The waterfall was a vertical ocean of silver. It crashed against the obsidian rocks with a roar that could drown out the screams of a thousand men. This was the Hidden Veil of the Western Sector. According to the stolen memories of Captain Hu this was where the Rare Grade Blood Vine should be clinging to the moisture of the cliff face. But as Xuan Ye moved through the mist he felt a pressure that didn't belong to a mere plant.
It was a static charge in the air. It was a weight that made his Stone Body groan. The further he stepped behind the curtain of water the more the world began to feel like a heavy dream. The gravity here was distorted. The droplets of water didn't fall. They drifted upward like sparks from a fire.
Xuan Ye pressed his palm against the cave wall. He didn't use Qi because he had none. Instead he used the sensory feedback of his reinforced bones. He felt a hum. It was deep. It was ancient. It was the residue of a soul that had once stood at the very peak of the Finite World.
Deep within the cavern a soft pale light pulsed from a seated figure. It was a skeleton draped in the rotting silk of a high-tier Elder. On its chest was an emblem that made Xuan Ye's eyes narrow. A twin-towered token and it look like its of the highest status.
"An Ancestor from the Ancient Twin Towers" Xuan Ye thought. He didn't die here. He came here to wait.
The skeleton sat in a meditative posture. In its lap was a small jade box. But the real treasure was the faint translucent shimmer floating above the skull. It was a Remnant Soul. A fragment of consciousness that had survived for centuries by feeding on the natural essence of the waterfall.
As Xuan Ye stepped into the light the Remnant Soul flickered. Two empty sockets of white fire ignited.
"A mortal?" The voice was a rasp that vibrated in Xuan Ye's marrow. "A boy with no destiny dares to enter the tomb of the Jade Pillar Ancestor? I shall grant you a painless death I shall use your body as a vessel to crawl back into the light."
Xuan Ye didn't flinch. He didn't beg for mercy. He didn't even stop walking. His "cheerful" mask was long gone. In its place was the cold calculation of an anomaly.
"You are a ghost," Xuan Ye said. His voice was flat and devoid of the respect usually afforded to a god of cultivation. "A ghost is just data. A memory that refuses to be deleted. You speak of taking my body? You should be more concerned with your own existence."
The Jade Pillar Ancestor let out a hollow laugh. "Arrogant child. Even a sliver of my soul is enough to crush a thousand mortals. Behold the technique that leveled the Iron Soul Hegemony's border!"
The ghost raised a spectral hand. The air in the cave began to solidify into a massive pillar of jade-colored energy. This was the Heaven-Shattering Jade Pillar a technique that had once ended a war just by its mere manifestation. The pressure was immense. Xuan Ye's skin began to crack. The Stone Body was being pushed to its breaking point.
[Warning: High-Tier Logic Detected]
[The Book of Fate is reacting to the Ancestor's Will]
Xuan Ye felt the thud behind his ribs. He didn't manifest the book physically this time. He allowed the ink to leak into his eyes. His vision turned pitch black. He didn't see a jade pillar. He saw a sequence of symbols. He saw the formula that allowed the Ancestor to manipulate the world's laws.
"Absorption," Xuan Ye whispered.
He didn't run away from the descending pillar. He ran into it.
The moment his fingers touched the jade light the Book of Fate acted as a void. It wasn't just taking energy. It was taking the meaning of the technique. The black ink surged forward devouring the spectral fire.
The Ancestor's scream was a high frequency tear in the air. "What are you? No mortal can touch the Jade Pillar! You have no roots! You are a hole in the world!"
"I'm just a mortal" Xuan Ye said as he grabbed the skeleton's skull.
The ink didn't just consume the soul. It raided the memories.
[Absorbing Ancestor Remnant]
[50%... 80%... 100%]
[Acquired: Jade Pillar Cultivation Technique (Ancient Grade)]
[Acquired: Soul-Shattering Gaze (Rank 2 Eyes)]
[Acquired: Memory Segment—The Secret of the Twin Towers]
Xuan Ye felt a surge of information that nearly shattered his mind. He saw the layout of the Ancient Twin Towers. He saw the faces of the Elemental Heroes from a thousand years ago. He felt the weight of the Jade Pillar technique. It wasn't just a physical strike. It was a conceptual weight. It was the power to impose your will on the gravity of others.
[Mortal Vessel:Level 1—70% Progress]
The ghost was gone. The skeleton crumbled into white ash. Xuan Ye stood in the center of the cave his body radiating a faint jade colored mist. He didn't look like a boy anymore. He looked like a statue carved from shadow and gem.
He reached down and picked up the jade box. Inside was a single seed. The Blood Vine Seed. It had been nurtured by the Ancestor's remains for centuries. It wasn't just a Rare-Grade plant anymore. It was a Saint-Grade catalyst.
Xuan Ye didn't waste time. He crushed the seed in his palm and swallowed the liquid essence.
His blood turned into liquid fire. The Stone Body and the Blood-Vine Essence met in his marrow. The grinding of his bones was so loud it echoed against the cave walls. He fell to his knees his eyes glowing with the silver fluid of the Demon he had eaten earlier and the jade light of the Ancestor.
[Mortal Vessel: Level 1 — 95% Progress]
"Almost" he gasped. He needed one more thing to reach the first milestone. He needed a soul that held the law of life.
He walked out of the cave. He moved through the waterfall like a ghost.
At the base of the falls the mist was thick. Standing there was the girl in white and gold robes. The disciple of the White Lotus Sect. She was holding her spirit-bone staff her eyes closed in meditation. She was trying to sense the "Demon" that the Royal Hunt was buzzing about.
She felt a ripple in the air.
"Who goes there?" she asked. Her voice was pure and melodic. She opened her eyes. They were a soft green glowing with the power of the Eternal Life Forest bloodline.
Xuan Ye stepped out of the mist. He looked small. He looked harmless. He looked like a lost noble child.
"Please," Xuan Ye said with his cheerful mask firmly in place. "I am lost. My cousin... Xuan Feng... he told me to stay here. I am so afraid."
The girl's expression softened. "A mortal? In the Western Sector? How did you survive the Demon?"
"I hid," Xuan Ye said. He was walking closer. His feet were no longer making a sound. He was using the first layer of Void Step to hide his weight. "But I heard a sound in the cave. A beautiful sound."
The girl frowned. "The cave? You shouldn't go in there. The energy is too unstable."
She walked toward him her hand reaching out to comfort the shivering boy. Her aura was like a warm summer day. It was the law of life. It was exactly what Xuan Ye needed to finish his foundation.
"I'm sorry I just want to survive in this harsh world"Xuan Ye thought as he looked at her reaching hand "I'm just a man who needs to breathe. And your life is the air I need."
When she was only three paces away Xuan Ye stopped shivering.
The jade light flared in his eyes. The Void Step layer one shifted into a static position.
"Got you" Xuan Ye said.
Before she could raise her staff Xuan Ye was in her space. He didn't use a knife. He used the Jade Pillar technique he had just stolen.
The gravity around the girl increased by a thousand percent.
She fell to her knees her eyes wide with shock. "You... how can a mortal... this weight..."
Xuan Ye placed his hand on her shoulder. The black ink began to seep into her white robes.
"Don't worry," Xuan Ye whispered. "I won't delete your entire memory. I just need your bloodline. You can keep the rest."
The girl tried to scream but the jade pressure crushed the sound in her throat. The White Lotus Sect was known for reviving the dead. They were the masters of healing. But they had never encountered a force that didn't just break the body but removed the code that allowed the body to function.
Xuan Ye felt the Eternal Life Forest bloodline flowing into the Book.
[Absorbing Eternal Life Bloodline]
[Mortal Vessel: Level 1 — 100% Progress]
A massive shockwave erupted from Xuan Ye's body. The mist around the waterfall was blown away for miles. The water itself stopped falling for a heartbeat.
[Mortal Vessel Level 1: Complete]
[Evolution Starting:Transcendent Mortal Physique]
Xuan Ye stood over the unconscious girl. She was pale and her aura was gone. She was now a mortal just like he used to be. He didn't kill her. He needed her to tell the world about the Demon that was now using the Jade Pillar technique.
He looked up at the sky. He could feel the eyes of the Royal Family and the Elemental Heroes searching the forest.
He felt the weight of his new body. He felt the Jade Pillar technique humming in his soul. He felt the first layer of Void Step becoming as natural as walking.
"The hunt is just starting" Xuan Ye said.
He vanished into the forest leaving nothing but the sound of the waterfall and the broken remains of a genius future. He wasn't counting grain anymore. He was counting the empires he would eventually consume.
The Finite World was big but Xuan Ye was starting to realize that it wasn't big enough.
He checked the Book of Fate. A new page was forming. It didn't have words. It had a map. A map that led toward the Ancient Twin Towers.
"Let's see what the Ancestors of the twin towers are hiding" he murmured.
The Hunt was no longer a hunt. It was a harvest. And Xuan Ye was the only one with a scythe.