Time flowed differently in the celestial realm than it did within the controlled universe.
What felt like weeks to Max, translated to only a few hours in the controlled universe as he made little to no progress in his first endeavour of learning to separate the consciousness from the flesh
Max's search for the Sea of Consciousness was grounded in the anatomical corridors of his own brain.
It wasn't a grand cosmic expedition but a microscopic scrutiny.
With his blood manipulation, Max had means to inspect every corner of his own body as it took him not more than five minutes on his first day to pinpoint the location of the Sea Of Consciousness within his brain, however, decoding it's purpose was a whole other matter.
Beneath the central cortex, shrouded near the areas responsible for intuition or the so-called 'sixth sense', he pinpointed the organ he was seeking. It lay nestled as a tangible entity within the complexities of his neurological landscape yet the funny part was that despite it being a part of his brain, the organ had not a single blood vessel flowing towards it as it's only connection to Max's body was via the mana circuit it was a part of.
With his bloodline powers, Max sought to understand this small, discrete organ, akin in size to a water pouch holding a mere 20 ml of liquid. Its palpable presence within his brain was a stark contrast to the abstract concept he had envisioned.
He studied its physical form, noting its proximity to the regions associated with heightened perception yet despite its tangible presence, comprehending its purpose and mechanics was proving to be a formidable challenge.
For any other organ in his body, Max could precisely pinpoint it's use and it's purpose.
The heart pumped blood, the lung absorbed oxygen, the digestive system converted food to energy, however, there was a method to all these tasks being performed and a logic behind understanding it's process.
The sea of consciousness on the other hand was unique.
Max could call on it at will to release its store of divine essence which resulted in the pumping of the high powered divine essence through his mana circuit, however, there was no method or logic to this process.
Max could not understand how the sea of subconsciousness filtered divine essence from the surroundings or how it converted and stored it as droplets within his brain and how it finally pumped it into his mana circuit?
Any attempt to interact with this inner organ resulted in failure for Max as while he could clearly see the Sea of Consciousness in his mind's eye, understanding its internal workings proved to be impossible.
Initial endeavours to project himself into the organ yielded little success. The physical anatomy was clear, the position known, yet the bridge from understanding to interaction was a gap yet to be filled.
Forcing his physical form within the organ felt like pushing against a brick wall with bare hands as although Max could feel the force behind his effort, it yielded absolutely no result.
As weeks passed, time and again, his attempts were marred with unanswered questions and unyielding barriers. The physical world within his brain, despite its empirical existence, held layers of complexity, shrouded in the biological intricacies of its design.
Then one day, a significant question emerged in Max's mind amidst the myriad of queries which questioned " What exactly was the purpose of the Sea of Consciousness? "
Max's inquiry led to a pragmatic understanding as he realised that the Sea of Consciousness was an organ which was a physical manifestation of his will.
As he turned tier6 and his own subconscious became powerful enough, the organ came to life and began storing divine essence for him.
It was akin to awakening of a latent ability, however, the difference was that this ability was being harnessed by his subconscious self rather than his conscious one.
Once he realised this, next, he pondered, " Why did this organ store divine essence?"
At first he thought about this problem with multiple possible solutions until he stumbled upon the perfect one which gave him instant clarity about a lot of things.
It was the sea of subconsciousness that made an tier6 individual immortal!
All the cancer, all the cellular defects, ageing and other properties that mortals faced, was subconsciously combatted by this organ using divine essence and it was because of this particular organ that tier6 god's could live close to 5000 years.
Only when this organ stopped working as it once did and began losing potency did god's start to regress and age once again losing their peak combat strength.
It was the sea of subconsciousness whose activation made god's, ' GODS '.
It was the evolutionary distinction between mortals and them.
The tool that gave them the ability to wield the terrifying divine essence.
Naturally this also gave rise to the question of " Did only gods possess this Sea of Consciousness? "
And the answer to this question was rooted in empirical observation.
Funnily enough, the answer to this question was ' NO '.
There were certain races in the universe for whom the peak level of power was tier 2 or tier 4.
These creatures had not yet evolved enough to house even an inactive sea of consciousness within their brains, however, species like humans, vampires, elves, dragon's etc were different.
Having inherited their bloodlines from powerful beings, they did possess a form of this organ even if it was latent at birth.
For them it was shrivelled and inactive until reaching tier6 where it took form and began storing divine essence and expanded in size as they progressed further, becoming more and more capable of housing larger amounts of divine essence.
However, the reason behind why they were able to control it as god's even if they had it since birth was actually much simpler than Max had imagined.
In the end, controlling the sea of subconsciousness boiled down to one simple theory and one simple theory alone, which was ' Willpower '
Every god possessed an incredible willpower, as without it they would never progress as far as a warrior.
When they willed for something to happen, their subconscious was forced to react and respond to their wills and the stronger the willpower was the easier it was for one to control this organ.
The wall that Max felt when trying to inspect the sea of subconsciousness crumpled when he realised that he just needed to command it to be removed and it would be if his command was strong enough, as after 15 weeks of constant introspection Max was able to break down the defences of his subconscious mind and learned to manifest his physical form within it.