On the forty-second layer, the mental power particles of the third rune drifted by 0.005 degrees.
Ethan sat cross-legged on the stone slab, his breathing steady and his face devoid of expression.
Every time he restarted after taking his own life, his mental power output became just a fraction more precise than before.
Through endless repetition, he identified, analyzed, and eliminated every subtle fluctuation that caused a deviation.
The seventy-third attempt.
On the forty-fourth layer, the moment the mental power particles of the twenty-first rune descended, the energy ripples from an adjacent particle nudged them off by 0.001 degrees.
The three hundred and forty-first attempt.
An issue arose on the fifty-first layer.
It wasn't that a single particle had drifted; rather, the rhythm of the entire alignment had slowed by 0.02 seconds.
This delay only manifested when he reached the fifty-first layer, causing a cascading error in all the mental power particles of the final three layers.
Ethan didn't immediately begin his next attempt after taking his own life.
He sat cross-legged on the stone slab, eyes closed.
In his mind, he repeatedly analyzed every detail of the fifty-first layer's alignment.
The rhythm of his mental power output, the energy ripples between particles, and the optimization of the alignment sequence.
He broke down the fusion chart of the Myriad Forest Meditation Method into countless individual steps in his mind, repeatedly scrutinizing, optimizing, and reorganizing each one.
Then, he began his three hundred and forty-second attempt.
The one thousand seven hundred and twenty-ninth attempt.
The seventy-seventh layer.
These were the final twenty-two layers of the Myriad Forest Meditation Method's fusion chart.
From the seventy-seventh layer to the ninety-ninth layer, each step was more complex than all the preceding layers combined.
The density of the mental power particles in these layers was five times greater than before, and the energy resonance between the particles was ten times stronger.
In these layers, even the slightest deviation would be amplified to a fatal degree.
Ethan's mental power guided the particles, letting them descend one by one into their designated positions.
The seventy-seventh layer: perfect.
The seventy-eighth layer: perfect.
Halfway through the seventy-ninth layer, a residual fluctuation left behind by the second rune surged from the depths of the ball of light, colliding with the forty-fourth particle as it descended.
The particle was knocked off by 0.002 degrees.
A wooden spike pierced his skull.
The one thousand seven hundred and thirtieth attempt.
The one thousand seven hundred and thirty-first attempt.
The one thousand seven hundred and thirty-second attempt.
Ethan had completely lost track of time.
His entire consciousness was immersed in the shrinking ball of light at the center of his mental sea.
After each failure, he would dissect the root cause in his mind down to the absolute fundamental level, ensuring he avoided that exact pitfall in the next attempt.
Through thousands of repetitions, the precision of his mental power output had been tempered to an almost monstrous degree.
The three thousand four hundred and eleventh attempt.
Layers seventy-seven through eighty were all completed perfectly.
The eighty-first layer.
The ball of light had shrunk to the size of a needlepoint.
A pale green light burned quietly at the center of his mental sea, resembling a miniature star.
With eighty layers of alignment completed, the mental power particles inside the ball of light were packed so tightly that further compression seemed almost impossible.
Every new particle had to find an outrageously precise spot within a space that was already crowded to the absolute limit.
Ethan's mental power guided the first particle of the eighty-first layer downward.
The particle settled into its designated position.
Flawlessly accurate.
Then the second, and the third.
He was halfway through the eighty-first layer.
The moment the forty-seventh particle descended, the energy resonance within the ball of light suddenly intensified.
This resonance surged from the core of the ball of light, a natural energy fluctuation generated after the completion of the first eighty layers.
Under Ethan's precise control, the intensity of this fluctuation had already been suppressed to its theoretical minimum.
However, the alignment density of the eighty-first layer was simply too high.
That faint resonance collided with the forty-seventh particle as it was settling into place.
The particle drifted by 0.0007 degrees.
Ethan's finger twitched.
0.0007 degrees.
This deviation was smaller than any prior attempt.
It was so small it could easily be ignored.
It was so small that no conventional detection method could ever measure it.
It was so small that if he didn't stop, the mental crystal would still form perfectly, and its quality would far exceed anything an Official Wizard could comprehend.
However, Ethan would not tolerate even the slightest deviation.
A wooden spike shot from his palm.
It pierced through his skull.
【Deceased. Consumed 1 year of lifespan. Perfect Resurrection.】
Start over.
On the eighty-first layer, the forty-seventh particle was knocked off by resonance once again, drifting by 0.0004 degrees.
He took his own life.
The eighty-first layer passed. On the eighty-second layer, the third particle drifted by 0.0009 degrees.
He took his own life again.
Both the eighty-first and eighty-second layers passed perfectly.
...
The ninety-eighth layer, the final particle.
The ball of light had shrunk to the point where it was invisible to the naked eye.
To his mental perception, it was merely an infinitesimal speck of light, yet it contained the precise alignment of thousands of mental power particles across over ninety layers.
This speck of light was the prototype of the mental crystal. Once the ninety-ninth layer was completed, it would solidify completely, becoming a perfect mental crystal.
The final particle descended.
As it descended, it passed through the surface of the ball of light, cutting through the already aligned particle layers and sinking toward the core.
The difficulty of this process surpassed the sum of all the challenges Ethan had faced before.
The particle had to maintain a perfectly straight trajectory while passing through dozens of particle layers. A minor fluctuation in any layer could push it off course.
The particle passed through the first layer.
The second layer.
The third layer.
...
The forty-seventh layer.
The forty-eighth layer.
The core of the ball of light was close at hand.
As the particle passed through the fiftieth layer, an incredibly faint energy ripple surged from the depths of the core.
The source of this ripple was the spot reserved for the ninety-ninth layer. No particle had filled it yet, but the surrounding particle layers were already generating a spontaneous energy resonance.
The aftershocks of the resonance diffused from the ninety-eighth layer, striking the final particle of the ninety-ninth layer just as it was sinking into the core.
The particle drifted by 0.00001 degrees.
Ethan's body froze.
0.00001 degrees.
This deviation had reached the theoretical limit.
It wasn't caused by any operational error; it was a quantum-level fluctuation naturally generated during the formation of the mental crystal.
This type of fluctuation was explicitly labeled as a 'negligible error' in the Myriad Forest Meditation Method, something unavoidable in any fusion process.
His finger tapped gently against his knee.
A wooden spike pierced his skull.
The five thousand three hundred and first attempt.
Start over.
The six thousandth attempt.
The ninety-ninth layer.
All particles were aligned.
The ball of light suddenly contracted at the center of his mental sea, shrinking from the size of a needlepoint into a singularity that could not be measured by any unit.
Within the singularity, thousands of mental power particles lit up simultaneously.
An emerald-green light welled from the singularity, but it was no longer the flat, thin light of before.
It was a three-dimensional, almost physical light.
The light beamed from the center of the singularity, piercing through the gray mist and illuminating his entire mental sea.
Rate on N.U.
