Night fell.
Deep inside the research facility.
A laboratory sat cloaked in absolute silence.
On the blood-slick dissection slab, Ling's torn body had been meticulously disassembled by Seraphine.
Among the scattered remains, the stomach held her sharpest interest and it had already been carefully removed.
With surgical precision, she stripped away all irrelevant tissue.
Until, finally, she extracted the core of the [Gluttonous Space]
A glowing, translucent, multi-faceted crystal.
Without hesitation, Seraphine used her telekinetic force to activate every diagnostic tool in the lab.
She initiated an exhaustive battery of tests on the crystal.
"Atomic intensity spectrophotometer online."
"High-energy ultrasound field generated."
"Fluorescent particle trajectory recording initiated."
"Ion chromatograph, gas chromatograph activated."
"High-energy thermoelectric beam initiated."
"Electromagnetic field meter, XY radiation detector, conductivity meter engaged."
For a moment, the vast lab echoed with the constant, low HUM of machinery running at full capacity.
Simultaneously, Seraphine reached out with her Psychokinesis gracefully wrapping the floating, multi-faceted crystal in a shimmering field of force.
Moments ticked by…
And the detailed test data was delivered directly to her waiting mind.
Through the analysis, Seraphine confirmed the crystal was a stellar isometric structure, forged from ultra-pure carbon layers.
In structure, it mirrored a perfect natural diamond.
But even more curious
Deeper analysis revealed this crystal, the size of a pigeon egg, contained a folded space with a usable volume of 5000 cubic meters.
CLINK CLINK!
She gently tapped the hovering crystal, watching it flash under the harsh lab lights.
Seraphine tilted her head, a playful smile touching her lips.
"I figured it would be something like a Dimensional Pocket," she mused softly. "But this is nothing like that."
The Box of Hephaestus, commonly called the Dimensional Pocket.
In her view
Its truer label should be [Mental Energy Simulation Space].
Through long, hard study, Seraphine had peeled back the layers to see the deeper truth:
The Dimensional Pocket is not built on standard physics.
Instead, it lives inside an ethereal, almost idealistic plane.
Basically, it uses illusory space-time designs, built and held up entirely by focused Mental Power.
At its heart, it uses Ether and spatial shifts to lock a tangible-seeming space right inside the soul itself.
A simulated realm, living where thought meets matter, able to hold both energy and physical objects.
But truthfully…
That space has no true physical grounding.
It doesn't really exist in the material world.
Or perhaps Seraphine simply hadn't found the proof that it does exist.
But that was a distraction for later.
The Gluttonous Space, however, was an entirely different beast.
Even though it could store matter and energy
Its very nature was fundamentally alien.
It was a space that, based on known physics, should only exist in theory
An Imaginary Space.
Seraphine stood with her hands folded, her mind firing at impossible speeds.
"First, we must map out a coordinate system for this space."
A divine AURA flared to life around her, flowing outward in visible waves.
Like a cosmic brushstroke, it etched glowing mathematical diagrams into the air
Formulas, parameters, Cartesian axes, and layered geometric shapes unfolded before her like logical blossoms.
"Three-dimensional real space can be described using three sets of real numbers."
As her thoughts shifted, the floating structures warped.
Two-dimensional graphs stacked together suddenly erupted, inflating into complex networks of dense, three-dimensional solids.
For a moment, the data flow surged, growing exponentially complex, deeper, and more profound.
"By definition, imaginary numbers are points on a simple number line."
The glowing 3D coordinate grid before Seraphine pulsed brightly.
New points, marked with imaginary numbers, began to light up along the line symbols of concepts coming alive.
"Unlike real numbers, imaginary numbers don't follow direct size comparisons."
"But that doesn't stop us from building an imaginary space."
As she spoke, the luminous points became saturated with data and formulas, swelling with raw potential.
"The mathematical link between real space and imaginary space is the Fourier Transform."
"That is why we can also call imaginary space the Fourier Space."
Still murmuring, Seraphine raised one slender index finger and slowly pointed toward a single glowing imaginary-number coordinate on the grid.
"If we use real space as the base map to construct imaginary space..."
"Then one point in real space should map to an infinitely large three-dimensional volume in imaginary space."
"Conversely, the entire infinite three-dimensional real world would shrink down to a single point in imaginary space."
BOOM!
It was like the Big Bang had just been rebooted.
That imaginary-number point flared then DETONATED, expanding in all directions like the origin of a new universe.
The space around Seraphine twisted and tore apart.
In a breath, she stood in a boundless, silent VOID.
This was her internal model of imaginary space.
"Hmph. I've found a way to map out imaginary space."
Her eyes flashed with radiant, divine clarity.
And in the next instant
The VOID fractured like shattered glass and disappeared.
Seraphine stood back in the lab.
"Furthermore… if we accept that everything in the universe is made of fundamental particles then math alone cannot describe the cosmos."
With that thought, Seraphine's pupils sparked.
A sudden, blinding INSIGHT bloomed in her mind a moment of pure revelation.
The Eye of True Revelation stirred once more.
Endless inspiration surged forward like a tidal wave, DETONATING inside her head.
"On the smallest scale, down to atoms and smaller, the number and types of particles making up the universe are finite."
"And the existence of irrational numbers means that infinitely repeating decimals cannot perfectly map onto physical reality."
Her gaze intensified. Thoughts condensed. Logic snapped into place.
A whisper escaped her lips:
"But the rise of quantum mechanics seems to bridge that gap."
"The uncertainty of the quantum world, with its seemingly endless detail, can be tied to those irrational numbers."
"And from there, we reach a clear CONCLUSION."
"Imaginary space corresponds to the imaginary numbers of mathematics."
"Therefore: Real-number solutions map the cosmos's real space."
"Imaginary-number solutions define the imaginary space."
It felt like her thoughts had shattered some colossal, ancient barrier.
Touching a sliver of ultimate TRUTH one long buried under the weight of the universe
Seraphine's gaze deepened.
Where she once saw nothing, streaks and filaments now emerged, flowing like celestial tides…
Waves, fields, networks, vibrations
She slowly looked around the room.
The world she thought she knew suddenly felt utterly alien.
And indescribably GRAND.
"I see... so this is how it works."
She gently raised her index finger and pointed into the air before her.
In response, a large section of the atmosphere in front of her began to spin on its own.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
A vortex materialized at the center of the lab floor.
Invisible moisture in the air condensed rapidly into a thick, swirling mass.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!
With a sharp focus of telekinetic force, Seraphine compressed the moisture further
And in seconds, it solidified into a translucent block of ICE.
What formed was a crystal roughly the size of her fist.
Visually, it was almost identical to the core of [Gluttonous Space] that brilliant, diamond-like structure.
Using only ambient water vapor from the surrounding air, Seraphine had condensed gas to water, water to ice…
And through that pure medium, constructed a complex internal material lattice capable of hosting the real-world version of an imaginary space entity.
Nestled deep inside the translucent crystal was a cluster of imaginary space, no larger than half a cubic meter in volume.
In minutes, Seraphine had cracked the core method for building imaginary space
A technology that, in the "Dragonblood" timeline, required the combined intellect of Earth's top scientists just to partially grasp.
"Now that I've mastered this tech," she said calmly, "it won't be long until Selene gets her version 2.0 upgrade."
A gleam danced in her eyes.
"The limits of physical capacity they mean nothing now. I can go all-in and overhaul her without restraint."
"This is thrilling, truly"
The sheer majesty of the universe and the clean elegance of spacetime made her mind reel with beauty.
Within her consciousness, the surging Ocean of Knowledge swelled higher, absorbing massive troves of precious data pulled from her spatial research.
And somewhere within that ocean
The [Space] fish, always darting and swirling, grew visibly more vivid and alive.
Yet her insights went far beyond just imaginary space.
Something even more miraculous had revealed itself.
...
In the cosmos
"If I can calculate the exact real solution for any given space... then I should be able to..."
Suddenly, a massive flood of raw data slammed into Seraphine's mind.
Through the deep link between her clone and her main body
She simultaneously solved the true configuration for both locations:
The cosmic placement of her main body, and
The spatial coordinates of the lab holding her clone.
Then
BUZZ
The space inside the lab warped violently.
Without a single noise, Seraphine's clone winked out of existence right there.
And in that exact same moment
She materialized directly in front of her main body.
...
Seraphine's true form slowly opened her eyes, meeting the stare of her copy.
She offered a soft smile.
"So that's the trick... This is just another form of spatial jump."
Then, maintaining her cool, Seraphine extended her palm downward reaching toward Earth.
...
At that precise time, inside the Sapphire Research Institute in Cloud City
An alarm shrieked throughout one of the labs.
"Beep… Alert! Subject riot detected in Laboratory 16!"
"Beep… Alert! Subject riot detected in Laboratory 16!"
"Beep… Alert! Subject riot detected in Laboratory 16!"
TAP TAP TAP TAP!
Dozens of heavily armed Guards flooded the corridor, their boots pounding the floor.
They burst into Lab 16, chambering rounds and leveling their rifles
Targeting the massive, grotesque biochemical monster thrashing within.
With a deafening shout, they hit the trigger.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!
But the mutated horror warped by countless layers of human experimentation shrugged off the bullets like morning dew.
Rounds capable of ripping human limbs apart only fed its pain.
And its surging fury.
"ROAR!!!"
The creature's head snapped back, hundreds of dull, scattered eyes glaring with pure, raw hatred.
It lunged forward, jaws wide open, ready to slaughter the squad.
But just then
BUZZ
The space inside Lab 16 gave a sickening shudder.
The creature's charge froze instantly.
THUD.
It crashed heavily onto the floor.
Blood streamed steadily from its ears, eyes, nose, and gaping mouth.
It twitched once where it lay… then went utterly still.
DEAD ON THE SPOT.
The Guards froze their mouths hanging open.
They looked at each other, completely lost.
"Did... did that thing just drop?"
"What the hell happened?"
"Is... is the emergency over?"
...
Out in the Universe.
Seraphine studied the swirling mass of abnormal gray-white brain matter floating above her palm, a faint smile playing on her lips.
"Once I calculate the true spatial solution," she murmured, "I can not only jump there, but I can also reach into that space... and pull things out from miles away."
WHOOSH
With a casual wrist flick, she dissolved the floating brain into fine particulate dust.
Then, Seraphine sank back into deep contemplation.
"The nature of space... it is truly strange."
But
A slight frown creased her brow.
"What exactly is the core mechanism driving this spatial jump?"
It was true.
While information transfer doesn't always need a physical path, there must be some kind of shortcut allowing that data to cross vast distances instantly, from one point to the next... in a blink.
Her clone, and the brain of that biochemical horror, had all traveled through some unknown pathway.
But what was it?
"Where exactly does that shortcut lie?"
Seraphine activated her Eye of True Revelation, which blazed with sudden intensity.
Within her mind, flashes of insight and logic sparked like lightning in a dark storm.
Data spiraled through her divine sight, forming then dissolving streams of cascading knowledge.
Vague truths, once hidden, started to solidify.
This was the birth of a new ability:
[Chaos Calculation].
It was a secondary branch of evolution growing right out of the Eye of True Revelation itself.
Though just a branch, its power matched the original Eye
And in certain areas, it even outstripped it.
Effect of Chaos Calculation:
It uses a system akin to quantum computing, applying massive, parallel logic to extract the final Answer directly.
It skips the slow, step-by-step classical deduction.
Even when data is severely lacking, or seemingly nonexistent, it can infer the correct Answer to any complex Problem in astonishingly short timeframes.
This ability doesn't show Seraphine the entire computational journey; the path from A to B remains hidden.
But it cuts through the fog of uncertainty, slicing through illusions of knowledge to point straight at the fundamental truth.
Chaos Calculation grasps the [Answer].
Eye of True Revelation deduces the [Process].
Together, they form a twin system approaching total omniscience.
Even the model for the [Martial Saint] realm followed this pattern.
First, Chaos Calculation seized the Answer itself, holding it like a glowing truth suspended above her Ocean of Knowledge.
Then, over time, Seraphine gathered all the necessary data, and used the Eye of True Revelation to trace the complete logical framework behind that Answer.
Once the structure was complete, the Martial Saint path emerged naturally, fully built.
Yet, at this moment, as Chaos Calculation continued its silent work, a strange question arose.
"In the original story... Even after suffering three Ether tides back on Earth, the Eye of True Revelation never evolved into any special branch ability."
"Its depth and reach improved, but it stayed a single function."
She paused, her brow knitting in thought.
"So why did I awaken Chaos Calculation?"
No answer was forthcoming.
Her thoughts circled back, finding nothing new.
She shelved the query for the moment.
And returned to dissecting the essence of spatial jumping.
Until finally, the answer flashed into her mind, clear as day.
"High-dimensional space," she whispered, eyes gleaming. "That's it, it's high-dimensional space!"
Rapidly, she recalled the dense knowledge about high dimensions buried in her memory.
Setting aside the time axis, pure spatial dimensions could be seen as a kind of multi-dimensional, quantized field.
This field covers quantization at the micro, macro, and cosmic scales.
From fundamental particles, Fermions, Leptons, Bosons, the Higgs boson, and beyond, all, according to string theory, are just vibrations of one-dimensional strings.
These strings, depending on how they vibrate, appear to us as different fundamental particles.
A string might have two ends, this is called an open string.
Or it can loop into itself, creating a closed string.
Among the various string theory ideas, one suggests that gravitons, the hypothetical carriers of gravity, are these closed-loop strings.
Only as closed strings can they travel freely through the high-dimensional membrane spaces.
This motion then creates the gravitational force that ties everything together in the vast universe.
Of course, these were still only theories.
Seraphine had not found any solid physical proof to back them up yet.
But deep in her memory sat a radical branch of superstring theory, M-theory.
To truly map the universe, just using X, Y, Z (three space dimensions) and T (one time dimension) was completely useless.
Based on a set of intensely complex equations, at least eleven parameters (dimensions) were needed just to scratch the surface of explaining the universe's many puzzles and structural flaws, things like black holes, white holes, wormholes, gravity shifts, and spacetime tunnels.
M-theory proposed the universe has eleven dimensions minimum, maybe even more.
And also, each of these dimensions isn't made of simple straight lines, but of vibrating branes, higher-dimensional surfaces.
Of these dimensions:
Four can be seen and used by humans directly.
The others are far outside human senses, like ultrasound or infrared light: real, but floating outside our narrow sensory range.
But just because humans cannot feel them does not mean they are not real.
At the same time, Seraphine pinpointed a massive spatial-temporal gap between the flat, normal spacetime humans occupy and the macro-quantized space beyond.
Hidden within this messy connection was very likely the source of her space jump ability.
"If that's true," she muttered, "what I'm doing isn't really space jumping. It's high-dimensional transmission."
She sat up straight in the endless cosmos.
Stars glittered like scattered white noise on a black canvas.
Her gaze swept across the far edges of reality.
"If I had to draw out the whole transmission process…"
"It's like putting two dots on the surface of a giant, solid sphere. That sphere is the real universe, connected by unseen dimensions. Its surface, what we call three-dimensional space, and its core, the extra dimensions we can't feel."
"In normal 3D thinking, the fastest way between two points is a straight line across that surface."
"But when I figure out the true path and jump, I skip the surface. Instead, I enter a spacetime configuration like an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, but much weirder."
"Like a termite digging straight through the sphere, slipping through hidden internal folds of the cosmos via what you might call... ascending dimensions."
She paused.
Frowning, deep in thought.
Then she shook her head.
"No... that's not quite it."
"I don't think I'm ascending dimensions."
"That section of spacetime isn't real high-dimensional space. It's more like a tight tunnel piercing between high and low dimensions. Or maybe... a region totally cut off from the usual definitions of space, time, or dimension."
"A superdimensional corridor, one that material senses can't grab, not even spiritual or mental perception can touch."
"Inside that hidden path, all three-dimensional distance collapses, maybe it stops existing entirely."
"And according to the Eye of True Revelation's simulation, and the answer pulled by Chaos Calculation..."
"The time axis inside that tunnel has also broken down, maybe it just stops existing."
That's why Seraphine could never truly see the shift.
Why she couldn't remember the journey itself.
"Because in that corridor... time means nothing."
"So I just drop, like a pebble slipping through a tear in fabric, from lower dimensions to higher ones, popping up somewhere else."
"Basically, I achieve near-instant repositioning."
She let that final idea hang in the void.
Then whispered to herself, focused and firm:
"That piece of collapsed spacetime... that tunnel ignoring distance and erasing time..."
"Let's give it a name."
[Real Number Channel].
With that thought, a subtle shift occurred in her mind.
BUZZ ~
Tens of thousands of miles away, a sudden explosion of searing, sun-like divine aura ignited out of nowhere.
It pulsed, then DETONATED with a deafening BOOM!!!
In that instant, everything inside its radius turned to ash.
Gas, dust, even floating cosmic debris, all of it was instantly vaporized by the sheer force of the divine heat.
"In the same way," Seraphine murmured, "As long as my mental or spiritual power can reach a spot. And the true solution for that space is fully mapped by the Eye of True Revelation working with Chaos Calculation..."
Her voice echoed with certainty:
"Then whether it's matter, information, or energy, I can instantly send it across using the [Real Number Channel]."
She lifted her chin, smiling in sharp triumph.
"From now on, my interaction with this universe will not be chained by distance."
"Whether it's ten thousand light-years, or a hundred million. Even across borders beyond the observable universe..."
"As long as I know the true mapping of that space, I can reach it instantly!"
With a sweep of her sleeve, the path is open. But what about the fuel needed to power this kind of super-dimensional jump? And what exactly is high-dimensional space?
And so began a new cycle of experimentation.
Floating in the cosmos's center, Seraphine launched a relentless wave of high-precision, long-range attacks.
Every few seconds, blinding clusters of divine aura ignited in distant corners of space, BLASTING OFF like scattered novas everywhere.
But after a while, she stopped.
Despite running hundreds, even thousands, of teleportation tests, she felt nothing unusual.
There was no sensation of moving through high-dimensional space.
Not even the faintest ripple.
Every single burst of divine aura hit its mark the very instant it was fired.
No lag. No delay. Not even a blink of time between release and impact.
"So... the Real Number Channel truly bypasses time," she realized. "The Chaos Calculation was right, the time dimension inside that pathway is totally collapsed."
She let out a slow breath.
"Well, I'm still stuck in three dimensions. It makes sense I can't feel the jump through higher dimensions."
But just as she was about to stop digging deeper.
BUZZ
Deep inside the endless Ocean of Knowledge residing in her mind, the long-quiet [Space] fish suddenly surged upward, its entire form alight with fresh insight.
It had finally soaked up enough of the relevant data.
With a triumphant flick of its tail, it shot straight up, piercing directly into the suspended model of the [Martial Saint] system.
And from that exact second, the once-thin crescent shape of the [Martial Saint] construct, which had been just weak, theoretical scaffolding, started to lock into place, more than half of it now clear, structured, and made real.
Only one piece was left missing.
The [Mind] fish.
Still young. Still blurry. Still floating aimlessly.
Once the Mind piece matured, Seraphine would finally hold the complete blueprint for the Martial Saint path.
Sitting cross-legged in the void, Seraphine allowed herself a small, rare smile.
"Perfect. [Ether], [Acupuncture Points], [Space], all condensed and realized."
"Only the final piece remains, [Mind]. And then… I can finally forge the complete Martial Saint realm."
She looked up, her eyes glowing with a holy light.
The Martial Saint blueprint hung above her consciousness, a half-finished divine crescent.
She took a deep breath, releasing soft motes of iridescent light.
"But… Mind might be the hardest part. More hidden. More slippery."
Her pupils flashed as her thoughts snapped to a new topic.
She needed to look into the energy cost of using the Real Number Channel.
Curiously, during all her past space-jumping experiments, Seraphine had felt absolutely zero internal Energy drain.
None at all.
It was totally effortless, as easy and natural as taking a breath.
Yet, something else was draining her dry.
Every time she forced a spatial superposition, the [Infinite Attributes] deep in her soul underwent a massive Energy transfer.
The sheer scale of the Energy being consumed was astronomical.
So massive, so boundless, that even Seraphine, with her current unbelievable power level, paused in shock.
If she had to put a number on it, the fuel needed for just one Real Number Channel trip would likely dwarf all the energy humanity had ever burned since the first dawn of Civilization.
"So the fuel for the actual jump…" she murmured with a soft smile, "is entirely covered by the System. It's completely outside my worries."
She allowed herself a rare moment of true satisfaction.
"That's… actually a huge relief."
Up until now, the system's most obvious perk was the daily attribute doubling.
But now, she was starting to grasp the System's true function.
A far more hidden core feature had always been running alongside it:
An endless Energy Reservoir.
Something Seraphine had completely overlooked until this point.
Yet, looking closer, that function might be even more vital than the raw attribute growth.
Because at her current stage of physical and soul refinement, even if her Power were cut down by ten thousand times, the external world wouldn't hold enough Ether to sustain her current state.
Power this massive requires fuel of equal magnitude.
And the System's absolute Energy Support?
That was the real bedrock of her strength.
"Looks like I haven't even scratched the surface of what this System can truly do."
"In terms of Energy," she mused, her eyes faintly glowing, "I might not need to depend on anything external at all. [Infinite Attributes] feels more like a sealed domain… a self-contained universe."
Of course, there were limits.
Ether itself, this weird, metaphysical phenomenon, was not energy in the normal sense. And that, the System still couldn't create.
"Otherwise, once the Martial Saint technique is finished, I could just blast straight through to the next level… without waiting for the second Ether Great Tide to finally arrive."
Her focus drifted back to the System Panel.
Far below her, the curve of Earth's horizon was etched with shining arcs of dawn.
"Time to check the update."
The System activated.
[Host: Seraphine]
[Physical Strength: 2.4 trillion]
[Soul: 2.4 trillion]
She quickly scanned the stats, satisfied.
Then she paused.
Another question surfaced in her mind.
"Is it truly that simple… to break the speed of light?"
By now, Seraphine had soaked up huge volumes of knowledge through theory and direct testing.
And based on everything she knew, there were indeed a few tricks in the universe that could bypass the light barrier.
Vibrational Coherence Speeds.
Group Wave Velocities.
Quantum Tunneling.
Quantum Entanglement between particles.
Even the motion of photons in a Casimir Vacuum, under special rules, could slightly eclipse c, the speed of light.
But here was the massive snag:
Even though these things moved faster than light, none of them could send any effective data or matter.
Put simply, the universe forbids any medium from carrying useful information or intentional movement faster than light speed.
"Why?"
Because that would shatter the single rule the cosmos fiercely guards, the Chronology Protection Conjecture.
What does it protect?
The integrity of Causality.
The sacred line linking Cause to Effect.
In truth, even Causality has a speed limit.
From the moment of Cause until the Effect unfolds, that entire sequence moves at the speed of light.
A beam of light isn't just illumination, it is the messenger of fate.
And if physical mass or actionable data could fly freely faster than that, the entire structure of cause and effect would unravel.
The universe would drown in paradox.
"If the causal chain snaps," Seraphine whispered, "the universe must have a counter-measure designed to suppress it."
So the Real Number Channel, which clearly transmits actual data and substance faster than light, must be a massive threat to that balance.
"Then… is there some kind of cosmic system in place to restrict or limit Real Number Channel usage?"
"If there is… what form does it take?"
Just then, a sharp tremor went through the mother seal buried deep in her soul.
A mental ping.
An immediate alert.
A thread of consciousness shot upward, unbidden, a message erupting from the mark's tether inside her mind:
"Master, save me!!!"
Seraphine's eyes flared wide in surprise.
"Abram has been caught."
With a single thought, she spun off an extremely tiny thread of spiritual power.
This power, carrying Seraphine's command, immediately found the invisible tether between the master and slave mark, instantly crossing the massive distance and slamming toward the Beaconreach.