A few hours later, Alicia and Shen sat facing each other while Sai was sideways. The assassin was looking uncomfortable but resolute.

He had invited them to a resting room to clarify his stance on Earth. The place was small, with four white sofas, one on each wall, and a glass center table. Nine people could sit, but it would be a tight fit.

Enchantments on the walls, ceiling, and floor made it look, smell, and feel like they were in a forest clearing right beside a lake. It wasn't meant to fool more than physical senses, and any Guardian could tell it was an illusion. The unenchanted wooden door standing by itself would let even commoners realize something was wrong.

"I never cared much about petty politics," Shen started. "I care even less now."

"You mean the New Order business?" Alicia asked, and he nodded. "That's not petty politics. We were discussing Earth's future."

"Were we?" Shen rested his back against the sofa and his arms on the piece of furniture's back. "You should talk to Williams more."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Do you think he was lying? That the New Order is up to something?"

Shen shook his head. "The New Order will probably disappear, but sooner or later, a C-rank will replace them. Even if someone under the Czarina ranks up before anyone else, she won't be able to control them. Even if the C-rank says nothing, she'd be an idiot not to try to appease them." He smiled. "No matter what plans you implement, whoever has power can unmake everything you work for. I could do it already."

"A C-rank can't be everywhere at once," Alicia said. "Even you would need to make agreements with people to have your will obeyed. Politics would be part of it."

"I can't be everywhere at once—yet. When I ranked up, I became able to affect things up to twelve miles around me without any qi usage. The range has already increased to thirty miles, and I did nothing to improve it. I believe it has to do both with my mastery over my Laws and my harmonization with them. I'm in the Ethereal Harmonization realm, after all. I did feel fully harmonized with my Path when I broke through, but there are subtle improvements here and there that keep coming naturally. It's also about the way I perceive the world—"

Shen stopped talking midsentence.

Alicia and Sai were avid to hear more, but they had done nothing to earn it. He realized he needed to talk to Liya and read some research on how much he could reveal before it interfered with someone's willpower growth.

Actually, while he didn't trust Lieutenant Specialist Karlov, asking the supposed training specialist about it would be perfect. Either Karlov would expose his ignorance, or Shen would learn something useful.

"Anyway," Shen said, "It's only a matter of time until I can feel every corner of Earth. I can't focus on everything at once, but I can get close enough to quench resistance from the other side of the world. Teleportation within a planet shouldn't be very difficult, either. I'm sure I only need to master a Law and learn a trick."

Alicia frowned, but Sai nodded. For whatever reason, the latter seemed to have a better understanding of the chism between ranks. Shen guessed the werewolves had shared some knowledge with the guy to awe and terrorize him.

"The Czarina can create paradise on Earth," Shen added a little softer. "But it'll only last as long as she lives and only if she remains strong enough. If a single being on the planet outranks her, whatever paradise she tries to create will be the version of it that they allow. And when they are of the same rank, she has to negotiate here and there. She'll eventually mess up like she did with the New Order's D-ranks, and they'll get a foothold in controlling the world. That isn't sustainable."

"What do you propose, then?" Alicia asked defensively. "Just let everyone do whatever they want? That's just asking the aliens to have an excuse to invade."

Shen shook his head. "I'm not proposing anything. I'm simply making sure you understand how things work; how they've always worked. Earth had something similar in the past; nuclear weapons were considered a means of deterrence. You didn't attack nations with nuclear arsenals lightly. It gets worse when the nuclear weapon can move at will and isn't an expandable resource. When it can kill everyone without structural damage or causing environmental disasters. When you don't have the power to kill it or whoever controls it. The Alliance brought many advancements to the world, but it also tore the harsh truth from the warm place humanity had kept it hidden: ultimately, it's all about power."

Alicia crossed her arms and looked angrily at him. "Fuck you, Shen. We can only do what we can do. We can only do our best in all areas and hope it works out. Just giving up on it like you seem to want to isn't a solution."

"I said—"

She interjected, "You said you don't care about humanity, prick. That you don't care who rules over it today because it might change tomorrow. Well, that's one less day to live in a world ruled by whichever motherfucker conquers it tomorrow. With great power comes great responsibility and everything."

Shen nodded. "Good."

"Huh?"

"I agree that you decide what you do with your power. You're my friend, not my subordinate. I just wanted you to be aware that your current power is ephemeral, and it will always be unless you reach S-rank. There will be Newer Orders, strong foes, people who disagree with you. Eventually, you'll have to kill to protect your worldview. To protect your Path. You can't walk a Path without conviction, and I'm glad to see you have what it takes."

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She showed surprise before becoming even angrier than before. "Were you fucking testing me?!"

"No. I was sharing my beliefs with you. I was never set to convince you of my ways. When you shared yours with me, I was glad at your willpower."

Alicia kept silent for a moment. "Fuck, man." She sighed. "When we talked before, you felt so... approachable. Warm. Human. Now you sound like some monk or some shit. Someone watching the world from their high tower. Detached."

Shen considered it for a few instants, then nodded. "That sounds right. I'm detached from whatever stupidity is happening on Earth. The truth is plain for everyone to see: grow strong or get stepped on. Instead of focusing on that, you're wasting your time deciding who rules over a floating rock in a multiverse full of other floating rocks." He paused. "Alicia, what's the greatest gift the Alliance gave us all?"

"Magic?"

"In a way. Sai?"

The guy was surprised at being addressed. "Power?"

"Almost. While amazing gifts, those things wouldn't be as good without the most important part: unhindered Paths.

"Let me give you some context. In the past, cultivating one's body's resistance wasn't often done. Even if you had the money to pay for the materials, they were hard to find. Even if you got them, you had to find a way to use them. Such ways were primitive because researching them was hard and expensive, and no one shared.

"In the Alliance? Get AP, and the system improves your stats. It's as simple as that.

"Also, I reckon C-rank cultivators are stronger than mana-wielding Guardians on average, but cultivators walk a harder Path, filled with methodology and tribulations. Everything must happen the right way at the right time, or we get screwed.

"You? Again, get the AP, and you can pay for the system to make you stronger.

"You're only limited by your understanding of your Concepts and Laws, and by your willingness to work to get AP. It can be risky, but if you plan well, it won't be as risky as dealing with a tribulation.

"Yet, instead of seeing people doing everything they can to grow strong under such marvelous conditions, I see them scheming to control everyone else in an irrelevant corner of Reality. There can be merit in that if you do it for everyone's benefit. It can be honorable. But focusing too much on that will only slow your progress down. Do your best for everyone else, but set boundaries. You can let it slow you down, but make sure it's a conscious choice that you're okay with. And be aware that as soon as your enemy overcomes you, you and everything you worked for will disappear.

"To walk a Path is to keep moving forward. To stop is to end your Path early. Be mindful of your pace and recognize that sometimes, the very people you want to protect can become stumbling blocks that will cause your downfall—and their own.

"With great power comes great responsibility—including the responsibility of your continued existence."

Once more, Alicia kept quiet for a while, then answered, "Fuck. You say you're not here to tell me what to do, then you tell me what to do?"

Shen chuckled. "Being C-rank doesn't make me perfect. I admit there's a little bit of hypocrisy inside me. Sorry, sorry."

"Seems to be like you learned to enjoy the sound of your own voice a little too much," Alicia countered, sighed, and added softly, "That came out wrong. I mean, it's great that you're sharing. You sounded all sagely, you know? Made sense. But you should work on your delivery. Dude, we became superhumans. Superhumans don't like being told what to do, especially if it's 'for their own good.'"

"Fair enough," Shen granted. "Can you help me with that?"

Alicia widened her eyes. She was surprised by the request, but it quickly turned into panic. "Me? The fuck do I know about talking well?" Shen smirked, and her eyes became filled with disbelief. "Are you making fun of me?!"

"Just a little tease," he said dismissively.

She smiled widely. "Shen! We might make a real person out of you yet! But you really must work on your delivery, dude. It's less fun if the person doesn't understand the burn, you know?"

"I do not, in fact, know. But I'm confident you can help me with that, Miss Fire Bitch."

"W- What?! Where did you hear that?!" She turned to Sai with murder in her eyes.

Shen chuckled. "People talk, and I can hear better than most of you think possible. So, was it a good delivery to the burn?"

"Fuck you."

----------------------------------------

Shen spent some time just messing around with Alicia. Sai confirmed his willingness to serve at least until the Calamity ended. Afterward, Shen went to talk to the Republic's cultivators.

They didn't have much to say. They kept a respectful distance from him, refused to share any knowledge, and said they had just been told he was the Field Commander and they should obey him.

He would work on having them warm up to him in due time.

Other than that, he didn't try to do anything, get any information, or talk to anyone else. He just meditated. His entire life had suddenly changed way too much.

Shen checked his thoughts, heart, and soul. He looked through his memories and confirmed or refused some beliefs about who he was and his goals.

He had to survive and grow more powerful, as he had told Alicia. Survival came first; mastering his Laws and honing his abilities came second. While doing either, he would care about his beliefs, morals, ethics, honor.

Like Alicia had suggested but never voiced, he would be okay dying for what he believed in, even if it wasn't the best way to do something. But unlike her, he would always do it knowing what was coming—unless he was ambushed, of course.

And after he became powerful enough... Then what?

Dominion.

He, too, yearned for a just society—what he saw as just. But he disagreed with Alicia in working on it already. She hadn't been born in a culture where people lived hundreds or thousands of years, so she simply couldn't understand the detachment that naturally came to him. He wasn't perfectly in sync with his lifespan, which had increased to five hundred years, but he already saw things in the long term.

Wasting time on people now might make some comfortable, but it increased the chance of him dying because he slowed his progress down. That, in turn, lessened the chance of them being comfortable for longer after he grew powerful enough to create an honorable society for thousands of years.

But his Path was his own; Alicia was hers.

He also wanted romance.

Shen didn't want to spend his entire life alone. There wasn't more to it than that. He didn't exactly yearn for companionship yet, but he had felt good in his very brief almost-relationship with Liya. He could already tell he would want it a lot more as the years passed.

Finally, Shen wanted revenge.

Valentina was at the top of that list. There were also the Dreamer's backers, who used a legal loophole to try to crush humanity as they had done to the drow. Yinhu Lanfen had tried to kill him and needed to fall.

Which reminded him: the Primordials.

He would have to fight them eventually. Either because they would come for him in the Purge or because he would survive it, but the assholes would have killed a lot of people in the Alliance and would deserve to die for it. The idea of a Purge sickened him.

That, however, was something for the very distant future. From what he understood, the Primordials could fight S-ranks. Attacking them would have to wait until he reached the very end of his Path of Omnipotence.

Shen meditated for hours.

He centered and readied himself. He would survive. He would grow more powerful. He would achieve his goals. He would fight for his Path, including his morals. That's how life was supposed to be lived for him. It felt right in a way so deep he couldn't explain.

Finally, resting time was over.

It was time to start the basic course.