The morning sun cut through the mist that still clung stubbornly to Miscellaneous Peak. Dew clung to the bamboo stalks, glittering faintly, and spirit birds hopped lazily between branches, pecking at insects as if mocking anyone who was awake this early.
Li An stretched, rolling his shoulders until they cracked, then grabbed the wooden sword leaning against his door. It wasn't fancy—just a training blade he had carved himself when he realized he still didn't own a proper sword. Still, as he weighed it in his hand, his eyes gleamed.
"…Good enough to test on," he muttered.
He walked across the courtyard to a broad tree standing at its edge. The tree was tall, thick, the kind that had probably been here for decades. Li An patted its bark once, almost respectfully, then stepped back.
He exhaled slowly. The atmosphere shifted in an instant. His feet pressed into the earth, his spine straightened, and his lazy grin faded into something focused and sharp. His qi surged.
The wooden sword rose.
With a single motion, he slashed—not at the tree itself, but just in front of it, his blade cutting through empty air.
Nothing happened.
Li An stood frozen in his stance, wooden sword extended, looking for all the world like someone pretending to be impressive. The birds above tilted their heads curiously, unimpressed.
One breath. Two.
Then—
Crack!
The entire tree groaned before collapsing in a single clean slice, the trunk severed so neatly it looked polished. Leaves rustled and rained down like confetti as the massive log toppled onto the ground with a resounding thud.
Li An straightened, brushing stray leaves from his hair, and eyed the fallen tree with satisfaction.
"…Two seconds delay, huh? That's terrifying. I didn't even swing at it, and it still gave up on life."
He tapped the flat of the wooden sword against his shoulder, grinning.
"If this is how scary it is with a stick, I'm almost afraid to find out what happens when I get my hands on a real blade."
After another half hour of practice, the courtyard looked like a battlefield. Tree stumps stood cleanly severed, branches littered the ground, and even the morning mist had been torn apart by the sheer sharpness of his strikes. Li An finally lowered his wooden sword, sweat glistening faintly on his forehead, and let out a long sigh.
"Not bad for a piece of carved firewood," he chuckled, tossing the sword over his shoulder as he strolled back toward his courtyard.
The moment he stepped inside, the familiar translucent panel flashed into view.
[System Activated]
[Host: Li An]
[Age: 23]
[Cultivation: Peak Foundation Establishment Realm]
[Spirit Roots: Upper-Middle Grade Roots ×5]
Options Available:
• Multiply (1 slot available)
• Fuse
[Currently in Multiply: Aurora Technique (Peak Earth Grade) ×1, Space Jumping Slash (Peak Profound Grade) ×1, Spirit Stone (Low-Grade) ×2880, Upper-Middle Grade Roots ×1440]
Li An plopped himself onto the stone steps, crossing his legs casually. His eyes flicked across the panel.
"Hmm… two thousand eight hundred and eighty spirit stones. Just seeing that number makes me feel like a spoiled young master." He grinned, rubbing his chin. "Alright, System. Fuse the spirit stones."
[Affirmative.]
The air immediately distorted.
A torrent of spirit stones burst out of the System Inventory, flooding the courtyard like a tidal wave of glittering gems. The flagstones groaned under their weight, a blinding glow spilling across the walls and roof as if he had suddenly dragged out the entire treasury of the Evergreen Sect.
Li An winced, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Hah?! Warn me next time! I look like I just won the world's flashiest lottery!"
The stones rose into the air at the System's command, swirling in dizzying spirals. Groups of five smashed together, collapsing into pure energy that reformed into larger, denser stones. Again and again, they fused—hundreds into dozens, dozens into a handful—each stage making the courtyard quake as spiritual pressure thickened.
At last, all the brilliance condensed into two solitary gems. They hovered before him, flawless and translucent, glowing with a radiance that seemed to contain a fragment of the heavens themselves. The surrounding qi bent subtly toward them, as though they were miniature suns demanding worship.
[Spirit Stone (Heaven Grade) ×2]
The System's chime was flat, but Li An's jaw had already dropped.
"…Two Heaven grade stones." He whistled low, reaching out carefully. Just brushing his fingertips against one sent a surge of warmth racing up his arm, flooding his meridians in an instant. It was so pure, so potent, that for a heartbeat he felt like his entire body was going to ignite.
Li An snatched his hand back quickly, shaking his fingers with a half-panicked laugh. "Oh-ho! Yeah, that's not something to play with casually. Feed one of these into my dantian and I might just explode into fireworks."
His eyes gleamed as he leaned forward, staring at the stones like a starving wolf. "Still… if I can absorb them properly… Foundation Establishment might not be my ceiling for long."
He sat back, clutching both stones like they were priceless jewels stolen from the heavens, and grinned.
"…Sect elders cry themselves to sleep at night wishing for just one of these. And I have two. Not bad for a guy squatting on Miscellaneous Peak.
Not taking a break, Li An flipped the two glowing Heaven Grade Spirit Stones in his hands like they were nothing more than polished marbles. His grin stretched wide.
"System," he said, voice low with anticipation, "fuse the spirit roots."
[Affirmative.]
In the next instant, the world shifted.
Li An froze, his body locking in place as if invisible chains had wrapped around him. A sudden pull ripped through his meridians—the two Heaven Grade Spirit Stones in his palms blazed with blinding light, their qi instantly devoured as though an endless black hole had opened within his body.
"H–holy—!" Li An gasped, but his voice cut off as his breath hitched.
Qi roared through him, vast and untamed, rushing into every vein, every pore, every inch of his flesh. It wasn't a trickle of energy he had to patiently guide—it was a tidal wave, a flood, a storm that brooked no resistance. His dantian spun furiously, expanding and condensing all at once.
The feeling was intoxicating. No meditation. No bottlenecks. No painstaking circulation. His cultivation climbed as if he were stepping on an invisible staircase carved straight into the heavens.
Peak Foundation Establishment—shattered in seconds.
Core Condensation—formed without effort.
Early stage… mid… late…
Peak Core Condensation Realm.
Li An's teeth clenched, his veins bulging as the torrent threatened to tear him apart. "D-damn…! System, this feels less like cultivation and more like being stuffed inside a furnace!"
Then it began.
Deep within him, his five Upper-Middle Grade Spirit Roots started to tremble. A strange pulling force tugged at them, dragging them toward one another.
First fusion.
Five by five, they slammed together, merging violently. Li An doubled over, a scream ripping from his throat as the searing pain lanced through his core. His back arched as glowing threads of qi danced across his skin like chains of lightning.
The sensation was unlike anything before—like his very soul was being reforged on a smith's anvil.
His vision blurred, but he could feel it: the new roots were no longer merely "upper-middle." They burned hotter, shone brighter, greedily drinking in qi as though the entire world was their rightful feast.
Second fusion.
The roots pulled together again, harder, faster. The sound of cracking echoed in Li An's ears—not from his bones, but from reality itself bending under the strain of what was forming inside him.
His body shook uncontrollably. Blood dripped from the corner of his lips, sizzling as it hit the flagstones. Yet in the chaos, he laughed—wild, strained, exhilarated.
"Heavenly… grade… roots…" he hissed through clenched teeth. "So this is… what monsters are made of!"
Finally, with a resounding boom that seemed to echo both inside and outside his body, the fusions completed.
The maelstrom of qi subsided, the Heaven Grade Spirit Stones in his palms crumbled into fine dust, their energy completely consumed.
Li An collapsed to one knee, gasping for breath, his robes drenched in sweat.
Inside him, his dantian gleamed with new brilliance—two blazing Heavenly Grade Spirit Roots coiled like divine dragons, their mere presence drawing qi toward him from miles around. The air of Miscellaneous Peak thickened instantly, the mist condensing into droplets as if bowing to his newfound presence.
[Spirit Roots fused successfully.]
[Result: Heavenly Grade Spirit Roots ×2]
The System's flat voice echoed, but Li An only threw his head back and barked a ragged laugh.
"Hah—haaaah! So that's what it feels like to cheat the heavens!"
He clenched his fists, feeling his meridians surge with terrifying vitality. Every breath he took pulled in qi as easily as a sponge soaking water. Just sitting here, he could tell—cultivation speed was no longer something to worry about. The heavens themselves would now feed him whether he wanted it or not.
"…If word of this got out," he said between breaths, a manic grin stretching across his face, "the entire sect would probably throw me in a cauldron to dissect what's inside. Good thing I live in a trash peak no one visits, eh?"
Li An wiped the sweat from his brow, then stood, his aura so vast it made the surrounding forest tremble.
For the first time in years, he felt like he was standing exactly where he was meant to be—at the starting line of something terrifying.
The courtyard had only just fallen silent when the heavens stirred.
BOOM!
A thunderclap ripped across the sky, so sudden and violent that the earth itself quaked. The mist above Miscellaneous Peak exploded outward, scattering like frightened spirits. Black clouds swirled out of nothing, rolling over one another in suffocating waves.
Li An froze, his grin stiffening.
"…Oh, shit."
The System's voice chimed, calm and merciless.
[Warning: Fusion of Heavenly Grade Spirit Roots has triggered Heavenly Tribulation.]
Arcs of violet lightning tore through the clouds, jagged and merciless, painting the mountainside in flashing brilliance. The pressure alone bore down like a mountain, crushing every leaf and blade of grass within the courtyard flat against the ground.
Li An's hair whipped wildly around him as he stumbled back, staring at the storm boiling directly above his peak. "This wasn't in the manual!" he shouted, though his voice was nearly drowned by the growing roar of thunder. "System! You could've at least given me a ten-second warning!"
The clouds answered with another deafening BOOM.
The first bolt of heavenly lightning snapped downward—so fast the eye could barely follow it. Li An's instincts screamed. He raised his hand without thinking, Aurora Qi bursting from his palm to weave into a shimmering veil of multicolored light.
CRAAAACK!
The lightning slammed into the Aurora Veil. Sparks exploded in all directions, burning shallow pits into the stone courtyard. The veil flickered violently but held. Barely.
Li An staggered, smoke rising from his arm, his lips splitting into a wild grin despite the ache tearing through his body. "Hah… so this is Heaven's way of saying hello? Damn, you really know how to make an entrance."
Above him, the thunderclouds only swelled darker. More bolts writhed inside, restless, eager to fall.
But far beyond Miscellaneous Peak, others had already noticed.
High above the sect, sword-light streaked across the sky. In another direction, an oppressive pressure surged forth, heavy as a falling mountain. Within the inner sect halls, an old bell tolled faintly as hidden presences stirred.
Figures gathered at distant vantage points—none speaking, none moving to intervene, but their sheer auras distorted the air. Some carried the sharp edge of blades honed over centuries, others the vast, deep calm of rivers that had seen countless storms. Their eyes pierced through the clouds, narrowing at the forgotten peak now wrapped in heavenly thunder.
For years, Miscellaneous Peak had been ignored, dismissed, left to rot.
Now, it had become the eye of a storm that even the heavens acknowledged.
And every gaze, sharp and suffocating, locked onto the lone figure standing defiantly in the center of it all.
Li An.
The second bolt of lightning cracked through the heavens—twice as thick as the first.
The courtyard lit up.