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le mpyr

Still, while old and not really efficient, those ancient bulbs of colored glass possessed one quality that most modern technology did not – they were durable beyond any modern reason, any modern standard, be it against physical damage, wear and tear, or the greatest enemy of them all – time.

Where modern technology and devices were designed to withstand only the duration of their warranty period, these simple red lightbulbs looked time straight in the face, taunted it for another bout, and, against all odds, thrived.

Still.

For as durable as those red lights were, they were nowhere near as bright as modern LED illumination, nor were they as stable or... as silent.

Contrary to that, the red light continued to flash on, only to then simmer down in an endless cycle, its intensity rising and falling again and again. Along with this cycle of varying light intensity, one could clearly hear a distant ticking, not all that different from the sound of static charge randomly discharging upon reaching a sufficient level.

\'I wonder what makes the light click like that,\' Chihiro thought, lazily raising his head as his eyes instinctively searched for the source of the red light.

"Boss!"

Before he could even gather his thoughts or clear his mind, a sudden shout prompted Chihiro to look over his shoulder, at a man currently jumping up to his feet in a strange, slowed-down motion.

\'Thinking about this, why is his voice... so stretched?\'

The change was rather minute, perfectly missable if one didn\'t pay attention.

But if anything, paying attention was one of Chihiro\'s biggest strengths.

\'Wait, don\'t tell me…\' For someone as experienced and as knowledgeable as he was, it took mere seconds – or what he perceived as seconds – for his observations to connect with his knowledge, producing an explanation for what was wrong with him. \'Did I really grow so fast, my physical body…\'

Chihiro squinted his eyes.

\'No, it\'s not just my body, even my perception is failing to catch up?!\'

An event rather common amidst lower-ranked cultivators who could enjoy the benefits of support from a wealthy family or a clan. With enough resources, the early stages of cultivation were pretty much just about figuring out one\'s own path through it. Yet, while it was easy to advance to higher stages of mortal cultivation, one\'s body and brain still needed time to get used to the new limits of their ability, resulting in this sort of warped perception...

Warped perception that more often than not came with quite soft yet extremely nasty side effects.

"Boss!" The man, sitting where a full door made out of nothing but air fans was supposed to be, finally stood up and called again as he leaned forward, clearly trying to rush to Chihiro\'s side.

Back in Chihiro\'s own world, however, all thoughts about the flashing red light, the reason behind it, the reason the gate to the factory core was open, or the presence of Brand, one of his highest-ranking retainers within the clan...

All of those vanished, swept aside by an overwhelming wave of nausea that took over Chihiro\'s body.

One moment, he was still sitting down on his knees with a profound look of focus on his face, now mixed with confusion, only to find himself on all fours the next moment, retching his guts out as his brain struggled to settle within its new limits.

Thankfully, for a man of Chihiro\'s level, this process lasted only about a minute. And while for a mortal, puking for a whole minute straight would leave them gasping for air and on the verge of losing consciousness from both asphyxiation and physical exhaustion, for a tenth-stage cultivator like Chihiro...

\'Wait, am I even still within the tenth stage?\'

This question came to his mind so suddenly, it swept away all the feelings of nausea, leaving it as the one and only thing occupying Chihiro\'s thoughts.

\'Since when can one get whiplash from advancing just a single damn stage?!\'

This made absolutely no sense.

Advancing two stages would explain it… but beyond any doubt, Chihiro could tell he had yet to move beyond the realm of mortal cultivation.

\'That means, unless I\'m the very first to discover the eleventh stage of mortal cultivation…\'

As scary as it felt after the experiences of that white realm, Chihiro braced himself before taking a closer look at his inner state, desperate to uncover the mystery that, like an itch impossible to scratch, refused to stop bothering him.

Thankfully, as Chihiro\'s thoughts sank deeper and deeper into the realm of his own spirituality, there were no apparent adverse effects of doing so.

No endless string of infinitely changing numbers assaulted his brain, nor did he suddenly perceive reality as an amalgamation of infinitely dense vectors that were so complex, they gained a whole new meaning beyond the sum and result of their constituent parts.

By every means he could judge, taking a dip into his spirituality right now was no different an experience than it had been in the past, allowing him to freely monitor the domain of his spiritual core, which had now stretched to encompass his body fully, as if creating a clone of his flesh strictly on the spiritual plane before anchoring every tiniest part of it into the respective particle of his skin, flesh, blood, and insides.

In every way Chihiro could think of, his cultivation was now at the tenth level. In fact, judging by the feeling he developed over years upon years of diligent cultivation, he was nowhere near the bottleneck of this stage, proving that it wasn\'t repeated and unnaturally rapid advancement that brought the wrath of whiplash upon him.

His cultivation was as expected. The state of his core was as he assumed it would be back when he started imagining what the realm of the tenth mortal stage would be like. A picture he worked long and hard to develop, as it was one of the mental exercises meant to help humans cope with the complexity of advancing their spirituality and breaching bottlenecks.

By every means he would have considered in the past, there was absolutely no reason for the whiplash to strike him down.

Yet, with just a fleeting glance at his cultivation, he could see the most likely culprit behind the puddle of stinky, half-digested food he had thrown up just a moment ago.

\'It\'s not my cultivation. It\'s the very Qi that makes it up that\'s behind the whiplash!\'

"BOSS!"

The world suddenly picked up its pace again, allowing Brand to close the distance and grab Chihiro by his shoulders, an act he would never dare to commit without special circumstances warranting it.

"What the hell are you doing here, man?" Having no energy to spare for pleasantries, Chihiro went against his morals and ignored the courtesy, opting to address the man directly.

Right now, the discovery of the change in his Qi was so massive, so major, so groundbreaking, he could hardly care about anything else.

All the more when it was Brand bringing in the news, when his realm of authority was limited to matters involving the clan\'s finance and administration.

Or, in much more direct terms, matters that could be left alone for a few hours no matter the damned circumstances!

\'Then again, it\'s not every day that I get to see him make a face as desperate as he\'s making right now…\' Chihiro thought, gritting his teeth as he finally decided to put the matter of his spirituality aside for a moment and give the man his attention.

No matter what, the changes to his Qi weren\'t going anywhere, given how it was a change affecting its very nature. As such, it was something he could address and inspect at any time, making it a matter lacking in urgency.

On the other hand, Brand\'s face told a whole other story, with every sign of great urgency on it that Chihiro could recall from the psychology class he took decades ago.

"What\'s the problem?" Wasting no time, Chihiro spoke out, instantly addressing the crux of the matter, hoping to cut down on all the meaningless and wordy explanations.

"The clan got sacked, all of our assets are frozen," Brand started, unleashing the big news right off the bat.

\'Well, that\'s as weird as it is troubling…\' Chihiro squinted his eyes, \'but by no means does this warrant the urgency in his eyes…\'

"This factory was nearly raided by the police and anti-terror units. And while the young master managed to put their investigation on hold…"

Brand swallowed a gulp of saliva huge enough for it to show clearly moving down his throat.

\'So far, so good?\' Chihiro thought, finding himself confused by the revelations. \'If he dealt with it, then what\'s…\'

Then, he finally connected the dots.

The flashing red light. The strange lack of spiritual energy in a place that should have dangerous levels of it. The fact that he failed to fully fill his current stage of cultivation… and then all the new tidbits of information that Brand passed to him with his hasty report…

"Those bastards went ahead and attacked the power plant. And while seeing you safe means they were too late…"

Brand gulped down his saliva again, his face suddenly growing… whiter?

\'Hmm?\' Chihiro squinted his eyes.

For a man used to dealing with fraud and scams involving massive fortunes on a daily basis, to be so shocked… no, terrified by some sort of event, it really had to be on a scale that not even…

Chihiro rapidly rose to his feet.

"What happened at the power plant?" he asked, forcing his voice to remain as calm as possible.

"I don\'t know the details, but the young master went with the police to stop the sabotage. But from what I\'ve heard…" Brand hesitated, causing Chihiro to tighten his hands into fists.

"What happened at the power plant?" Chihiro asked again, this time no longer controlling the timbre of his voice as well as he did before.

"I don\'t know the details, but…" Brand turned his eyes away.

"But I\'ve heard it was one hell of a slaughter."