Azure Profound Continent
The rest of the school year passed in an agonizing blur.
After all four members returned to their cave hideout in the Azure Profound Continent, the Divine Sense Press was finally assembled. Two Gold Core storage rings, mounted in a reinforced stone frame, their residual divine sense shields serving as crushing walls.
Leo knelt between them in the press and began speed-running training his divine sense once more.
The crushing was mercifully quick each session. Agonizing, yes, his consciousness flattened like rice paper under a steamroller, but quick. A few seconds of pressure, a few hours of recovery with expensive spiritual tea, and then back again. His divine sense tore, healed, and grew denser with each cycle.
At least this time the pace wasn't as frantic. Leo's only obligation was refreshing his Common language proficiency every few days. A quick trip to a near by village every few days was enough to help improve his pronunciation.
Leo's Si had long crossed from "Genius" to "Monster" territory. He stopped bothering to show up to class on Earth. The questions about his rapid improvement were too bothersome to answer, and his teachers had learned not to expect him.
The Foundation Establishment adults threw themselves into nurturing their lifebound flying swords. After the chaos of the last heist they decided to try to earn an honest living.
They went out and prospected ore veins themselves, hauling raw spiritual metal back to the cave in heavy sacks. They built a modern smelting formation. They refined the ore with their own hands, folding impurities out of the metal through weeks of patient work.
Kevin explained to Leo why they were so obsessed with lifebound flying swords. By Lifebonding with a treasure, a cultivators gained intimate control over it, and it couldn't be seized by enemy divine sense.
Lifebound flying swords are the current pinnacle of earthly combat power. Leo thought of them as fighter jets. The technology was first developed during The First World Cultivator War (WW1), and really popularized druing the Second World Cultivator War (WW2).
However a WW2 era lifebound flying sword had great downsides. For example it was very difficult to pilot the sword, requiring great balance and coordination, and you could easily be thrown off the sword if you weren't tied into it.
Most importantly it was too difficult to have any attention to both fly and fight. In WW2 they solved it by having the 'pilot' lifebond with giant flying swords capable of carrying multiple cultivators.
For example the trump card of the United States, The B-17 Flying Sword Fortress was large enough to fit seven cultivators. Truly only a country like the United States, blessed with deep untouched spiritual iron mines could afford to produce thousands of them.
Legacy Sect Nascent Soul old Monsters could only watch in despair as formations of hundreds of B-17 Flying Sword Fortresses would drop bombs from seven miles above their sects. A truly unhonerable way of fighting.
More recently, due to the modern proliferation of formation masters, and the scientific, free, and open nature of formation research that appeared after WW2, lifebound flying swords have reached an entirely different power level.
Now the modern flying sword no longer had to be attached to the cultivator, it could drive the cultivator without even needed to be touched via the lifebond. This allowed the sword itself to be a weapon too. If you were rich enough, you can add all sorts of functions to your lifebound flying sword, like defense, offense, and even comfort and luxury options too.
Currently in this interwar period of peace, none of the three had flying swords for years. Kevin could never afford to waste money on one. Mike's military grade flying sword was too costly to maintain and upkeep, and upon retirement he relinquished it, and Arthur lost his flying sword when he shattered and regressed from Gold Core.
DIYing your own treasure was slower than theft. But it was safer, and they could potentially acquire weapons no natives could dream of. It just took a lot of diligence and hard work, but the techniques and formations were all available on earth.
Kevin could also draw the needed formations too, as he did some graduate school studies in formations before giving up on that career path. Copying or stealing the needed formations from Costco just was a matter of investing the time and Divine Sense.
Days bled into weeks. Weeks into months. The four of them fell into a steady rhythm: training, refining, growing stronger. The outside world faded. The cave became their universe.
They grew addicted to the climb.
---
March 2026, Earth
At last, Leo's Si hit 999.
The number sat there on the divine sense meter, immovable. Leo had tried a few more times, but as they had expected, it was the limit. He had slammed into an invisible ceiling, the absolute limit of mortal spiritual capacity.
It was the culmination of 280 days of hard work. 280 days of dying over and over in the Azure Profound Continent game world. It must have been close to 2000 times. But now he stood at the peak that no one else had ever reached.
Everyone was here: Mike, Arthur, Kevin, his parents, and some mysterious old man Leo had never met before. It was also probably the first time in the world a breakthrough chamber with emergency services was prepared for a mortal stepping into Qi Refining.
But at the end of the day no one knew what was going to happen with such high divine strength, and having the extra insurance just in case was worth it.
Honestly this moment meant a lot to Leo. The initial two months without a cheat hurt his transmigrator's pride. No system, no sign in bonus, heck he even tested his spiritual roots and found nothing remarkable too.
But now, he was here. A perfect divine sense as a mortal, never done before in the history of Earth.
Now that he had maxed out his divine sense, it was time for him to begin his journey of cultivation. After today he would no longer be a mortal, but become a Qi Refiner.
The step into Qi Refining is possibly the easiest part of cultivation. In fact, in the catacombs many young cultivators start as early as the age of seven.
For Earth, with its limited spirit veins, if you started before fifteen you would pay additional spirit veins taxes as penalty for unoptimal usage. In today's society, almost everyone started after they were fifteen as you couldn't enter Foundation Establishment before eighteen anyways.
The Qi Refining Ceremony was a tradition studied and copied from the Catacombs, it was not a ceremony that originated on Earth. For Catacombs natives, they believed that the step into Qi Refining was one that carried great karma.
Although Americans weren't very sure what karma was, in the age of social media, any excuse to hold an elaborate ceremony was a good one. Many students would plaster their Qi Refining Ceremony all over their Instagram.
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Essentially during the Qi Refining Ceremony, the new cultivator would accept wisdom from his mentors, and 'inherit' their hopes and dreams. However Leo had some trouble figuring out who he thought his mentor was, and what hopes and dreams he would inherit.
Many of Leo's classmates would probably be doing their ceremonies in school uniforms on school grounds with school teachers pledging allegiance to school values. But as someone who probably could count the amount to total days he attended school on one hand, that didn't really sit right with Leo.
Even doing a generic ceremony as a citizen of the UCA (United Cultivators of America) didn't really feel right to Leo either. After all the first 16 years of his life was spent in the USA, before transmigrating to this cultivation world. Nothing really felt right to a transmigrator like Leo.
It was then after hearing some of Leo's thoughts Arthur offered a different path. Apparently the boomer was alive during the age of sects. Since all sects were outlawed from recruiting new disciples after the National Sect Prohibition Act of 1920, that meant the boomer must be at least 120 years old.
Technically speaking, in the loosest sense, the Divine Press Training Technique was an inheritance of Arthur's Manifest Iron Sect. An Elder long ago had once postulated that divine sense could be refined like iron, and if hammered, it could be forged anew. After attempting to refine his own divine sense, the elder had turned himself into a vegetable.
It was sort of a joke of the sect, and nothing came of it aside from some clearly unethical experiments done in some war Arthur wouldn't talk about.
The Manifest Iron Sect was quite a pitiful sect. They were a refining sect, and all of their secret techniques ended up being completely inferior to the scientific methods of modern chemistry.
They already were near extinction well before Prohibition, after all, what were they supposed to do? Declare life and death enmity with Superior Dmitri Mendeleev?
Technically speaking the sect still existed on paper. They never surrendered after prohibition due to shame. They had no contribution to modern society, no face to offer incense to their ancestors. Neither Arthur nor his master achieved any great war merit to bring a bit of final glory to the sect.
It was this joke of the sect, that of an elder who refined himself into a vegetable, that offered a final legacy.
But it was a great legacy indeed. Sometime in the future, it might reappear in the world as long as they found a source of Nether Sovereign Jade.
Arthur convinced his master to accept Leo as the final disciple of the sect.
Although Arthur didn't really explain exactly how Leo was able to cultivate the technique, but the 999 Si meter reading was enough to convince Superior Ironheart, the sect leader, that the technique was truly learned and tested by that young boy.
That was why Leo was dressed in this ridiculous denim outfit.
Full denim robes from top to bottom, the sect never updated their formal uniform standards since the late 1800s. At least he was in good company. Arthur and Superior Ironheart were also in full denim daoist robes, visibly embarrassed at the lack of fashion foresight of their ancestors.
Arthur had in his hand a steel wrench. And Leo knelt down in front of him, hand outstretched.
“The path of the Dao is often gilded, boy, but the road to true power is paved with steel and sweat," Arthur stated, clearly uncomfortable with this outdated speech.
"Do you pledge your spirit to the hammer and the fire?"
Leo reached forth and grasped the wrench.
"I accept the steel, Master Arthur. I pledge my spirit to the Forge."
"Then hear me, Disciple Chen of Connecticut. You are now bound to the Manifest Iron Sect. You bear the burdens of industry and the Providence of the Foremen. May God bless the Manifest Iron Sect! May God bless America!"
Thankfully they briefed everyone beforehand about the ridiculous discipleship ceremony, otherwise the audience would haven broken into laughter (again). Arthur and Superior Ironheart swore that back in the day it was very solemn and cool. But honestly, their cheeks were red with embarrassment.
Truthfully speaking the Manifest Iron Sect, as well as all sects, were still prohibited by the 18th amendment from recruiting disciples. But they managed to get special permission to recruit one last disciple, in exchange for their formal surrender and disbandment on the same day.
This permission would have been impossible to get, if it were not for connections from Mike's mysterious wife. But nobody really pressed Mike about it.
Superior Ironheart stepped forward and presented the prized spiritual steel hammer of the sect. A Medium Grade Gold Core artifact that symbolized the position of the sect leader. Back then, it would have been considered quite valuable, but now... hopelessly outdated.
"Disciple Chen, you have served the Sect faithfully through your years of service. You have endured the forge, honored the Deed, and spilled blood on the rail line." Superior Ironheart thought to himself.
Well zero is even, so I guess it probably is a plural so zero years must be okay I hope.
Leo straightened, and accepted the spiritual steel hammer and hung it on his hip.
"I have followed the iron path laid by the Foremen, Elder Arthur. My vigilance has not wavered."
"Then by the authority vested in this soiled Deed and the smoke of the Foundry," Superior Ironheart pronounced, "I pass the position of Sect Leader to your hand. May you refine the Manifest Iron Sect to new heights! May God bless the Manifest Iron Sect! May God bless America!"
Although it seemed like a farce, giving the position of Sect Leader to a mere mortal using the outdated rituals never updated since the 19th century, it was a relief to Superior Ironheart to finally let go of this final burden of his life that he had held for over a hundred years.
Arthur had reassured Ironheart that the technique was theoretically replicable. That in the future, Leo and Arthur could provide a pathway for others to Mortal 999 Si.
The sect finally had some meaningful contribution to modern society, and not a small one. However cheesy the final ceremonies were, it could not hide the relief that Ironheart had brought closure to the sect of his master and master's master.
The next step was the Qi Gathering Stage.
Leo's father and mother stepped forward, each resting one hand on his shoulder. Their palms were warm, steady, radiating the controlled spiritual energy of seasoned Foundation Establishment cultivators.
They took their time. Just the slow, patient process of guiding their son's body through its first true breath of spiritual energy. Leo felt their Qi seep into him, opening pathways he had never known existed, gentle and steady. His meridians trembled, unfolded, and began to drink.
"Breathe in," his mother murmured. "Hold. Let it settle into your dantian."
"Don't chase it," his father added. "Let it come to you."
Leo closed his eyes and obeyed.
The Qi entered through his shoulders, twin streams of warmth flowing from his parents' palms. It slid beneath his skin like water finding the path of least resistance, tracing the invisible highways of his meridians. Down through his arms, across his chest, pooling in the hollow space he could now detect below his navel.
His Dantian.
It felt like a lock clicking open. Something that had always been there, dormant and waiting, finally recognized and acknowledged. The Qi settled into his dantian and began to spin. Slowly at first, then faster, compressing into a tight spiral of energy. His body hummed with unfamiliar power. Every cell seemed to wake up, to pay attention, to lean toward this new source of vitality.
Then the Qi moved again.
It shot upward. Through his stomach, his chest, his throat, racing along the central meridian like a river breaking through a dam. Leo gasped as it hit the base of his skull and into the center of his brain. The Zhifu point.
The Qi struck it like a hammer hitting a gong. Leo's divine sense, that dense, compressed thing he had spent months forging through agony and repetition, shuddered under the impact. For one terrifying moment he thought it would shatter, and he would suffer Qi deviation.
But it didn't shatter.
It drank.
His divine sense absorbed the Qi greedily, pulling it in, weaving it through its structure like rebar in concrete. The boundaries of his consciousness expanded outward in a single steady surge. His divine sense, something that could only be measured and never used, felt alive.
Leo opened his eyes, and the world looked sharper than it ever had before. And he felt true power. Leo grinned, playing around with his divine sense, locking onto everyone in the room. It felt effortless.
Everyone sighed in relief. It was successful. And maybe a little too terrifying. Getting locked on by such a high grade of divine sense was a little too terrifying, especially from a boy who just entered Qi Refining.
Leo just had one final step in the ceremony he needed to finish.
Mike stepped forward, dressed in the formal blues of the UCA Marines. As a reserve member of the Marines he was here to represent the Government in accepting the surrender of the Manifest Iron Sect.
Leo, the last disciple, and last sect leader of the Manifest Iron Sect surrendered the spiritual steel hammer that he had just accepted. With a bow he formally declared the surrender of the sect and disbandment.
Satisfied, Mike smiled and bowed back. Accepting the surrender and thanking the Sect for their contribution to the great country of the UCA.
Leo took out his divine sense meter and checked it in front of everyone. 2000 Si. The 2000 deaths were truly worth it.
Kevin's jaw dropped. "Holy shit. I called it." He grabbed Arthur's sleeve and shook it. "I called it! Remember? I said his divine sense might jump when he broke through to Qi Refining. Nobody believed me."
Kevin was practically bouncing. "Two thousand Si at Qi Refining. That's Foundation Establishment numbers. That's rich kid Foundation Establishment numbers."
