The temple stairs were uncomfortable.

Kael didn’t care. He sat on the crimson stone with his back against a cracked pillar, watching the battlefield below with the detached interest of someone who had already done his part and was now waiting for the adults to finish theirs.

Aria sat beside him, cleaning her daggers with methodical precision. Rue perched on a higher step, scythe resting against her shoulder, tails curled around her like a furry blanket. Silas stood a few feet away, arms crossed, expression cold as always.

They’d been chatting for maybe ten minutes.

Aria was mid-sentence when Kael’s instincts screamed.

Too late.

"What are you guys talking about?"

The voice came from behind them. Directly behind them. Close enough that Kael could feel the body heat radiating from the speaker.

He spun, fist already moving—

The kick caught him in the stomach.

BOOM!

The impact was devastating. Not painful—Kael didn’t have time to process pain. One moment he was turning, the next he was flying, his body ragdolling through the air, ribs cracking, spine compressing, organs shifting inside his torso like they were trying to escape.

He hit a pillar fifty meters away.

The stone cracked. His vision went white. Something warm and blood filled his mouth.

"Aria! Rue! Blast the cunt now!"

Silas’s voice cut through the haze. The summoner had reacted faster than Kael—already moving.

Aria’s hands came up. Golden light gathered between her palms—a concentrated sphere of pure illumination, compressed to the density of a small star.

Rue’s eyes flashed as she murmured. "BOOM!"

The Word Magic command left her lips just as Aria released the light blast. The two attacks crossed paths, merging into a combined assault of light and explosive force that screamed toward the position where Kael’s attacker had been standing.

Silas’s direwolf materialized—summoned from shadow charging forward with its massive jaws open and claws extended.

The attacks hit an earth wall.

It materialized from nothing—a dome of compressed stone and soil that erupted from the ground, absorbing the light blast, withstanding the explosive force, catching the direwolf’s charge like a brick wall catching a car.

CRACK!

The direwolf hit the wall and bounced off, stunned.

The earth wall exploded outward—not from the attacks, but from the man stepping through it. He moved like the wall wasn’t there, like solid stone was just a suggestion he’d chosen to ignore.

He was old. Maybe forties, maybe fifties—impossible to tell with cultivators. Massive build, thick arms, a face that looked like it had been carved from granite and then punched a few times for character. Earth element radiated from him like heat from a furnace.

Mana Heart Realm. Peak Rank 9.

Their senses screamed the information at them. The gap between them was enormous—

How had Kael not sensed him?

The answer was simple. The man had been suppressing his cultivation base completely—hiding it behind some technique that made him invisible to anything except direct observation. Kael’s gravity sense was good, but it wasn’t perfect. Against someone who knew how to hide, who had centuries of experience in concealment—

"Jump back!" Silas shouted.

The girls moved. Aria and Rue leaped away in opposite directions. Silas tried to follow—

The man appeared in front of her.

His kick was casual. Almost lazy. Just a simple forward motion, leg extending, foot connecting with the direwolf that had repositioned to protect its summoner.

The wolf took the hit.

It threw itself into the kick’s path, with its massive body absorbing the impact that would have killed Silas. The beast’s ribs cracked. Its spine bent. But it held.

For a moment.

Then the kick’s full force transferred through the wolf’s body and into Silas.

Both of them went flying.

The direwolf hit a building—a ruined structure at the edge of the battlefield—and crumbled through the wall. Silas followed a moment later, her body ragdolling through stone and debris.

The man turned.

His eyes found Rue.

"You." His voice was flat. Evaluating. "The most dangerous. You die first."

He moved.

Rue’s eyes widened.

"STOP!"

The command left her lips with everything she had—every drop of will, every shred of intent, every ounce of power her Mana Heart realm cultivation could provide. The Word Magic slammed into the man’s mind like a freight train.

He stopped.

For exactly two seconds.

Then the earth around his feet cracked—not from his movement, but from the force of his will breaking free. His eyes, which had gone momentarily glassy, sharpened with cold amusement.

"Interesting technique." He took a step forward. "But I’ve been killing foxes for longer than you’ve been alive."

Rue coughed.

Blood sprayed from her lips—the backlash of having her Word Magic broken by someone vastly stronger than her. The man hadn’t just resisted; he’d shattered her command and returned the force to her.

The man didn’t even look at them.

His eyes stayed fixed on Rue.

She was the threat. The others were annoyances.

He took another step.

Meanwhile,

Kael tried to stand.

His body refused.

The kick had shattered something—multiple somethings. Ribs, definitely. Probably his sternum. One of his legs wasn’t responding properly. When he breathed, it felt like knives were dancing inside his chest.

He slumped back against the pillar.

System.

No response.

System, I need a pill. Something for healing. Something strong.

The System’s interface flickered into existence—shop interface, pills section, filtered by his current needs. Dozens of options appeared. Earth Grade. Sky Grade. Heaven Grade. King Grade. Each with descriptions, effects, costs.

His eyes found what he was looking for.

[DRAGON PILL — TOP HEAVEN GRADE]

Effect: Massive physical regeneration. Mends broken bones, ruptured organs, and torn muscles within minutes. Significantly improves physique with each use, permanently increasing bone density and muscle fiber strength. Boosts vitality by a measurable margin. Can assist in breaking through body cultivation bottlenecks when used during refinement.

Note: Pain during absorption is extreme. User recommended to be in safe location.

Cost: 1,000 Shadow Points

Current Balance: 1,100 → 100

One thousand shadow points.

Everything he had left except a pittance.

King Grade pills were available—better effects, faster healing, more permanent improvement. But the cheapest was eight thousand points. He didn’t have eight thousand points.

He bought the Dragon Pill.

[PURCHASE CONFIRMED — DRAGON PILL (TOP HEAVEN GRADE)]

The pill materialized in his palm—small, red-gold, shaped like a coiled dragon. Warmth radiated from it, almost hot, like holding a ember that had been shaped by artisan hands.

Kael didn’t hesitate.

He swallowed it.

The effect was immediate.

A force exploded outward from his stomach—not mana, something else, something primal and physical and utterly overwhelming. It felt like liquid fire flooding through his veins, reaching into every broken bone, every torn muscle, every damaged organ. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Pain.

Not normal pain. Not the pain of injury or combat. This was the pain of rebuilding—of cells dying and regenerating simultaneously, of bone fragments dissolving and reforming, of the body remaking itself at an accelerated pace.

Kael screamed through clenched teeth.

His intention was simple. Break through to Void Body Refinement Tier 4. The pill’s description said it could assist with bottlenecks during refinement. He had the power, he had the technique, he just needed something to push him over the edge.

The Dragon Pill obliged.

The pain intensified.

His bones felt like they were melting. His muscles felt like they were being torn apart and stitched back together by invisible hands. His skin burned, cooled, burned again—cycles of destruction and reconstruction that made him want to pass out.

He didn’t pass out.

He couldn’t afford to.

Meanwhile Silas,

She’d pulled herself out of the building’s rubble. Her clothes were torn, blood streaked down her face, and she was limping heavily—but she was standing. Her eyes were fixed on something at her feet.

Her direwolf.

The massive beast lay motionless, its body twisted at wrong angles, the kind of damage that didn’t heal. The light was already fading from its eyes—the connection between summoner and beast dissolving as the wolf’s life ended.

Silas knelt beside it.

Her hand touched its fur gently.

Her expression shifted.

Not to sadness—something harder. Angrier. The cold mask cracking to reveal something raw underneath. Her lips pressed together. Her jaw tightened.

The direwolf’s body dissolved into shadow.

It sank into the ground like water into sand, disappearing into Silas’s shadow, returning to wherever summoned beasts went when they died. All that remained was a faint afterimage on the stone, already fading.

Silas stood.

Her eyes found the Mana Heart Peak Rank 9 cultivator as he was still walking toward Rue. He was a mountain of earth-element power and killing intent, and he was coming for the girl who’d dared to try to control him.

The dome around him flickered as another attack hit it—Aria, still fighting, still trying to help, sending light blast after light blast toward the man. They splashed uselessly against his protection.

He didn’t even acknowledge her.

His eyes stayed fixed on Rue.

The one that needed to die first.

He raised his hand.