Beyond The System
Chapter 106: Through the Stomach

‘Spiritual Sense?’ I echoed, surprised.

‘That’s right,’ Wyrem confirmed.

So other creatures could develop it too. I’d heard of it before, but I hadn’t truly understood what it felt like until I’d shared a body with him. ‘How do you improve it?’

He was quiet for a moment.

‘It’s… complicated. Understanding how Force shapes the world on a practical level is essential, but there’s something deeper too. Some creatures are born with it, able to increase it power naturally, others like me, have to earn it slowly. Very slowly.’

Something to figure out later.

‘Alright, you two do your thing,’ I said, sending a fresh wave of Beast Force toward both Luna and Wyrem. ‘I’m going to experiment with something.’

I closed my eyes and sank into silence, shutting out every distraction, internal and external. No movement or voices. Just pure stillness.

Only my thoughts remained, and the faint sensation of the universe's energy brushing against my skin. I let the different forces wash over me, training my senses to feel their nuances, their temperatures, their speeds, and the flow of their motion.

Time passed, though I couldn’t say how much, and it didn’t matter. I hadn’t started cultivating yet, just observing.

Eventually, I felt ready.

Every strand of energy that slid through and around me, I could tell them apart now. The cool, gliding touch of Water Force, and the raw, pulsing thread of Natural Force. They no longer blurred together.

I allowed myself a brief break in focus to top off my Grand Channel. Thea had once said that forming an ideal core meant condensing all the gathered energy in your body. Failure would be catastrophic for most people, which is probably why most don’t even bother with cultivation in the first place.

Still, I was pretty sure I’d succeed, and even if I didn’t, Perfect Conversion could patch things up fast enough. Not to mention that with Body Refinement, I’d be moderately safe, at least during recovery.

Alright, stop justifying. This is the right move.

I activated my internal flame, and instantly, my control sharpened like a blade sliding across wet stone. Its heat bloomed through me, familiar now. Condensing Internal Force wasn’t a new concept anymore. I’d done it countless times: shaped weapons from it, molded objects, refined my body. I knew this process.

But this? This was different.

The volume, the pressure I was using, it was a torrent, alive with purpose, humming like it wanted to speak, to warn me of what came next. It surged, spiraling toward my Nexus like a tide pulled by the majesty of the moon.

I hesitated with another thought rising to the surface. The Voidseed. Would it interfere? Consume the energy? But thankfully, it just pulsed softly in place contentedly, full from its last feast.

Then the weight of what I was doing hit me. All that energy. Every drop, every thread, every echo I’d cultivated since this journey began was draining into a single spot. It was like someone was extracting my breath with a syringe. My thoughts blurred and the world started to thin.

I felt… untethered.

How the hell did people do this with less energy? With weaker force? No wonder people failed.

A whirlpool of gold began to take shape, swirling tighter and tighter in the furnace of my Nexus. Then it changed, becoming more dense and thick, turning to something like molten metal. Still fluid, but heavier. More real.

I forced a breath, even as my awareness shrank into my throat.

Then, with effort I didn’t know I had, I pressed and shaped it. Compressed it down, and drove it inward into itself, again and again, until it became a single, gleaming sphere.

I pushed, holding my breath, eyes fixed on the golden sphere I’d created. A smooth, radiant, and undeniably new object. My cultivation structure had changed fundamentally.

But there was no thunderclap. No divine proclamation. No shattering of sky or surge of enlightenment.

Just... normal, stable progress.

A still, reverent quiet, wrapped around the soft flicker of the Gold Core, floating gently within a spiral of red lightning and violet flame. And at its center, the Voidseed—a minuscule black heart, steady and still.

That was it. Core formed.

I stared at it, wondering how long it would take to generate anything. How it even worked. But if my theory about elemental interference was right, I didn’t have time to sit around and wait.

Next step: Absorb Water Force.

I closed my eyes and sank into the memories, those lingering visions like fog at the edge of waking. Water-filled stars teeming with ancient life. Colossal sea monsters gliding through turquoise luminance. Worlds born in the current of something vast and unknowable.

Then the cold came back stronger now.

It crept across my skin, slid beneath it, like frost crawling through my bones. The air in the chamber shifted to something still and dense, heavy with invisible weight. Every breath felt slower. More deliberate as I took one.

The season changed around me, and I hadn’t moved an inch.

The serpent returned in memory, its cosmic coils winding through space with the inevitability of tides and gravity. It silenced storms, calmed the flame that breathed life, and carved out space for that life to grow.

It wasn’t power through destruction. It was dominance through presence. Through control.

A gasp tore from my throat as the cold sank deeper into my marrow, into my core. Around me, the world responded. The wood creaked and groaned under invisible pressure, or rather, than the wood, it was the water within it, freezing and splitting its host in protest. Faint pops and snaps echoed like cracking glass, brittle and sharp in the quiet.

Its gaze.

That massive eye, cosmic and unblinking, aware of me in a way that pierced through skin, soul, and thought. It didn't just see me, it seemed to understand me, everything I was.

The vision deepened of the entity of unknowable scale, that strange orb it gave now buried somewhere within me, sleeping, waiting. Along with those mysterious beings made of World Force.

I drew in a final breath, one that was slow and deep, and with it, something answered. Just a thread, a whisper of energy. No stronger than what I could absorb at the very start of this journey.

But it was different to my growing elation. Cool, smooth and still, curling around my Nexus in a slow, deliberate spiral like it was dancing with my Beast Force. Harmonizing with the system I had grown.

I’d finally done it.

Water Force gliding through me in calm, perfect circles. Not mine yet, not fully, but it was there. The first step toward the elemental harmony I craved.

It took more effort to absorb than usual, but eventually, like with the gold... ugh. What is that? I don’t feel so good.

This sensation… I hadn’t felt it since... My eyes flew open.

“I haven’t felt that since I completed purification!” I shouted, the revelation crashing down. “HA… HAHA… HAHAHAHA!” Laughter burst out of me, uncontrollable. “I HAVEN’T FELT THAT SINCE BODY REFINEMENT!”

‘He’s gone mad,’ Wyrem muttered in despair.

‘No... he’s always been like this,’ Luna replied calmly. ‘Since I met him anyway.’

But I couldn’t care less. Discovery has led to even more discovery. More understanding. More growth. More power.

“Okay stop, exercise. I need to move,” I muttered, mostly to myself. I jumped straight into star aerobics, trying to burn the new energy while testing my theory.

It confirmed itself almost immediately. World Force bled from me, not just through the fractured leaks in my channel, but naturally.

Perfect Conversion was gone, and I couldn't help but smile.

Because within me, a new force had begun to stir. A teal, not-so-dark-blue anymore, thread of energy, coiling gently around my channel. It pulsed, circulated, and released tiny fragments into my muscles, subtly strengthening them.

My own Internal Water Force.

I was starting over. Back at the beginning of cultivation but also, further than I’d ever been.

‘I—I don’t believe it,’ Wyrem whispered in awe, the so-called dragon descendant clearly rattled as my effort brushed past his energy form. ‘THIS IS SOUP, YOUNG MAN!’ he roared joyfully and promptly dove for my meager energy reserves.

‘No you don’t.’ Luna snagged him mid-lunge, her roots wrapping tight.

‘I SAID NO BINDING!’

‘Try to eat the good food now, and there won’t be any left,’ she said matter-of-factly, refusing to let go.

‘…Put me down, little girl.’ He stopped struggling, his roots loosening with reluctant dignity.

Then Wyrem spoke toward me, serious now. ‘You have my cooperation from now on.’

It was a final, absolute solidification of our partnership.

The way to a monster’s heart, after all, was through its stomach.

Luna. Wyrem. Me. A trio of ambitious, power-hungry, unapologetically ravenous creatures. I appreciated the humor in it.

"I am a genius comic."

Somewhere between the two of them, two voices muttered in unison, “Whatever." "You’re funny?”

Couldn’t even tell who what.

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