Chapter 35: Infant Soul

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Infant Soul

The Spiritual Path—more commonly known across the cosmos as the [Soul Path] is the legendary cultivation track where a practitioner must directly temper the metaphysical blueprint of their soul.

Structurally, it has a core known as the Soul Core, same as the Warrior and Arcane paths.

However, the fundamental divergence lies entirely within the energies and the development process itself .

Instead of drawing upon standard ambient cosmic energy, Soul Path practitioners must manipulate an entirely distinct, rare energy: Spiritual Energy .

Without an innate baseline sensitivity to Spiritual Energy, cultivating the Spiritual Path is impossible. What makes this specific energy system so magical is its dual-layered biological interaction.

While its primary function is to aggressively empower and nourish the raw soul, it simultaneously bleeds an ambient current of vitality into the cultivator’s physical body.

Though this passive physical reinforcement is noticeably less efficient than the targeted muscle conditioning of the Warrior or Arcane paths, its true, absolute power remains locked within the conceptual realm of the mind.

Soul cultivators possess the absolute authority to manipulate the souls of others, execute instantaneous telekinesis, establish telepathic neural networks, and enforce absolute mind control over vast populations.

As their rank scales upward, their raw mental output reaches terrifying thresholds of absolute destruction. An EX-rank Soul Master can effortlessly fracture an entire burning star with a single, casual telekinetic flex of their thoughts, or cleanly rip the souls out of billions of living citizens across a planetary system in a fraction of a second.

It is for this exact reason that Soul Path cultivation is universally recognized as the single strongest, most devastating path in existence.

Naturally, this supreme lethality also renders it the absolute rarest track across the known universe; approximately 99.7% of all cosmic cultivators belong to the physical and magical tracks, leaving a near-invisible 0.3% of the global population capable of walking the path of the soul.

And its highest know talent rank was only at Transcendent rank.

"Soul cultivation truly is an exceptionally complex and terrifyingly powerful path," Aeon murmured to himself, his eyes narrowing as he sat cross-legged over the golden waves. "It’s no wonder the known universe holds such a microscopic number of Soul Masters. I guess the underlying laws of reality ensure that not just any ordinary person can become a Spiritual Path cultivator."

He paused, letting the vast library of ancient theories he had studied over the past five years—combined with the primordial knowledge he had unraveled inside the Archive tower, settle cleanly into his thoughts.

"But while the path is considered an impossible nightmare by the rest of the universe, it isn’t that complex or difficult for me to navigate. Even so, I must maintain absolute precision during this run. A single mistake within the soul pathways means a huge pain in the ass."

Locking down his awareness, he carefully reviewed the standardized baseline system required to activate the very first tier of the soul path: the F-rank.

Under the traditional cultivation laws of Nexos Earth, a beginner trying to initialize the F-rank of the Soul Path must methodically clear three sequential milestones:

Milestone 1, Manually isolate and sense ambient Spiritual Energy.

Milestone 2, Break through the mental veil to enter the Sea of Consciousness.

Milestone 3, Draw Spiritual Energy inward to gently nurture the dormant Soul Core

Unlike ambient cosmic energy, which newly awakened children can easily perceive and subtly manipulate the exact second they step away from the Awakening Crystal—Spiritual Energy is entirely invisible to the physical senses.

It requires a cultivator to sit in deep, absolute sensory absence, manually forcing their awareness to filter through the background noise of the atmosphere to locate its signature.

Once a cultivator successfully anchors this baseline connection and masters the F-rank, sensing this energy transforms into a permanent, automatic instinct.

The subsequent step requires breaking through the mental barrier to tap directly into one’s Sea of Consciousness—the isolated internal realm where an entity’s conscious awareness, active soul, and foundational Soul Core physically reside.

The final milestone demands utilizing that siphoned Spiritual Energy to gently nurture and stabilize the raw Soul Core.

Unlike the physical cores of the other two paths, where an accidental structural collapse or an over-refinement failure merely leaves the user heavily crippled with a minor percentage chance of actual death, the Soul Core recognizes zero mistakes.

If a cultivator’s Soul Core is fractured or destroyed during training, absolute death is instantaneously guaranteed. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

The moment a normal practitioner successfully completes these three steps, they are officially recognized as a low F- rank cultivator. To advance further toward the peak F+ rank, they must continuously refine raw Spiritual Energy, packing it into the core until the sphere is completely filled.

But as always, Aeon’s re-engineered cultivation plan was completely insane, dangerous, and custom-made to break the laws of the universe.

"Instead of wastefully spending time gently nourishing an empty Soul Core like a common cultivator, I’m going to alter the entire structure," Aeon declared, a predatory smirk playing across his lips as his radical idea took form. "I will skip the baseline steps entirely and forge a Soul Seed right at the starting line."

In the established history of cosmic cultivation, a Soul Seed is an exceptionally advanced, highly condensed spiritual matrix that even the most talented Soul Masters cannot attempt to manifest until they successfully reach the advanced C-rank.

Once created at that high tier, the cultivator must nurture the seed over time until it successfully mutates into an Infant Soul—the very first evolutionary stage where a soul breaks away from being a simple sphere and takes a physical, autonomous form.

Depending on the cultivator’s primary lineage, whether they are a dragon, an elf, or a human—the newly born Infant Soul will perfectly mirror their true racial anatomy, manifesting as a miniature infant version of their adult form.

The sheer audacity of trying to force a C-rank evolutionary process into a baseline F-rank soul cultivation would puzzle and terrify any veteran cultivator or being.

But this didn’t mean Aeon would technically be at C-rank master. It simply meant his development path was unimaginably different from anything the universe had ever witnessed.

"Once I successfully compress the Soul Seed and force it to undergo accelerated evolution into an Infant Soul, I won’t stop there," Aeon said, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, brilliant light. "I will deliberately place my primary Soul Core directly into the center of my Infant Soul’s forehead.

Then, I will activate my custom runic process to aggressively destroy and recreate both the core and the soul simultaneously—exactly like the apocalyptic method I used to refine my lower dantian and heart cores."

Under the universal laws of existence, attempting to atomize one’s own soul would result in instant, permanent extinction. But backed by the absolute fail-safe authority of his [Rune of Primal Life], Aeon knew with absolute certainty that his consciousness would remain entirely anchored to reality.

"Furthermore, I will optimize the energy synthesis. The ancient texts of Omni-Genesis Cosmos Scripture stated that cultivating the highest form of the soul requires a unified mixture of both pure Spiritual Energy and raw cosmic energy.

Since I command absolute dominion over the primordialenergies, I will completely replace the basic cosmic energy requirement, using a perfect synthesis of raw Spiritual Energy and my sixteen primordial energies."

Concluding his structural calculations, Aeon wasted no more time and immediately opened his awareness to hunt for the element.

Within a mere couple of seconds, his Infinite Talent bypassed the traditional sensory barriers effortlessly. a warm, pure white spectrum of energy particles manifested clearly within his perception, floating lazily through the atmosphere.

The moment the hidden energy interacted with his consciousness, a wave of profound calmness slammed into his mind, accompanied by a sudden, dizzying mental weight.

However, the initial dizziness vanished the exact second it arrived. With his energy connection anchored, Aeon shifted his awareness inward, initiating the advanced internal inspection technique to break through the veil of his mind.

Within a brief minute, his consciousness successfully transitioned past the barrier, and he found himself standing seamlessly on top of a vast expanse of crystal-blue water.

This was his personal Sea of Consciousness.

The internal mental realm stretched out across a staggering horizon, expanding for hundreds of thousands of miles beneath a beautiful, pristine blue sky dotted with drifting white clouds.

Suspended quietly in mid-air a few meters directly in front of his face was his raw Soul Core—a completely translucent, hollow white sphere.

Aeon looked around the monumental expanse, thoroughly amazed by the breathtaking beauty and the near-endless spatial capacity of his own mind. Witnessing something so intensely magical and majestic always filled him with a deep sense of wonder.

Refusing to break his focus, Aeon dropped into a cross-legged meditative posture directly on top of the internal blue sea, opening his physical forehead pathway to draw the external white Spiritual Energy straight into his Sea of Consciousness.

The moment the white energy particles flooded into his inner space, he locked down his will, ruthlessly compressing the raw power until it condensed into a dense, vibrating, two-meter wide sphere of pure white light.

Without pausing, he activated his primordial energy control, drawing the raw primordial energies of his sixteen affinities straight into his mind as well, packing them into an identical, multi-colored energy sphere right next to the first one.

Then came the dangerous part. Fusing the two energy spheres.

Initially, the two massive bodies of power violently repelled one another. The Primordial energies and the raw Spiritual Energy clashed fiercely at a conceptual level, threatening to tear his internal mental space to pieces.

But Aeon merely cold-snorted. Unleashing the absolute authority of both energies and his unyielding mental control, he ruthlessly crushed their resistance, forcing the two clashing spheres to completely dissolve and blend into a singular, highly compressed, multi-colored energy orb.

With the primary energy mixture successfully stabilized, he moved straight to the next critical phasee. Extracting his Soul Blood to initialize the seed.

Soul Blood represented the absolute, ultimate genetic essence of a living being’s spiritual existence. Just as physical marrow-born blood continuously nourishes and reinforces the cells of a physical body, Soul Blood functions as the ultimate requirement needed to nourish, strengthen, and structurally evolve the architecture of the soul itself.

This precious essence was kept securely locked within the center of his hollow Soul Core. Moving with meticulous, razor-sharp precision, Aeon reached his awareness into the white sphere, carefully siphoning out a steady stream of his glowing Soul Blood and guiding it to make direct contact with the floating multi-colored energy orb.

The exact millisecond the pure spiritual blood touched the edge of the compressed energy sphere, the entire energy spiraled violently out of control. The energies flared chaotically, and the orb began to swell and crackle, on the verge of detonating in a catastrophic boom.

But Aeon had already fully anticipated the volatile reaction. Maintaining a state of unshakeable calmness, he perfectly manipulated and controlled them to clamp down on the fracturing energy.

He squeezed the orb with his ironclad will, relentlessly compressing the massive sphere little by little, forcing the volatile energies to collapse inward until the towering mass of power successfully condensed down into a single, highly dense, drop of multi-colored liquid.

This was his completed, customized Soul Seed.

The tiny liquid drop suspended itself in mid-air, emitting an incredibly intense, high energy fluctuation that caused the surrounding fabric of his mental space to ripple with visible spatial distortion.

Aeon smiled, gently releasing his mental grip on the seed, allowing the multi-colored drop to fall straight down into the blue sea beneath his posture.

The exact moment the liquid drop broke the surface and entered the internal ocean, the entire realm fell into a dead, breathless silence for one brief heartbeat.

Aeon blinked, a sudden thought passing through his mind that he might have made a mistake during the fusion. But in the very next second, the tranquil blue water beneath him violently erupted.

A massive, roaring spiritual whirlpool formed right where the drop had landed, causing a huge commotion.

After a few moments of rapid fluctuation, the roaring whirlpool smoothly dissolved back into the sea, leaving a half meter long , multi-colored Dragon Egg resting quietly on top of the water, its surface shimmering with an intricate, glowing network of distant stars.

"Alright. This is a complete success. All i have to do now is wait for it to hatch." Aeon murmured, a confident, knowing smile spreading across his face as he examined the cosmic shell. The fact that his advanced soul structure had manifested as an egg didn’t bother or shock his analytical mind at all.

It was completely understandable and logically sound. Since his true lineage was that of a Dragon, it was entirely natural for his Infant Soul to hatch directly from a draconic egg.

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