Alex gave a bemused shake of his head at the games his interface played. Poking fun at an art that had once been so fundamental to his being. And when he infused Water’s surging currents with the Wind’s howling fury and manifested Lightning once more… that had totally been Storm Strike.

But not quite, not exactly, he acknowledged. It was Air as much as Water that propelled his cleaving blows, not a deadly whirling unstoppable current allowed only with the redefinition of metallic liquids and a major shift to his Dantian. For all that he skirted the edges of things… the river’s might had most definitely been propelled by the stormiest of typhoons, and Lightning was the natural offspring of Water and Wind that churned so mightily. Yet no bolt had been channeled from the heavens. That much, at least, had been different. And with the taste of Iron in the form of salts alone… so good for channeling lightning, but not liquid steel by any means… yeah. It was a glorious climax to a battle that would have tapped him utterly dry in seconds, had he not the boon of a dozen Silver Tier eggs filling him with Potency Mastery’s 4 Qi points per second recharge.

A skill he suspected was affecting him, but wasn’t showing on his character sheet at all. As if even his Interface would hide this power from the wrath of bitter gods.

And if it kept him hidden… if skirting so many former powers kept him safe and free of all the forces that had been so eager for his death? He was all for it.

He shook his head. Because if that hadn’t been Storm Strike combined with Piercing Strike at the end, it was only off by only the tiniest of margins.

All that kept him from skating over perilously thin ice.

He winced at the shiver of dread now racing down his spine, taking a deep, steadying breath.

“Okay, that was close. Too fucking close. And I need to learn and master attacks that don’t skirt so close to that which I need to put aside, if I want to let sleeping assholes lie.”

Yet his mind couldn’t help but race with possibilities.

Because perhaps there was another path. Not that of Silver Swan enhancing White Qi attacks and wards as a whole, the path he had forged with Elder Panheu just weeks, years, or perhaps countless lifetimes ago.

No, he thought, summoning a Prismatic Shield with a tight, satisfied grin.

There was another path before him.

A path he had once thought he would need Long Wang’s Jade-tier manual to uncover, which of course that spite-filled tyrant would never surrender.

But if Alex’s shield and cultivation technique were any indication… he could forge his own path here, as well.

His attack wasn’t trying to emulate Black Swan so much as combine multiple elements into a glorious, powerful fusion.

So why not infuse a few more?

He chuckled for a brief moment at his own audacity.

It was one thing to create a ward that would absorb any elemental attack, shunting it’s force to the element most opposed. It was quite another to get eight elements to focus and enhance a single attack!

He had barely been able to get his ‘totally not a Storm Strike attack’ to unleash the brunt of its lethality in a blast of lightning that instantly fried the spider’s primitive, or perhaps not-so-primitive brain. To dare combine more elements, to ever get Fire and Water to play nicely together and indirectly enhance one another… that was another matter entirely.

“But if I’m serious about daring a wujen’s path… maybe this is a direction I can take it in,” he thought with a certain amount of hope and excitement for the future.

If nothing else, his pseudo-lightning strike was a damn fine addition for a mere Rank 6 Basic Cultivator. A Rank 6 basic, who had some how ascended all 4 of his stats to Bronze, while ignoring the one stat that was a Wujen’s staple.

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And he knew without needing any hints from any divine power that wasn’t outright hostile to him… that he’d best never show lightning cloaked only in Wind and Water outside sealed rifts like the one he dared now. Best a full spectrum of synergistic death, if such a fusion was even possible for him offensively, or stick to Water and Wind used in careful tandem alone. No doubt that was why his interface had deliberately not dinged with any fresh skill involving those three elements alone.

Not when effort had clearly been made to lock so many other abilities away, even if he was still blessed with a continuous memory of all the triumphs and tragedies that had led to this very moment, where he was racing towards the entrance, hoping that his friends were, if not okay, at least stable.

And as much as he had originally been planning on using his Rank-up to boost his Qi Pool and triggering the manifestation of a wonderful Tier 5 Silver total… Only someone with a 20 in Finesse and Quickness, Or Bronze Rank 1, could have possibly survived the ordeal he had just endured. So that’s how his mind and body had evolved. The Bronze he sensed might have been his with a mere 2 points invested in Qi Pool to evolve his most recent incarnation along the Wujen’s specialist path would now be something he would have to earn the hard way. Over countless weeks or perhaps months of training like he had embraced so diligently before entering this delve. It was a stat he would now earn one point at a time.

And that was fine.

He felt no real regrets having instinctively placed all six points in his physical stats. Because that had been the path that had helped to ensure his survival. Besides, he was savvy enough to note the increase to his Qi Pool, now 16, even with no notification at all. Which meant that with diligence and hard work, or just fighting against absurd odds for his life, his potential could expand even outside the point level framework he was expecting.

Which made sense. Because if certain exotic spiritual herb infusions, or rare prized beast organs could help a cultivator ascend or evolve one or more stats or virtues, why couldn’t one’s own solid efforts boost their stats, even between levels? Even if he did sense that such a rate of growth was extremely modest, and best savored at the lowest end of the stat pool.

But no matter how he went about it, once he got his Qi Pool up to 20… he already knew the prize this would unlock, the gift of one of his most powerful stats coming back to him in full. And if there was any chance that a concoction Reny might brew would push him even a point or two closer to that goal, thanks to all the wonderfully potent herbs and spirit fruit he had collected over an absolutely glorious day of foraging, he was all for it.

And how hard it was to resist devouring those prizes he had gathered, right then and there.

Only by convincing himself that the fruit, berries, and blossoms he had collected were precisely what Reny needed to create an infusion that would unlock their full potential and absolutely maximize whatever benefits he could get from them, was he able to keep his appetite on a tight leash. He recalled as well her council that the greatest boons happened with first exposure, and the most potent brews were concocted of multiple spirit treasures compounded by a master. So the truly wise and patient cultivator would hold off on consuming anything until the most potent brew imaginable could be synthesized. And in a world as ruthless and competitive as the realm of cultivation, Alex could only wonder how unique a position he was in, to collect such wondrous prizes and be able to trust that they would be treated in good faith. To know that his most prudent move wasn’t also the most cynical, already sensing that Reny was worthy of his trust.

He could only pray that he had gotten to her in time... and that she would make a full recovery. He hoped that the party potency he had deliberately sent her way had been enough, for even if she wasn’t a pure-blooded Ruidian jewel master, able to pull up an interface like his own and use potency for recovery, she was a natural healer, and that had to count for something.

Of course, some prizes were best consumed at once, no processing required. But Alex could sense both the durability of his prizes and the boon of Reny’s loaned storage treasure, so wouldn’t use any cheap excuse to cheat himself out of what truly might be a wondrous elixer… or cheat his friends of what just might be their salvation.

“We already risked our lives enough for one day, and somehow I get the feeling that it will only get more challenging from here,” he whispered to himself, just when he sensed his connection to every party member extinguishing at once.

A sudden spike of dread riveted him.

He spent the next handful of minutes racing for the clearing he was rapidly approaching, fearing the worst.

Before his eyes lit up, upon seeing no one at all.

Which mean that everyone had already gone through.

Or so he hoped.

His relief was marred by a troubling thought.

Why hadn’t they waited for him, on the off chance that he actually made it?

He shook his head, certain there was a good reason for it.

Of course there was! Reny needed immediate care, and Qing Wu no doubt knew where the most important healing supplies was kept in their own wagon.

Still, he froze to a halt before the shimmering gate.

He couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps something had gone unexpectedly wrong. What if their pursuers had finally caught up to them? What if, far from any sort of happy reunion, only cold death at the hands of bitter mercenaries was all that awaited him beyond the portal?

He glared at the portal for long moments, before making his move.