Just as Leonardo was feeling desperate because he couldn't replenish his energy anymore, his heart clenched as a resounding heartbeat echoed in his sea of consciousness.
The sound of the heartbeat didn't travel outside of his body, but it rushed along the connection between his spirit and energy, following the needle condensed from his sea of consciousness in the blink of an eye.
This heartbeat quickly and in no time at all followed behind the strand of Leonardo's consciousness, soul, and energy that was stagnant in the empty space.
As shocked as he was by this development, a powerful propelling force launched him at a speed incomprehensible to his cognitive abilities.
The only thing Leonardo was certain of was that the trajectory of his travel didn't deviate from the direction of his intuition.
Just as Leonardo was about to lose his consciousness from the ridiculous speed, he saw a flash of light.
The moment he saw it, the flash of light was at the border of his vision. The moment his mind registered the information though, he was already rushing through this white light and into an unknown sub-dimension he landed.
It was a fragmented world with pieces of land floating everywhere.
Not only that, but even though Leonardo could feel a trace of countless laws in the atmosphere, all of them were fragmented.
It could be said that this was the most complete yet most incomplete sub-dimension to ever exist.
If Leonardo wanted to refine this sub-dimension, he would first need to comprehend the fragmented laws and fix them, then he could consider refining this sub-dimension.
The moment he arrived at the core of the sub-dimension, Leonardo was absolutely stunned.
In the designated loca for the core of the star, he found a massive, awfully familiar black obelisk that towered for hundreds of kilometers.
This was a fragment of the Infernal Throne!
Before he could even snap out of his shock, the needle condensed from his consciousness, spirit, and energy rushed into the fragment and a stinging pain assaulted Leonardo's mind.
He didn't even get a choice in the matter and his spiritual mark was engraved to the core of this fragmented sub-dimension, his vision quickly growing dark the very next moment.
What Leonardo didn't know was that although the Internal Throne concealed this sub-dimension very well, his actions on this day rippled through the other planes with a throne, most importantly the planes that had their karma inexplicably entwined with the Infernal Throne.
For example, the Celestial Throne and the God Throne.
Luckily, with the concealment of the Infernal Throne, God Slayer, and the diluted karma across the differing timelines, it would take an inestimable amount of time to narrow down on Leonardo's position.
…
"Junior Brother, what's wrong?"
All of this happened within an instant, and by now, Maiden 001 snapped back to her senses and hurriedly asked Junior Brother anxiously.
Junior Brother shook his head, "I don't know, I just felt a sense of…"
He wanted to say a sense of danger, but he couldn't tell what it was exactly. Of course, he had no idea he was almost inflected with the karma of the king, and without a suitable inheritance, getting inflicted with this karma was no different from meeting certain death.
He wanted to say a sense of danger, but that feeling quickly disappeared the moment he left the natural formation.
After some serious deliberation, he told everyone to stay on guard as his body flashed once more, entering the formation again. This time, however; there wasn't a sense of danger anymore.
Junior Brother quickly arrived at the location of the cleansing pond, finding Leonardo seated in a lotus position seemingly asleep, but his aura was incredibly weak and fluctuating.
After some hesitation, Junior Brother tossed a hill of raw ether fragments again, but he was ready to dash away at any moment if he were to notice something was off.
Whoosh!
Luckily, this time, the energy from the raw ether fragments vibrated and began to rush into Leonardo's body.
Leonardo felt as though he was absurdly parched for nutrients. The moment he marked the sub-dimension, he knew that he no longer had to store energy in his cells, but the energy would instead be stored in the sub-dimension.
Whatever that remained of his energy was used as a medium to transfer the millions of miniature nebulas in his cells into one embodiment of a system in the depths of the throne fragment.
At this moment, his cells were reverting back to ordinary cells, while the embryonic form of a star core began to take shape in the heart of the sub-dimension.
Still, this thing needed energy, and massive quantities of energy at that. However, this was something that Leonardo desperately lacked at the moment.
It was at this instance that Junior Brother arrived and tossed a hill of raw ether fragments, rejuvenating Leonardo's hope. Almost instinctively, his cultivation method ran crazily.
The moment Junior Brother realized that Leonardo was absorbing ether just fine, he waved his hand and crushed the raw ether fragments to bits, all of the energy rushing at Leonardo like a flood.
It was akin to a whale inhaling water as Leonardo's long silver hair began to crazily flutter in all directions, vitality quickly returning to his bleak-looking body.
Junior Brother tossed more and more raw ether fragments, crushed them, and tossed in even more.
Very quickly, his expression changed, looking very odd. All of this energy, yet Leonardo hadn't stabilized his cultivation realm at level 71.
Junior Brother's expression began to sink as he watched the raw ether fragments turn to dust in the tens of thousands. This was the fortune of an entire sect for the love of gods!
Leonardo's attention was focused on his sub-dimension at this moment. As more energy rushed into the core of the sub-dimension, the three massive nebulas and the massive black sphere they revolved around, their respective force fields began to expand throughout the sub-dimension.
The more energy they absorbed, the sturdier and further these force fields expanded. As they did, the fragmented laws were quickly subdued and tamed under their influence, no longer chaotically crashing while mutually destroying one another.
Of course, subduing the laws and fixing the laws were two completely separate matters. At most, subduing the laws would allow Leonardo to carefully and patiently study them in the future, and only upon comprehending these laws could he complete and fix them.
"Mhm?" Leonardo felt something was off, so he quickly focused on the fragment from the throne.
He scanned it over and over, quickly realizing what happened.
The black sphere that represented his innate martial intent seemed to be resonating with the fragment and slowly but surely refining it. Although the change was subtle, almost negligible, Leonardo could still feel it through his innate martial intent.
Although he wanted to feel happy about it, he couldn't really bring himself to feel happy when he remembered how massive this fragment was…
Helpless, he could only continue to meditate and expand the various force fields until they enveloped the entire sub-dimension before concluding his cultivation.
…
Leonardo's fluctuating energy finally stabilized at level 71 and he opened his eyes, and although they were pitch-black, a sliver of vitality and joy could be seen with.
Leonardo quickly noticed Junior Brother who was staring speechlessly at him as though he were a freak.