Cultivation World - Grand Tournament Stadium
The afternoon battles continued with increasing intensity as the weaker competitors were eliminated. The crowd's energy was growing with each match more spectacular than the last.
"Next match!" the announcer declared. "The flame dancer of the Crimson Desert versus the ice sculptor of the Mythical Peaks!"
The flame dancer, a lithe woman whose every movement left trails of fire in the air, faced off against a stoic man whose breath created crystals of qi infused ice that hung suspended around him like a defensive constellation. Both having insight into their respective Daos.
"Begin!"
The collision of fire and ice created steam explosions that filled the arena floor with billowing white clouds. The flame dancer burst through the mist, her techniques painting beautiful arcs of orange and red through the white vapor. But the ice sculptor's defensive crystals proved too numerous and too precisely positioned—every flame technique was met by ice formations that neutralized the heat.
The match ended when the ice sculptor managed to trap his opponent in a cage of rapidly forming ice crystals, each one positioned to absorb her fire techniques before they could build up enough heat to break free.
"Winner: Gan Bing of the Mythical Peaks!"
The next battle was even more spectacular. A earth cultivator who could merge his body with qi infused stone faced a Dao of wind cultivator whose techniques allowed her to become temporarily incorporeal.
"Granite Titan Form!" the earth cultivator called out, his body expanding and hardening as he drew stone from the arena until he stood 50 feet tall.
"Zephyr Dance!" his opponent replied, her form becoming translucent as qi flowed through her following the Dao of wind.
What followed was a battle between wind and earth. The granite titan's punches could shatter qi steel, but they passed harmlessly through his opponent's wind-form body. The wind dancer's cutting techniques could slice through steel, but they skittered uselessly off the titan's stone skin.
The match became a war of attrition—who would exhaust their qi first? The titan's defensive form was incredibly costly to maintain, while the wind dancer's incorporeal state required constant concentration and large amounts of qi when phasing in and out of the wind.
After nearly twenty minutes of spectacular but ineffective exchanges, the wind cultivator's concentration finally wavered. The moment her form became solid again, the granite titan's fist connected with devastating force.
"Winner: Shi Shan of the Eastern Mountains!"
"Next match brings us to the elimination rounds!" the announcer's voice boomed with renewed excitement. "Representing the Golden Phoenix Federation, Huang Wei! Facing the sword saint of the Celestial Academy, Liu Jian!"
Huang Wei glided onto the arena floor like living flame, her robes flowing around her perfect figure. Her opponent was an elderly-looking young man—his baby face contradicted by ancient, knowing eyes and the seven swords floating around him in a perfect circle.
"This should be interesting," Liu Jian said politely, bowing to his opponent. "I have heard much about the Phoenix Princess's beauty and power."
"You flatter me," Huang Wei replied with a smile that could have melted steel. "I hope you'll still think I'm beautiful after I burn you to ash."
"Begin!"
Liu Jian struck first, all seven of his swords attacking simultaneously from different angles. Each blade carried a different element—fire, water, earth, air, lightning, ice, and void. The coordination was perfect, creating a symphony of elemental destruction that should have overwhelmed any single opponent.
But Huang Wei simply smiled and burst into flames.
"Phoenix Rebirth Pyre!" she declared, her body becoming a pillar of golden fire that rose nearly fifty meters into the air.
The seven elemental swords struck her flaming form and simply... disappeared. Not destroyed, not deflected—absorbed into the phoenix flames as if they were nothing more than kindling.
"Impossible," Liu Jian breathed, his eyes wide with shock. "Those swords contain dao-level elemental comprehension!"
"The Dao of Fire consumes all things," Huang Wei replied, her voice echoing from within the pillar of flame.
The pillar of fire began to take shape, forming into a massive phoenix whose wingspan covered a section of the arena. Its eyes were golden stars, its cry was the sound of worlds burning, and its presence made the very rock of the arena start to melt.
Liu Jian tried desperately to recall his swords, but they were gone—not just taken, but broken down and turned to ash in Huang Wei's phoenix fire.
"I surrender!" he called out quickly, raising his hands as the phoenix swooped toward him with wings that promised complete incineration.
The crowd erupted in cheers mixed with nervous laughter. Huang Wei's casual display of overwhelming power had been both beautiful and terrifying.
"Winner: Huang Wei of the Golden Phoenix Federation!"
Several more matches followed, each one eliminating another competitor as the tournament field narrowed toward the final rounds. The crowd's excitement built with each battle as they realized they were witnessing something special—a tournament where every remaining fighter was genuinely extraordinary.
Finally, the moment many had been waiting for arrived.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer's voice carried a special note of anticipation. "For our next elimination match, we have a truly spectacular pairing! Representing the Crimson Crater Kingdom, Lia of the former Flowing Water Sect!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as Lia stepped onto the arena floor, her purple eyes gleaming as she took deep breaths to calm herself.
"Facing her," the announcer continued, building the drama, "representing the Azure Dragon Empire"
"Long Chen!"
Earth - Tim's Apartment
Tim sat up straighter as he felt surge of nervousness from Lia's body. This was it—the first test against one of the tournament's absolute powerhouses.
"This is huge," Riku said, her relaxed posture shifting to alert attention. "Long Chen is level 7 with dragon bloodline advantages. This isn't like the previous fights."
"She can handle it, I can handle it" Tim said with more confidence than he felt. "My qi reserves are massive, and after easily beating Wei Qian..."
"Long Chen isn't Wei Qian," Riku pointed out, her grip tightening on his hand. "He's tactical, experienced, and who knows what hidden techniques he has. Just be careful, surrender if needed but don't die" Riku said while feeling scared to lose Lia.
Both of them suddenly gasped, their eyes going wide as a wave of wrongness washed over them .
It felt like the city was screaming.
Tim and Riku both shot to their feet simultaneously, their cultivation senses—enhanced by months of careful development—detecting something that no normal human could perceive. A massive disturbance in the life force of everything around them, as if life itself was disappearing.
"What the hell is that?" Riku breathed, her face pale as she felt the wave of life stealing suction spreading outward from somewhere in the city center.
"Something's draining life force," Tim said grimly, his qi-enhanced senses allowing him to perceive the direction and guess the scope of the disturbance. "Millions of people. All at once."
They could feel it happening—the slow, inexorable drain as something pulled life energy from every living being within the city's boundaries. Plants withering, animals collapsing, humans beginning to weaken as their vital essence was siphoned away.
"Central Park," Riku said with sudden certainty, feeling it was the epicenter of the disturbance. "Whatever's doing this, that's where it's centered."
Tim was already moving, grabbing his keys and heading for the door. "We have to stop it. If this keeps spreading..."
"The whole city dies," Riku finished, following right behind him. "Millions of people turned into husks to feed whatever monster is doing this."
They ran down the apartment building's stairs three at a time, both of them pushing their qi-enhanced bodies to their limits as they raced toward the source of the life-draining formation that was slowly murdering their city.
In the cultivation world, Lia was walking toward the arena floor to face Long Chen, distracted and even more nervous from having a crises in both worlds.
Cultivation World - Arena Floor
Lia stepped onto the arena floor with fluid confidence, but she was thrown off by the crises in tims body. This is the first time Tim/Lia had faced a crises in both worlds at the same time. Every fear was amplified by both bodies. Adrenaline pumping through both bodies veins at the same time.
Long Chen stood waiting for her at the center of the arena, his midnight blue robes rippling in the wind as dragon-shaped qi coiled lazily around his form. His expression was respectful but confident—the look of someone who had studied his opponent and believed he had found the key to victory.
"Lady Lia," he said with a formal bow. "I have watched your previous matches with great interest. Your water techniques are truly magnificent."
"Thank you," Lia replied, though her attention was split between the conversation and and tim running toward something that shouldn't have been happening on earth. "Your dragon techniques are equally impressive."
"BEGIN!" Marcus's voice boomed across the stadium.
Neither fighter moved immediately. They circled each other slowly, both understanding that this battle would be decided by strategy as much as power. Long Chen's tactical intelligence versus Lia's overwhelming qi reserves—it was a matchup that could go either way.
But as they analysed each other for flaws, Lia was only half focused. Long Chen was confident in his analysis of her techniques, while Lia was increasingly distracted by the crisis unfolding back on earth.
Earth - Takeshi's Home
The soul needle pressed against the ethereal boundary between his soul and the muscle fibers of his left shoulder, and Takeshi gritted his teeth as he prepared to drive it through. This would be the third-to-last stitch—so close to completion, so close to finally having a body that could move and respond to his will after twenty years of imprisonment.
The needle pierced through the barrier between soul and flesh, and agony exploded through every fiber of his being. His mouth opened in a soundless scream as the soul thread was drawn through, binding his consciousness directly to muscle tissue that had been dead to him for decades.
Then the wave hit him.
A massive disturbance that his enhanced soul senses detected with perfect clarity. Something enormous and hungry was pulling life force from everything in the city—a formation so vast and powerful that it made him question how it was possible.
"NNNGH... AAAHHH..." The sound that escaped his throat was barely human, a mixture of soul-stitching agony and the horror of perceiving millions of people beginning to die.
His father rushed into the room, his face pale with the familiar concern that had marked every day since Takeshi's accident. "What is it? What's wrong? Should I call the doctor?"
Through tremendous effort, fighting against both the ongoing soul procedure and the wave of life draining washing over the city, Takeshi managed to force words through his vocal cords.
"Dad..." he gasped, his eyes wild but focused with desperate intensity. "You... have to... believe in me."
His father stopped short, startled by the clarity and urgency in his son's voice. For the first time in years, Takeshi sounded the most serious he had ever heard him.
"Central Park..." Takeshi continued, each word a struggle but filled with certainty. "Something... killing everyone... have to stop it..."
His father's expression shifted from confusion to deep concern. "Takeshi, what are you talking about? You can't possibly know—"
"PLEASE!" Takeshi's voice cracked with desperation, stronger than it had been in decades. "People are starting to die... right now... millions..." He fixed his father with eyes that blazed with intelligence and terrible knowledge. "Push me... fast as you can... Central Park... NOW!"
For a moment that stretched like eternity, his father stared at him—this son who had been trapped in a broken body for twenty years, who was now speaking with an urgency about things he couldn't possibly know or even be real. The rational part of his mind said this was impossible, some kind of breakdown or hallucination.
But the soul-deep conviction in Takeshi's voice, the desperate intelligence blazing in his eyes, the way he was speaking with more clarity than he'd shown in two decades...
"Okay," his father said quietly, moving to unlock the wheelchair's brakes. "Okay, son. I believe you."
He began pushing the wheelchair toward the door with increasing speed, his heart pounding as he chose to trust his son's impossible knowledge over his own rational doubts.
"Faster, Dad," Takeshi urged, his voice growing stronger with each word as adrenaline and desperate purpose fought against his physical limitations. "Every second... people are dying. Have to... have to get there..."
As they rushed through the front door and onto the street, Takeshi could feel the life-draining formation growing stronger, its hungry pull affecting every living thing in the city. Plants were beginning to wither, animals were collapsing, and humans were starting to feel exhausted.
Earth - Downtown Ramen Shop
Himari was carefully balancing three steaming bowls of ramen as she navigated between the packed lunch tables, her bright smile never wavering despite being on her feet for seven straight hours. The familiar weight of the ceramic bowls, the rich aroma of pork broth, the cheerful chatter of satisfied customers—it was the comfortable routine that had defined her mortal existence.
She was halfway to table twelve when the wave hit her.
Both sets of her eyes—the cheerful brown ones serving customers and the deadly silver ones hidden in another world—blazed with sudden intensity as every enhanced sense she possessed screamed in alarm. The life-draining formation struck her consciousness like a physical blow, so massive and malevolent that it made her stagger.
The bowls slipped from her hands.
They crashed to the floor in an explosion of ceramic shards and steaming broth, sending scalding ramen across the restaurant floor as customers jumped back with startled cries. But Himari was already moving, her cheerful server persona completely evaporated as Kira's predatory instincts took control.
"Himari-chan!" Mrs. Tanaka called out in alarm. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Himari's head snapped toward the kitchen, her expression no longer bright and bubbly but cold and focused with lethal precision. "I have to leave now," she said, her voice carrying none of its usual warmth.
Without another word of explanation, she vaulted over the counter with inhuman grace and sprinted toward the restaurant's exit. Customers stared in shock as the petite, cheerful waitress moved with the fluid deadliness of a apex predator, her entire demeanor transformed in seconds.
"Himari!" Mrs. Tanaka shouted after her. "Where are you going? What about your shift?"
But Himari was already through the door, her qi-enhanced legs carrying her through the crowded street at speeds that no normal human could maintain. Her enhanced senses guided her toward the epicenter of the disturbance—Central Park.
Around her, normal people were beginning to feel the effects. Office workers stumbled on the sidewalks, suddenly exhausted. Dogs collapsed on their leashes. Potted plants in storefront windows began to wilt and brown as their life essence was siphoned away by the formation.
But Himari's cultivation-enhanced body resisted the drain, her qi reserves providing protection against the life-stealing effect. She ran through the city like an arrow fired from a bow, her mind already cataloguing the tactical situation.