Disciple Wong was a modest man, and didn't want for more. After all, he had the best Master anyone could dream of, and even if a stronger cultivator like the Celestial Dean would have approached him to change Masters, Wong would have refused without a doubt. For his Master was already on the way to the next Realm, stepping on Steel Stars to jump farther and farther away. Soon enough, even the Dean will be left behind. His Master was like that...strange, but in a good way.

Wong was happy enough with his new 4th Star in Bronze Realm, and being confirmed as a Sergeant in the Veritas Legion, plus the opportunity to study in the famous Celestial Academy on a wild card visa. The Qi density and quality in the Academy was so high that he often wondered how anyone could fail to advance to the Iron Realm.

Then a visitor arrived in his courtyard, and just dropped a tiger claw on the pavement.

"Your Majesty? What's with this claw?" Wong asked politely from the dangerous Godbeast, although he wasn't in direct danger right now.

"Your Master wants me to contribute, and donate my claws to the higher ranks in the Legion. You can make yourself a sword, I guess." the White Tiger answered with a careless tone, and flew away in a hurry. Probably a lot more claws to distribute.

'Strange again, Master. But in a good way...' Wong mused while picking up the claw for later.

Then another visitor arrived, and this time a terrifying one. Wong had met the glove when he was barely in Core Realm, 20 Ascensions ago. He was still scared of it.

"Brigadier? You have orders?" he asked in a military voice.

"Don't act stupid, Wong. This is a personal visit, Or else you'd already know your orders. See, I wanted you to die." the glove began in a casual tone, and sat down for tea as his wife rushed to prepare some.

Wong blinked, trying to imagine why the damned glove would want to kill him. And why now, and not in the past thousands of years?

"Why now?" he managed to ask, while his poor wife struggled to keep her hands steady on the tea pot.

"Many reasons why, but mostly because you're too weak. A few deaths might change something, produce a shift in your mentality, perhaps." the glove goddess mused in a distant voice, sipping the tea without care.

"I am still alive, though." Wong hummed in a low tone, his finger tapping gently on the tea cup.

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"Because my user told me to ask first." the glove answered in a clear voice, and placed a cloud-pill on the tea table.

Wong was not a good Alchemist, but he knew the basics. A cloud pill was literally a rebound method to regain his cultivation, and this pill was something of a high tier for sure. Maybe even a Bronze pill, like many Soldiers in the Legion received after dying in combat in the Jade War.

"What kind of pill is this?" his wife asked instead, saving him the question and the shame.

"This thing? It's a Cloud Iron Ascension. Directly into the 9th Star of Tier 11. Pretty good stuff." the glove said with a light voice, and tapped the Iron Pin at her neck. Made by herself, then.

"You should die, husband." his wife urged him in a greedy voice. He would certainly reach a great level without much problem. Just die, and then be raised into the lofty ranks of Legion Captains, just like his own Master.

"This isn't about the pill, I am right? There is something beyond death, something important..." Wong spoke in a thoughtful voice, thinking about how his Master changed when he returned from death in the new body with blue eyes and blonde hair. Certainly wiser than his former life.

"I'll give you a clue, Disciple Wong. When Pef was younger, maybe 5 years old I think...he boiled his own mother alive. In a bath filled with tea leaves. The woman ascended into the next realm from it, and Pef found his calling. The Dao of Cooking, I mean." the glove goddess said with an amused voice.

Wong finger swirled inside his own boiling tea, absorbing the lesson for what it was. "I was right. There is something good, on the other shore." he deduced just as his wife stabbed herself in the dantian core, and died next to the tea table. "You tricked her?" he continued in mild surprise.

"I'll give her a Bronze Pill for the entertainment. Now, should you accept this mission, there is a certain way I want you to die, Disciple Wong..." the glove said with a dubious glance at the suicided Soldier. Then again, Wong's wife was barely any use anyway. And also, Soldier Chen made a depressingly poor tea.

"It will be painful, I expect." Wong sighed as he flicked his wife's body into a pyre. The sight of a single Iron pill made Lady Chen lose her common sense and suicide, without even a guarantee of recovery.

"Imagine a butterfly, flapping its wings in a random universe. But that flap of wings creates a small wind, which wind touches a flower, and that flower releases pollen, at the right time to attract a random bee. The bee became a Queen Bee in time, and ascended as a cultivator and created Royal Honey...you can see where this is going, right?" the glove spoke in a low tone, almost like imparting a secret.

"Chaos." Wong answered in the same low tone.

"Good. You have met your first Chaos Array when Pef drew it on that blackboard. The blackboard was black, but nobody noticed, and thus nobody managed to become a true Formation Master. Not even you, Pef's personal Disciple and a Formation expert with 92% achievement. He even mentioned black paper and white letters in his lecture..." the glove sighed, in a disgusted tone.

Wong slumped, as the magnitude of his failure struck directly into his Dao Heart. He wasn't a cultivator with no experience in Formations, after all. He could even withstand the Unreal River, for a time.

"Tell me how I must die." he asked in a sad but determined voice.

The glove nodded. "So, you have chosen death."

Perhaps this way was better, after all. Wong chose death by his own free will, and thus greatness. His wife was a greedy idiot though, but then most people were the same. The Taotie was eating thousands of those right now.