The Planetary Form alone was divided into five separate stages.
Terra Heart.
Ocean’s Embrace.
Storm’s Fury.
Inferno’s Might.
Core of Existence.
The names sounded complicated, but the underlying principle was surprisingly straightforward.
The Primordial Genesis Sutra revolved around transforming the body’s cells.
Planetary Form transformed cells into planets.
Stellar Form transformed cells into stars.
Solar Form transformed cells into solar systems.
And from there, the progression continued upward.
The concept was so absurd that Kael almost laughed.
Yet the more he studied it, the more terrifying it became.
The first stage, Terra Heart, infused cells with earth energy.
Ocean’s Embrace added water.
Storm’s Fury introduced wind.
Inferno’s Might brought fire.
Finally, Core of Existence united everything through gravitational force.
Once every cell completed the Planetary Form, the practitioner would gain access to a combat art known as Planetary Impact.
According to the description, a fully cultivated Planetary Form allowed a casual strike to shatter planets.
Kael replayed that line in his head for several seconds.
Then he ran through it again.
And again.
"A planet..."
His voice came out as little more than a whisper.
The scale was difficult to comprehend.
An entire planet.
Destroyed with a punch.
What kind of monster could possibly possess that level of power?
Even imagining it felt absurd.
Yet this wasn’t even the final stage.
There were still Stellar, Solar, Galactic, and Universal Forms beyond it.
Would the Stellar Form allow someone to destroy stars?
Would the Solar Form erase entire solar systems?
What about the Universal Form?
Kael’s imagination immediately began running wild.
For a brief moment, he pictured himself standing in the middle of space and casually waving away galaxies.
Then he coughed.
Focus.
First he needed to determine whether the technique even worked.
Closing his eyes, Kael crossed his legs and settled into a lotus position.
His breathing gradually slowed.
His thoughts faded.
Everything except the cultivation method disappeared from his mind.
Time passed.
Minutes slipped by.
Nothing happened.
Then suddenly, something changed.
Kael felt his consciousness sink inward.
The sensation was strange.
Weightless.
His surroundings disappeared.
When his vision returned, he found himself standing within an endless dark space filled with countless tiny floating objects.
At first he couldn’t understand what he was looking at.
Then realization struck.
His eyes widened.
Cells.
Those countless floating objects were his cells.
His consciousness had somehow entered his own body.
"It worked."
Excitement surged through him.
"It actually worked."
For a brief moment, Kael nearly celebrated.
Fortunately, he managed to stop himself.
Getting distracted now would be incredibly stupid.
Taking a deep breath, he focused on the cultivation method.
The process sounded deceptively simple.
Absorb mana.
Convert it into earth energy.
Channel that earth energy into a cell.
Done.
At least that was the simplified explanation.
The actual process was significantly more complicated.
Every step required precision. Every conversion demanded concentration. One mistake could ruin hours of effort.
Fortunately, Kael possessed the Cataloguer title. Combined with the fragments of knowledge inherited from Varek, he barely managed to understand what he was doing.
Even then, the process remained difficult.
Time passed slowly.
Minutes became an hour.
An hour became two.
By the time Kael finally opened his eyes, more than two hours had passed.
Sweat covered his forehead.
His breathing had become uneven.
Yet a smile slowly spread across his face.
Success.
Deep within his body, one cell had changed.
A tiny sphere now rotated within it.
A miniature planet.
The first completed Terra Heart cell.
Kael clenched his fist and immediately felt a faint surge of energy flow through his body.
Earth energy.
He could draw upon it to enhance his attacks or spread it throughout his body to strengthen his defenses.
The sensation left him excited.
Then reality quickly poured cold water on that excitement.
One cell.
He had spent over two hours cultivating a single cell.
A human body contained trillions.
Kael slowly did the math.
Then immediately wished he hadn’t.
A headache began forming.
At this rate, he would spend longer cultivating than some civilizations spent existing.
The problem was obvious.
Mana.
There simply wasn’t enough ambient mana inside his room.
The irony wasn’t lost on him.
Just days ago, he had wanted to move somewhere with lower ambient mana concentrations.
Now he was desperately searching for more.
The answer wasn’t difficult to find.
Rifts.
Most of the world’s ambient mana leaked from rifts.
The concentration inside them was significantly higher.
Unfortunately, rifts were also filled with monsters.
Trying to cultivate while surrounded by creatures capable of tearing him apart sounded less like a good idea and more like an elaborate suicide method.
After thinking about it for a while and finding no immediate solution, Kael eventually pushed the problem aside.
He would deal with it later.
For now, he could only continue cultivating.
The night passed quietly.
Hours disappeared without him noticing.
When Kael finally opened his eyes again, sunlight had already begun filtering through the curtains.
Morning had arrived.
A long sigh escaped him.
An entire night of cultivation.
And his results?
A handful of additional cells.
The number was honestly pathetic.
Still, he couldn’t be completely dissatisfied.
As he continued practicing, his efficiency had gradually improved. Each cell took slightly less time than the previous one.
The progress was slow.
Painfully slow.
But it was progress nonetheless.
Looking inward, Kael examined the newly cultivated cells.
Tiny planets now existed where ordinary cells once had.
Only a few.
Yet compared to before, the amount of earth energy he could draw upon had increased noticeably.
Not enough to transform his strength overnight.
But enough to matter.
Kael clenched his fist.
Immediately, streams of earth energy surged toward his arm.
His muscles tightened.
The force contained within his punch increased slightly.
Not dramatically.
Just enough for him to notice.
After a moment, he dispersed the energy from his fist and spread it across his body instead.
A faint dark layer formed over his skin.
It was subtle.
Almost invisible.
Yet Kael could clearly feel the difference.
This wasn’t earth manipulation.
It wasn’t controlling rocks or creating walls.
This was something entirely different.
This was the power of a forming planet.
Weak and insignificant for now.
But one day, when enough cells had completed their transformation, that power would become something truly terrifying.