Xuan Li didn’t give Ethan a chance to breathe. He moved with a heavy, crushing speed, his halberd carving a crescent of crimson light through the air. Ethan raised his daggers to parry, but the impact was like being hit by a falling mountain.

CRACK.

The sound of shattering bone echoed across the plains. Ethan was sent hurtling backward, his body skip-loading across the earth like a stone on water for hundreds of meters. When he finally came to a halt, a massive trench had been carved into the dirt.

Ethan struggled to stand, his breath coming in ragged, bloody gasps. His left arm hung at a grotesque, sickening angle, the white of the bone peeking through the skin at the elbow. Blood poured from his mouth like a river, staining his chest.

"Is that all?" Xuan Li asked, his voice calm as he began to walk toward the crater, each step cracking the ground. "Your Void power is a formidable shield, but it cannot compensate for the gap between a mortal and a Peak Spiritual Core."

Ethan didn’t answer. He gripped his mangled arm with his right hand and, with a guttural scream, slammed it back into place. The sound of grinding bone was nauseating, but as the last of the energy from the devoured disciples was digested, the Void began its work. Amethyst threads of light stitched his muscles back together, the skin knitting over the wound in seconds.

He felt the difference in power. It was like a wall he couldn’t climb. If he stayed and fought the Captain head-on, he would be dead within five moves.

But Ethan wasn’t just a warrior; he was a survivor.

He looked past Xuan Li at the hundred soldiers closing in. Under the immense pressure of the World Matrix, their movements were sluggish, their spiritual cores struggling to function in the suppressed atmosphere. But Ethan was the chosen of the Void; the Matrix didn’t recognize his power as an intrusion. He was faster.

"I’m not fighting you yet, Captain," Ethan spat, his eyes glowing with a manic intensity.

Before Xuan Li could strike again, Ethan vanished. He didn’t teleport away; he used the Void to bend the gravity around his feet, launching himself toward the flank of the Crimson army like a jagged bolt of lightning.

"Stop him!" Xuan Li roared, realizing the intent.

It was too late. Ethan crashed into the ranks of the suppressed soldiers. He didn’t use finesse. He was a reaper. His daggers flashed, decapitating two men in a single spin. As their bodies fell, the mini-black hole at his back flared, devouring their essences instantly.

Every soul he consumed added a spark to his reservoir. Every drop of blood he spilled fueled his regeneration.

"You cowards are just fuel!" Ethan laughed, a jagged, terrifying sound as he ducked under a spear and gutted the wielder.

He was hunting. He turned the battlefield into a macabre game of cat and mouse, using the rank-and-file soldiers as human shields to keep Xuan Li from landing a clear blow. He was growing stronger with every kill, a parasite feeding on the very army sent to exterminate him.

Xuan Li pursued him with a roar of fury, his halberd shattering the earth wherever Ethan had stood a millisecond before. "Stand and fight, you vermin!"

"Catch me if you can, ’Captain’!" Ethan shouted back, his amethyst eyes locking onto his next victim.

He was hollowing out the Crimson Sect from the inside out, waiting for the moment his Void was full enough to turn the hunter into the prey. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Deep within his dantian, the amorphous violet mist started to swirl with violent velocity, pulling inward toward a central point.

An embryonic core was forming.

[Hold it!] Crul’s voice thundered in his mind. [Don’t let it spark yet! Without the world’s natural spiritual energy to support the breakthrough, you are running on empty fumes. You need more! Devour them until you can no longer suppress the tide!]

Ethan obeyed with a feral intensity. He was a vortex. The surviving disciples, realizing they were being used as living batteries, began to scatter, breaking their formation to deny him the kill.

Ethan saw the gap and feigned a desperate escape, lunging toward the treeline. The soldiers, spurred by the hope of a finishing blow, surged forward to cut him off. It was the bait they couldn’t resist. Ethan pivoted on a dime, his silhouette blurring as he lunged back into the center of the group, his daggers singing as they claimed another three heads. The Void at his back drank deep, and the pressure inside his chest became an agonizing, white-hot heat.

"Enough!" Xuan Li’s voice shook the very foundation of the earth.

The Captain unleashed his full cultivation, his aura flared so bright it rivaled the lightning in the sky. He didn’t care about the World Matrix anymore. He drew upon his peak-level reserves, dodging a massive violet bolt from the heavens with a desperate twist, and launched himself at Ethan.

Ethan was in the middle of devouring his latest kill when the halberd struck.

BOOM.

The impact was cataclysmic. Ethan was launched like a cannonball, his body a chaotic mess of snapping bone and ruptured organs. He hit the ground and skidded hundreds of meters, his limbs twisted at impossible angles.

Xuan Li landed near the crater, breathing heavily, his eyes fixed on the broken form of the assassin. "Finally... it is over."

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

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 / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??