Another two years had passed. Lucien was now sixteen.
His entire bearing had transford. Each husk he shed remade him completely, purging the remnants of mortality that once clung to his being. Impurities had ceased to exist. They were burned away, expelled, or shattered under the pressure of evolution.
He now stood tall at nearly one hundred ninety centiters. His face was unblemished, his features were more refined, his once-cracked voice was now deep and resonant.
The Unyielding Sovereign Aura he emanated only magnified his presence. It made him look like sothing beyond human.
’Even the domineering CEOs from my past life couldn’t hold a candle to ,’ he mused with faint amusent.
Lucien stood atop a mountain, gazing down at Lootwell below. A strange smile curved his lips.
For the first year, he had devoted himself solely to training. It had been arduous, even tornting. More than once, he was tempted to cross over to the Big World where power and opportunity awaited. But reason anchored him.
He knew better. Without reaching the Transcendent Realm, he would be nothing more than cannon fodder in that world.
And so, he endured.
’Better face difficulty now than later.’
He sought the extres. He went to places that could test and refine every aspect of his being. He bathed in molten volcanoes. He swam through the crushing depths of the sea. He even subjected himself to countless trials that would have reduced lesser beings to ash.
Among those trials was one of madness. Bathing in Ashreth’s Essence.
The Law of Fire itself burned within that essence. It was raw and unforgiving. Lucien did not consu all of it. He reserved a fragnt, sensing it would serve a greater purpose soday.
But still, the process nearly destroyed him.
His body ruptured, healed and ruptured again as it struggled under the overwhelming law. His mind was also scoured by the unending agony that eventually transcended pain itself. His soul was burned, dissolved and reforged through death and rebirth.
Through this crucible, Lucien’s being evolved.
His body overca mortal limits, purging the impurities of flesh like hunger, sickness, lust.
His mind shed its mortal attachnts, expanding awareness toward higher existence.
And his soul that was tempered through dissolution returned whole, stronger that ever.
Yet even after all of that, sothing was still missing.
To complete the final stage of the tamorphosis Realm, Lucien needed to attain Spiritual Saturation.
Spirit... It’s different from Soul.
Spirit is the unseen thread that bound Body, Mind, and Soul. It was the essence that animated existence itself.
When Body, Mind, and Soul were refined to their utmost, they no longer veiled the Spirit.
At a certain point... the Spirit will overflow. It will rge with its vessel, not rely animating it... but becoming one with it.
That state was called Spiritual Saturation.
It was not an ascension upward... but a return inward. It’s the cracking of the mortal shell, revealing what was divine all along.
But Lucien realized that refinent alone could not bring it forth. It required sothing more.
Enlightennt.
If Refinent is the outer journey, Enlightennt is the inner realization.
"Refinent prepares. Enlightennt ignites. Saturation occurs when both unite."
He rembered that phrase from the Mural World.
So during the second year... Lucien chose to return ho. He resud his duties as Lord, walking once again among his people.
He observed them. Their laughter. Their toil. Their joys. He watched children chase each other through the streets, workers laughing together under the sun, rchants calling out with pride.
In witnessing their ordinary lives, Lucien saw the extraordinary truth behind existence.
He ca to understand life not as a gift to be received... but as aning to be created.
’The aning of life is to give life a aning.’
It sounded simple and even foolish, yet it resonated deeply within him. Existence was not ant to take aning from gods, fate, or destiny... but to forge it from within.
That realization struck sothing profound in him. And in that stillness of understanding... his Spirit overflowed.
His energies surged. His body, mind, and soul aligned. And at that mont, his Spirit rged with his vessel.
Lucien had reached Spiritual Saturation.
He had finally shed the last remnants of his mortal husk.
...
Back atop the mountain, Lucien watched as his territory thrived beneath him. His people flourished and the land itself seed alive.
He was now standing at the threshold. Half a step into the Transcendent Realm.
Two long years of struggle and awakening had passed.
He had once feared that shedding his mortal essence would strip him of emotion, turning him into sothing cold and detached. But he was wrong. The process did not erase who he was. It revealed him.
Still, Lucien had learned to let go of many attachnts.
He took out a small notebook... the one filled with "cool phrases" he had collected in his past life. He stared at it with a hint of cringe then smiled.
"I’ve outgrown you. So long... I’m too old for this."
He summoned fla to his hand and the notebook of ’badass lines’ burned to ash.
Just then, footsteps approached.
Vivian.
"Brother! I’ve been looking for you forever! Can I please get the next volu of Domineering CEO: My Handso Boss Secretly Loves ?"
Lucein fell silent.
Lucien froze.
He clutched his chest in mock pain.
"Ouch! Sister, I’ve been gone for so long and you don’t even ask if I’m alright? You’ve changed! Are you an impostor?"
Vivian rolled her eyes.
"Lulu, you’re getting good at acting. Who could possibly hurt you in this world? I just trust you enough."
"Please don’t call Lulu anymore," he sighed.
He’d spoiled her too much. Vivian had beco a full-blown otaku.
Lucien glanced at her again and sighed for what felt like the hundredth ti. Then he noticed sothing different.
"Sis... maybe try exercising once in a while?"
He then... poked her slightly round belly.
Vivian blushed furiously.
"Brother! I hate you!"
She activated her Wings of Atonent, leaping off the mountain and flying straight back at Lootwell.
Lucien shook his head, watching her antics.
’My fault,’ he thought. ’I fed her too much of Earth’s culture.’
Of course, he’d filtered everything he shared with her. Not a single degenerate works. ’How would I ever explain that to Mother in heaven?’
He even used False Genesis to replicate the books he conjured so he could take them outside his divine energy core.
"Sigh again. This skill wasn’t supposed to be used this way," he muttered.
Lucien turned back to his thriving territory.
Towers rose in the distance. High-rises were under construction. The Crafting Division was in full swing. It was more productive than ever thanks to the Heartforge Furnace and Morphy’s help.
Morphy could imitate anyone, even Seren and her unique skills. Together they worked in perfect synchrony.
The duo now oversaw the mines, ensuring the safe extraction of Spirit Crystals newly ford within the place where Lucien planted the Spirit Mountain.
Through their skill Essence Shift, they even transferred the luminous properties of dungeon walls to ordinary stone, lighting the paths for miners.
Lucien is no longer worried about materials too. The gargoyles, Donastone and his countless siblings... could just offer their limbs as rare resources. With their current strength, they can just regenerate almost instantly.
It was an endless supply.
Everything was in motion.
And Lucien knew it was ti.
To learn a Law... and ascend to the Transcendent Realm.
After that, he would enter the Big World... and build a new ho far from the invaders.
•••
Lucien went once again to et the Primordial Sli.
Before he could even ask, the sli spoke first.
[It’s been a long ti since you ca. Seeing your progress... you ca here to ask about the Laws, didn’t you?]
Lucien gulped. "So you already knew..."
[You ca here but it seems you already know the answer.]
He hesitated. Truthfully, he had been debating what Law to pursue. Life and Death? Reflection? Elental Laws?
But he had thought of an even greater one.
"Right," Lucien said at last. "If I integrate with the Law of Creation, will I be able to use the others as well?"
The chamber fell silent. Then the Primordial Sli answered slowly.
[Smart question. To beco a Transcendent, one must integrate with a single Law.]
It paused.
[And yes. By learning the Law of Creation, you can access the others.]
Lucien’s eyes widened. A spark of realization flashed within them.
[But of course, there’s a catch.]
"Figures," he muttered.
[If one integrates with the Law of Creation, they are not just mastering a single elent of reality... they are touching the root of all manifestation itself.
In theoretical essence, a being who fully integrates with the Law of Creation could perceive, shape, or even give rise to other Laws...
To master Creation is not to hold every brushstroke... It is to beco the painter who can make them all.]
Lucien’s eyes widened. Those words ignited sothing within him. His soul trembled with understanding.
The Primordial continued.
[But you cannot beco all law at once. Even a being of Creation cannot beco all things simultaneously... because to create is an act of distinction.
Creation defines what is by separating it from what is not.
That ans a Creator can shape the Laws, observe them, and even birth new ones... but cannot exist as all of them at once without collapsing individuality.]
Lucien fell into silence, digesting the truth.
If he chose Creation, he could not integrate with another Law.. but he could still use them.
That was enough.
He only needed comprehension, not domination. And with the drops he possessed, understanding them would co naturally.
More importantly, mastering Creation would grant him the ans to counter any Law. It’s a necessity when facing beings above the tamorphosis Realm.
He looked up at the sli and asked. "Then... how do I begin?"
[Don’t you already know the answer to that? Look back to the inheritances you received.]
Lucien froze. His mind raced.
’The Law of Creation... wasn’t I already using it?’
Inside his divine energy core... Unknowingly, he had been shaping worlds, forming objects, weaving reality.
Realization struck him.
[Good. Go now.]
Lucien bowed deeply and left in excitent.
Behind him, the Primordial Sli remained still. A strange glint flickered within its form. An emotion no one could na.
What it thought at that mont, no one knew.
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