An hour later, as Julian strikes the final layer of the protective formation, the light finally fades.
Boom. Finally broken.
Julian wipes the sweat from his brow, his face flushed with elation, ready to claim credit in front of Chloe, only to find her staring terrified at something behind him.
"Julian, be careful."
His heart lurches. He whips around, and there you are, one hand holding a half-eaten fruit, leaning against the cave entrance, wearing an innocent smile.
"Well done." You give the fruit in your hand a little shake. "Perfect timing on that door," you say lazily.
Julian's mind goes utterly blank. "Ethan." He forces the name out through gritted teeth, his eyes bloodshot.
Well done. Those two words feel like two red-hot needles driving straight into his heart. He drained his spiritual power, used up his precious hoarded energy, and ended up as nothing but free labour to open your door for you.
"Ethan, this is too much. Julian worked so hard to break this formation, and you just want to enjoy the fruits of his labour." Chloe steps in front of Julian, glaring at you in anger.
You swallow the last bite of fruit, flick the core away, and stroll into the cave like you're wandering through your own backyard, paying no attention to their shouting whatsoever.
You walk straight to the stone platform at the centre of the cave, where an ancient, unadorned sword rests alongside a manual bound in animal hide.
The Falling Star Sword manual. A high-grade earth tier technique.
Julian's breath catches. Greed instantly overtakes his anger. "Ethan, I suggest you walk out right now, or don't blame me for forgetting our past ties." He puts on a show of bravado, standing guard before the stone platform, trying to scare you off with words.
Yet you don't spare him a single glance. You reach out and pick up the Falling Star Sword manual, flipping through a couple of pages idly.
"Tsk. Full of holes. Flashy but hollow. Master it fully, and all you'd get is a few ordinary threads of star power." You shake your head and toss the manual, the one he treasures like his life, back onto the stone platform as if it were trash. "Something like this is worth all this screaming?"
The words leave Julian shaking with rage. "What do you know? You, who can't even condense spiritual energy? You think you're qualified to judge a sword manual?" His fury boils over into a laugh.
You give him a nod in return, an expression of complete agreement. "You're right. I really shouldn't be judging the quality of some ordinary technique."
You suddenly turn to look at him, flashing a brilliant smile. "Since you seem to love this manual so much, here. Consider it my gift to you."
My gift to you.
Those words strike like thunder from the ninth heaven, scorching Julian and Chloe both inside and out. An insult. A raw, unparalleled insult. Julian would rather you fought him head-on and stole the manual by force than accept this kind of charity.
But the instant those words leave your mouth, ding.
The high-grade earth tier technique you gifted, the Falling Star Sword manual, has been implicitly accepted. Ten-thousandfold critical rebound triggered. Congratulations, player. High-grade heaven tier movement technique acquired. The Nine Heavens Wind Step.
An unparalleled flood of information instantly pours into your mind.
You barely shift your body where you stand. And yet you've already reappeared at the cave entrance. So fast it's as if you never moved at all.
"What?" Julian stares at the manual on the stone platform, completely dumbfounded.
You don't look back. You simply lift a hand and give it a casual wave. "Ordinary things belong with ordinary people. You two make quite the pair."
The moment you finish, your figure has already vanished, leaving only that gutting remark echoing through the cave, shattering whatever composure Julian and Chloe had left.
You leave the so-called sword sovereign's cave without a moment's pause. The primordial eyes have already mapped out this secret realm for you, pinpointing its true core. What Julian found was nothing but an appetiser.
You immediately activate the Nine Heavens Wind Step you've just gained. One step, and your figure is already a hundred metres away, the scenery around you racing backward in a blur, dissolving into streaks of light. In less time than it takes an incense stick to burn, you've crossed over a hundred li of jungle, arriving at the entrance to a vast valley shrouded in blood-red mist.
You part the mist and step inside.
The sight before you raises even your eyebrows slightly.
At the centre of the valley lies a massive blood pool. But what flows through it isn't red blood at all, but a brilliant gold like molten metal, radiating world-ending power. Above the pool's surface, a phantom of a true dragon, hundreds of feet long, has even condensed into being.
The heart's blood essence of an ancient true dragon. Now that's the real deal.
Beside the pool, a colossal beast, its body the size of a small hill, shaped like a qilin, lies sound asleep. Heaven-Piercing Realm peak. A guardian beast. The black spirit beast.
Just as you're taking in this treasure ground, two battered figures come stumbling into the valley from the other side. It's Julian and Chloe.
After taking the sword manual, Julian raced straight here from memory without pause. This true dragon blood pool was always his real target for this trip.
"Finally." Julian's eyes blaze with a fervour unlike anything before, staring at the golden pool. But the moment he spots the sleeping black spirit beast, his face turns unspeakably grim. Damn it, why hasn't this creature left yet? In his past life, he remembers this guardian beast being out hunting for food at this exact time.
"Julian, what is that thing?" Chloe's face pales with fear.
"Don't be scared." Julian forces himself to calm down. "Watch. I'll slip around it, grab the dragon's blood, and leave."
He masks his presence and creeps silently toward the pool. But just as he's about a hundred metres from the pool, the sleeping black spirit beast suddenly snaps open its blood-red eyes and lets loose a sky-shattering roar. Its terrifying sound waves crystallise into a physical shock wave that sweeps outward.
Julian is struck as if by lightning. His whole body is sent flying, coughing up a mouthful of blood midair before crashing down dozens of metres away. He struggles to rise, only to find his internal organs are all displaced.
A deadly shadow falls over the two of them instantly.
But right at this critical moment, an unbothered voice drifts in from the other side of the valley.
"What's got you two so worked up?"
Julian and Chloe whip around in shock, to see you, no one knows when you arrived, already standing at the valley's entrance, looking at them with an easy, relaxed expression.
The black spirit beast also turns its massive head, its savage gaze locking onto you instantly. It opens its blood-red maw, about to roar again.
But you don't flinch. Don't dodge. You simply walk toward its glare, one calm, unhurried step at a time. In this moment, you release your presence without holding anything back. It isn't spiritual power. It's something that comes from the very depths of your bloodline. A supreme pressure. The aura of the chaos body.
In an instant, the wind stops. The clouds part. The black spirit beast's roar, already halfway out, freezes dead in its throat. In its savage eyes, confusion flickers first, then shock, and finally it settles into unmatched fear and submission.
It's an absolute dominance operating at the level of life itself.
Before the disbelieving stares of Julian and Chloe, as if they've seen a ghost, thud. The once mighty Heaven-Piercing Realm peak beast drops its colossal body flat onto the ground, bowing in complete submission, burying its massive head deep into the dirt, its whole frame trembling violently with fear.
You walk up to it, reach out your hand, and pat its head like calming a puppy. "Good boy."
Then, without even glancing at the two who've turned completely to stone, you walk straight toward the true dragon blood pool.