Ball of Nothing

Lately, the teenager didn't understand why his body would wake up way before it was actually time to practice qi gong. In the past, the apprentice would still be half-asleep during his practice. It took him forever to be ready for the busy day.

Ever since he had his new body and returned from the abyss, Zero could not get used to the restlessness in this new body. Luckily for him, Zero wasn't always alone whenever he woke up. Hua Tuo may still be asleep but most times, his combat teacher would already be up.

Ruth had a habit of practising his cultivation in the Garden of Roth whenever he sees that Zero is awake. The vampire would always return to help out with breakfast preparation so Hua Tuo didn't mind.

"You're up early again," the vampire commented as Zero brushed his teeth and splashed some water on his face. The river water in the morning was always so cold! Zero shivered a little and changed into his tracksuit. The squirrel onesie was comfortable for sleeping but wasn't convenient for what Zero was about to do.

"Yupp! Are you going to cultivate now?"

The vampire nodded and Zero wished him all the best. Ruth disappeared in a blur and Zero decided to get started on his new morning routine.

As per usual, Zero decided to go through all the five animal forms of the qi gong exercise to warm his body up. Things felt different ever since Tanya helped him out with his new vessel. Both chakra and meridian channels flared to life at the surge of the rich life energy on Endow Hill. Zero also didn't want to disturb Mii as he cultivated. The status window was open and Zero noticed how his void inventory was now able to store mna and qi separately. It made him curious. If he cultivated in different environments, would the system be able to convert it? Sure, he had mana conversion skills to convert sin points to mana or energy. Still, Zero wondered if the miasma was something he could process. Technically, miasma was chaos energy.

Zero tried to focus on his morning routine but still could not concentrate on the unanswered question floating at the back of his mind. At this hour, if Zero was careful enough and suppressed his aura, he might be able to sneak back into the abyss. Before he did so, he contacted Sekkin who agreed to meet him at the Ten-Path Crossway.

"Good morning, Zero."

The apprentice grinned when he saw the spider demon. It hadn't been long since he last saw Amon's sparring partner but the spider demon had once again grown stronger. Zero could tell with his trained medical eye. The young doctor only hoped that Ruth wouldn't catch him.

"Shall we go?" he asked and Sekkin nodded. They took the portal to Amon's territory and Zero was quick to cast a temperature regulating buff for the both of them.

Amon's territory was still as hostile as Zero remembered. Sekkin found them a good spot for Zero to start his meditation exercise as per normal. According to the brunet, meditating in the abyss should be safer than on Earth. Zero didn't want to meditate in the time-space lamp again after the last time. Nobody woke him up in time and he was late. Hua Tuo wasn't happy so Zero thought that it might be better to go to a dimension that has a slower flow of time to practice.

Sadly, the spider demon didn't realise that Zero had another purpose of visiting the abyss this morning. Instead of simply meditating, Zero was now pulling into the miasma from the surroundings into his body.

Sekkin was shocked and when the miasma grew thicker, the spider demon was forced to retreat further. Zero seemed fine so far but he didn't want to take any chances. Mitchnew would have his head if something happened to the boy. While the mana generating flowers were doing their job, the abyss was still plagued by a lot of chaos energy. Many weaker demons had taken to fleeing to the Redemption Zone and the newly established Gluttony domain. That was quite the relief for the spider demon who watched in sick fascination at one of the deadliest concentration of miasma ten metres away from him.

Zero continued to monitor his inventory space. There still wasn't enough chaos energy for him to test it out. According to the system, it recorded chaos energy as a new form of mana. Zero would be able to convert it to regular mana but at a huge dip in conversion rate. Other than that, there would be an unknown by-product from the conversion. Zero was actually more curious about this mysterious by-product that not even Mind's Eye knew about.

Zero hated Math so much. He knew that the numbers were increasing as he absorbed but he wished he knew how to calculate the amount of time he needed to spend here with the current rate of absorption. Enma tried to teach him the basics of this peculiar subject but Zero could never grasp it. All he knew was that the speed was too slow for his liking. There were still two more zeros behind that required number and for once, Zero hated the number zero.

Sekkin checked the special dimension converting watch. So far, they spent twenty minutes in the abyss and hardly a minute on Earth. He didn't need to see Zero's expression to know that the young doctor was impatient with the lack of progress for his experiment. He could hear the faint thumping sounds as Zero bounced one of his crossed legs up and down in irritation.

"Don't worry, it hasn't even been five minutes on Earth," he told the apprentice who calmed down a little after hearing it.

Zero exhaled slowly in the vortex of miasma clouds. He was two hours earlier today so this was good news. Perhaps he would be able to complete his little experiment. Zero never thought the day he became impressed with his ideas would come but right now, he felt really proud of himself for thinking up of a cheating method. Time was something Zero hated not having. With the dimension differences, Zero was happy to cheat for a little bit more time. He knew that Truen was almost done with his training and the doctor-in-training felt impatient.

Knowing that it will be a while before Zero would be done, Sekkin took a break and sat down but kept his eyes peeled for external threats. With this much miasma density, he doubted that any living creature will willingly approach the area. It was very similar to a crack or leak in the plane with how much miasma Zero was accumulating to one point. Usually, cases like this would be reported to Queen Shittomi who would then send someone to take care of it. However, the Ice Queen already knew about Zero's intention so Sekkin wasn't too concerned. He only wished that Zero gave him more warning to prepare a magic amulet. It was tough to keep up with the miasma despite his strong magic reserves.

Zero checked the progress bar after he complained to the strawcherry fairy who had woken up from the rude shock of something foreign in her library. the assistant created a Math formula that automatically calculated the time needed and progress for Zero to view. Right now, he was past the seventy percent mark and Zero rejoiced.

It didn't take too long for Zero to complete his collection and the miasma gradually thinned out with the slower rate of absorption. Sekkin was thankful that Zero finally stopped. He was about to call for a time out, looking very green.

The young doctor accepted the system's prompt for a conversion run. He didn't really need fifty thousand mana units at this point but he wanted to know what that mysterious by-product was. Mii was equally curious. There was something that couldn't be processed by the Great One's system and that gave the strawcherry fairy some hope. Maybe this was her salvation to be separated from the system.

[Congratulations, you have made your first orb of Solo's Sanity.]

Zero blinked at the notification. Other than receiving fifty thousand units of mana, he got something more ridiculous than the nail clippings of a Tanuki.

"Solo's sanity?" Mii asked. She was equally puzzled.

If Zero was able to gather Solo's sanity from the chaos energy, does this mean that the creator before he fell asleep wasn't sane? Suddenly, she feared for Zero who was the memory-loss version of a mad person.

Zero inspected the item and was intrigued by the description.

Item: Orb of Solo's Sanity

Description: A by-product from converting chaos energy into mana. A part of Solo's memories before he fell into the void. Can be used to create an artificial soul or be exchanged for a small amount of creation powers.

Mii nearly let her poker face crumble when she read the description. If Zero was able to create souls, does this mean that she had a chance to be separated from the system? Still, to avoid the system from detecting her abnormalities, Mii kept her intentions sealed into her secret memory storage.

On the other hand, Zero was also thrilled. Creation! He was able to exchange it for powers to create something. Zero allowed himself some time to think about all the things he would like to create. Solo had already made many wonderful things like mountains, fishes, souls, magic and humans. What was left for Zero to create that Solo hasn't already done?

Thinking about it this way, the young doctor felt his hopes sink. That's right. His past self had already created everything there was to be created. Zero wasn't fooled for a second into thinking that he was a creator or an inventor even if Hyelin was told him that he smelled like one. Zero was gifted with the powers of absorption and destruction. yet the ironic reality was how Zero continued to fight to become a doctor to save and preserve the beauty of what he had previously created. For now, Zero decided that the best thing to do was to store this orb away. Who knows, he might be able to put it to better use in the future. For now, Zero was content with what he had.

"Is it time to go back now?" he asked Sekkin who'd been silent from the start.

The spider demon checked the time. they still had a good twenty minutes before Hua Tuo woke up back on Endow Hill.

Hearing that he still had a little time left, Zero thought that he would take advantage of Sekkin's presence to practise the new self-defence moves Amon taught him. Hua Tuo didn't seem approving of him practising them so Zero wasn't too happy about it. The young doctor knew the concept very well that one's skills would become rusty after not using it for long. The concept was introduced by Raj who explained how the Sky Bridges and Pulleys needed to be constantly checked and maintained.

Sekkin paled a little when Zero suggested sparring together. Bad memories of Amon using him as a demonstration made the spider demon subconsciously press his knees together.

That little gesture didn't go unnoticed by Zero and the doctor then reassured Sekkin that he wouldn't actually kick or stab. In fact, he was against violence and encouraged Sekkin to block it as much as he could.

Zero didn't quite know how painful that felt back then but he saw how Sekkin crumbled onto the floor, unable to move. The brunet was a doctor, he wasn't out for blood. All he wanted was to ensure that he still remembered what was taught to him accurately.

Unable to refuse Zero without a good reason, Sekkin resigned to his fate with tears in his heart.

The sparring session ended after forty minutes and Sekkin couldn't be happier when Zero said that he had to hurry back. the spider demon escorted Zero back to Ten-Path Crossway and they parted ways. True to his words, the young doctor didn't actually stab or kick. In fact, Zero had been very polite about it, giving Sekkin verbal warnings before he struck. if not for the crude intentions behind it, Sekkin would have quite enjoyed that friendly spar. Too bad, Lord Amon had already corrupted Zero beyond redemption.

The spider demon sighed. It was probably best that his wife did not find out. Knowing her, the dark elf would try to assassinate the Demon lord for teaching the young boy bad things. Either that or support Zero in perfecting the art of punishing creeps.

Sekkin left as soon as Zero disappeared. He did not want to find out what his wife would do. The further away he was from these thoughts, the better.