The decision made, Axel spent his last evening in the forest preparing for the journey ahead. Ten days of travel through unknown territory meant planning, preparation, and accepting risks he'd previously avoided.
He gathered what supplies he could—dried meat from successful hunts over the past weeks, edible roots wrapped in large leaves, a waterskin fashioned from animal bladder. It wasn't much, but it would have to suffice. The forest had been his home and training ground, but it had never been generous with its resources.
As darkness fell, Axel settled into meditation one final time in the small clearing that had become his primary cultivation spot. The tree he'd been practicing strikes against stood nearby, its trunk scarred and cratered from weeks of abuse. In a strange way, those scars felt like a monument to his progress—visible proof of how far he'd come from the confused, weak transplant who'd awakened in this world two months ago.
He closed his eyes and sank into his dantian, examining the changes wrought by his intensive training. The reservoir of Qi was larger now, capable of holding perhaps three times what it had contained just a week ago. More importantly, the quality had improved. The energy felt purer, more refined, responding to his will with minimal resistance.
The meridian network had evolved as well. What had started as a few primary channels now resembled a complex circulatory system, with major pathways branching into secondary and tertiary routes that spread throughout his entire body. Qi flowed through these channels in continuous loops, automated circulation patterns that required no conscious effort to maintain.
This was the foundation of cultivation—creating internal infrastructure that could support increasingly powerful energies as one advanced through the realms. Every stage built upon the previous, each breakthrough expanding capacity and refining control.
Axel began a new experiment, something he'd been contemplating for days but hadn't dared attempt until his foundation felt stable enough. Instead of simply circulating Qi through established pathways, what if he created deliberate loops? Circuits of energy that would flow continuously, building momentum and power with each rotation?
He started small, forming a simple loop through the meridians in his right arm. Qi flowed from his dantian up through his shoulder, down to his hand, then back up the other side to complete the circuit. Once, twice, three times the energy cycled, each rotation moving slightly faster than the last.
The sensation was intoxicating. His right arm began to glow faintly with golden light as the circulating Qi built momentum. Power accumulated with each cycle, compounding on itself, until that single arm contained energy equivalent to his entire previous output.
Axel opened his eyes and stared at his glowing limb in wonder. This was it—the principle behind advanced techniques he'd sensed but not understood. Not just moving Qi through the body, but creating self-sustaining flows that amplified power through repetition.
He stood and approached the practice tree, his right arm still glowing with accumulated energy. A simple punch, no special technique, just the flowing energy behind a basic strike.
His fist connected with the trunk.
The tree exploded.
Not just the bark, not just the outer layers—the entire trunk shattered into splinters that flew in every direction. The massive tree, easily three feet in diameter, cracked in half with a sound like thunder. The top portion toppled slowly, crashing through the canopy and landing with ground-shaking impact thirty feet away.
Axel stood frozen, his fist still extended, staring at the destruction he'd caused. That hadn't been a technique. He hadn't used any special compression or release mechanism. It had just been a normal punch enhanced by flowing, circulating Qi.
And it had obliterated a target that would have taken hundreds of previous strikes to damage this severely.
This was what flowing energy meant. This was Stage 3 Mid cultivation fully realized—not just gathering Qi, but learning to circulate it in ways that multiplied its effectiveness exponentially.
Excitement warred with caution in Axel's mind. The power was incredible, but it had also depleted his Qi reserves significantly. The circulation loop had consumed energy at a much higher rate than normal techniques, and maintaining it for extended periods would be unsustainable with his current cultivation level.
Still, as a finishing move, as a trump card to be used when normal techniques weren't enough... this was exactly the kind of breakthrough he needed.
Axel spent the remaining hours before dawn practicing the technique, refining it, learning its limits. He discovered that he could create similar loops in his legs for explosive movement, in his core for defensive purposes, even throughout his entire body for a brief surge of comprehensive enhancement.
Each application had different energy costs and effectiveness profiles. Arm loops were efficient for strikes. Leg loops burned through Qi quickly but provided incredible speed bursts. Full-body circulation was catastrophically expensive but turned him into something far beyond his normal capabilities for a few crucial seconds.
By the time the sun rose, painting the forest in shades of gold and amber, Axel had added a powerful new tool to his growing arsenal of techniques. More importantly, he'd discovered a fundamental principle of cultivation that would serve him for realms to come—power wasn't just about how much Qi you had, but how effectively you could use it.
Wei Chen appeared as Axel was finishing his preparations for departure, emerging from the morning mist like a ghost.
"Leaving?" the other cultivator observed, taking in Axel's packed supplies and the destroyed tree nearby. His eyes widened slightly at the extent of the damage. "What in the heavens did you do to that tree?"
"Practiced," Axel replied simply.
Wei Chen circled the shattered trunk, examining the destruction with growing respect. "Practiced. Right. This is Stage 4 level damage at minimum, and you're only at Stage 3 Mid." He looked at Axel with new wariness. "You're not just talented—you're a monster. The kind of talent that sects fight wars over."
"I'm going to the Azure Sky Sect examination," Axel said, changing the subject. "Three weeks from now. You?"
Wei Chen was quiet for a moment, seeming to wrestle with some internal debate. Finally, he sighed. "I suppose I should tell you the truth. I'm not just 'between affiliations.' I was expelled from the Flowing River Sect for... let's call them philosophical differences with the leadership. They wanted me to participate in activities I found morally questionable, I refused, and that was that."
"So you're a rogue cultivator."
"Technically, yes. Though I prefer 'independent practitioner.'" Wei Chen smiled wryly. "The point is, I can't join a major sect under my real name—they all share information about troublemakers. But the Azure Sky Sect does occasionally accept talented rogues if they prove themselves exceptional during the examination."
"And you're telling me this because...?"
"Because traveling together makes sense," Wei Chen said bluntly. "Ten days through territory where that Stage 7 rogue Zhang Mei mentioned is hunting. Two cultivators together have better odds than two separately. And..." He hesitated. "I could use an ally. Someone who isn't immediately suspicious of my background. Someone who might vouch for my character if questions arise during the examination."
It was a risk. Wei Chen had been honest about his past, but that past included being expelled from a sect. There could be good reasons for that expulsion, but there could also be very bad ones.
On the other hand, Wei Chen had multiple opportunities to betray or attack Axel and hadn't taken any of them. He'd provided useful information and advice. And there was a certain logic to traveling together—safety in numbers, especially with a dangerous rogue cultivator hunting in the area.
"Alright," Axel decided. "We travel together. But if you do anything that makes me regret this decision, our partnership ends immediately."
Wei Chen grinned. "Fair enough. I'll take that."
They set out within the hour, following a path Wei Chen knew from his months in the region. The terrain was rough—dense forest giving way to rocky hills, with occasional streams cutting through valleys. It was slow going, especially for cultivators trying to conserve their Qi for potential threats rather than using it to speed their travel.
As they walked, Wei Chen shared more about the Azure Sky Sect and what to expect during the examination.
"Three main tests," he explained. "First is the spiritual root assessment—they check your innate talent for cultivation. Can't fake that, either you have it or you don't. Second is cultivation level and combat ability—they want to see how far you've progressed and how well you can fight. Third is character assessment—a series of questions and scenarios designed to weed out the criminally insane or dangerously ambitious."
"How stringent is that third test?" Axel asked pointedly.
Wei Chen had the grace to look embarrassed. "Not as stringent as you might hope. Sects care more about talent than morality, generally speaking. As long as you're not an active psychopath who'll murder fellow disciples in their sleep, they'll probably accept you."
"Comforting."
"It's the cultivation world," Wei Chen shrugged. "Morality is... flexible. The strong make the rules, the weak follow them, and everyone else exists in the gray area between."
They made camp that first evening in a small cave Wei Chen knew, one that showed signs of previous use by other travelers. As they sat by a small fire, Wei Chen asked the question Axel had been expecting.
"So where are you really from? That 'Axel King' name doesn't sound like anything from the local dialects. And your cultivation style is completely unorthodox—effective, but nothing like any sect technique I've ever seen."
Axel considered his response carefully. The truth—that he'd died in another world and somehow ended up here—would sound insane. But a partial truth might work.
"I'm from very far away," he said finally. "Somewhere with very different customs and no cultivation tradition. I arrived here with no knowledge of how any of this worked and had to figure it out from scratch."
It wasn't technically a lie. Just strategically incomplete.
Wei Chen studied him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "That explains a lot actually. The way you approach cultivation—it's like you're conducting experiments rather than following tradition. Most of us are taught specific forms and techniques without really understanding the underlying principles. You're building understanding from the ground up."
"Is that a problem?"
"Problem? No. Unusual, definitely. Potentially very valuable." Wei Chen poked at the fire with a stick. "Sects love tradition, but they also love innovation when it leads to power. If you can demonstrate techniques that work better than established methods, people will pay attention. Just be careful—success breeds jealousy, and jealousy breeds danger in places where everyone has the power to kill you."
They talked late into the night, trading stories and cultivation insights. Wei Chen knew far more about sect politics and social dynamics, while Axel's experimental approach to techniques revealed perspectives Wei Chen had never considered. By the time they slept, Axel felt confident he'd made the right decision in accepting Wei Chen as a traveling companion.
The next few days fell into a steady rhythm. Walk from dawn until midday, rest and cultivate during the hottest hours, walk until evening, then make camp. They encountered other travelers occasionally—merchants guarded by hired cultivators, small groups of rogue practitioners seeking their fortunes, once even a sect patrol that gave them suspicious looks but ultimately passed by without incident.
On the fourth day of travel, they felt it—a massive Qi signature, powerful and predatory, somewhere ahead on their path.
Wei Chen's face went pale. "That's him. The rogue Zhang Mei was hunting. He's close, maybe a li ahead."
"Can we go around?" Axel asked, already knowing the answer.
"Not without adding days to our journey, and he might sense us anyway if we get too close." Wei Chen chewed his lip nervously. "We could wait him out, hope he moves on."
They retreated to a hidden position and waited, extending their Qi senses carefully to track the dangerous presence. Hours passed. The rogue cultivator seemed to be staying in one location, possibly in meditation or possibly lying in wait for prey.
As the sun began to set, a new presence entered their awareness—multiple signatures, weaker than the rogue but numerous. A merchant caravan, from the feel of it, heading directly toward the ambush.
"We should warn them," Axel said.
"We should stay hidden and alive," Wei Chen countered. "That's a Stage 7 Soul Projection cultivator. If he notices us, we're dead. The caravan has hired guards—let them do their jobs."
"Against a Soul Projection cultivator? Those guards are probably Stage 4 or 5 at best. They'll be slaughtered."
"And we'll join them if we interfere," Wei Chen insisted. "I'm sorry for those people, truly I am. But throwing our lives away won't save them."
Axel knew Wei Chen was right from a purely logical standpoint. The smart play was to hide, let events unfold, and escape in the chaos if the opportunity presented itself. Getting involved meant almost certain death against an opponent so far above their level.
But the memory of Earth nagged at him—a world where people at least tried to help each other sometimes, where the strong didn't automatically prey on the weak, where might didn't make right by default.
Maybe this world needed to beat that idealism out of him. Maybe Wei Chen's cynical pragmatism was the only way to survive.
Or maybe there was a third option.
"I'm not saying we fight him," Axel said slowly, an idea forming. "But what if we could disrupt the ambush? Create enough chaos that the caravan escapes and the rogue decides we're not worth chasing?"
"How?" Wei Chen demanded. "We can't match his power."
"We don't need to match it. We just need to surprise him long enough to matter." Axel explained his idea—using their combined Qi to create a massive explosion of energy, not aimed at the rogue but at the environment around him. Collapsing trees, triggering rockslides, creating confusion rather than direct confrontation.
Wei Chen listened, his expression shifting from skeptical to thoughtful. "It's insane. It might work, but it's still insane. If he catches us..."
"He won't be looking for Stage 3 cultivators. He'll expect threats from equals or superiors, not from insects beneath his notice."
"Insects that sting sometimes get swatted," Wei Chen pointed out. But Axel could see him coming around to the idea, the combination of risk and cleverness appealing to something in his nature.
Finally, Wei Chen sighed. "Alright. But if this gets us killed, I'm going to be very annoyed with you in whatever afterlife we end up in."
They spent the next hour preparing, positioning themselves at key points above the ambush site where the rogue cultivator waited. The plan was simple—wait for the caravan to enter the kill zone, create massive environmental disruption, and flee in opposite directions while everyone was confused.
As the caravan rounded the bend below, they saw the rogue cultivator emerge from concealment. He was exactly as the image had shown—mid-thirties, scar across his left cheek, cold eyes that promised death. His Qi signature was overwhelming, the pressure of it making Axel's skin crawl even at this distance.
The caravan guards sensed him immediately and moved to protect their charges, but Axel could see the fear in their stances. They knew they were outmatched.
"Now," Axel whispered.
He and Wei Chen released their prepared techniques simultaneously. Axel's flowing energy loop technique, refined over days of practice, channeled into the cliff face above the ambush site. Wei Chen's own technique—something involving compressed air Qi—struck several key support points in the rock structure.
The effect was catastrophic.
The entire cliff face collapsed in an avalanche of stone and earth that crashed down onto the road below. Trees that had stood for centuries toppled like matchsticks. Dust exploded into the air in a choking cloud that obscured everything.
The rogue cultivator reacted instantly, his superior cultivation allowing him to escape the collapse with contemptuous ease. But his attention was fixed on the rockslide, on determining if this was a deliberate attack or natural disaster, on the caravan now fleeing in the opposite direction.
Axel and Wei Chen were already running, moving in different directions as planned, using every trick they'd learned to conceal their Qi signatures and blend into the forest.
Axel ran until his lungs burned and his legs screamed for rest. He ran until he couldn't sense Wei Chen's signature anymore, couldn't sense the rogue, couldn't sense anything but the pounding of his own heart.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably less than one, he collapsed in a hollow between massive tree roots and allowed himself to breathe.
They'd done it. They'd disrupted the ambush, likely saved the caravan, and escaped without direct confrontation. It had been insane, reckless, exactly the kind of thing Wei Chen had warned against.
But it had worked.
As his breathing slowly returned to normal and the adrenaline faded from his system, Axel felt something settle in his chest. This world was brutal and unforgiving, yes. Power was everything, and the weak suffered while the strong thrived.
But that didn't mean he had to accept it. Didn't mean he couldn't try to be something more than just another predator in an ecosystem of violence.
The cultivation path was about more than just accumulating power. It was about deciding what kind of person that power would make you.
Axel closed his eyes and began to meditate, replenishing his depleted Qi reserves. Tomorrow he would need to find Wei Chen, assuming his traveling companion had survived. They still had six days of travel ahead, and the path would only grow more dangerous the closer they got to Azure Peak Mountain.
But tonight, exhausted and alone in the dark forest, Axel felt something he hadn't felt in weeks.
Pride.
Not in his cultivation level or his techniques, but in the choice he'd made. In refusing to let pragmatism become callousness, in trying to help despite the risk.
Maybe it was naive. Maybe this world would beat that impulse out of him eventually.
But not today.
Today, he'd chosen to be more than just strong. He'd chosen to be good.
And in a world where power was everything, that choice felt like its own kind of strength.