Tinehai City. City Hall. The next day. Morning. Roku.
"Once again, I offer my deepest apologies," I said, bowing my head.
"Enough with the formalities—not after what happened between us," Zhu Li Moon waved her hand lazily, still feeling the exhaustion spreading through her body.
"Yes, everything's perfect!" Kuvira practically sang, her happiness evident as she held my right hand tightly.
"Good," I sighed in relief. The girls weren't upset—that's what mattered most.
"But now, there's no way you're getting out of this," my secretary warned, pointing her finger at , with Kuvira nodding in agreent.
"I never even thought of backing out," I assured them with a smile. Who in their right mind would refuse two beauties rushing into your arms?
Back ho, part of the family was waiting, genuinely terrified after learning about yesterday's events. So hotheads were ready to seek revenge against the "evil" spirits of love, as they called them. I wasn't thrilled about what happened either, but it's better if they stay alive so Van Shi Tong can study them thoroughly. Maybe we'll find ways to protect against such strange "attacks" that bypass any defense.
Fortunately, no ergencies occurred during my absence. None of the truly dangerous spirits attacked the towns in the Spirit Realm.
"It's ti to focus on life energy," I thought. Humanity faces no threats, and progress is steady, so my three bodies can handle everything. Even if one of them spends all its ti in the Spirit Realm.
The records of the Body Path Guru only vaguely ntion the seventh chakra. It's described as if the author wasn't entirely sure of their knowledge. The Lion-Turtle, however, revealed so secrets about the final chakra. If I understood correctly, for a normal cultivator to unlock the Thought Chakra, it takes at least a hundred years—1,200 months of nearly nonstop self-improvent, along with extraordinary talent and aptitude. That's not for . Luckily, I found shortcuts.
"In principle, I've always wanted to visit space," I muttered, gazing at a distant star. The Sun's heat should accelerate my developnt at extre rates. There were other options—reaching Earth's core or asking Agni for a "roast." But... preliminary experints showed neither would work. Agni's maximum temperature is just over 4,500 degrees, which I can endure, though barely. No astronomical progress there. Talking to the Spirit of Knowledge ruled out the core—its temperature reaches 6,000 degrees, only slightly higher than Agni's.
Ard with books and an ancient, millennia-old owl as my assistant, I prepared for my journey into space. According to Van Shi Tong's calculations, the distance from our planet to the Sun is roughly 150 million kiloters. From what I recall from educational YouTube videos about space, that's the sa distance between Earth and the Sun in my previous world.
The main question arose: how to get there? Clearly, platforms of water, earth, fire, and air won't work—they can't provide the speed I need. Local physics finally showed its hand, so traveling as lightning isn't an option either. Vacuum, sir. Solving this problem took so serious thinking, but a solution was found. Whether it'll work, I'll find out soon enough.
Life energy will let do without a spacesuit or other tech gadgets. Thanks to Van Shi Tong's "runes," I recreated approximate conditions of open space. The "green" energy circulating within negated the effects of the lack of atmospheric pressure. Simulating ultraviolet and X-ray radiation didn't work, though. I'll have to learn everything through practice. It's reassuring that my intuition doesn't oppose this wild idea...
Launch Day.
I reached five kiloters in altitude without issue. The air here is thin enough that I had to switch to "self-sustenance" and stop breathing entirely. Breaking the habit of inhaling and exhaling was far harder than I initially thought.
Later, I passed through the ozone layer and began testing my thod for space travel. Roku's body wasn't chosen randomly—over ti, gravity revealed more and more pleasant surprises.
"Let's go," I focused, concentrating gravitational force around my body. It created sothing like a warp drive from sci-fi—I compressed space in front of and expanded it behind, propelling a "bubble" with my body inside forward. It seed that small burst consud about twenty percent of my earth energy reserves. But when I turned back...
"Beautiful!" I spent a full thirty minutes admiring the planet, unable to get enough of the view. Only after tearing myself away did I realize I was already beyond Earth's atmosphere. That "small burst" had covered thousands of kiloters.
That was enough ti for to get a heavy dose of solar radiation, which, unlike spiritual energy, didn't affect at all. The Sun's fire energy began scorching my skin, causing life energy to deplete much faster.
"I knew this wouldn't be easy..." I was surrounded by countless fire particles, a thousand tis more dangerous than "earthly" ones. Assimilating them required far more ti for my source, and the process was painfully agonizing.
After getting used to manipulating gravity, I descended slightly. I was intrigued by an illusory mbrane covering the entire Earth, like a second ozone layer. Over ti, I understood what it was. It's similar to the ozone layer but protects the Earth from these abnormally active fire particles instead of radiation. Without this "mbrane," life on Earth would be hellish. Even I find it hard to endure this environnt.
While my body adjusted to the new conditions, I began converting my neutral energy into earth particles. This ability of my first source erged recently. No, I'd tried converting energy types before, but it never worked. Apparently, certain requirents needed to be t, like having an ancient-level mastery of all elents. Neutral energy is 100% malleable, so there's no loss in this process.
In dire need, there are other ways to replenish energy, though they're more complex and costly. For example, fire energy can be converted into neutral energy, but you'd lose 20-30% of its "mass," then transfer it losslessly to a water source. Unfortunately, this thod doesn't work for life energy—sotis, it's in short supply too.
It took a full year to reach the Sun. It went sothing like this: I'd move for a day, then "stand still" for three, stimulating life energy to adapt to the new environnt as quickly as possible. A few more hours were spent converting one elent into earth energy. This is extrely difficult here—there are only faint traces of intensely "burning and painful" fire particles. My source still isn't used to them, but I feel my fire growing stronger, and the energy itself improving in quality.
The monotony of the views and the complete absence of sound would've weighed heavily on my psyche, but my other bodies, still interacting with society, saved the situation.
At three million kiloters from the star, real training began. There, my praised life energy struggled with the heat, causing my skin to peel off more and more frequently. The sensations are indescribable...
"For progress, it's worth enduring," I thought. The main thing is that I'm achieving my goal. To unlock the seventh chakra, I need to restructure my body. Currently, my body is all channels with just one life energy source. During transformation, I must create thousands, if not millions, of tiny sources! Every cell, every hair, even every blood particle must contain a small "nuclear reactor" producing life energy. Only then will I gain physical immortality. Essentially, all "information" about my body will be recorded in each source, making it easy to "resurrect" again. I've seen sothing similar in vampire series and gas, where the oldest vampires could regenerate even from ashes.
"Up close, everything looks even more dangerous..." The Sun's surface, by its very existence, generated so many particles that they could easily fill thousands of Spirit Realms.
Gradually, I moved closer to the fiery giant's surface, pushing my life energy to work at extre rates. For the next two years, my body drifted on the Sun. My bones grew stronger and stronger, losing their forr appearance, turning into green crystals. And while I cultivated, ti marched on. According to a recent census, there are now up to two thousand air mages worldwide, though most will remain at the student level. Still, it's good news.
Little by little, my body created more life energy sources. Each day spent on the Sun brought tangible progress. Allowing the energy to do its work, I focused on the thoughts of my other bodies. Four years after my first expedition to the spiritual plane, I managed to ensure a steady supply of spiritual iron and crystals. Every practitioner can rest assured that upon completing basic training, they'll receive their own spiritual weapon.
Sensing the imminent unlocking of the seventh chakra, I began descending deeper. All my attention returned to withstanding the external environnt. As I went lower, the temperature reached astronomical levels—definitely twenty million degrees. I'd already learned my lesson once, paying with my legs, which were simply assimilated by the Sun.
At one point, I realized I'd reached an illusory door separating from activating the seventh chakra. Just like in the cartoon, I found myself in the middle of space. Everything in this strange realm pressed down on . Voices whispered about the power I'd gain if I abandoned earthly attachnts:
"Why do you need relationships if you can't save the world?" a persistent, vibrating voice seed to echo directly in my soul.
The longer I resisted their pressure, the "louder" they beca. But... I'm not ready to betray those close to ! It's because of them that I want to bring peace to the world!
Then ca the pain. Pain that tore apart, trying to break and rebuild . I could end this torture by giving up the seventh chakra, but I persisted. The only thing keeping going was my family, who day and night stood watch over my bodies. I saw tears in my daughters' eyes. I wanted to give up...
"Everything will be fine, Mom! Dad's the strongest!" Hi said confidently, with Shiki nodding in agreent.
"Yes! You'll see, so chakra won't break Dad!" Kushi added.
My happiness and growth lie precisely in these earthly attachnts. Like flipping a switch, the pain vanished, as if it had never been. My body surged with strength again, millions of sources working at full capacity, supplying with an ocean of life energy. Their numbers are enough to build an entire house from my life energy crystals.
"Ti to go ho," a thought flashed, refusing to leave . Only when I noticeably distanced myself from the Sun did a simple truth dawn on : my struggles with chakras are finally over.
Reviews
All reviews (0)