Nova's awareness slammed back into his body with the force of a lightning strike.
Boooom.
For a disorienting moment, he existed in two places at once—his consciousness still floating in the infinite starlit void while simultaneously being anchored to his physical form in the small wooden cabin. The disconnect was jarring, like trying to see through two pairs of eyes that showed completely different worlds.
Then the void faded, and Nova was fully present in his body again.
Or what used to be his body.
The changes had already begun.
Nova could feel it—a fundamental restructuring happening at the cellular level, deeper even than that. His very essence was being rewritten, every aspect of his physical existence being broken down and rebuilt according to principles that transcended mortal understanding.
It started in his bones.
A heat bloomed in his marrow, spreading through his skeletal system like liquid fire. Not the destructive fire of burning, but something else—a creative flame that forged rather than consumed. His bones, which had grown brittle with age despite the recent breakthrough, began to change.
They hardened. Densified. The calcium matrix that formed their structure was being replaced with something stronger, something that existed at the border between matter and energy. Nova could feel each bone transforming, from the smallest metacarpal in his hand to the thick femur in his thigh, all of them becoming something more than mere physical structure.
His skull ached as it too underwent the transformation, the plates shifting infinitesimally as they were reinforced and enhanced.
Then the changes spread to his muscles.
Every fiber, every bundle, every microscopic protein strand was being unmade and remade. The lean muscle mass he'd gained from the breakthrough to seventh stage Qi Refining was nothing compared to what was forming now. His muscles didn't just grow—they evolved, becoming denser, more efficient, capable of generating force that would have torn his previous body apart.
Nova gasped, his chest heaving as his respiratory system adapted to support the increased demands. His lungs expanded, the alveoli multiplying and transforming into something that could process not just air but spiritual energy itself. Each breath now drew in both oxygen and qi, feeding his transforming body with exactly what it needed.
His heart pounded in his chest—faster, stronger, more powerful than any human heart should be capable of. The cardiac muscle was reinforcing itself, the chambers expanding, the valves becoming perfect mechanisms of flow control. Blood surged through his veins with increased pressure, carrying nutrients and energy to every corner of his body.
But it wasn't normal blood anymore.
Nova could feel the change in his circulatory system as well. His blood was being infused with spiritual energy, each red blood cell becoming a tiny reservoir of power. The hemoglobin that carried oxygen was being restructured to carry qi as well, making every drop of blood in his body a conductor of both life and power.
His skin tingled and burned as it too transformed. The weathered, aged appearance was melting away, replaced by skin that was smooth and flawless. But the change went deeper than cosmetics—his skin was becoming a perfect barrier between his internal systems and the external world, capable of regulating energy flow with precision, of protecting against forces that would have destroyed ordinary flesh.
Internal organs shifted and adapted. His liver and kidneys, which had been purifying his blood in the mortal sense, now gained the ability to filter spiritual impurities as well. His digestive system evolved to extract essence from not just food but from the ambient spiritual energy itself.
Even his brain was changing.
Nova felt his consciousness sharpen further as the physical structure of his brain underwent transformation. Neural pathways were being optimized, synapses restructured, the very architecture of his mind being rebuilt to support the enhanced consciousness that had been refined in the starlit void.
The hardware was catching up to the software.
Memory centers expanded. Processing speed increased exponentially. The portions of his brain responsible for comprehension and pattern recognition were being enhanced beyond anything a natural human could possess.
Throughout all of this, Nova remained conscious—aware of every excruciating pain and every ecstatic moment of change.
And through it all, he could feel the impossible energy that was fueling this transformation.
It wasn't coming from his dantian, which held only the modest reserves of a seventh stage Qi Refining cultivator. It wasn't being drawn from the ambient spiritual energy of the lower realm, which would have been depleted to catastrophic levels to support changes of this magnitude.
No, the energy was coming from somewhere else entirely.
[ENERGY SOURCE: DIMENSION OF INFINITE QI]
The mechanical voice announced it matter-of-factly, as if stating the most natural thing in the world.
[UNIQUE ACCESS: INFINITE CONSTITUTION PRIVILEGE]
[CURRENT DRAW RATE: 0.00001%]
[REALM IMPACT: NONE]
Nova's enhanced comprehension parsed the meaning immediately. There existed a dimension—a space parallel to reality itself—that contained infinite qi. Not abundant qi, not vast reserves, but truly infinite spiritual energy.
And The Infinite Constitution gave him exclusive access to it.
He was drawing energy directly from that dimension, channeling it through pathways that existed outside normal reality, using it to fuel his evolution without impacting the lower realm at all. If he'd tried to absorb this much energy from his surroundings, the entire region would have been drained dry, possibly causing permanent damage to the realm's spiritual infrastructure.
But this way, he could transform without limits.
The realization was staggering.
His body continued to change, growing taller, broader in the shoulders, his proportions shifting toward some ideal of human form. The white hair that had grown back after his initial breakthrough was darkening again, but this time it didn't stop at the deep black with silver streaks from before.
His hair became a cascade of pure midnight black, with highlights that seemed to shimmer with an inner light—not quite silver, but something that caught the eye like starlight on water. It grew longer, falling past his shoulders in waves that defied the laws of mundane aesthetics.
His face was transforming too. The handsome features he'd gained from the breakthrough to seventh stage were being refined further. His jawline became more defined, his cheekbones more prominent, his features taking on a quality that transcended mere physical attractiveness.
He was becoming beautiful in a way that seemed almost otherworldly. Like an immortal descended from the heavens, carrying an aura that would make mortals stop and stare in awe.
His height increased—not dramatically, but enough to be noticeable. From perhaps five foot nine to a solid six feet, his proportions remaining perfect throughout the change.
And through it all, his spiritual meridians were undergoing the most profound transformation of all.
The half-meridian he'd been born with—that pathetic, incomplete spiritual vein that had marked him as talentless his entire life—was being obliterated and rebuilt from scratch.
No, not rebuilt. Transcended.
Nova could feel new meridians forming, not just replacing the old but creating an entirely new network that defied conventional understanding. They branched and interconnected in patterns that shouldn't be possible, forming a web of spiritual pathways that covered his entire body with perfect efficiency.
The grade of these meridians was beyond measurement.
First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade—these classifications meant nothing here. His meridians had surpassed even Ninth Grade, pushed past what cultivators called Divine Grade, and entered a realm that had no name because nothing like it should exist in the lower realms.
General Classification: Mortal Grade(1-3), Earth Grade(4-6), Heaven Grade(7-9), Divine Grade(10-12).
[MERIDIAN GRADE: ???]
The system couldn't even classify them. They existed outside the normal hierarchy, operating on principles that transcended the lower realm's understanding of cultivation.
And they were perfect.
Every pathway was optimized for maximum qi flow with zero loss. Every junction point was positioned for ideal energy distribution. Every major and minor meridian worked in perfect harmony, creating a network that could absorb, refine, and circulate spiritual energy with an efficiency that would make even immortals jealous.
But even as his meridians evolved, Nova felt something strange happening to his cultivation base.
The seventh stage Qi Refining cultivation he'd achieved through dual cultivation with Luna—that hard-won advancement that had saved his life—was being... compressed?
No, not just compressed. Refined. Purified. Stripped down to its absolute essence.
[DETECTING IMPERFECT FOUNDATION]
[INITIATING RECONSTRUCTION]
[RETURNING CULTIVATION TO FIRST STAGE QI REFINING]
[REBUILDING WITH PERFECT FOUNDATION]
Nova wanted to panic—watching hard-earned cultivation disappear would terrify any cultivator. But his enhanced consciousness understood what was happening.
The breakthrough to seventh stage had been rushed, achieved through external means rather than natural progression. While it had saved his life and extended his lifespan, the foundation wasn't perfect. There were tiny imperfections in how the energy had settled, microscopic flaws in the structure of his dantian.
For a normal cultivator, these imperfections wouldn't matter. They'd never even notice them.
But The Infinite Constitution would not accept anything less than perfection.
So it was tearing down what he'd built and reconstructing it from the ground up, ensuring that every single aspect of his cultivation foundation was flawless. When he advanced again—and he would advance, far faster than before—he would do so from a foundation of absolute perfection.
No bottlenecks. No hidden flaws. No limitations.
Just pure, unlimited potential.
His dantian was being restructured, compressed down to a single point of crystalline perfection before being allowed to expand again. The spiritual energy that had filled it was being purified, refined to a degree that made it qualitatively superior to anything he'd possessed before.
When the process finished, Nova found himself back at the first stage of Qi Refining.
But calling it "first stage" was almost laughable. The density and purity of his spiritual energy was beyond anything he'd had at seventh stage. His foundation was diamond-hard, flawless, ready to support advancement to heights he couldn't even imagine.
The physical transformation was reaching its completion now.
Nova could feel the final touches being applied—his vocal cords adjusting to give his voice a resonance that would command attention, his eyes gaining a depth and clarity that seemed to see beyond the mere physical, even his scent changing to something subtle but compelling.
Every aspect of his physical existence had been optimized, enhanced, perfected.
He was no longer the decrepit old man who'd collapsed after reading a cultivation manual.
He wasn't even the rejuvenated thirty-year-old who'd emerged from dual cultivation with Luna.
He was something new. Something that existed at the boundary between mortal and immortal, carrying potential that would shake the foundations of the lower realm.
[PHYSICAL EVOLUTION: COMPLETE]
The mechanical voice announced with its characteristic lack of emotion.
[BLOODLINE INTEGRATION: INFINITE TERRAN BLOODLINE]
[PHYSIQUE ACTIVATION: INFINITE SACRED PHYSIQUE]
[UNIFIED DESIGNATION: THE INFINITE CONSTITUTION]
[AWAKENING PROGRESS: 1.4%]
Nova lay on the floor of his cabin, his body no longer writhing in transformation but simply adjusting to its new state. Every breath felt like the first breath of a newborn experiencing air for the first time. Every heartbeat resonated with power that seemed to echo in his very bones.
He could feel the difference in everything. The weight of his own body, the way air moved across his skin, the subtle vibrations of spiritual energy that permeated the world. His senses had been sharpened to an impossible degree—he could hear insects crawling in the grass outside, smell the medicinal herbs in Luna's distant palace, feel the minute fluctuations in ambient qi concentration.
But beyond the physical changes, Nova was aware of something else.
Knowledge. Understanding. Clarity.
His mind, which had struggled to comprehend even basic cultivation concepts, now processed information with frightening speed and accuracy. The Primordial Yin-Yang Fusion Scripture, which had seemed like gibberish hours ago, was now completely transparent to him. He could see not just how it worked but why, could identify ways to optimize it, could even envision modifications that would enhance its effectiveness.
Every technique he'd memorized from Luna's library sat in his mind like perfectly organized files, ready to be accessed and executed at a moment's notice. Yellow tier to Heaven tier, hundreds of methods, all of them completely mastered.
And underlying it all was a certainty, a confidence that came from deep within his transformed being.
He could learn anything. Understand anything. Master anything.
The limitations that had defined his existence were gone, burned away in the fires of awakening.
Nova slowly opened his eyes, staring at the wooden ceiling of his cabin.
Then the mechanical voice spoke again, and this time there was something different about it—a formality, a significance that made the air itself seem to hold its breath.
[EVOLUTION COMPLETE]
[THE INFINITE CONSTITUTION SYSTEM: AWAKENING]
[INTEGRATING ABILITIES]
[CONFIRMING HOST IDENTITY]
A presence bloomed in Nova's consciousness—not external, but somehow separate from himself. Like a new layer of awareness that had always been there but only now made itself known.
The system. The manifestation of The Infinite Constitution itself.
[ABILITIES INTEGRATED]
[HOST CONFIRMED]
[INITIALIZING STATUS DISPLAY]
And then, in Nova's mind's eye, something appeared that would have seemed impossible just hours before.
A status window. A systematic breakdown of everything he'd become.
But Nova wasn't ready to look at it yet. His body needed time to adjust, his mind needed time to process.
He lay there on the floor of his small cabin, transformed beyond recognition, and for the first time in three hundred years—no, for the first time in countless lifetimes across the multiverse—Nova Solis allowed himself to feel something he'd thought was lost forever.
Pride.
Not arrogance. Not false confidence. But genuine, earned pride in what he'd become.
The awakening wasn't complete. 1.4% was barely a beginning. But it was his beginning.
And nothing would ever be the same.
[STATUS WINDOW READY]
[DISPLAY: Y/N]
Nova took a deep breath, feeling his perfected lungs draw in air and qi with equal ease.
"Yes," he whispered. "Show me."
And the system responded.