After days of travel, they reached the Orion Arm border.
The ship broke from warp, and before them unfolded not a planet, not a station, but a colossal construct.
A construct larger than worlds, suspended in the void. A spiral of different metals fused with streams of essence, its heart glowing with an endless vortex.
Adrian pressed against the viewport. The structure defied comprehension, rings within rings, each one spinning at impossible speeds while maintaining perfect harmony.
"What is that thing?" Thomas whispered.
Aurelia's voice was hushed with reverence. "This is the Galactic Route Nexus. A portal carved from pure space concepts."
"It folds entire sectors of the galaxy into shortcuts. Dozens exist across the stars. This is how empires and clans move their fleets."
Kael leaned forward, eyes wide. His space affinity resonated faintly.
Thomas and Elara exchanged wary glances. Even Adrian felt the gravity of what floated before them.
The Nexus was a gateway unlike anything Earth had ever conceived. Streams of energy cascaded between its rotating segments, each pulse sending ripples through the fabric of space itself.
"Routes like this link the galaxy," Aurelia continued. "Step into one, and in minutes you can cross distances that would take years by warp alone."
"And these aren't just gateways. Space cultivators use them for training."
She gestured toward the swirling vortex at the construct's center. "When you travel inside, you see concepts with your own eyes. If your comprehension is sharp enough, you might grasp even a sliver."
"That sliver can change your entire path." She smiled faintly.
"I use this Nexus myself. I couldn't afford scrolls or skill books on space, their prices are obscene. But here, the galaxy itself teaches you, if you're sharp enough to see."
"Actually, modern scrolls and skill books are shortcuts," Aurelia explained. "Before the Language of Mana was discovered, this was how cultivators grew. Learning from the galaxy itself."
Kael's heart pounded. For Thomas or Elara, there was nothing to be gained. For Selena, only curiosity.
But for him, a space affinity user, this was his chance. If he could touch even one galactic concept of space, his seed might bloom without the help of natural treasures.
Adrian watched Kael's expression shift from wonder to determination. Something stirred within his own Source seed, responding to the immense spatial energies ahead.
The ship aligned with an entrance point. Ahead, the portal churned like a vast, endless whirlpool of voidlight.
But it was bound by titanic blockers, barriers that hummed with contained power.
"State destination," came the AI voice of the gate.
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"Solvaris Nexus Hub," Aurelia replied.
"Cost, fifty thousand mana crystals."
All stiffened. Fifty… thousand? In all their months of travel, they had used barely a handful to restore mana.
To burn such wealth on a single jump, it hammered how costly survival in the galaxy truly was.
Aurelia didn't flinch. She lifted her Node, and a hologram flowed outward like a card into the air. "Paid."
The blockers parted. The vortex deepened, swirling like a devouring blackhole that bent light around its edges.
Their ship was pulled forward, caught in gravitational forces that defied physics.
Before they entered, Aurelia's gaze sharpened on Kael. "Listen to me, you have only minutes. Use them."
"Treat this like the once in a lifetime chance it is. Try to comprehend."
Kael nodded, his chest heaving.
Then Aurelia's eyes moved to Adrian. "You as well. Space cultivators are rare even among the stars."
"If your Echo helps you, even grasping a thread will be worth it. But don't expect too much. Space is the hardest of concepts."
Inwardly, she held little hope for Adrian comprehending space concepts enough to create a domain and ascend to stellar stage. From her understanding of Echo, Adrian wasn't bound to any one concept, not like others.
But space was vast, extremely hard to comprehend. If Adrian could not grasp this, he could take on other concepts and try to ascend.
The ship slipped into the portal.
Inside, the world changed.
The void outside the spaceship bloomed into rivers of dark-blue essence. It flowed endlessly, like constellations liquefied, like the veins of the galaxy itself. They didn't flow aimlessly, they demonstrated.
Kael gasped. This was space essence itself, drifting around them in currents and storms.
For the first time, he saw them, a vision, the movements of space itself. When he focused on one stream, the current twisted, and before his eyes, a black hole collapsed into being, dragging light into its center.
He flinched, and the vision faded into flowing energy again.
His pulse raced. A space concept. The very space itself showing their truth.
But… he didn't understand.
He stared, strained, but the vision made no sense. There was no explanation, no words, no context. Unlike the Volumes, where once he learned the language, the symbols told him what and why, but here, there was only raw truth without explanation.
Watching it was like staring at an equation he'd never learned.
He turned to another stream. There, stars warped, stretched, snapped into fragments by tidal forces. He focused again, space itself bending, folding, birthing wormholes.
It was magnificent. But it was chaos. Everywhere he looked, miracles. And yet, all beyond him.
Kael's breath shook. "Too… advanced."
This was the reality. Even given the answers by the galaxy itself, not everyone could comprehend.
Kael ground his teeth, trying to find a stream which would show him the visions of basic concepts.
Meanwhile, Adrian sat beside him, silent.
The moment they entered, he closed his eyes and activated his Temporal Veil. With his essence, now he could increase the power of it, and stretch it up to sixfold.
His perception stretched, giving him more heartbeats than anyone else to think.
The visions swirled before him too, terrifying, advanced, unfathomable. Even his source could not help him with what his mind had no foundation for.
The volumes had a proper flow, it started from the basics and slowly went above. But here it was chaos.
He needed the basics first.
His Source Seed stirred, his eyes flared white-grey. And suddenly, in the chaos, threads lit.
As if his very soul highlighted them, streams with basic space concepts shimmered in his vision, separated from the storm, highlighting the simplest flows.
And there, before him, the galaxy began to teach.
A pebble floating in a void, unmoving. Then a ripple, a demonstration of inertia. A curve of gravity bending around it.
A spark of distortion twisting its shadow.
It was simple, but it was the foundation.
Adrian exhaled slowly, he had found the foundation.
For others, finding these basics would have taken decades. For Adrian, the Source aligned them, so he could comprehend it.
Even the basic concepts take years to comprehend, but for Adrian, this was as if the galaxy wasn't teaching him something new, but reminding him of truths he'd forgotten long ago.
Each vision bloomed into meaning. The curve of a horizon. The fall of gravity. The stitching of distance into paths.
He didn't struggle to connect the dots, the dots aligned themselves, as though his soul had always known and was only remembering.
His lips curved faintly.
"So this is the path of the ancients. Not runes, not books. Watching the galaxy itself, learning not through words but through sight. The concepts themselves will be my teacher."