Mokshabhumi had a way of making people feel guilty.
The station was too orderly.
Too clean.
Too functional.
After weeks of unstable environments, emergency missions and improvised sleeping arrangements, returning to the Academy felt almost like returning to a life they had forgotten.
Unfortunately, the Academy had not forgotten them.
The moment the group entered the main training complex, a message appeared across the entrance display.
FINAL-YEAR PERSONNEL — PHYSICAL AND INNER ASSESSMENT: IMMEDIATE.
Ron stopped walking.
“Immediate?”
Potter looked at the display.
“That word feels threatening.”
Bonita sighed.
“We just returned.”
A voice came from behind them.
“Exactly.”
They turned.
Master Arvind stood at the end of the corridor.
He was one of the Academy’s senior cultivation instructors, a compact man with silver hair and an expression that suggested he had spent decades developing an intolerance for excuses.
His eyes moved across the group.
Then stopped at Riyansh.
“At least two of you have been training.”
Riyansh straightened.
Saiyuki did the same.
Ron pointed at them.
“Traitors.”
Master Arvind’s eyes moved to Ron.
“One of you has been eating excessively.”
Ron lowered his hand.
“That is unrelated.”
“It is very related.”
Potter whispered,
“He’s good.”
Master Arvind heard him.
“So are you.”
Potter looked pleased.
“Thank you.”
“I meant your excuses.”
Potter’s smile disappeared.
The assessment began with physical conditioning.
The Academy’s training hall expanded around them.
The walls moved outward.
The floor transformed into a simulated planetary environment.
Gravity increased.
Temperature dropped.
The air became thinner.
A timer appeared.
TEN MINUTES.
Ron looked at Aryaan.
“Is this really necessary?”
Aryaan shrugged.
“I think we’re about to find out.”
The gravity increased.
Ron immediately bent forward.
“Oh.”
Saiyuki was already moving.
She ran.
Riyansh followed.
The others began after them.
Bonita lasted twenty seconds.
Then she stumbled.
“Why is gravity heavier than I remember?”
Potter glanced at her.
“It’s always been this heavy.”
“No.”
She pointed accusingly at the floor.
“They changed it.”
Master Arvind’s voice came through the chamber.
“Yes.”
Bonita looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you need training.”
Bonita muttered something under her breath.
The simulation continued.
Twenty minutes later, Bonita was lying flat on the floor.
“I hate this.”
Master Arvind stood over her.
“You hate physical exertion.”
“I hate unnecessary physical exertion.”
“You call breathing unnecessary.”
“I don’t.”
“You attempted to reduce the intensity of your breathing exercises using an automation device.”
Bonita looked away.
“It was efficient.”
“It was cheating.”
“It was optimization.”
“It was cheating efficiently.”
Potter laughed.
Bonita glared at him.
“You are next.”
Potter immediately stopped laughing.
Riyansh was having a very different problem.
He had completed the physical course without difficulty.
Master Arvind looked at his results.
“Excellent.”
Riyansh nodded.
Then the instructor pointed toward the meditation chamber.
“Now we begin.”
Riyansh’s confidence disappeared.
The meditation chamber was silent.
Eight platforms floated above a shallow pool.
The lights dimmed.
A single instruction appeared:
BREATH.
Everyone sat.
Riyansh closed his eyes.
He tried to calm his breathing.
Nothing happened.
He tried harder.
Still nothing.
His thoughts became louder.
Did I leave my medical kit outside?
How long has it been?
Is everyone else actually meditating?
Why is that sound irritating?
His eyes opened.
Across the chamber, Saiyuki remained perfectly still.
Sia was already deep in meditation.
Ron appeared to be asleep.
Riyansh stared at him.
“How?”
Ron opened one eye.
“What?”
“How are you already doing it?”
“I don’t know.”
Riyansh closed his eyes again.
That answer somehow made things worse.
An hour passed.
The others gradually entered deeper states.
Riyansh remained restless.
Saiyuki’s awareness expanded.
She could feel the flow of energy through her body.
The breath became softer.
The boundaries of her physical body seemed to fade.
Then she sensed something.
A presence beside her.
Ron.
His energy wasn’t flowing like hers.
It wasn’t climbing.
It wasn’t descending.
It seemed to move around possibilities.
Saiyuki opened her eyes slightly.
Ron was still sitting with his eyes closed.
His breathing was almost nonexistent.
Sia was similar.
Her spiritual field had become so stable that the water beneath her platform had stopped moving.
Saiyuki felt something she didn’t want to acknowledge.
Envy.
Not hatred.
Not resentment.
Just a quiet irritation.
They make it look easy.
She closed her eyes again.
And pushed harder.
Pain came first.
Then resistance.
Then frustration.
Saiyuki tried to force her energy upward.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Her body remained perfectly still, but inside her mind she was fighting.
Move.
Nothing.
Open.
Nothing.
Then a thought emerged.
Not her own.
Why are you forcing a door that isn’t locked?
Saiyuki stopped.
Her breathing changed.
She listened.
The sensation wasn’t coming from outside.
It was coming from within.
She released the tension.
The energy moved.
Not upward.
Inward.
Her entire body became quiet.
For the first time, she wasn’t controlling her inner energy.
She was listening to it.
A small light appeared behind her closed eyes.
One point.
Then another.
A faint warmth spread through her chest.
The bottleneck cracked.
Saiyuki opened her eyes.
She was smiling.
Not because she had surpassed anyone.
Because she had finally understood herself.
Across the chamber, Ron opened his eyes.
He looked at her.
“You did it.”
Saiyuki looked at him.
“Yes.”
Ron smiled.
“I don’t know what you did.”
“I know.”
He laughed.
Sia opened her eyes too.
“You stopped fighting yourself.”
Saiyuki looked at her.
“Yes.”
There was no envy in her expression anymore.
Only determination.
Riyansh was still struggling.
Master Arvind watched him from outside the chamber.
The instructor did not intervene.
Riyansh’s problem wasn’t lack of discipline.
It was too much control.
His body cultivation had taught him to command every muscle, every breath, every movement.
But spiritual cultivation required surrender.
Eventually, exhaustion forced him to stop trying.
His shoulders relaxed.
His breath slowed.
For a few seconds, there was nothing.
Then he heard a heartbeat.
Not his.
Someone else’s.
Riyansh opened his eyes.
The chamber disappeared.
He saw Sia.
Then Saiyuki.
Then Bonita.
Then the others.
He could feel their bodies.
Their pulse.
Their energy.
Their pain.
Their exhaustion.
Their small injuries.
Their emotional strain.
He could sense where each person’s energy was blocked.
Then the vision vanished.
Riyansh gasped.
Master Arvind entered immediately.
“What did you experience?”
Riyansh looked confused.
“I could feel everyone.”
The instructor’s expression changed.
“Again.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You don’t need to know yet.”
Master Arvind looked toward the others.
“You’ve crossed your bottleneck.”
Riyansh stared at his hands.
His breakthrough had not made him stronger.
And somehow that felt far more significant.
Bonita’s breakthrough came later.
Much later.
After everyone else had left the meditation hall, she remained behind.
Not because she wanted to meditate.
She wanted to understand why her body was so poor at physical cultivation.
She sat reluctantly.
Closed her eyes.
And immediately became irritated by her own thoughts.
My legs hurt.
My back hurts.
This is pointless.
I could be working.
Then something changed.
She felt a vibration.
Not in her body.
In the room.
The floor.
The walls.
The machines.
The ventilation system.
Everything had a frequency.
She could suddenly perceive it.
The Academy wasn’t silent.
It was humming.
Thousands of systems were communicating through resonance.
Bonita opened her eyes.
Her expression changed.
She reached for her Myth-Tech interface.
It activated before she touched it.
A pattern appeared.
The same pattern she had seen beneath Vanta-3.
Eight points.
One formation.
Bonita whispered,
“It’s all connected.”
The interface flickered.
A spatial coordinate appeared.
Then vanished.
She stared at the empty screen.
That wasn’t supposed to happen.
The system had not received an external transmission.
Something had accessed it from somewhere else.
Later that evening, the group gathered in the dining hall.
Riyansh was eating.
A lot.
Bonita was complaining about her sore muscles.
Potter was pretending his training assessment had never happened.
Ron was feeding his little silver companion.
Saiyuki sat quietly.
Sia watched her.
“You seem happier.”
Saiyuki smiled.
“I am.”
“Because of the breakthrough?”
“Partly.”
She glanced at Ron.
Then at Sia.
“I realized something.”
Ron looked up.
“What?”
“Both of you have gifts that make some things easier.”
Ron nodded.
“Yes.”
Saiyuki smiled.
“That doesn’t make the rest of the path easier.”
Sia nodded.
“No.”
Ron considered this.
“Does that mean I still have to train?”
Saiyuki looked at him.
“Yes.”
Ron sighed.
“Tragic.”
Everyone laughed.
For a moment, they were simply eight young people sitting together after a difficult journey.
No Orions.
No temporal anomalies.
No ancient formations.
No cosmic threats.
Just food.
Friends.
And a small animal stealing Ron’s dinner.
Then the lights flickered.
Everyone stopped.
A spatial rift appeared above the dining hall.
It was barely a metre wide.
No warning.
No energy surge.
No detectable cause.
It opened.
Stayed for three seconds.
Then closed.
Nothing came through.
Potter stared upward.
“Was that normal?”
Bonita shook her head.
“No.”
Lane stood.
He had seen the mist.
It was already fading.
“Someone opened it.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“Who?”
Lane shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Bonita checked her scanner.
“There was no spatial signature.”
Riyansh frowned.
“Then how did it open?”
Nobody answered.
Saiyuki looked toward the place where the rift had been.
Her newly awakened inner awareness caught something the others hadn’t.
A faint vibration.
Almost like a whisper.
She closed her eyes.
For one brief instant, she heard a voice.
Not yet.
Her eyes opened.
The rift was gone.
And somewhere beyond ordinary space, something had adjusted a single thread of causality.
Whether it had been an ancestor, an ancient safeguard, or the Nomological Force itself… none of them knew.
Not yet.