Chapter 664: Perfecting the Nexus World
Grey and the others returned to the White Devil settlement without encountering any further incidents.
The flight back was peaceful, giving Grey plenty of time to think about his next steps. By the time they arrived, they had already landed at the palace and made their way to the throne room together.
The White Devil King sat upon his throne, waiting for their report with obvious curiosity. Hearing this, Seraphina stepped forward and bowed respectfully to her father.
"Father, we have returned from the Sacred Mountain of Fate," she announced.
"Did you find anything useful there?" he asked, looking directly at Grey.
Grey shook his head with a disappointed expression.
"There was an immense amount of fate power there, but I can’t take it from there nor can I control it for what I need," he lied smoothly. "The mountain seems to be using most of its energy to suppress the Sea of Despair."
Hearing this, the White Devil King sighed.
"That’s unfortunate," the King said with genuine sympathy. "I had hoped the Sacred Mountain might hold the answers you were seeking."
Grey merely shrugged.
"It was still worth checking out. Thank you for allowing us to visit."
The King nodded graciously and waved his hand.
"You are welcome to rest here for as long as you need. Seraphina, show our guests to their quarters."
Grey soon retired to his assigned room, with Eterna following close behind. The moment the door closed, she turned to him with a strange look.
"You did find something there, didn’t you?" she asked directly.
Grey chuckled at her perceptiveness.
"That’s right," he admitted without hesitation. "I took complete control of the mountain’s core. For now, I’ll let it remain there since it’s necessary to suppress the Sea of Despair."
As he spoke, Grey walked over to the bed and sat down.
"If I removed it, the sea might burst out and flood into other realms. That would be bad for everyone."
Eterna nodded in understanding.
"A wise decision," she agreed before asking, "What will you do now?"
Grey smiled with anticipation.
"Now, I’ll work on reaching the 10th Rank."
With that, he sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes.
The 10th Rank was finally within his grasp.
He had obtained a massive amount of fate power from the mountain’s reserves. Now, all he had to do was perfect the Nexus World Creation Technique and test it properly before using it on himself.
Grey immediately entered his Lesser Heaven space to begin his experiments.
First, he needed to perfect the method of creating an inner world.
The Prime World Creation Technique he had learned from the Chaos Archive was good, but it was far from perfect. Grey was certain that he could improve it significantly.
Using his Buddha Mode, he created another clone and formed an empty vessel at the 9th Rank.
This clone would serve as the test subject for his refined technique.
Grey then began carefully analyzing the structure of the Prime World.
The core problem with standard inner world creation was exponential energy decay.
When cultivators tried to form their inner worlds, the energy demand scaled exponentially at higher levels. Traditional techniques required enormous amounts of energy just to power a single step of the creation process.
This massive resource barrier existed because traditional methods behaved like a pebble dropped into water. Once the energy was released, it propagated outward as expanding circular ripples, dissipating uniformly in every direction.
Only a tiny fraction of the expended energy ever reached its intended target. Evolvers had to consume massive amounts of resources simply to compensate for the power that was wasted during the process.
Grey immediately recognized this fundamental flaw.
He needed to replace the circular decay model with something far more efficient.
The answer came to him from his previous work on the Axiom Node Strengthening Technique which he used for the 7th rank ascension.
The Golden Ratio.
Through his research, Grey had discovered that the Golden Ratio possessed an unusual affinity with the laws governing balance, structure, and energy circulation. The mathematical proportions it created could form an almost perfect pattern of growth.
Grey began redesigning the Prime World Creation Technique using logarithmic spiral geometry.
Instead of allowing the energy to scatter outward in circular ripples, he forced the expanding waves to follow a strict logarithmic spiral pattern.
The purpose of the spiral was not to create energy from nothing.
Rather, it was to prevent the energy from being wasted.
The logarithmic spiral utilized expanding squares and arcs instead of closed loops, creating calculated structural gaps that prevented energy from leaking sideways or scattering uselessly.
Every bit of energy that would normally bleed into nothingness would instead be captured and routed forward. The spiral’s geometry would carry the energy through the structure and deliver it intact to its intended target.
Grey calculated that this alone could achieve a tenfold increase in efficiency over the Prime World method.
One unit of energy could now do the work that normally required ten.
However, improving efficiency alone was not enough.
Grey also incorporated six nodes arranged in a perfect hexagonal formation.
The structure was similar to the six Axiom Nodes he had created during the 7th Rank. However, instead of serving as stages of progression, these six nodes would act as stabilizing anchors for the newly formed Inner World.
At the same time, they would function as localized energy amplifiers that made sure no energy was wasted.
Grey imparted all of this knowledge into his clone and then provided it with a small portion of fate power and made it use the fire ability that the earlier clones had created.
"Alright, let’s see if this works," he muttered.
The clone immediately began the inner world formation process.
A tiny drop of fate energy descended toward the first node and slammed into it.
The node instantly shattered.
However, the released energy did not scatter.
The moment the node broke apart, the energy was immediately caught within the logarithmic spiral and forced into the refined geometric pathway.
Instead of being wasted, the energy was compressed and carried forward, washing over the first sector of the forming inner world.
Immediately after, the amplified energy surged forward and crashed into the Second Node.
Another burst of energy erupted.
The power released by the first node merged with the energy released by the second, and the logarithmic spiral compounded them together before carrying the torrent forward once more.
Then came the Third Node.
The Fourth Node.
The Fifth Node.
One after another, the nodes shattered in rapid succession. Each node released its stored energy, which was then caught by the logarithmic spiral and compounded with the power released by the previous nodes.
Grey watched the entire process with full seriousness.
The energy did not simply grow stronger because it was being multiplied from nothing. The six nodes themselves acted as catalysts and stabilizing anchors, while the logarithmic spiral ensured that almost none of the released energy was wasted.
By the time the final Sixth Node shattered, the accumulated energy had already become an overwhelming torrent.
Just then, the six shattered nodes began to resonate with one another.
The remaining power from each node harmonized and fused together, forming a pulsating ring within the clone and with an explosion a space-time continuum formed within him.
The clone slowly opened its eyes.
Grey immediately examined the results with his perception.
The Inner World had formed successfully and was perfectly stable.
"It actually worked," Grey said with satisfaction. "The technique is viable."
However, after examining it more closely, he noticed something that still needed to be adjusted.
The fate power consumption was higher than he had expected.
Grey immediately began making several modifications to the technique based on what he had observed.
He adjusted the spiral’s expansion rate and tightened the geometric gaps between the nodes before creating another clone and running the experiment again.
This time, the results were even better.
The energy efficiency improved by another thirty percent.
Grey continued the process for several hours, refining and testing the technique again and again. Each iteration brought small improvements, and those small improvements gradually accumulated into significant gains.
By the time he finally finished, the Nexus World Creation Technique was operating at peak efficiency.
Grey dismissed the test clones and reviewed his work with satisfaction.
Now it was time for the Ascension.