One main reason Alex had learned the suppressing technique with his peace energy was simple: he didn't want anyone in the Wyndhams family finding out he was already a paragon warrior.
If anyone caught that slip, he'd have a mountain of explanations waiting for him. And Alex wasn't ready for any of that.
But all the effort he had put into hiding this secret felt like it shattered the moment he broke through to the 3rd stage of his cultivation. Lucius had been right there. Alex had lost control. His suppressed qi had exploded out of him. At least… that was what he believed.
Right after the breakthrough, Alex had blacked out in the water.
Lucius dragged him out and laid him beside the pond, on the flat, natural-looking pavement stones built to keep the water contained.
Time passed. Minutes? Maybe more.
Then Alex's eyelids twitched. Slowly, they lifted.
His blurry view cleared into Lucius' face, staring down at him with that calm, unreadable look.
"Congratulations. You have officially become a paragon warrior," Lucius said.
Alex's heart thumped hard. That wasn't the reaction he expected from Lucius. Not at all.
"You managed to break through your first stage of cultivation in one day of learning qi," Lucius added. "That's a feat only talented people can accomplish."
Alex swallowed.
'Why does this feel like trouble already?'
When someone learns about qi, that alone doesn't make them a paragon warrior. Even ordinary people walk around with qi inside them.
The real work starts when you begin cultivating it.
You have to shape it, push it, learn to control it at the simplest level. Only then does the body break through. Most people need months.
Alex did it in a day.
At least, that's how it looked to Lucius.
Meanwhile, Alex lay there listening, not sure if he should celebrate or panic.
"Stage one?" he muttered under his breath.
He closed his eyes and dived straight into his sea of consciousness.
His heart skipped.
'How… how is this possible? I thought it shattered?' Alex thought.
Inside that inner space, his qi was still suppressed—tightly wrapped and held down—but now it sat at a stage-one level of suppression.
He blinked in disbelief.
'Does this mean… every time my real stage increases, the suppression releases itself automatically?'
That realization hit him like cold water.
Alex was now a stage 3 warrior, but in everyone else's eyes he stood at stage 1.
Three stages ahead of what he showed. Three stages hidden under that strange suppression.
A voice snapped him back.
"It's good news for you," Lucius said, "but you're not done."
Alex looked up slowly.
"You need to settle in with the new energy inside you," Lucius continued, his tone firm.
A short time later, Alex sat cross-legged inside the pond again, the water still and cold around him as he prepared to stabilize the power rushing through him.
"Now that you're a stage 1 warrior, you should feel qi more clearly," Lucius said. His voice carried across the pond, steady and calm. "Try to sense the energy within you… and around you. The water will help."
He paused, eyes narrowing a little as he watched Alex sit there in the rippling surface.
"If you were able to break through so fast in the water, then staying in it might push you into the next stage even faster," Lucius added, thinking out loud.
Alex didn't react.
Because he knew that wasn't going to happen—at least, not in the way Lucius imagined.
A clean system cue rolled through his mind:
[The host is now a Stage 3 Warrior, classified as an F-Rank Warrior.
The Spiritual Water can no longer aid in cultivation.
It can only restore lost qi or heal wounds faster.]
Alex sat there cross-legged, water swirling around his waist. He had hoped—maybe even expected—the pond to help him climb higher. But the system shut that dream down immediately.
He exhaled slowly.
Disheartening, sure.
But that wasn't even the main problem.
Lucius still thought he was stage 1.
Lucius expected progress.
Lucius expected results.
And Alex had three entire stages hidden under a tight suppression that he couldn't exactly explain.
'Over time… I can release small amounts,' Alex thought. 'Make it look like I'm breaking through to stage two… when I'm not.'
A simple plan. Risky, but simple.
He was still thinking it through when footsteps echoed against the stone around the pond. Slow, firm steps. Someone in no hurry… yet with weight behind every stride.
Then a voice followed.
"We need to talk, Lucius," John Wyndham said as he approached, expression unreadable.
Lucius didn't turn at first.
"Is it really that important?" he asked, still watching Alex in the water.
"I deemed it so," John replied, his tone flat but heavy.
Lucius didn't argue.
He simply gave Alex one last look, then turned and walked off with John. They left the young cultivator sitting alone in the cool pond, ripples circling around him like quiet questions.
With nothing else to do—and nothing else to distract his restless mind—Alex decided to keep cultivating. No water boost, no shortcuts this time. Just his own breath, his own qi, slowly feeding back into his main core.
'Back to basics,' he thought, drawing in a slow breath.
Meanwhile, John and Lucius moved deeper into the garden paths. The place was almost a maze of trimmed hedges and stone walkways, each turn hiding the next. They walked until the sound of the pond faded behind them.
Only then did Lucius break the silence.
"So," he said, tone edged with impatience, "what is it you want to talk about?"
"It's about the boy. Alex." John kept walking, hands behind his back. "You need to be careful with him. Careful with what you teach… and how much power you give him."
Lucius frowned, annoyed.
"I thought we already covered this. The clan needs every bit of strength it can get. If we have someone with real talent, we shouldn't let that rot away."
John suddenly stamped his foot on the stone path—hard enough that the impact cracked a leaf that had been lying there. His frustration snapped through the air.
"You still don't understand," John said, turning on him. "You have no idea what that boy can do… or the damage that could happen if he loses control."
Lucius stepped closer, jaw tight.
"Then why don't you tell me?" he shot back. "Tell me what you've seen him do that has your whole family on edge. Or is this about his father? Is that it? The terror his dead father caused you? Is that why you're afraid of letting the boy become a paragon warrior?"
Lucius' voice rose, sharp, almost accusing—echoing faintly against the stone walls of the garden.
John let out a long sigh, the kind that carried more defeat than breath.
"You know what your problem is?" Lucius said, turning on him.
"You're so scared of the boy's bloodline and the past tied to it that you can't even see the opportunity in front of you. Train him. Guide him. Make him loyal to you. That's what you should be doing."
Lucius was already walking off, steps quick and sharp.
"You have no idea…" John tried to say. "You have no idea of the things his father did—before—"
"There are things far scarier out there," Lucius cut in, not even slowing.
"Things that make even the Nine Divine Beings uneasy. If anything should frighten you, it's that… not a dead man's son."
He gave a dismissive wave and kept walking.
John stopped in the garden path, fists clenched, jaw tight. His teeth ground hard enough that a muscle twitched in his cheek. The anger sat heavy on him, but so did something else—fear he couldn't shake.
---
Back at the pond, Alex stayed seated in the water, steadying his breath as he cultivated. With his stage-3 breakthrough and his suppressed qi restored back to stage-1 strength, his whole body felt sharper. Lighter. Almost too alive.
Stage-1 and stage-2 warriors shared the same raw physical strength. The only real difference was how much qi each could hold. But Alex could feel both levels humming inside him now, layered and strange.
He kept his focus tight… until footsteps broke his rhythm.
Then came a familiar, mocking voice.
"Look who we have here," Zephyr said, walking out from behind the hedge.
"Alex—the bastard child of the Wyndhams."
He wasn't alone. Lennox and Isla flanked him like always, wearing the same smug expression. Behind them stood three other young adults, faces Alex didn't care enough to recognize.
Alex's eyes opened slowly.
For a brief second, a faint glow flashed in his purple irises.