The sirens from the city’s emergency vehicles echoed far below, but eighty-eight floors up, the howling wind rushing through the ruined face of the Aegis Horizon Tower was the only sound that mattered.
Grant Cross stood on the edge of the fractured concrete floor, looking out toward the distant mountain ridge where the ancestral palace of the Cross Clan gleamed under the afternoon sun.
The three elite Stage 9 Elders of the Iron Shroud Sect had been thoroughly wiped from the board, their physical cultivation broken into dust before their bodies even hit the pavement below.
He willed his thoughts inward, ignoring the distant chaos of the metropolitan area.
The translucent azure interface of the system vibrated in the open air before his eyes, flashing a massive, gold-bordered warning grid.
« SYSTEM EXERTION SEQUENCE INDUCTION »
• Current Accumulated Experience: 2,700 / 2,000
• Baseline Advancement Threshold: 2,000 EXP for Stage 5
• Status: Master Boundary fully saturated.
Initializing final evolution tier of the Iron Body realm.
• Automated System Prompt: Initialize Stage 5 Advancement now?
[YES / NO]
“Yes,” Grant thought, his golden pupils widening slightly as he tapped the holographic selection grid.
“Break the boundary.”
The moment his thoughts registered the command, the world around him completely lost its gravity.
The fragments of shattered concrete and loose wiring floating in the air froze in place as a localized spatial rift cracked open directly behind his back.
A torrent of deep, pitch-black draconic energy erupted from the soul-bound Spatial Vault, winding around his torso like thick serpentine chains.
Unlike his previous level-ups, Stage 5 didn’t just tighten his muscle fibers—it re-forged the literal blueprint of his biological structure.
His internal energy pathways, once broken into stagnant rivers by his cousin’s obsidian spike, expanded until they were as wide as deep cosmic rifts.
The Primordial Dragon Core inside his chest compressed, turning into a miniature, dense black sun that pulsed with pure, unadulterated gravity.
BOOM!
A silent kinetic shockwave shot outward from his position, flattening the remaining interior walls of the luxury penthouse and turning the modern designer furniture into fine wood powder.
The concrete pillars supporting the ceiling groaned under the sudden, immense weight of his presence.
Ding!
« SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: STAGE 5 ADVANCED »
• Host Name: Grant Cross
• Combat Strength: 3,700 → 5,500 (Average Human Baseline: 10)
• Core Attributes Fully Multiplied:
• Strength: 310 → 480
• Agility: 240 → 390
• Endurance: 350 → 510
• Divine Sub-System Unlocked: [Draconic Lineage: Partial Mythic Aspect]
• New Active Transformation Skill: [Sovereign Dragon Form – Tier 1] (Allows host to manifest physical dragon scales over vital zones, increasing all kinetic physical attributes by 100% for 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 1 hour)
Grant slowly lowered his arms, the thick black draconic energy snapping back into his pores with a sharp electric crackle.
He let out a long breath, a visible stream of golden thermal heat melting a line across the slate floor.
At 5,500 Combat Strength, he had completely exceeded the limits of normal human cultivation in this city.
A strength score of 480 meant his bare fingers possessed more structural crushing force than a hydraulic industrial press.
He didn’t waste another millisecond stabilizing his energy.
He turned away from the ruined penthouse and walked toward the private elevator core, but before his hand could touch the calling panel, the automated steel safety doors slid open on their own.
Standing inside the sleek elevator cabin was Violet Vance.
Her beautiful, ice-cold face was entirely pale, and her breathing was ragged, her silk business shirt slightly damp from the wind.
She stepped out onto the ruined floor, her high-society heels clicking against the concrete shrapnel before she froze, staring at the total structural annihilation of the room.
Her six elite Tier 1 bodyguards were nowhere to be found; she had left them at the bottom of the tower.
“You…
you killed them all,” Violet whispered, her voice shaking violently as her high-level cultivation senses recorded the residual, crushing gravity still hanging in the room.
“The three elite elders of the Iron Shroud…
you erased them in a single breath.”
“They were in my path,” Grant said smoothly, his black pupils looking down at her with absolute, unbothered calm.
Violet took a tentative step forward, her usual untouchable corporate demeanor completely gone, replaced by a profound, desperate urgency.
“Grant, listen to me. Find the original chapter at g.com.
You have to leave the commercial district immediately.
The news of the auction and the destruction of the enforcers has reached the inner circles of the high clans.
My father, the Grandmaster, has just signed a pact with the Cross Clan.”
Grant didn’t blink.
“A pact?”
“Yes,” Violet said, her hands trembling as she pulled out a secure digital encrypted tablet, displaying a series of shifting, ancient lineage runes.
“The Grand Ancestor of the Cross Clan didn’t just break his ten-year seclusion to find a thief.
He has activated the Draconic Suppression Formation beneath the ancestral palace.
They know your bloodline has broken the seal.
They are preparing to trap you and drain your core to feed the main line’s younger generation.”
She looked up at him, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and a strange, deep fascination.
“My father is moving his forces to secure the city perimeter.
If you stay, you are fighting the entire combined underworld of the province.
Let me use my financial group’s private network to smuggle you out to the southern rifts.
With your talent, you can return in five years and level them completely.”
A low, resonant chuckle drifted from Grant’s lips, the sound causing the remaining window frames to vibrate with a terrifying frequency.
He walked right past her, his broad shoulders brushing against her white business suit.
The pure, ambient heat radiating from his Stage 5 Iron Body instantly dried the damp rain tracking on her clothes, leaving behind a faint scent of ozone and ancient gold.
“Five years ago, I ran because I had no choice,” Grant said, his low voice echoing down the elevator shaft like a promise of absolute disaster.
He willed the pitch-black Obsidian Dragon Blade out of his soul-bound Spatial Vault, the light-devouring weapon materializing smoothly into his right hand, its edge humming with the dark frequency of the Soul Bleed attribute.
“Tell your father to keep his forces exactly where they are,” Grant whispered, his golden draconic pupils igniting with a blinding, incandescent radiance as the elevator doors began to close between them.
“Because tonight, I am not running.
I am marching straight to the ancestral hall to tear down their thousand-year legacy brick by brick.”
Stage 5 Ascendant Lord Peak reached!
Grant’s combat strength has surged to a staggering 5,500 points, and he has officially unlocked the [Sovereign Dragon Form]!
Violet Vance has brought a critical warning, but the dragon refuses to hide!
The final war against the Grand Ancestor and the entire combined underworld of the city begins in the next chapter!