Ethan descended from the sky, his feet touching the pulverized earth with the lightness of a falling leaf. The terrifying Void Nightmare silhouette had receded, leaving only the man, though his eyes still shimmered with a lingering, abyssal depth. He looked at the two survivors—the paralyzed Su Ni and the trembling red-haired guard—and offered a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

"I believe our previous introductions were cut short," Ethan said, his voice smooth and terrifyingly polite. "I’m formally inviting you to accompany me. There are many things I wish to discuss with you... regarding the heavens."

"No! Stay back!" Su Ni shrieked, scrambling backward like a broken crab. "Don’t touch me! If you lay a finger on me, my father... my father will—!"

Ethan didn’t let him finish. He moved like a blur of shadow. CRACK. CRACK.

With two precise strikes, Ethan shattered the joints in Su Ni’s shoulders. The young master let out a pathetic wail as his arms went limp, completely immobilized. Ethan’s aura was still surging, his blood boiling with the raw energy he had just devoured. He could feel his foundation trembling, a massive tidal wave of power pushing him toward the threshold of the next realm.

He was on the verge of a breakthrough.

[Master, stop!] Crul’s voice erupted in his mind, sharper and more urgent than ever. [Do not advance! You must suppress your cultivation. Stay at the Half-step Spiritual Core. If you ascend now, it will be a catastrophe for your future.]

"What are you talking about?" Ethan groaned, his teeth gritted as he tried to contain the explosive pressure within his chest. "I can feel the gate opening... I can reach the next level right now!"

[The energy in this world is too thin, Ethan!] Crul countered. [If you break through here, your Core will be formed from ’garbage’ spiritual air. It will be brittle and shallow. You need the high-density energy of the outer realms to forge a perfect foundation. You must leave this dome before you ascend, or you will forever limit your ceiling.]

Ethan felt a wave of agonizing euphoria, a sensation like being on the precipice of a climax but having to clench his teeth and hold back. Sweat poured down his face as he wrestled with his own power, forcing the surging amethyst-void tide back into his dantian. After several excruciating seconds, the pressure subsided, leaving him panting but stable.

He turned his gaze toward the red-haired guard. She still held her jade sword, her knuckles white, but she didn’t dare lift the blade. The mere pressure of Ethan’s presence acted like a physical weight on her chest, pinning her soul to the spot. Su Ni looked at her with pleading, tear-filled eyes, begging for a rescue that wasn’t coming.

"Let’s go," Ethan said, his voice recovered and cold. "Walk, or I’ll carry you back in pieces."

The redhead didn’t hesitate. She quickly sheathed her sword, scooped up the limp, sobbing Su Ni, and began to run toward the Royal extraction point at top speed, following Ethan’s lead.

The battlefield fell into a stunned, heavy silence. The global crisis that had threatened to extinguish humanity had been dismantled in a matter of minutes.

Far below, the spectators were speechless. Even Matriarch Blackwood stood frozen, her staff trembling in her hand. When she had first met Ethan, she saw talent; as time passed, she saw a rising star. But this? This defied every law of cultivation she knew. He was more dazzling, more terrifyingly powerful than the elite geniuses of her former clan. To see such a monster born in a "backwater" world was not just impossible—it was a miracle.

The three of them arrived at the Royal Headquarters. Ethan offered a thin, sharp smile. "Follow me," he said, gesturing toward a set of massive titanium doors.

They stepped into an elevator that defied all architectural logic. Spanning nearly 500 square meters, the platform was a cavernous hall in its own right. It began its descent, plunging five kilometers into the depths of the earth. When the doors finally hissed open, Su Ni’s breath hitched.

Before them lay a subterranean industrial nightmare. Thousands of Royal soldiers and engineers were swarming over colossal metallic structures. To Su Ni, it looked like a twisted, heretical version of a dimensional portal. It didn’t possess the elegant, flowing geometries of the Crimson Sect’s arrays; instead, it was a brutalist replica. These "insects" were actually reverse-engineering the technology of the heavens.

Ethan didn’t possess the refined forging techniques of the Great Clans, nor did he understand the delicate art of talisman ink. To bridge this gap, Crul had devised a brute-force method for inscribing the matrix.

Ultra-concentrated industrial lasers, controlled with nanosecond precision by Crul’s processing core, were searing complex runes into slabs of Cold Steel. To empower these crude inscriptions, the engineers were pumping in massive quantities of Sacred Worm Nectar, liquefied spiritual plants, and the fermented blood of mutated spiritual beasts.

It wasn’t elegant—it was an engineering hack. If a masterpiece painting like the Mona Lisa were the standard for a true Sect portal, this was a pixelated, low-resolution copy. From a distance, they served the same purpose, but up close, the jagged edges and "low quality" of the craft were undeniable.

Su Ni stared at the humming machinery, his terror momentarily eclipsed by sheer disbelief. "You... you’re building a bridge? With this garbage? It’ll collapse! You’ll be torn apart by the spatial turbulence!"

Ethan stepped off the elevator, his boots clanging against the metal floor. "Maybe. But I’ve spent my whole life making ’garbage’ work. Besides, I’m not just building a bridge to escape. I’m building a door so I can come and find the rest of you."

He turned to the red-haired guard, whose eyes were darting between the blinking servers and the glowing vats of nectar. "Now, tell me everything about your ’Northern Peaks.’ I want to know exactly what kind of neighborhood I’m moving into."

--------------------

From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / [Locked] / [Locked]