Despite the ridiculousness of Guan Zhenyan, it was still a fact that the man had brought him back from a life as a servant for the Shou Empire and also provided guidance for his transformation. On the other hand, it seemed there were some ulterior motives, so he was far from trusting the man. It still seemed like he was just a convenient tool to Guan Zhenyan, but at least he had value. As long as he was valuable, then he didn’t need to worry too much.

Guan Zhenyan left him in that same room, declaring it to be his quarters for now. Sage wasn’t sure if it was because the guy was lazy, or if he just liked having him in a room with a convenient cage. He was given a few days to adjust and in that time he immediately got to work growing accustomed to his new body and working on his new avenue of development. Since he’d made the decision mainly based around one factor, it was his priority to put it into practice. Within the core of his Inner World, there was a basketball sized eyeball formed out of a dark stone like material. Or at least, that’s how it appeared. The Eye of the World. Sage redirected his Qi towards it and he felt his energy simply vanish. It was like he’d found a bottomless hole to pour his energy into.

Sage was very careful, only diverting a small portion of his Qi into the Eye of the World. Then he tried to run his Qi through his body to try out a few techniques to test how negatively he was affected. Surprisingly, he was completely unaffected. His problem had always been the lack of control he had over his cultivation technique. The Life Nebula, as he called it, operated outside of his control. It was superbly powerful, but he could only ever access a small portion of its energy. Others would forge their cultivation techniques from nothing, and would be unable to advance if they could not control it with the most careful and minute precision. They could drain themselves till they died if they wished it, a stark contrast from Sage who couldn’t even tap into the vast majority of the energy in his Dantian.

At least in the past. In order to use the energy in the outside world, he had to draw it away from his dantian and send it into his body. The Eye of the World was now located within the core of his Inner World at the very center of his Dantian. Remarkably, he suffered no resistance at all guiding the energy inward instead of outward. Sage took things slowly and carefully increased the amount of energy flowing towards the Eye of the World. Amazingly, even as the amount grew increasingly large, the Life Nebula seemed to be barely affected. Instead, he had to slow down only when the energy flowing to the Eye of the World started to cause an imbalance between it and the other Heavenly Materials. They were still linked together and controlling the Inner World. When he gave too much energy to the Eye of the World it started to overpower the other elements.

While this didn’t cause him any harm, it began to transform the Inner World. Sage didn’t really want to turn the whole Inner World into a cold wet swamp, so he sent some energy into the other Heavenly Materials to strengthen the equilibrium. The downside being that the energy supplied to them made them increase their own output. The once gentle and calm Inner World raised its level of intensity immediately. The oceans grew rougher, the mountains taller, the sun brighter, the winds faster, and the gravity stronger. Given that there were already inhabitants on the planet, he caused a minor catastrophe, but was careful to keep it within a manageable range. Ruanfu and her family faced some hardships, but the harsher environment would make them all stronger in the long run. He apologized to them, but the new Tiankong Palace had a protective array so they only suffered minor bumps and bruises during the change.

These changes were not without benefit. The influx of energy into the Eye of the World began to produce results. The eye opened and little black tears dripped forth. Within the core of the Inner World, Sage’s soul reached out and caught the drops of black water. Upon contact, the black water was almost instantly absorbed and Sage felt his soul grow larger and denser. The Soul Taming Abode had used the Eye of the World for the same purpose, empowering beast souls to use as battle pets. Now that he’d diverted the flow of energy, the Eye of the World would constantly produce tears and nourish his soul. The amount of growth his Twin Soul gained from consuming another soul was far greater than a single tear from the Eye of the World, but it was also risky and time consuming. Better yet, he could even do both now! His soul would constantly improve and he could even have the Twin Soul consume others to rapidly grow stronger.

With that task accomplished, he focused on his new path. In the past he’d only barely scratched the surface of the ‘Soul Fragment’ technique and even less on Hei Bai’s technique ‘Human Face Golem’. Since the main purpose of this new body was to maximize his controlling abilities and combine them with the strength of his soul, he started researching immediately. At the moment, having a powerful soul would only improve the strength of his Twin Soul. Certainly, it was a very powerful ability, but it was not worth devoting everything to. Instead, he aimed to improve upon Hei Bai’s techniques.

Hei Bai’s Qi Cultivation technique, Life Shadow Consumption, captured the souls of those she killed. She would siphon away a part of those souls to increase her cultivation and then use the remainder of the soul in her other techniques. With their will drained, the souls became automatons with only the most basic of intelligence. The ‘Yin Bone Adornment’ technique infused those souls into a set of bones, and the ‘Yin Bone Director’ technique controlled the ‘Yin Bones’ to animate them into a puppet. Hei Bai then created the ‘Human Face Golem’ by adding in the power of the Black Enhydros to create more human-like and intelligent puppets. Sage’s goal was to instead use Soul Fragment to substitute for the Yin Bones and create his own version of an empowered Black Enhydros golem.

Time for a test.

Sage’s soul moved to the small flower inside the core of his Inner World and touched it. He felt the link with Guan Zhenyan and tried to speak through it as Guan Zhenyan always did, “Great one. I’d like to assimilate the Black Enhydros. Can I have a little more time to make sure it goes smoothly?”

“Ah, yes. I forgot about that. You can have another day, don’t pretend like it takes long for you.”

The exchange went smoother than he thought it would, and while annoyed he couldn’t get more time, it was true that assimilating Heavenly Materials was quite easy for him now. The Black Enhydros was already inside his body, so it only took him a few hours to communicate with and gain the acceptance of its will. Normally, Heavenly Materials were extremely prideful and they didn’t like to share territory with others. It was for this reason that normal Cultivators found it extremely difficult to have more than one. They’d have to make sure the materials were very compatible and spend great amounts of effort to coax them into an amicable relationship. The Seed of Life on the other hand created a paradise for Heavenly Materials, and the vast majority of them were eager to be conquered and get to be part of such a great place. Soon enough there was a new occupant within the core of the Inner World. A piece of clear quartz like crystal that had a black liquid trapped in an inner cavity was now floating around the small sapling like the other five Heavenly Materials that had preceded it.

The addition also caused a change within the Inner World. Contrary to the black liquid that it produced, the Black Enhydros was actually a Heavenly Jewel. It was primarily of the Earth element along with a bit of Wood and Death element mixed in. The combination would seem absurd to inhabitants of this world, but Sage likened it to tar or oil. Dead organic matter crushed by the earth over a long period of time. It didn’t make complete sense to him, since on Earth the process was caused by heat but without combustion. Shouldn’t it also include the fire element? Or was the lack of actual open flames and just heat the reason that it didn’t have the fire element? All these metaphysical classifications were things that piqued his curiosity, but such research was not a priority.

The few days passed rapidly, and soon a servant arrived to take him to Guan Zhenyan.