Time flies

Essence Refining Realm, after establishing this name, Ace felt greatly accomplished and his poor mood instantly improved.

From then on, time passed fast. Everyone around him began to grow old and only he remained the same.

After ten years of constant efforts, his mana was about 75% more abundant than when he just broke through, it wasn't even double. But to compensate, his soul power and vital energy skyrocketed in both quantity and quality.

His soul sense could reach up to five meters away from him and he could sense everything in that space as if in slow-motion. His vital energy was so strong that his body was nourished by it to a great degree.

He was physically two times stronger and faster than when he just broke through. It wasn't little considering that he was already stronger than most wild beasts before.

He could blast a big tree trunk with a punch and feel like it was nothing, he could run so fast that even the fastest birds couldn't keep up with him.

At that time, he understood that even if he seemed to be growing slowly, each seemingly small improvement was in truth massive. Increasing his raw strength by just 5% was equal to increasing the weight behind his punches by hundreds of kilograms.

He could blast giant rocks and jump over great obstacles repeatedly with so much ease that Ace was surprised by his own prowess. He was sure that after the next breakthrough, he would be so strong that it would begin to affect his cautious mentality.

Many villagers noticed there was something wrong with him since he had been there for decades and never showed signs of aging. Some weird rumors about him being a spiritual creature in disguise began to circulate, but Ace just laughed at them and didn't try to stop the rumors.

In any case, all villagers know that he always did good for them and was never evil, so what if he was human or not?

If there was a good thing about the rumors, was that most girls and middle-aged women lost their courage and stopped courting Ace. He was relieved by this.

After spending decades there, Ace had already begun to consider the village his second home, and he didn't want to leave so soon, not before he changed their fate.

Time continued to fly, and Ace never halted his walking pace. He was always trying his best.

Advancing further proved to be more difficult than he expected, and his progress began to slow down the more his mana approached being 100% more abundant than just after the breakthrough to the Essence Refining Realm.

Without him noticing, it had been more than thirty years since he arrived in that world, and he was beyond fifty years old. He was still looking as young as when he first arrived in that world.

Ace had long since learned to be patient and strive hard during the long years, so he didn't bother so much about the passing of time as once he did.

When it was about twenty years since his last breakthrough, his mana finally reached the mark and it was finally double the amount when compared to just after the breakthrough.

His vital energy was so dense and powerful that Ace wondered if it wouldn't transform into another kind of energy before his mana. His soul power was so powerful that his soul sense already could cover a ten-meter radius from his body.

His mana was also much purer, about two times. It could last much longer outside his body without dissipating, and he began to try many experiments with it. Sometimes he would try to imbue his fists and legs with his mana to see if it increased his power, but it was useless.

However, his body didn't show any signs of a breakthrough.

[Host... aren't you worried?]

"My old friend... it has been a while since you left your deep silence," Ace said while relaxing under a tree's shade, "I am in no hurry, so why are you like this?"

[If you don't get stronger... ]

"I won't be able to return, right?" Ace completed, "Yes, I have always known that you want to go back to your creator, it's in your essence."

[...]

"But I am me, my friend," Ace sighed, "The long years have long since washed away the youthfulness in my heart. I even began to think it wasn't a bad idea to live in this village for the rest of my life.

"I like to take care of the villagers and to play around with the children from time to time.

"I like the fresh wind and the beautiful scenery.

"And my heart... began to rest here."

[What about your family?]

"...Will they still be alive by the time I manage to go back?" Ace asked back, "You know very well that time never stops."

[The passage of time of this world might be different.]

Ace sighed and shook his head, "I don't want to fill my heart with expectations to be disappointed later. I wonder how powerful I need to be to cross the long space and time to reach my home world. How long it will take?"

[Are you cowering in fear?]

"Don't try to provoke me..." Ace smiled, "You know me enough to know it won't work."

[You...]

"It's rare to hear your angry voice," Ace chuckled and enjoyed the fresh wind.

Suddenly, he felt like many things turned clear to him and his heart felt free of many burdens. When sensing the world around him with his five senses and soul sense, he had the illusion he was integrating into the world.

After a while, Ace got up from the ground and began to walk to the village, but something was happening in his body during his walk.

'Is this something like enlightenment?' Ace was amused but didn't stop his pace. A vortex of spiritual energy began to form around him as it was crazily absorbed.

His soul power was moving by itself, it began to hammer his consciousness palace's barrier, as if trying to open it. After a few tentatives, it succeeded.

In that same instant, Ace felt like a whole world was being born inside his mind.

Without an alternative, Ace had to sit below another tree to wait for the end of the breakthrough.

His soul sense began to expand crazily outwards. From the original ten meters to twenty, thirty... it continued to increase until it reached stability in a hundred-meter radius from him.

At the same time, his vital energy began to swallow great amounts of spiritual energy and transform his whole body, as if locks and shackles around his life had been broken.

The vortex of spiritual energy intensified and began to affect the environment around him. His body began to float and the trees to sway.

His soul power and vital energy, which had grown tremendously by feeding on spiritual energy, began to finally target his mana. They directly invaded his energy core, as if they completely lost their fear of mana.

His mana was instantly defeated and almost dispersed. Ace felt a great shock coming from the core of his being, he knew he would suffer grave consequences if his mana dispersed.

He tried to control his mana to resist, but it seemed useless. In that flash between life and death, he urged great amounts of spiritual energy to enter his energy core, he did it to his utmost limit.

His energy core seemed to be full of pressure and almost ruptured, Ace was insistent and continued to inject more spiritual energy.

When the spiritual energy entered in contact with the almost dispersed mana, and at the same time encountered great pressure coming from his soul power and vital energy, it seemed to have ignited.

A bright light engulfed his energy core and even his physical body, the environment around him was also affected and it seemed that a second sun descended on the earth.

Ace couldn't see anything, but he could feel that a critical reaction occurred and a new energy began to take form in his energy core. Not only that, but his energy core began to expand crazily!

It wasn't the first time it expanded, since it always grew to accommodate his abundant mana. However, it was the first time it grew so much in one go.

The vortex of spiritual energy around him intensified to maintain his soul power and vital energy and the winds turned even stronger. The soul power and vital energy that was just created continued to enter his energy core as if there was no tomorrow just to be assimilated by the new form of energy.

But before that new energy could stabilize, another even wilder reaction took place in the center of his energy core, and another new energy formed, quickly absorbing all other energies in the energy core and forming an absolute field where no other energy was allowed.

Ace was completely caught off guard, he never expected that there would be the formation of another energy in the end.

The newly formed energy was clearly much more overbearing, and directly absorbed and expulsed all other energies. It wasn't colorless like mana but possessed a faint white color.

His energy core also stopped expanding and began to stabilize, it was about ten times larger than before. The newly formed energy was far from filling all of the energy core's space.

Ace finally noticed that the new energy wasn't so overbearing when circulating in the meridians, and it was a relief for him. If the new energy directly absorbed the meridians themselves, which were made of soul power and vital energy, he would be screwed.

He began to ponder and guessed that what made the other energies leave the energy core wasn't the new energy, but the energy core itself. It once happened with his mana, and now happened with it.

Perhaps the energy core preferred to store a single type of energy.

When the new energy was finally born, his breakthrough began to end. The vortex of spiritual energy around him quickly dispersed and he was back to the ground.

The new energy possessed powerful effects, and his body was being constantly washed and transformed by it along with his soul power.

His newly opened consciousness palace could be closed and opened at will by him, and he could now directly see his soul residing inside it, bathed by his most dense soul power and with a sea of thoughts floating around.

When it was opened, he felt that it was like he was naked to the world, so he instinctively closed his consciousness palace. The only thing that could ignore the barrier was his soul power, that could flow to the rest of his body even before.

His vital energy, although didn't turn into another energy, was much denser and more powerful than before, it could reach deep into his life essence. Even without the system informing him, Ace knew that his life span increased considerably.

After observing the new energy for a while, Ace decided to call it "Aura." The only reason was that this energy possessed a color while mana didn't.

While mana was like a gas, aura was like water, exponentially denser and more powerful. Perhaps the energy that was formed before the aura was like the middle between gaseous and liquid, it was a transitional energy.

Ace also noticed that the closer to the center of his energy core, the denser the aura. Perhaps it would eventually reach a state of "solidification" if he continued to accumulate it.

He suddenly remembered dusty memories from his past, there was something like core formation in some novels...

Ace shook his head and stopped looking inside himself to observe the outside world. He opened his eyes and saw traces of destruction everywhere, but luckily he was a bit far from the village.

However, he was sure the villagers noticed the commotion made by his breakthrough, he felt it was about time to spread his method of practice to the others.

But first, he wanted for his body to finish its transformation. He walked to the river and took a bath to remove the layer of impurities that were almost forming a crust above his skin.

After four days, his body finally ended its transformation and reached stability, he felt that the whole world in his vision could be smashed to smithereens by his fists.

Of course, it was just an illusion caused by the sudden inflation of power, but he was indeed numerous times stronger than before.

His raw strength almost tripled compared to before and he also could run almost three times as fast as before, he was unbelievably powerful. His resilience and defense also increased proportionally to support the new power.

He almost had the feeling that he could even confront some modern weapons such as simple missiles and rifles without difficulty, and even resist them directly with his powerful body.

He felt that he was just a few hundred kilometers per hour away from reaching the speed of sound of his natal world. But perhaps it was different in that other world.

Nonetheless, he thought he could consider himself powerful enough to have gained the qualification to protect a small village in that dangerous world.

[Do you want the information I gathered?]

"Of course!"