Finding a spot to sit, I closed my eyes and allowed my spiritual sense to drift deeper into the familiar realm of my inner world.

  At the heart of everything lay the silver light of the Genesis Seed, its roots extending outward through all four quadrants of my inner world in a constant network of stability and growth.

  But there was something different.

  I could sense it.

  It was at the southwest quadrant.

  At first, the terrain looked the same: rolling hills covered in soft grass, the cultivation practice areas I had built onto the plateau, and the underground chamber housing my Spirit Vein. However, positioned between two of the larger plateaus, in the area that had previously contained nothing but empty space, stood something that hadn’t been there an hour ago.

  “Well,” I murmured, studying the structure from a distance. “You weren’t exaggerating.”

  The cathedral was enormous.

  Even though it was smaller than a lot of the large temples I’d seen online back on Earth, it was easily capable of holding hundreds of people.

  As for the architecture, it was a little unusual.

  Yeah, the basic structure followed familiar lines, (tall arches, large windows, and a central nave), the materials were just wrong.

  The entire structure appeared to be comprised of spiritual energy.

  As I watched, the colors of the walls would shift, ranging from silver, like the light of the Genesis Seed, to a deep purple of concentrated qi.

  Twin gothic spires extended from the corners of the cathedral, twisting ever-so-slightly as they ascended. The windows weren’t filled with stained glass; instead, they were filled with what looked like frozen formations. These formations featured complex geometric patterns that reminded me of Wei Lin’s marketplace stalls, but the designs were far more refined and permanent.

  What I found most strange was that the Genesis Seed didn’t seem concerned about its presence.

  The extensive network of silver light emanating from the Genesis Seed passed directly beneath the cathedral without reacting at all. Even more telling was the reaction of the red and blue suns, or more accurately, the lack of reaction. They continued flying in their perpetual orbit showing no interest whatsoever in the new addition to my inner world.

  This meant either the cathedral posed absolutely no threat to the balance of my inner world or it had been incorporated so thoroughly that the Genesis Seed and the suns failed to recognise it as foreign anymore.

  From what I could gather from my spiritual probing, while the energy signature coming off the cathedral was complex, it wasn’t threatening. And I also became certain that the familiar feeling I was getting off it was the similarity to Wei Lin’s techniques, it just seemed like a transformed version of it.

  The entrance to the cathedral stood wide-open, providing glimpses of an interior bathed in soft, golden light. Despite my curiosity, I chose to spend more time studying every aspect of the exterior before entering the cathedral.

  Wei Lin had established a brief but significant connection to my inner world, and that connection had produced whatever this was. Before I went poking around inside, it only made sense to get a better understanding on what I was actually dealing with.

  I had to admit, the cathedral was pretty impressive.

  Even though it had been formed very quickly from spiritual energy, it didn’t have any of the rough edges or unstable fluctuations I would expect from something constructed that fast.

  Instead, the walls were smooth and seamless.

  Whatever process the Genesis Seed had created this building with, it had been thorough and complete.

  It was almost as if the cathedral was always meant to be there.

  When I was finally ready to let my spiritual awareness penetrate the cathedral, what I saw inside took my breath away.

  At the center lay a single, massive throne. No, I should say a cathedra. A cathedra wasn’t just a throne – it was a teaching seat. It represented a place from which authority could be exercised through knowledge and wisdom, not through raw power.

  The cathedra stood atop a dais at the far end of the nave, which was accessed by seven broad stairs. It was carved from the same crystallized spiritual energy as the rest of the building, and the craftsmanship was exquisite. Each surface bore intricate patterns that shifted and flowed as I looked at them. The patterns were telling a story, or maybe they were recording information in a language that I didn’t understand yet.

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  My attention was drawn most to the smaller thrones.

  There were dozens of them set in semi-circular rings around the cathedra. Most of them were badly damaged: cracked foundations, broken armrests, missing backs. Some had fallen over; only piles of crystallized fragments remained of those. But the few that remained intact were obviously designed to be similar to the cathedra in style, but smaller.

  I counted them carefully. There were forty-nine smaller thrones in a different states of repair, and there were obvious gaps where other thrones had once existed. The spacing suggested they had all been built at the same time as part of the same large-scale design. Yet, something had damaged them badly while leaving the cathedra alone.

  I approached the cathedra slowly and hesitantly.

  While I was by no means sure that this wasn’t a trap, the closer I got, the more familiar everything seemed to feel. The energy signatures were not alien; they were variations of my own spiritual essence.

  The seat of the cathedral was exactly the right size for my spiritual body, and the armrests that extended outward were curved toward the inside of my body creating the sensation of enclosure without confinement. The back rose high above the seat and ended in a complex design that reminded me of both the Genesis Seed's root network and the paths that my two suns followed.

  After examining the cathedra for several more minutes, I finally decided that it was worth the risk to sit down.

  Once my spiritual form rested on the surprisingly comfortable seat, everything changed.

  A connection sparked to life between me and the entire cathedral.

  It was as if I had developed a new sensory organ that had always existed, but was functioning for the first time, information flowed through the link in the form of understanding, not in the form of words or images. And I finally understood what it was doing in my inner world.

  Unlike how Wei Lin’s original technique was designed to absorb or accumulate energy, the cathedral’s main purpose was as an educational device. It was a spiritual repository, a location for storing, studying, and distributing various forms of energy. A management interface that allowed anyone who sat in it to manage the entire system.

  "That's amazing!" I exclaimed to Azure, as I explored the connections that radiated from the cathedra to each of the damaged thrones. "Someday, when my inner world has inhabitants, they’ll be able to come here and study the different cultivation systems safely. They’ll be able to decide which type of energy resonates with them and then develop their own cultivation methods based on that energy."

  I sat back in the cathedra, admiring the irony. Wei Lin had tried to steal my power, to forcibly connect his cultivation system to mine so that he could draw my red and blue sun energies away from me. However, in doing so, he had inadvertently provided me with something much more valuable than what he had tried to steal. A portion of his own Beyond Heaven cultivation method that was then changed to support my cultivation path.

  "What do you plan to do with it, Master?" Azure asked.

  I smiled and raised my hand.

  With a thought, I drew a small amount of Xuan Yi energy from my pool of energy. The former corrupted blue essence that comprised the basis of the Realm of the Chosen's cultivation system swirled in my palm and radiated that typical belief-based power that could cause reality to bend according to one's convictions.

  I walked to the first of the damaged thrones, and gently put the Xuan Yi energy on the cracked surface. The energy sank into the damaged throne like water into parched earth, and the cracks began to seal themselves.

  The surface of the throne transformed from dull, broken stone into polished obsidian, with flowing script etched into it. The script described stories of conviction and belief, of reality bending to fit the convictions of the believer.

  Golden veins ran through the obsidian, and the backrest of the throne reformed itself to resemble an open book. The pages of the book turned automatically, revealing various philosophical debates and conviction-based techniques for manipulating reality. A small crown floated above the crest of the backrest.

  "Right now, it’s just a storage container," I explained to Azure as I examined the transformed throne. "But as my cultivation progresses and my inner world develops, the Xuan Yi stored within it will gain consciousness. It will become a living source that my future inhabitants can cultivate from if they choose to pursue the path of using conviction-based reality manipulation."

  I went to the next damaged throne and called forth a sample of harmonic essence from my time in the Realm of Living Lyrics. The musical energy sung in my palm, its melodies were almost too soft to be heard, but carried the fundamental vibrational patterns that had powered that entire world's cultivation system.

  When I placed the harmonic essence on the second throne, the transformation was different from that of the Xuan Yi. The throne became crystalline in nature, and its surface resembled a massive tuning fork that had been fashioned into a seat.

  Musical notes etched themselves into the crystal structure, flowing upward from the base of the throne to the crest in complex compositions that seemed to play themselves silently. The armrests of the throne were fashioned into harp strings that hummed with silent frequency, and the backrest was a continually shifting musical staff with notes dancing across its surface.

  I called forth a sample of Martial Qi from the martial world where I’d possessed Jinghui. The energy was different than my normal spiritual Qi. It was focused only on the improvement of my physical capabilities and martial arts techniques; it didn’t contain any spiritual elements at all.

  The throne that was created from the Martial Qi was sturdy and functional, carved from a material that appeared to be polished jade, but was actually heavy like iron. The surface contained images of the progression from simple martial techniques to the reality-altering techniques of the Heaven-Breaking Realm. The throne radiated quiet confidence and discipline, and embodied the strictly physical approach to cultivating power.

  I then placed a sample of Rouqi, the energy that I’d encountered in Han Renyi's world, on the fourth throne. The throne that was created from Rouqi was unique. Instead of being carved, it grew, and its surface became a representation of living wood. Vines and flowers sprouted from the frame of the throne in real-time, bloomed, and withered in rapid succession, showing the progression of life and death. The entire structure felt alive in a way that was different to my Genesis Seed's power.

  I returned to the main cathedra, sat down, and looked at the four completed thrones.

  Each one was beautiful in its own right, and they represented different approaches to cultivation.

  The rest of the damaged thrones, which were currently unoccupied, looked like they were waiting for their own energy samples.

  But right now, I was curious about something else.

  All the energies that I’d merged with the thrones were so far of a lower tier.

  What would happen if I tried to place one of the higher-level energies into a throne?

  Something like qi?

  Or maybe even the red or blue sun energy?

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