Nine Lotus Academy...

The Lava Pool Meditation Chamber...

By the end of the second day, with his Heaven Devouring Origin Scripture running at full capacity, the fourth chakra completed its compression and the fifth chakra broke open.

Tony reached a new milestone in his martial path.

Grandmaster Warrior... Early stage.

He sat in the pool for a long moment, feeling the difference in density between what he had been and what he was now, the way his spinal tree moved energy with less resistance.

He stood, walked to the door, and knocked.

"There’s still one more day," Lily’s voice came through the door, flat and final. "I paid for three days. You’re staying three days. Stop knocking."

"Lily, I broke through. There’s no point in..."

"One More Day. Stop wasting my money, Tony."

The sound of her settling back against the wall outside carried through the door with perfect clarity. She was sitting guard. Physically sitting outside a lava pool meditation chamber to make sure her husband didn’t leave to cause trouble.

Tony stood at the door for a moment.

Then he turned around and went back to the pool.

He called the system.

[Fated Villain System]

Congratulations Host for reaching Grand Master Warrior rank... Reward: Technique Unlock

Tyrant Dragon Fist: Two New Stages Unlocked]

Condition Met: Grandmaster Warrior [Early Stage]

Tyrant Dragon Fist 4th Form: Mountain Dragon Dash.

-A full-body momentum technique... The entire body becomes the weapon.

Tyrant Dragon Fist 5th Form: Fire Dragon Heart Punch [Killer Move]

-A killing technique. Against equal cultivation— fatal. Against higher cultivation— severe incapacitation.

Tony looked at the two new forms for a long moment.

Then he stepped out of the pool, shook the water from his arms, planted his feet on the chamber floor, and threw the ’Tyrant Dragon Fist- 3rd form: Coiling Dragon Punch’ at the stone wall.

"BANG"

The wall cracked.

Not a surface crack— a deep, radiating fracture that branched outward from the impact point like a spider web. Tony pulled his fist back, examined the result, adjusted his stance, and threw it again.

The second hit went deeper.

He spent an hour on the third form— understanding not just the mechanics but the feeling of it.

Previously, he can only execute 3rd form for once because of his low cultivation. But now, with his cultiavtionlevel, the 3rd form became easy to practice.

After mastering the 3rd form: Coiling Dragon Punch, he moved to the Tyrant Dragon Fist: 4th form- Mountain Dragon Dash.

This one required space, which the chamber barely had— but space was relative when you were using the wall as your opponent.

He moved to one corner of the room, building momentum through the short distance available, the full-body commitment of it shifting something in how the impact registered — not arm force, not fist force, but total body force delivered through a single point.

"Bang"

The first attempt shook dust from the ceiling.

"BANG"

The third attempt left a human-shaped depression in the stone wall that was deep enough to hide.

Tony looked at the human-shaped depression for a moment.

That’s going to be difficult to explain, he thought.

He rested. Absorbed life energy from the pool in long pulls, refilling what the technique practice had burned. Rested again. Then he stood in the center of the wrecked chamber, looked at the most intact section of wall remaining, and prepared the Fire Dragon Heart Punch.

He had read the description three times. He understood it theoretically. The Fire Dragon Heart Punch was not a technique that could be tested at partial effort— it was complete or it was nothing, a killing technique that required the martial intent of someone who had decided.

Tony first took out the sky rank gauntlets gifted by 7th octopus house master and wore them for protection against rebound.

"Okay... Let’s test this weapon..."

Tony breathed out slowly... focused all life energy in one point. Then he decided. And threw his fist.

"BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM"

The sound that followed was not what he expected. It wasn’t a crack or a boom or any of the sounds the previous forms had made.

A shockwave that started at the point of impact and expanded outward through the chamber in a ring, hitting every surface simultaneously.

The formation flags embedded in the chamber walls— the ones that drew life energy from the volcanic vent below were shattered. Every one of them. At the same instant. The tantric threads connecting them went dark and the life energy supply cut off completely.

Tony stood in the sudden silence of a chamber that had just lost its formation entirely and looked at his fist.

The wall where he had hit was not cracked. It was gone— a section of it simply absent, the rubble scattered across the floor in pieces that would have required considerable effort to reassemble into anything resembling their original configuration.

He looked around at the chamber. Stone rubble covered most of the floor. Three walls had structural damage. One wall was partially missing. The ceiling had developed a crack that ran from one end to the other and was letting in thin lines of cold mountain air.

"Hm," Tony said.

The door burst open.

The academy elder stumbled inside and took one look at the interior, and stopped moving entirely. His mouth opened... Nothing came out.

His eyes moved from wall to rubble to ceiling crack to the partially absent wall section and back to Tony, who was standing in the middle of it all with a thoughtful expression and very dusty knuckles. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Lily appeared in the doorway behind the elder, looked over his shoulder, and her composed expression cracked into utter shock and fury.

"What did you DO?!!" she said.

"I was testing the latest pocket bomb from my family storage," Tony said, scratching the back of his head with the specific sheepishness of someone who has rehearsed an excuse but isn’t entirely committed to it. "I didn’t expect it to be this effective. I apologize."

The Academy elder looked at the formation flags— the shattered remains of a array that had been built by an Overlord Rank martial warrior and had stood for forty years without damage. He looked at Tony... He looked at the flags again.

A pocket bomb, said something in the back of his mind, cannot shatter formation flags built by an Overlord Rank master. The resonance pattern of this damage is entirely consistent with...

He looked at Tony’s completely innocent expression.

He looked at the flags one more time.

Pocket bomb, he decided firmly, because the alternative required a complete reassessment of Tony Clark’s actual cultivation level and he did not have the authority for that today.

"Please be more careful with family equipment in future... I will report this Academy Master and will see what he decided." the elder said weakly, and stepped back out of the doorway.

Tony Clark looked at Lily with an innocent face.

Lily held her head.