Then, Heaven Gate Mountain shook as though awakened from a centuries-long slumber. Palace after palace flared to life, each roofline blazing with radiant sigils that turned night into a noonday glare.
Elder Hawksley’s voice echoed through the quaking halls, calm and resonant. “That glow is the power of Heaven Gate’s legacy… It will guide you, helping you comprehend every technique I have entrusted to you. All resources are already in your hands, begin your training at once.”
A torrential force surged inside both Jared and Sylvia, roaring through their meridians like a river set free of ice. Wonder mingled with gratitude until it threatened to burst from their chests.
“Thank you, sir…” Jared said, bowing with reverence.
“Rest assured,” he vowed, his voice rough with promise. “I will slay the Soul Devourer, avenge the fallen disciples, and plant the Heaven Gate banner once more on level nine!”
Elder Hawksley nodded, pride softening the lines in his weather-beaten face. As his body turned translucent, he whispered, “Good child, I believe in you… The future of the sect is yours now…”
The last trace of his form dissolved into the air, yet his words lingered in the trembling void, grim and sharp as a blade: “Remember… In this world of predator and prey, kindness is a shackle, morality a chain. Cast them off… Become a being without mercy or conscience, and no power will bind you…”
Jared and Sylvia remained motionless, awash in conflicting tides of sorrow, awe, and a purpose too large to name. They had never guessed that Heaven Gate’s disappearance hid a tragedy so bleak, or that the sect’s final breath would choose them as heirs.
“Let’s get inside and begin,” Jared said at last.
Together they strode toward the mountain’s heart, footsteps steady, resolve crystallizing with every echo.
The core of Heaven Gate Mountain opened into a colossal hall. At its center lay a cultivation pool as wide as a lake, brimming with liquid the color of molten gold. Spiritual energy drifted from the surface like incense.
“Heavenly Spirit Liquid,” Jared murmured, reverence lining each word. “Centuries of the sect’s predecessors’ effort. Train within it, and the realm walls crumble like parchment.”
They plunged into it. The instant the liquid touched their skin, pure energy thundered into their bodies, gentle yet unstoppable, sinking into bones, blood, and soul.
Seated back-to-back amid the glowing depths, they summoned their arts.
The Heavenly Spirit Liquid answered, pouring through their meridians until their cultivation climbed at speeds the sane mind could scarcely accept.
Time slipped its leash. Hours, or days, streamed by, unmarked. Wrapped in liquid gold, they floated in silent rapture while wave after wave of essence pressed into them and became raw, inexhaustible power.
Suddenly, Jared’s elixir field convulsed, a tectonic jolt that sent ripples through the entire pool.
Human Immortal Realm Level Four… So close I can taste it…
He inhaled, steadying his heart for the breakthrough about to ignite.
Jared gathered every drifting thread of his concentration, the way a lens gathers sunlight to a single white-hot point. With that focus, he hurled himself again and again against the unseen barrier of the Human Immortal Realm Level Four.
His elixir field, once a calm, moonlit pond, now swelled like a rising tide. His meridians widened, stretching to accommodate more light, more heat, more of everything that made him alive.
Boom!
The sound did not ring in the chamber, but inside his chest.
In that instant, the barrier shattered, and Jared stood, newly crowned at Human Immortal Realm Level Four, breathing like a man who has just broken to the surface of deep water.
Yet the Heavenly Spirit Liquid pouring through the cultivation pool refused to stop. Spirit churned on, channeled by some vast, benevolent hand.
There is still room, one more step!
Hope flared. He turned immediately toward the next wall, the far-tougher gate of Level Five.
The fight was longer this time, every advance won with grit, sweat, and the sweet burn of the Heavenly Spirit Liquid. But at last, the new wall cracked, then fell. Human Immortal Realm Level Five welcomed him like dawn over iron mountains.
Power, so much larger than before, rushed through his limbs until even his shadow looked heavier on the floor.
Across the pool, Sylvia drank from the same blazing current.
In a shimmer of silver light, she vaulted all the way to the peak of Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Two. If Lord Woodridge dared appear now, she would greet him with something fiercer than fear.
A soft radiance clung to her skin, outlining every graceful line. Beauty had been hers before, but now it felt sculpted by the heavens themselves.
“We did it!” she cried, eyes dazzling with triumph.
Jared answered her joy with an excited grin.
