, resulting in lower talent.

He was lucky in that regard. With his extraordinary Innate Talent, it was fairly easy for him to influence the development of his Existence. However, because his Innate Talent was body-related, enhancing it to such a degree forced his mind to compensate with extra hard work, nearly losing the whole talent advantage for a moment. Thankfully, his hard work resulted in a good outcome, and now he was merely waiting to ascend to Immortality due to the competition.

A moment later, he received two items, the same books Arslan had received. He integrated them and examined each one. Unlike Arslan’s, his assessment of his Existence passed with a very good score. The problem was his Path.

Pathway 1: Only One (Body)

3rd Grade: Immortal Body

Hypothetical Concept: Only One

….

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Apparently, his Immortal Body Path wasn’t the best. He knew this and planned to change it after becoming Eternal. However, now he would have to start earlier, as he couldn’t afford to lose time; otherwise, it would take too long to birth a Divinity.

This Pathway really suited him. He would develop a body to accommodate his very Existence, integrating his Mind Spark, Paths, Immortal Seed, soul, and future attainments like Divinity into his body. There were many downsides, such as his Existence not being able to leave his main body, which meant no genuine clones. He could create Avatars, but they would be too weak. He didn’t care about this, unlike others who would if they were in his place.

While formulating a plan, he commanded the ship’s AI to land at Luvi 2’s main government landing site for spaceships. There, he saw many soldiers equipped with high-tech weapons capable of killing someone at the 4th stage. Although it wasn’t much to deal with higher-level beings, they had even better methods, such as the towers. The entire world had seven towers capable of killing cultivators at the middle stage of Immortality.

After moving through the spaceship's interior to its exit, he saw a man in a suit bowing. “We greet Sir Damon.”

Damon nodded and asked, “Where will I stay?”

The man rose from his bowing pose and pointed with his hand. “This military ground will be solely handled by you, Sir. You can utilize anything and everything. As for the building,” he paused and indicated a two-story building meant for distinguished guests, “we have prepared this place.”

“Okay. I will go there first. Please have the recruits ready in two hours,” Damon said, moving without waiting for the man to continue or offer a guide. It was simple enough, and he didn’t want unnecessary delays. This was something he had in common with Arslan: they didn’t like formality. It was unnecessary to slow down their progress for a formal conversation when they could be doing calculations instead. For example, he was currently studying biology. He needed great control over it, then to study the Path of Life, which was graded 6, before he could start integrating his own beings into one: his body.

After two hours, he looked at over a thousand cultivators. Not many of them could reach the Immortal realm, thus having an insignificant place in the second phase, but they would still be interesting to cultivate. They didn’t lack resources, especially with a Divine backing them.

He gazed at them and said, “For those who have no Path, you can access the library of the Academy. I’m aware some of you used your parent’s InnatePad. Those of you who don’t have one will also be provided with an InnatePad.”

He waited for them to comprehend everything he said. He was already speaking in a manner an ordinary mortal would understand. Cultivators were really different, and he noticed these details even in this situation. The way they talked was so condensed that a one-minute conversation between them could take an ordinary mortal hours to convey. He could use his Mind Energy to relay information, but this would easily tire them out, as it would forcefully raise their mental capacity.

Nevertheless, he was used to it. He lived a simple mortal life when not acting on behalf of the Empire, thus having more than enough experience and patience.

At the back of the gathered crowd, a boy was already doing exercises. This showed that he had birthed a Mind Spark and also had a Path.

Some of the other recruits thought he was wasting this chance. The Empire was the supreme ruler of the galaxy, with only the lucky few who survived having places on the outer rim. Thus, they believed this boy’s Path couldn't compare.

What they didn’t know was that the boy’s talent was already growing just by standing close to Damon. Damon noticed this. The rise of a bloodline was something very hard to hide from those above the 8th stage.

Damon requested the AI with his Mind Energy, “View the last hours of this world’s history and tell me when this boy’s bloodline improved.”

“This will result in the creation of a time remanent, which will require resources to remove,” a voice resounded in Damon’s mind. “Do you confirm on paying the necessary resources?”

“I confirm.” Damon didn’t mind spending the resource if he discovered something worthwhile.

Damon focused on the visual of a world blur in the InnatePad virtualization. At the core of the world, a dimension with a space-time Eternal grade Treasure was handling this with 100% capacity. With his authorization, it was very easy to do.

In the virtualization, he noticed the same boy, and he saw his readings spike the moment he landed. “Give me his details,” he commanded, more serious than before. He had a guess...

As he read the boy’s ordinary details, he confirmed his guess. The boy was a reincarnator. With a special Path too, it seemed.

He looked at the boy’s name from the list. His name was Alec.