Chapter 387: Constraint Insertion Successful

Liam took one more deep breath before beginning. The constraint existed in his mental space, perfectly formed and ready for implementation. But moving it from concept to reality required precision that would make brain surgery look casual by comparison.He activated the Dao Array Eyes to their fullest extent, pushing his perception deeper than he’d ever gone before. The gears of universal law became sharper, more defined. He could see individual teeth on each gear now, could track the exact moment when one tooth engaged with another in the endless mechanical dance.

The dark energy network spread before him in all its complexity. Thousands of gears working in perfect harmony, creating the force that pushed the universe to expand. Liam needed to slip his constraint into that network without disrupting a single rotation.

The first challenge was finding the right insertion point.

He couldn’t just shove his constraint into a random spot. The network had structure, hierarchy, points where influence flowed more strongly than others. Inserting the constraint in a weak position would make it ineffective. Trying to force it into a critical junction might trigger defensive responses from the universe itself.

Liam studied the network, watching energy flow through the connections between gears. Some paths carried more power than others, lighting up brighter in his enhanced vision. Those were the main channels, the primary routes through which dark energy expressed itself in physical reality.

He needed something in between. A position important enough to give him access to substantial energy, but not so critical that tampering would be immediately noticed.

His eyes tracked the network for hours, following energy flows, mapping the relationships between different gears. The Origin Devouring Body helped, its instincts recognizing patterns that his conscious mind might have missed. Together, his constitution and his vision narrowed down potential locations.

Finally, he found it.

A gear positioned three connections away from a major energy channel. Close enough to tap into significant power, distant enough that modifications wouldn’t set off alarms. The gear itself was mid-sized, neither large enough to be obviously important nor small enough to be completely peripheral.

Perfect.

Liam focused on that single gear, studying every detail. He watched its rotation speed, counted the teeth along its edge, observed how it meshed with the six other gears connected to it. The constraint he’d created needed to match this gear exactly, or the replacement would fail instantly.

He began making final adjustments to his constraint, fine-tuning its specifications to mirror the target gear. The rotation speed needed to match within fractions of a percent. The size had to be identical. Even the subtle variations in how the teeth engaged with neighboring gears required perfect replication.

The work was tedious and demanding. Liam’s concentration never wavered, but he could feel the strain building behind his eyes. The Dao Array Eyes weren’t meant to maintain this level of focus indefinitely. They were powerful, but even they had limits.

He pushed through the discomfort. This was too important to pause.

After another three hours of adjustment, the constraint matched the target gear in every observable way. On the surface, it was a perfect duplicate. But hidden within its core were the modifications that would channel dark energy directly into Liam’s cultivation system.

Now came the truly difficult part.

The replacement had to happen instantaneously. If the target gear stopped rotating for even a fraction of a second, the disruption would ripple through the entire network. The universe would detect the anomaly and correct it, possibly destroying Liam’s constraint in the process.

He needed to remove the original gear and insert his constraint in the exact same moment, maintaining the rotation without the slightest pause.

Liam extended his perception toward the target gear, wrapping his awareness around it like invisible hands. The Origin Devouring Body responded to his intent, creating tendrils of energy that existed in the same space as the universal laws. These tendrils could interact with the gears because they carried the authority of a constitution designed to consume and integrate external forces.

The tendrils made contact with the target gear, and Liam felt resistance immediately.

The universe didn’t want him touching its fundamental mechanisms. The gear pushed back against his influence, trying to reject the foreign presence. It wasn’t a conscious rejection, just the natural response of a system protecting its integrity.

Liam applied more pressure, forcing the tendrils to maintain their grip despite the resistance. The Origin Devouring Body increased its output, feeding more energy into the connection. The struggle was invisible, taking place on a level of reality that normal perception couldn’t detect, but Liam felt every bit of it.

His head began to ache. The strain of maintaining the Dao Array Eyes at maximum perception while simultaneously wrestling with universal law was taking its toll. Sweat formed on his forehead despite the temperature-controlled environment of his quarters.

He ignored the discomfort and pushed harder.

The resistance weakened slightly. The tendrils sank deeper into contact with the gear, establishing a grip that couldn’t be easily broken. Liam held that position, not trying to remove the gear yet, just maintaining the connection and waiting for the right moment.

His other hand, the mental representation of his will, held the constraint ready. It hovered in his perception, a perfect copy of the target gear with hidden modifications. When the moment came, he would need to swap them faster than thought itself.

Liam watched the target gear rotate. He counted the revolutions, looking for patterns in how it meshed with its neighbors. Every gear had a rhythm, a moment in each rotation where the engagement was smoothest. That would be when the swap would be easiest.

He found the pattern after two hundred rotations. There was a point, lasting only a tiny fraction of a second, where all six neighboring gears aligned perfectly with the target. In that instant, the resistance would be at its minimum.

That was his window.

Liam prepared himself, timing his breathing to match the rotation cycle. The constraint floated in his mental grip, ready to move. The tendrils tightened their hold on the target gear, prepared to extract it at his command.

The alignment approached.

Five rotations away.

Four.

Three.

Liam’s entire being focused on the coming moment. Nothing else existed. Only the gears, the constraint, and the impossibly brief window of opportunity.

Two rotations.

One.

The moment arrived.

Liam moved.

His will split in two directions simultaneously. The tendrils yanked the target gear free while his other hand shoved the constraint into the empty space. The movements happened so fast they might as well have been simultaneous, but Liam experienced them as distinct actions compressed into an instant.

The target gear came loose, its connections to the network severing all at once. For a fraction of a fraction of a second, there was a gap in the universal law. A hole where a fundamental piece of reality had simply ceased to exist.

The constraint slammed into that hole.

Resistance met him like a physical wall. The universe recognized something foreign trying to integrate itself into the natural order. Energy surged around the insertion point, defensive mechanisms activating automatically.

Liam didn’t pull back. He couldn’t. If the constraint failed to seat properly in this moment, he would never get another chance.

The Origin Devouring Body flooded the constraint with energy, reinforcing its presence, insisting on its right to exist in this space. The constitution’s fundamental nature, its ability to consume and integrate external forces, created a paradox the universe struggled to resolve.

Was this foreign element truly external, or had it become part of the system the moment it touched the network?

The defensive surge faltered, confused by the question.

Liam pressed his advantage. He forced the constraint to begin rotating, matching the exact speed of the gear it had replaced. The motion helped sell the deception. If it moved like the original, behaved like the original, interfaced with neighboring gears like the original, then perhaps it was the original.

The connections began forming.

Slowly, reluctantly, the six neighboring gears accepted the constraint’s presence. Their teeth meshed with the constraint’s teeth, creating the mechanical linkages that allowed energy to flow through the network. The constraint settled into position, its rotation stabilizing, its integration becoming more complete with each passing moment.

The defensive surge faded entirely.

The universe had accepted the constraint as a legitimate part of the dark energy network.

Liam felt the moment of acceptance like a physical sensation, a click that resonated through his entire being. The constraint was in place. The connection was established. The foundation for his unique cultivation path now existed at the most fundamental level of reality.

But he wasn’t done yet.

The constraint’s surface functions were working perfectly, supporting the universal law exactly as designed. But the hidden modifications, the channels that would feed dark energy into his cultivation system, those needed to be activated carefully.

Liam reached through the constraint with his perception, following the pathways he’d built into its core. They spiraled inward, leading from the gear’s surface toward a point of convergence at the center. From there, they connected directly to his Origin Devouring Body through links that existed outside normal space.

He activated the first channel.

Dark energy began flowing immediately, pulled through the constraint by the Origin Devouring Body’s inherent hunger. The energy traveled along the hidden pathway, moving from the universal network into Liam’s personal cultivation system.

The sensation was unlike anything Liam had experienced before. Dark energy wasn’t like normal energy. It didn’t feel hot or cold, didn’t carry weight or substance. It simply was, existing as pure potential that could be shaped into whatever form cultivation required.

The Origin Devouring Body seized that potential and began transforming it.

The constitution knew what to do instinctively. It had been designed for this, created to consume external forces and convert them into personal power. The dark energy flowed through the constitution like water through a complex filtration system, emerging on the other side as something new.

Cultivated energy. His energy. Power that belonged to Liam alone, making the first and only entity that can cultivate dark energy.

The transformed energy began circulating through his body, following pathways that didn’t exist in a normal human anatomy. It flowed through his Dao Bones, strengthening the runes carved into their surface.

It pulsed through the Heart of 18 Magic Circles, each chamber processing the energy in different ways before sending it onward.

The tattoos on his skin began to glow faintly, responding to the circulation of cultivated energy.

Liam opened his eyes.

The real world snapped back into focus around him. He was still sitting in lotus position on his bed, but everything felt different now. He could sense the dark energy flowing into him from the constraint, a steady stream of power that would continue as long as the connection remained intact.

His cultivation had officially begun.