Nexus Grandmaster

Godshard Integration

"Fair enough!" Gao Weiguang did not seem surprised at Fang Yu's reply. If anything, he was impressed that the latter did not jump right away into a decision. Beside him however, Ting Lanyue and Yue Ruhuo were dumbfounded.

"Does that mean you're considering it? You don't have a screw loose in your brain, do you?" The latter asked as he stared at Fang Yu incredulously.

Ting Lanyue tugged at Fang Yu's shirt and whispered, "Your only answer should be a direct rejection. The rest of us have deep history with Master, hence our decision, but it's not the same for you."

The curious light in Fang Yu's eyes did not waver and he spoke honestly, "I'm not a dummy. I just want to carefully analyze what's on the table."

"And that is? A death wish?"

"An opportunity like this surely isn't easy to come by," Fang Yu said. "My innate aptitude isn't high, so this might just be my turning point."

Gao Weiguang looked at Fang Yu strangely and asked, "Didn't you hear me earlier when I said your potential is enough to get you to the demigod realm?"

"I don't know what that is but it doesn't sound as cool as becoming a god," Fang Yu replied. In this matter, he wasn't actually to blame; mortals on the planet ignorantly addressed all divine practitioners that could fly as gods without knowing that there were actually several sub-distinctions.

"A demigod is a divine practitioner at the sixth cultivation realm and by no means weak," Yue Ruhuo piped up to speak.

"Just sixth, not enough," Fang Yu muttered under his breath. His brows lifted as he started to ask a question. "I–"

"If you assimilate a godshard, your minimum potential alone will enter the tenth cultivation realm, also known as the Dao Fruit Realm," Gao Weiguang answered the question before Fang Yu could ask. "A G

godshard is the remnant essence of a Dao Fruit, and my perfect integration method allows you not only inherit the potential of that stage but also includes additional growth potential."

"I'm in," Fang Yu threw away all scruples and finally agreed in a firm tone, to the utter indignation of Yue Ruhuo and Ting Lanyue.

"Since that's settled..." Gao Weiguang made a final hand sign, "All four of you, get in front of the pillars and relax."

Pei Xue was the first to comply, quickly moving to stand with her back to the first pillar. Fang Yu was mildly surprised; she had been so quiet during the fiasco that he forgot she was present. At the moment, the deadpan look in her eyes was gone, replaced by a fierce glint that screamed vengeance.

Yue Ruhuo was the next, occupying the pillar next to Lu Li. Ting Lanyue and Fang Yu took the remaining two pillars.

Just as they settled into position, a deafening boom sounded, followed by a violent distortion of the divine plane.

"Ignore that," Gao Weiguang said. "Let's get started."

With these words, Gao Weiguang threw out the four Godshards in his hands towards the pillars. They landed accurately, embedding into the small grooves on each pillar.

Fang Yu felt himself get dragged backwards by a suction force from the pillar behind him so that his back was stuck against it. Simultaneously, a searing sensation filled his body.

Boom!

The surroundings in Fang Yu's view changed abruptly in the blink of an eye. Instead of the grand fancy hall with the four pillars, he found himself in a vast expanse of pitch darkness.

Almost immediately, Fang Yu sensed he now lacked a corporeal form. Even stranger was the fact that he seemed to exist simultaneously as the pitch darkness itself as well as a detached observer within it. Putting two and two together, he quickly made some speculations.

'This state...is it what martial artists call inner sight? Am I in some sort of psyche embodiment state right now?'

Just as more thoughts began to emerge in Fang Yu's mind, an explosion on the scale of a supernova occurred within the pitch dark space.

Boom!

As the nexus of the pitch dark world, Fang Yu's psyche immediately bore the brunt of the explosive, distortive forces that permeated everywhere and almost collapsed under the strain. Fortunately for him, a set of runes appeared out of nowhere and encased around his psyche like a body armour at the last second, helping him withstand the outburst.

'Hell, aren't this the runes Master inscribed on the black pillars?' Fang Yu realized as he raised a hand to his face. Apparently, the interlinked runes formed a sturdy body shell for Fang Yu's psyche to occupy, buying him some time.

Fang Yu did not dwell further on this detail and instead observed the destruction going on around him.

'This pitch dark world should be the equivalent of my inner world. The destructive energy wrecking the space is from the godshard I'm presently integrating with, manifested in form of the nebula chaos cloud!' It suddenly dawned on Fang Yu that the latter continued to expand while the former shrank. This realization made him somber up and his thoughts instantly flowed faster.

'What I have to do now is nullify the nebula or at least get it under control. Since this is my inner world, my psyche might be useful here.'

Fang Yu immediately tested out his hypothesis, attempting to manifest an object from his imagination by utilizing his 'I am the pitch dark space, the pitch dark space is me' status. Astonishingly, a longsword abruptly materialized exactly as he envisioned it.

Fang Yu suppressed his excitement and focused his thoughts, expanding the mental construct in front of him to an unbelievably colossal size that made his psyche body seem microscopic in comparison. Afterwards, he stabbed two fingers forward and the sword moved at the same time, slashing towards the center of the nebula.

The expected explosion did not occur. Instead, the colossus sword was cleanly 'devoured' and vanished.

'This..!' Fang Yu's psyche sensed that the longsword had actually been broken down and assimilated right as it entered the periphery of the nebula cloud's radius.

Maybe....this has something to do with how nebulas work in real time?

Fang Yu's mind instinctively entered an overtime state to dig out relevant information from his memories. Perhaps the fact that he hadn't been privileged to get much of a formal education in his previous life was a major determinant, but back when Fang Yu was Sun Wentian on Earth, he had been very interested in learning and studied by himself to become versed in a lot of arcane knowledge. Astronomy and the sciences were his forte, particularly because he had an innate curiosity about the world and the mysteries surrounding it.

As a matter of fact, since his soul transmigrated to the Eternal Purgatory World, Fang Yu had nursed a feeling that the knowledge he carried with him from Earth would be of use someday. Four years later, at this very moment, this fledgling suspicion was proved right.

'When a nebula explodes, it throws the surrounding space into chaos as it expands. But after a while, the embryonic form of a star is formed at the center, with the remaining material flattening into a planetary disc.'

Fang Yu's thoughts flowed more smoothly now more than ever as he continued his analysis, 'Technically speaking, I can't destroy this nebula cloud no matter what I try as it is composed of energy, which cannot be created or destroyed. However, utilizing the approach of transforming the energy might be the key to maintaining control over the present chaos."