Elara just finished selling the materials from the beast she had hunted while out completing a gathering quest earlier in the morning. She pocketed the spirit stones from the sale of the three Veridian Shade-Apes and Jade Viper materials, a quiet satisfaction settling in her. The hunt had been an easy side task, and her seamless victory a silent affirmation of the new path she was walking. As she turned to leave, she heard a familiar voice cut through the air.
"Took you long enough to pick a few weeds."
Elara smiled, turning to see Lily approaching, a smug, self-satisfied grin plastered on her face. Lily's presence was different now. It was sharper and more confident, like the edge of a newly honed blade.
Elara smiled, unfazed by the jab. "Better to talk to flowers than to pick a fight with a hurricane. I heard you went to the Howling Canyons. A Gale-Swift Panther, right? Was it worth the trouble?"
Lily's grin widened. "Every single cut, and the reward wasn't bad either. Speaking of which, I was just about to head over to that weirdo's cabin. He's probably been back for a day already. I need to thank him for the pill." Her tone was light, but her eyes held a serious, competitive glint.
"Funny," Elara said, falling into step beside her. "I was on my way there for the same reason. I'm not sure if he's back yet, though. He did take on four quests."
"If he's not, I'll just leave him a note," Lily said with a shrug. "I need to talk to him. That pill..." She trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief. "It wasn't just a pill. It was something… more."
"I know exactly what you mean," Elara agreed, her voice soft with gratitude.
They made their way to Barrack thirty-two, their conversation a comfortable blend of shared experiences and lighthearted jabs. They found Alex's cabin quiet, the new stone path immaculate, the garden behind it radiating a quiet vitality.
Elara finally asked the question. "How did you manage?"
"I didn't, not at first," Lily admitted, a rare moment of vulnerability. "It was toying with me. It taught me a lesson, though. A whip is for striking. A gale... a gale can be for blinding. For choking." A dangerous glint entered her eyes. "You don't have to hit a target if you can take away the very air it needs to breathe."
Elara nodded, a profound understanding passing between them. "So did you forge a new technique?"
"Something like that," Lily said, her usual smirk returning. "What about you? Did the Moon-Dew Flowers put up much of a fight?"
"They were very well-behaved," Elara replied with a soft laugh. "But the Veridian Shade-Apes in the trees above them were not. I dealt with three of them and a Jade Viper."
Lily stopped walking and turned to face Elara fully. "Three? By yourself? Can't their claws shred steel?"
"They're fast," Elara agreed, her gaze becoming distant as she recalled the moment. "But they are also loud. All chittering and fury. I realized... a storm at sea is chaotic, but the deep water beneath it is still. It doesn't need to rage back. It just needs to... be."
She raised her hand, and a small, perfect sphere of water materialized in her palm, shimmering in the sunlight. A moment later, a network of crystalline ice spread across its surface, turning it into a solid, beautiful orb.
Lily stared, her jaw slightly agape. "You... you can create ice now? Solid ice?"
"It seems so," Elara said, letting the orb dissolve back into mist. "It appears we both found what we were looking for, and this is also why I need to talk to Alex about that pill."
Lily was silent for a long moment, a new, deep respect in her eyes. The old dynamic, where she was the aggressive vanguard and Elara was the gentle support, was gone. They were both predators now, just of a different kind.
"Yeah," Lily said finally, a genuine, uncomplicated smile spreading across her face. "I guess we did. Now come on. I need to go thank that weirdo for my 'hurricane in a bottle,' and also interrogate him about what he put in that pill."
Lily knocked on the door. Silence.
She knocked again, harder this time. "Hey, weirdo! You in there? Don't tell me you're sleeping the day away after a few E-Rank chores."
Still, no answer. They exchanged a look. "Maybe he's still out," Elara suggested, a hint of her usual worry creeping back in. "We should probably leave a note."
"Relax, he can handle himself," Lily said, though she looked a little disappointed. "Alright, let's go. We'll come back–"
Chirp.
The sound was soft, clear as a tiny bell, and it came from inside the cabin.
Lily and Elara froze, looking at each other. "Did you..." Elara started.
"Yeah," Lily whispered, her playful demeanor vanishing instantly. Her hand drifted to the whip at her hip. "I heard it."
She knocked a third time, in a sharp, demanding manner.
Chirp! This time, louder and more insistent.
They realized now that they weren't just hearing things. Their instincts, still on edge from their recent battles, took over. In their minds, a single, horrifying thought took root: Alex was injured inside, unable to answer, with some strange beast loose in his home.
Without another word, they nodded once. Lily kicked the door open, and they burst into the cabin, weapons at the ready, prepared for a fight.
The room was empty, pristine, and smelled of strange, sweet flowers. But their entrance had startled something. In the fraction of a second it took for their eyes to adjust, they saw it: a blur of absolute black, launching itself from the back of a chair.
It shot between their heads with impossible speed, a streak of midnight with a flickering, rainbow-colored tail. It was out of the open door and into the sky before they could even fully register what it was.
For a heartbeat, they just stood there in the empty cabin, utterly dumbfounded.
"What," Elara breathed, "in the heavens was that?"
"Move!" Lily yelled, already spinning on her heel and breaking into a dead sprint.
They bolted out of the cabin, their eyes scanning the sky. They spotted it immediately, a black speck climbing at an incredible speed, the single, shimmering rainbow feather leaving a faint, magical trail against the bright blue canvas of the sky.
They gave chase, their legs pumping as they raced through the outer sect grounds, drawing a trail of confused stares from other disciples.
"Lily, what was that thing?" Elara called out, her voice breathless as she struggled to keep pace with Lily's explosive speed. "It moved so fast! And that tail..."
"The hell if I know!" Lily shouted back, her eyes never leaving the target. "That guy is a walking vortex of weirdness! For all I know, he's keeping an ancient demon as a house pet now!" She glanced at Elara, her expression a perfect mix of fury and exasperation. "Or maybe he finally figured out how to turn himself into a bird!"
They watched as the creature performed a graceful, impossibly sharp turn high above them, circling back as if waiting for them, its rainbow tail a beacon of beautiful, infuriating mystery.
---------------------------
Gao gestured to the open platform with a tilt of his head. "Show me."
It wasn't a question. It was a challenge, a direct, undisguised test from a Golden Core expert who was unimpressed by second-hand stories.
Alex felt a familiar thrill. He had come here looking for Kai Jin, for a wall to test himself against. This would do nicely.
"I'd be honored, Senior Brother," Alex said, a sharp, confident grin spreading across his face. He stepped onto the platform, rolling his shoulders. 'Perfect,' he thought. 'A warm-up before the main event.'
Without a formal start, Alex moved. He didn't explode with the blind speed of his first spar against Jay; this was different. It was a controlled, predatory glide, closing the distance with an efficiency that made the disciples watching hold their breath.
Gao's calm expression didn't change, but his eyes narrowed. He placed a palm flat on the stone platform.
The ground beneath Alex's feet instantly lost its solidity, shifting and swirling like thick, grasping mud. It was the same technique he had used to trap the lightning cultivator, a simple but devastatingly effective move designed to nullify a rusher's momentum.
But Alex had seen it. With his Immortal Eyes, he had watched Gao do it just minutes before.
He didn't try to power through it. He didn't even slow down. He poured a thread of his own brown-hued Earth Qi into the ground beneath his feet. The swirling mud instantly re-hardened, turning back into solid stone an inch before his boots could sink. He didn't just counter the move; he hijacked it. He used the newly solid ground as a launchpad and darted forward, appearing before a completely caught-off-guard Gao in the blink of an eye.
Gao's eyes widened in genuine shock. He had no time to create a wall. He barely had time to summon his impromptu stone sword, raising it just in time to block Alex's incoming fist.
THOOM!
The impact was heavier than any sound of wood on wood. Gao felt a jarring, concussive force travel up the stone blade and into his arm, a raw, dense power that had no business coming from a Foundation Establishment disciple. His eyes shot open in disbelief.
"Kid," he said, his voice losing its calm detachment for the first time. "You aren't really in the Foundation Establishment realm, are you?"
Alex looked at Gao, a cocky smirk playing on his lips. "I am."
Gao shoved Alex back, creating distance. He let the stone sword dissolve into dust and took a moment to assess the boy before him truly. The rumors weren't just rumors. This wasn't just resilience; it was something else entirely. The lazy curiosity in his posture vanished, replaced by a focused intensity. He refused to believe it. He would need to get serious if he didn't want to be embarrassed by a junior.
The air around Gao shifted, growing heavy and thick with a palpable, earthy pressure. The very stone of the platform seemed to hum in response to his will.
Alex felt the change, his smirk fading. The casual test was over. He exhaled, letting his mind go blank, preparing to fully enter the instinctual state of the Art of the Headless Body.
SKREEEEE!
A loud, piercing screech, sharp and grating to the ear, rang out over the training grounds, cutting through the heavy tension. Before anyone could react, a blur of absolute black shot down from the sky.
And landed perfectly on Alex's shoulder.
"Lu?!" Alex yelped, his combat trance shattering instantly. At Lu's sudden appearance, a switch flipped, changing Alex from a stoic fighter to a flustered pet owner. "What are you doing here? How did you even get out?"
Lumen tilted his head, his intelligent black eyes blinking innocently. He nudged his head against Alex's cheek and let out a soft, playful chirp, as if to say, Found you!
That's when the real chaos arrived.
"ALEX!" Lily's furious voice cut through the bewildered murmurs of the crowd. She and Elara burst through the ring of disciples, chests heaving, their faces a mixture of fury, relief, and utter exasperation.
"What," Lily panted, pointing a trembling finger at the bird on Alex's shoulder, "is that?"
"And what in the seven heavens was that screech?" Elara added, trying to catch her breath.
"This is Lumen," Alex said, trying to sound casual as he gently tried to pry the bird off his shoulder. "He's my contracted beast. Lu, say hi."
Lu puffed out his chest and let out another proud chirp.
The three of them just stared. As they were about to launch into a barrage of a thousand more questions, Gao's patient voice cut in, laced with a clear thread of annoyance.
"Are we going to continue?" he asked, his arms now crossed.
Alex jumped, a fresh wave of embarrassment washing over him. He had completely forgotten he was in the middle of a spar with a Golden Core expert. He looked from Gao's impatient face to his friends' incredulous ones, to the small creature that was now trying to playfully peck at his ear.
He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "My sincerest apologies, Senior Brother." He turned to the girls. "You guys just... wait here for a sec. Lu, go with them."
He carefully placed Lumen on Lily's shoulder. The bird immediately hopped over to the top of her head, settling into her twin buns like a nest. Lily froze, a look of pure, conflicted outrage on her face.
Alex offered one last apologetic smile and turned back to face Gao, his focus slowly returning. The spar was back on.