Chapter 67: Master
The old man’s words forced Lothe and Seana to reevaluate everything they had learned since the beginning of the apocalypse.
They had awakened their powers, fought monsters, broken through levels, and created techniques through trial and error. Yet they were beginning to understand how crude their knowledge of cultivation truly was.
"What do you mean by that, Senior?" Seana asked.
"Call me Master."
Even with the tension filling the chamber, the old man hadn’t forgotten to make Seana acknowledge him properly.
"Master," Seana corrected herself immediately, a small smile appearing on her face.
She couldn’t help feeling proud. She had actually obtained such a powerful master.
"Hehe. Don’t get too cocky, girl. I won’t tell you anything just yet."
The old man’s expression suddenly became serious.
"Not until your Alchemy talent reaches the Grandmaster Rank and your cultivation reaches the Void Refining Realm."
Both Lothe and Seana froze.
Void Refining Realm?
Neither of them had ever heard of such a name before.
The old man then turned toward Lothe.
"Your Array and Talisman Mastery needs to be upgraded as well."
"But Master, what do you mean by Void Refining Realm?" Seana asked, unable to hide her confusion.
The old man looked at her as though she had asked the most ridiculous question imaginable.
"Girl, you’re currently at the beginner stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. You’re a cultivator. This is common knowledge. Don’t tell me you don’t even know that."
Silence filled the chamber.
The old man looked at Seana.
Then Lothe.
Then Ye Cangming.
His expression slowly changed.
"Oh."
He finally understood.
"You people are only beginning to cultivate."
The three of them remained silent.
The old man sighed.
"Well, for starters, the first major realm is the Qi Refining Realm. It has nine levels. After that comes the Foundation Establishment Realm, followed by the Core Formation Realm, and then several higher realms."
He paused.
"When you reach each realm, you will naturally understand what is required to break through to the next."
Lothe and Seana listened like two serious students.
Their expressions were filled with shock and fascination. For the first time, they were looking at their previous breakthroughs from an entirely different perspective.
Lothe’s mind began running through every battle he had fought.
Every breakthrough.
Every system notification.
Every new ability.
Every technique he had created.
Then his thoughts stopped.
Right. The System.
From everything he had learned about it, the System didn’t actually create techniques for him. It didn’t simply hand him new abilities whenever he leveled up.
Every technique he possessed had been created through his own understanding and interaction with his powers.
The System merely evaluated them.
Then it gave them names.
That meant...
The System wasn’t teaching him how to become stronger. It was recording the path he created himself.
A strange realization settled over Lothe.
He had been walking his own cultivation path from the very beginning.
He simply hadn’t realized it.
"Your aptitude with Space is monstrous."
The old man’s blunt voice pulled Lothe from his thoughts.
"Yet your application of it is utterly pathetic."
Lothe’s expression remained calm, but his fist slowly clenched.
"You fight like a barbarian swinging a golden hammer!"
Seana’s lips twitched.
The old man continued without mercy.
"Your fighting style may be effective against humans and newly awakened cultivators. But against truly powerful beings, your methods become weaknesses that can easily be exploited."
His eyes narrowed.
"You possess a supreme spatial attribute, yet every time you step through Space or condense a Spatial Blade, you waste nearly seventy percent of your Qi."
Lothe’s eyes narrowed slightly.
’Seventy percent?"
"At least."
The old man scoffed.
"You simply push raw energy outward without an anchor. You force Space to tear apart through sheer momentum. That’s why your meridians bleed and your Qi pool empties after only a few moves."
Seana stepped forward defensively. "He created those techniques on his own in less than a week!"
"Which is why he hasn’t blown himself up yet." The old man glanced at her. "Pure luck and a strong physical constitution."
Seana fell silent.
The old man turned back toward Lothe.
"Boy, Space isn’t a wall you smash through. It’s a fabric woven from invisible threads."
He raised two fingers.
"If you want to manipulate it without destroying yourself, you must understand the Principles of Spatial Anchoring."
"Spatial Anchoring?"
Lothe’s eyes sharpened.
But the old man didn’t explain further. Instead, he turned toward Seana.
"Even you."
Seana blinked. "Me?"
"Both of you. Sit cross-legged." The Old Man said
Lothe and Seana didn’t need to be told twice.
They immediately sat down.
"Spread your perception and sense the Qi surrounding you."
Lothe closed his eyes.
Seana did the same.
Slowly, their perception expanded. The Qi in the air became apparent, flowing between the ancient stones, the four beast statues, the black coffin, and the surrounding formations.
For Seana, sensing the Qi was not really difficult.
For Lothe, however, it was different.
With [Spatial Perception], the surrounding Qi became almost tangible. He could sense its movement, density, and direction, as well as the subtle disturbances caused by the ancient formation.
Lothe’s left eyebrow lifted slightly.
The old man noticed.
"To control Space without massive Qi expenditure, you must first establish a Node—a fixed point in Space using your soul energy and Qi as stabilizers."
His fingers moved slightly.
"Instead of violently tearing Space apart, anchor your Qi to two points and allow Space to fold toward you."
He paused.
"Energy doesn’t need to fight energy. It flows through harmony."
Those were the only instructions he offered.
The old man lowered his hand.
"I’ll only give you the principle. If you can’t figure out the rest yourself, then you don’t deserve to stand beside my disciple."
Ye Cangming smirked.
Understanding spatial principles required countless years of cultivation and meditation from high-level spatial cultivators. Expecting a human who had only cultivated for a short time to understand them from two sentences was absurd.
Neither the old man nor Ye Cangming knew about Lothe’s absurd SSS+ Array and Talisman Mastery.
Nor did they understand how perfectly his newly awakened [Qi Sight] complemented it.
To Lothe, the old man’s words weren’t vague instructions.
They were structural blueprints.
His mind immediately began connecting the pieces.
A spatial Node... An anchor... Instead of tearing through Space...
Why shouldn’t I fold it?
Lothe’s thoughts accelerated. They moved with almost algorithmic precision, breaking the old man’s explanation into structures, connections, and processes.
A Node wasn’t simply a point. It was a reference point.
An anchor.
A fixed coordinate.
And if he could establish multiple coordinates, Space itself could become part of the technique’s structure.
Lothe’s breathing slowed.
With [Qi Sight], he looked inward.
He observed his meridians.
His Qi Core.
And the technique he had forged earlier. Void Devour.
Suddenly, something clicked.
When I absorbed the Beast King’s Core, Void Devour forced the foreign energy through my meridians and crushed it through brute force.
That’s why it caused so much pain.
That’s why my meridians were damaged.
His eyes sharpened.
But what if I apply an Array Node inside the Void Devour circulation?
Lothe immediately began experimenting.
He channeled his Void Qi.
Instead of allowing it to form a loose, violent whirlpool, he used his soul energy to establish three invisible spatial anchors at key meridian junctions around his Qi Core.
Three points. Three coordinates. Three anchors.
Together, they formed a miniature internal refinement matrix.
VRMMMM!
The Void Qi inside Lothe’s body suddenly trembled.
Then—
It stabilized.
The violent circulation transformed into a perfectly controlled loop. The energy no longer crashed randomly through his meridians.
It flowed.
Smoothly.
Precisely.
Almost no energy escaped.
Lothe’s eyes opened.
Ping!
[Technique Optimization Detected!]
[Void Devour has been optimized through high-level Spatial comprehension.]
Lothe stared at the notification.
For the first time, the old man’s teachings had allowed him to see something he had never noticed before.
His techniques weren’t finished.
They could evolve.
And perhaps...
So could the path he had created for himself.
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