Chapter 23: An Heir For A Legacy

“Hahaha!” Zax’s voice rolled as he laughed in jubilation. “Sooner than I anticipated. Good, good!” He was pleasantly surprised, since now he would able to spend a while longer in New Earth before leaving for Ercas Mir.

“Let’s see how my Inner Panorama and soul have changed”. He entered his sea of consciousness to have a look.

‘Whoaa! It’s so abundance! So that is the sea of consciousness of a second realm soul!’ Before he even got to his Inner Panorama or soul, Zax was captivated by the transformation of his sea of consciousness.

The space that had been like an empty shell, occupied by the tiny soul and a patch of Inner Panorama, was now a sea and a sky of grayish colors.

Zax’s manifested form stood at the edge of his Inner Panorama. His bare legs could feel the sensation of water splashing on them as the sea water gushed. Although it was a cool and harmless feeling, Zax’s hunch told him that despite this sea and sky being his, he should not underestimate them.

‘I wonder... ‘ Zax mused before calming himself completely. As he did, the sea water was subdued into a state of tranquility and the grayish sky also stood still.

‘They are affected by my mood’. Zax smiled in satisfaction. Nevertheless, he continued to refrain from stepping into the sea. He somewhat had the impression that regardless of its state, it would not by accommodating as the Inner Panorama.

Zax turned his attention to his primary objects of interest, first, the Inner Panorama.

It was a circular field of what looked to be hundreds of thousands of kilometers in parameter. It was grand beyond Zax’s expectations, vastly more than prior to his comprehending of the fifth bottleneck of insight. In the field grew countless blooming black flowers, and they stretched throughout the entirety of the Inner Panorama. What was amazing about these flowers, though, was how they exuded an obscure impression of each and every of the bottlenecks of insight that Zax perceived, and how they seemed to move along his feet as he walked atop the land of the Inner Panorama.

‘They look like they reached the peak of their growth. For some reason I feel as if the last bottleneck will not make the flowers metamorphose further’.

Zax familiarity with the black flowers was short and limited by his capacity to investigate them. However, due to them being part of him, he was able to have this deduction.

‘The world energy ... I can now better sense it in my Inner Panorama than outside. And it’s converting and circulating much more comfortably in my body’. It was quite a surprise for Zax, which made wonder if he should laugh or cry.

Before he comprehended the fifth bottleneck, Zax assumed that it would be decades of world energy absorption before it would be enough for his body to break through the second realm. Now, he feels like five years is the longest that he would need, which will slightly be troublesome since soon he will leave to Ercas Mir and the laws there prevent second realm New Earth’s natives from traveling freely.

‘I don’t believe that I’ll spend more than two and a half years in Ercas Mir, but I should be careful either way. Senior Ariel and Earth’s Records said nothing about how the five powers enforce their rules’.

The issue could not be dealt with before he will leave to Ercas Mir, and Zax did not intend to cultivate his body after this session, so he put the matter on hold until his departure and proceeded to examine his soul.

‘It certainly changed from the grand shape it had before’.

The soul was in a spherical form, having a diameter of one hundred and ninety one centimeters, same as Zax’s height.

‘Odd, I can finally see it clearly, but... ‘ Zax was a tad uncomfortable by the change to his soul.

For the very first time it was perfectly lucid, by just willing it he could submerge inside it to his spirit, or survey the memories imprinted on it. However, there was still something Zax felt amiss. When he raised his hand to touch the soul what he sensed through the palm of his hand was a hard, smooth crust.

Zax frowned. Just like he could deduce the state of the black flower in full confidence, he could tell that despite his breakthrough to the second realm of the soul, it might became stronger than before, but actually also imperfect.

‘It is not right. Did I mess up the breakthro-’

As he was about to complete the thought, Zax suddenly stiffened. His manifested naked body, which still kept contact with the soul, appeared as if it was in a trance.

From within the spherical soul, a silhouette reflected in its clear darkness. The silhouette flickered in place several times, and when it settled down, it reached from the other side to the spot in the soul where Zax touched.

In the cavern.

A tremor passed through Zax’s physical form, his body, causing him to yelp involuntary.

In the dantian.

The Black Core madly discharged black energy to Zax’s sea of consciousness while shrinking in accelerating rate. In a matter of milliseconds the Black Core lost ten percents of its size, than a quarter, a third ... when about half of its original size remained, the shrinking decelerated. Losing fifty five percent, sixty, sixty two percent and finally it stopped at sixty four percent.