The emperor woke up inside of his own bed with only him and Naath’s father in the room. Naath’s father began speaking immediately “Emperor I know it’s a lot to take in, believe me even I'm still trying to sit with and accept this myself. The most flabbergasting part is he has a grunge with the heavens themselves, considering all of this I want to nullify our contract and even give him entry into the cultivation awakening ceremony early if possible. I feel like the sooner he begins cultivation with his knowledge and secrets the better for the empire.

You can support him openly now of course however let him roam free as he wishes. This way he will feel gratitude towards the city. But don’t misunderstand, I will never let my son be used!” As he spoke these last words his aura came out completely unrestrained and one could detect an incredibly pure earth energy from it.

The emperor nodded his head slowly as he took all of the information in. The more he thought on this the more exaggerated his breathing became. After a while he forcefully stopped himself and took one big deep breath and released it calming himself. He stood from his bed trying to reclaim some of his lost face from passing out. Naath’s father went to speak again but the emperor raised his hand to silence him. His eyes became sharp and focused as he began to think to himself and work on some plans. After several minutes of silence the emperor finally spoke again.

“Okay, I’ll let him go through the ceremony of opening perception early. Does he have any special interests? Soul arts, formation, pill refining, equipment forging, anything at all that I can offer help towards?”

Naath’s father shook his head saying “from what he said last night as he explained parts of his past lives he already has a superb method to cultivate soul mastery. He also has a thorough foundation as he calls it in formations. However what he calls a ‘foundation’ would make some of the greatest soul masters in our country feel inferior by miles. There is one thing he enjoyed before he awoke to his past memories though, he loved to read down at the library and learn. That’s just about all that I can think about that would classify as special interests. The way I see it, you can only support him with basic things like books, money, or resources. You can only hope he returns the favor to you and gives information and techniques to you in recognition of your help.

But please don't forget this is my son, my flesh and blood we are talking about. I won't simply stand by and do nothing if you try to force his hand. Not to mention even I don't know the full extent of his arts as the art he cultivates with is the reason the heavens have killed him once already. The other time was shamefully dying to a cart in his life before last.”

The emperor nodded for a moment and then summoned one of the servants waiting outside of the door. He whispered something into the servant's ear and the young maid ran as fast as she could to do some task. In a matter of minutes she returned carrying a light blue transparent token in her hand that had the word ‘Book’ inscribed onto it. The emperor smiled and praised the maid for her quick services and then turned back to Naaths father. He handed him the token and gave a brief set of instructions. The two of them then started to talk about many other different matters now that the matter of the contract being voided was settled.

Back at Naath’s family home everyone was now awake and the atmosphere still had a hint of excitement. Naaths two elder brothers had foregone school for today in favor of asking Naath countless questions about his past lives. For better or worse he had nearly ten years of familial bonds with everyone here. He trusted all of them fully and completely, he held nothing back as he described earth and its many technologies. The only things he kept hidden were matters related to his true void arts for fear of harming them. When they heard about non-cultivators being able to do such incredible things just using technology they were enthralled.

After talking with them for almost two hours Naath told them he was going to begin cultivating his soul. The two of them smiled happily and wished him good luck in his cultivation before they went off to do their own things. Naath smiled as they left and he closed his bedroom door, afterwards he sat down and took a breath to calm his mind. Once he was in the right state of mind he began to circulate the empty soul method and his soul sea quaked and trembled. Naath felt a sharp stabbing pain run through his mind as his soul sea was forcibly opened by the empty soul method. However due to this very method his mind stayed calm and empty and he didn't react to the pain whatsoever.

In a matter of only minutes his soul sea was once more fully open to him to use. He opened his eyes and smiled a melancholy smile. In his last life he had already reached the level of crystalized soul energy. In this life his soul energy was still in its basic gaseous form. He quickly removed this feeling from his heart and then focused on the true void arts. He began recalling all of the information on the true void arts reciting the mantra in his own mind to avoid the heavens hearing him saying it aloud.

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‘The void is nothingness, it contains nothing yet also everything. The void drawn in all things, consumes all things, and creates all things. All things come from the void and will one day return to the void.’ He began to go over the information contained in this simple three lined mantra about what the void was, where it existed, what it looks like, etc. LIke this an entire hour passed by silently and then Naath felt a trickle of true void energy flowing through his body. Smiling he took this true void energy and guided it to the center of the back of his own head. Here he created the first true void membrane in this life. This meridian was in his bones and he used the same methods he did in his previous life.

Naath chuckled as he thought of how on this planet their cultivation required one to create pathways and meridians in the body at a certain stage. However none of them seemed to realise they already existed in their own bones. Then again thinking about it what fucking madman thought of cultivating through destroying your own body to make it better at holding martial energy?! As Naath thought this one of the two spheres left behind from his last life trembled. When it did a little bit of information came to Naath and he chuckled “damn heavens they really are ruthless.” Naath shook his head and threw this to the back of his mind and got up from meditation just as he did his father walked into his room.

Naath wasn’t surprised after opening his soul he could feel the area around him for about ten feet once more. He knew his father was on the other side simply waiting for him to finish cultivating. Naath smiled as his father came over and hugged him before he let go telling Naath he had some good news for him.

His father began “Naath please sit down we need to have a conversation, there are some things you should know about.”

With that Naath sat down once more and his father began to explain the deal with the emperor and the contract as well as his meeting earlier today. When he was finished he handed Naath a token saying. “The emperor wanted you to have this, after you refined it for yourself it will allow you into any part of any library in this country. This even includes areas where top secret information is kept. This is a show of the emperor's sincerity in apologizing to you. He will also allow you to enter the cultivation awakening ceremony early and will later support you with valuable cultivation resources. He has even offered to offer resources if you ever pick up any hobbies. And before you ask what kind he means all kinds. Talisman crafting, equipment forging, pill refining, etc you name it the emperor is willing to provide for it.

Essentially if you say jump he will ask how high. Now then come with me Naath, we're going directly to the awakening ceremony. Don't ask any questions you will know when we get there.”

Naath nodded his head and followed his father out of the house and directly into the emperors place. Once they were inside his father led him down a series of hallways and into a room with a large circle of runes drawn on the floor with a large empty space in the middle. Inside of this room were two other people, one Naath instantly recognised as a soul master. He was a small built thin man with slightly greying brown hair, as he was getting up from inspecting the formation he stretched backwards as popping sounds rang out. He quickly left the room once Naath and his father entered, not even giving an introduction or greeting.

The other man in the room was wearing a vibrant red robe with golden trim as he looked over the formation. Naath could tell he wasn't a soul master but saw the look in his yellow eyes that said he knew exactly what each rune and part of the formation did. After a moment he looked up and when he saw Naath he jumped slightly and ran over to him. It was the emperor, he was here to personally oversee Naath’s awakening ceremony. He quickly memorized Naath’s appearance and greeted him.

“Ah you must be Naath, I am emperor Chu, you can just call me senior Chu if you wish. I came to oversee your awakening personally to make sure nothing occurs. Just sit down in the empty circle in the middle there, run your cultivation method and the awakening process will start. I look forward to seeing the results of your awakening!”

With that the emperor backed away and his eyes seemed to sparkle as he watched Naath enter the circle. Once in the circle he sat down and closed his eyes and released a breath. He circulated his true void arts through his bones and began to draw in energy as the information sphere in his soul sea had instructed him. It was from the rune and Naath trusted the information so he did it without hesitation. But he simultaneously roused the true void arts to circulate half the true void energy in his dantian as well. With that a loud sound rang out through the entire palace and outwards for an unknown number of miles. Creating a wave of solid air pressure as it did so that destroyed countless buildings and trees in its wake. Thankfully the palace was reinforced so it was unaffected and not destroyed.

*BANG!!!!!!!!*

Every bone in Naath’s body turned to powder and began to reform themselves while martial energy kept his body's posture upright. At the same time the formation began to circulate and the true void energy in his dantian was roused. It suddenly left his dantian and exploded out of his body in a massive sphere that expanded outwards. In a matter of moments the sphere expanded out to the size of the palace. After several minutes it spread out and reached past the borders of this small country. It showed no signs of slowing down whatsoever and expanded like this continuously. The formation had a projection above it showing the range that this mysterious sphere of energy covered. It was already covering a quarter of the planet and showed no signs of stopping.

Just at this moment the faint echo of a breaking sound resounded once more through the skies above the palace. The noise Naath produced from stepping into bone hardening had traveled across the entire planet! After several more minutes passed the emperor and Naaths father finally snapped out of their daze and registered the information. At this point though the sphere had expanded once more and was covering half the planet. And in a mere ten more minutes it covered the entire world, from there it expanded outwards from the world reaching the top of its atmosphere and finally it stopped.

Naath opened his eyes, his bones reforged with true void energy from the very beginning and his perception for this new cultivation method being the entire world. He spoke one sentence to himself. “Finally I have once more stepped onto the path of cultivation!”