Vampire Progenitor of the Immortal World

Chapter 60: Chapter 50 : The Peak

The morning mist had not yet lifted from the hills. It rested between the trees in thin, pale layers, drifting slowly whenever the breeze moved through the valley. Beyond the clearing, a narrow stream passed between two stretches of exposed stone, its quiet current carrying fallen leaves downstream. The surrounding forest was still enough that the occasional movement of a bird or the distant call of some unseen creature seemed unusually clear.

Ethan sat alone on a flat stone beside the stream. His back was straight, his legs crossed, and his hands rested loosely over his knees. His breathing followed a steady rhythm that had become familiar through countless repetitions. He inhaled slowly, allowing the breath to settle deep within his body, then released it just as gradually.

Nothing about the scene suggested urgency. There were no enemies nearby. No expedition waiting for him. No assignment. No immediate danger. For the now, Ethan had nothing that demanded his attention. He simply cultivated.

The morning passed quietly.

By the time the mist began disappearing from the lower parts of the valley, Ethan had already completed several cycles of the Evergreen Breath Method. He opened his eyes. For a moment, he remained still.

Then he looked toward his hands. The changes in his body were no longer difficult to recognize. He could feel them without needing to search for them. The strength contained within his muscles had long since surpassed what his former self could have imagined. His bones, flesh, organs, and blood had all undergone gradual refinement through cultivation and the experiences that had followed.

Even the way he moved had changed. There was less wasted motion. Less hesitation. His body responded almost as naturally as thought. Ethan slowly stood. He stretched one arm, then the other, before stepping away from the stream.

It has been two months since the end of western expedition. Since the road had been filled with armed men, tense camps, abandoned settlements, broken wagons, and the blood-soaked battle in the hills.

The expedition itself had ended with the fall of Black Fang and the collapse of the bandits’ organized resistance. The remaining bandits had scattered into the surrounding terrain, but without their strongest fighters and their leader, they were no longer capable of presenting the same threat.

The state had not simply ignored them. After the main force returned, additional searches and clearing operations were carried out along the western route. The scattered remnants were gradually driven from the areas where they had established themselves. Some were captured. Some fled deeper into the wilderness. Others simply abandoned the region altogether.

It had taken time.

But the western road had begun returning to normal. Travelers were appearing again. Merchants who had previously avoided the route cautiously resumed their journeys. Some of the abandoned roadside structures had been repaired. The settlements that had survived the worst of the attacks slowly began opening their doors again.

The route was not completely restored. But it was no longer the same dangerous stretch of road Ethan had traveled two months earlier. And Ethan had returned to his ordinary life.

There had been no ceremony when he came back. No one had needed to announce that the expedition was over. He had simply collected what remained of his affairs, returned to his familiar routine, and continued cultivating.

The money he had earned from the expedition had given him greater freedom with his resources. The experience had given him something money could not.

Experience.

He had fought people who genuinely intended to kill him. He had seen the difference between ordinary strength and the power of a true cultivator. He had witnessed a Qi Refining cultivator act. And he had learned something even more important.

The world was much larger than the streets he had become familiar with. But that realization had not made him impatient. If anything, it had made him more deliberate.

Ethan walked back toward the center of the clearing. A few stones had been arranged there earlier. He had been using the place for his cultivation whenever he wanted to leave the noise of the city behind.

He stopped.

Then he raised his hand. His fingers curled into a fist. The movement was simple. But the strength contained within it was not.

Ethan tightened his grip.

The muscles in his forearm shifted beneath his skin. He remained there for several breaths. Then he slowly released his hand. Something had been bothering him.

Not an injury.

Not exhaustion.

Not instability.

Something much simpler.

His cultivation was no longer moving. At first, Ethan had not gave it much thought . Cultivation was not always a straight line. There were days when progress was difficult to notice. There were periods when the body needed time to consolidate what it had already gained.

He understood that.

So he had continued. One day became several. Several became weeks. He adjusted his routine. He changed the intensity of his training. He increased the amount of time he spent cultivating. He paid closer attention to the reactions of his body.

Still nothing.

The difference was subtle. If he had been the Ethan of several months ago, he might not have noticed it at all. But he was no longer that person. His understanding of his own body had become precise enough that even small changes were difficult to hide from him.

Ethan sat down again. He closed his eyes. This time, however, he did not immediately begin the Evergreen Breath Method. Instead, he turned his attention inward.

His awareness moved through the familiar sensations of his body. His breathing. His heartbeat. The circulation of his blood. The condition of his muscles. The strength in his bones. The changes brought by Body Tempering.

He observed everything carefully. Nothing was wrong. His body was stable. His foundation was stable. His strength was stable. And that was exactly the problem.

Ethan opened his eyes.

"So that’s it."

His voice was quiet. He wasn’t disappointed. Far from it, he was simply acknowledging what the evidence had already told him. He had reached the limit of his current stage.

Ethan stood again.

This time, he decided to test it directly. He moved into a stance. His feet settled against the ground, while his shoulders relaxed.

Then he struck.

The first punch was simple. The second was faster. The third carried more force. He continued. His movements flowed one after another, controlled and deliberate. His body moved through the sequence with a level of coordination that would have been impossible for him when he first began cultivating.

When he finished, he did not feel tired. That alone told him something. He had deliberately pushed his body. Yet the result was the same. There was no new threshold. No sudden increase. No deeper layer waiting beneath the surface.

Ethan stood in silence.

He tried again. This time he focused on refinement rather than strength. He went through the breathing pattern he had used countless times before, guiding his body through the process as carefully as he could.

He waited.

Nothing.

He repeated it.

Still nothing.

A faint crease appeared between his brows. Not frustration, thought. He had always treated cultivation as something that needed to be understood. Whenever he encountered a problem, he observed it. Whenever something changed, he recorded it, and whenever he found something he could not explain, he tested it rather than simply accepting it.

So he did the same thing now.

Ethan sat down and began comparing what he was experiencing with what he had experienced in the past. The difference became clearer. Previously, every period of cultivation had brought some form of change. Sometimes it was obvious. Sometimes it was so small that he only noticed it after several days. But there had always been movement.

Now there was none.

His body had reached a point where the same process could no longer push it farther. He lowered his gaze.

Body Tempering.

He had spent so much time simply trying to enter the path of cultivation that there had been a period when reaching this point would have seemed impossible. He remembered the uncertainty of those earlier days.

The search. The testing. The attempt to determine whether he possessed a Spirit Root. Then the relief when he finally confirmed that he could cultivate.

The effort required to obtain the Evergreen Breath Method. The resources he had slowly gathered. The countless hours spent training his body. At the beginning, he had not even known whether the path ahead would work. Now he had reached its highest point.

Ethan slowly clenched his hand. He could feel the strength there. The strength was real. The refinement was real. Everything he had gained was real. But there was nowhere else for the same process to take him. He had reached the peak. The thought settled quietly in his mind.

Peak Body Tempering.

There was no celebration. No thunder. No phenomenon in the heavens. The forest remained exactly as it had been. The stream continued flowing.

A bird landed briefly on a distant branch before flying away again.

Yet for Ethan, something had changed. Not his strength. His understanding. He had finally reached the boundary that separated what he knew from what he did not.

Qi Refining.

Ethan had heard enough about cultivation to understand that Body Tempering was only the beginning.

The body was strengthened first. The foundation was established. Then came the point where a cultivator began dealing with Qi in a fundamentally different manner.

He had not reached that stage.

Not yet.

His body had reached the highest point it could reach through his current progression, but that did not mean the next boundary would simply open because he wanted it to.

Ethan knew better than that. He had spent too much time learning how difficult cultivation was to assume otherwise. He looked toward the distant mountains. The peaks were partially hidden behind morning haze.

For a long moment, he watched them. There was something fitting about the sight. A peak was not the end of the world. It was simply the highest point of one particular mountain.

Beyond it were other mountains. Higher ones. More dangerous ones. And paths he had not yet learned how to walk. Ethan lowered his gaze.

He had reached the peak of Body Tempering. But he had not yet found the road beyond it. That was the problem. And for the first time since beginning his cultivation journey, he could not solve it simply by training harder. He needed to understand what came next.

He returned to his usual position beside the stream. The sunlight had now reached the clearing, scattering through the branches and touching the surface of the water.

Ethan sat down.

He closed his eyes again. This time, however, he did not cultivate. He simply remained there, thinking. The journey from an ordinary mortal to this point had already taken him farther than he had once imagined. Yet compared with the world he had glimpsed during the expedition, his current strength was still only a beginning.

He had seen what cultivators could do, at least what a Qi Refining cultivator can do. He had seen the difference between Body Tempering and Qi Refining.

He had seen how quickly the balance of a battlefield could change when someone stronger entered it. And he had no intention of remaining at this boundary forever. Ethan opened his eyes. His gaze settled on the quiet stream.

"Then I need to find the next step."

There was no impatience in his voice. Only certainty. He had reached the peak. Now he needed to discover what lay beyond it.

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