A moment ago, Alicia had upgraded her Fireballs Skill to level two. Oh, she had been so delighted by that! She had even jumped in happiness like a little girl.

Now, she bit her lower lip so hard she could taste blood.

Shen seemed to be in an impossible situation. She could never tell because he always won fights that should be impossible, but this time it looked different. It had been the first time she saw him hit something and do no real damage to it. Even metal shields had bent before.

Alicia had to decide quickly whether to help him. He had told her not to unless it was safe.

Well, really, Shen?

How the hell was she supposed to know if it was safe when she could barely see him amid the constantly growing mist in the dome?

Alicia bit her lower lip even harder. She didn't want to part ways with Shen by dying, but leaving him to die would be much worse.

For Alicia needed him.

She needed his company to survive both the real world and herself. She couldn't trust anyone else, nor did she want to try it. All she wanted was not to get betrayed anymore, and he was the only one who could give her that.

A tiny, tiny part of her brain told her that was a stupidly dangerous line of thought that didn't reflect reality at all.

Alicia quickly shut that part of herself up, but it fought back. Sneaky, sneaky reasonable thoughts. She knew just how to make them go.

She created a fireball. Then another. Then the third one.

They floated in front of her, straining her willpower to the very limits.

Alicia then threw them against the werewolf closest to Shen.

They seemed to fly in slow motion as they approached their target. The werewolf had its back to her and didn't turn. The three fireballs reached its head at the same time and exploded.

This was the first time she used her level two fireball, and the result was amazing. The explosion wasn't as large as what the E-rank werewolves could do, barely as big as a human's upper body, but it was more than she had done until now. The werewolf's entire head was enveloped by flames.

When the fire died, a monster with charcoal for a head turned to look at her.

"Inspect," she whispered.

| Enhanced Techmage Werewolf (E) — 80 / 110

Alicia threw extra fireballs at the werewolf, but it simply slapped them away with the back of its hand. She willed the spells to explode, but they dealt less than five damage each.

Then the monster extended its open hand to her, and three bracelets came flying from the dome.

One bracelet was kept in front of the werewolf, and Alicia's next fireballs were stopped by a moving shield. The other two bracelets came to her. They stopped about twenty feet away, and a fireball and an ice spike came from them.

She prepared herself for the worst but didn't leave yet. If three bracelets were focused on her, they weren't focused on Shen. She would resist as much as she could.

Which ended up not being much at all.

The fireball came at her way too fast. She instinctively used her mana to deflect it... except it failed. She felt her will touch another will. She struggled and thought she could win if she had more time, but she didn't.

The fireball reached her.

Pain and fire flooded her body and vision. She was thrown back violently and couldn't even tell what was happening. Amid the dizziness, she barely spoke a few words to save herself.

"Teleport to final boss."

Light enveloped her, taking both her pain and her body away.

'Please find me,' was her last thought before she disappeared.

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

20 minutes.

Shen's body could withstand a total of twenty minutes of qi. His cells would burst open and kill him if he went beyond that.

He focused on the incoming attacks and did his best to dodge what he could and deflect what he couldn't.

18 minutes.

Shen had less than forty health points remaining. That was actually a good, surprising result. He hadn't improved his dodging skills too much, but he had gotten good at noticing incoming projectiles.

That might not look like much, but considering his vision was limited by both the Blind Man's Wisdom and the steam...

Frankly, if it wasn't for the learning ability upgrade, he doubted he could tell which silhouette in the misty distance was what.

15 minutes.

Shen used the first crystal to recover his health and bought another.

At the same time, he noticed a very, very tiny change in the attacks. The steam made it harder for him to see the bracelets in the dome, but he thought he saw a hole where there had once been a bracelet.

Unfortunately, it returned a moment later and kept attacking him.

10 minutes.

Shen was improving. His dodge ability was getting better.

It was just too slow to matter in the end.

The first five minutes of struggle had seen him lose almost all his HP. The second five minutes had him still above 40 HP. That was good, but it would not be enough to save him.

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Speaking of which, he used his stamina crystal and bought another.

He kept his hope up, but it was dying quickly.

8 minutes.

Shen used his second health crystal and bought another one.

5 minutes.

Desperation started to hit him, and with it came stupidity.

Shen knew his body. He knew his limits. He knew the Gale Footwork and how to use it.

But he thought he knew better than his ancestors and started trying to improve it.

Now, it was one thing to create a few techniques to fill his footwork's gap by using aspects of the footwork itself, like he had done to pursue the Rockthrowers. It was another thing entirely to deem his footwork not good enough and try to improve it. Shen didn't have even close enough of the required knowledge to do that.

He especially shouldn't do that amid enemy attacks.

It took him only one supposedly improved movement for him to almost trip, lose his balance, and get pierced by an ice shard.

| Health points: 13 / 100 | -70

The spike went sideways through his upper body, missing his heart by inches, and got stuck there. He would've died if he hadn't recovered his health a few minutes ago.

Shen quickly crushed another health crystal and returned to the Gale Footwork. Fortunately, the crystal's magic also removed the ice inside him to heal him.

Still, he was back in his desperate situation.

Time was ticking, and he saw no way out.

4 minutes.

Shen's mistake made him appreciate and trust the Gale Footwork even more. He started improving faster in it. The bottleneck wasn't completely gone, as it was a struggle to get even slightly better, but it was better than nothing.

However, that still wasn't enough.

He would die as soon as his qi could no longer be used to make him faster and stronger.

3 minutes.

Shen focused harder.

He still saw no way out.

The desperation hit him harsher.

2 minutes.

Shen let out a wordless, primal roar of anguish and anger.

He refused to die like that! He refused to die because his body couldn't take more qi! He refused to meet his end like prey being played at!

The Gale Footwork had served him well, but as much as he had started trusting its creators' wisdom even more than before, the Skill was also clearly not enough for this situation. Not at his level.

He needed more.

But there was no more, was there? He couldn't cultivate under attack. His footwork was at its limit. And his spear art was letting him survive longer by deflecting what he couldn't dodge.

Shen roared again...

...and stopped dodging and deflecting.

His limits didn't matter. The best he could do wasn't enough, so he might as well do something else.

He needed release from that anguishing situation and knew only one way to feel that.

When the next ice spike came, he hit it straight on. It shattered, and the shards hit him like shrapnel, penetrating his body.

It hurt.

Shen didn't stop.

When a fireball came, he hit it with no fear. It exploded, throwing him back.

He withstood the pain and recovered his footing.

Shen kept going.

When a metal ball came, he screamed and hit it with abandon. His spearhead shattered, and the ball broke his hand.

He didn't let go of the broken weapon.

Shen kept fighting.

He abandoned the Gale; he became the Windstorm.

A Windstorm couldn't be stopped, couldn't be contained. It needed release, and so Shen was releasing his spear and himself.

To the very end.

1 minute.

As his situation worsened, Shen was getting more furious, and his fury found solid ground in his spear art. His spear had not been created to be used only for deflecting. It needed more; it wanted more. And he was giving voice to that truth.

When he had been a mortal, his Path had been one of enduring and waiting for the right time, but now, it wasn't.

Not anymore.

Now, he was a cultivator, and cultivators challenged the heavens themselves. They challenged the unfair reality of their mortal fate. They overcame everything that went against their Path.

And his current Path was one of freedom.

His future was his own for the first time ever. He no longer had crippled meridians; he could finally fight for himself and achieve what he wanted. He had responsibilities, but they gave him purpose rather than bind him. The wisdom of his ancestors aided him, and his spear was the bridge to his hopeful future.

And it was a future where he would no longer be limited by anything.

Shen let go of his broken weapon and bought a new G tier one. The tier didn't matter. What mattered was that he would die fighting with the weapon of his choice.

He crushed the healing crystal he had but didn't buy another.

Shen would meet his end here, fighting his destiny like a true cultivator.

All that mattered was the freedom he found fighting with spear in hands.

The very founder of the Feng Clan had given up on his staff for the superior weapon, and everything in the Feng Clan's martial arts was about maximizing the spear's potency.

The Windstorm Spear Art was obviously about the spear, but more than that, it made the wielder a mere conduit. Shen was there to deliver the spear to its destination. His job was to support the spear, not the other way around.

The Gale Footwork existed to deliver the spear to its destination and help the wielder with the same goal. His good health was only necessary because he was a conduit. Without a spear, he was nothing.

And the Feng Clan's Cultivation Method existed to further the spear's might.

It was called Rainfall Cultivation Method, its true name and purpose being the most critical secrets Shen was privy to.

The Gale turned into a Windstorm. The Windstorm and the Rainfall became a Hurricane.

The true might of the Feng Clan was found in their Hurricane Martial Art. It was a furious martial art encompassing everything, from cultivation to weapon.

And at the center of it all stood the spear.

Shen's G tier spear shattered. He let go of it. He bought a new one.

Shen was no windstorm any longer. He had gained momentum, evolved.

He was now a hurricane, and only death would stop him.

A new metal ball was coming. Shen thrust his spear at it. He would hit, his weapon would shatter, and he would die.

And then everything seemed to stop as he understood one thing.

His body might be a conduit, and his techniques might exist only to bring the spear to its target, but it was his mind that decided on the target. His mind chose which methods to use to achieve its self-imposed goals. His mind decided to let go of all reason and become something else.

The Hurricane Martial Art was the center of the Feng Clan. The spear was the center of the Hurricane Martial Art.

And the center of the spear was Shen's will.

His will was the core of the core, the center of the center.

The Origin.

But how could a human mind and a martial art created around a weapon be genuinely in sync? Shen understood human issues, human limitations, human perspective. And to a human, a weapon was a tool, nothing else.

No matter how much he trained, pushed, and improved his body, he could never, ever break through his human limitations.

Not unless his mind touched on something greater.

Reality was defined by Laws. They ruled over everything, determined how everything was and worked. The smaller parts of Laws were Concepts.

Shen had trouble understanding how something such as the Laws of Spear might exist and help define reality. Yet, they did exist, and the one Concept he understood now was that his Spear was not timid.

His was not a Spear that withstood calmly, bidding its time—not anymore, it wasn't.

His Spear's core belief was not surviving by deflecting attacks.

His Spear was not patient.

Shen found true joy in overcoming superior enemies. In thrusting his weapon through their bodies in a fight. In going beyond his limits rather than accepting them.

His Spear was free, it was fierce, it hated being bound by undesired limits time and time again as he had been his entire mortal life.

His Spear was Boundless.

The moment Shen's mind connected to the Boundless Concept of the Laws of Spear, the moment he became able to grasp on a tiny part of it, he had to make a choice.

He was still a Core Formation cultivation. If he allowed himself to reach for a Concept, he would enter the Fate Origin realm. And that meant a Heavenly Tribulation.

A Heavenly Tribulation he was not ready for.

His core was incomplete, and the step after hadn't even started. That would take at least days, if not weeks, to complete. If he dealt with the Heavenly Tribulation now, he would fail. He would die.

But Shen...

Shen refused to be limited by the heavens in that either.

His Spear was Boundless. That was the basis of his Path. That was Fate's Origin.

Shen would live or die believing in himself.

WARNING!

You're about to undergo a Heavenly Tribulation.

Should you succeed in withstanding it, your body will become permanently incompatible with mana.

Purchasing stat upgrades will still be possible at the E and D ranks but not at C-rank or higher.

Shen laughed at the message as his spearhead approached the metal ball head-on in what felt like slow motion. He had considered giving up on cultivation for the possibly superior Path of mana before. Now, that was no longer possible.

Now he had found his Path. Inferior or superior, it didn't matter. It was his and only his. He refused to be restricted by the Multiverse's Alliance's rules on how to advance.

His Path started with the Boundless Spear, and he would only be truly free if it progressed at its own pace and manner.

Shen let go of all worries as he basked in the Concept of Boundlessness.