The day after Alex single-handedly dispatched Chen's underlings, the four of them were back on their secluded training platform. The atmosphere was different. There was an undercurrent of nervous energy, a shared understanding that a line had been crossed.
Chen had made no further moves after his lackeys were dragged away by the Disciplinary Hall, but the silence was more unnerving than a direct threat. It was Jay who finally voiced what the other two were thinking.
"Are you sure you're not worried?" he asked, his amber eyes fixed on Alex. "Chen's never been one to let something like this go. I can tell you personally, he'll be back for revenge, and it won't be with a few clumsy thugs next time."
Alex, who was stretching his limbs with a newfound fluidity, just shrugged. "Don't sweat it too much. The way I see it, he sent his goons because he didn't want to get his hands dirty. Those guys were disposable to him. Now that he sees I'm not as easy to deal with as he thought, he's probably hitting the drawing board again."
"You may have a point," Lily conceded, coiling her whip with a thoughtful frown, "but are you sure you'll be able to handle whatever he prepares for you next?"
"That is why we're out here training, isn't it?" Alex replied with a confident grin.
Elara, who had been quietly observing, stepped forward. "That's true," she said, her expression serious. "But your training has a massive hole in it. You still haven't shown us what elemental affinity you've awakened since stepping into the Foundation Establishment realm."
The question hung in the air. This was the piece of the puzzle that didn't fit, the mystery that even Alex hadn't been able to solve.
"That's because I'm still not sure," Alex admitted, the confidence in his voice wavering for the first time.
Jay looked baffled. "What do you mean you're not sure? After entering Foundation Establishment, you should have felt an undeniable connection to your innate elemental Qi. It's the very definition of the realm."
Alex met their curious gaze. With his Immortal Eyes, he could see the elemental Qi in all of them, the steady brown of Jay's earth, the flowing blue of Elara's water, the whispering green of Lily's wind. But when he looked inward, he saw... everything. "Is 'all of them' an answer?" he asked tentatively.
"Impossible," Lily said immediately, shaking her head. "No person has ever had an affinity with every element. Cultivators with dual affinities are rare enough, and their paths are notoriously difficult because their power is divided. They're almost always weaker than a specialist."
Elara, however, looked at Alex with the now-familiar expression she reserved for his strangeness, a mix of skepticism and a willingness to believe the impossible. "Okay," she said, a slight defeated tone in her voice. "If you truly think you have an affinity for all the elements, let's test it. Theory is useless without practice." She turned to Jay. "Jay, you have the most stable and straightforward element. Show him how to manipulate Earth Qi."
Jay nodded, still looking doubtful, but still willing to try. He and Alex sat cross-legged, facing each other on the stone platform.
"Alright, Alex," Jay began, his tone shifting into that of a patient instructor. "Close your eyes. Use that 'sense' you have to feel the spiritual energy all around you. Don't try to grab it. Just feel its flow."
Alex did as he was told, the world dissolving into the vibrant tapestry of colors his Immortal Eyes revealed.
"Good," Jay continued. "Now, narrow your focus. Ignore everything except the Qi flowing through the very stone beneath you. That is Earth Qi. Feel its weight, its stability."
Alex focused, the other colors fading until only a slow, powerful river of brown light remained in his vision.
"Now," Jay said, his voice low and intense, "don't just feel it. Connect with it. Reach out with your own Qi and... ask it to move. Don't command it. Guide it. Coax it to bend it to your will."
Alex focused his intent. He extended a thread of his spiritual energy towards the earth Qi in the platform, not forcing it, but gently inviting it to respond. And it did.
Elara and Lily watched, their breaths held. In front of Alex, the solid stone of the training platform began to soften, swirling like thick mud. Slowly, with a grace that defied its solid nature, the stone rose. It flowed, molded, and shaped itself until a perfectly formed, miniature hut, complete with a tiny door and windows, stood on the platform.
Jay stared, his jaw slack. He had expected Alex to make a pebble twitch, but he had created a complex, detailed structure on his first try.
"Okay..." Jay said, his voice barely a whisper. "I think you might have an affinity for Earth."
Just as the words left Jay's mouth, Alex had formed a small divot in the stone next to the hut and used the ambient water qi in the air to condense water to form a small pond, creating a picturesque scene on the platform
Just as the words left Jay's mouth, Alex formed a small divot in the stone next to the hut and used the ambient water Qi in the air to condense water, forming a small pond and creating a picturesque scene on the platform.
Elara's hand flew to her mouth. Lily stared, her expression a perfect mixture of utter disbelief and grudging admiration. The proof was right in front of them, as undeniable as the miniature landscape now sitting on the training platform.
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The Alchemist's Pavilion, nestled in a quiet, herb-scented corner of the inner sect, was a place of focused study and quiet prestige. Here, the air hummed not with the clash of weapons, but with the gentle bubbling of cauldrons and the low, steady heat of refining flames.
But today, the atmosphere in Finne's private workshop was anything but calm.
He slammed a stone pestle into its mortar with enough force to crack the porcelain, grinding a handful of sun-dried herbs into dust with furious energy. The public humiliation at the Exchange Hall burned in his mind. To be challenged and then dismissed by a nameless, upstart outer disciple was an unbearable stain on his reputation. The whispers he'd heard since had been like barbs in his pride.
A junior alchemist apprentice knocked timidly on his door. "Senior Brother Finne? An outer disciple named Chen requests a moment of your time."
Finne paused, his scowl deepening. He didn't recognize the name. "An outer disciple? What could he possibly want?" He waved a dismissive hand, not even bothering to look up. "Send him in."
Chen entered the workshop with a posture of deep, practiced respect. He carried a small, exquisitely carved wooden box. He bowed low, acutely aware that he was an unknown quantity in this rarified space.
"Senior Brother Finne," Chen began, his voice smooth and deferential. "Forgive my intrusion. My name is Chen. You do not know me, but I was present at the Exchange Hall yesterday. I came to offer my sincerest apologies for what unfolded. The disrespect that newcomer Alex showed you was a disgrace to us all."
Finne's expression softened slightly. To have a stranger come and so clearly acknowledge his status was a balm to his wounded ego. "I don't need the apologies of an outer disciple," he said, though his tone was less cold than before. "The fault lies with the fraud."
"It is not just that he is a fraud, Senior Brother," Chen insisted, placing the box on a clear section of the workbench. "It is that he is a stain. An anomaly." He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial tone. "I have heard things. His cultivation is unnatural. His progress defies logic. It is... dangerous to the harmony of our sect."
Chen had masterfully shifted the focus from Finne's humiliation to a threat against the established order. Finne, who saw the world through the rigid rules of alchemy, could not stand an "anomaly" who defied them.
"So he is using dark arts," Finne spat, his contempt returning full force. "He relies on some trick, some hidden artifact. He is no true alchemist."
"Precisely!" Chen exclaimed, as if Finne had just had a brilliant epiphany. "But how to prove it? The Disciplinary Hall is toothless. If only there were a way to test his so-called skills under official scrutiny... to force him to replicate his 'miracle' where everyone can see."
Finne froze. A slow, predatory gleam entered his eyes as Chen's carefully planted seed took root. He looked from Chen to the cauldron, his mind racing. He was a respected member of the Alchemist Guild within the sect. He had power here.
"You're right," Finne said, a cruel smile forming on his lips. He was no longer the victim; he was the judge. "The Disciplinary Hall may be blind, but the Alchemist Guild has standards. We have protocols for verifying the proficiency of any disciple who wishes to sell their concoctions."
"A public proficiency test?" Chen asked, his eyes wide with feigned admiration. "Senior Brother, that's a genius solution! Under the watchful eyes of Guild elders, his tricks would be useless! He would be exposed as a fraud in front of the entire sect!"
"Exactly," Finne said, now fully convinced the idea was his own. He began to pace, his mind alight with the possibilities for revenge. "We will give him a standard recipe, standard ingredients. When he fails, and he will fail, his reputation will be in tatters. No one will ever buy from him again."
Chen gave another deep bow, his smile hidden. "A brilliant plan, Senior Brother. I am merely an outer disciple, but my family has... connections with some of the sect's material suppliers. If there is anything you need to ensure the... integrity of the test, you have only to ask."
Finne gave Chen a new, appraising look. "Chen, was it? I will keep that in mind."
"Thank you, Senior Brother."
Chen offered one final, respectful nod and backed out of the workshop. The moment the door slid shut behind him, the deferential mask vanished, replaced by a cold, triumphant smirk. Finne, the proud alchemist, would be his perfect, unwitting hammer to finally put that pesky nail in its place.
Finne sent Chen off with a few pills he brewed, a token of their newfound "friendship." Alone once more, he immediately began to draft a formal letter to Elder Ming. He detailed his encounter with the outer disciple, carefully framing the issue not as a personal slight, but as a grave matter of guild integrity. He described the "impossible" quality of the pills, his strong suspicion of theft, and formally requested that an immediate proficiency exam be held, as was dictated by the guild's own sacred rules.
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The only sounds on the secluded training platform were the ragged, gasping breaths of four disciples. They were sprawled out on the cool stone in various states of exhaustion, limbs feeling like lead, robes soaked with sweat. The last few days of relentless training had culminated in their first four-person free-for-all spar, and the result had left three of them in a state of shock.
Alex was the first to push himself into a sitting position, wiping a grime-streaked arm across his forehead. "Wow," he panted, a weary grin on his face. "That was tough. I think I almost died at one point there."
Lily, who was lying flat on her back staring at the sky, propped herself up on one elbow and fixed him with a look of utter disbelief. "Are you joking right now?" she demanded, her voice a mix of exasperation and awe. "You just held your own against three of us. Three Foundation Establishment realm cultivators. You just broke through, Alex. You shouldn't have been able to keep up, let alone force Jay onto the defensive."
Jay, leaning against a stone pillar and trying to catch his breath, nodded in agreement. "Yeah, man... that was a little scary." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "It wasn't just that you were fast. It was... predictive. I swear, for a moment there, it felt like you could see into the future. Like you knew where my sabre was going to be before I even swung it."
Elara sat up, her heart still beating a rapid rhythm from the spar. Looking at Alex was like looking at a paradox. He had the cultivation base of a fresh spring rain, yet he fought with the terrifying precision of a winter storm. "Jay's right. That wasn't normal. That was instinct on a completely different level." She paused, her voice soft with wonder. "Alex... are you sure there were no cultivators back in your world?"
Alex looked at his friends, at their exhausted, awe-struck faces. He thought about the Art of the Headless Body and the silent, golden text in his mind. He couldn't tell them the truth, not yet. So he just gave a small, tired shrug.
"Guess I'm just a fast learner."