350 km deep into underground, Earth mantle
Ankit start his cultivation.
First came the connections. Inside his body, eight thousand Solar Energy pathways lit up one by one like golden threads. Ankit guided them toward the blazing sphere in his chest—the Solar Core—until every thread touched and fused, forming a dense web. Then he drew in Solar essence from the mantle around him, compressing it ruthlessly before pouring it into the newly opened pathways.
Time flowed unnoticed. When all eight thousand channels were full, his upper body felt like a miniature sun wrapped in human flesh.
Next, he turned his attention to the yang meridians: Large Intestine, Triple Burner, Small Intestine, Stomach, Gallbladder, Bladder. One after another, he linked clusters of Solar pathways to each meridian, letting the condensed fire‑essence surge through and carve them wider, tougher, and brighter. Each yang meridian swelled from a faint line into a blazing river of golden‑red light.
When all six were ready, Ankit began the final arrangement.
He drew the power of the six yang meridians inward, shaping each into a blazing "sun‑node" and guiding them into orbit around the Solar Core. In his inner vision, six miniature suns took their positions on an invisible circle, mirroring the sacral formation below.
Lines of Solar essence arced between them—Large Intestine to Stomach, Stomach to Gallbladder, Gallbladder to Bladder, Bladder to Small Intestine, Small Intestine to Triple Burner, Triple Burner back to Large Intestine—tracing a fiery hexagram with the Solar Core at its centre.
When the last line locked into place, all six yang meridians roared together. Their stored Solar essence collapsed inward like a stellar storm, slamming into the Solar Core.
The core shrank violently, its colour deepening from bright gold to a fierce gold‑white, as if a piece of the sun had been hammered into a fist‑sized star.
Shockwaves of heat tore through his body, but the Sacral star‑formation below and the six yin reservoirs instantly responded, cooling and stabilising the surge.
Ankit endured the quake, teeth clenched, until the turbulence slowly faded. In the end, his chest held a compressed Solar Core ringed by a six‑sun yang array, while his lower body cradled the blue‑black Sacral Core and six‑lake yin array.
Above, fire. Below, water.
Two stars, twelve meridians, and sixteen thousand pathways all woven into a single twin‑star formation.
Ankit opened his eyes in the mantle's crimson glow, feeling both burning light and bottomless calm circulating through him.
This cultivation session had taken about two months in total, the same length of time as the Sacral side. In truth, the Solar side should have cost him far more—its pathways were wilder, its essence fiercer—but thanks to the experience he had gained while perfecting the Sacral formation, he compressed every step, forcing the entire Solar process to finish in the same two months instead of dragging on for longer.
This time, there was no testing punch. He already knew: once the Solar star had joined the Sacral star, his power had stepped into a realm that simple numbers could no longer describe.
The current Ankit was a walking natural disaster—someone who could erase a town if he went all out, endure heavy bombardment, and still recover fast enough to fight again the very next day.
In the end he still put numbers to it:
Strength -- About 120 tons (raw lifting / striking power) Techniques can spike it higher
Defense -- can withstand around 12 megajoules worth of punishment before serious injury.
Destructive power -- Single serious attack: enough to erase a large town / small city district, comparable to about 20 megajoules delivered in one strike.
Speed -- Top movement speed: around 4,500 km/hr (a bit above Mach 3.5) in straight‑line bursts.
Sensing power -- Effective sensing radius expands to about 70 km
Jumping power -- Vertical or diagonal single leap: about 18 km
Lifespan -- Extended to around 2,500 years, thanks to the balanced Solar–Sacral twin‑star system and nourished organs.
From Substage Two to Three, Ankit's power didn't just double; it became efficient. Every breath, every step, hit harder, lasted longer, and reached farther than before.
______
Ankit then uses Terrain glide to quickly reach DARK HAVEN FORTRESS.
Ankit directly enters his room room without meeting with anybody.
He doesn't worry about his family because they are with his clones and are absolutely safe in this fortress.
And now he just wanted to sleep quickly because of his more than 2 months of cultivation, he was quite tired and wants a simple rest.
He goes to sleep without even realising the changes his family had experience
Ankit then used Terrain Glide to shoot back toward Dark Haven Fortress, slipping through layers of rock until the familiar stone halls rose around him.
He emerged directly inside his own room, not bothering to meet anyone on the way. His family was with his clones inside an underground fortress built to survive wars and worse; there was nothing to worry about there. Right now, after more than two months of unbroken cultivation, his body only craved one thing—simple, ordinary sleep.
Without even taking time to sense the fortress or check on his family, Ankit dropped onto the bed and closed his eyes. Within moments he sank into deep slumber, completely unaware of how much his family had changed in his absence—and how much stronger they had already begun to grow.