I took a long breath, my chest rising and falling as I held back the lingering tremors from the recent battle. My sword was still dripping faint traces of light from the Demonic Qi that had yet to settle. In front of me, the creature—the Night Forest King—was reduced to only its head still alive. Its eyes blinked slowly, as if considering my form as a final sight worth witnessing.
"Looks like you've been waiting for someone to come for a very long time, huh," I said while trying to steady my breathing. Cold sweat trickled down, but I kept a casual smile on my face.
"Hehehe…"
Its head chuckled softly, a hoarse sound like old branches snapping. "Naturally. I don't even know how much time has passed since I and my cursed pack were trapped here. The only thing we could feel was waiting for someone to come and… kill us."
It blinked again, slower this time. "You, outsider who challenges the tower… let me warn you. The next floor will be far more difficult. Until the tower makes you despair."
"Me?" I raised an eyebrow. "Trust me, despair has already been a regular menu throughout my life."
I swung my sword slowly, almost lazily. "So don't worry about that."
Without waiting for a reply, I slashed. One clean motion. The head rolled gently to the ground, its expression frozen between laughter and relief—an odd mix I didn't want to think too deeply about.
A few seconds later, a blue system flash appeared in my vision.
[Congratulations! You have defeated the Night Forest King.]
[King Labo grants you great honor. Your Rank progression has been shortened.]
[Elite → Master]
I blinked. Master?
Not bad. In fact, very not bad.
'Now that I'm at Rank Master… what exactly can I get from this?'
The Tower Shop menu opened quickly like an online marketplace that suddenly got a huge discount. Rows of new items appeared, weapons with effects that were starting to look absurd, and—most eye-catching of all—a new feature: Alchemist.
I narrowed my eyes. "Alchemist, huh?"
If that feature worked like the theory I'd read before, then I might be able to create strength-enhancing pills. That was definitely tempting. Especially because…
"I really feel stuck with my Demonic Qi lately," I muttered while rolling my shoulders. The flow of energy in my body felt like it stopped growing, stagnating at a level that was starting to get frustrating.
...
When I returned to the hut, I suddenly felt something strange. More precisely… different.
I looked to the side. On the table, a lump of transparent blue slime was bouncing lightly like an anxious pudding.
"…Hasn't this slime been growing along with me?"
I approached, tapping the table. "Hey. You grew, huh?"
The slime didn't answer, of course, but its body trembled slightly—some kind of nod, maybe. What mattered was that its aura had changed. Denser. More… alive. As if the Qi I had been feeding it was truly absorbed and refined into new power.
Well, I had no choice but to admit: I often used it as a medium to shape sword Qi. And throughout my journey inside the Tower, it was one of the reasons I was still alive. This little slime had been a battle partner quietly working harder than me.
"Anyway, my luck just never stops," I muttered while opening the system panel.
After conquering many floors, the system had given me plenty of gacha tickets. And from that pile of random rewards, one item appeared with a light far too bright for normal gacha.
[Recipe: Ascendant Meridian Pill - Rank S]
I almost glared at the screen. Finally what I needed to break through was here. The ingredients were available and crafting it only required the system alchemist feature.
The result… three small softly glowing pills now lay on the table, giving off a sharp herbal scent and pure Qi swirling gently.
Three pills that would be the key to ascending the next cultivation realm.
The system had already explained that the true cultivation path was divided into five stages:
Foundation Vein – building the body and Qi foundation.
Meridian Tempering – strengthening the meridians to withstand greater Qi flow.
Core Blooming – the point where the energy core begins to form.
Soul Ascension – strengthening the soul and opening new dimensions of power.
Celestial Harmony – the early pinnacle, harmonizing body, Qi, and spirit.
Different from the Tower Rank, which evaluated based on experience, achievements, and recognition from the beings within it… cultivation was the opposite. Rank only told how strongly the outside world judged you, while cultivation measured how deep your actual roots of power were.
If I relied only on Rank, I would look strong—maybe even respected. But that was just the outer shell. Without strengthening the cultivation path, I wouldn't have the foundation needed for the day I encountered beings who lived purely from Qi. It would be like throwing a sharp sword at an iron wall—appearing strong, but brittle inside.
And I didn't want to be a human who was only strong "statistically."
Besides… I was only at the Meridian Tempering stage. Thinking about it, with all the techniques I used—Heavenly Demon Sword Arts, a body tempered by demonic Qi, and murim-style combat—this was all just the peak of the second stage. That was enough to give me a simple conclusion:
The path of cultivation and the martial path of Murim are both harsh… but harsh in different ways.
One demanded depth and the other demanded the flexibility of life-and-death.
And I was walking between both, somehow.
I looked at my small hut. Its walls cracked. Roof crooked. Wood brittle. And one thought immediately came to mind:
"If I break through here, this hut will probably explode into charcoal…"
Not because I cared about the hut… but if it blew up, I'd be sleeping under the night wind for a week.
I stepped outside, walking along a path covered in dry leaves. About fifteen minutes from the hut, there was a place that always felt right: a large maple tree with roots bulging from the ground, as if offering a natural seat. The night wind brushed its leaves, spreading a gentle woody scent.
I sat cross-legged beneath it, taking off my top so my body could receive the Qi flow without obstruction. The cold air touched my skin, making my body sharper, more aware.
I held one of the glowing pills and raised it to my lips.
"Alright," I told myself, "if I explode, at least the scenery's pretty."
I swallowed it.
It tasted bitter, hot, then suddenly turned into something like pure electricity—surging from my chest, entering the dantian, and bouncing into all my meridians.
Qi exploded like a storm released from a cage.
My body tensed.
I immediately closed my eyes and directed my awareness into the dantian.
Meditate.
Resonate.
The pill widened the meridian pathways instead of shattering them.
Qi surged wildly, pounding the walls of my meridians like waves crashing against stone cliffs.
Hot, cold, then hot again.
As if my body was tempered in fire and dunked in ice at the same time.
The sensation was so brutal that I had to clamp my teeth tight, locking my jaw so I wouldn't scream. Every pulse of Qi from the pill felt like a giant hammer smashing into the meridians—opening, tearing them slightly, then closing them back stronger than before.
Then, whether it was after minutes or hours, I felt… lifted from the ground.
Not flying, but as if my consciousness was slowly drifting away from my body.
Not good.
"Don't go anywhere…" I muttered in my heart. "Focus. Pull everything back. Resonate."
Meditation at this stage wasn't about calmness.
It was about surviving while keeping yourself intact.
I locked my focus back on the dantian, holding the wild surge of Qi, controlling it, forcing that chaotic flow to follow the path I wanted.
And once I managed to gain a drop of control, the Qi seemed to obey.
Spinning.
Flowing.
Locking.
Forming a faint resonance that bounced through my entire body.
After that, time began to blur… until finally the world became solid again.
...
When I opened my eyes, the world felt like it had just been scrambled.
I was lying on the ground—in the same pose I'd been meditating in.
I forced my body to rise, feeling my muscles still throbbing from the remnants of Qi resonance. Once I stood, my gaze immediately caught the surrounding condition—and honestly, this wasn't just messy. It looked like someone had detonated a spiritual bomb right where I'd been sitting.
The ground was split, as if a giant dragon had wriggled beneath it and left its trail. Tree roots were torn out, curling in the air like dead tentacles. Thick dust clung to the air. And the large maple tree that had shaded me… now only half remained, and even that half was charred.
I wiped my face. Dust, sweat, and the bitter metallic taste of the pill still lingered on my tongue.
'If I'd done this in the hut… I'd probably be reassembling roof tiles right now while pretending nothing happened.'
And that thought made me take a long breath. Because no matter how I looked at it, destruction like this would—very naturally—draw attention. Especially in a forest area under the surveillance of two major clans.
The Gremory Clan.
The Sitri Clan.
'But why hasn't anyone come?'
"…System," I called, already suspicious.
[While you were meditating, I applied detection prevention, blocking all possible attention from outside parties.]
[Additionally, Rias Gremory is training in a villa in preparation for the Rating Game.]
I closed my eyes briefly.
'Ah. Rating Game. Right.'
The Rating Game—noble-class devil matches.
Not just gladiatorial games, but arenas that put family names, pride, and social standing at stake. The system mirrored a chess match.
I leaned my exhausted body against the remains of the maple trunk. The gust of wind carried the scent of burnt wood mixed with the damp earth aroma stirred by the explosion of Qi earlier. My body still felt hot, but the flow of Qi inside my dantian was now stable, far stronger than before—like a river that had finally stopped flooding and began flowing properly.
"Well…" I exhaled, staring at the ruins I created myself. "…it seems peaceful days aren't possible for me anymore."
And ironically, I didn't feel regret.
Instead… a slight sense of anticipation spread through my chest.
//--//
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