After Mei Hua left, leaving behind a small bottle of cheap healing ointment and a warmth in his chest he hadn't felt in forever, Lin Feng was finally alone. The old, beat-up shack he slept in was a mess, smelling of dirt and rain, but to Raijin's mind, it was perfect. No one would ever come looking for him here.
He sat down on the dirt floor, crossing his legs and focusing inward. He could feel the Cosmic Origin Pearl, this tiny little star of creation, humming in his chest. It was the only reason he was alive, and his ticket back to the top. He had to start now. Like, right now. Every second he was weak, those backstabbers were out there, showing off the power he'd given them.
The spiritual root everyone said was "shattered" was exactly where he expected it. It wasn't shattered at all. It was locked down by a powerful, but totally primitive, curse that was just sucking the life out of him. Any normal cultivator would see it as a death sentence. But for a cosmic god? It was a joke. He could break it in a heartbeat.
But he wouldn't. Not yet.
Instead, he channeled the Cosmic Origin Pearl's energy, not to break the curse, but to use it. He was going to use the Cosmic Dust Refinement Technique, this forbidden art he'd remembered. It used the curse itself—the thing that was supposed to make him weak—as a power source. The more "damaged" his spiritual root was, the faster it would pull in spiritual energy. It was a risky move, but Lin Feng knew this was his best shot. It would make his cultivation speed insane, like a black hole sucking in light.
He closed his eyes and began.
The pain was sharp, a tearing feeling as the curse reacted to the new energy. But it was nothing compared to the betrayal. His body became a vacuum, pulling in the thin, watery spiritual energy of the Azure Cloud Sect from everywhere. It was like a desert trying to drink an ocean through a straw, but it was working. The Cosmic Origin Pearl was a perfect filter, refining all that raw energy into a pure, potent stream before it even touched his meridians.
Minutes turned into hours. The sun came up, shining a pale light through the cracks in the shack's roof. He was soaked in sweat, but this deep, satisfying hum filled his bones. The spiritual energy he'd pulled in in just one night was already more than the original Lin Feng had gathered in his entire life. The weakness was fading, replaced by a subtle, new strength.
He got up, feeling a fresh sense of power. It was almost funny. The cultivation of this whole sect was so weak that he had just done in one night what would take their top genius weeks to do. He was an ascendant. A god, returned.
He looked out from the shack's door toward the main hall, where the arrogant disciples and corrupt elders were still asleep, totally clueless that a god had just begun his silent climb from their own dirt. And beyond that, Mei Hua's small, neat home. A new promise, a silent one, locked into his heart.
He wasn't just getting his old power back. He was becoming stronger, faster, and smarter than ever before. This wasn't just about revenge. It was about building a new future for himself, and for the one person who deserved it.