Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Quasar Metamorphosis 2

By the time it reached the singularity core, it had elevated all the way to Early Quasar realm.

The fragment merged seamlessly. Same soul reuniting with itself, perfectly balanced.

Holy shit. The quasar automatically refined it during reabsorption. I didn’t even have to do anything.

Very Convenient.

The memories flooded in.

Three months compressed into seconds.

Combat assessment. Pirates attacking the ship. Crushing opponents with ease. Celestia dominating her bracket.

Treasure hunting through the ship. Medical facilities. Storage rooms. Abandoned sections. Trading with candidates. Black market contacts.

Finding hundreds of soul items. And the big one—pseudo-Chaos Soul Essence from that desperate cultivator.

Time with Celestia. Training. Her reaching Stage 612. Their easy partnership, her support despite knowing she was dealing with a clone.

Academy arrival at Earth-Prime. Humanity’s origin world. Prime Origin Academy’s massive scale. Orientation. Quarter assignments.

More treasure hunting at the academy. Contribution points. Missions. Building reputation while searching.

All of it slotted into place like Runar had experienced it personally. Which he had, in a sense—the soul connection meant he’d observed everything real-time, even while focused on cultivation.

Integration complete.

The clone did well. Found resources, maintained cover, kept Celestia happy. Everything I would’ve done.

Time to exit and return to my actual life.

Runar commanded the system to exit the Comprehension Space.

Reality shifted. Gray void became white emptiness. He materialized in the Infinite Qi Realm, Rule-fused body glowing with soft golden-silver light.

Same position he’d left months ago. But everything had changed.

One more test.

He gathered qi and formed multiple spheres simultaneously. A dozen compressed energy constructs floating around his body.

Rotated them in complex patterns. Adjusted size and density on the fly. Merged them together, split them apart, reformed them.

Every movement precise. Every technique executed as intended.

He dispersed the spheres.

Perfect.

Time to rejoin the world.

Based on integrated memories, the clone had quarters at Prime Origin Academy. That’s where he’d materialize.

Runar commanded the system to exit the Infinite Qi Realm.

Space rippled. Reality folded. White void dissolved.

He stood in a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows showing Earth-Prime’s surface far below. Oceans, continents, cities glowing with formations.

Academy quarters. Single-occupancy suite for top students.

The golden-silver glow was still visible but muted. He looked down—same black clothing the clone had worn, functional and comfortable.

He felt good. Powerful. In control.

The body responded perfectly. Universal Seed hummed with cosmic energy under complete command. Quasar soul processed everything with crystal clarity.

Two hundred fifty-two years compressed into eighty-seven days.

Worth it.

First things first. Find Celestia.

He walked to the center of the room. Actual walking. Normal speed. The kind of movement he’d been unable to do three months ago without accidentally achieving relativistic velocities.

Threw a punch at empty air.

Controlled. Precise. Exactly the force he’d intended.

He laughed.

“I can move normally again. Finally.”

Three months operating through a clone while his real body was locked away. Three months of Celestia dealing with a copy. Three months of missing direct experience.

Over now.

He checked the room’s info panel. Holographic display appeared at a gesture.

Date: Day 89 since departure from Telstra

Term: Week 12 of Foundation Term

Today:

Combat Techniques (Morning), Free time (Afternoon), Law Theory (Evening)

The clone had been here almost three full months. Built routines, established reputation, integrated into academy life.

Time to step back in with his real body.

He felt Celestia through their bond. In her quarters, probably about to head to class. Different schedules, but they met regularly for training and meals.

Runar sent a mental message: Hey. Something important happened. Can you come to my quarters? Need to explain.

Her response came instantly: On my way. Everything okay?

Yeah. Better than okay. You’ll understand when you get here.

He could feel her concern and curiosity, but also trust. She’d be here in minutes.

Runar settled into a chair, waiting.

Time to explain he was back in his real body. That the soul tempering was complete. That he’d just spent the equivalent of two and a half centuries in cultivation while only three months passed for her.

Time to start the next Chapter of his academy life. Not as a clone operating on borrowed strength, but as himself.

Fully powered. Fully in control. Ready for whatever Prime Origin Academy could throw at him.

Current Status:

Runar’s Realm: Universal Genesis Stage 1

Soul: Early Quasar – FULLY BALANCED

Body Control: Complete mastery

Location: Prime Origin Academy quarters

External Time: 87 days (~3 months)

Subjective Time: 252 years in Comprehension Space

Clone:

Reabsorbed and integrated

Three-Pillar Balance: Achieved

Rule Comprehension: 5% average

Combat Power: Normal Late Neutron Star

Flashback showing clone’s 3 months of activities

— Three Months Ago —

The clone was dreaming.

Not real dreams—he didn’t sleep the way normal people did. But the body needed rest, and rest meant consciousness drifting, thoughts slowing to a crawl. Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, he could still feel the original body in the Infinite Qi Realm. A faint thread of awareness, like a radio signal from very far away. The original had entered the Comprehension Space hours ago. The connection was still there, but thin. Quiet.

Celestia was curled against his side, one arm draped across his chest, face pressed into his shoulder. Her skin was cool against his neck, the way it always was. Ice affinity did that. After sixteen years of sleeping next to her in the Pocket Universe, he’d stopped noticing.

The suite was dark. Suite 4701 on the Absolute Infinity, massive and comfortable and entirely too quiet for a ship that carried millions of people. The formation arrays in the walls hummed at frequencies below normal hearing, a constant vibration that he’d grown used to in the past twelve hours since boarding.

He was drifting toward actual sleep when the alarm went off.

Not a subtle notification or a gentle chime. This was a full-volume warning siren that blared through the suite’s speakers and shook the walls. Red light flooded the bedroom from the emergency strips running along the ceiling, painting everything in harsh crimson.

Celestia was on her feet in under a second. One moment she was sleeping. The next she was standing in the middle of the bedroom, already shifting her weight into a combat stance, silver-blue eyes sharp and alert. Sixteen years of training in the Pocket Universe had burned reaction speed into muscle memory.

The clone sat up, fully awake the instant the alarm started. He reached out with his spiritual sense, scanning the immediate area out of habit.

Nothing wrong. No hostile energy signatures nearby. Just the alarm.

A recorded message cut through the siren, a calm female voice that managed to sound authoritative even over the noise:

“All Prime Origin candidates, this is not a drill. Report to your designated shuttle bay ports immediately. Bring combat equipment. You have fifteen minutes.”

The message repeated twice more, then the siren cut off. The red emergency lights stayed on.

Celestia turned to him. “Combat equipment.”

“Yeah.” He was already swinging his legs off the bed, bare feet hitting the cool floor of the bedroom. “Let’s move.”

They’d packed combat gear before boarding the Absolute Infinity. Gaia’s preparation package had included Adaptive Nano Combat Suits—the same ones they’d bought during their shopping trip on Telstra—and both of them had stored theirs in the suite’s main storage compartment.

The clone moved to the compartment first, pulled out his suit, and held it flat. The nanoscale fabric responded to his touch, shifting and adjusting its configuration. He’d set it to default combat mode before sleeping—form-fitting, dark grey, layered with micro-formations that reinforced durability and dampened spiritual energy signatures slightly.

He changed fast. Stripped off the sleeping clothes, pulled the suit on in practiced motions. The nanofabric sealed itself across his chest, crawled up his neck, wrapped around his arms and legs. It tightened where it needed to, left room where it didn’t. Took about eight seconds total.

Celestia was doing the same thing three feet away, moving with the same quick efficiency. Her suit was a shade darker—almost black—with subtle blue undertones that shifted when the light hit them. She pulled her silver hair back and tied it tight against her head with a formation-infused band. Long hair in combat was how you got grabbed.

She reached into the compartment and pulled out Heaven Piercer. The spear materialized at full length for a moment—a weapon that stretched from floor to ceiling and then some—before she compressed it down to forearm length with a thought. It sat in her hand like it belonged there. Which, after sixteen years, it did.

The clone didn’t carry a weapon. He wanted to try changing his combat style to close-range and body-focused. The Void Severance Katana was stored in the system inventory, available if he needed it, but for an assessment he wanted to keep his options open.

He checked the time. 10 seconds minutes since the alarm.

They are cultivators 1 minute could as well be a day to them, with how fast their thought processes are.

“Shuttle bay port?” Celestia asked, adjusting one of her wrist guards.

He pulled up the suite’s internal map. A holographic display materialized in the air between them, the layout of their section of the ship rendered in blue wireframe. Their assigned shuttle bay port was highlighted in green—three corridors away, about ninety seconds at walking speed.

“This way.” He pointed, and they moved.

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