Outside the grand mahogany entrance, the atmosphere in the commercial plaza had stretched into an agonizing, razor-sharp wire of anticipation. Thousands of spectators remained tightly packed across the avenues, their eyes scanning the terrace like starving predators marking their prey. Specifically, the massive faction of male inner disciples and local refiners kept casting hostile, degrading glances toward Ethan’s female reception staff standing guard near the doors.

However, Ethan had thoroughly calculated the psychological pacing of this grand opening well in advance. Louisa, Mary, and the vanguard of assistants remained unbothered by the suffocating weight of the crowd’s malice. Safely positioned behind the active perimeter defenses of the pavilion, they were calmly sipping hot spiritual tea from delicate jade cups, maintaining a thoroughly relaxed, disciplined composure.

There was no operational need for panic. For the past two full days, the staff had quietly conversationalized among themselves aware that their master had not stepped out of the primary examination chamber since Elder Heidy had entered. Yet, despite the extreme duration, not a single assistant had departed to seek rest.

The stubborn multitude outside refused to disperse even a single meter. They were desperately entrenched, determined to witness firsthand whether this self-proclaimed Immortal Doctor possessed the martial and political foundation required to wage a full-scale institutional war against the supreme Alchemical Pavilion. To them, this plaza was a front-row seat to historical chaos.

In sharp contrast to the calm staff, the Central Sect Headquarters Elders sat with utterly horrific, twisted countenances on their raised VIP platform. They did not dare to vacate the premises for a single second, driven by the intense, paranoid fear that Ethan would fail the treatment and attempt to covertly escape through a hidden array. They wanted to witness his ultimate clinical failure with their own eyes. If the brat failed to deliver a miracle to Heidy, they were legally prepared to instantly descend upon the facility, capture him, tear the skin clean off his bones, and thoroughly torture him at an agonizingly slow pace to salvage their capital pride.

Suddenly, as the morning sun of the third full day crested the peak, the massive mahogany doors slowly groaned outward.

Ethan stepped into the light, his towering frame leading the way, his vibrant crimson robes rustling softly in the mountain breeze. But what caused a violent, collective gasp to instantly rip through the thousands of waiting cultivators was the figure walking directly alongside him.

It was Elder Heidy.

The grueling, mystical treatment inside the locked chamber had ultimately lasted a considerable amount of operational time longer than initially projected. The specialized ingestion of Ethan’s advanced Tiger’s Storm elixir had violently activated her long-dormant inner void, triggering a terrifying, localized energetic whirlpool within her Dantian that seemed utterly incapable of stopping. Her dry, starved pathways had furiously demanded immediate nourishment, causing her to seamlessly drink down twenty entire crystal vials of the glowing purple formula in a single, uninterrupted sequence before her system finally achieved saturation and satisfaction.

Now, as she stood on the marble terrace, her physical presence was nothing short of staggering. The pale, deathly exhaustion that had clung to her skin for twenty years was gone, replaced by a radiant, terrifyingly dense aura that vibrated with the pristine, unhindered power of a fully restored sword master.

Even as Heidy stepped out onto the terrace, the desperate Central Sect Elders across the square failed to immediately sense the profound structural transformation within her. Because her newly forged meridians were perfectly circulating her qi in a tightly controlled loop, her aura appeared deceptively quiet.

Believing with certainty that Ethan had failed his objective, the four ancient masters completely lost their remaining institutional restraint.

"The fraudulent brat has explicitly failed!" roared Elder Victor, his face contorted into a mask of pure, malicious triumph. "Seize him! Dismember his limbs and level this pathetic pavilion to the ground!"

With vicious sneers and echoing curses, the four Peak Golden Core elders violently launched themselves from the VIP platform, transforming into streaks of destructive light as they charged directly toward the marble stairs to slaughter Ethan.

Yet, before their boots could even touch the first step, Heidy’s eyes snapped open, flashing with a lethal, blinding silver light. The dormant energy inside her Dantian instantly mutated into a raging, unhinged tempest. Her hand blurred toward her hip, wrapping around the hilt of her silver longsword with an terrifying precision.

"Cry of the Ascending Celestial Crane...!" shouted Heidy, her melodious voice carrying an explosive, razor-sharp resonance that vibrated across the entire mountain.

Clang!

A single, blinding flash of steel illuminated the plaza. In less than a millisecond, dozens of hyper-dense, crescent-shaped sword strikes erupted from her blade, beautifully taking the shape of pristine, majestic white cranes that sliced through the atmosphere with a deafening, sonic roar.

It was a legendary, supreme draw-sword technique executed at maximum velocity. Not a single one of the rushing capital elders possessed the reaction speed to deploy their primary defensive talismans or shields before the beautiful, lethal cranes slammed directly into their chests.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The heavy impacts resounded like claps of thunder. The four ancient masters unleashed collective, agonizing coughs of blood as the sheer kinetic and spiritual violence of the strikes forced them backward, their boots violently splintering the stone tiles as they skidded over thirty meters across the square, leaving a long, gruesome trail of crimson blood smeared along the floor.

They looked up, clutching their lacerated chests in trembling incredulity as they stared at the woman standing at the top of the stairs.

Heidy slowly, completely unsheathed her silver blade. As the steel bared itself to the morning sun, the surrounding air didn’t just vibrate with standard qi—the literal fabric of reality around her weapon began to violently warp, bend, and twist in a terrifying spatial distortion.

That specific phenomenon was not standard Sword Aura, such as the one possessed by the Chief of the Technique Pavilion, nor was it the dense Sword Intent that Ethan frequently utilized to pressure his targets. This was something vastly more rare, legendary, and profoundly terrifying to the cultivation world. It was the initial, embryonic awakening of a Sword Heart.

Within the ancient records of the continent, it was explicitly stated that if a single mortal warrior successfully cultivated a true Sword Heart, their conceptual authority over the blade would transcend local cultivation laws entirely, allowing them to systematically decapitate high-tier cultivators as if they were nothing more than a common patch of mindless cabbages. The fallen valkyrie’s broken sword had not merely been repaired; her twenty years of agonizing hell had acted as a crucible, allowing Ethan’s golden needles to unlock a supreme state of martial enlightenment that terrified the entire capital line.

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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

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Sword mastery levels

Sword Intent.

Sword Aura.