It felt exactly like the hypnic jerks from his past life. Back then, he would be drifting off to sleep when suddenly it felt like he was falling— his body snapping awake with a violent twitch.
Here, that same feeling marked the shift between worlds.
When Levi's body jerked, his eyes flew open— not in his room, but in another plane entirely.
He was in his soul canvas, and he stood in a starless void.
In the endless blackness, there was only one thing— a chessboard.
It stretched vast and spectral, suspended with no ground beneath it. Its surface was carved of frosted silver and pale marble, glowing faintly as though lit from within.
The pieces weren't lifeless stone. They were vessels— waiting to be filled with souls. Pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, queen, king… each radiated a pressure so heavy that even in stillness, it threatened to crush him.
The board itself bled silver light, mist spilling from its edges like streams of frozen moonlight. Sometimes a piece would shimmer faintly— as if they weren't statues, but sleeping beings waiting to answer a call. And they probably were.
That was his Avatar— Celestial Gambit
In the hand of the King piece, a soul flickered. Blurry, faint, but still whole. The soul of this body's original owner. When Levi had crossed over, that soul was already fading. He had caught it at the last moment, using the system's technique—
Last Courtesy.
He wasn't ready to release it. Not yet. He had plans.
Levi looked down at himself. His spectral form glowed with a lavender light. A small smile touched his lips.
"The eyes really are the windows to the soul."
That explained why his eyes were the same color in the real world. But he shook the thought away. He wasn't here to admire himself. He was here for one thing—
Cultivation.
****
In this world, power wasn't drawn from the air. There was no spiritual energy to breathe in, no rivers of qi flowing between heaven and earth.
Power came from within— Origin Energy.
But it didn't appear on its own. To create it, one had to face their bound Avatar.
Avatars were projections of constellation from another realm. Their essence was poison to the human soul. Just standing before one could rot you from the inside.
The clans taught a safe method— Celestial Breathing. It filtered out the poison, leaving only the usable essence. It was steady and safe.
But Levi couldn't afford to reveal his Avatar to the Kindlehart clan.
So he chose the one path no sane person would take.
So he chose the one path no sane person would take.
He stepped directly into its presence, letting the Avatar's essence slam into him like black waves against fragile glass. Most would be crushed instantly, their souls devoured. But from that violent clash, sparks of power were born.
Where Celestial Breathing was a candle flame, this was iron striking iron— brutal, dangerous, but enough to temper the soul.
It was brutal and dangerous, but it tempered the soul, making him more resilient to illusions.
****
Levi took a step forward. His spectral heart pounded.
The Avatar didn't move, but its pressure crushed him all the same. The board hummed, silver veins running across the tiles. The pawns shifted faintly.
The knights bowed their heads. The Queen's gaze pierced through him like a blade.
Until now, he had floated above the board. But his method of cultivating demanded contact.
He forced his body down, landing on a frosted tile.
The world shattered.
Agony roared through him, but this was not the pain of the flesh, it was worse. His soul itself was peeling apart, thread by thread. He tried to retreat, but his foot wouldn't move. The tile had trapped him.
The Avatar's essence surged, freezing, suffocating. His soul bent beneath the pressure.
Then came the sparks.
Light burst from his lavender soul— tiny shards of frozen glass snapping free. They spun, hissed, then swirled into a storm around him.
The storm thickened, becoming a mist. Silver, frosted, alive. It burned and bound him, but this was power— Origin Energy.
The mist rose upward, toward the center of his soul canvas. His form shook as it condensed, fighting him, resisting order. He gritted his teeth, straining to compress it, to mold it.
A shape appeared, faint and flickering like a dying flame. And in this mist, the outline of a star formed.
But he had no strength left.
The board trembled due to the Avatar doubling the pressure. Due to the increase in pressure, consciousness tore apart.
With a violent jolt, his body was ripped from the tile.
Levi snapped awake in the real world, his chest heaving, sweat soaked his body. He collapsed to the floor, trembling, his limbs like ice.
Corruption still clung to him, heavy and black, gnawing faint cracks into his lavender soul.
This method was brutal. Too brutal. Every step was like carving chunks of himself away.
And yet, he had no choice if he wanted to survive.
This was only the beginning.