The ancient pill rallied its forces and began striking the inner walls. Unmoved, Zac activated the array on the jade container's cover. A suppressive force robbed the pill of its freedom, suspending it in a spatial quagmire. Doing so prevented the pill from gathering enough momentum to harm itself in its attempts to break free.
Nevertheless, the strength the pill had gathered from accumulating over millions of years was not for nothing. The box groaned as the pill's struggles intensified, at which point Zac had to step in and manually suppress it. Doing so put him under further strain. He already had to suppress his Soul Cores and prevent them from breaking through, which was getting more difficult by the minute.
The stream of Mental Energy pouring into his body was growing stronger by the minute. The energies were naturally drawn to his Soul Cores and rushed directly into the Quantum Space. The deposits were already gathering into large clouds that had to be individually kept in check. For now, he had more than enough real estate with the recent expansion of the Quantum Space.
Meanwhile, Zac had to constantly guard his mind against the waves of amnesia. The situation put his multitasking to the test, where a single slip-up would spell disaster. Thankfully, Zac didn't need to overcome the well. He only needed to last longer than the pill. As Zac was about to reach the third layer, the ancient pill's struggles grew more erratic.
It kept forgetting what it was doing and lost its momentum. Gradually, its attempts petered out until it obediently floated in the middle of the jade box. Zac remained unmoved and continued swimming. A minute later, the pill suddenly erupted with unprecedented force. It tore through the spatial cage and rushed straight for the lock.
Before it could strike the weak spot, a talisman was fastened to the lock. A miniature river of time poured into the box and robbed the pill of its velocity. By the time it reached the corner, its speed had slowed to a crawl. After a futile love tap against the cover, it was dragged back to the container's center by the spatial array.
"You're old but inexperienced. Playing possum with me? Do you know how many times my enemies have tried that?" Zac snickered and added another talisman just to be safe.
Zac continued for another ten minutes. Just when he started to worry, the spiritual waves coming from the box smoothed out. The pill had truly lost its sense of self-preservation this time. Peeking inside with a mental tendril, the pill's spirituality had fallen into a deep, deep slumber. Zac breathed out in relief.
The pill had proven more resilient than he'd expected, to the point Zac also felt the pressure. He was already halfway through the green layer. Only the central seat of his pergola remained illuminated inside his Heart Realm. The three Warbringer Idols were squeezed together and trembling, futilely trying to push back the wall of darkness.
It was rather the well that was making dangerous inroads. Occasionally, there'd be a fluctuation in the water pressure, and half the pergola was drenched in darkness. These hidden currents were one of the well's greatest hidden dangers. The forces of amnesia weren't completely static, and if you went too deep, they could push you over the edge. If lucky, you'd forget something trivial. But just as likely, you could forget an integral part of your path. And with a gap in one's armor, it was too easy to fall down the negative spiral that would leave you nothing but a husk.
Having come this far meant the timer had started. The pill was no longer protecting itself, which meant its spirit was slowly being eroded. And yet, Zac remained unmoving for another half-hour. He needed to confirm that his location was suitable for long-term habitation while adapting to the well's forces. Enduring now was one thing. He also needed to protect his memories while breaking through.
It was time to go. Two abyssal eyes snapped open inside the [Shrine of Kanba], and a Void Vortex opened up inside. He stepped inside, and the gate closed behind him. The stubborn winds of forgetfulness weakened by a quarter as half his mind was ensconced in the Void. It was a welcome bonus to what was sure to become another arduous breakthrough.
Zac didn't open a new vortex after stepping inside. He was exactly where he needed to be. Fixing himself in a seated position, his Draugr half took his place above the largest blob of Apocalyptic Death. For the last time, he went through the solution he'd devised inside Hollow Court's library to ensure every step of the process remained fresh.
With the many alterations he'd made to his soul and the method itself, the way to reincarnate his soul had to change accordingly. For instance, the previous breakthroughs relied on the Array Disks. In the end, they would always explode from the energy overload. He couldn't exactly do the same with his Cosmic Core. Not to mention, there was the issue of the pill itself.
His Soul Cores were already pushing against the barrier to the next stage. If he swallowed the pill as is, it would directly force his soul into the next stage. That wouldn't be much better than if he allowed his Soul Cores to absorb the accumulating clouds of Mental Energy. He needed the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] to guide the process and ensure his Soul Cores evolved in the right direction.
It was time.
Zac directly harnessed the power of his Soul Cores. Instead of channeling Mental Energy into his Cosmic Core or Array Disks, it was all infused into the surroundings. The large clouds briefly expanded from the infusion. Then, they contracted as they started spinning faster and faster. Meanwhile, shimmering stars ignited one another, adding an ethereal glow to his Quantum Space.
As the clouds gained momentum, they generated an increasingly powerful pull on their surroundings. Soon, Zac didn't have to drain his Soul Cores himself. The nebulae were drawing it all out on their own. Next, the surrounding reservoirs of the [Well of Forgetfulness]'s Mental Energy were absorbed, and Zac didn't stop it this time.
The accumulated energies soon reached unprecedented levels, and hundreds of stars radiating Evolutionary Life and Inexorable Death appeared. When Zac counted a full 729 stars in each system, no more appeared. Instead, the stars grew brighter since the gas clouds were still absorbing energy without any plans of stopping.
The energy that went into increasing luminosity increased the velocity. Soon, the stars looked like circles of Dao that surrounded the cores like Jupiter's belt. The pressure was immense on both the nebulae and the cores. Within minutes, the sprawling clouds were compressed into thick bands of blinding radiance.
Meanwhile, the Soul Cores themselves looked like dying stars. More than 80% of their energy had already been extracted. Within minutes, that number reached 90%, and the amount of external Mental Energy that had gone into the bands was even greater. At that point, the thin nebulaic bands could no longer contain such vast amounts of Mental Energy.
The Quantum Space shook as the bands were forced to split into two, then three bands. Together, they sealed the six directions, and the pressure on the Soul Cores mounted even further. Zac suffered stabbing pains as the Soul Cores were literally crushed, compressed more than ever before. They were shrinking at a speed visible to the eye.
This was by no means an improvement to the usual operation of his cultivation manual. The Soul Cores were growing so dense that their energy capacity was decreasing at a rapid pace. By the time they were utterly drained, save for a small kernel of Mental Energy in their depths, the process sped up further.
External Mental Energy kept pouring into the bands, increasing the pressure further, beyond what his cores could generate on their own. The agony of having his soul crushed certainly helped Zac stay awake, though it nearly came at the cost of his sanity. Only by holding on to his Void Self and furiously channeling his [Void Emperor Apotheosis], thus harnessing the power of his entire path, did he retain a sliver of coherence.
New bands continued to appear as the spinning clouds crossed the required thresholds. By the time seventeen bands surrounded his Soul Cores, the central cores were compressed to the point that they could not hold any Mental Energy at all. At that point, only a quarter of the terrifying amount of Mental Energy trapped in the outer bands was originally his own.
The hefty price tag of visiting the [Well of Forgetfulness] was well worth it. No pill could compare with such efficacy. An hour of diving and another half-hour to prepare was enough to provide all the energy he needed. It was almost unimaginable to think how much Mental Energy he could siphon off if he stayed in the well for the whole week.
Of course, there was a caveat to the opportunity. Having access to limitless amounts of rootless Mental Energy didn't mean you could absorb limitless amounts of Mental Energy. The only reason Zac could absorb such terrifying amounts was that he was mid-breakthrough. Not only that, the amount of energy he'd refined would cripple or even kill him if the breakthrough failed. All that energy would have nowhere to go, and his soul would end up exploding.
For now, Zac could keep going a while longer. The small kernels he'd left in the depths of his Soul Cores were pressurized to the point they took on a new form. The energy had gone from a gas to a liquid, and the attunement they transmitted was shockingly dense. These kernels would provide much-needed guidance further down the road.
The Soul Cores had become nuggets of pure, unadulterated truth that perfectly represented Zac's Daos. If an enemy came along and extracted his cores at that moment, they would have gained a set of supreme Dao Treasures. This meant that it was time for the next step of his breakthrough.
Before the compression turned into destruction, Zac activated [Nine Reincarnations Manual]'s normal circuit. The terrifying amounts of Mental Energy that had gathered in the nebulae were reluctantly pulled away, band by band, and sent into his awaiting Cosmic Core. Different from normal, it wasn't just the energy gathered in the clouds that was sent through. It was the nebulae themselves.
At that point, it was impossible to say which parts were his own and which parts were the recently absorbed deposits of primal Mental Energy. The extreme pressure inside the bands had perfectly fused the two into vast, unified rivers. With such a massive infusion of unattuned Mental Energy, the attunement was noticeably diluted.
Zac's Cosmic Core trembled as unprecedented levels of Mental Energy poured into its channels. This time, not a single route was spared. They were stuffed to bursting, and each helping was pushed further into his core's depths by the next batch of energy. And as they passed through the winding path of attuned energy, the nebulae regained some of the affinity they'd lost.
Hairline fractures appeared across the pathways as they were forcibly expanded. Still, the core Zac had crafted during his Peak D-grade breakthrough was in a much better state than during his previous attempts, and it didn't suffer any catastrophic damage. The monstrous infusion of Dao even helped blow open some blockages and smooth over imperfect corridors.
Zac felt like he'd gorged himself, where a single bite would cause him to burst. And yet, that was exactly what he needed to do. Zac turned his attention to the jade box. At this point, nearly an hour had passed since the pill stopped struggling. He opened it up, and there were no surprises. The ancient pill calmly allowed itself to be swallowed along with a mouthful of well water.
A moment passed when nothing happened. Then, a sun ignited inside his stomach. Its rays held a tremendous Dao Rhythm that echoed with the Cosmos itself. Mysterious waves permeated every inch of his spiritual body. Where it passed, Zac felt his pathways and fractals subtly improve, yet he urgently pushed the pill into his Quantum Space.
The once ample space of his Quantum Space felt insufficient before the vast medicinal strength of the pill. His leaden Soul Cores were directly outshone, relegated to adornments of the realm. Only his Cosmic Core could match the majesty of the ancient pill, if barely. At that moment, it felt like his inner world had become a two-star system.
Two tigers couldn't live on the same mountain. Zac groaned as illusory cracks appeared across the subspace. It wasn't the Quantum Space itself that was fracturing, rather his overlaid Soul Aperture. It was already stretched thin to match his Cosmic Core's subspace, and the gathered forces were pushing it over its edge.
It was at this point that half a year of reinforcing his aperture with the ancient knot came in handy. It was still floating around in his Quantum Space, releasing minute vibrations that reinforced its borders. While it was centuries from finishing the job, the first years of tempering provided the most benefits by far.
With its help, Zac could barely sustain his soul as he brought his Soul Cores into the vicinity of the ancient pill. The drained clumps were directly washed in the marvelous spirituality. Wave after wave passed through and left something behind until patterns that aligned with the Heavenly Laws appeared on their surfaces. Dao and Law fused into one, and a barely audible snap echoed in Zac's mind.
Just like that, his Soul Cores had broken through to the next stage, and they no longer seemed compressed to their limits. Rather, they exuded a profound hunger that perfectly matched Zac's bloodline. It was just in time, too, as the ancient pill's outer shell shattered. A second, even stronger force spilled forth.
This one held the unmistakable aura of Life, both in vast quantities and with extremely profound insights. The sight made Zac delirious with joy because it meant his guess was correct. The pill had drawn on the First Garden's Dao for countless years, giving it a powerful attunement. Now, that refined Life was his for the taking.
Only half the inner energy held the Dao of the Era's birth. The other was the same mysterious spirituality that aligned with the Cosmos. Zac furiously channeled his [Void Emperor Apotheosis], particularly focusing on one of its central tenets: take what you needed from the Cosmos and reject everything else.
As such, the Evolutionary Soul Core became a black hole that pulled in the First Garden's life. At the same time, three Void Vortices opened around his Inexorable Soul Core. Zac didn't even need to do anything before his Death-attuned Core called into the Void. Inside, massive reserves of refined Apocalyptic Death waited.
It poured out of the vortices, joining the ancient pill's spirituality before entering the Death Attuned Pill. Thus, balance was maintained. The attunement of his Soul Cores rapidly deepened, soon transcending the gains from the entirety of the [Nine Reincarnations Manual]'s fourth layer. And still, the cores weren't functional.
They held no Mental Energy save for the core kernels, and they were too dense to absorb any more. The added attunement furthered the pressure on the central specks of Mental Energy. Liquid turned into solid, at which point they looked like shimmering gemstones in the heart of his cores. One was a shimmering gold; the other an all-consuming black. As Dao kept pouring in, so did their spirituality deepen.
Gradually, patterns similar to those left by the ancient pill's spirituality appeared across the crystals. By that point, Zac's head felt like it was being cut to ribbons. The strain of keeping his Soul Cores intact while balancing the vast amounts of Mental Energy coursing through his Cosmic Core was terrifying. It wasn't something that Zac was normally able to accomplish.
Ironically, it was the surge of ambient energies that became his saving grace. The yet-refined soul-nurturing energy released by the pill was placing incredible external pressure on everything inside the Quantum Space. Like a pressure cooker, it kept his Cosmic Core from spilling over. It wasn't a sustainable situation, and it didn't need to be.
Zac knew he just needed to endure long enough. Time lost all meaning as Zac held on for dear life, assiduously polishing his Soul Cores. As he did, an otherworldly sensation enveloped him.
One Soul Core held the First Life of the Era while the other embodied the Era's Death. More importantly, these forces had been tamed by the ancient pill or his Void Realm. Now, they were his. He'd become the Alpha and the Omega, encompassing an entire Era in his soul. And as such, he knew what needed to be done.
Creation and Oblivion were two sides of the same coin. Whether Eras or one's soul, this held true. Only by dismantling the old could the new take shape. Zac took a steadying breath, warded himself in the safety of his personal Void, and relinquished his hold on his Soul Cores. With nothing forcibly holding them together, the cores imploded from the sheer weight of their overwhelming truths.
The pain was beyond description. Zac couldn't think or act. At that point, he was nothing but drifting stardust.