And then the pain began.
Not physical pain—Nova had no body here to hurt. But something worse, something that struck directly at the core of his being. His consciousness burned, searing from the inside out as information began to flood into him.
Images flashed through his mind, too fast to process, too foreign to comprehend.
A laboratory filled with strange equipment, scientists in white coats speaking a language he'd never heard.
A battlefield under alien stars, soldiers wielding weapons that bent reality itself.
A meditation chamber where a figure sat in perfect stillness, their very presence warping the space around them.
A classroom filled with children, each one demonstrating impossible abilities with casual ease.
A throne room carved from crystal, where beings of pure energy debated matters beyond mortal comprehension.
The images kept coming, faster and faster, each one a fragment of a life he'd never lived but somehow remembered. Different worlds, different times, different versions of himself spread across an impossible expanse.
Past lives.
The realization hit Nova like a physical blow.
He'd lived before. Not just once, but many times. Across different worlds, different realities, different iterations of existence itself. The memories were fragmented, incomplete, but undeniably real.
And in every single one of them, there was a constant.
A potential that had never awakened.
A power that had slept through lifetime after lifetime, waiting for the precise conditions to finally manifest.
[THE INFINITE CONSTITUTION]
The words blazed across Nova's consciousness in letters of fire.
[STATUS: DORMANT SINCE BIRTH]
[ACTIVATION REQUIREMENT: ENERGY CATALYST + SOUL THRESHOLD + OTHER FACTORS]
[REQUIREMENT MET: PROCEEDING WITH AWAKENING]
Nova's mind reeled, trying to process what he was hearing.
The Infinite Constitution. He'd been born with it. Not just in this life, but in all of them—every single iteration across the multiverse. It had always been there, dormant and waiting, never awakening because the conditions had never been right.
Until now.
The breakthrough to the seventh stage of Qi Refining had provided just enough energy. Just enough of a catalyst to jumpstart something that had been sleeping for literal lifetimes.
"I don't understand," Nova gasped, his consciousness trembling in the starlit void. "What is this? What am I?"
[COMMENCING SOUL REFINEMENT]
The pain that had been building suddenly exploded.
Nova screamed—a soundless cry that echoed through the infinite space. His consciousness felt like it was being torn apart and rebuilt simultaneously, every aspect of his being subjected to a process that defied description.
It was agony.
Pure, distilled, absolute agony.
His soul—that intangible core of self that made him him—was being refined. Purified. Enhanced. The process stripped away impurities he hadn't known existed, burning through limitations he'd never questioned, reshaping the fundamental structure of his existence.
Make it stop, Nova wanted to beg. Please, make it stop.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
But there was no one to beg, no way to escape. He was trapped in this process, forced to endure every excruciating second of transformation.
The stars around him pulsed in rhythm with his pain, their light growing brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. Each pulse sent another wave of refinement through his consciousness, another layer of change that built upon the last.
Time lost meaning. Seconds could have been hours, hours could have been days. There was only the pain and the relentless, systematic reconstruction of everything he was.
But then... something shifted.
The pain, while no less intense, began to feel different. Nova's consciousness, which had been thrashing and fighting against the process, started to adapt. The agony that had been unbearable moments before became manageable. Then tolerable. Then almost...
Almost pleasurable.
Nova's awareness sharpened as the realization dawned. He wasn't just enduring the pain anymore—he was beginning to enjoy it. Each wave of refinement that had felt like torture now felt like purification. Each pulse of transformation that had seemed like destruction now revealed itself as reconstruction.
His soul was growing. Expanding. Becoming something more than it had been.
And he could feel it happening, could sense the fundamental changes occurring at the deepest levels of his being.
What's happening to me? Nova thought, but even the confusion was distant now, muted by the strange euphoria that had replaced the pain.
Unknown to him—because the awakening was too profound, too all-encompassing to allow for such self-reflection—this adaptation was itself one of his abilities manifesting. The capacity to adapt to any condition, to transform suffering into strength, to evolve in response to any stimulus.
The Infinite Constitution was showing him, in the most visceral way possible, that he was no longer bound by the limitations that had defined his existence.
The starlight around him pulsed brighter, faster, until the entire infinite space seemed to be vibrating with power.
Nova's consciousness expanded to fill it, stretching out to touch the distant stars, each one revealing itself to be a fragment of knowledge, a piece of understanding, a possibility waiting to be explored.
And in that moment of expansion, something else awakened within him.
Memory.
Not his memories from this life, or even the fragmented glimpses of past lives he'd seen earlier.
But knowledge.
Everything he'd ever read in Luna's library came flooding back—not just the words, but the meaning behind them. Cultivation techniques he'd memorized but never understood suddenly made perfect sense. Profound mysteries that had seemed impenetrable now revealed their secrets as if they'd always been obvious.
Yellow tier techniques—basic, foundational methods that formed the cornerstone of cultivation. He understood them completely, could execute them with perfect precision, could even see ways to improve and optimize them.
Black tier techniques—more complex, requiring greater control and understanding. They unfolded in his mind like flowers blooming, each component clear and distinct.
Red tier techniques—advanced methods that most cultivators spent years mastering. Nova grasped them in seconds, seeing not just how they worked but why they worked, understanding the fundamental principles that made them effective.
Purple tier techniques—techniques that touched on the profound mysteries of heaven and earth. They were complex, intricate, demanding... and completely comprehensible. Nova could see every interlocking piece, every subtle interaction, every hidden depth.
Earth tier techniques—methods that manipulated the very fabric of reality in small but significant ways. They required understanding of natural laws, of how spiritual energy interacted with the physical world. Nova understood. Perfectly. Completely.
Three minutes.
That's all it took for Nova to achieve absolute mastery of every technique from Yellow tier to Earth tier that he'd ever read. Hundreds of techniques, thousands of variations, all of them now as natural to him as breathing.
But the knowledge didn't stop there.
Sky tier techniques—advanced methods that only inner disciples and elders possessed. They manipulated heaven and earth on a grander scale, bending reality to the cultivator's will. These were more complex, requiring not just technical understanding but philosophical insight.
Nova's consciousness dove into them, parsing their mysteries with a speed and clarity that would have seemed impossible minutes before.
Heaven tier techniques—the pinnacle of what most sects possessed. These were techniques that touched on laws and principles beyond mortal comprehension, methods that only the most talented cultivators could hope to master after decades of study.
Nova understood them. Not just the surface mechanics, but the deep underlying truths they embodied. He could see how they interacted with the laws of the world, how they drew upon fundamental forces, how they could be modified and adapted and perfected.
Thirty minutes.
From incomprehension to absolute mastery of Sky and Heaven tier techniques. Not just understanding—perfect, flawless, complete comprehension. He could execute any of them right now if he had the cultivation base to support them.
And throughout it all, the refinement of his soul continued.
His consciousness, which had started as a small, limited thing, now felt vast and profound. The limitations that had bound his comprehension for three hundred years had been burned away, leaving something pure and infinite in their place.
His soul had evolved.
And with that evolution came a clarity of thought, a speed of processing, a depth of understanding that transformed everything Nova thought he knew about himself.
He'd spent his entire existence—this life and countless others—believing he was average. Mediocre. Limited by factors beyond his control.
But the truth was so much stranger.
He'd never been limited. He'd simply been asleep.
And now...
Now he was waking up.
[SOUL REFINEMENT: COMPLETE]
The mechanical voice cut through his thoughts, sharp and final.
[CONSCIOUSNESS ENHANCEMENT: COMPLETE]
[COMPREHENSION UPGRADE: COMPLETE]
[INITIATING PHYSICAL EVOLUTION]
Nova's awareness suddenly snapped back to his body—a body he'd almost forgotten he had during the timeless refinement in the starlit void.
And the moment his consciousness reconnected with his physical form, he understood.
The soul refinement had been only the beginning.
Now it was his body's turn to evolve.
And this time, Nova would be awake to feel every moment of it.
The last thing he registered before a new wave of transformation overtook him was the mechanical voice, patient and inexorable:
[EVOLUTION COMMENCING]
[ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: UNKNOWN]
[WARNING: PROCESS CANNOT BE INTERRUPTED]
Then even thought became impossible as his entire existence focused down to a single point of change.
Nova Solis was being unmade and remade.
And when the process finished, nothing would ever be the same again.