Thirty-seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
While the other disciples were fighting among themselves, competing for the shards, and stealing from each other, Kiyotaka sat cross-legged in a cave with his eyes closed in meditation.
For thirty full days, he hadn't moved. Not even once had his eyes opened.
Whether the world outside turned to endless water or blazed under fire, he remained unshaken. The shifting terrain meant nothing to him. A pale gray aura cocooned his body, shielding him from each elemental domain.
Now, for the first time in a month, his eyes slowly opened.
A flicker of gray and red shimmered within them, moving like small serpents, before it was gone in an instant.
He exhaled, releasing a long breath of stale air, and clenched his hand into a fist.
"Qi Condensation Eighth Stage, huh."
The aura he was emitting right now drastically differed from before. Not only was there a transformation in strength, but there also seemed to be something entirely else. The person he was before couldn't even stand in the same realm as the person he had become.
The Qi in his dantian had fully liquefied, forming a concentrated pool at its core.
Then, Kiyotaka's eyes narrowed slightly, sensing something, or rather, someone approaching.
With no change in expression, he stood smoothly. Despite having remained motionless for a full month, not a hint of stiffness remained in his limbs. His movements were fluid and natural.
Exiting the cave, he came face-to-face with a disciple loitering nearby. A round-faced young man in loose robes, his expression smug and full of bad intentions.
"Hahaha! So you're finally done hiding, Junior Brother," the disciple cackled, clearly expecting an easy target. "I almost thought you gave up entirely and—"
Kiyotaka vanished, and he reappeared directly in front of the now stunned disciple, his hand already drawn back.
"Huh—?"
The only sound that followed was the thundercrack of impact.
A fist imbued with dense Metal Qi, laced with surging Dark Qi, struck the disciple square in the gut. The two energies didn't clash. Instead, they intertwined, reinforcing each other. The sharpness of Metal and the corrosion of Darkness, fused into a single devastating blow.
The disciple's eyes bulged. Blood exploded from his mouth as his body was launched backward like a broken doll.
He smashed through a jagged stone formation, tumbled through an exposed ancient temple wall, and only stopped after demolishing a section of the structure, leaving debris and dust in his wake.
"ARGHHH—!"
The disciple's agonized scream echoed through the shattered remnants of the ruined temple, blood streaming freely from dozens of wounds. And before he could even think to recover, Kiyotaka appeared again.
But this time, there was a shift.
A blazing crimson aura now enveloped him, crackling with intensity. In his clenched fist, three distinct energies spiraled together—deep blood-red, inky black, and a cold, metallic gray. Each color pulsed with its own power, but none fought the others.
Without pause or mercy, Kiyotaka struck.
His fist drove down into the disciple's chest with the weight of a collapsing mountain.
The remains of the temple wall behind the disciple disintegrated on impact, crumbling like sand before an ocean wave. The disciple's body was driven straight down like a meteor, slamming into the earth with explosive force, carving a deep crater into the ground below.
A grotesque sound followed. It was the result of crushed bones and torn flesh. Blood sprayed from the disciple's mouth, nose, eyes, and even his pores, misting the air with crimson.
Kiyotaka descended into the crater without a word, his aura still surging. With a single sweep of his hand, all the shards the disciple carried were drawn into his grasp. He gave the barely conscious cultivator one final glance.
Then, without another look, he turned and vanished.
"Cough... cough... DAMN IT! YOU WON'T GET AWAY—cough!"
The disciple, broken and bloodied, staggered upright. His limbs trembled. His robes were torn. Bones jutted at odd angles beneath his skin. Yet still, driven by humiliation, rage, or sheer unwillingness to accept defeat, he forced himself to move.
But by then, Kiyotaka was already a blur on the distant horizon. A faint shimmer of gray and red, vanishing into the shifting terrain, leaving only silence and ruin behind.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
The landscape blurred past as I moved at high speed toward the direction of the mountain. Today was the day the barrier would disappear. The true trial would begin now.
And as if the world itself responded to my thoughts, a deep, resonant rumble echoed across the realm.
The air shimmered ahead, and then, just like that, the scenery shifted.
Ahead, where it seemed like the scenery would go endlessly on, a mountain stood in full clarity.
It rose like a god from earth, its sheer size eclipsing the horizon. The peak was lost beyond clouds, and its slopes were veiled in elemental mists. Earth, fire, water, wood, and metal. Each aura twisted around the mountain's body, converging at its base.
It felt less like a structure and more like a being.
A giant awakened from slumber.
At the foot of the mountain, even from a great distance, I could see a radiant circle of light. It pulsed gently, rhythmically, like a heartbeat. It was as if it were a beacon, calling to me. No, to all of us.
I let out a slow breath and deactivated Crimson Surge. The crimson aura faded from my form, retreating beneath my skin.
But I didn't stop.
Without hesitation, I pushed forward again.
Five hours of nonstop travel brought me to the edge of the Earth region.
Before me stood a translucent shimmer in the air, barely visible but still there. This wasn't a wall in the physical sense. It was simply where the Earth region ended, and something else began.
I didn't hesitate.
Stepping through, I noticed the shift immediately.
The elemental aura, once dense and tinged with the essence of earth, faded into something balanced. No longer was one element dominant over the others.
The scenery reflected this shift. Rolling grasslands stretched out ahead, dotted with trees, scattered stones, flowing rivers, and gentle hills.
But peace never lasted long in this realm.
As I pressed forward, three auras suddenly flared and locked onto me.
I stopped.
Three figures stepped out in perfect formation, encircling me, each sealing off a direction of escape.
"Well, well, the little Qi Condensation brat," sneered one of the male disciples, eyes gleaming with greed. "And you've even got shards on you? How generous of you."
Another tilted his head and tapped his temple, pretending to think. "Remind me... what was your name again?"
The third was a woman. Unlike the posturing of the two men, she simply looked at them with thinly veiled disgust before turning her gaze to me.
"Hand over your shards. You have three breaths."
Her voice was flat and cold.
The two men immediately straightened, abandoning their playful act to fall in line.
"Right, listen to Senior Sister Dong Mei, brat!" one of them said, the sneer replaced with obsequiousness as he turned to the woman.
The other chimed in eagerly. "Senior Sister Dong Mei, don't forget, we have a date after this trial, remember?"
The first man's smile dropped into a frown. "What date?! We agreed I'd—"
But Dong Mei silenced them both with a sharp look. "Enough, Meng Ning. Xun Liang. We're in a trial."
Just then, another aura approached from behind. This one was familiar. It was weaker and battered.
A rotund figure stumbled into view, panting heavily. The heavy wounds were still visible, along with dried blood.
"There you are..." he wheezed, relief and hatred mixing in his voice. "Finally caught you...!"
"Huh? Yang Dong?" Meng Ning blinked. "What the hell happened to you? You look like you were fed to a beast and spat back out."
Meanwhile, Dong Mei's eyes widened in realization as she looked at me in shock.
Time was slipping.
There was no more room for banter.
Four Foundation Establishment cultivators.
I raised my right hand.
And then, without hesitation, I drove it into my own chest.
Crack.
My ribs shattered from the blow, and flesh tore. The expressions of the disciples shifted from confusion to alarm.
"What the hell?!"
"Are you mad, Junior Brother?!"
They didn't understand. But they soon would.
The familiar crimson blaze erupted from my body as Crimson Surge activated. Blood Qi raged through my meridians, and I immediately began compressing Metal Qi into my fist, over and over, until I repeated that step nine times. This step was much faster than the last time I did it.
Darkness Qi came next, threading through the metal like veins. Then, finally, came the Blood Qi, fusing into the construct.
A gauntlet formed around my fist, black and gray in color, wrapped in pulsing crimson light.
My soles ignited with Metal Qi and Darkness Qi, and I launched forward like a cannonball straight toward Meng Ning.
"Meng Ning, get out of there!" Dong Mei shouted, already moving to intercept, but it was already too late.
I was already in front of Meng Ning.
He barely had time to widen his eyes before my fist crashed into his solar plexus, the force folding him around my arm, before the impact caused him to fly away.
I didn't even glance at the damage I'd caused. My body was already moving, my speed enhanced by Crimson Surge, pushing me forward out of the encirlement.
I paid no mind to the agonized scream sounding behind me.
My focus was entirely on the radiant circle ahead. With every passing moment, it was growing closer and closer.
Behind me, I could feel three auras closing in. They were furious, relentless, and not about to let me go without a fight.
But I didn't slow down. If anything, I pushed my speed even further. The ground blurred beneath my feet as I surged forward, Crimson Surge still pumping power through my body.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
In the sacred clearing at the base of the central mountain, where the radiant circle shimmered, five disciples had gathered. These were the rest of the remaining participants in this trial.
This was the final waiting point.
And the disciples weren't fighting among themselves, meaning they were either in an alliance, it wasn't worth fighting, or lastly, it wasn't possible.
Liang Ruxue stood barefoot at the edge of the glowing circle, one hand clasped behind her back, the other lazily twirling a strand of her jade-green hair. She hummed that same tune from before.
Not far from her, seated in serene focus, was Zhang Feng. His posture was perfect, hands resting lightly on his knees. Though his eyes remained closed, the space around him told another story. Lightning Qi so dense it fractured the air as splintering glass hummed around his body. The very environment distorted within a meter radius.
Two other female disciples stood at a respectful distance from him, whispering amongst themselves.
The first, Yue Lian, carried herself with the stillness of an untouched lake. Her expression was unreadable, bordering on apathy. A cold mist hung around her ankles, and her every breath seemed to lower the temperature around her.
Beside her, Hua Mingzhu gave off the air of a warrior, calm and composed, yet alert. She kept her arms loosely crossed, her stance grounded, as if prepared to move at any time. Earth Qi pulsed subtly from her core with each breath, resonating with the terrain beneath her feet.
And finally, standing apart from the others with his arms crossed, was Zhao Wuying.
Leaning against a crooked boulder, his expression locked in a permanent scowl. His clothes were disheveled, the bandages across his torso peeking out from under his robes.
"How much longer do we have to wait?" Zhao Wuying grumbled, his irritation clear. "The barrier's already down. We should just enter and get this over with."
Yue Lian didn't even glance his way. "The trial doesn't officially begin until all disciples are accounted for."
Zhao Wuying scoffed. "There are a total of nine of us. Here we are, five. The rest are stragglers. They won't make it in time."
Nobody corrected him, though the truth lingered unspoken.
There weren't nine.
There were ten.
Nobody acknowledged the omission. It was as though the missing name no longer held weight in their minds.
Hua Mingzhu broke the silence with a raised brow, her voice tinged with amusement. "Weren't you one of those stragglers just yesterday? I seem to recall Senior Sister Liang giving you quite the chase."
Liang Ruxue turned on her heel, beaming. "Ah, yes! That was adorable. He tried to sneak up on me, thinking he could ambush me in my own domain. The confidence~"
She gave Zhao Wuying a mocking glance. "Remind me, how did that work out for you again?"
Zhao Wuying's face darkened. "I wasn't fleeing. I was making a tactical retreat after realizing you weren't worth the effort."
"Is that what we're calling it now?" Liang Ruxue's smile widened. "Because from where I stood, it looked an awful lot like running away while screaming."
"I did not scream—"
"You definitely screamed," Hua Mingzhu confirmed dryly.
Zhao Wuying opened his mouth to retort, then caught sight of Liang Ruxue's expression and apparently thought better of it. He turned away with a huff.
Yue Lian finally spoke again, her voice carrying an almost musical quality. "Senior Brother Zhang Feng, are you planning to meditate through the entire trial? Or will you grace us with your attention at some point?"
Zhang Feng didn't acknowledge her and continued his cultivation.
Then, almost too casually, Liang Ruxue's humming stopped. Her expression shifted as her eyes flicked eastward. The playful edge in her tone returned, this time sharper, like the glint of a blade.
"Oh my~ It seems we have incoming guests."
And then the atmosphere changed.
The wind shifted. The air thickened.
A murderous intent pierced through the grassland like a blade, subtle yet suffocating.
For the first time, Zhang Feng's eyes snapped open. His pupils contracted as his spiritual sense stretched outward, his expression tightening.
"What... is that killing intent?"
The others immediately tensed, their spiritual senses extending outward.
Hua Mingzhu took a step forward, her Earth Qi spreading outward like roots probing the ground. "Four auras. Foundation Establishment level. They are moving fast."
She paused, frowning.
"They're in pursuit."
"No," Yue Lian corrected calmly, frost forming at her feet as her perception sharpened. "Three are pursuing. One is fleeing."
Then Zhang Feng finally rose from his seated position, the crackling lightning around him dispersing. He gazed toward the horizon, expression unreadable.
"The one being chased," he said slowly, "is only at the eighth stage of Qi Condensation."
A brief pause.
"...And yet he's keeping distance."
That drew everyone's attention.
Yue Lian's eyes narrowed further, her breath frosting the air. "There's another aura as well. Trailing behind them."
Zhao Wuying stiffened.
"Eighth stage?" His face twisted, recognition dawning. "There's only one who was still in Qi Condensation when we entered the Sanctum."
His jaw clenched.
"That damn brat... Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."
Liang Ruxue clapped her hands together, delighted. "Oh my~ How exciting. Kiyotaka's finally made it." Her smile turned mischievous. "And it sounds like he's made some new friends."
Zhao Wuying shot her a sharp look. "Since when are you on a first-name basis with him?"
She waved a hand dismissively. "Since I decided we were." Then she tilted her head, eyes gleaming. "Don't be jealous, Junior Brother Zhao Wuying. It's unbecoming."
Before he could snap back, Hua Mingzhu stepped forward again. "They'll reach us in under a minute. Should we interfere?"
Yue Lian didn't even hesitate. "Why would we? This has nothing to do with us."
The clearing fell silent.
Then, far in the distance, a streak of crimson tore across the plains, moving with terrifying speed.
Seconds later, the figure came into full view.
It was Kiyotaka.
His robes were stained red and torn from his own self-inflicted attack, but his steps remained swift and steady. His eyes, unreadable, swept across the glowing circle ahead and the five figures standing within it.
Each of them reacted differently.
Zhao Wuying's expression immediately twisted into a scowl, his fists clenching at his sides. Rage burned in his eyes.
Liang Ruxue, meanwhile, smiled like a child watching a game reach its climax.
Yue Lian's gaze didn't change, but something in her body shifted. Her focus locked on Kiyotaka in scrutiny.
Hua Mingzhu leaned slightly forward, as if anticipating a battle. Her feet dug subtly into the ground, and a flicker of Earth Qi pulsed beneath her boots.
Only Zhang Feng remained still, his gaze calm, as he took in the sight in front of him.
Kiyotaka was only a few hundred meters from the boundary of the radiant circle when a ripple of Qi tore through the air.
"Shadow Step."
Dong Mei's voice rang out behind him.
She had appeared just a dozen meters behind, her hands raised, Dark Qi crackling in threads of black lightning around her fingers. Above her hand, a sphere of growing darkness had begun to form. Slowly at first, then exponentially faster, it expanded with alarming speed.
Kiyotaka turned, calm as ever. His expression remained blank, but his body had subtly shifted, preparing.
And still, he didn't move to evade.
The blood from his earlier self-inflicted wound had begun to run freely again.
Normally, he would have sealed the wound by now. But he hadn't.
Because he needed the blood.
Kiyotaka's gaze shifted to Dong Mei, his expression still blank, but something in his eyes had changed. They carried a weight now, a coldness and killing intent that hadn't been there before.
His hand moved to his chest, pressing against the wound. More blood flowed between his fingers, running down his arm in thick streams, soaking his sleeves, and staining his fists. Yet the blood never hit the ground.
It floated.
Suspended in the air around him, each droplet began to multiply. One drop became two. Two became four. Four became dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. The blood didn't thin or dilute. Each new drop was as dense and real as the original, fueled by the overwhelming Blood Qi pouring from his core.
The blood droplets began to orbit Kiyotaka's body, forming rings that spun faster and faster. The air itself seemed to vibrate with the sheer density of Blood Qi saturating the area.
Crimson light bled into the surroundings.
That's when the other three Foundation Establishment disciples arrived: Yang Dong, wheezing but determined, followed by Xun Liang and lastly Meng Ning, who managed to catch up.
And the watching disciples within the circle all felt silent, watching Kiyotaka.
Zhang Feng's eyes narrowed. "A forbidden technique..."
Hua Mingzhu gasped, her brows shooting upward. "How could a teenager get a grasp on a technique like that?!"
Yue Lian said nothing. Her gaze had turned razor-sharp.
Even Liang Ruxue's smile had faded, her lips parted slightly as she stared.
"Dark Moon Descent!" Dong Mei's voice cracked like thunder.
The enormous sphere of darkness, now the size of a house, descended like a falling star, its weight crashing through the air.
But Kiyotaka didn't flinch.
His right hand moved, and the spiraling droplets of blood instantly responded. They gathered above his palm, fusing together as if answering a silent command.
They didn't form a sphere.
They became something else entirely.
A spear.
Nearly three meters long, forged from blood so condensed it looked like a river of blood, the weapon pulsed with life.
The spearhead was wickedly sharp
And threaded through the entire structure, barely visible but undeniably present, were hairline traces of metallic silver Metal Qi.
The technique was using Metal Qi as a truth.
Blood contains iron. Iron is metal.
Kiyotaka's fingers closed around the spear's shaft, and the moment he gripped it, the weapon seemed to resonate with him. The pulsing veins synchronized with his heartbeat. The Metal Qi threads began to glow faintly, responding to his will.
He took one step forward, and the spear moved with him. "This technique," he quietly muttered, "is deserving of a name. I shall call it Blood Sovereign's Execution."
The name hung in the air like a sentence passed down.
Then, he thrust it skyward.
Straight into the descending Dark Moon.
The sky roared as crimson and black collided.
For a single heartbeat, time seemed to freeze.
The spear pierced the outer shell of the Dark Moon Descent, its metallic resonance finding the microscopic fractures in Dong Mei's technique. But Kiyotaka wasn't trying to split the technique apart.
The crystallized blood began to dissolve at the point of contact, returning to its liquid form, but it didn't disperse. Instead, it spread across the surface of the dark sphere like a parasitic infection, crimson veins crawling over black, corrupting the structure from within.
Blood Qi and Darkness Qi are both Yin-aligned. They don't naturally repel. Which means...
The blood found the gaps in Dong Mei's Qi control and invaded, using the Metal Qi threads as guides to penetrate deeper into the technique's core. Each thread acted like a root system, spreading through the compressed darkness and absorbing its energy away.
Dong Mei's eyes widened in horror. "What—?!"
She could feel it. Her technique was being consumed. The Blood Qi was feeding on her Dark Moon Descent, growing stronger with each passing second.
The crimson veins spread faster, covering more of the sphere's surface. Where they touched, the darkness began to thin, to weaken, and finally, to bleed.
"Impossible!" Dong Mei shouted, pouring more Qi into her technique to maintain its integrity. "A Qi Condensation cultivator can't absorb a Foundation Establishment technique!"
But Kiyotaka wasn't absorbing it in the traditional sense.
He was simply converting it.
The Metal Qi threads acted as catalysts, breaking down the structure of her darkness into base Qi, which the Blood Qi then assimilated and transformed into more of itself.
Within five seconds, half of the Dark Moon Descent had been consumed.
The massive sphere had shrunk to barely three meters in diameter, and it was still getting smaller. The crimson blood now completely covered what remained of the black core, pulsing with stolen power.
Dong Mei made her decision instantly.
She released the technique.
Better to waste the Qi than to let him consume it all and potentially turn her own attack back on her.
The moment her control vanished, the remaining darkness dissipated into the air like smoke.
But the Blood Qi remained.
All of it floated in the air above Kiyotaka, a massive sphere of liquid crimson that dwarfed even her original sphere. The sheer volume of Blood Qi now at his disposal was staggering. Easily ten times what he'd started with.
The sphere slowly descended, and Kiyotaka raised both hands to receive it.
The blood didn't enter his body, as that would risk Qi deviation. Instead, it compressed and reshaped, forming not one spear but six.
Each one was a bit smaller than the original, but they all radiated power that surpassed the singular spear from before.
The six spears floated around Kiyotaka in a hexagonal formation, their points all aimed outward at the four Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Complete silence fell over the clearing.
Yang Dong, who'd been preparing to attack, stopped mid-motion. His face had gone pale. "Senior Sister Dong Mei... did he just... steal your technique?"
"Not steal," Zhang Feng's voice cut through from within the circle, carrying a note of genuine fascination. "Transform. He used the opposition between elements while exploiting the similarity between blood and darkness as yin energies. Then he converted her Qi into fuel for his own technique."
He paused, "That's comprehension of Dao principles. Truly fascinating." He genuinely praised Kiyotaka.
Yue Lian's cold facade had finally cracked. Her eyes were wide, frost spreading rapidly at her feet. "That concentration of Blood Qi... if he releases all six spears at once..."
She didn't finish the sentence.
Everyone present understood the implication.
Those spears could kill.
Not wound. Not injure. Kill.
Even Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn't survive a direct hit from all six.
Dong Mei's face was a mask of barely controlled fury. She'd lost face in front of everyone—had her signature technique not just blocked but consumed and turned against her. The humiliation was written in every line of her body.
But she wasn't stupid.
She could feel the killing intent radiating from those spears. Could sense instinctively that if she pushed this confrontation any further, she could die.
"Do you wish to continue?" Kiyotaka's voice was quiet, but it cut through the tension like a blade. His tone was flat, devoid of anger, but laced with killing intent so palpable it chilled the air. The six spears orbiting him responded in kind, glowing brighter, sharper, as if thirsting for violence.
In the safety of the radiant barrier, Hua Mingzhu's expression faltered, a faint shiver crawling up her spine.
"How... can a Qi Condensation cultivator radiate such killing intent?" she murmured. "He's not even fifteen, is he? Just how many people has he killed?"
Liang Ruxue, ever the strange one, gave a half-hearted pout. "Mou~ Junior Brother isn't so cute anymore."
The others glanced her way, but neither Yue Lian nor Hua Mingzhu responded. The mood had grown too tense for jokes.
Outside the circle, Dong Mei stood frozen, her fists trembling slightly at her sides. But then, reluctantly, her battle stance collapsed, and her aura withdrew back. She straightened her back, lips pressed into a thin line.
"This isn't over," she said quietly, her voice colder than ice.
"I'll be waiting," Kiyotaka replied, his voice even colder.
A breathless silence held for three seconds longer, then Kiyotaka turned and began walking toward the barrier.
Behind him, Yang Dong finally broke. He took a single nervous step back, sweat beading on his brow. "Senior Sister... maybe we should—"
"Quiet." Dong Mei's voice cracked like a whip.
After a beat, she also began to move.
"We're wasting time. The real trial is beyond this point," she said, though her voice lacked its former authority. "We can settle this inside."
The group of four began to move again.
As Kiyotaka approached the barrier, the radiant veil shimmered, but didn't resist him. It parted gently, allowing his entry without hesitation, as if acknowledging his right to be there.
And in that moment, the disciples inside the clearing understood something.
The aura of the six blood-forged spears, now clearly visible without the distortion of the outer barrier, was oppressive.
Even among the Foundation Establishment cultivators, expressions shifted.
Zhao Wuying flinched, stepping instinctively back. Hua Mingzhu's brows furrowed with tension. Yue Lian narrowed her eyes but said nothing. Even she hadn't expected this level of pressure from a Qi Condensation cultivator.
Only Zhang Feng remained calm, observing without judgment.
Liang Ruxue, on the other hand, clapped lightly. "That was spectacular," she said, though her eyes were sharp now, analyzing more than teasing.
Kiyotaka offered no response.
He simply walked forward, then sat cross-legged on the grass, ignoring everyone.
The six blood spears, still humming with violence, slowly dissolved into mist, only they didn't dissipate.
The blood condensed again, flowing around Kiyotaka in strands and rivulets, and then began slowly seeping back into his body.
The absorption process was delicate. The Blood Qi he'd converted from Dong Mei's technique was fundamentally different from his own. It was foreign, volatile, and potentially dangerous if handled carelessly. He couldn't simply integrate it into his cultivation base without risking Qi Deviation or corruption of his meridians.
Instead, he carefully filtered the excess Blood Qi, redirecting it to aid only in mending his wounds and replenishing his spent Qi reserves. His skin slowly regained color, his wounds closed with visible speed, and his aura stabilized.
But even with these applications, a substantial amount of converted Blood Qi remained.
Internally, Kiyotaka carefully began guiding the volatile Blood Qi through his meridians. But instead of directing it toward his spirit pool, he channeled it upward to the empty space above.
There, he began the formation of something new.
Layer upon layer of Blood Qi was condensed, compacted, and woven together. The energy resisted, wanting to explode outward or dissipate, but he maintained absolute control, forcing it into increasingly dense configurations.
The external Blood Qi still orbiting his body began flowing inward faster now, drawn by the gravity well he was creating in his dantian.
Minutes passed, and finally, as the last crimson droplet was absorbed and compressed, something solidified.
A seed.
Barely the size of a grain of rice, deep crimson with veins of darker red pulsing through it, floating in the space above his spirit pool. It rotated slowly, generating its own miniature current in the surrounding Qi.
The first step toward forming a Blood Core.
This was the mark of someone who had stepped beyond simple control. The Blood Core would act as a secondary reservoir that would grow alongside his primary cultivation, eventually becoming a source of power in its own right.
Kiyotaka's eyes opened.
The world snapped back into focus. He'd been so deeply concentrated on internal work that he'd completely tuned out his surroundings. A dangerous practice in hostile territory, but the moment he stepped into this circle, he noticed that there was no way of attacking each other.
Looking around, he registered that all ten disciples were now present within the circle.
The four Foundation Establishment cultivators who'd been chasing him—Dong Mei, Yang Dong, Xun Liang, and Meng Ning—stood in a loose cluster at one edge, maintaining an obvious distance from him. Their gazes carried undisguised hostility, particularly Dong Mei's, whose eyes swore to take revenge.
But the other half now regarded him differently. Not as a junior to be dismissed, but as a peer despite the cultivation gap. Someone who'd proven through action that he could threaten even those an entire major realm above him.
In their eyes, he'd earned the right to be treated like a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
He was now an equal among them.