Ankit sat cross-legged in the profound silence of his sealed cultivation chamber, the air around him humming faintly with the residue of golden light that still lingered like morning mist.
He turned his awareness inward, cycling essence through the newly unified circuit. Power coursed through him—not as a raging flood, but as an endless, tranquil ocean whose depths he could now plumb at will.
Calmly, methodically, he assessed the changes. As was his habit after every breakthrough, he etched mental notes, comparing the growth across each substage of Stage 4.
Substage 1 – Third eye Core Awakening
Strength: 6,000 tons
Defense: 1,500 MJ
Destructive power: 2,000 MJ
Speed: 60,000 km/h
Sensing range: 1,500 km
Lifespan: 24,000 years
Substage 2 – Energy Pathways (12,000 total pathways, 8,000 major)
Strength: 7,500 tons
Defense: 2,000 MJ
Destructive power: 2,600 MJ
Speed: 85,000 km/h
Sensing range: 2,000 km
Lifespan: 26,000 years
Substage 3 – Compression
Strength: 10,000 tons
Defense: 5,000 MJ
Destructive power: 5,000 MJ
Speed: 100,000 km/h
Sensing range: 3,000 km
Lifespan: 30,000 years
Substage 4 – Core and Soul integration
Strength: 15,000 tons
Defense: 10,000 MJ
Destructive power: 12,000 MJ
Speed: 200,000 km/h
Sensing range: 10,000 km
Lifespan: 50,000 years
Substage 5 – Body and soul unification
Strength: 30,000 tons
Defense: 30,000 MJ
Destructive power: 30,000 MJ
Speed: 500,000 km/h
Sensing range: 30,000 km
Lifespan: 70,000 years
The leap satisfied him deeply. He had not merely strengthened his body—he had fused flesh and soul into a single, seamless existence. The third eye core now blazed eternally open, granting him piercing insight into the threads of fate, essence flows invisible to others, and the hidden truths behind all phenomena. His perception pierced illusions as easily as mist; his will could extend through the unified circuit to subtly influence reality within his sensing range. Time itself seemed to slow in his presence when he wished it.
No surprise stirred within him. Such exponential growth was the natural reward for perfecting the six-core nexus and awakening the third eye. The foundation he had forged was flawless—immovable, radiant, eternal.
Ankit exhaled slowly, the sound echoing like distant thunder in the chamber.
Now came the naming.
He take help from "online forums" he had access to, sifting through records of forgotten paths and lost immortal arts. Names flashed before his eye: Soul-Body Harmonization, Six Luminaries Convergence, Primal Nexus Ascension…
None quite captured the truth of what he had achieved.
At last, one phrase resonated perfectly with the golden circuit now pulsing as one within him.
He nodded once, a faint smile touching his lips.
Stage 4 would be known henceforth as—
The Nexus Unification Stage.
Body and soul, no longer two, but one indivisible whole.
Ankit rose to his feet in a single, fluid motion—no strain, no creak of joints, only the quiet certainty of a being whose every movement was an extension of perfect will.
Five months had passed in seclusion.
25 July, 2020.
A thought stirred, and space folded like silk.
In the span of an instant, he vanished from the chamber and reappeared atop the elevated observation platform overlooking the central training grounds of his fortress.
Divine sense unfurled.
Once, it had been mere spiritual perception. Now, after the Nexus Unification, it was truly divine—capable of blanketing the entirety of the Asian continent in a single sweep. Every leaf trembling in the Himalayas, every heartbeat in the streets, every whisper of essence—he could perceive it all, down to the minutest fluctuation.
To do so would drown him in an avalanche of information, a torrent sharp enough to wound even his unified soul. He restrained himself. For now, he extended only enough to envelop the fortress and its surrounding hundred kilometers—a gentle veil rather than a storm.
Within that veil, his family shone like beacons.
Mother, father, younger sister—all gathered on the main training field, practicing. Their auras had grown noticeably stronger in his absence, tempered by the resources and techniques.
Then he linked his mind to his clones, wants to fully understand the changes in his absence.
Five streams of memory and awareness flowed into him like rivers returning to the sea.
The Heart Clone had, in his absence, forged an entirely new profession: Divine Sage—a path that wove insight, karma, prophecy, and counsel into a single unparalleled art. Those who walked it could read the threads of fate, offer guidance that shifted destinies, and perceive truths hidden.
When Ankit had integrated the Third eye core with his soul in Substage 4, the Third Eye Clone—already the most perceptive among them—had exploded in strength. The Divine Sage profession bloomed fully within him.