It took less than a week for the story to spread.
By the time it did, there wasn''t a single disciple in the sect who hadn''t heard it—Jun Jiu had crushed Hou Mei in thepetition.
The tale moved like wildfire through the Wudang Sect, growing louder, sharper,
more exaggerated with every retelling.
No one could fully agree on what had truly happened in that fight. The oue itself had been... unclear. Messy. Controversial.
But one truth refused to be ignored.
Jun Jiu had never been defeated.
And that alone was enough.
The Wudang Sect stood across thirteen towering mountain peaks, ten of which housed the major departments. Among them was the Thousand Herbs Peak.
Soon, the top five disciples from each peak would gather.
They would fight.
The rankings of the outer disciples would be decided in that battle—and with it, the allocation of resources for the entire year. Support. Supplies. Influence.
Everything was on the line.
And Alex... was already at the center of it all.
These days, whenever he stepped outside, the atmosphere shifted.
Outer Sect disciples would greet him with bright smiles and loud enthusiasm, their voices filled with admiration. Some even bowed slightly as he passed, their eyes shining with something dangerously close to reverence.
Meanwhile, the number of people working in his garden had exploded.
What had once been a small group of a hundred had now grown to three hundred... and it was still increasing.
They came willingly.
Too willingly.
Alex didn''t know what to do with them.
So he didn''t.
Instead, he handed everything over to Gaia.
She built a system-cold, efficient, precise. The workers were managed like a perfectly controlled machine. Tasks were assigned. Results were measured. Rewards were distributed based on performance.
No emotion. No chaos. No wasted effort.
It worked wlessly.
And best of all...
Alex didn''t have to think about it.
"Elder Brother Jun."
The voice pulled him back.
Lu Piao stood nearby, one of his most trusted aides.
He carried a stack of reports, his expression serious.
"The garden is stable," Lu Piao said, handing over the information. "Production has increased by fifty percent."
Alex barely nced at the papers.
"Is that all?"
Lu Piao hesitated.
"No. There''s something else."
"All ten peaks," Lu Piao continued, "have already ced you on their watch list.
Their top disciples are wary of you. Very wary."
Alex frowned slightly. "Why?"
Lu Piao let out a quiet breath.
"Because you''re one of the strongestpetitors," Lu Piao went on.
"And not just that... you made a name for yourself by striking an Elder. Do you know
how insane that sounds? Almost no one would dare to do something like that."
"To them... you''re the biggest obstacle standing between them and first ce."
Alex listened.
Then he yawned.
"I''m not interested in fighting anymore," he saidzily, stretching his arms. "I''ll just surrender."
Lu Piao blinked.
For a moment, he thought he had misheard.
But Alex had already turned away, as if the entire matter was beneath his concern. As if the storm gathering around him...
didn''t exist at all.
“Really?” Lu Piao stared at him, stunned. "Do you even understand what you''re walking away from? If you take first ce, you''ll be rewarded-top-grade weapons, rare pills... even high-level martial arts manuals."
Alex shook his head without hesitation.
"I don''t want any of that."
To him, those so-called rewards meant nothing.
He already possessed the cultivation method of the royal family-something far beyond what most disciples could ever hope to touch.
He didn''t need anything else.
Lu Piao studied him for a moment, then slowly nodded, as if trying to make sense of something that refused to be understood.
"If that''s the case... then they shouldn''t be worried about you at all.” He exhaled, his tone easing slightly.
"You can focus entirely on your cultivation. With your current progress, reaching Foundation Establishment is only a matter of time. You''re already at the peak of the great cycle of Qi Condensation."
He paused, then spoke again this time more quietly, more earnestly.
"I believe you''ll definitely reach it, Elder Brother Jun."
Lu Piao''s gaze drifted slightly, as if recalling something distant.
"You know... for cultivators like us, the beginning is always the same. We start as servants. Then, if we''re lucky, we enter the Outer Sect.” His lips curled into a faint, almost bitter smile. "People like topare it to a fish leaping over the dragon gate."
He shook his head.
"But that''s not the truth."
"The real leap... the one that actually matters... is breaking through from Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment."
"That''s the moment everything changes. That''s when you stop being... mortal."
"That''s when you step onto the true path of immortality."
"And your lifespan... increases by one to two hundred years."
"Did you just say..." Alex asked. "That reaching Foundation Establishment gives you
an extra hundred years of life?"
"...Yes," he answered slowly, nodding.
Alex inhaled sharply, the sound ragged, almost desperate-then suddenly he began pacing across the courtyard.
Back and forth.
Faster.
Time did not flow the same between worlds. One year on Xia or Estoria was equal
to a hundred years here.
That meant if he wanted to survive five years on Estoria...
He needed at least five hundred years of life in this world.
The realization struck him like lightning.
Foundation Establishment was no longer just a stage of cultivation.
It was survival.
It was time itself.
"One hundred years... Foundation Establishment..." Alex muttered. Then his head snapped up, eyes zing with certainty. "I''m going to reach it. No matter what—I will reach Foundation Establishment."
From that moment on, everything changed.
He gave Gaia a singlemand.
Find the best possible path.
Not the fastest.
Not the easiest.
The best.
It took nearly a week for Gaia toplete the calctions-to analyze, reconstruct,
and design a method that surpassed anything known within the Wudang Sect.
Because the traditional path... was wed.
Foundation Establishment was normally built upon five elements-metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Every cultivator chose one.
Just one.
They built their entire foundation on that element, shaping their power around it.
But that choice came with a weakness.
Fire cultivators were suppressed by water.
Water could be countered by earth.
Every element had its opposite. Every strength carried an inherent w.
Some tried to ovee this by cultivating dual elements—but that path came at a cost. The foundation became unstable, weaker than those who fullymitted to a single element.
In the end, most people had no choice.
They picked one.
And lived with the consequences.
But Alex... was different.
He had seen something else.
Buried deep within the royal family''s cultivation records was a forbidden concept-
something no one in the Wudang Sect had ever even heard of.
A Five-Element Foundation Establishment.
Not five elements shing against each other.
But five elements working in harmony.
A perfect cycle.
Metal feeding water. Water nourishing wood. Wood fueling fire. Fire creating earth.
Earth giving birth to metal.
A closed loop.
Bnced. Endless.
Perfect.
A foundation without weakness.
A power that could grow without limit.
But such perfection came with a price.
A brutal one.
To achieve it... Alex couldn''t simply break through once.
He had to do it five times.
He had to form aplete Foundation Establishment for each individual element—
one by one.
Metal.
Wood.
Water.
Fire.
Earth.
Only afterpleting all five could he merge them together using the royal family''s
technique... forging the true Five-Element Foundation.
It meant his path would take five times longer than anyone else''s.
Five times the effort.
Five times the risk.
But the reward...
Alex''s breathing grew heavier as the realization sank deeper into his bones.
Instead of gaining just one hundred years of additional lifespan...
He would gain five hundred.
Five full cycles of life.
Five chances to survive.
Five chances to win against time itself.
No one in the Wudang Sect had ever attempted something like this.
No one had even imagined it.
But Alex didn''t hesitate.
Because to him-
This was no longer about cultivation.
This was war against death itself.
He had to keep it secret.
Everything.
The method. The goal. The truth behind what he was about to attempt.
If anyone found out... it wouldn''t just bring trouble. It would bring enemies.
So Alex made his decision.
Closed-door cultivation.
No distractions. No interference. No one allowed inside.
He was just about to seal himself away when a voice called from outside his hut.
"Big Brother Jun Jiu!"
Lu Piao.
Alex didn''t move from where he stood. "What is it?"
"There''s an Outer Sect disciple from Sword Peak," Lu Piao said from beyond the
door. "He wants to challenge you."
Alex didn''t even hesitate.
"Tell them I''m not fighting. I''ll surrender. They can find someone else."
There was a brief pause.
“Are you sure, brother?” Lu Piao asked, uncertainty creeping into his voice.
"Yes."
Alex didn''t even bother opening the door.
"...Understood. I''ll inform them."
Footsteps faded.
Silence returned.
Alex exhaled slowly, closing his eyes as the tension slipped from his shoulders.
“Good,” he murmured to himself. “Now I can finally have some peace.”
For a moment... it almost felt real.
Then-
The noise shattered everything.
A suddenmotion erupted outside his hut-shouting, hurried footsteps, voices tangled in panio tore through the quiet like a de,
dragging Alex out of his focus.
His eyes snapped open.
"Big Brother Alex!"
The voice was urgent. Breathless.
Alex stepped toward the door, irritation already rising. "What happened?”
One of the disciples stumbled forward, face pale.
"Something happened to Brother Lu Piao."
Alex''s expression hardened instantly. "What happened?"
The disciple swallowed.
"The Sword Peak disciples... they cut off his hand. They said since they couldn''t
fight you... they''d prove you were nothing but a coward."
For a split second-
Everything went still.
Then Alex opened the door.
And the world turned red.
Lu Piao was there.
Copsed against another disciple,
his body trembling. One of his arms hung uselessly-severed, barely attached, blood soaking through his
robes and dripping onto the ground
in thick, steady drops.
The metallic scent filled the air.
His face was pale. Lips shaking.
“Big... Brother Alex..." Lu Piao forced the words out through clenched teeth, his
voice breaking under the pain. "I''m... sorry... I couldn''t—”
"Enough."
Alex''s voice cut through him like a de.
“Take him to the healing department,” Alex ordered, pulling out his medallion and
tossing it over. "Use my merit points. Whatever it takes."
"Yes, Big Brother!"
The disciples moved immediately, supporting Lu Piao as they rushed away.
But Lu Piao''s eyes... lingered.
Filled with guilt.
With shame.
Alex didn''t look at him again.
Instead, he turned slowly to the others, his face unreadable-too calm.
"Take me to them."
The words were soft.
But something underneath them... wasn''t.
The disciples froze.
"B-Big Brother..." one of them stammered, fear shing across his face. "There are five of them-from Sword Peak You, you can''t fight all
of them alone.
Another quickly added, "This is against the rules! Disciples aren''t supposed to harm
each other like this. We should report this to an Elder—”
Alex didn''t even let him finish.
"No need."
Inside his chest-
Something burned.
Slow. Violent. Uncontroble.
“Just take me there,” he said quietly. "I only want to... see them.”
The air turned heavy.
No one spoke again.
"... Yes, Big Brother."
And as they led him away-
No one noticed how tightly Alex''s fists had clenched.
Or how the calm in his eyes...
had already turned into something far more dangerous.
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