Han Chen's cultivation had... well, it had definitely slowed down these past months. Back in college, it took him five years to climb from Grandmaster to Golden Core realm. Not bad, considering he was juggling relationships, incidents involving saving parents, Yue Lan, attending classes for appearances, all that stuff that gets in the way of proper training.
Now though? He had all the time in the world. Being a silent founder meant he could pass his day-to-day responsibilities to subordinates, and Hye Won - bless her workaholic tendencies - had taken over half his duties anyway. His life had settled into a routine of surveillance, monitoring the lab facilities scattered around the region, spending quiet evenings with Hye Won and Yue Lan.
They'd even moved their offices closer together - different positions be damned. Let people talk, let the rumors spread. They had their own ways of staying private.
Every night, Han Chen and his girlfriends would meditate under the radiance convergence array he'd set up. Just for a short while, nothing too intense. He couldn't bring himself to reveal the secret of his small world to even his girls, so he avoided cultivating inside it. Besides, as his realm and soul power had grown, the temporal benefits had... diminished somewhat. What used to shrink months or years to a few moments now stretch a few hours, and the spiritual stone consumption had skyrocketed proportionally.
There was this nagging feeling in his chest that ascension worked differently in this reality. He was preparing for that inevitability, whether he liked it or not.
Hye Won had reached the peak of Grandmaster realm - infact, months ago. At twenty-four, she was practically superior over the rest of the mortal martial artists who'd be lucky to live past 150 without ever glimpsing what lay beyond or still not reaching her level. And here she was, achieving the impossible just by being with her boyfriend.
Yue Lan was progressing too. With Han Chen actively helping her refine her energy, she'd advanced to late-stage Master level. Enough for spiritual root adaptation, though she'd feel weaker initially compared to a normal martial grandmaster. Spiritual roots were optimized for higher-grade internal qi essence, after all. And its impossible to make them learn cultivation and heavenly law principles while her mind is invested in running her company.
Calling them for training, he stepped forward.
"Close your eyes," Han Chen said without explanation. "Steady yourselves."
Space swirled around the trio, and they vanished from the planet's surface, leaving only a projection of the chaos bead as an anchor point, invisible to any.
When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in what looked like a medieval house. The architecture was simple but sturdy, with wooden beams and stone walls that spoke of another era. They were ofcourse, within a prearranged place devoid of raw spiritual energy within his chaos bead.
"Where are we?" both women asked almost simultaneously.
"Well... a place free of distractions," Han Chen replied, gesturing around them.
He took a breath, organizing his thoughts. "Before, I fed you pure internal essence refined to your level through our soul corridor. But from now on, you need to sense raw 'spiritual energy' - remember that term. It's going to feel uncomfortable, especially for you, Yue Lan, since your realm is lower."
Han Chen began introducing strands of spiritual energy around them, invisible threads that gradually increased in density. "Try to visualize it," he instructed. "Imagine drawing ethereal energy around you it into your bodies."
Hye Won sensed it first and immediately gasped in pain as the higher-grade energy wreaked havoc through her normal veins. Han Chen quickly moved to help her stabilize, teaching her to adapt to the new sensation. Meanwhile, Yue Lan felt nothing but irritation at her inability to sense anything at all. She persisted though, and eventually - when the energy finally reached her - the pain was extreme.
After helping them lock the energies within their dantians, Han Chen moved on to the next phase. "Body refinement," he announced.
He'd been planning this for months. Unlike beings born with spiritual roots who could flood their systems with spiritual energy from birth, those with martial arts backgrounds lacked refining. So he'd run calculations, tried different combinations, until he'd developed elixirs that would refine the body quickly but without the accompanying agony for rapid development. Layer by layer refinement with gradual release of medicinal power - skin, blood, bones, meridians, tendons, organs. Not the extreme option he'd used on himself with the Nine Turn Refinement Pill.
The ingredients were relatively common: Xueyin Velvet root, blue stitch fern, bone moss, crimson lotus. He'd used his elemental cauldron and added a special spirit resin - basically an alchemical gum that soften down the refinement process, preventing the body from being tortured while allowing time for proper assimilation. Extract the essence, alchemic purification add spirit liquid, and... the solution was ready.
The ladies stared at the otherworldly fragrant yet colorful liquid in their bowls. "What is it?" they asked warily.
"Wine," Han Chen replied simply.
They drank it in one gulp as instructed, and before they could complain about the taste, both fell unconscious as Han Chen gently loosened their spirits.
Setting the trays aside, he entered the time chamber and sat beside their sleeping forms. Part of his mind focused on refining his own cultivation and body, but most of his attention went to helping the elixirs work their magic layer by layer.
A year passed within the chamber. The physical life essence he channeled, coupled with spiritual provisions from the array, essentially sustained their bodies without disrupting the process. Their bodies refined slowly, starting from skin and working inward to organs. The elixir ensured it wouldn't be as deep as his own refinement over the years, but rather an uplifting of physique for spiritual energy adaptation. By the end, their organ refinement had reached above standard for typical body cultivators in a cultivation plane for true qi cultivation.
Now came the spiritual root engraving.
When he'd first introduced the spiritual energy, his law sense had detected their limits even with refinement. Talking about affinities, Yue Lan had asked him to train her sword techniques more, when she saw him doing a small sword dance - she felt comfortable with them and had even managed to learn some qi sword techniques.
Hye Won laughed at this, saying she was more interested in guns. Well, Han Chen had recreated a gun-swinging technique, though without a capable weapon it probably wouldn't work on anything other than humans. She was more drawn to raw martial arts considering he taught her unarmed combat and techniques to kill and subdue anyone after she was troubling with taking her first kill. She was especially adept at using simple Qi techniques.
The spirit root he planned to give them both was saint-grade with yin-yang properties. It would allow them to develop elemental and law affinities easily, plus transformation of five elemental energies into source energy for combat power. Hye Won's body, having been under long-term exposure to stellar qi from the radiance convergence array at their villa, had developed a slight affinity for cosmic qi.
With their energy transport conduits fully under his spirit will's control, Han Chen began the root condensing technique. To enhance the roots, he tempered martial veins with five elemental law energies, then proceeded to evolve the principles of yin and yang...
"Five essence converge. From the dance of five—Wood's birth, Fire's blaze,Earth's stillness, Metal's edge, Water's veil—arises the breath of change. Essence refines, Thus Yin is born from still descent, Yang from rising flame— each the echo of the other. From Five, Two emerge; From Two, One returns.Conduits transform to yin yang primordial spiritual root"
With his higher cultivation level, what used to take him months of training he could now accomplish for them in mere hours. Both women began unconsciously drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy - refined through Han Chen's guidance and their newly formed yin-yang primordial spirit roots - flooding systems that had only ever been exposed to the minute internal energies of martial cultivation.
During those months of silent retreat, he also... well, he transferred a portion of his foundational cultivation knowledge directly into their souls. He'd tried normal teaching before, you know? Even Hye Won, brilliant as she was, struggled with the concepts of immortal dharma.
See, people in cultivation planes are just... they're genetically and mentally built for this stuff. Instinctual behavior with spiritual energy, understanding the flow of heaven and earth energy without thinking about it. There are literally infants who step into qi cultivation before they're even born. He'd done his best teaching them the old-fashioned way, but it wasn't working.
So he... slowly altered them. Genetically. Modified them into something similar to his own enhanced species - all the superior advantages that came with it. Their bodies transformed from these fragile organisms designed to walk around on a planet's surface using, um, monkey brains basically... into bodies built to rapidly adapt and evolve for combat. Base power levels that surpassed normal organisms in muscle density, reduced vulnerability, better instincts and efficiency. It also fixed a lot of the underlying biological issues that came with being female, if he is being honest about it.
He took the utmost care not to change their sense of selves - their emotions, their viewpoints, who they fundamentally were. Unlike him, their souls and consciousness were... well, they relied heavily on their biological brains for how they expressed themselves and interacted with the world. He boosted their intelligence and tolerances, sure, but...
He knew what he was capable of, you know? With his enhanced intellect and near-perfect knowledge of reality, his spirit sense that could detect things down to atomic levels, his ability to rapidly regenerate tissue using elemental transformation qi techniques on body... hell, he could erase memories, seal them, add new ones, modify what was already there in someone's soul. He could transform a person into basically his own creation.
And he'd regret it for the rest of his life if he ever felt like his own girlfriend was just... some creation of his. Devoid of her originality, her real self. So anything relating to the brain, cognition - that was completely off limits. Though he did adjust their hormonal systems and added some neural pathways to have better control over themselves.
They gradually woke up after a year of body refinement and a month of genetic enhancement and spirit root implanting. When they saw Han Chen again, their first reaction was... well, it reminded him of the bio-enhancers their company had developed.
"Han Chen, what happened??"