Luna sat on the edge of a large, soft bed. Her room in Villa 11 was quiet. The light from the glowing pearls on the wall was calm and steady.
She held the thick silver book in her lap. The title on the cover was simple. Space Element Gene Legacy.
She opened the cover. She traced the dark ink on the heavy pages with her small finger. The words were easy to read. The instructions were very clear.
Her legacy was completely different from Jin's. It was not a violent path. It was a path of control and patience.
The book outlined two main techniques. That was all she needed to learn.
The first was the Assimilating Technique.
To start her path, she needed a specific catalyst. She needed to find a space-attribute beast core. She knew this would be the hardest part. Space beasts were incredibly rare. They could hide in the folds of reality. Hunting them was very difficult, which made their cores very expensive.
But the book was clear on what to do when she finally got one. She was not supposed to eat the core or crush it. She had to hold it in her hands. She had to use the Assimilating Technique to slowly pull the spatial energy out of the core and into her own body.
It was like taming a wild animal. The beast's gene would fight back. The technique taught her how to calm the wild energy, smooth it out, and slowly convince the space gene to settle inside her blood.
The second part was a Mixed Technique.
Once the gene was inside her, she had to practice. The mixed technique combined breathing and physical movement into one smooth motion. She had to breathe in a specific rhythm while stepping in precise patterns.
If she did this every day, she would slowly refine the tamed gene. The energy would stop being a foreign object. It would slowly melt into her own flesh and bone. The gene would become a true part of her.
When that happened, she would gain an affinity for space.
Luna read the later chapters. The book explained what she could do once her affinity grew strong enough. The fighting techniques were amazing.
She could learn the Space Bullet. It was not a real bullet made of lead or iron. It was a compressed ball of pure spatial distortion. If she threw it at an enemy, it would not just punch a hole in them. It would twist and crush their armor by bending the space around it.
She could learn Space Walking. She would not need to touch the ground. She could harden the empty air beneath her feet and walk on the sky.
And finally, if she practiced hard enough, she could learn Teleportation. She could step through a tear in the world and appear miles away in a single blink.
Luna closed the silver book. She hugged it against her chest.
She felt a small spark of real hope. She did not need to be a giant monster. She did not need to swing a heavy sword. She just needed to control the distance. If she could master space, she could always escape. She could finally be safe.
She just needed a space core to start. She knew she had no money. But Jin had a pouch full of wealth. She decided she would ask him for a loan tomorrow. She would promise to work hard and pay him back.
In the next room, Jin stood in the exact center of the floor.
He was not reading anymore. The heavy black manual was resting on his wooden desk. He had memorized the first steps. It was time to put the theory into practice.
He closed his eyes. He spread his feet apart.
He started the Devourer breathing technique. He pulled the air in through his nose. He did not take a normal, relaxed breath. He forced his lungs to expand aggressively. He held the air inside his chest for three tight seconds, then forced it out through his teeth with a sharp hiss.
He repeated the cycle. In. Hold. Out.
The air in the Academy was thick with pure Aether. Jin felt the heavy energy rush down his throat. It settled deep into his lungs.
Next, he added the Body Strengthening technique.
He bent his knees. He dropped his weight low. He twisted his arms into a harsh, unnatural posture. He locked his muscles.
The strain hit him immediately. The physical pose was designed to be painful. It forced his muscle fibers to stretch to their absolute limit. He held the awkward stance while continuing the aggressive breathing rhythm.
Ten minutes passed.
Sweat poured down his pale face. His legs started to shake. The muscles in his back burned. It felt like someone had tied heavy iron weights to his arms. The physical pain was intense.
But Jin did not stop. He kept breathing. He kept his knees bent.
Twenty minutes passed. His breathing grew ragged. His heart pounded loudly in his ears. The heavy Aether in his lungs was being forced into his bloodstream by the extreme physical pressure of the stance.
Thirty minutes passed.
Jin finally broke the stance. He stood up straight. He gasped for normal air. He rested his hands on his knees and took deep, calming breaths.
His clothes were completely soaked in sweat. His muscles ached deeply. He felt physically exhausted.
But then, Jin realized something very important.
He stopped panting. He stood perfectly still and focused his mind on his own body. He checked his internal condition.
He was not coughing up blood. His veins were not ruptured. His skin was not burning.
He remembered the memories of the old Jin. Every time the original prince tried to absorb Aether, it was a disaster. The old Jin would sit on a soft cushion and try a basic, gentle breathing technique. Within five minutes, the old Jin would scream in agony. The Aether would reject his body. It would feel like drinking boiling acid.
The old Jin's body would violently push the energy out, tearing his own blood vessels in the process. The royal doctors called it a Null Gene. They said his physical body was completely broken.
But right now, Jin felt fine.
His muscles hurt from the heavy workout, but that was just normal physical strain. That was lactic acid and torn tissue rebuilding itself. It was the good kind of pain.
More importantly, the Aether he had just breathed in did not leave his body. It was still there. He could feel it. The dense energy had settled quietly into his Foundation Level 4 core. It was staying inside him. It was making him very slightly heavier and stronger.
Jin narrowed his dark eyes. He understood what this meant.
The royal doctors were wrong. The old Jin's physical body was never broken. The flesh, the bones, and the blood were perfectly capable of holding Aether.
The real problem was not in the body. The problem was in the soul.
In this universe, the body and the soul were connected. They worked together as a filter. The old Jin had a weak, defective soul. His soul was terrified of the violent energy. When he tried to cultivate, his defective soul rejected the Aether. That spiritual rejection caused a violent physical backlash in his body.
Then, his older sister Vanya gave him the purple poison.
Vanya wanted a clean murder. The poison was designed to quietly melt the soul away and leave the body completely intact.
It worked perfectly. The poison destroyed the old Jin's defective soul.
But then Arthur died on Earth. Arthur's pragmatic, stubborn soul was pulled across the universe. It was dropped into the empty, waiting vessel.
Jin looked down at his pale, sweating hands. He clenched them into tight fists.
The block was gone.
The defective soul was dead. The new soul did not reject the energy. The new soul welcomed the power.
The old Jin was just a coward. He felt the terrible pain once, and he was too scared to ever try a basic breathing technique again. He gave up. He let his older siblings call him trash, and he hid in his room.
Jin was not a coward. He did not care about the pain. Pain was just a signal that the body was working. Pain meant progress.
He had a working body. He had a strong soul. He had the most dangerous legacy in the Academy sitting on his desk.
He did not have a Null Gene anymore. He was a fully functional cultivator.
Jin wiped the sweat from his forehead. He turned around and looked at the heavy black book. He needed to push this body to the absolute limit. He needed to reach Foundation Level 10.
He spread his feet apart again. He bent his knees. He twisted his arms back into the agonizing posture.
He took a sharp, deep breath and pulled the Aether back into his lungs. The practice continued.