Chapter 605: Into the forest
Following the brutal clearing of the steel wolves, Max didnât waste a single second. His figure moved calmly but cautiously through the crumbled remains of the ruined building. Dust floated in the air, and fragments of broken stone littered the cracked floors.
With his Three Dimensional Body fully activated, his senses extended far and wide, sweeping through every crevice of the structure. He scanned through broken pillars, collapsed beams, and even beneath the rubble, as if seeing layers beyond what normal eyes could perceive.
As he walked deeper toward the back wall of the building, something caught his attentionâa faint disturbance buried beneath the floor. It wasnât much, just a subtle flicker of energy, something easily overlooked by ordinary senses.
And it came from below him.
Max crouched and swept away the debris with a single wave of his hand. Beneath the rubble lay a slab of stone, and at its center was a jagged, almost invisible line. His eyes narrowed. That line wasnât a crack. It was a seal.
âI feel aura of sword concept from down here.â Max thought.
He pressed his hand over it, flooding it with his own sword concept.
A low rumble echoed. Stone ground against stone. The slab slowly retracted into the floor, revealing a compartment no bigger than a coffin.
Within it, laying atop a velvet cloth long faded to ash-gray, was a swordâbroken at the hilt, its blade snapped halfwayâbut still radiating with a terrifyingly pure and ancient sword concept.
Even cracked and rusted, the blade hummed. Its edges shimmered with residual intent, as if it had once severed mountains, cleaved through lightning, and split space itself.
Max reached forward, his fingers brushing the cold metal, and the moment he touched it, a wave of sword intent surged into his soul.
It wasnât just strongâit was complete.
Despite its broken form, the swordâs concept was fully refined, and terrifyingly powerful. It rejected all elements, all distractions, and spoke only one truthâsword. As Max gripped the broken weapon, his entire sword concept quivered in response.
The Severing Sword Concept inside him surged wildly just holding the broken sword.
âThisâŠThis sword might be of an expert at Divine Rank.â Max realized, eyes wide. âThe Concept of Sword on this broken sword is so sharp that it causes even me to tremble in front of it.â
It didnât matter that it was broken. The sword was like a master who had long stopped speakingâbut left behind one final slash that echoed through time. And now, Max held it.
âGreat!â Max muttered under his breath, the corner of his lips curling into a smile of excitement. His grip on the broken sword tightened slightly before he tucked it away into his spatial space.
After his intense battle with Silus, heâd come to understand something importantâsomething fundamental about concepts.
Every concept, regardless of type or affinity, progressed through three distinct stages at each level: basic, advanced, and perfection. Right now, all four of Maxâs conceptsâSevering Sword, Flame, Space, and Lightningâwere at basic stage of Level 1 Concept.
If he wanted to elevate any of them to Level 2, he first needed to push them to perfection stage of Level 1.
The resonance he felt with the broken sword, the way its aura complemented his own concept, gave him exactly the insight and pressure he needed to make that leap.
âWith this⊠my sword concept will definitely reach Level 2 soon,â Max thought with certainty as he turned his back on the ruin, the weight of the broken sword tucked away but still lingering in his mind like an unfinished poem.
Without wasting a second, Max sprinted toward his next targetâan area deeply etched in Silusâ memories. Of all the locations Silus wanted to explore within the third stage of the citadel, this one had stood out. It was marked with a sense of urgency, of obsession
A large stone entrance hidden within a small forest, nestled by a flowing river. That was the only clue. Max zipped through the ancient domeâs terrain, his movements sharp and silent, his senses constantly active through his Three Dimensional Body.
It didnât take long to find the forest.
But just as Max arrived at its edge, his body instinctively halted. He pressed himself behind a large cracked boulder, remaining perfectly still. His senses spread like a web, and what he found made his eyes narrow dangerously.
Deep within the forest, pulsating like controlled volcanoes, were powerful aurasâmany of them. There were four particularly overwhelming onesâfour 5th-level Master Rank experts. Alongside them were numerous peak Expert Rank warriors and a few 2nd-level Master Rank elites. These werenât just any experts.
Maxâs jaw clenched.
âItâs them⊠The entire squad from the Four God Nation is already here.â
The same group he had narrowly avoided confrontation with earlier. And now they stood between him and the very location Silus had prioritized most.
Maxâs eyes darkened as he crouched low, watching the trees sway softly under the glowing sky of the citadel dome, calculating his next move. Understanding the urge from Silus to get whatever treasure was in the forest, Max didnât want to miss this chance.
âBut they canât stop me.â
With his Green Soul fully active, Max cloaked his presence down to the very pulse of his energyâhis aura sealed so tightly that not even the grass beneath his feet could sense his movement. Like a shadow that belonged to no light, he slipped into the forest with lethal precision.
The forest was vast, ancient, and twisted in ways that defied logic. Towering trees with thick moss-covered trunks stretched toward the domeâs glowing sky, while others were small but vibrant with flickering light around their leavesâclear signs of spiritual sentience.
Max felt the eerie tug of those spiritual trees almost instantly; roots slithered out like snakes and vines extended silently, trying to wrap around him like prey. But Max didnât falter. His movements were fluid and decisive, his Three Dimensional Body letting him glide through the tangled underbrush, dodging every grasp with ease.
As he moved deeper into the forest, the light dimmed unnaturally, the air thickened with something cold and oppressive. Maxâs pace slowed instinctively.
The forest here was differentâhe could feel it in his bones. Every breath he took seemed to stir invisible forces. His Green Soul flickered with subtle pulses of warning, a quiet scream in the back of his mind telling him that this part of the forest wasnât just dangerousâit was deadly.
And then, he saw it.
Max froze, his eyes narrowing at the surreal and disturbing sight before him. Just ahead, in the middle of the twisted thicket, a peak Expert Rank warriorâone of the very people Silus had brought alongâwas suspended in mid-air.
Encased in a narrow beam of crimson light, the warriorâs body hung motionless, limbs outstretched, face locked in a silent scream. But what made Maxâs heart constrict wasnât just the frozen formâit was the unmistakable pulse of life still radiating from within. He could feel the manâs soul. It was active. Awake. Trapped.
The crimson beam had frozen not just his body, but the very flow of time around him. The warrior was still alive, still consciousâyet utterly powerless to move, to speak, to even blink. His wide, terrified eyes stared blankly into space, eternally locked in the moment he had been caught. Maxâs breath slowed. A cold realization crawled up his spine.
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!