After speaking with Alissa, Grey departed and arrived back at the central tower. Since Alan Benson would not be arriving anytime soon, he decided to return to the Creator Space to conduct more simulations.

His immediate goal was to conceptualize at least the first realm of the sixth rank.

His figure seamlessly ascended into the information layer. Soon, he connected himself directly to the data node containing the virtual world known as the Creator Space. In truth, even if he lacked official access, as long as someone pointed out the exact server coordinates of this virtual reality, he could effortlessly breach into it unauthorized.

Soon, he arrived at his newly established Aether Evolutionary Path Institute. Surprisingly, there were already many scholars eagerly looking around the grand establishment.

"True Saint Grey!" The scholars, upon seeing him, immediately greeted him enthusiastically. "I am a massive fan of the Aether Evolutionary Path. I hope you do not mind us looking around."

"Of course not. Please, feel free," Grey said with a welcoming smile.

"Thank you," the scholars nodded respectfully.

"When can we meet the actual author of this path, Saint?" one of them asked eagerly.

"Soon," Grey smiled politely. You are looking right at him, Grey thought helplessly to himself.

Leaving the scholars to their studies, he entered the core path simulation chamber. He manifested a digital clone and began his rigorous testing.

"First and foremost. Soul power has indeed been fully confirmed to handle the explosive instability of the 6th rank metamorphosis."

"Hence, utilizing soul power is the most prominent and viable option here," Grey muttered as he rapidly recorded the simulated data.

He closely observed the clone. It had just undergone the violent metamorphosis and was now thoroughly enveloped in a golden sheen of soul power.

"But the core issue is, while it can indeed stabilize the raw power of the path, it is constantly burning up the available soul power to do so." Grey frowned deeply.

Considering this was just a base clone, its total soul power reserves might naturally be small.

"Is there a specific way to measure soul power, Eterna?" Grey inquired aloud. He knew perfectly well that this overpowered entity, who had entirely transcended the very concept of an AI, was currently stalking him silently in the digital space.

"There is a built in soul measurement system within the path simulator," Eterna’s soft, melodic voice echoed in the white room.

"I am just here to observe you developing your path," Eterna added after a brief moment of silence.

Seeing Grey looking so entirely serious and hard at work made her realize a profound truth. His overwhelming powers were not simply handed to him for free; he worked incredibly hard to forge them. Even his terrifying Event Horizon ability was conceptualized and created entirely by his own hands.

She felt that it was very pleasant, simply quietly observing Grey like this.

"Feel free," Grey smiled warmly.

Soon, the exact measurement of the clone’s soul power materialized on the interface.

[Soul Power: 5 Units]

"Five units? What exactly does that scale entail?" Grey asked.

"One unit of soul power is the baseline of what a 5th ranker at the Origin Manifestation realm would possess. Two units at the Origin Seed, three at Origin Nova, four or five units at the 6th rank, six or seven at the 7th rank, and ten plus at the 8th rank."

"The more base soul units you have, the higher the total output of soul power you can safely utilize," Eterna added bluntly. "In that specific aspect, your path’s soul foundation is doing pretty poorly."

Hearing this brutal honesty, Grey paused.

Indeed. He had been severely neglecting the soul for quite a while now, and that failure was honestly entirely on him. He had genuinely neglected it, falsely assuming that the source had truly, perfectly merged with his soul. But that was incredibly far from the absolute truth.

"But I know the exact solution." Grey grinned confidently. "I just need to implement a structural fix at the Frequential Helix realm of the 5th rank."

He already knew the core methods of soul refinement. He just needed to seamlessly amplify its raw power, and what was the absolute best way to do that? The Frequential Helix! He would adjust the blueprint so that the spiraling helices would aggressively target and refine the soul as well.

He tapped into the Creator Space’s interface and rapidly began making the complex adjustments. Every single helix formed would now be actively used for the amplification process of the soul. Once the Nexus Cell containing the helix eventually collapsed into its respective cosmic meridian to form a singularity, the soul’s power would gain flawless integrity and be elevated to a whole new dimension of strength.

It was a brilliant fix.

With the new theory locked in, he scrapped the old clone and generated a new one. He completely reconfigured it with the updated version of the Aether Evolutionary Path, which he had already asked Eterna to reupload to the central database to prevent any system inconsistencies. He then eagerly checked the new results.

[Soul Power: 15 Units]

"Not bad at all." Grey nodded in deep satisfaction.

This was excellent. Now, he needed to heavily test exactly how long this amplified soul power could last under the stress of metamorphosis.

In the accelerated simulation, time quickly slipped by. By analyzing the data logs, it was crystal clear that the duration of safely supporting the source from exploding had drastically increased from a mere five hours to a solid fifteen hours.

"Interesting. So the base unit directly decides the total amount of time I can continuously use it for stabilization." Grey stroked his chin thoughtfully.

However, this was still not the absolute result he desired. Because at the end of the day, what he truly wanted was to make the source stable not just for fifteen hours, but permanently.

Stabilization currently required the active, constant burning of soul power. That fuel would, without a doubt, eventually deplete. He needed to forge a system where it wouldn’t bleed out. He had to form an independent construct that could continuously revolve and recycle the soul power without causing it to permanently deplete.

"But at the exact same time, if I am forced to use heavy soul attacks in combat, I will rapidly deplete my soul power reserves as well. Once that happens, even if the stabilizing construct is perfectly in place, without the necessary soul power fueling it, the source will still violently collapse and destroy itself."

Finding the solution to one complex problem merely opened the door to several more.

"Is there a definitive way to make it permanent? Yes. Like a central axis," Grey nodded thoughtfully to himself.

"Hm, wait a minute." A brilliant spark of an idea suddenly clicked in Grey’s mind.

Could he not just permanently sacrifice a specific percentage of his total soul power to forge an absolute, permanent structure that could continuously stabilize the source on its own?

This unique structure would serve as the anchor, the axis. But now came the absolute biggest hurdle. How the hell was he going to design a permanent, self-sustaining structure that could continuously stabilize the chaotic 4D energy without passively bleeding out his soul power over time?

"It should function exactly like a Golden Core in the standard immortal cultivation path," Grey reasoned out loud. "It requires an immense, sufficient amount of energy to initially condense and create. But once the forging process is completely finished, it becomes self-sustaining and elevates one’s base power to a fundamentally new dimension."