Chapter 511: Cryomancy, Tenth Acupoint Foundation
After Selene left, Moon got off the bed and walked to the center of his spacious room.
He sat down in a lotus position on the floor and placed a noise-cancelling rune near himself. The sound of the world outside dropped away.
Moon closed his eyes as ice began to form around him in small fragments and dispersing as he tested the connection to his Cryomancy skill.
He had nine acupoints filled, each holding an Epic-rank skill foundation. His current prowess sat at thirty-eight acupoints worth of power.
It was already massive. Peak of Three-Star Evolver territory. But once he filled this tenth acupoint with the Cryomancy foundation, his prowess would comfortably reach forty acupoints.
The threshold of Four-Star.
Moon did not waste time, he began threading Cryomancy into his tenth acupoint.
Surprisingly, threading the skill was harder than he had anticipated. Despite having comprehended the skill fully, despite his deep understanding of ice as an element, the actual process of weaving the foundation into the acupoint kept resisting him in ways the previous eight hadn’t.
Each thread of ice he tried to anchor would slip. The spiritual energy in the acupoint wanted to flow in patterns that didn’t match the structure he was trying to embed.
He would press the foundation in, and it would settle for a moment, then drift back out of alignment.
It was almost as difficult as his very first acupoint had been, back when he had been an inexperienced Evolver with no understanding of the process.
The more he worked, the more the disconnect bothered him. He understood the skill. He understood his acupoints. The two should have come together easily.
But they didn’t.
Ice continued to float around him as he worked.
Changing shapes to his will. A sword. An arrow. A flower petal. A shield.
Each form he produced was a small exercise in control, refining his grip on the element while he simultaneously fed it into the acupoint. He was forcing his mind to operate on two layers at once. Surface control. Internal threading. Both demanding his full attention.
Two hours passed before the foundation was finally established.
The skill locked into place, spiritual energy flowing through the new structure smoothly without restraint.
Moon’s eyes opened.
A flash of satisfaction crossed them.
"Finally. That took way too long."
His voice was a little tired. His brain felt foggy from the constant concentration that had slowly built mental fatigue.
He rolled his neck slowly, focusing on the new acupoint.
The output felt good and powerful.
’This acupoint is stronger than other ones...as I expected.’
The higher the acupoint was, the more difficult it became to establish a foundation or fill it. But this didn’t come without its own advantages, the acupoint grew stronger.
His current prowess updated in his mind. Although he had yet to fully fill his tenth acupoint, he still managed to enter the forty acupoint territory.
He had crossed into Four-Star Evolver Ranks.
Moon let out a slow breath and let the ice around him dissipate into the air. The fragments melted away as if they had never existed.
He had less than ten hours before the second stage began.
"Time to rest."
♢♢♢♢
In a darkened apartment on the upper floor of a high-rise building, two figures stood by a wide window.
Beyond the glass, the city of New Avalon stretched out in every direction, its lights twinkling against the night sky like a sea of stars.
In the distance, the central tournament complex rose above the surrounding skyline, its massive arena and surrounding facilities illuminated in soft white floodlights.
The screens that had broadcast the day’s competition were dark now, but the building itself stood like a beacon.
Ian and Baaron stood side by side, neither of them speaking for a long moment.
Their auras were suppressed completely. From the outside, the apartment would register as empty to any scanner.
They had paid an exorbitant amount for the privacy. The shielding runes embedded in the walls were of a tier that stopped even Ascenders from spotting.
Custom inscriptions designed to mask the presence of Third Order beings completely.
For tonight, they didn’t exist.
Ian finally broke the silence.
"He’s terrifying."
His voice was cold.
Baaron grunted beside him, his massive frame casting a long shadow across the floor.
"I watched the footage three times. The first round didn’t feel real. He killed a Fourth Star Body Refiner Beat like it was nothing."
"With help."
"With minimal help." Baaron corrected. "The girl held her own, but the kill belonged to him. That purple lightning of his does something to the victim. I could see it through the recording. The beast was already broken before the final blow landed."
Ian nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the distant arena.
"And he had only been an Evolver for less than a month when he stepped into the tournament. Less than a month to reach Three Star prowess from nothing in that timeframe is impossible.
There’s no spirit art manual, no natural talent that allows for that kind of growth curve."
"Which confirms what we thought, he pulled something out of the S-Rank gate. Something significant."
"Something we need."
Ian’s eyes narrowed slightly. He glanced at Baaron from the corner of his eye, his expression carefully neutral.
’He wants it.’ Ian thought. ’He wants the treasure for himself. He’ll cooperate until the moment we have it, and then he’ll find a reason to disappear with it.’
The thought didn’t bother Ian.
He was planning the same thing.
Whatever Moon had pulled from the S-Rank gate, was the kind of artifact that could push a Third Order being toward the next breakthrough.
Both of them had been stuck at their current ranks for decades. A reward of that caliber, properly utilized, could mean the difference between stagnating for another century or not.
Neither of them would let the other have it. Not really. The cooperation was a formality. The endgame had already been written separately in both of their minds.
But for now, the boy had to die.
Ian turned away from the window.
"He’s resting now...should we...?"
