Ethan followed a few paces behind Elder Hestia as they navigated the winding, restricted stone pathways leading toward the elder quarters. His face remained a mask of flawless, clinical detachnt, but his sharp, predatory gaze was actively asuring the woman walking ahead of him.
Despite her heavily wrinkled visage and cold, fiercely unexpressive deanor, her physical fra beneath the heavy silk elder robes still retained a remarkably firm, voluptuous contour. Her hips were surprisingly wide, and she possessed an exceptionally shapely, mature rear that shifted with a heavy, disciplined rhythm as she walked. Ethan found himself already savoring the impending encounter. To his dark, calculating mind, she wasn’t just a powerful administrative asset; she was the absolute cherry on top of the entire feast.
He had been silently calculating his progression paraters over the past few hours. He didn’t even know how many ordinary female disciples he would have to systematically "treat" to gather a fraction of the raw, concentrated essence locked within this single woman’s fra. She stood a re half-step away from the legendary Golden Core Realm. Her spiritual foundations were unimaginably dense, completely saturated by centuries of continuous, high-tier sword cultivation.
If he could completely activate the unholy sigils of the Nine Body Yin Devourer technique during her upcoming breakthrough and aggressively siphon her raw, concentrated maiden energy, the harvest would be absolutely catastrophic. A massive wave of that caliber would effortlessly catapult his own cultivation pool, violently pushing him from his current mid-tier Spiritual Core Realm all the way to the absolute peak—perhaps even allowing his aura to fiercely graze the very threshold of the Spiritual Soul Realm in a single, massive leap.
The thought made a dark, invisible glint flare deep within his athyst irises.
Elder Hestia led him through a pair of heavy, ironwood gates protected by a shimring, translucent defensive array. Her personal residential pavilion was incredibly spacious, surrounded by high stone walls and a dense thicket of black bamboo that completely muffled any sounds from the outside world. The atmosphere was completely quiet, isolated, and dripping with an oppressive layer of natural spiritual energy.
"We are here," said Elder Hestia, her voice sounding like grinding stones as she stepped up to the massive wooden doors of her private training chamber and threw them open. "This room is completely warded against all spiritual and acoustic frequencies. No matter how loud the disruption inside, not a single sound will ever escape past those walls."
"Perfect," said Ethan, his deep voice carrying a sudden, heavy resonance that made the old woman’s spine tingle with an unbidden, primal tremor. "Lock the doors behind us, Elder. The ti has co to completely dismantle your boundaries."
"Strip completely bare and lie face down on the central stone table," said Ethan, his voice dropping into a flat, icy command that filled the room like a physical weight.
Elder Hestia’s entire fra instantly stiffened. Her ancient face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated outrage, her athyst-tinted eyes flashing with a murderous, lethal light. Strip completely bare? For a Senior Elder of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion—a woman who had commanded armies and slaughtered thousands—to be ordered to completely expose her naked form to a re outer disciple was an absolute, unforgivable insult to her honor.
"Insolent cur!" Hestia hissed, her hand violently snapping back toward the hilt of her katana as her Spiritual Soul pressure exploded outward, threatening to crush the very floorboards beneath Ethan’s boots. "You dare bring your filthy, perverted borderland desires into my personal sanctuary? I will flay the skin from your bones for this disrespect!"
Ethan didn’t even blink. He stood perfectly rooted in place within the eye of her raging spiritual storm, his expression entirely deadpan and unbothered by her terrifying killing intent. He simply crossed his massive arms over his chest, looking down at her with a cold, superior detachnt.
"Your outrage is entirely born of ignorance, Elder," said Ethan, his deep voice easily cutting through her roaring aura. "Your Tianji and Weizhong ridian nodes are completely calcified, clogged by centuries of unrefined, freezing sword-qi. If I attempt to execute the structural reconstruction while you wear even a single shred of silk, the localized spiritual heat generated by my technique will instantly incinerate the fabric, bonding the lted fibers directly into your open pores and causing an unholy, permanent infection across your skin."
The old woman’s hand faltered against her hilt, her sharp eyes widening slightly as Ethan continued to ruthlessly dismantle her secrets.
"Furthermore," Ethan continued smoothly, taking a slow step toward her, "the ossification has already crept down into your lower lumbar and your inner thighs. Every ti you attempt to cycle your energy during the midnight hour, you experience a violent, stabbing spasm right at the base of your spine, followed by an imdiate, freezing numbness that completely paralyzes your left leg for exactly three minutes. Am I correct?"
Elder Hestia gasped softly, her terrifying aura violently flickering before completely collapsing back into her chest. Her face turned stark white. The paralyzed leg, the exact three-minute duration, the midnight spasms—these were highly intimate, terrifying symptoms she had never dared to reveal even to the Alchemical Pavilion’s Chief Master. Yet this monster of a youth had mapped out her entire internal decay with a single glance.
"To thoroughly cure this rot, I must use my bare palms to directly manipulate the deep tissue channels running from the base of your skull, down your spine, and entirely through the major muscle groups of your lower hips," said Ethan, his athyst eyes staring into hers with an absolute, undeniable clinical authority. "If you value your pride more than stepping into the Golden Core Realm and extending your fragile longevity, then pick up your sword and strike down now. Otherwise, shed your robes and assu the position."
Hestia stood entirely frozen, her mind spinning in a chaotic vortex of intense vulnerability and desperate, burning ambition. Every single word he spoke was a flawless, logical truth that perfectly mirrored her secret agony.
Gritting her teeth until they nearly bled, the fierce Elder slowly let her hand drop away from her weapon.
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From this mont forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks ntioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinent Realm
Skin Refinent / Bone Refinent / Organ Refinent
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Pri Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.
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