Much to Alex’s surprise, the mother immediately turned to observe his attack, the element of surprise non-existent and her expression like one of a parent observing an unruly child. "Foolish prey," she snarled.
"Why delay… the inevitable?"
Sharp claws of hardened magma formed, glowing like red-hot steel. Flames erupted from her maw, blazing torrents scorching the falling debris. The heat intensified, searing Alex's skin even from a distance. She summoned molten hands from the ground, immense and grasping. Sharp claws of Qi-infused lava extended from her paws and magma hardened to resemble red-hot steel. A colossal tiger’s jaw the size of a house rose from the molten ground, aiming to crush the web of nothingness she perceived as a mere hindrance.
Her flames vanished upon contact. The molten hands disintegrated, leaving nothing behind. The magma claws evaporated into nothingness, and Qi infused jaw of red-hot steel-like metal was simply erased, split into pieces by the unstoppable web.
Her molten eyes widened and her pupils constricted like fading stars as she witnessed the web cut through her defences like a knife through silk.
It was then that she began to flee.
“Prey!” The mother turned, desperation in her gaze. She leapt toward an opening, attempting to flee the unstoppable force to reach Alex’s location. Her muscles coiled and released like springs under tension, traversing the debris in a zig-zagging pattern.
Alex had no intention of allowing her to reach him.
[Please select focus of Allocation]
[Strength / Dexterity / Endurance / Intelligence
Wisdom]
Mana Burn’s doubling my stats, but strength won’t help. Neither will endurance or wisdom. I’ll need speed and perception to get me through this, he thought, his eyes trained on the sky above him. He had made a mistake in pouring so much mana into his skill, Thousands Become One. There were just too many swords in the web, hundreds of them, causing the deadly technique’s range to span the entire width and part of the breadth of the collapsing cavern. Surviving this seemed increasingly unlikely. Dexterity would help, sure, but there were too many variables to leave it to chance. He would have to avoid the debris, the Phoenix fire, the web of Mana & Qi that dotted the sky, and any attacks from the doomed Mother Tigress. The distance to safety was too far to navigate in anything other than a near-straight line. What he needed was a way to tip the scales exponentially, he thought grimly. He needed to utilise his core strengths to escape. His perception and intelligence. I have to go all in, he thought.
[Intelligence Allocated.]
[Intelligence: 1741 > 3949]
His decision was made with a mind filled with conviction.
[Name: Alex Ironwood
Level: 195
C̷͎̠̠̖̿́ultivation: Qi Gathering- First stage
Race: Human - Rank D
Primary Class: ̷̷͎̠̠̖̳̮̿́̏̄͝͠Sys̵̞̈́͆̓̓te̸̪̟͇͕͂mic SwO̷̟̮̙͚̔rd So̶̼̲͋͐͋͂ͅve̶̷̵̴̲̳̱reign
Sub-class: Locked
Strength: 2928 (915)
Dexterity: 4269 (1334)
Endurance: 963 (301)
Intelligence: 12637 (3949)
Wisdom: 413 (129)
Qi: 202 (63)
Feats: First Encounter, Pioneer, Pinnacle IV, Survivor, Warrior, Champion, Dungeon Insurgent, Innovator, Reborn, Shard of the Endless,
Techniques: Bovine Foundation Stance, Divine Bovine Vessel, Stampeding Footwork, Steel Horn Strikes, Blood Arts (Beast Core)
Active skills: Phoenix Leap, Mana Burn, Mana Blade, Boundless Dodge, Duȅ̷̳̮̄͝͠l of C̷͎̠̠̖̿́orruption, Sovereign Executioner, InfiniteBody, Sovereign Clone, Divine Fist, Pierce Reality, NetherForged, Eternal Infusion, Allo̶̭̲̪͊͐cation, Star of the Monarch, Dukes Gambit,
Passive skills: Inner Focus, Outer Focus, A̷̶̵̴̲̳̱l̸̢͉̗̣̑͐͛à̸̶̵̴̶̷̶̺̥̮̯͇̲̳̱̼̲͒̈́̈͛͋͐͋͂ͅͅ ̷̷̶̴̵̶̷̸̴̶̷̵̢̳̮̲̳̱͉̗̣̲̳̱̏̄̑͐͛͝͠Ω̴̵̶̷̲̳̱ ̶̶̯͇̼̲̈́̈͛͋͐͋͂ͅ ̷̷̶̴̵̶̷̴̶̷̵̳̮̲̳̱̲̳̱̏̄͝͠g̵̶̷̴̲̳̱e̸̪̟͇͕͂e̶̷̵̴̲̳̱E̵̴̶̷̶̵̴̶̷̷̸̸̢̲̳̱̼̲̲̳̱̟̮̙͚͉̗̣̺̥̮͋͐͋͂̔̑͐͛̀͒ͅͅ ̶̷̶̴̵̶̷̯͇̲̳̱̈́̈͛ ̷̸̴̶̷̵̳̮̪̟͇͕̲̳̱̏̄͂͝͠M̷̶̵̴̲̳̱m̸̵̴̶̷̸̷̸̴̶̷̵̢͉̗̣̲̳̱̪̟͇͕̟̮̙͚̺̥̮̲̳̱̑͐͛͂̔̀͒ͅ ̶̯͇̈́̈͛ ̷̸̶̢̳̮͉̗̣̼̲̏̄̑͐͛͋͐͋͂͝͠ͅO̷̟̮̙͚̔o̶̼̲͋͐͋͂ͅᾯ̴̵̶̷̵̴̶̷̷̸̸̸̢̲̳̱̲̳̱̟̮̙͚̪̟͇͕͉̗̣̺̥̮̑͐͛̀͒ ̶̯͇̈́̈͛ ̷̶͎̠̠̖̼̲̿́͋͐͋͂ͅ ̷̳̮̏̄͝͠ ̷̶̴̵̶̷̵̴̶̷̴̶̷̵̲̳̱̲̳̱̲̳̱, Inventory, Bestial Senses, BladeBody, True sight, Mana Vortex, Nascent Body (imperfect), Abyssal Body (Imperfect), Sword Soul, Eternal Disorder, Thà̸̶̵̴̶̷̶̺̥̮̯͇̲̳̱̼̲͒̈́̈͛͋͐͋͂ͅͅnatos’s Sovereign, Sword Sense, Absolution, Bloodforged,
Dao: True Immortality - 1.3% Progress
Unassigned stat points: 0]
Time slowed to a crawl within his domain. Alex felt a single heartbeat rattle like a church bell, ringing in the vast stillness.
Boulders the size of palaces littered the sky. And swords, too. Hundreds of swords. Some had been destroyed in the chaos, but most remained. All of them targeted the Tigress. A net of many threads connected to blades of all sizes and sped toward his quarry, covering a wide range-spaning almost half of the chasm. He would not be safe from the impact and would have to move quickly to escape annihilation.
He extended his senses within the one-foot radius of his condensed domain, perceiving each thread of mana as if they were extensions of his own enhanced nerves and pulled them to target only the mother, trying to shorten the range of the net of blades and mana threads.
[Thousands Become One - Mastery: 12 > 19%]
But it was futile, he was still within its range. So instead he concentrated on the activation of Mana Blade as the skill emerged from within his heart. The Mana Blade skill would coat and infuse any blade within his grip with destructive mana, enhancing its cutting power, regardless of the blade's nature. It was key to what came next.
His attention turned to the deluge of the skill’s powerful constructed mana erupting from his chest, he channelled the mana from his Mana Blade skill, directing it through the hundreds of threads stemming from his heart. Each thread pulsed with destructive energy, a network of power connecting to the swords surrounding both him and the Mother.
As the mana infused each blade, a single cultivator's sword among them resonated differently, with the powerful Qi it carried, tainted by chaos from another world, a force fundamentally opposed to mana's essence. The moment the destructive mana entered the Qi-infused blade, reality itself seemed to ripple like a disturbed pond.
A void erupted—shooting from thread to thread and summoned blade to summoned blade, visible to all present yet difficult to completely grasp, a gaping maw consuming everything in its reach, erasing matter as if it had never existed.
The void spread along the threads at speed, even with time slowed as it was. They shout dirty like an electric current, twisting all things connected to them into something unfathomable.
In a panic, Alex hastily disconnected from the threads as they shot towards his chest, less than 100 microseconds away from complete oblivion.
He had been prepared for it, but that had still been way too close.
And yet I’m still not safe, he thought, as above, the cavern ceiling fractured to a lattice, colossal slabs of stone blotted the sky—each the size of a small fortress.
The swords surged forward, hurtling toward both himself and the tigress's distracted form like a swarm of metallic wasps converging on their target.
Phoenix Leap.
He propelled himself off a falling boulder in a bid to escape the impact, shooting in any direction that would lead to safety. The heat from the nearby lava flows and Phoenix fire scorched his boots, searing the soles. Mid-air, he sensed the void web expanding rapidly like a hunter's thrown net, its bladed edges erasing the cavern walls. The void's advance was insatiable, consuming all in its path.
Boundless Dodge.
Mana seized his body, jerking him aside like a puppet on strings, moving him faster than he could on his own. He landed on a crumbling ledge, only for it to give way beneath him. Above the falling net of reality erasing destruction, rocks the size of carriages tumbled around him, each one a potential deathblow.
Even if he managed to escape the fallout of his attack, there was no guarantee he’d survive. Through the technique he had created, Void Web, that merged the two skills Mana Blade and Thousands Become One, he had learned that it was possible to use the complete energy sensing and control afforded to him by his sensory domain to control and manipulate his internal mana as he wished. If he knew how, he could manipulate the mana of his skills to merge their functions. If he were to survive this, he would have to do it again and create something new. I need to be quicker, he thought, his mind searching his skills for a combination that would be a solution. I have to move faster, he repeated, focusing every facet of his consciousness and focus into his Sword Saint’s Domain.
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The more condensed the domain, the more powerful his sensory skills and manipulation became. Alex stood at the epicentre of his Sword Saint's Domain, reduced from fifteen feet to a mere one-foot radius, in which the world bent to his will. The cavern stretched around his sight, time crawling, vast and crumbling under his web of destruction, but inside this tightly condensed space, Alex was a god of control.
Every ripple of energy, every subtle shift in the density of the mana within 1 foot of the cavern and his body was now perceptible, tangible even, as though the air itself had thickened into a fluid medium that he could reach into and manipulate at will.
He could acutely feel the mana engine nestled deep within his heart, constantly generating and filling his body with endless mana. His Mana Burn skill had forced the engine into overdrive, causing it to produce much more mana than it was capable of until there was nothing left, no spark to initiate its functions. It would soon enter a dormant state to self-repair and reignite. Fifteen seconds. That’s how long I have before it runs dry, shutting down entirely to undergo that self-repair function, he realised. He could feel it with the same clarity that he felt the rhythm of his own blood flowing.
In that brief window of slowed time, using the exponentially enhanced mana control within his amplified domain, Alex concentrated on the sensation of his passive skill, Sword Sense. It had replaced his nervous system and internal structure with one fused with his soul to provide him with reflexes, comprehension, and dexterity far beyond what his current stats and level should allow.
Every inch of his body became a cascade of sensations. Every nerve firing lit up his awareness like sparks travelling through taut wire. His muscles, ligaments, and tendons responded to every shift in movement, each fibre alive and primed, attuned to every external change. The world came into vivid and crisp focus. His body became a perfectly honed instrument, ready to react without thought, every twitch and tremor sharpened into precise action by the overwhelming clarity of Sword Sense.
And then he activated Phoenix Leap.
The skill's mana spread through him, completely under his control as he deftly guided it away from his legs to suffuse and spread through his nervous system.
[Phoenix leap - Mastery 11 > 21%]
The mana of Phoenix Leap surged through his body like a burst of energy coursing down a train track. It spread throughout his limbs, filling his nervous system with explosive kinetic power. That power, too, was under his control, flowing like a snake racing through the tree of his nervous system.
[Phoenix leap - Mastery 28 > 49%]
He held it there for a microsecond, still and unmoving, before releasing it in a burst of pure energy.
It created a powerful effect.
It’s not a consolidation or even a merging of skills, Alex realised. It’s using my passives— no, my body, to enhance 'Phoenix Leap' much further than should be possible.
[Phoenix leap - Mastery 49 > 72%]
These changes did not alter the core mechanics of Phoenix Leap—mana platform propulsion—but combined them with his refined skills to increase his movement options, efficiency, and control by leaps and bounds.
The burst of mana hit his senses all at once—sharp, intense. Invisible panels of mana materialized in the one-foot radius around Alex, arranged like a web of paths only he could see, waiting to be used. Not one, but multiple, about fifty in total, transparent yet thrumming with latent power like panes of glass suspended in the air, waiting for him to trigger them. He could feel them all—thin, ethereal, yet capable of propelling him at speeds he couldn’t otherwise reach, each one able to send him rocketing toward a direction. The more he could simultaneously trigger, the faster they would urge him forward, a force of raw acceleration at his disposal.
But the cost was staggering. His Mana plummeted.
The mana engine in his heart sputtered and a deep tremor ran through him as the overworked core dimmed, nearly shutting down under the strain of his prodigious mana use. Five seconds remained. He had five seconds before he would be completely drained. He could feel it—the sputtering pulse of energy struggling to keep up, like a dying flame about to snuff out.
[Phoenix leap - Mastery 72 > 100%]
[System Message: Skill Mastery Achieved!]
[E-Grade Skill: Phoenix Leap removed!]
[Assessing Skill Evolution…]
[Completed.]
[D-Grade Skill - Phoenix Cascade (Active) gained!]
[D-grade Skill 1: Phoenix Cascade (Active): Like a phoenix in perpetual motion, you cascade through the battlefield with unmatched speed and precision. By manipulating internal and external mana, generate multiple platforms simultaneously to propel yourself in any direction. Each platform Enables the user to perform a powerful leap, evading or engaging enemies with the agility of a Phoenix, easily overcoming obstacles. Rapidly shift between platforms to adjust course mid-leap, and maintain momentum or instantly redirect with quick, precise steps or fast bursting leaps. Platforms form and dissipate at will, allowing instant directional changes. Each platform holds a 1 second cool-down period. The number of generated platforms is dependent on factors that enhance the user's spatial awareness and bodily control, such as the dexterity or intelligence stat. Higher levels of mastery grant an increase in the number of generated platforms and the amount of acceleration each platform provides. At peak mastery, the user becomes able to perform complex ground and aerial manoeuvres while continuously adjusting direction on any surface until their mana is depleted, able to freely control the battlefield as a Phoenix would.
Current Leaping platforms: 50]
Alex dismissed the notification, distracted by the destruction that surrounded him.
The web-like void of destruction lay suspended above, approaching through slowed time. The network of threads and blades fused with a chaotic merging of mana and Qi created a wave of nothingness that consumed all in its path. Whatever it touched ceased to exist; rocks, boulders, basalt, flames, blood and even phoenix fire— all of it vanished at a single touch of the void web. At the same time, a cascade of boulders, palace-sized and laden with fire and molten stone, thundered toward him. The walls of the cavern collapsed like a dying beast under its own mass. Once he returned his perception of time to its normal pace, both the web and the avalanche would engulf them all.
Perhaps it would take even less than five seconds.
The first three panels triggered beneath his foot, invisible, but he felt the sudden jolt of propulsion. Four more panels triggered as he moved, his body already hurtling faster than his natural capabilities could manage. It was like stepping on lightning—each cascading section of panels sending him rocketing forward.
Alex triggered another panel, then several more, feeling the sudden burst of speed as cascading Mana propulsion launched him away from the ground and his world turned into a series of blurring lines. He landed on another platform instantly, his body caught in the fluidity of the motion, switching between triggered platforms as quickly as he could form them. With each triggered panel, his speed multiplied. He could feel the tension pulling at his limbs, the sheer force of acceleration threatening to tear him apart. But there was no stopping now, only the need to move forward and faster. His feet barely touched one surface before he was pushed to the next, each platform dissipating the moment it did its job.
But the void’s advance was relentless. It crept closer, devouring everything in its path. Boulders fell all around him, filling the cavern with a deafening roar, crashing down like mountains toppling in an earthquake. The ground shook violently, and for a split second, Alex lost his balance. He righted himself by triggering 10 panels, rocketing off another platform before the stone behind him was erased from existence. (Sensory Detail)
His mana was draining faster than he could process. The engine in his chest dimmed to nothing, the once-powerful roar now reduced to a sputtering murmur of energy. Three seconds left. The world grew darker as the sky became obscured.
He saw the void-web descending, felt it, expanding outward in all directions, a black wave of destruction that erased everything in its path. Alex heard a tiger's deep roar behind him, though it felt much closer to a frustrated scream, rattling the air and sediment. He had long since lost track of the Mother, his only thought of escape. He was sure she was somewhere close behind, attempting to do the same. The panels flared under his feet, invisible steps through the collapsing world.
The final platform shot him forward again, faster this time, but it was too late. The void web expanded, reaching out like tendrils of death shearing through his senses, and the boulders crashed down around him with the force of a world ending.
***
[2-hour mana cooldown in effect. Skills unavailable.]
Alex opened his eyes to a world of dust and debris.
“…I made it.” He murmured, more in surprise than relief. Those last moments had been too close; he had sensed the void before the cavern had gone dark—spreading like a black tide, erasing everything it touched and leaving a vacuum in its wake. not even oxygen, mana, Qi, or even sound remaining. It had completely sheared off parts of his domain.
He rose from lying flat on his back on the ground and surveyed the surroundings.
He emerged to open air with the sudden change in pressure making his ears ring. The night sky stretched above, the vast expanse made visible by the devastation beneath with its cavernous edges widened by the Blood Phoenix’s attack. The ground behind him had imploded to become a massive sinkhole filed with debris that rose high, all of it from the cavern collapsing. Dust hung in the air, suspended in a cloud that rose into the sky.
Alex stood at the edge, staring at the obstacle before him. A gaping wound and a wall of cooling segmented rock and magma that reached high into the sky now stood where there had once been an open cavern. The magnitude of destruction was immense, the void erasing all in its path. The edges of the cavern were covered in deep lines, patterns of indents and curves where the basalt and rock had simply been erased by the web, the landscape forever altered by his technique. It was strange to witness such destruction let alone be part of its cause. Even the wall of collapsed rock before him and rubble before him was fragmented into small sections and long cubes, his void web splitting all and anything it had touched. The Mother spirit beast at the 9th stage of Qi gathering and her cubs were buried somewhere within, likely skewered to pieces.
There’s no way the cubs survived, he thought with melancholy rising.
Sweat dripped down his brow. He felt a mix of relief and dread. The power he had harnessed was beyond control and had been a double-edged sword that spared no one, not even its wielder. The ground was littered with pieces of fractured stone, some as small as grains of sand, others large enough to sit upon. He turned away from the chasm, the weight of his actions heavy upon him. But there was no time for regret. Survival demanded his full attention.
How the hell do I get to the other side? He wondered, eyeing the jagged, segmented wall of rock that reached to the sky, the split earth yawning like the maw of some ancient, slumbering beast. The scene before him was not what he had hoped for.
Climbing over the wall would take an impossibly long time, maybe hours or days, even using Phoenix Cascade.
Maybe I could cut through it? If he extended his domain as far as it would go, he would gain insight into the structural integrity of his surroundings. Tunnelling through to the other side would be dangerous but impossible, he realised, rubbing his chin in consideration.
[You have defeated [Error - Non-System Entities detected - Quantifying…]
[Quantification Accepted.]
[You have defeated level 0̴̰͈͖̊͋0̴͎̟̣̈́̐0̵̠͉̥̔̊̈0̴̰͈͖̊͋0̴͎̟̣̈́̐ Fire Tiger Cub (Qi Gathering: First stage) - (D) x 5.]
[Experience Assimilated.]
[Qi 63 > 64]
So one cub managed to survive after all, Alex thought before his eyes widened as he read and re-read the notification, doing the math. The number nagged at him. There had been six at the first stage, just like him. And the Mother tigress who had been at the ninth stage. Seven beasts in total. But only five kills. That meant that somewhere within the rock, the mother had survived. But how? His thoughts moved through the possibilities. Perhaps she was slowly dying and he would get another notification. Any minute now... he thought.
He summoned Eclipse in preparation. Just in case.
The rock face quivered. A faint light seeped through the cracks, barely noticeable at first. The ground beneath him trembled, also faint. But it grew stronger with every moment that passed. Ahead, the cracks in the rock glowed faintly with light, a red-orange hue increasing in brightness as though a firestorm brewed within the mountainous wall. The rumble of the ground grew steadily into a roar.
The rock exploded outward, broken segments spraying in all directions, and within the dust, two burning eyes glowing with heat and rage fixed on Alex.