"Oh?"
He didn't press further.
No need. If he was here. He would see it for himself soon enough.
While this was happening.
Elsewhere, within a space drowned in darkness.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions echoed one after another, their impact rolling through the confined area.
In the brief flashes of light, figures flickered past, sharp movements cutting through the dark.
At the front.
Lucien.
He moved quickly, his steps controlled as he retreated, his cloak trailing behind him, fluttering and dancing in the wind like an elegant killer.
Behind him, several ink-like figures gave chase, their shapes blurry in the darkness.
Boom!
A distorted shape lunged forward.
Shriek!
Lucien's hand shot out, gripping onto a protruding earthen pillar.
Using it as leverage, he twisted his body in a clean arc, momentum carrying him through a full turn.
His palm drove forward, his eyes turned.
Boom!
The impact landed squarely, sending one of the pursuing figures crashing into the ground.
Metallic noise echoed, coupled with the spark during the collision.
The strike was clean, whatever got hit was killed immediately.
But it wasn't enough.
The remaining two closed in immediately, their shrill cries cutting through the air as they rushed him from both sides.
"Hmph…"
Lucien stepped back, his fingers already shifting through a sequence of gestures.
Then.
He cut downward.
"Cut."
Boom!
The air split.
An invisible force crashed down like a collapsing wave, swallowing both figures whole.
Boom!
The impact rattled the space, dust and fragments bursting outward, the ground beneath giving way slightly under the force.
Silence followed.
For a moment.
Then.
Tap.
Lucien landed lightly, his feet touching down without a sound.
His robe remained clean, barely disturbed.
In front of him, three lifeless forms lay scattered in the darkness.
His gaze lingered on them. Briefly...
A faint glow flickered in his eyes.
He stood still, sensing the changes within his body.
At first, there had always been a steady rise like usual. The familiar feeling that he was looking for.
Though today... It seemed to have disappeared.
Nothing.
His brows drew together slightly.
"I've reached the limit…?"
The words came out low, confusion, and perhaps even a little tinge of fear.
He could feel it.
For the past few days, his strength had stopped progressing.
No matter what he did.
There was no further change.
He spent the whole day yesterday, killing from dusk till dawn. And yet, he felt no differences even after so long. The monster essences unbudging, and with that his strength was unable to grow any further.
As if this place itself had imposed a boundary on his limit.
A ceiling he couldn't push past.
"…Strange."
His hand moved slowly, reaching into his pocket.
He pulled out the card.
Holding it up, he studied it closely, his eyes tracing over its surface.
The faint glow reflected back at him.
"…What exactly is this place?"
Lucien had been training here for some time now.
At this point, it had almost become a second home.
A place like this, where strength came as naturally as breathing, wasn't something he would willingly leave behind.
Especially when his instincts told him the same thing again and again.
There was no harm here.
Only opportunity.
For him, it was as close to a perfect place as it could get.
Though he knew, that nothing was free in this world but actually bounded to something else.
He was just using this opportunity to become as strong as possible in order to prepare for whatever will come.
In just a short span of time, his strength had risen to early-stage Foundation Building cultivator.
On top of that, the strange panel he could see had given him something even more useful.
A way to suppress his aura back down to the Qi Refining realm.
Effortlessly.
The advantage was obvious.
With that alone, he could move freely without drawing attention.
If things continued like this, reaching the Golden Core realm within three years didn't feel unrealistic.
And there might be more hidden features that he was unaware of.
Everything had been progressing smoothly.
Until now.
Lucien lowered his gaze slightly, sensing his own state.
The growth had stopped.
Completely.
No matter what he did, there was no further change.
It wasn't that the place had lost its effect.
It felt more like he had reached the limit of what this layer could offer.
"…So this is as far as it goes."
He exhaled slowly.
Then his thoughts shifted.
"Maybe… there's a higher level."
The idea came naturally.
Like the layered structures of secret realms, one stage after another, each deeper than the last.
If that was the case.
Then this wasn't the end.
His eyes lifted slightly, scanning the darkness around him.
But the environment itself made things difficult.
It was too dark.
Not normal darkness.
Something about it felt altered, heavy in a way that dulled perception.
Even with his current strength, his vision couldn't extend far. And all of those cheap eye techniques were useless, unless he could find an exceptional one, but so far... none.
And the creatures here.
He couldn't afford to underestimate them.
He wasn't a body cultivator.
Like most Cultivators, his strength didn't lie in raw physical endurance. Especially against demonic beast like shadow worms, a creature that specialized themselves in the art of penetration attack.
A single mistake.
Would be enough to fatally wound him. Coupled with the hindered eyesight, Lucien would prefer to be careful rather than taking risks.
Still, he didn't step back.
If anything, the constant pressure constantly sharpened him.
Every fight, every narrow escape.
It had pushed him further.
And through it all.
Everything he gained traced back to one thing. The card in his hand.
Lucien raised it slightly, his gaze settling on its surface.
Since that night, the moment everything changed.
He had been searching for answers in order to understand this card better.
Looking for anything related to it on the market, and even the surrounding cities.
Any clue. Any record. Now, standing at this limit, one thing became clear.
If he wanted to move forward.
He needed information, perhaps there's a clue somewhere to break this deadlock.
And there was only one place in this city that might have it, the only place he was hesitating to go.
After all, it involved Ilya, and the Purple Cloud Pavilion which also included the Senior behind it.
Lucien after all the time was still inherently wary no matter what.
But perhaps, he needed to make a gamble this time.
Lucien's eyes narrowed slightly, a faint glint passing through them.
"She won't refuse me... "
In the courtyard, Liam sat in his reclining chair as usual.
A wooden table rested beside him, a cup of herbal tea placed neatly on top.
His long hair fell loosely down his back, smooth and unhurried, as he leaned into the chair in a relaxed posture. The faint breeze moved through the courtyard, brushing past him without disturbance.
His dark ruby eyes remained fixed on the surface of the pond.
Then, seemingly to see something interesting.
A faint smile formed.
"Everything is going according to plan."
He lifted his hand slightly.
The cup rose from the table on its own, drifting into his grasp. He took a slow sip, the motion calm, almost absent-minded.
Around him, five tall cloaked figures stood in silence.
He glanced at them briefly, the smile on his lips deepening just a little.
"What a cheat…"
His voice was soft, almost amused.
"The system's golden energy…"
He raised his hand again.
A strand of golden energy emerged, circling around his fingers like a coiling snake. It moved fluidly, shifting shape before spreading outward, drifting around him like a gentle current.
"Almost lets me do anything I want."
He let the energy disperse, watching it fade.
"A cheat…"
He repeated the word quietly.
Luck?
He didn't believe in it.
Nothing came without reason.
If something like this existed, then it had been arranged long before he ever noticed it.
Still.
He chose to see it as something else.
Destiny.
Even so, he never relied on it alone.
The system was a tool.
And he used it to the best of his abilities and imaginations.
The results.
Were right in front of him.
His gaze shifted again to the five figures standing nearby.
Each one stood tall and silent, but in a way, their postures and presence felt more... human and life-like.
"Currently my strongest creations. Golden core puppets!"
Each of them held the strength of a Golden Core cultivator. These puppets around him were true early-stage Golden Core.
Liam's fingers tapped lightly against the armrest, his expression calm as he observed them.
Another loophole.
The strength he copied from the Mantled Whale wasn't specific, but the system pre-detemined it for him.
When processed by the system, it was evaluated at the level of early-stage Golden Core.
Not its usual state.
But its peak output.
The highest level it could reach. And likewise, Liam possessed the strength of an early stage Golden Core realm, spiritual energy wise and even the strongest state of the Mantled whale physical body.
And when that energy was applied to the puppets through his careful crafts and puppetry skills.
That became their standards.
They simply became early-stage Golden Core puppets. But of course, the materials required almost emptied half of the Pavilion treasury.
"Luckily Ilya doesn't seem to mind on such a huge expenditure for me" He hummed, clearly in a good mood.
After all, he now doesn't need to go around looking for materials himself. Ilya was doing these for him, and with that, he will surely reward her greatly.
Liam let out a quiet breath, his gaze steady.
"…Ridiculous."
But useful.
Very useful.
And it only made things easier for him moving forward.
Then, for a brief moment, Liam's eyes gleamed with a faint golden light.
The reflection in his pupils shifted.
Scenes unfolded within them.
Hero moving through the city, heading toward the library.
Lucien, deep within the darkness, reaching his current limit.
Both paths.
Gradually aligning.
Liam watched quietly, his fingers resting against the armrest.
"Right on time…"
"Now to let them have a little more interactions."
His voice was soft.
Everything was progressing as intended.
He wasn't planning for them to clash to the death.
That wasn't the point.
What he wanted.
Was pressure.
Interaction.
A controlled kind of conflict.
The dungeon, in its current state, wasn't large.
Not enough to hold many.
Ten, at most.
Which meant.
Encounters were inevitable.
No matter how they moved, their paths would cross again and again.
A natural outcome.
"Then, for the next scene..."