Chapter 5: Prana Stage
The list Raju had written on the paper was long, but what topped it was still the pursuit of power. He searched through the Immortal Bag, focusing on breaking through to the Prana stage.
'This is getting weird. The Prana stage is not as simple as just accumulating a certain amount of Prana and then advancing to the next stage. Let's first break through and see what exactly it is,' Raju thought, now getting a little excited because of the novelty.
He took a pill named Supreme Prana Breakthrough Pill. 'What a… procedural naming sense. Whatever. Let's focus,' he mused.
Swallowing the pill and closing his eyes, he could feel it being converted into energy, which then surged into his stomach. From there, he could feel the energy becoming formless, yet he was still aware of its presence.
Unfortunately, that was the extent of it, and this state went on for several hours. This was because Raju hadn't even read the basic knowledge about the Prana Stage. Now, he could only attempt to find the path further by himself, without any guidance.
When the whole pill was converted to energy, it formed a sliver of condensed energy. Although it was not visible to the naked eye, Raju could feel it as clearly as the sun in the day.
But he had no idea where to direct it. So he randomly tried to move it, only to be surprised that the way forward was blocked. It was as if there were many roads, but most of them were obstructed. It was like navigating a maze.
Raju guided the sliver of condensed energy around the maze within his body. Somehow, whether it was due to talent or luck, he knew where to lead it. Within an hour, slowly and steadily, he revolved the sliver of energy around his body, through many parts.
Once he was back at the starting point, it felt like an invisible closed loop had formed inside his body through which he could cultivate the Prana. However, as he didn't know how to form new strands, he could only let the sliver of Prana revolve around for now.
After revolving it a few more times, Raju began to understand the basics of the process. The energy needed to be revolved around the loop to be strengthened. As he observed more closely, he noticed that along the loop, there were many places where there were junctions, and on his loop, there seemed to be three major ones.
He didn't know what these junctions signified, but he sensed that they were a positive development. Nonetheless, he decided to consult a book on Prana, now that he had broken through to the Prana Stage.
He stopped consciously leading the sliver of energy and allowed it to move automatically. To his surprise, the energy flowed through the loop on its own, though it was much slower than if he had guided it manually. Still, it was better than nothing.
'Here I thought that there would be a heavenly phenomenon and whatnot. Guess cultivation is not about visual effects alone,' Raju mused, having expected something outlandish. Yet, nothing of the sort had happened.
"Let me take a look for knowledge on the Prana Stage. I don't want to dive in without any knowledge now." So he took out the book named Foundational Prana Book.
He glanced at the time and surprisingly, it was already 5 in the morning. He hadn't slept the whole night, yet he was still energized. "What wondrous effects. And here I thought of why nothing extraordinary happened. Isn't it wonderful?" he mused.
After reading the book for half an hour, Raju grasped the basics. There were three types of bodies: the Physical body, the Astral body, and the Spiritual body. The Spiritual body wasn't elaborated upon, and there was only a basic introduction to the Astral body.
The Astral body was described as the subtle body, where the Nadis were situated and through which energy flowed. What were Nadis? These were the pathways through which Prana flows. It was stated that there were more than 72,000 Nadis in the Astral body.
From what Raju had experienced, he inferred that there was still a long way to go to open all of them. Heck, he might not even have opened 100, let alone the entire 72,000 Nadis.
Besides that, there were more than 100 Chakras. Now, what were Chakras? They were like the checkpoints, the roadblocks, and the junctions combined. Not all of them were activated by default. Indeed, even if they were open, not many understood what each one signified.
The maze that Raju discovered while moving the Prana strand around was basically the Nadis, and the roadblocks he encountered were the Nadis being in a non-activated state. It seemed that to open the roadblocks, Raju had to brute-force his way through, but his energy was lacking.
From the book, Raju learned that to produce more Prana, there were two primary ways: internal and external. Prana could only be produced internally after cultivating a Golden Core, which was quite a way ahead for Raju.
Externally, one way was to ingest pills, and the other was to absorb the natural Prana in the atmosphere. The planet was somehow abundant in Prana, and no one knew the mystery of how it came to be. However, not many were interested in unraveling this enigma, as being powerful was what mattered most to them.
There might have been many other methods, but only these two were listed in the foundational book. What could one expect from a foundational book? In-depth knowledge?
Despite this, Raju now had a basic understanding of the Prana Stage. The next stage after the Prana stage was the Foundation Establishment stage.
The Prana Stage was just the beginning; after gathering many strands of Prana, they needed to be combined into a drop, and then into an ocean. Only when an ocean was formed could a core be created, which would then revolve and create new Prana strands.
So, it was a long way to go. Once Raju understood the basics, he had to move on to the next point on his list: finding artifacts that would enable him to hide himself, yet appear powerful.
After searching through all the various artifacts and objects in the Immortal Bag, he came across an interesting item. It looked like a scroll or a map and was called the Nakshatra Map. But it could deceive many people. Although it was referred to as a Map, there was no map on it.
Raju read the description and was shocked. "This artifact is truly fucking amazing. It's precisely what I need," he exclaimed to himself.
How could this artifact be used? The user had to write a question, and depending on the user's power, the answer would be revealed. By combining it with another god-level artifact, called the Dream Palace, Raju could carry out his plan to create the Abhijit Hall of his Eternal Shadow Sect.
The Dream Palace was a god-level artifact. Its function was to let the user appear in the dream of whomever he chose. Indeed, a seemingly cheat-like ability. But there was a caveat: the target had to willingly let him enter, or they had to be vulnerable.
That is where the Nakshatra Map came in. He could ask the Nakshatra Map to find a suitable candidate with a vulnerability that would allow him to enter the target's dream. This would, in turn, allow him to be mysterious yet share resources and appear powerful. Yes, the Dream Palace was like a golden finger, but the Immortal Bag was an even more significant advantage in the end.
Raju had now settled on the process of how to add members to his Sect. But first, he had to find a relatively strong person who could actually hold the fort for him until he grew in power. Raju was eternal, not immortal. If he wanted to become a powerful eternal, he needed a strong foundation that would help him progress further down the line.
With determination and anticipation, Raju studied the Dream Palace and the Nakshatra Map in detail, exploring and testing the edge cases, his mind racing with the possibilities these powerful artifacts offered.
To his surprise, the Nakshatra Map could tell him about anything he wanted to know. Whether it was the locations of his enemies, friends, treasures, etc., all he had to do was name it, and there would always be an answer, provided that the user's power was sufficient.
This meant that the more powerful Raju became, the further he would be able to search. Eager to test his current capabilities, he sought to find out his current range, only to see his happiness fade quickly. The one strand of Prana he had was only capable of searching within the Middle Village area. That meant that the current radius was limited to around a 10-mile radius.
Disheartened by the results, he turned to try the Dream Palace. Upon entering, he could only see clouds—just clouds. He tried to go straight to find a boundary, but it felt endless, filled with nothing but clouds.
"Guess this is it? What did you expect at the Prana Stage, and only with one strand of Prana? A whole fucking palace? Are you joking? How depressing," Raju thought to himself.
He wallowed in his disappointment for a few minutes before sternly telling himself, "Stop being a wimp. You are the fucking protagonist. Git Gud MF!"
With renewed determination, he was ready to take on the world once again within moments. Then, he sat straight, closed his eyes, and started to gather more strands of Prana, resolved to increase his strength progressively.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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