Chapter Summaries

Benjamin realized that his repeated failures to cultivate the Mustard Seed Dao-Containing True Body Art stemmed from insufficient aptitude, so he chose to pursue a way to improve it. He began considering the Blood Sacrifice Method alongside his life-refinement research, ending on a plan to use clones as the closest possible blood relatives.

• Benjamin admitted that years of failed attempts to disassemble his true form came from insufficient aptitude rather than a technical flaw.
• Benjamin chose to improve his spiritual aptitude instead of abandoning the cultivation art or continuing to force his way through it.
• Benjamin recalled his plan to develop aptitude-enhancement technology powerful enough to benefit high-level wizards.
• Benjamin retrieved the Blood Sacrifice Method from the Great Dao Library and read that it strengthened aptitude by sacrificing blood relatives.
• Benjamin reasoned that no blood relation could be closer than himself, and considered applying the method to clones.

Benjamin created ten clones, gave them soul fragments, and tested whether the Blood Sacrifice Method could improve spiritual aptitude. The experiment raised one clone’s aptitude from ordinary to excellent, leaving Benjamin to consider the result as the remaining clones continued cultivating.

• Benjamin created ten clones from his own genetic material and used Alchemy to grow soul fragments for them.
• Benjamin confirmed that two clones had ordinary spiritual aptitude, then arranged them as the sacrifice and recipient in a Blood Sacrifice Method experiment.
• The array consumed the sacrificial clone and transferred its life essence to the receiving clone.
• Benjamin used the True-Delusion Breaking Pupil to discover that the surviving clone had excellent spiritual aptitude.
• Benjamin reacted with surprise at the improvement and turned his attention to the eight remaining cultivation pods.

Benjamin discovered that sacrificing identical clones bypassed the Blood Sacrifice Method’s purification, allowing their aptitudes to stack instead of being filtered. He found no karma outside the Immortal Cultivation World and planned further clone experiments while considering how to rebuild the technique with Wizard technology.

• Benjamin deduced that identical multiples were judged as one person by the Immortal Cultivation World, so the Blood Sacrifice Method’s purification mechanisms did not activate between them.
• Benjamin scanned his clones and himself but found no karma, concluding that karma depended on the Immortal Cultivation World’s laws.
• Benjamin sent the unused karma-collecting banner back into his Internal Grotto-Heaven and reviewed his experimental data with the Five-Skandha Rainbow Mirror.
• Benjamin planned experiments to test aptitude gains from increasing numbers of sacrifices, soul and bloodline stability, and the limits of the process.
• Benjamin decided to dismantle the Blood Sacrifice Method’s underlying techniques and reconstruct an aptitude-enhancement system using Wizard Civilization’s Soul Studies and Alchemy.

Benjamin oversaw the year-long refinement of the first Array Eye of the Celestial Star Array, using up the Purgatory Sulfur Plane’s accumulated high-grade resources. The enormous golden Array Eye was completed, leaving Benjamin impressed by its power and heartbroken by its cost.

• A Black Giant Priest told Benjamin that the materials for the first Array Eye had been gathered, so Benjamin traveled to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane to inspect them.
• Benjamin saw that the space warehouse held vast resource planets made from materials and energy crystals accumulated over hundreds of years.
• Benjamin ordered the Black Giant Priests to assemble a Refinement Ring more than three million kilometers in diameter and began refining the Array Eye with Sun True Fire and Stellar Force.
• For a year, Benjamin and the Priests fed materials into the Refinement Ring and maintained its runes until Benjamin commanded the Array Eye to condense.
• A golden sphere two million kilometers in diameter formed and shone like a star, while Benjamin realized that the resources gathered over hundreds of years had been exhausted.

Benjamin placed the first core of the Celestial Star Array in a distant starfield, arranged colonized planets around it, and covered them with arrays to collect Purple Qi of the East. He then finished experiments on the Blood Sacrifice Method, establishing its limits and deciding to dismantle its mechanism for reconstruction with Wizard Civilization knowledge.

• Benjamin teleported the first Celestial Star Array core into a distant starfield and relocated several developed planets into its planned orbits.
• Benjamin covered the planets with arrays designed to collect Purple Qi of the East because he lacked the money to build another array core.
• Benjamin tested blood sacrifices and found that sacrifice quality did not depend on the integrity or mass of the body, but on the number of individuals sacrificed.
• Benjamin discovered that sacrifices by lower-cultivation clones yielded less aptitude to higher-cultivation beneficiaries, and that aptitude gains stopped at each realm's ceiling before excess power raised cultivation.
• Benjamin calculated that 634 Dao-Integration Realm clones could bring his spiritual aptitude to its current-realm limit, but postponed the expense and began preparing to dismantle the Blood Sacrifice Method.

After uncovering that spiritual aptitude was a lifeform’s spirituality, Benjamin used hundreds of his identical clones to enhance his own and instinctively completed the first two steps of the Mustard Seed Dao-Containing True Body Art. His true form became trapped inside his Internal Grotto-Heaven, so he possessed an alchemical puppet and resolved to study the technique’s third step.

• Benjamin concluded that spiritual aptitude was spirituality and that the Blood Sacrifice Method extracted and filtered it from sacrifices.
• Benjamin confirmed that sacrificing clones made from his own flesh, blood, and soul would enhance his aptitude without rejection or hidden dangers.
• Benjamin activated a formation that sacrificed more than six hundred Dao-Integration Realm clones and poured their spirituality into him.
• Benjamin’s enhanced spirituality let him instinctively complete Dharma Image disintegration and Grotto-Heaven casting, leaving his consciousness inside his Internal Grotto-Heaven.
• Unable to project a body outside the Grotto-Heaven, Benjamin possessed a prepared alchemical puppet and decided to study the art’s third step.

Benjamin sacrificed ten Level 6 lifeform clones to test his localized Blood Sacrifice Method, discovering that his own wizard aptitude had reached its current limit and the remaining power instead strengthened his body and spirit. He requested blood and a soul fragment from Viola to test the method on a proper wizard, and began preparing the next experiment.

• Benjamin examined ten Level 6 lifeform clones and noted that they were far cheaper to cultivate than Dao-Integration Realm clones.
• Benjamin activated a blood-colored formation and sacrificed the ten clones, absorbing their power.
• Benjamin realized that his aptitude had reached its limit for his realm, so the remaining sacrifice strengthened his cultivation, body, and spirit.
• Benjamin contacted Viola and asked for a sample of her genetic material and a soul fragment.
• Viola sent the samples to Benjamin, who picked them up and began the verification.

Viola visited Benjamin's laboratory and tested his Blood Sacrifice technique, which used three clones of her to enhance her spiritual power. The test succeeded without apparent danger, and Viola was thrilled by the result.

• Viola teased Benjamin about his altered body and mistook the three clones in the cultivation pods for dolls he had made of her.
• Benjamin brought Viola to the Blood Sacrifice Array and asked her to stand at its center.
• Benjamin activated the array and sacrificed the three sixth-grade Viola clones, sending their power into Viola.
• Viola analyzed the effects, then told Benjamin that her spiritual power had increased by nearly thirty percent with no apparent danger.
• Viola praised the technique's potential, and Benjamin's smile froze as he heard her assessment.

Benjamin discovered that the Blood Sacrifice Method converted the sacrifices into mental power rather than improving Viola’s aptitude, but Viola recognized that the technique could be valuable to high-level Wizards. She proposed splitting it into separate aptitude-enhancement and mental-power services, and Benjamin agreed to ask their mentor to test it and advise on pricing.

• Benjamin realized that Viola’s mental power had risen by thirty percent because the three Level 6 clones’ sacrifices had gone entirely toward strengthening it.
• Viola explained that high-level Wizards badly needed mental power and saw Benjamin’s technique as a way to earn substantial Military Merit.
• Benjamin clarified that mental-power enhancement was only a byproduct of the Blood Sacrifice Method, whose primary purpose was aptitude enhancement.
• Viola argued that aptitude mattered less to Wizards than wisdom and knowledge, but suggested selling aptitude and mental-power enhancement as separate services.
• Benjamin agreed with Viola’s plan to have their Level 7 mentor try the technique and advise them on pricing.

Benjamin tested the Blood Sacrifice Method with Clark and Anton Buchanan, who confirmed that it safely accelerated spiritual power growth and could benefit Wizards across several levels. He submitted the technique to the Star Ring Federation for official promotion and secured an ongoing revenue share, though Felix ruled it did not qualify for a Level One Training Agreement.

• Clark and Anton Buchanan used their own clones in Benjamin's Blood Sacrifice Array, then praised the technique's effects and safety.
• Anton Buchanan explained that the method's gains could match the spiritual power he had gained by draining the life from seven or eight medium-sized planes.
• Benjamin rejected selling the technique privately and uploaded its documentation to the Magic Network Terminal for Federation promotion.
• Felix reviewed the submission, approved its broad promotion, and offered Benjamin the highest available share of its Military Merit revenue.
• Felix ruled that the technique fell short of the requirements for a Level One Training Agreement, and Benjamin accepted the decision.
• Benjamin requested the option to convert his future proceeds to Advanced Military Merit, reviewed the contract, and sealed it.

After the Blood Sacrifice Method brought in enormous Military Merit, Benjamin spent lavishly on strategic materials for the Purgatory Sulfur Plane. He signed a long-term supply agreement with the Star Ring Federation and left the Black Giant Priest to prepare for the deliveries.

• Felix reported that the Blood Sacrifice Method was expected to earn over ten billion low-level Military Merit annually, and Benjamin stopped worrying about money.
• Benjamin placed massive orders for strategic materials, purchasing enough to begin constructing the remaining main array cores on the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Felix warned Benjamin that his purchases had caused a 0.03 percent fluctuation in the Star Ring Federation's market price index and proposed a long-term supply agreement.
• Benjamin accepted Felix's proposal, and the long-term supply agreement was signed.
• Benjamin sent the procurement list to the Black Giant Priest, who agreed to arrange storage and transport for the incoming materials.

With his supply orders arranged and free time opening up, Benjamin searched the Great Dao Library for a Dao-Integration spell that could strengthen his combat abilities. He chose Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand, a versatile spell that reversed a target’s state of existence, and began studying it.

• Benjamin considered improving his combat power while waiting for the ordered supplies to arrive.
• Benjamin entered the Great Dao Library and filtered out minor spells, then excluded attack, defense, movement, and intelligence-gathering spells.
• Benjamin found Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand and learned that it could reverse targets to earlier states, with results limited by the user’s control and the target’s resistance.
• Benjamin chose Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand with almost no hesitation.

Benjamin cultivated the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand but found his mastery of the Time Law insufficient to cast it. After consuming vast amounts of Plane Origin and spending a year deepening his understanding, he successfully used the technique to restore altered Adamantine to its former states.

• Benjamin studied the Time Law and realized his mastery was too low to successfully cast the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand.
• Benjamin ordered Time Law Plane Origin through the Star Ring Federation Resource Exchange and consumed the delivered supply, raising his mastery by one hundred percentage points.
• Benjamin's Entropy Brain reorganized the knowledge from Plane Origin, triggering insights and resonances among the laws he had mastered.
• After a year, Benjamin's mastery of the Time Law exceeded seven hundred percent, making it his strongest law.
• Benjamin used the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand to return reshaped and melted Adamantine to its original forms.

Benjamin completed his study of the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand, then used the delivered materials and the Creation System to refine a perfect array core. He installed it in a new star system with the Plant-folk and Dragon-kin planets and prepared to begin batch refinement.

• Benjamin sealed his derivation data for the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand after a Black Giant Priest reported that the materials had arrived.
• Benjamin summoned his Dharma Image and coordinated tens of millions of Black Giants as they unloaded the vast shipment across the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Benjamin fed his first array-core refinement data into the Creation System, which produced a perfect core with 99.98% material utilization.
• Benjamin carried the new array core to its designated coordinates and merged with the Plane Origin of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
• Benjamin used the plane array to relocate the Plant-folk and Dragon-kin planets around the new core, then declared that batch refinement could begin.

After centuries away, Bert Vera Augusta returned to Noren Academy No. 147 as a Level 6 Wizard and challenged Benjamin to a fight. The two headed to the Academy’s highest-spec Combat Training Zone, drawing a crowd of students and instructors eager to witness their clash.

• Benjamin received a message from Bert Vera Augusta saying she had returned and sent her the coordinates to his laboratory.
• Augusta teleported to Benjamin’s laboratory, where he sensed that she had advanced to Level 6.
• Augusta challenged Benjamin to fight, and he agreed on the condition that she take over his future garrison duties if she lost.
• Benjamin and Augusta walked through the Academy toward its Combat Training Zone as instructors and apprentices recognized them.
• Students and instructors rushed to Training Chamber 1-9 after learning that Benjamin and the War God Augusta were about to fight.

Benjamin tested his Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand against Augusta in the Academy’s combat chamber, but Augusta overwhelmed his puppet body with a planet-scale attack. After she challenged him to stop relying on tricks, Benjamin warned that he would fight more seriously.

• Augusta transformed the combat chamber into a simulated star system and began sparring with Benjamin, who remained in his puppet body.
• Benjamin used the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand to reverse Augusta’s punch and restore her attacks’ targets to earlier states.
• Augusta bombarded Benjamin with magnetically reinforced rocks, then secretly launched the planet’s compressed core through his defenses and destroyed much of his puppet body.
• Benjamin escaped the barrage with modified Wizard Artifacts and Void-Step, then restored his puppet body with his ability.
• Augusta demanded that Benjamin reveal his true body, and Benjamin said he could not maintain that state before warning her to be careful as he prepared to fight seriously.

Benjamin and Augusta escalated their battle in the simulated universe, matching his Triple Dharma Manifestation against her stellar giant and mastery of the four fundamental forces. Their close-quarters fight ended in a stalemate, with Benjamin’s armor enduring her relentless attacks and Augusta’s stellar body regenerating from his counterblows.

• Benjamin used the Return to Void Armor to ride Augusta’s stone-fist barrage out of the planet and formed a 250,000-kilometer Triple Dharma Manifestation.
• Benjamin crushed Augusta’s planet-compressed stone spindle and broke free when she used electromagnetic force to distort his Dharma Image’s energy structure.
• Augusta reshaped a star into a giant and revealed that she had mastered gravity and the strong and weak interactions alongside electromagnetic force.
• Benjamin and Augusta exchanged massive punches, then Augusta’s stellar giant hardened its body, attacked with high-speed tentacles, and grew multiple arms.
• Augusta overwhelmed Benjamin with a regenerating barrage of attacks, while his Return to Void Armor absorbed most of the impacts and his counterattacks shattered stellar matter.

Benjamin defeated Augusta in their sparring match by using Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand to restore himself and his shattered Dharma Image, then reverse the damage after Augusta's final attack. Augusta conceded but vowed to keep challenging him, while witnesses at Noren Academy No. 147 concluded she had lost.

• Benjamin's Triple Dharma Manifestation collapsed after his reserves ran dry, and Augusta's Solar Giant also neared destruction.
• Benjamin used Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand on himself, restoring his strength and rebuilding his Dharma Image.
• Augusta kept fighting and grew more skilled, then used the Solar Giant's collapse to land a final strike that shattered Benjamin's armor and pierced his Dharma Image.
• Benjamin reversed the damage with Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand, prompting Augusta to concede.
• Benjamin gave Augusta a Wizard Robe and assigned her Academy duty, and the onlookers concluded she had lost when they noticed her robe had changed.

Benjamin improved his mastery of the Time Law and refined the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand, then inspected his research team’s completed Dragon-kin Bloodline Rune project. The runes showed promise of raising Dragon-kin to Level 8, and Benjamin declared the project a success while calling for continued monitoring.

• After reviewing his battle with Augusta, Benjamin bought Time Law Plane Origins to improve his mastery of the Law.
• Benjamin absorbed the Plane Origins, raising his Time Law mastery and making the Void Ashes Return-to-Origin Hand faster and smoother.
• Years later, a Black Giant Priest summoned Benjamin to inspect the research team’s completed Dragon-kin Bloodline Rune project.
• Hadar explained that the runes activated Dragon-kin’s inherited true-dragon bloodline and could potentially let them reach Level 8.
• Benjamin examined the modified Level 6 Dragon-kin, praised the researchers, and declared the project a success while ordering continued observation for side effects.

Benjamin learned that Mentor Clark planned to marry Castillo, a Level 7 wizard whose life-law research matched his. Viola warned that Azrael, a powerful wizard whose path to Level 8 depended on Castillo, might try to stop the wedding.

• Viola interrupted Benjamin's research to tell him that Mentor Clark was getting married.
• Viola explained that Castillo had personally told her she and Clark planned to hold a wedding after finishing their current research.
• Viola warned that the marriage could shift resources and power between the Noren Workshop and the Scarlet Brood.
• Viola introduced Azrael, a peak Level 7 wizard who had hoped to form a long-term research partnership with Castillo.
• Benjamin and Viola concluded that Azrael might sabotage the wedding because he saw Castillo as essential to his advancement to Level 8.