The calming tea sent by Bhim sat on a small table, its steam coiling into the lotus-scented air of Amrit's chamber. He appreciated the gesture, a silent acknowledgment from a brother grappling with a new reality. It was a sign that not all bridges in this family were destined to be burned. But Amrit had no time for tea. The methodical journey through the nine stages of the Lotus Breathing Compendium had not tired him; it had energized him, leaving him with a thirst for more.
He had solidified his foundation in the Body Tempering Realm to a point of absurdity. The pearl of Spirit-Prana in his dantian was a marvel of condensed power, a testament to his perfect control. Yet, he was still, technically, in the same realm as his brothers. He was a god-like entity confined to a mortal framework. To truly prepare for the Sky-Piercing Academy, where he would face geniuses who were already touching the edges of the Spirit Sea Realm, he needed to take the next, most crucial step.
He needed to break through.
The transition from the Body Tempering Realm to the Spirit Sea Realm was the first great chasm in a cultivator's path. It was not a simple matter of accumulating more energy. It was a qualitative leap, a metamorphosis of the soul. It required the cultivator to use their accumulated Prana to nourish their spirit to the point where it could manifest its own internal world—a "Spirit Sea."
Many talented cultivators reached the peak of the Body Tempering Realm but failed at this step. Their Prana was impure, their soul-foundation weak, or their willpower insufficient. Failure could result in anything from a severe cultivation backlash to a shattered soul, leaving the cultivator a mindless cripple. It was a perilous, all-or-nothing gamble.
For Amrit, it was simply the next logical action.
He sat on his meditation cushion, the world outside fading to a muted hum. He didn't need pills to aid his focus or formations to gather energy. He had everything he needed within himself. His Spirit-Tempered Body was the perfect vessel, and his transcendent mastery of the Lotus Compendium was the perfect guide.
He took a deep, slow breath, and the rice-grain-sized pearl in his dantian began to pulse with a gentle, rhythmic light. He did not dissolve it. Instead, he drew upon its power, pulling a stream of pure, refined Spirit-Prana from it. Guided by the principles of the ninth stage, The Floating Seat, he directed this stream upward, not through his physical meridians, but along a hidden, spiritual channel that connected the dantian to the "Sea of Consciousness" in his mind.
This was the most dangerous part of the process. The Sea of Consciousness was the seat of the soul, a fragile, formless space. Flooding it with raw Prana would be like pouring magma into a bird's nest. But Amrit's energy was no longer just Prana. It was Spirit-Prana, already half-spiritual in nature, and his control was absolute.
The stream of energy entered his mind-space. It did not feel invasive. It felt like a gentle rain falling on a parched landscape. The formless void of his consciousness drank in the spiritual nourishment, and for the first time, began to take on a tangible form.
The process had begun. He was building his Spirit Sea. For a normal cultivator, this would be a painstaking process of laying one "drop" of spiritual water at a time, a task that could take months or even years of secluded meditation.
Amrit focused his intent with singular clarity. Action: Manifest the Spirit Sea.
[Realm-Breaking Action: Attempting breakthrough to the Spirit Sea Realm.]
[Host's foundation is Transcendent. Host's control is Absolute. Host's Prana quality is Divine.]
[Conditions for a perfect breakthrough are met.]
[Crit Chance detected… Maximum.]
[…Triggering a 100x Crit!]
The gentle rain became a biblical flood.
The stream of Spirit-Prana erupting from the pearl in his dantian multiplied a hundredfold, becoming a torrential, celestial waterfall. It surged up the spiritual channel and blasted into his Sea of Consciousness with the force of a bursting dam.
But because of the [Crit], the energy was not destructive. It was a force of pure, accelerated creation.
His mind-space, which had been a formless void, exploded outward. It expanded at an impossible rate, its boundaries pushing into an infinite horizon. The celestial waterfall of Spirit-Prana filled this new, vast space, creating not a sea, but an ocean.
It was a world born in an instant.
The "water" of his ocean was a shimmering, liquid-silver energy, a manifestation of his soul. The "sky" above it was a dark, star-dusted void, reflecting the depths of his consciousness. In the center of this boundless ocean, a single, perfect golden lotus bloomed upon the surface—a manifestation of his cultivation art. And high in the void above, a miniature, blazing sun hung in the sky—the spiritual echo of the pearl in his dantian, the source of all power in this inner world.
A normal cultivator's Spirit Sea at the initial stage might be a few dozen meters across. A genius like Arjun might manifest one that was a hundred meters wide.
Amrit's Spirit Sea was, for all intents and purposes, infinite. It had no visible shore. It was a true, boundless ocean.
[Breakthrough Successful!]
[Host has entered the Spirit Sea Realm - First Stage.]
[Due to the 100x Crit, the quality and scale of the Host's Spirit Sea have reached a level unattainable by mortal means.]
[Spirit Sea Quality: Divine Ocean.]
[Spirit Sea Size: Boundless.]
[Unique Manifestation: Golden Lotus of Enlightenment (Enhances comprehension and purifies spiritual energy).]
[Unique Manifestation: Dantian Sun (Provides a constant, self-sustaining source of power to the Spirit Sea).]
[Host's cultivation has undergone a qualitative evolution.]
Amrit's consciousness floated in the center of his new inner world. He felt… omnipotent. The power he could now wield was on a completely different scale. Before, he was a master of his own body. Now, he was the master of his own universe. The Spirit-Prana of the Divine Ocean was his to command, and its reserves were effectively limitless.
He could feel the connection between this inner world and the outer world. He could now directly influence his surroundings with the power of his spirit. The ability to levitate a stone was a parlor trick compared to what he could do now. He could sense the very life force of the plants in the garden outside, feel the flow of water in the pipes of the palace, hear the collective heartbeats of the city beyond the walls.
This was the true power of the Spirit Sea Realm: the spirit begins to impose its will upon reality.
A wave of euphoria washed over him, so powerful it was almost overwhelming. He had leaped over the first great mountain of cultivation in a single, effortless bound.
But as his consciousness observed his own magnificent creation, his analytical mind, the mind of the Earth-born programmer, kicked in. He noticed something. The vast, silver ocean was perfect. The golden lotus was flawless. The blazing sun was eternal. But the sky… the star-dusted void above was incomplete. It was just… empty space. A proper world needed more.
An idea, audacious and insane, sparked in his mind. He had two other transcendent skills. What if he could integrate them into his very soul, into his Spirit Sea?
He focused first on his mastery of One Sword. He did not think of techniques. He thought of the fundamental principle of "cutting," of "separation." He channeled this concept into his new inner world.
In the dark void above his silver ocean, a new star began to form. It was not a star of light, but of darkness. It was a sliver of pure, conceptual nothingness, shaped like a beautiful, terrible sword. It hung in the sky like a black moon, radiating an aura of absolute finality. Any enemy who dared to invade his Spirit Sea would have to face not just an ocean of power, but a conceptual weapon that could sever the soul itself.
[Spirit Sea evolution: Conceptual Sword of Severance has manifested.]
Next, he focused on the perfected Ghost-Flash Steps. He channeled the principle of "translocation," of "ignoring space."
A second celestial body formed in the void. It was not a single object, but a swirling constellation of tiny, glittering points of light, like a miniature galaxy. They moved constantly, vanishing and reappearing, their pattern chaotic yet harmonious. This was the Constellation of Passage, an embodiment of his mastery over space. It granted his Spirit Sea an elusive, untraceable quality. Trying to lock onto his spiritual presence would be like trying to catch smoke in a net.
[Spirit Sea evolution: Constellation of Passage has manifested.]
His inner world was now complete. A boundless ocean of power, a lotus of enlightenment, a sun of endless energy, a sword of certain death, and a constellation of impossible movement. It was not just a Spirit Sea. It was a personal pantheon.
Amrit's consciousness returned to his body. He opened his eyes, and for a moment, the entire room seemed to dim as the celestial light of his inner world receded from his gaze. He felt a power so immense coursing through him that he had to consciously restrain it to prevent himself from levitating off the floor.
He had spent less than half a night in cultivation. In that time, he had gone from a freshly minted peak Body Tempering cultivator to a Spirit Sea master with a foundation so monstrously powerful it could likely challenge his own father.
He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the moonlit kingdom. The world felt smaller now, more fragile. He was no longer just a participant in its game. He was becoming a force that could shatter the board entirely.
The path to the Sky-Piercing Academy was clear. But a new, more distant horizon was coming into view—the path to the heavens, and to the gods who thought they could write the destinies of men. They had no idea a player who could rewrite reality itself had just been born.