Pain lanced into me as my tangled and overgrown Soul Roots shifted inside me. It felt like a thousand lacerations inside my veins; my vision started to strain and go black. Deep in my chest, a rhythmic chime pulsed outward from my Soul Seed. With shaking hands, I just managed to reach out to the jade pill bottle—but my muscles spasmed as I got the bottle open, spilling the pill into the sand. Fuck. Romeo had to have gotten it to help deal with this pain! I'd lost it in the immortals-damned sand!

My hand sifted through the beach with the same desperation of a dehydrated man trying to lick up water from the floor. Eventually, I found it—shoving the pill in my mouth along with a handful of throat-tearing sand. I gagged but forced it all down my throat. The pain was a mounting pressure that only increased, and I’d do anything to relieve it.

Romeo crouched nearby. I managed to look at him as the pain eased, no doubt thanks to the pill. “H-help.”

“There is no one to help you, passerotto. I am sorry. This is how it is. The path to immortality is a path that challenges the heavens. But I am here, do not worry.”

With those damning words, the pain shot through me like a bullet. Twice—no, thrice worse than before. The pill made things worse. My very blood felt like it was boiling inside of me. My mind was already near the edge from starvation and exhaustion, and now it threatened to snap for good. Arcs of electricity sparked from me—long tendrils of energy tore into the sand near me, hot enough to turn it into glass. My Soul seared with pure energy as my Soul rampaged through my body.

At some point, I started screaming. Lightning burst off of me in bolts to smash into everything nearby; this was nothing like the sparks from Fickle Fate. Each part of me flashed between burning and freezing. Was I going to die? Death from heavenly tribulations wasn’t unheard of, especially at higher ranks. Hell, even Possessions happened on occasion. Though, that was near-impossible at this stage.

The pain ramped until my mind went into a blank void screaming—then, after minutes of agony ending with me being unable to feel my body, the bolts of lightning stopped erupting. The Soul Roots that dug their way through me stopped squirming and shifting. Now they were clean and untangled, forming a complex structure in me similar to a second circulatory system.

Slowly my awareness began to return. My Soul Seed changed—no longer a lump of pure energy; no, an almost translucent ethereal sprout cracked it—breaking through the top. All of my lifeblood, my energy, fed the Soul. It was me. And in turn, it pulsed its strength back out through the Soul Roots in me.

I gasped on the sand, numb. I hadn’t taken a breath for quite some time. But the air tasted sweet, so I began to take in as much as possible. Once I finally lost the numbness in my skin, I pushed myself up. My body was alarmingly lighter than before—throwing off my balance as it reacted faster than expected, and my strength went further than it had before. I eventually jerked to my feet, only to flop back to the ground as my muscles failed to cooperate.

Romeo gave a wide smile, walking up and offering me a hand to help me to my feet. “Proud! You make me very proud on this day, passerotto! Were only your father here so he could see you take your first step into manhood!” That last bit made his expression flick to a frown, which he covered with a smile.

“Shit.” My mind still scorched from the pain, even if my body seemed to thrum with deceptive power. It was as if I were taking from something that didn’t exist in the physical realm and using it to enhance myself. With Romeo’s help, I stood up.

“Do not worry! This sort of backlash is to be expected. Your Soul will recover and grow more powerful than before. The best way to speed its recovery is to bathe yourself in the Dao that it revolves around—I doubt you still think of your path as one of gambling, but as you said. It does help.” Romeo’s eyes had a glint to them. He pulled out a pack of cards from his sleeve. “Care for a game of poker?”

That came out of left field. Out of instinct, I almost vomited out the word ‘yes.’ But no. Something else was bugging me. Then it snapped into my mind. “Wait. Wait—how do I Manifest my Soul?” I’d spent late nights awake in my bed thinking about the shape it’d take. Was it a sapling like what my Soul Seed turned into? That’d be fucking lame; I didn’t spend that much pain and effort, nor risk my life to spawn a stupid plant—

“Ah. Yes. Just like your father and me.” Romeo shook his head, busting the seal on the pack and shuffling the cards with unexpected familiarity. “We make a bet, yes? If you win, I’ll show you how to Manifest it before we leave. I win? You have to sort it out yourself. Immortals know I’ve taken far too many liberties from my position already. Once we get back, I fear I shall be sent out of New Valentine on business for a few weeks as penance.”

Despite the mental fatigue, that rush of euphoria hit me. Keener, then it’d ever been before. My Soul Seed urged me to decide my Fate on the card game, even if the exhaustion put me at a disadvantage. “I’m in.”

— ♤ - ♥ - ♧ - ♦ —

“Congratulations!” Bruno pounced on me only a day after I got into town. Alex must have messaged him since he confronted me right after I woke up after my half-a-day rest.

The big brute camped out inside my living room. Ma had taken a liking to him, and much to my chagrin, the barriers between home life and the gang had eroded away.

It was stressful but freeing, in a way. Ma still didn’t ask what we got up to with all of our free time, but I suspected she knew Bruno wasn’t a schoolmate.

I let out a string of cusses as the blond behemoth screwed up my hair. I’d spent a good twenty minutes getting it right when I woke up—I didn’t wanna go out looking like trash. Especially since I felt better than ever before, my skin was healthier, each step had more bounce, and I bet I could bench press way more. Breaking through to the next stage was like becoming a new man—even at the lowest cultivation stages.

“You did it right?!” Bruno asked eagerly, looking me up and down. Sorry, big guy. No dramatic outward change, even if inside, it was like I had a million spirit chips.

“Of course I did.” I nodded. Romeo had told me that I was stronger, quicker, and more flexible, but my raw strength likely didn’t match Bruno’s overwhelming brutal power even in my current condition. That was what he cared about the most. It was why he probably camped out at my house. The nutso wanted to test me.

The real gap in power came in the form of a Manifested Soul.

“Let’s spar!” Bruno yelled. There it was. I shook my head. Normally, I’d be fine with a quick fist trade, but there was stuff to do today. Kayson no doubt wanted to talk to me right away. I’d left them to deal with whatever bullshit fighting they had to against the Crimson Eagles. I owed him whatever he needed.

“Ya know, we can hangout without having to take swings all the damn time, right?”

“Hahaha! It’s half the fun! Besides, you broke through! I wish to test my mettle against yours in a glorious battle. That is what friends are for!” He cocked his head back, laughing hard enough to bring a tear to his eye.

I scoped out the living room; in the excitement, I’d nearly forgotten we were currently at my own damn house. I was lucky Ma had already left. Though, my gremlin of a brother was spying on us from the couch.

Things were going to be different now. I broke through, and I’d make better choices. My first resolve was to be less selfish to those around me; that started with my friends and family. First, I needed spirit chips. With this new power came determining the best ways to leverage it to protect and help those people.

“Well. If we won’t have a magnificent fight to start the day, how about something else? Come with me, Luca!” he began to walk to the door like it was all he needed to do to get me to follow. He was lucky that I missed him enough to go along with it.

“Ya know I just got home, right?” Due to his unexpected appearance, all I had on was a euro-band t-shirt and some jeans. Certainly not the sort of thing I wanted to stroll around the city in. “Give me an hour, and I’ll sort some shit out.”

“Nope! There’s something you’ll want to see right this moment! Trust me!” He turned back around, slinging a massive arm over my shoulder and using his strength to take my choice of the equation.

There was no way out of this short of starting a fight in my own living room. If I did start a brawl—well, then I’m sure Bruno would be overjoyed. But I didn’t feel like explaining why I’d burned the house down; Bruno didn’t hold back in fights. In the end, I conceded and hopped on my friend’s bike.