The deck of the Star bite still carried the ghost-scent of old tomb curses and mythic echoes, but I stood firm at the prow, the wind curling up my back like a black banner.
Captain Faeluxe bowed low beside the helm, her hair still damp from post-dungeon sweat, her eyes glittering with mischievous loyalty. I looked over the crew—Snake Man now flanked by his new black viper companions, Hammerhead giving a nod of approval from a shaded corner, and the rest… mostly alive. That was something. I raised my hand. "Captain Faeluxe. Set course to the Beast Vein Continent. We've burned our ghosts—now we chase the living."
Faeluxe gave a low whistle. "Aye, Lord Ash. Bearing south west by wind-leyline. We'll ride Wisp till the stars turn hostile." Then I gave the rest of the crew a glance, my tone shifting—firm, but freeing. "All hands, you're on your own recognizance. No drills. No chains. Heal. Sleep. Train. Whatever your spirit needs, take it. Next stop isn't forgiving." The mood lightened immediately. A few cheered. Hammerhead laughed aloud. Even Snake Man gave a rare nod, his vipers hissing in chorus.
I turned and began walking toward my private quarters, the polished steel doors shaped with half-moon sigils and spell-tethered runes. Felicity followed me without a word, one brow arched in quiet interest. Marla trailed just behind her, floating slightly above the deck, her shadow crawling unnaturally on the boards.
The doors opened. And for the next seven days, I vanished from public view. I sat cross-legged on the mat within the quarters. The room had been reshaped by my tempest breath qi while I cultivated it. Clouds drifted along the cabin ceiling. Runes etched by Faeluxe along the walls allowed wind-spirits to slip through the cracks. I inhaled deeply. Tempest Breath was not just a breathing technique—it was also a breath attack.
Each inhalation gathered raw sky-force into my lungs; each exhalation of it could be shaped by my intent.
For now at the first tier; I was cultivating the fog technique. Since I had trained the sacred breath technique to it's highest tier, cultivating the tempest breath tome had been little trouble at all. Skipping sleep I had trained through the night. By the second morning, I could generate small gusts across my cabin. The tempest breath technique greatly folded and condensed my qi, and this was exciting. I couldn't wait to test my newly condensed qi at the end of this cultivation session.
I ate a piece of dried jerky, some of the five pounds or so that I had remaining all the way back from Beast Continent. Returning my attention back to the tempest breath technique, I felt an incredible tingling sensation in my vitals, my qi flow was now more effective, being pushed by the tempest breath technique. I stayed in this meditative state for sixteen hours. By that forth morning, something snapped into place.
My qi greatly coalesced into a swirling node of storm! A tempest rotated at the center of my diaphragm, the first marker of tier two mastery. I exhaled softly through my mouth—and a wind burst across the chamber, pushing Felicity's journal off a shelf.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
Next, I turned my focus to the mind pearl. Plucking the mind pearl from my spirit bracelet I held it up in the light examining it. Its pale gritty sphere hummed with mental resonance. The mind pearl, won from the Delta King's Inheritance and gifted to me by Felicity, pulsed with waves of mnemonic energy. Just looking into it brought back details—childhood memories, cultivation manuals I'd only glanced at. I placed both palms against it.
And let my intent flow into the orb. The world blurred. I remembered everything over again. My first battle with the ember coil, the way the light glistened off its rainbow crimson scales. I remembered the gleam in Seung lee Kim's eyes as she handed me my first martial tomes, the way the leather felt under my fingertips, the smell of the pages when I opened them at Iron Spikes Canyon. It all came in fast waves.
Man-Viper Kael
The dream stag and the inheritance tower.
My first huge leap with my newly enhanced vesitigum force.
The Atomic qi Explosion from the War Engine Brute.
Felicity
My seven thousand mile float down the river of blood.
Captain Riggs and the Crimson Typhoon crew
Oria's eyes.
The Inheritance.
Even thoughts I hadn't consciously formed returned like echoes made whole. I cultivated my mental energy pool with the mind pearl for what seemed to be about thirty minutes, but when I checked the candle clock, to my surprise roughly three hours had passed. But my mental clarity and focus felt greatly sharpened.
Just then I decided to look into some of the tomes that I had received from the tomb of the thousand lords. I let a few thin wisps of my Intent slip into the pocket ring, now using my newly enhanced mental clarity to quickly scan through all of the Tomes and Scrolls. I read off each tome and a short description one by one.
"Heaven-Hammer Spiral Style.
One blow to break the clouds, a second to drill the soul, a third to leave only silence.
Style: Close-quarters power fists or kicks, each strike spins internal qi in a spiral, like a drill boring through armor, bones, and even defenses of willpower. The Techniques special feature breaks through protective layers of spiritual and body-based defense in successive hits. Synergizes with ability to pressure layered defenses e.g., mimics, shields, monster hides."
"Serpent-Step Mirage Tier II – Movement/Agility Style
Description: A qi-fueled footwork kata mimicking sidewinder snakes and high-voltage coil bursts.
Amplifies dodging, with short afterimage flickers in rapid succession.
Core Motions: Coil-break dash – rapid animus based lunges that create a false echo.
Flicker-Scale Sidestep – A dodge that stuns nearby enemies with residual animus.
Tailwhip Vault – mid-air backflip that restores mobility energy.
Trigger: Consumes minor qi per motion; chain usage increases image distortion!
Risk: Illusion trails can confuse allies or leave false openings if overused
Lore Tag: "This tome came from a rogue who dodged death nine times before vanishing into storm mist. No one knows if he survived—only that his enemies didn't."
"Draconic Flash Fang Tier III – Unstable Offensive Burst.
Description: A single-use, high-voltage martial art mimicking peak predatory surge. Must be charged through battle rhythm and emotional resonance.
Effects: Launches a compressed qi burst in the shape of a dragon fang
Can pierce qi shields and armor two tiers higher.
May trigger instinct feedback from bonded beast
Trigger: Requires full qi, plus over 80% bond with ember coil Instinct
Risk: After use, disables qi regeneration for 10 minutes. May trigger beast-loss flashback or berserk state if user's willpower is weak.
Lore Tag: "Forged during the collapse of a dragon-temple under lightning siege. Few survived. The fang did."
"Falling Comet Embrace
Leap high, fall hard. Pull your foes into your orbit before the crash.
Style: Movement plus striking hybrid.
leap high with light foot qi or wind assist, drawing enemies in with wind force qi before crashing down with a meteor-style impact.
Special Feature: Great synergy with Vorpal Retrieve or Tempest movement styles. Gives control of battlefield tempo—control positioning, zone, and area attacks.
I kept reading through tomes and descriptions.
"Blazing Chain Talon Fists
Wrap, pull, burn. Strike where they cannot flinch.
Style: Medium-range striking with fiery chi that creates animated chains of impact. Each punch projects a phantom talon or flame-chain that can lash out, entangle, or drag.
Special Feature: Gives reach and crowd control.
The chains leave burning "animus hooks" that weaken defenses over time, or anchor enemies to the area for follow-up hits.
"Thousand Lords Spirit Palm.
Each strike echoes. Each echo digs deeper into your opponent's essence.
Style: Spirit-infused offensive technique. Punches ripple into qi-space and leave ghostly imprints that strike again a moment later—delayed damage.
Special Feature: Excellent against cultivators who dodge the initial hit. Synergizes with path of the soul cultivators.
The next tomes title definitely grabbed my attention.
"One Thousand Palms of Death."
Those who walked the tomb never walk alone. Style: Forbidden offensive technique from the tomb of the Thousand lords. Allows the user to replicate up to three phantom attacks per real strike, using echoes of previous thousand lords who once used the move."
I was stunned. My mind was made up, for my new offensive bias I would cultivate the Serpent Step Mirage, The One Thousand Palms of Death and the Thousand Lords Spirit Palm. By the seventh day, I wouldn't just be stronger—I would be sharper. Snake Man stood shirtless in the rising mist of early morning, his viper familiars coiled like living bracelets around his arms. The sky above was silver-blue, tinged with wind essence, and the deck's rune-etched boards trembled softly beneath him as his body shifted.
His spine curved backward—unnaturally far—until his chest nearly brushed the back of his knees. Then, with a snap like a cracking whip, his left leg elongated three meters, stretching across the deck and anchoring against a barrel with serpent-grace. He twisted, arms fanning outward in a spiral pattern as he entered the Fifth Bend of the Thirteen Bends of the Broken Serpent.
The martial tome's pages flapped open beside him, weighed down by an iron nail. The glyphs glowed faintly as he murmured the proper incantations.
"Supple is survival. Bend the mind as well as the body. Coil to strike." His ribs expanded, flexing outward with impossible elasticity. He entered the Seventh Bend, his viper familiars mirroring his motions in silent awe. From above, he resembled a human serpent knot—tense, coiled, full of violent potential. His animus flowed along ligaments and fascia like water down ancient channels. "Good… good…" he hissed to himself, eyes narrow with triumph. "The fang path smiles upon me."
Beneath the deck, where Felicity had repurposed the old alchemical garden chamber into a misty cultivation grotto, two silhouettes moved in perfect tandem.
Felicity had retrieved a forgotten scroll from Ash's dimensional bracelet—a twin cultivation text she'd noticed once when rifling through his loot. She'd giggled then, thinking it looked "stupidly romantic." Now she saw its power. The Tempest Harmony Stance required absolute synchronicity—breath, stance, qi pulse. She and Faeluxe floated back-to-back in a circle of swirling wind qi, legs folded in midair, arms entwined in a mirrored lotus pose.
Their bodies were opposites—Faeluxe radiant and sun-gold, Felicity pale as storm-wrought ivory—but their animus qi flowed like matching chords of a higher song. Lightning threaded the air between them. Wind answered their pulses. Their breathing became one. "Don't get too comfortable," Felicity warned, a smirk playing on her lips. "You're only here because Ash would want you to be weak."
Faeluxe exhaled slowly, ignoring the jab. "If being strong means outshining you, I'm already halfway there." The wind cracked like a whip between them, drawn tighter by their friction—and harmony. Then they laughed, both of them, as their bodies glowed with tempest resonance, storm sigils burning faintly on their skin. Above them, the Star bite soared through pale blue skies, carrying gods-in-the-making toward a continent made of monsters.
And within the captain's quarters, I dreamed of lightning and thunder.