Kaelan stands in the air above the shattered mountain, his gaze fixed on the Cube.
It floats before him, immense and heavy with meaning, its surface no longer perfectly rigid. Every particle within it trembles faintly, responding to his will. Kaelan releases his holy spirit completely, no longer holding it apart from himself.
The holy spirit begins to merge.
Not all at once.
One particle at a time.
Each fragment of the Cube accepts a thread of his holy spirit, integrating it seamlessly. As this happens, continuous ripples spread outward, passing through the rule network of the world like slow, deliberate pulses. These ripples are not violent, but they are unmistakable, big changes are being written into the foundation of reality.
Far away, Nyxarin frowns.
He is in the midst of refining a spiritual item, a Second Stage Transcendence–level treasure meant to replace Elder Zhao's brain. The sudden disturbance disrupts his focus. His attention slips, the refinement falters for a breath, and irritation flashes across his face.
"What is that bastard doing?" he growls.
Nyxarin halts his refinement entirely and turns his perception outward. He watches Kaelan's actions carefully, but the process unfolding before him lies outside his understanding.
The same is true for the other three gods.
They sense the ripples. They observe the phenomenon. Yet none of them can decipher what Kaelan is actually doing. The method is foreign, the logic unfamiliar, the path unrecorded.
Only one being understands.
Veena freezes in place inside the Immortal Volcano.
Her refinement halts mid-process as she feels the disturbance. From this distance, she cannot see the source, but she does not need to.
"Again," she murmurs. "Ripples in the rule network."
Her eyes narrow.
"From the direction of the Tang Dynasty again."
Realisation dawns instantly.
"It must be Kaelan."
Her breath catches, and then the truth settles heavily in her chest.
Kaelan is breaking through to the Third Stage now.
Two years have passed since she left the Tang Kingdom. In that time, Kaelan has completed every criterion, elementisation, materialisation, refinement of a true spiritual treasure. She had been ahead of him once.
Now she is behind.
"I need to know how he refined his spiritual treasure so quickly," Veena mutters.
She moves without hesitation.
Her mask and materials vanish into her spirit space. Her body dissolves into a grey-black cloud, death energy compressing until it erupts forward. The sound barrier shatters as she accelerates, sonic booms echoing across the land.
Under the night sky, she streaks like a falling meteor, leaving long trails of death mist behind her. People below lift their heads at the sound, unease stirring in their hearts.
Before dawn, she arrives.
From afar, she sees it, the massive Cube, its structure shifting, rearranging, adjusting. Kaelan floats beneath it, unmoving, gazing upward as if witnessing his own rebirth.
The energy fluctuations intensify.
They swell like a volcano on the brink of eruption, so powerful that even ordinary wizards feel them. Alarm spreads quickly. Wizards begin to move toward the source, only to receive Veena's spiritual message before they draw too close.
Stop.
Do not approach.
They obey.
Demons in the surrounding regions arrive next. Among them is Soraya. Veena glances at her briefly, a flicker of curiosity passing through her mind.
Why hasn't she returned to her clan?
There is no time to dwell on it.
From the direction of the battlefield, more figures appear, Divine Mind cultivators from the human race, demons, and even members of the Twilight Race. Veena intercepts them all, her presence alone enough to force them to halt.
They sense it as well.
The fluctuation is Kaelan's.
No one dares to interfere.
Soon after, Heavenly Officials and Divine Mind demon beasts of the Night Dynasty arrive. They, too, stop at a distance, wary, silent.
Then the final group arrives.
The nine leaders of the Gang Qi martial art sects.
Veena's gaze lingers on one figure in particular.
Ge Qiu.
His cultivation has reached the peak of the Second Stage.
More than that, Veena feels a threat from him.
A real one.
Stronger than what she senses from any other Divine Mind cultivator present.
She gives the group a long, measured look, committing their presence to memory, then turns her attention fully back to Kaelan. Her spiritual sense spreads outward like a blanket, covering the entire area.
She is ready.
Anyone who interferes will die.
Time passes.
The fluctuations rise steadily.
Then the Cube begins to change.
A pair of wings forms first, vast, black, layered with crow feathers. Next, muscular crow legs emerge, covered in dense plumage, ending in talons sharp enough to tear through law itself.
A clawed hand forms.
Then a chest, broad and powerful, with armour-like feathers layering over it. The back completes, followed by shoulders, arms, and finally,
A face.
Kaelan's face.
At that moment, the real Kaelan dissolves into elemental mist. His body disperses completely, then flows upward, merging into the forming figure. Particle by particle, his physical existence integrates with the already-fused Cube and the holy spirit.
He becomes whole.
Kaelan feels his power surge outward, travelling along the golden chains embedded in his existence, extending toward the World Will itself.
High above, dark tribulation clouds gather.
They are laced with the Law of Death.
As Kaelan grips one of the chains and pulls,
The sky rumbles.
Death thunder growls in warning, pressure crashing down upon him like a mountain. Kaelan pauses only long enough to observe.
His physique is not erased.
Understanding flashes through his mind.
"So the chains must be pulled out," he murmurs, "not cut."
He continues.
One chain after another.
Each one pulled free sends louder thunder, heavier pressure, deeper warning. The tribulation clouds expand rapidly, swallowing the sky.
Everyone beneath them retreats.
No one remains within the area of effect.
When Kaelan pulls the final chain free,
The sky splits open.
Death thunder descends.
It slashes down upon Kaelan's body, carrying the pure authority of extinction. The attack targets vitality itself, seeking to erase existence at its root. Kaelan does not retreat. His physique endures the impact head-on, while a layer of defensive light blooms outward from the Cube, intercepting the brunt of the force.
Though the Cube has merged with his body, its power has not diminished.
It activates.
Analysis begins instantly.
Death thunder is an extreme manifestation of the Thunder Element, twisted by the Law of Death. But at its core, it still belongs to the framework of the seven elements. That makes it comprehensible. That makes it solvable.
Within Kaelan, the Cube dissects the thunder's structure, energy composition, law alignment, and destructive logic, and feeds the results back into his existence.
At the centre of Kaelan's cultivation lies a single concept.
Storm.
Not dominance.
Not suppression.
But balance.
After comprehending the Dark Path, Fire Path, Wind Path, Earth Path, Water Path, Thunder Path, and Light Path, Kaelan did not attempt to merge them fully. Instead, he combined only seven per cent of each, binding them together through the concept of storm as an equilibrium.
The result was a minor path.
One stable enough to exist.
One small enough to fit within the limits of a Divine Mind Realm spirit space.
He shaped his holy spirit around this partial fusion, anchoring it carefully. To push further before now would have shattered him.
The second death thunder falls.
Twice as powerful.
The sky roars as it strikes, annihilating what remains of the mountain below. Yet Kaelan remains unmoved. The Cube has already adapted from the first strike, reinforcing his structure and recalibrating his elemental circulation.
The thunder crashes into him, and disperses.
No damage.
The Cube analyses again.
Kaelan responds.
He deepens the fusion.
Seven per cent becomes more.
Each increment strengthens his holy spirit. Each reinforcement feeds back into his body, making it denser, more real, more capable of bearing law. At the same time, the Cube's analytical capacity grows sharper, faster, and more complete.
Death thunder continues to fall.
Again.
And again.
Each strike is stronger than the last. Each carries deeper authority, harsher judgment. Kaelan endures them all, not by resisting, but by understanding and integrating.
By the time the final twenty-seven thunders descend, the fusion reaches 84.7 per cent.
The storm within him stabilises.
Then,
The tribulation clouds dissolve.
Silence follows.
Golden heaven-and-earth origin energy pours down.
It bathes Kaelan completely.
Seven-colored light erupts from his body, cycling endlessly as the origin energy accelerates the final merging of the seven paths. In the ruined forest below, where nothing lives except broken trees, the environment begins to change.
The seven paths spread outward.
The land responds.
Magic energy nodes shift and evolve. The air grows dense with elemental vitality. The world itself adjusts to his presence.
Under the golden radiance, the fusion completes.
100 per cent.
Moments later, the beam of heaven-and-earth energy fades.
Cautiously, observers return.
What they see leaves them silent.
The forest is transformed.
Trees with fire-shaped leaves flicker with heat. Water mist coils around trunks carved with natural runes. Metal trees gleam like forged weapons. Stone trees stand immovable and ancient. Lightning dances across branches. Wind flows endlessly around others. Dark and light trees rise in quiet opposition. Some bear multiple elements intertwined in harmonious patterns.
At the centre floats Kaelan.
He remains in his holy spirit form, radiating the unmistakable aura of the Third Stage of Transcendence. Beneath him lies a lake of liquid seven-element energy, vast and luminous.
His breakthrough has created a unique landscape, a treasure land beyond value.
Yet no one dares touch anything.
All eyes are fixed on him.
The first mortal race cultivator to reach the Third Stage of Transcendence.