The crack in reality widened.
It started as a hairline fracture in the fabric of space—barely visible, shimmering with colors that didn't quite exist in normal perception. Then it expanded, slowly at first, then faster as Nova poured more of his will into maintaining the connection.
The gate stabilized at roughly the size of a dinner plate. Small, contained, but undeniably real.
And then it opened fully.
The pressure hit like a full blown weight of a star system was thrown at you.
Luna, standing five meters away with her spiritual sense extended to monitor Nova, was blasted backward violently. Her Early Mahayana cultivation did nothing to cushion the impact as she slammed into the wall hard enough to crack the reinforced crystal.
"What—" she gasped, already healing from her injuries, struggling to her feet.
The energy pouring through the plate-sized opening defied comprehension. It wasn't flowing—it was erupting, a geyser of impossibly dense spiritual essence that made the air itself scream under the pressure.
The cultivation chamber, built to withstand attacks from Peak Mahayana experts, began to crack immediately. Hairline fractures spider-webbed across the floor, the walls, the ceiling. The formation arrays designed to contain and regulate spiritual energy flickered, overwhelmed by qi that operated on principles beyond their design parameters.
"Nova!" Luna shouted over the roar of escaping energy. "The chamber is failing!"
"I know!" Nova's voice was strained, his entire focus on maintaining the gate at a stable size. If it expanded even slightly, the entire palace might collapse. "The containment formations can't handle this quality of qi!"
The Infinite Qi flooding the chamber was visible even to normal sight—a cascade of iridescent light that shifted through colors mortal eyes weren't meant to perceive. Silver, gold, violet, and shades between that had no names. It poured out in waves that distorted space itself, bending light and warping distance.
The pressure was immense. Luna, an Early Mahayana cultivator who could level their entire solar system, struggled to even stand upright in the presence of this energy. It wasn't hostile—it was simply too vast, too dense, too much for mortal reality to comfortably contain.
And it was leaking.
Despite Nova's best efforts, despite the formation arrays working overtime and burning out, the Infinite Qi was escaping the cultivation chamber. It seeped through the cracks in the walls, flowed under the doors, permeated through the very molecular structure of the palace itself.
The Lotus Palace, built from ice-blue crystal and reinforced with countless formations, began to glow. The crystal structure absorbed the Infinite Qi like a sponge, the material itself evolving as foreign energy restructured its atomic bonds.
The glow spread outward from Luna's chambers, racing through corridors and walls, illuminating the entire palace from within. Anyone looking at the Lotus Palace from outside would see it transform into a beacon of impossible light, shining like a captive star.
But the Infinite Qi didn't stop there.
It continued spreading. Through the palace grounds. Into the sect territory. Diffusing into the ambient spiritual energy of the Black Tide Sect like dye in water.
Outer Sect Training Grounds
A disciple named Fatty Tom was running laps, cursing his lack of talent. Stuck at third stage Qi Refining for five years, watching his peers advance while he stagnated.
Then the world changed.
The ambient spiritual energy, normally enough for every day use but requiring effort(talent) to absorb, suddenly became thick enough to see. Golden-silver mist rolled across the training grounds like a living thing, carrying pressure that made Feng Wei's knees buckle.
"What is this?" he gasped, then felt it enter his body.
The qi was so dense, so pure, that his meridians opened involuntarily. Energy flooded his dantian without any cultivation technique, simply forcing its way in through sheer concentration.
Feng Wei's cultivation base, stagnant for five years, suddenly exploded forward.
Fourth stage. Fifth stage. Sixth stage.
All around him, other disciples were experiencing the same phenomenon. Shocked exclamations filled the air as cultivators who'd been stuck at bottlenecks for years suddenly broke through. The weak became strong. The strong became stronger.
Everyone began cultivating immediately, desperately trying to absorb as much of this miraculous energy as possible before it disappeared.
Inner Sect Residential District
Elder Maple, a Peak Golden Foundation Building expert who'd been stuck at her bottleneck for thirty years, was drinking tea when the change hit.
Her teacup shattered in her hand as spiritual pressure beyond anything she'd experienced flooded the area. The tea evaporated instantly, sublimated by energy density that made the air shimmer.
Elder Maple's eyes widened as she felt the qi enter her body. It bypassed her defensive formations entirely, ignoring her attempts to control the intake, simply flowing into her meridians and dantian like it belonged there.
Her Golden Core, dormant and stagnant for three decades, began to rotate faster. The compression she'd been unable to achieve through meditation happened automatically, the foreign qi forcing her core to condense, to purify, to evolve.
The breakthrough came violently. Her Peak Golden Core shattered, then reformed at an even higher density and then temepered her body to a higher degree.
Golden Foundation Building Realm. Peak stage.
Elder Maple collapsed into meditation posture immediately, not questioning the miracle, simply seizing the opportunity to stabilize the advancement and push further if possible.
Grand Elder Pavilion
The three Grand Elders of the Black Tide Sect—all at Spirit Transformation Realm—were in emergency council when reality itself seemed to shift.
Grand Elder Magnus Ashford, the oldest at 3,000 years, was the first to speak. "This energy... what is it? The density is impossible. The quality surpasses anything in our treasury."
Grand Elder Elara Wintermere's hands trembled as she analyzed the qi with her spiritual sense. "It's coming from the direction of the Lotus Palace. From Sect Leader Luna's residence specifically."
Grand Elder Thaddeus Ironveil stood abruptly. "We should investigate—"
"No." Grand Elder Magnus's voice was firm. "If the Sect Leader is responsible for this, interrupting her could be catastrophic. Look at what's happening."
Through the pavilion windows, they could see the entire sect glowing. Thousands of disciples and elders, all cultivating simultaneously, their breakthroughs creating cascading waves of spiritual pressure that fed back into the ambient energy.
"The sect's heavenly qi is mutating," Grand Elder Elera said with awe in her voice. "The base spiritual energy of our territory is evolving. I've only read about this in ancient texts—when Immortal Realm energy contaminates a mortal realm location."
"Immortal qi?" Grand Elder Magnus's eyes widened. "That's impossible. Immortal qi only exists in the higher realms. For it to manifest here—"
"Regardless of the source," Grand Elder Thaddeus interrupted, "we cannot waste this opportunity. Sit. Cultivate. Whatever the Sect Leader has done, she's transformed our sect into a heavenly cultivation site. We may never see energy like this again."
All three Grand Elders immediately entered meditation, drawing in the transformed qi with desperate intensity.
Throughout the Sect
The Black Tide Sect territory spanned an area the size of a small country. hundreds of thousands of disciples, thousands of elders, countless servants and support staff—all of them felt the change simultaneously.
The ambient qi, normally requiring active absorption through cultivation techniques, forced itself into their bodies. Some panicked. Most simply surrendered to the flow and began cultivating, instinctively understanding that this was an opportunity that would never come again.
Bottlenecks shattered like glass. Foundations that had been shaky for years solidified overnight. Hidden injuries from old battles healed spontaneously. Even those who'd never cultivated before—servants, mortals living in the sect territory—found spiritual veins opening within them, awakening cultivation potential they'd never known they possessed.
The sky above the Black Tide Sect turned silver-gold, the atmosphere itself saturated with so much spiritual energy that it became visible as a glowing haze. Spirit beasts in the surrounding mountains fled in terror from the overwhelming pressure. Neighboring sects detected the surge from hundreds of kilometers away, their experts turning toward the Black Tide Sect with expressions of shock and envy.
And at the center of it all, in the Lotus Palace cultivation chamber, Nova struggled to maintain control of the gate while his own transformation accelerated beyond anything he'd anticipated.