The sight was almost comical, a stark contrast to the gravity of their recent spar. Alex Steele, the inner sect training grounds' most talked-about individual, strode down the main path with a newfound, urgent purpose. Trailing a few paces behind him, practically skipping to keep up, was Finne, the once-arrogant alchemist now reduced to the role of a loyal, over-eager shadow.
Elara, Jay, and Lily stood watching them go, the dust settling in their wake. A long silence hung between them.
It was Elara who broke it, her voice laced with a familiar, maternal concern. "Is this realy a good idea? Four quests... even if they're E-Rank, he's going completely alone. What if he runs into trouble?"
Lily watched Alex's retreating form until he was just a speck, her arms crossed. "He'll be fine," she said, though her tone wasn't dismissive. It was a statement of fact, sharp and edged with a grudging respect. "He has his own path. He just found a new key to it, and he's not going to wait for us to catch up." She turned her gaze from the path to her friends, her expression unreadable. "He'll keep moving forward, with or without us."
The words were a harsh but undeniable truth.
Jay nodded slowly. He wasn't the stagnant, insecure disciple from a month ago. He was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a protector. But even he felt the vast, widening gap Alex was creating. "Lily's right," he said, his voice a low, steady rumble. "We've been so focused on helping him that we've forgotten our own cultivation. If we want to stand beside him when a real enemy shows up, we need to be able to help, do you two remember how the Marshlurker quest ended? I, for one, dont want to feel that useless ever again."
Elara looked from Jay's resolute face to Lily's fierce expression. A new, determined light replaced the worry in her own eyes. She had felt it too, the sense of being left behind. Her breakthrough at the Spirit Pond had felt monumental, but watching Alex stand up to a Nascent Soul expert had shown her just how vast the heavens truly were. She was done being the concerned guide. It was time to become a true expert herself.
"You're both right," she said, her voice firm. She gave a single, decisive nod. "I'm not waiting." Without another word, she turned on her heel and marched back towards the bustling Quest Hall. She wasn't going to advise Alex on a quest, she was done with that job, she was going to find one for herself. Something manageable, but something that was hers alone.
Jay watched her go, a flicker of pride in his eyes. He then turned his own gaze toward the inner sect peaks. Watching Alex spar had been a revelation for him. He needed to do more than defend, what he needed was a way to stand his ground and attack.
"I need a real fight," he murmured to himself. He clapped Lily on the shoulder, his decision made. "I'm heading to the inner sect training grounds. I need to find someone who won't go easy on me. It's time I learned how to turn my defense into an offense."
He set off in the opposite direction, his gait solid and purposeful. He no longer wanted to be just just a shield, he wanted to be a sword.
Now alone, Lily stood in the quiet plaza. The energy of Alex's departure and her friends' newfound resolve left a strange stillness in its wake. She reached into her robes and pulled out the single, magnificent pill Alex had given her, the Howling Wind Pill. It pulsed with a faint, cool light, the wisps of energy swirling within it like a captured storm.
She clutched it tightly, her knuckles white. It was a gift. A promise. But to her, it was something more, it was an opportunity, a shortcut she would be a fool not to take. But she knew a shortcut was useless without propper preperation. A powerful technique without the Qi to sustain it was an empty gesture.
A look of fierce, unshakeable resolve settled on her face. She carefully put the pill away and turned, her stride sharp and decisive, toward the chaos of the Exchange Hall. She wasn't looking for a quest or a sparring partner.
She was going to find the best wind spirit stones money could buy. She was going to spend every last spirit stone she had to fuel her breakthrough. She wasn't just going to keep up with Alex. She was going to give him a run for his money.
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The door to the private cultivation room slid shut with a heavy, sound-dampening thud, sealing Lily off from the rest of the sect. The room was small, stark, and carved from the mountain's living stone. The only features were the smooth, polished floor and the intricate, swirling green runes etched into the walls, which pulsed with a soft, gentle light. The air itself was different here, it was alive with a density of pure, restless wind Qi that made the hairs on her arms stand up. Renting this specialized chamber for a single day had cost her one hundred spirit stones, a painful price, but a necessary one.
She took a moment, letting the turbulent energy of the room settle within her. This was it. No more distractions, no more second-guessing. Only the goal.
She sat cross-legged in the center of the room and carefully arranged the ten low-grade wind spirit stones that cost her two hundred of her regular low-grade spirit stones, in a circle around her. They shimmered, their internal energy resonating with the formations on the walls, creating a miniature vortex of pure wind essence in the small chamber.
Finally, she took out the star of the show, the catalyst, the core of her entire gambit: the Howling Wind Pill. She held it between her fingers, marveling at the delicate white wisps swirling within its translucent, pale-green shell. It was a masterpiece, a perfect fusion of power and control.
'Alright, weirdo,' she thought, a rare, genuine smile touching her lips. 'Let's see if this thing is as good as you think it is.'
With a final, decisive breath, she placed the pill on her tongue.
The effect was not a gentle flood of energy. It was a detonation. An explosive, howling gale of pure, refined wind Qi erupted from the pill, a concentrated storm that instantly overwhelmed her dantian and surged through her meridians with terrifying force. It was a wild, untamed power, far more potent than she could have imagined. For a terrifying moment, she felt like she was about to be torn apart from the inside out, her own Qi channels too narrow, too weak to contain the torrent.
But Lily was a fighter. She gritted her teeth, her entire being focused on a single, defiant thought: Control.
She drew upon the vortex of energy from the spirit stones around her, not to add to the chaos, but to guide it. She used the external Qi as a riverbank, desperately trying to channel the raging flood from the pill. Her own Qi, once a sharp and controlled lash, became a series of guide-ropes, weaving through the storm, fighting for dominance.
It was a battle of will, a fight waged in the deepest recesses of her own soul. Hours passed. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her body trembled with the strain. One by one, the wind spirit stones around her dimmed, their essence consumed, crumbling into dust.
She felt her own internal limits groan, stretch, and then, with a silent, exhilarating snap, they shattered.
Her spiritual sense exploded outwards. The small room felt vast, and she could now perceive not just the flow of wind, but its very texture. She could feel the sharp, cutting edge of a high-speed current and the soft, caressing touch of a gentle breeze as two separate things. The wind was no longer just an element she commanded; it was a language she could finally understand.
She had broken through.
When the last of the tempestuous energy from the pill had been tamed and settled into a new, vastly expanded reservoir in her dantian, she slowly opened her eyes. A low, confident hum resonated from her very being.
She raised a single hand.
With a thought, a wisp of wind Qi flowed from her fingertips. But it didn't form a whip. It compressed, solidified, and spun, forming a small, almost invisible blade of pure, razor-sharp wind that hovered an inch from her palm, its edge so fine it seemed to slice the very light around it.
It was her own creation, a technique born from the inspiration of Kai Jin, the pressure from Alex, and her own unyielding will. She had a name for it. The Silent Gale Razor.
A slow, dangerous grin spread across her face. It was not a grin of playful teasing, but of pure, unadulterated power. She had done it. She had forged her own path.
'Alright, Alex,' she thought, the spinning blade of wind dissolving into nothing. 'Let's see who's giving whom a run for their money now.'
Lily saw that she still had more time left and decided to use it to her advantage and continued cultivating, and solidifying her newly developed technique.