The Comprehension Space - Years of Solitude
The moment Runar's consciousness entered the Comprehension Space, time froze in the outside world.
The fiery slash-rays hung suspended mid-air, each one carrying enough destructive force to vaporize everything in its path, including space and time. His family's terrified faces were frozen. Celestia's wide eyes. His mother reaching for him.
All of it stopped.
In here, Runar had all the time he needed. But that didn't make what he was about to do any less daunting.
I need to master Space Rule to break that lock, he thought, staring at the infinite white void around him. But I probably can't reach Rule comprehension no matter how hard I push because I haven't accumulated much in this life and my cultivation base won't support it. So... plan B. Master as many Laws as possible and fuse them together.
He sat down cross-legged in the void and pulled out Law Stones from his system inventory. Space Law Stones—crystallized fragments of spatial understanding that glowed with dimensional energy.
"Alright," he muttered to himself. "Let's start with Space. What is space? Why does space bend? How does distance work? What makes one location different from another?"
He activated his Heaven-Defying Comprehension Mantra at full power and entered a state of deep enlightenment.
The comprehension came easier than he'd expected. His HDCM made his thinking speed thousands of times faster, and the enlightened state made every concept crystal clear.
Space is the canvas upon which existence paints itself. It's not empty—it's a fabric that can be bent, folded, torn, and stitched. Distance is relative. Position is malleable. Everything exists somewhere, and 'somewhere' is what I'm trying to understand.
Time lost all meaning in the Comprehension Space. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months became years.
Three subjective years passed.
When Runar opened his eyes, his Space Law had reached 100%. Perfect mastery within the Law framework—he could perceive, manipulate, and understand spatial dimensions with absolute clarity.
But no matter how hard he pushed, he couldn't break through to Space Rule.
It's like there's a wall, Runar thought, frustrated. I can see Rule comprehension on the other side, but I can't reach it. Not without the cultivation realm to support it. Not without certain experiences I haven't had yet.
He sighed. "Fine. Plan B it is."
He started pulling out more Law Stones—Void, Null, Time, Gravity, every spatial-related Law he could think of.
"If one Law at 100% isn't enough, I'll master them all and combine them."
The First Wave - Spatial Laws
Runar dove into Void Law next.
Void isn't just emptiness, he realized as comprehension flooded his mind. It's potential emptiness. The nothing that gives meaning to something. The space between spaces.
Two years later, Void Law reached 100%.
Then Null Law. Not absence, but negation. The principle that cancels, erases, invalidates.
Another two years. 100%.
Time Law was harder. Time is slippery. Always moving. How do you grasp something when you yourself exist within its flow?
But gradually, understanding came. Time wasn't a river—it was a dimension, and consciousness moved along it at varying rates.
Three years. Time Law: 100%.
Gravity Law came next. Mass curves spacetime. Gravity is just that curvature made manifest.
Two years. 100%.
One by one, Runar mastered the spatial Laws. Each one took years of solitary study, years of asking questions and finding answers, years of existing in perfect enlightenment with nothing but abstract concepts for company.
The Second Wave - Sword Laws
After mastering the spatial cluster, Runar turned to his combat focus.
Sword Law. The blade that divides. The edge that severs. The extension of will made steel.
This felt more natural. His Void Severance Katana Soul resonated with his comprehension, making the process smoother.
Three years. Sword Law: 100%.
Then Blade Law, Cutting Law, Sharpness Law, Severing Law, Weapon Law—all the principles related to cutting and combat.
Each one took time, but they built on each other. Understanding one made the next easier.
The Third Wave - Elemental Laws
Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Lightning. Ice. Metal. Wood. Light. Darkness.
Runar methodically worked through all the elemental Laws. Some took months, some took years, but his comprehension speed was increasing as he went.
The more Laws I understand, the easier it gets, he realized. They're all connected. Fire relates to energy, which relates to light, which relates to speed. Water relates to flow, which relates to adaptability, which relates to change.
The Laws formed a web of interconnected understanding, and the more he grasped, the faster new insights came.
The Fourth Wave - Conceptual Laws
These were the hardest.
Life. Death. Creation. Destruction. Yin. Yang. Balance. Order. Chaos.
Abstract principles that governed existence at fundamental levels.
What makes something alive? What is the difference between destruction and transformation? How does order emerge from chaos?
Years passed. Decades passed.
Runar's consciousness evolved with each Law mastered. His thinking speed increased. His perception expanded. His soul grew stronger.
He was no longer the person who'd entered this space. Couldn't be—not after spending so much time in pure comprehension, alone with principles that shaped reality itself.
The Final Count
When Runar finally stopped, he'd mastered 184 Laws to 100%.
He opened his eyes in the white void and took stock.
Total subjective time elapsed: 137 years.
137 years of solitary enlightenment. 137 years with no human contact, no external stimulus, nothing but abstract concepts and his own thoughts.
It should have driven him insane. Would have, for most people.
But Runar had his HDCM—parallel consciousness streams, perfect memory, thinking speed that made time itself seem relative. And he had his programmer's mindset: break problems into components, solve components, integrate solutions.
He wasn't lonely. He was optimizing.
Creating the Fusion Algorithm
Now came the hardest part: combining all 184 Laws into a single technique.
This is a coordination problem, Runar thought, approaching it like the programmer he'd been in his previous life. Each Law is like a program. I need an operating system that can run all 184 simultaneously without conflicts.
He spent years just designing the framework.
Laws that worked well together got grouped into modules:
Spatial Module: Space, Void, Null, Gravity Temporal Module: Time, Change, Permanence Elemental Module: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Ice, Metal, Wood Sword Module: Sword, Blade, Cutting, Sharpness, Severing Conceptual Module: Life, Death, Creation, Destruction, Yin, Yang
And dozens more.
Then he designed how they'd communicate—input formats, output formats, energy distribution ratios, activation sequences, feedback loops.
It's like writing the most complex program ever, Runar thought as he worked. Except instead of code, I'm using qi manipulation patterns and runes.
Three more years of design and testing.
Finally, he had it: The Universal Fusion Algorithm.
A framework that could coordinate all 184 Laws into a single unified technique.
Next was the Energy Problem.
Runar ran calculations and immediately saw the problem.
Even with my massive qi reserves, this fusion technique will drain me completely in under three seconds. That's not sustainable.
He needed better efficiency. Much better.
I need perfect qi control. Not just good control—perfect. Every particle of energy flowing exactly where it needs to go, with zero waste.
He focused his comprehension inward, on qi itself.
What is qi at its most fundamental level? Not flows or streams—individual particles. Atoms. Subparticles.
Using his enhanced perception, Runar pushed his vision deeper and deeper until he could see individual qi particles—discrete quanta of spiritual energy, each one vibrating with its own frequency.
Then came the real work: learning to control them individually.
One particle. Just one. Move it one angstrom to the left.
Success.
Now do it again. Faster, with More particles. Ten. Hundred. Thousand.
Months passed. Years passed.
After twelve years of practice, Runar could control trillions of particles simultaneously with individual precision.
Now I can optimize everything, he realized with satisfaction. Zero waste. Maximum efficiency. And...
He experimented with forcing qi particles together in controlled fusion reactions—like nuclear fusion, but with spiritual energy.
If I can fuse qi particles, I can generate more energy than I consume. The technique becomes self-sustaining.
Perfect.
Total time in Comprehension Space: 149 years.
Runar took one last look at the white void that had been his home for over a century.
I'm ready.
He set up background processes—portions of his consciousness that would continue working even when his main awareness focused elsewhere:
Run Elemental Body Tempering continuously
Run new Conceptual Body Tempering technique
Monitor the incoming Law evolution transformation
Handle cultivation breakthrough if opportunity arose
Then he opened his eyes and returned his consciousness to reality.
Time resumed.
But something was different.
Runar's body immediately began transforming. 149 years of mastering 184 Laws was triggering a life evolution—his physical form upgrading to accommodate the understanding he'd achieved.
His body started glowing. Soft starlight radiance emanating from every cell.
His hair turned silver-white, luminous like captured moonlight.
His eyes became pools of cosmic radiance—not just reflecting light but generating it.
His skin took on an almost translucent quality, gleaming like polished marble infused with stars.
His height increased again—from seven-year-old to what looked like fourteen years old.
I look like an immortal descended from the heavens, Runar thought, slightly alarmed. This is way too flashy.
But there was no stopping it. The transformation was automatic, his body adapting to house 184 perfected Law comprehensions.
His cultivation also loosened. He could feel it—the barrier holding him at Meteor Forging Stage 9 was cracking. He could sense the 10th orbital sphere waiting to form in his dantian.
But first—save everyone.
Runar activated his Universal Fusion Algorithm.
The 184 Laws he'd mastered flowed together, coordinated by his perfected framework. Spatial Module, Temporal Module, Severing Module—all working in harmony.
The Space Lock that had seemed unbreakable shattered like glass.
Space became fluid again, responsive to his will.
Now—teleport everyone to safety.
His consciousness split into millions of parallel streams—one for each person and object he needed to move.
He calculated optimal coordinates. Safe locations. Grouped families together when possible. Stable ground to materialize on.
Then he executed.
His qi reserves plummeted—10% vanished in an instant from the sheer scale of simultaneously teleporting millions of people and objects across hundreds of kilometers.
But it worked.
4.4 million people disappeared from the demon attack zone and reappeared on a distant mountain range, 500 kilometers away.
The entire operation took 0.000003 real-time seconds.
Runar couldn't let anyone see his transformed body—too many questions, too much attention.
He created a runic clone construct in the exact position he'd occupied, while his real body remained hidden in folded space—a pocket dimension tucked between layers of reality.
The clone was perfect. Same appearance as before, same energy signature, same mannerisms.
But apparently not perfect enough.
"You don't smell and feel like the real Runar," Celestia whispered immediately, violet eyes sharp. "Where is he? Tell me or I'll tell everyone you're fake."
How?! Runar's mind reeled. The clone is identical in every measurable way! How can she detect the difference?!
He sighed through the clone. "Fine, fine. I'll tell you when I'm done dealing with the bad guys over in the distance, okay?"
"You have to teach me a powerful spear technique too," Celestia negotiated.
"Okay, I will. Now shush."
She giggled, delighted.
What kind of perception does she have? Runar wondered. She really is a genuine genius.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
Hidden in his pocket dimension, Runar's real body condensed a katana from pure starlight—compressed photons and spatial energy woven into a blade.
Time to end this.