Aman sat cross legged on his bed in his room as he conversed with the AI in his head.

He and his sister had been discharged that morning after extensive tests had declared them fit.

It was already noon by the time they went out of the hospital so he had missed another day of school.

Not that he was particularly sorry about that with Ashok lying in wait for him there.

Also, today was a Friday so the next two days school was off so he was hoping the boy would cooldown over the weekend and not do anything too excessive on Monday.

Also, the free weekend gave him time to talk and plan with the AI and set his future course.

[So, what do you want to know?]

“Well, you said you would help me reach the pinnacle. What exactly did you mean by that?”

[For this, I need to begin with an explanation of soul cultivation.]

Aman listened carefully while he wondered at how much more human the voice in his head had become in the short time it was active. It now sounded exactly like his instead of the mechanical voice it had first used and its sentences and word choices were closing up more and more with his.

It was almost like he was just talking to himself in his head.

[Soul cultivation as you probably guessed is the process of strengthening the soul. At first, when the ability of souls to affect the body was discovered, many tests were conducted. It was realized that the density of nano-photons in the soul was proportional to the degree to which the body could be affected by the mind.]

[At first it was thought that soul density was inborn but that was soon disproved with the advent of soul sensors as introduction of that caused soul growth. So, scientists began searching for ways to cause souls to grow denser.]

[The breakthrough was obtained when a scientist in the US who was a yoga enthusiast began to test the claim that yoga improved the soul. What the original statement referred to was the metaphysical concept of souls – the aatma. But, the scientist took it literally and tested his soul density every day after practising yoga for two hours.]

[There was a measurable increase.]

[Hence, there was a boom in the investigation of all sorts of metaphysical processes like Reiki, Yoga, the ancient martial arts of China, the Buddhist silent sacrifices with science. In the end what was discovered was that only three types of things could affect the soul density.]

[The three methods of soul cultivation were therefore discovered… rather rediscovered.]

“Rediscovered?” asked Aman curiously.

[Yes. They already existed and were widely practiced in the three Great Ancient Civiliztions.]

“The three ancient civilizations? You mean the Mesopotamian Civilization, the Indus Valley Civilization and the Ancient Chinese Civilization?”

[Correct.]

[The Indus Valley Civilization practiced Yogic Cultivation.]

[The Mesopotamian Civilization practiced the Path of Heavenly Communion.]

[The Ancient Chinese Civilization practiced the Path of Qi Cultivation.]

[These three were the only things found effective in increasing the soul density.]

“Wait! Weren’t all the archaeological sites already studied thoroughly by the late 1900s? Why didn’t we know of these things before? And before that how did they cultivate without soul sensors?”

[The ancient cultivators obviously had their methods related with the nano-photons and only after we made nano-photon detecting instruments were we able to find out these things. And without advanced technology, they were a lot more connected to nature and their own bodies and so they paid great attention to various exercises and meditation. Even we can connect with the soul unaided and involuntarily as shown by the placebo effect. They could do so voluntarily after a lot of practice. Also, the people talented enough to touch the soul were very rare and those who could exceed the bounds of humanity were able to be counted on the fingers of a hand.]

[They were called Heroes. For example, in the Mesopotamian Civilization we have the legend of Gilgamesh. He was probably a soul cultivator. The legends of Gods and Demons all probably have some truth to them. That is being studied now under a new field known as Mythical Science.]