Chapter

You have successfully embraced Storm Flight.

You have successfully formed 1 stable Gate platform 100 by 100 yards wide, 5 miles beyond the shores of Yidushi! You have forged 2 additional vertical gates. 15 Qi expended. You are almost positive that any catastrophic explosion won’t necessarily wipe Dragon Academy completely off the map!

Alex spent long minutes crosslegged, just gazing at the fiery heavens as the sun kissed the horizon, smiling with bittersweet nostalgia at the distant outline of the school he had savored several halcyon months as a humble student before the tides of conflict had forced him to blossom in ways both deadly and profound.

A school he never thought to see again. Yet here he was, gazing upon the school proper once more, from the vantage point of a closed portal gate serving as a massive invisible platform, along with two equally massive invisible walls serving as windbreaks, as well as a means of deflecting any potentially catastrophic calamity that might occur as Alex readied himself to embrace madness.

If worst came to worst, Yidushi and Dragon Academy would both be spared.

Or so he hoped, having taken shelter at the remotest location he had ever caught a glimpse of, if anything surprised he had only glimpsed five miles beyond the shore. Had Terran physics fully been in play… he shook his head about matters that mattered not all, concerning himself solely with what did.

Seeing if he could actually make the madness of his dreams a reality, more than willing to devour the soul stones of multiple Gold tier enemies, just to put extra salt in the wounds of he whom he hated above all others.

And if he could actually get his massive Silver cable to start spinning around his core?

All the better.

Alex spent long moments contemplating the massive globe-spanning supercable of degenerate matter in his mind’s eye.

To even think of getting the inconceivably massive structure moving was a laughable concept. It would take superhuman effort.

It would take a million men spending a lifetime forcing an infinitely large lever to move an infinitesimal degree.

Or a single man an eternity of lifetimes battling against inconceivable inertias sufficient to get it moving at a turtle’s pace.

Or a single tier 2 Silver Soul stone, torn free of a victim who would never savor the sweet joys of cultivation, no matter how many lives he lived.

A soul stone glittering like a star in Alex’s mind’s eye as infinities canceled, and the impossible structure in his mind’s eye began to spin.

Slowly at first.

So slowly that Alex was able to contain the sudden surge of power threatening to tear through his soul, his flesh, and an entire realm, unleashing an awful howl that had all the seers of Dragon Academy waking up cold sweats, racing to inform their headmaster as Alex hung on by the skin of his teeth.

Howling with agony equal to his glee, fingers clawing at the indestructible portal serving as his elevated platform resting on air, the seas crashing just a hundred yards below, the crashing waves matching the furious storm of his heart, daring the impossible. Generating the spiritual equivalent of an electromagnetic field so intense that countless wards and alarms throughout Yidushi, the administerial palace, and the academy erupted through the night, Alex’s howl of agony turning to one of sharpest glee.

For the pain he felt enduring agony that felt like a vice squeezing his soul was nothing compared to the surprised shrieks of the bloated bastard who had orchestrated so many bitter ends to Alex’s endless lives that Alex was more than happy to return the favor a dozen times over, if he could.

No matter how Alex felt like he was drowning in the flood of current crackling through his soul, it was bliss with the sounds of Shalu’s terrified shrieks.

Alex spat out blood as he cracked a wheezing smile as the eternal soul stone of Tier 2 Silver was used up in its entirity, and the wild currents now crackling through his soul sought equilibrium with the field finally stabilizing and a relief to endless agony was at last in sight.

A desperate part of him wanted nothing more to collapse with exhaustion, as if he had run a half marathon with one final awful quarter mile slop ahead, the finish line finally in sight.

And were it not for the exhausted whimpering sobs of a divine general who sensed succor just seconds away, Alex would have done just that.

Instead he howled with darkest mirth as he squeezed tight a second Silver Soul stone three times as big as the first, and took the hill before him at a sprint.

Glorying in the fiery burn of quadriceps pushed to the limit, his heart pounding in his chest, lungs gasping air like bellows.

Yet still finding the strength to wheeze with laughter at the unholy shrieks echoing through the heavens above as the skies darkened with a monstrous typhoon that seemed fit to wipe all of Yidushi off the map.

“You think that will stop me, motherfuckers? I’ve just gotten started!” Alex wheezed. Though not saying another word as two Silver soul stones became three, and Silver was replaced by Gold, as Alex forged himself in fire unlike any other, enduring agony without end and fierce joy without limit, as the massive supercable of degenerate matter spinning about his soul began to pick up speed, generating a crackling field of spiritual energy far stronger than any mortal cultivator could hope to forge.

Alex collapsed to his knees, vomiting blood and bile and countless impurities pushed free of his body by the spiritual currents roaring through his blood as he trembled with an odd mixture of strength and exhaustion, having successfully broken through to Silver Rank 2 at a massive cost that defied comprehension.

Especially since a shrieking, shriveling Shalu smoking like sizzling bacon before his panicked kin and a smiling WiFu in a gaming hall Alex could see so clearly in his mind’s eye, was footing 6/7ths of the bill. Alex couldn’t help grinning when a certain beaming inspector tipped his tricorn hat and merrily toasted to his relative’s good health, earning outraged howls from the other players and a wheezing chuckle from Alex before he slumped over in exhausted slumber, closer to death than he cared to admit, and utterly at the mercy of the hawk-eyed elder who had landed on Alex’s platform just as he collapsed.

Elder Panheu tutted softly with a bemused smile upon his features as he gazed down at his comatose former disciple. A cultivating Ruidian certain shadowy agents had made clear would be worth an inconceivable fortune if successfully captured, and bought before the crimson tyrant who actually thought he could get away with invading Panheu’s home.

Forever a practical man, Panheu already knew what his next move had to be, regardless of his personal feelings.

Not hesitating to gather Alex up and race through the air for the compound he had shared with his disciple less than a year ago. A boy who had come before him as a basic cultivator. Now radiating a Silver potency so profound it exceeded even Zhao Doushi, his son

“Forging yourself in fire, and growing in ways miraculous and profound, aren’t we dear Alex? You might be worth more dead than alive, but I learned long ago the cost of crossing karma. As did our mutual friend Lai Leng, an alchemist who will know nothing but bitter fruits for a thousand lifetimes to come.” He chuckled softly before the comatose youth he was certain couldn’t hear a thing. “The fulcrum of so many plans, the catalyst of my foe’s destruction, and I’m almost certain, the agent of chaos and change who brought my old nemesis Bingwen crashing down into the depths of folly. For the madman has neither been seen nor heard from since the day my spies reported him setting Erjizhen ablaze while Lord Wan Duan was chasing down a blond-haired Ruidian, and then nothing at all. About either of you. No matter how sweet or dark the boon offered.”

Alex would have shivered with those words had he the strength to do more than breathe in his stupor, his exhaustion so deep he was utterly helpless before the Gold who could so easily kill him in the blink of an eye. Perhaps he was dreaming in truth, and not a word had been said aloud. Or perhaps what he sensed and heard through his stupor was the most profound of all truths, thanks to Spirit Qi and senses transcending his dreams.

Either way, instead of a quick, brutal death, he was carefully placed upon a thin mattress both comforting and oddly familiar, in a too small garden shed before his master seemed to vanish, and before he could say a word, the blackness of exhaustion claimed him once more.