Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Refining Heaven And Earth
Rudra stared at Vahn with a complex mixture of suspicion and grudging respect. The boy’s calm demeanor in the face of a true Patriarch’s pressure, followed by the audacious challenge, forced his hand. It was a risky gamble to take a nobody back to the Holy Land, but leaving him to be snatched by a powerful rival would be an even greater humiliation, especially if the boy truly possessed an identity from the Darkness Creed.
Rudra finally nodded curtly.
"Very well. If you are an outer disciple of the Darkness Creed, you will come with me now. We will verify your identity immediately," Rudra stated with cold authority. "But if you are lying, no one in the Empire, not even your so-called insignificant self, will save you from the consequences."
He then turned his sharp gaze toward the Violet Sun Patriarch, who stood frozen by Vahn’s gambit.
"Patriarch," Rudra’s voice was dismissive. "You heard him. This matter concerns the internal affairs of the Darkness Creed. I suggest you step aside."
The Patriarch was barely hiding the fury. He had been this close to obtain a Divine treasure, but the sheer pressure of the Darkness Creed’s name was too great. The Darkness Holy Land was the undisputed "Big Boss" of the Dark Sun Empire. To challenge their Holy Son was nothing but courting death.
"Hmph. As you wish, Holy Son. We shall meet again."
The Patriarch gave in, but his eyes blazed with resentment as he watched his priceless artifact slip away
With the matter settled by the sheer political force of the Holy Land’s name, the powerful onlookers could only gnash their teeth in impotent rage.
Vahn, Rudra, Prince Helix, and Princess Camila walked unimpeded down the final steps and out of the Tower.
As soon as they stepped onto the open grounds outside, a massive, ornate transport carriage emblazoned with the Darkness Creed’s insignia hovered into view.
"Get in," Rudra ordered in an impatient tone.
But, Vahn slowed his pace instead. He glanced at the Holy Son, Prince, and Princess with ridicule, who were all focused on the carriage entrance.
They were powerful, but their attention still move away from him. They likely assumed Vahn was simply resigned to his fate. That’s why, they weren’t that alert.
"Now," Vahn thought, his heart rate spiking with adrenaline.
He secretly reached under his belt, his fingers finding the cool, smooth surface of a Transportation Jade slip. It was the same artifact Seraphina had given in case of emergency.
Next, with a barely perceptible movement, he in injected some spirit energy into it.
.
Immedietly, a tiny, nearly invisible burst of faint silver light enveloped Vahn.
"What was that—"
Rudra’s ears twitched suddenly, feeling an alarm.
He finally turned toward Vahn, realizing the boy had stopped moving.
Before any of them could react, before a single shout or strike could be launched, Vahn’s body disappeared with a soft glow.
He was gone.
The space where Vahn had stood was now empty. Only a residual faint, sweet smell of burnt herbs lingered in the air, the signature of the high-grade jade.
Rudra, Prince Helix, and Princess Camila all stopped dead, their eyes wide with disbelief and shock.
"He... he escaped? With a Transportation Artifact?" Prince Helix stammered out, his aristocratic composure shattered.
"We were tricked!" Princess Camilia hissed, her hand instinctively flying to her hip where a dagger was sheathed.
"That smooth-faced liar!"
Rudra stood still, a terrible storm brewing in his dark eyes. The humiliation of being defeated on the steps was now compounded by the shame of being openly outwitted by the same Commoner boy—an "ordinary outer disciple" who had used his own Holy Land’s name as a shield only to vanish the moment they were outside.
He clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles turned white.
"You Insect..." Rudra’s voice was low, strained, and filled with chilling vengeance.
"You little insect, you have escaped. But you can’t hide forever. I vow this: I will find you, and I will make you pay a thousand times over for the disgrace you brought upon me today."
He had been fooled, humiliated, and robbed of his revenge. The debt had just grown tenfold.
---
On other hand, Vahn arrived on the training ground with a faint glow, finding himself exactly where he had started hours ago. He looked up, noticing the deep purple expanse of the night sky; the entire ordeal at the Tower, from his ascent to his audacious escape, had consumed a full day.
The thought of Rudra and the other angry cultivators was momentarily pushed aside.
They’re too far away, he rationalized. Our paths won’t cross again anytime soon.
His mind was already consumed by a far more urgent, thrilling matter.
Instead of heading toward Seraphina’s Cave, Vahn made a run for his own rundown hut. The exhaustion of the day vanished, replaced by a consuming excitement to test the forbidden talent now etched into his very being.
Once inside his modest dwelling, he secured the door and sat cross-legged on his straw mat. He took a few deep, stabilizing breaths, cleared his mind, and focused on the knowledge that had dissolved into his soul: the Void Refining Manual.
Following the manual’s instructions, Vahn closed his eyes and began to circulate his internal energy. The process was unlike anything he had ever read about. Instead of drawing Qi into his meridians to compress and solidify it, the technique instructed him to release his Internal Qi, guiding it outside his body in a vast, ethereal net.
As his first thread of inner energy left his body, it immediately began to change. His ordinary, pure Qi was instantly darkened, becoming heavy, silent, and infused with an ominous, all-consuming quality. It was the Void Refining Art.
The terrifying principle of the manual became startlingly clear. His newly formed Void Qi didn’t just passively absorb ambient energy; it actively preyed upon it.
The very air around Vahn seemed to turn dense and suffocating as the dark energy swirled. Vahn could feel the Void Qi greedily latching onto the ambient Heaven and Earth Qi in the hut, dragging it in and pulverizing it, filtering away impurities until only a pitch-black, potent essence remained.
This is it. This is the power to ’Refine Heaven and Earth,’ Vahn realized with a shiver of awe and terror.
With every successful cycle, the dark energy flowed back into his body, heavier and exponentially more condensed than the Qi he had started with. It flowed through his meridians, gathering in the Dantian at a dizzying pace.
Like this, Vahn continued cultivating deep into the night, the only sounds being the soft hiss of the Void Qi working its terrible alchemy on the world outside his body. He was no longer simply cultivating; he was absorbing, devouring, and refining the very essence of the world.