Roughly an hour before, both children had yet to commence their breakthrough.

Just as Xiao Wu entered her meditative state, Cheng Hao was also sitting by her, cross-legged. He, however, did not start right away. Instead, he couldn't help but cast a meaningful glance at a certain golden dragon, resting by the tabletop.

"Goldy, would you-?"

“Would I what? Castrate you as you meditate?” The golden dragon perked up with a sombre nod, "Worry not. I'll be sure to take them both out in a single blow. The pain will last for but a moment..."

Cheng Hao ignored what he hoped to be a sarcastic remark and instead spat through twitching lips, "…Blindlight-"

“Ah,” the dragon interrupted. "Did you believe the grand me would be making all this fuss over a stupid nickname? Tch! Just what cold-blooded monster do you imagine me to be?" Goldy clicked his tongue while pridefully raising his small chin. Behind him, though, a tail was wagging frantically.

"I'll keep an eye out, just in case,” reassured the dragon. “Just go. I do have a heart... unlike a certain damnable bastard over here that cannot help harassing his close companions."

The golden-eyed boy smiled wrily. "Oh, shut up, you'll make me want to cuddle you."

"Please don't," Goldy shuddered.

"...Mm."

After assuring that the snake would help the young girl if anything were to go awry, Cheng Hao could finally relax.

Alas, his heavy eyelids fell, and the youth submerged himself in the wondrous meditative state.

...

Every living being was born with a Sea of Consciousness. Beyond its boundaries was a world that the eyes could not see; the world of Qi Strands.

It was the layer of reality where all truths were laid bare, a field where the Laws interacted and shaped all existence.

To cultivators of the Mortal Realm, the Sea of Consciousness was their vessel in the ocean of the Strands containing those rules and regulations.

To loosen one's Will Strands in its profundities and explore it was to stare in the face of a vast yet blurry truth, and to decipher those findings was to achieve enlightenment.

Through one's Sea, it was also possible for one's consciousness to reach places that were hidden in the material world, or to interact with others with one's Will, rather than their voices.

This, was Cultivation.

Xu Ling had always enjoyed navigating and losing himself in the depths of that ocean.

Today, Cheng Hao entered meditation and was again met with the much-beloved sight.

Like curious children, countless strands gathered by the boundaries of his Sea, attracted by the light radiating from within. And upon coming close enough, without exception, they'd all showcase a ravenous craving for the inverted pagoda in his hands. Besmirching their status as the lofty Qi Laws, the strands would throw themselves at the walls of his consciousness again, and again.

Though this wasn't his first time experiencing it, still Cheng Hao couldn't help but sigh in amazement as he witnessed it happen.

And again, one realization hit him.

So long as had the Immortal Ascension Tower on his person, there wouldn't be a single Qi in the world that wouldn't accept him as a vessel.

And similarly, so long as he had the Immortal Ascension Tower in his hands, there was no Qi in the world that could move him.

He spared one last, nostalgic glance at the world of Qi Strands before he came to disregard it entirely: henceforth, his beloved enlightening would herald from elsewhere.

The golden-eyed boy's gaze fell on the treasure in his hands. He only imparted a small part of his Will in the heavenly treasure, and immediately he felt a strong suction force warping his consciousness elsewhere. A deepness of remote antiquity.

And then, like diving from a high place, he let himself freefall into those welcoming depths.

...

Like waking up from a dream, Cheng Hao was in an uncharacteristic daze as he sat up.

He felt as if he were back in the outside world. His connection to the Qi Sea, albeit faint, was still present, but his five senses appeared to work just fine here. This, he could be sure of even before opening his eyes; at once, he had felt his clothes, now damp, uncomfortably cling to his body.

Looking down, his hands, clothes, and lower body were all translucent. Through them, his gaze was pulled underneath.

Below him, the ground was a crystalline film akin to glass, with clouds of cosmic hazes swirling under it.

Cheng Hao took one step. As he stepped, ripples followed, as if he were treading atop an inch of lakewater.

A transcendental vista caught his eye as its impression reflected off the floor.

Cheng Hao looked up, at last, and the sight of a lifetime greeted him back.

In front of him was a majestic tower, an inverted pagoda that couldn't be fully taken in. Even as he craned his neck backwards, the child could barely make out the first few bronze and silver gates. The golden floors at the top, which made up the biggest portion of the tower, weren't yet visible from the ground. The sky in front and above was like so, filled, and only by turning around could the boy see a canopy of fixed lights, arranged into countless constellations.

Cheng Hao couldn't be any more familiar with this breathtaking view: for six months, every night he could spare, he had struggled to explore and experiment on the treasure. Naturally, even after six months of hard and strenuous work, he had failed to carry out all he had visualized. To do so was simply too big of a task for a single person to accomplish in such a short time, given the scale involved.

Cheng Hao had called the pagoda a Martial Way. As the masterful Artefact of Qi it was, though not the whole truth, that hadn't been a complete lie.

There were halos of golden Qi strands circling about the tower's floors.

All of a sudden, the lowermost ring squirmed as it broke off into a stream as it sensed Cheng Hao's gaze. Then, as if it had gained life, it delightedly flowed in the child's direction. Once it reached him, it began gently circling about, as it obediently awaited his instructions.

Making up that stream, were golden strands that appeared individually monotonous, without any redeeming features to them. At the same time, however, they were also the most overbearing, heaviest, most dense Sensed Qi Cheng Hao had ever come into contact with.

And most importantly, in spite of its 'weight', it remained effortlessly moldable in his hands. He had verified its strands could reliably mimic the characteristics of other Qi, even, so long as he could instruct them properly.

This Qi could adapt to every scripture he knew and compensate it perfectly; a puzzle piece that could change its shape however one preferred. It was as if its sole purpose was to match and propagate into all other Qi; a master Qi of sorts.

Cheng Hao had found it apt to term it the Sovereign of all Qi.

And as the lone master of the Immortal Ascension Tower, its sole source, Cheng Hao alone had the sole monopoly on it.

"Yes, it's finally time," Cheng Hao wistfully motioned to the playful strands.

"Come. Tonight, we Awaken."

Cheng Hao breathed in deeply, and the river of Strands he had long ago refined into his own charged into his consciousness.

In real-time, he felt the golden Qi fill his Sea, forming a volatile mess of golden strands. The boy expertly weaved them into a denser Qi Sea as they flooded in.

In an incense of time, he was done.

Qi Sea: weaved.

All he had left now was Condensation.

As per his intent, his Will brought the Immortal Ascension Tower on the 'outside' into the depths of the Sea. There, he let it go.

In the blink of an eye, Cheng Hao felt a nostalgic sensation of undeniable stability.

He smiled, as he relished in that melancholic feeling of singularity.

Total time spent: roughly half an hour.

Pseudo-Core: condensed.

As an experienced reborn soul, it was only natural that Cheng Hao would be much faster than Xiao Wu.

...

Unlike the crystalline bead that the girl would concoct soon thereafter, Cheng Hao's golden Pseudo-Core wasn't completely see-through and was instead noticeably opaque. This was due to the vast amount of Qi he had absorbed from the ring of light, given that even at its Inferior Stage it was so dense he could fit many times the usual amount into his Sea of Consciousness.

At the moment, although his Spiritual Energy reserves were not up to par, his Qi was just shy of the very limit an Inferior stage cultivator could bear.

What little was missing from the pool, in fact, was distributed across the locks and chains sealing the first floor: he'd be absorbing those too, shortly.

From this moment on, each time he looked to break through to the next stage, he would once again enter the anomalous space and absorb another ring.

They would grant an amount of Qi that, he had calculated, would be exactly the limit of what was allowed at each stage before his Sea would implode.

With his reserves of Qi always topped out, Cheng Hao would start every Stage at its theoretical peak. After doing that, it would only be a matter of waiting for his Sea of Consciousness to adapt to the abrupt changes.

Then again, this is the least if I wish to keep up with Little Wu, he mused.

Even if I entertained the same Dao from last time, I would have never been able to keep up with that little monster after the Mortal Realm.

By then, Cheng Hao would not have held a candle to Xiao Wu had he not possessed the Immortal Ascension Tower.

However, the Immortal Ascension Tower granted Cheng Hao the single talent to disregard the very concept of talent.

Those so-called geniuses of an era would surely curse at such injustice.

The knowledge from the Tower of Babel of countless scriptures and ancient tombs; Immortal methods, experience, and wisdom from his previous life as the Evil Saint; the Sovereign of Sensed Qi, courtesy of the Immortal Ascension Tower.

The rich scions of Heaven would only be able to cry at the shameless of the world, granting a single person so many gifts.

Even gods could only grind their teeth in envy at the luck of this favoured childe of Fate.

Cheng Hao, fully in the know of it all, gratefully caressed the pagoda's tall walls.

Then, his expression grew solemn, as his gaze fell upon the numerous locks and seals surrounding the first floor.

"First off, let's make it official..."

With a rotation of his cultivation base, his Sea of Consciousness radiated outwards like a swelling balloon. The singularity in its depths fuelled this process even further, to the point it made one question the prefix and whether to refer to it simply as 'Core'.

With the momentum of a trained expedition laying claim to unexplored land, his Authority rose at an unheard-of pace for an Inferior Stage cultivator. Alas, this came to a weary stop just shy of an Advanced Stage cultivator's average reach.

Though Cheng Hao was yet to be recognized by the worldly laws, given he was in a... 'pocket dimension' outside their confines, he had Awakened, at last. Amazingly so.

A brilliant rekindling.

For a thousand years, an unchanging sky. Today, a sky dyed golden.

The reborn soul once heralded as a Saint; his steps again grace the cultivation world, braving its countless paths.

The Childe of the myriad Qi, and now the Blessed of their Sovereign, has returned.

Inferior Stage, attained!

"...Now then," the boy's thin lips curled upwards into a smirk.

"Time to check on Blackie."