There were Concepts like fire, like water, like earth and air. Glory. Kindness…

The System would gladly reward you for understanding them.

But did the System understand?

Nic knew the System, had been born from it. He knew the System came to worlds with one goal. Conquest. It would poison the water or drink until the seas ran dry. It would ravage the earth until nothing grew and fill the sky with smog. Fire would devour all that was left and then burn down to embers.

All that would be left was a husk. Like the city of his birth.

How could the System expect him to call any part of the world sacred? To see the dao or the beauty of anything?

How? When it was blind itself...

His eyes were closed. He’d eaten the White Pearl Fruit, and a faint glow had appeared between his eyes, where the skin was furrowed up with the intensity of his thought.

In the end…

In the end, the System only accepted these things as sacred or powerful because they granted power.

And when that power met its match. When it was weighed against another force and couldn’t win…

All that was sacred would become ash.

His palm slammed forward, and something changed. A shadow rushed through the room, carrying an immense weight, a descending sense of loss. The water split apart, breaking into two waves that rushed up the walls on either side of Nic as he stood against the exposed earth, staring in surprise at his own hand.

He had reached seventy-eight percent.

Concept of Desolation

All that is sacred will become ash.

Restricts opposing aura.

(1% of Essence gained as Spiritual Essence.) (0/1,000 Spiritual Essence stored.)

Nic released a gasping breath as the moment ended, leaving him with a new Concept.

And yet…

It wasn’t enough. There was a shadow on his soul, driving him further. And he felt a restless power resonating with his soul.

Nic reached into the bag and drew out the key. For a second he hesitated.

His better sense was screaming to stop…

But something hypnotic lulled him forward.

This was a double-edged sword. The angel had said as much…

But so what? So was cultivation. So was risking his life in a million other ways. In a moment of hunger, Nic’s self-control shook.

As he filled it with aura, the two-toned jade transformed into a beam of light and shot into his skull between the eyes.

---

Everything had slowed to a crawl. Before, Nic had likened improving his Mental Acuity to the flow of a river, going from a wide and muddy stream full of distractions to a clear-cut and powerful channel. Now...

Now his focus was like a frozen lake. Every thought stood preserved and perfectly clear. He had all the time in the world to examine and understand each one.

Cultivation had taken on a hypnotic rhythm, and Nic’s body guided the way while his mind simply floated through a timeless space where feeling and knowing were one and the same.

Nic continued to work, diligently rotating through his forms to grasp at whatever progress he could make with the newly created palm strike. The feeling of utter concentration he’d reached was fading fast, alongside something else, a sense of spiritual nirvana, as if his soul had been laid open and allowed to absorb the essence of the cosmos. Something the fruit had done…

He kept his eyes closed and tried to extend the moment for as long as possible.

Under Sofia’s guidance, he was trying to carve the skill into his heart, creating a true Technique. Rather than using aura to flow through his body, he used Essence, drawing markings of concentrated energy between a set of five nodes in his chest and shoulders.

This was exponentially more difficult than just using aura. Essence was powerful, violent, and willful. His own willpower was stretched to the limit as he worked to hold all five nodes stable while drawing the connection. His concentration was split six ways- creating pressure on the five nodes and drawing delicate lines of Essence between them.

At the same time, his body was following through with the motions, trying to instill the true nature and the meaning of the strike into his soul with whole-hearted repetition.

It was something he only had a chance to succeed at because he’d spent lonely years of work polishing his ability to draw runes.

Because of the chamber.

Because of Sofia’s vision helping to guide him.

Because of his experience with the bloodline seal.

Each node needed to serve a different purpose. The first purified the aura and accelerated it. The second infused it with the meaning of Desolation. The third, fourth, and fifth helped disperse it into the bone, muscle, and sinew.

But more than any of the things that led to this, Nic simply had momentum. With a final gasp he burst through and completed the final stroke of the internal rune, creating a closed loop. Within that circle the Essence began to flow faster and faster, building in strength, and the strike he threw out began to transform.

His hand burst forward and spectral flames of beautiful, pure blue-white like the color of the moon surrounded the palm. A strange shadow overlaid his arm, making it appear briefly twice its size. The strength magnified again, and the water within the submerged cultivation chamber became a tormented whirlpool, the eye of the maelstrom held in the palm of his hand.

Within that palm strike was all the rage and despair he’d ever felt locked to the concrete earth of City Layer d23, a husk of a person clinging to a dead and tired world.

The System’s eyes are upon you

Name the Technique you have created and it will be inscribed on the face of history.

Nic breathed out slowly, letting his body fall still. The cool water lapped against his overheated skin, soothing the bruised, overworked muscle beneath. Actual trembles ran down his arm as he finally allowed the momentum to escape him.

None of the names from the novels he’d read seemed to fit. They were grand, overpowering titles.

Nic felt none of them suited.

“Hand of Ash.”

He croaked out.

Walker on the Path of Forefathers

Receive our benefit.

His left arm was nearly recovered now, but Nic sat down heavily, perching himself on the stone meditation slab. He could see the shadow of the skyscrapers in d23. Feel the thin rain that freckled the pavement and turned to silver streaks as it passed through the halos of the streelights.

He’d never be free of it.

These things were inscribed on his bones and the secret name of his soul.

“Nicolas, this is incredible! Developing a technique, even a simple one, this early...” Sofia said. Then she paused. “You don’t seem happy.”

“Just…”

How did he explain the dreams he’d been having? Of bringing life back to the city of his birth. At first, when he came to this new world, he thought he could shed his past like a snake breaking free of its skin. When he saved Tarquin, he thought he’d cut the last ties between him and the city…

But it wasn’t that simple.

He couldn’t seem to run, not when the memory was still in his dreams.

“Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

As he thought, and as Sofia waited for a reply, Nicolas snapped open his cultivation map.

Essence 23,126 / 27,031

+ 19.272 per Minute

(3.212 Base)

100% Local Modifier

+ 100% Dominion

+ Devoured an E-Class enemy (200%)

+ Consumed a F-Class treasure (100%)

+ Rested in toxic environment (300%)

Demonic Essence &%##!~

Titles -

Witness of the New Dao

---

Ferocious Beast

(Rewards 18,500 First Wave Credits to your killer. Increase bounty by 500 with each Native you kill. Each dawn, gain credits equal to one tenth of your bounty.)

Sage-Artisan

(The Hand of Ash technique is recognized as your creation, and all costs related to it are halved.)

Cultivation Base (Unranked)

XII Physical Strength (0/6,000)

III Mental Acuity (842/8,000)*

II Spiritual Clarity (2,822/4,000)*

II Regeneration (10,322/20,000)

His basic attributes were increasingly impressive. Even with his small frame, unable to leverage muscle mass, he was shockingly powerful with a speed that larger creatures would struggle to match. In terms of Mental Acuity, while he’d need to progress further before he faced Azmin again, his connection to Sofia gave him great advantages in resisting mental interference.

Spiritual Clarity…

Despite the actual number being low, it was something of a feat to reach even the second rank this early. Having two Concepts, let alone three, was abnormally good.

The only flaw was he lacked any cultivation manuals. Body, mind, spirit, even the base rate of cultivation could all be improved with techniques.

When he found the sixth Plate of the Sun God’s Dictate, he’d be able to mark one of those off the list.

As for his Shards, the story was a little different.

Primordial Mist Shard (E)

Creates a mist that contains the weight of the ages, stealing life and weakening those who survive. An almost truly unique Shard, with few if any defenses existing to its power.

III Increase Toxicity (334/8,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/5,000)

I Secondary Slot (0/100,000)

Poison Devouring (Complete)

Mist Armor (0/50,000)

Petrified Warriors (0/200,000)

Jewel of Ages (0/500,000)

Primordial Mist was simply ungodly expensive. Raising any of its aspects wasn’t cheap, but worse, he could only actually use it once or twice during battle thanks to its excessive cost in aura. Focusing down efficiency was the only route forward…

But for now it didn’t matter. Primordial Mist killed when he needed it to kill. It was a sharp blade that gave his box of tools a sudden and severe killing blow.

Mire-Caller (F)

Calls to and creates binding masses of mud, sludge, or tar. A powerful Shard for binding and controlling that requires work and imagination to master.

II Base Enhancement (414/2,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/1,000)

I Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Mire-Drowned Remnants (0/50,000)

Futile Struggle (0/50,000)

Mire-Dweller (0/10,000)

Clay Idols (0/50,000)

Mire-Caller was the other end of his toolbox. It represented extreme utility, with a number of different uses he’d discovered. The only drawback was its total reliance on the environment. In the desert, he’d had to rely on the Sandrider Blade for a similar function…

Nic wanted to unlock the next Secondary Slot soon, and integrate something that would make it less useless outside of muddy areas.

But some of the options that added utility were very interesting. Clay Idols, in particular. Nic had managed to create crude mud golems when he was fighting the slimes, but controlling them had been almost impossible…

Maybe this was the solution.

Totemic Petroglyphs (F)

Creates tools of bone, rock, and leather that contain the spirits of the fallen, calling them to your aid. A high-quality magical shard.

V Base Enhancement (Complete)

I Add Essence Efficiency (346/2,000)*

Additional Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Summoning Limit (0/50,000)

Spirits of the Earth (Complete)

Shard-Crafting (0/100,000)

Totemic Petroglyphs had simply fallen behind. It had been supremely useful when Nic was struggling to gather resources, but now, the harsh limits on what it could craft were becoming difficult to manage. Forged metal, complex machinery, almost anything technological was out…

And the spirits it summoned could no longer keep up with Nic.

It was the skill Nic was most concerned with, and the one he chose to focus on. Of his energy, 20,000 motes of Essence were slowly pushed into unlocking the next Secondary Slot. Over the next day or so he intended to finish the rest, and fill the new slot with the Hierophant Shard.

While it was a mysterious and vague Shard at best, Nic thought a power related to godly summoning would combine perfectly with his spiritual runeworks.

Techniques (22% Capacity)

Eight-Eyed Mantle (1,914/12,200)

Inner Sacrifice Cauldron Technique (514/6,600)

Hand of Ash (0/1,220)

Finally, there were his Techniques. Nic had honestly put very little effort into them, despite the Eight-Eyed Mantle saving his life on a dozen occasions.

There was always too little Essence and too little time.

Now, he had the chance to increase Hand of Ash for very little. Pushing energy into the newly forged symbol that connected the five nodes within his shoulder, Nic felt the System’s cold, logical hand brush away imperfections in his design, refining it.

All in all he had the Essence to raise it to the third tier, and watched in satisfaction as with each breakthrough, his design became more clear in purpose and craft.

“Nicolas?” Sofia asked.

Nic had almost forgotten she was here.

“I think I need to do something.”

“And what is that? You’ve saved Tarquin. You’ve built Winterhome. I’d say you’ve done a lot, Nicolas.”

“I know, but…” He massaged his face, working the newly-reforged muscle of his left hand. Now that the skin was reforming, so were the Dao Markings, minute runes shooting from the ruins of the arm he’d discarded to attach themselves to the newly grown limb. “It’s not enough. I have something, I don’t know, that I have to fix…”

“I need a way back to City d23.”

“Going back would be costly, but possible, especially if you were willing to use a temporary body…”

“No.” The more he thought, the more he realized what it was he needed to do.

There was green earth here, and blue sky. Open land full of life and richness. He thought of the concrete prison he’d been born in, and the people still trapped there, and the certainty grew…

He could give this to them.

“I need to open a portal between the worlds. One that everyone can come through, this time.”

“It’s not… impossible, Nicolas. It’s not impossible. But the resources needed would be tremendous. Neither the city layer nor Winterhome are part of the Webways. It could be done, but… You would be directly challenging the powers of the city.”

Nic nodded. There was a fire burning in his skull, like the moment had taken on such clarity he could see the future, see his path, see everything he had to do. Was this the Key’s power? “I know. But, I mean, they’re not gods. They’re not even the System’s favorites. They’re just the rulers of a small, mean city. The only thing they did was conquer a dungeon.”

“Taking over a city dungeon... It’s ambitious, certainly.”

“I really thought you’d be telling me no.”

“It’s an extravagant waste of resources to build the portal, and the System will likely act to restrict us from bringing too many people through. But the actual idea is less reckless than most of what you’ve done. We can plan for this. Prepare to fight them…”

“So it’s settled?”

“Just one question. Why? You have to realize Nicolas, there won’t be many outliers like you. The best and brightest have been taken from the city already, sent away to the Legions. Many of the people left behind are criminals, derelicts…”

“It doesn’t matter who they are.” Nic said. “I’m doing this for me.”

“I suppose that’s what I needed to hear.” Sofia assented. “You should come back up now. There’s something you should see.”