Ethan descended from the sky, his feet touching the pulverized earth with the lightness of a falling leaf. The terrifying Void Nightmare silhouette had receded, leaving only the man, though his eyes still shimmered with a lingering, abyssal depth. He looked at the two survivorsāthe paralyzed Su Ni and the trembling red-haired guardāand offered a smile that didnāt reach his eyes.
"I believe our previous introductions were cut short," Ethan said, his voice smooth and terrifyingly polite. "Iām formally inviting you to accompany me. There are many things I wish to discuss with you... regarding the heavens."
"No! Stay back!" Su Ni shrieked, scrambling backward like a broken crab. "Donāt touch me! If you lay a finger on me, my father... my father willā!"
Ethan didnāt let him finish. He moved like a blur of shadow. CRACK. CRACK.
With two precise strikes, Ethan shattered the joints in Su Niās shoulders. The young master let out a pathetic wail as his arms went limp, completely immobilized. Ethanās aura was still surging, his blood boiling with the raw energy he had just devoured. He could feel his foundation trembling, a massive tidal wave of power pushing him toward the threshold of the next realm.
He was on the verge of a breakthrough.
[Master, stop!] Crulās voice erupted in his mind, sharper and more urgent than ever. [Do not advance! You must suppress your cultivation. Stay at the Half-step Spiritual Core. If you ascend now, it will be a catastrophe for your future.]
"What are you talking about?" Ethan groaned, his teeth gritted as he tried to contain the explosive pressure within his chest. "I can feel the gate opening... I can reach the next level right now!"
[The energy in this world is too thin, Ethan!] Crul countered. [If you break through here, your Core will be formed from āgarbageā spiritual air. It will be brittle and shallow. You need the high-density energy of the outer realms to forge a perfect foundation. You must leave this dome before you ascend, or you will forever limit your ceiling.]
Ethan felt a wave of agonizing euphoria, a sensation like being on the precipice of a climax but having to clench his teeth and hold back. Sweat poured down his face as he wrestled with his own power, forcing the surging amethyst-void tide back into his dantian. After several excruciating seconds, the pressure subsided, leaving him panting but stable.
He turned his gaze toward the red-haired guard. She still held her jade sword, her knuckles white, but she didnāt dare lift the blade. The mere pressure of Ethanās presence acted like a physical weight on her chest, pinning her soul to the spot. Su Ni looked at her with pleading, tear-filled eyes, begging for a rescue that wasnāt coming.
"Letās go," Ethan said, his voice recovered and cold. "Walk, or Iāll carry you back in pieces."
The redhead didnāt hesitate. She quickly sheathed her sword, scooped up the limp, sobbing Su Ni, and began to run toward the Royal extraction point at top speed, following Ethanās lead.
The battlefield fell into a stunned, heavy silence. The global crisis that had threatened to extinguish humanity had been dismantled in a matter of minutes.
Far below, the spectators were speechless. Even Matriarch Blackwood stood frozen, her staff trembling in her hand. When she had first met Ethan, she saw talent; as time passed, she saw a rising star. But this? This defied every law of cultivation she knew. He was more dazzling, more terrifyingly powerful than the elite geniuses of her former clan. To see such a monster born in a "backwater" world was not just impossibleāit was a miracle.
The three of them arrived at the Royal Headquarters. Ethan offered a thin, sharp smile. "Follow me," he said, gesturing toward a set of massive titanium doors.
They stepped into an elevator that defied all architectural logic. Spanning nearly 500 square meters, the platform was a cavernous hall in its own right. It began its descent, plunging five kilometers into the depths of the earth. When the doors finally hissed open, Su Niās breath hitched.
Before them lay a subterranean industrial nightmare. Thousands of Royal soldiers and engineers were swarming over colossal metallic structures. To Su Ni, it looked like a twisted, heretical version of a dimensional portal. It didnāt possess the elegant, flowing geometries of the Crimson Sectās arrays; instead, it was a brutalist replica. These "insects" were actually reverse-engineering the technology of the heavens.
Ethan didnāt possess the refined forging techniques of the Great Clans, nor did he understand the delicate art of talisman ink. To bridge this gap, Crul had devised a brute-force method for inscribing the matrix.
Ultra-concentrated industrial lasers, controlled with nanosecond precision by Crulās processing core, were searing complex runes into slabs of Cold Steel. To empower these crude inscriptions, the engineers were pumping in massive quantities of Sacred Worm Nectar, liquefied spiritual plants, and the fermented blood of mutated spiritual beasts.
It wasnāt elegantāit was an engineering hack. If a masterpiece painting like the Mona Lisa were the standard for a true Sect portal, this was a pixelated, low-resolution copy. From a distance, they served the same purpose, but up close, the jagged edges and "low quality" of the craft were undeniable.
Su Ni stared at the humming machinery, his terror momentarily eclipsed by sheer disbelief. "You... youāre building a bridge? With this garbage? Itāll collapse! Youāll be torn apart by the spatial turbulence!"
Ethan stepped off the elevator, his boots clanging against the metal floor. "Maybe. But Iāve spent my whole life making āgarbageā work. Besides, Iām not just building a bridge to escape. Iām building a door so I can come and find the rest of you."
He turned to the red-haired guard, whose eyes were darting between the blinking servers and the glowing vats of nectar. "Now, tell me everything about your āNorthern Peaks.ā I want to know exactly what kind of neighborhood Iām moving into."
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note:
These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / [Locked] / [Locked]