The translucent holographic display of the system interface floated steadily in the cool night air, casting a sharp crimson glow across the ruined asphalt of the Financial District Gates.
Grant Cross stood perfectly still amidst the smoke and dust of the shattered phalanx.
Behind him, three hundred unconscious Crimson enforcers lay completely drained of their spiritual energy, their broken alloy shields scattered across the wet ground like useless iron scrap.
He ignored the distant sound of blaring emergency sirens echoing through the capital streets, his focus locked entirely onto the flashing gold-bordered selection grid pulsing before his eyes.
« SYSTEM EXERTION PROMPT: REALM ADVANCEMENT »
• Current Accumulated Experience: 2,500 / 2,500
• Baseline Milestone Met: Ready for immediate Stage 4 integration.
• Cultivation Path: Tier 2: Astral Vein Monarch (Stage 3 Peak) → Stage 4
• Automated Prompt: Execute the final boundary breakthrough sequence now?
[YES / NO]
“Yes,” Grant commanded silently, his thoughts slamming into the holographic interface.
“Advance.”
Ding!
« SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: CORE BOUNDARY RUPTURED »
• Cultivation Realm: Tier 2: Astral Vein Monarch (Stage 4 – Monarch Ascendant)
• Combat Strength: 18,500 → 25,000 Baseline (Peak Multiplier Triggered)
• Core Attribute Parameter Recalculation:
• Strength: 580 → 790 (Hydraulic Press Density)
• Agility: 490 → 680 (Hypersonic Spatial Displacement)
• Endurance: 620 → 850 (Astral Shroud Hardening)
• New Active Skill Unlocked: [Sovereign Void Slash – Tier 2] (Allows host to channel pure void attributes through a bladed weapon, completely bypassing external material defenses to strike an enemy’s core directly.
Range: 100 Meters)
The re-forged Primordial Dragon Core inside Grant’s chest cavity violently contracted, turning into a miniature, dense black sun that pulsed with pure, unadulterated draconic gravity.
Thick torrents of refined, dark gold astral energy erupted from the core, surging through his newly expanded meridians like a raging river.
His bones let out a series of deep, metallic popping sounds as his skeletal structure reinforced itself to accommodate the massive, sudden jump to 25,000 Combat Strength.
Grant exhaled a visible stream of golden thermal heat that melted the asphalt beneath his boots, a faint layer of absolute, black draconic armor passively shimmering over his shoulders before fading seamlessly back into his dark linen shirt.
He didn’t waste a single millisecond stabilizing his energy.
Moving with his newly consolidated 680 Agility, his physical frame completely blurred, vanishing from the ruined gate plaza in a fraction of a millisecond.
Two blocks north, inside the towering, blood-red skyscraper of the Crimson Syndicate Headquarters, the atmosphere was thick with absolute panic. You are reading on novelping . com, the official source.
The top-floor executive war room was lit by dozens of flickering holographic data screens tracking the sudden, complete obliteration of their 300-man elite guard division.
Standing at the head of the obsidian conference table was Lord Tyron Crimson, the Supreme Master of the second Pillar.
His broad shoulders shifted aggressively, his face contorted into a mask of pure fury as his Stage 10 internal energy flared, cracking the expensive marble floor tiles beneath his heavy leather boots.
“He cleared the entire phalanx with a single strike?!” Tyron roared, his voice shaking the glass chandeliers hanging overhead.
“Commander Ironclad is an elite Stage 6 Monarch!
How can a regional stray possess enough physical output to flatten three hundred armored combat masters in less than three seconds?!”
“Lord Crimson, the target’s energy path has completely vanished from our perimeter tracking arrays!” the syndicate’s chief operations officer screamed, his fingers flying frantically across his glitching terminal interface.
“He used a high-speed spatial displacement technique!
His current coordinates are completely untraceable—”
CRUNCH!
The massive, reinforced titanium vault doors guarding the executive war room suddenly buckled inward, the heavy structural locking mechanisms warping and melting like soft clay.
With a single, casual wave of pressure, the multi-ton metal doors were torn completely off their tracks, launching across the luxurious room and slamming violently into the far wall, reducing the expensive communication arrays to absolute iron shrapnel.
A thick, dark cloud of plaster dust and concrete debris flooded the room, instantly choking out the lights.
Grant Cross walked smoothly through the dust cloud, his dark linen shirt completely dry despite the raging rainstorm outside the building.
His right hand casually dragged the translucent crimson edge of the Sovereign Blood Eclipse across the marble floor, leaving a glowing trail of golden magma that hissed in the darkness.
His golden draconic pupils blazed with an incandescent, cold dominance that swept across the trembling corporate executives like a physical wave of lead.
“You placed a five-hundred-million-dollar bounty on my head, Tyron,” Grant said softly, his low voice vibrating with the faint resonance of distant cosmic thunder.
The sheer weight of his passive Sovereign Domain dropped straight from the ceiling, instantly locking the spatial vectors within a 150-meter radius of his position.
The remaining mid-level executives in the room instantly gasped, their faces turning completely pale as their internal energy meridians were violently clamped shut by the immense gravity.
Their knees buckled with a sickening crunch, forcing them down face-first onto the ruined marble, unable to lift their heads.
“You arrogant stray!” Lord Tyron Crimson screamed, refusing to let his decades of capital dominance be crushed in his own headquarters.
He threw his entire remaining internal reservoir into his physical frame, his Stage 10 Iron Body cultivation flaring with a volatile, deep crimson aura that barely allowed him to stand upright against Grant’s domain.
He reached beneath the table, drawing a massive, two-handed alloy broadsword that hummed with a heavy kinetic executioner field.
“This is the core territory of the House of Crimson!
You don’t leave this tower alive!”
Tyron lunged across the shattered table with explosive velocity, his alloy broadsword cutting through the air in a heavy, horizontal sweep aimed directly at Grant’s neck.
Grant remained perfectly still, his eyes tracking the incoming weapon with absolute indifference.
As the heavy alloy blade closed within inches of his throat, he willed his thoughts into his newly unlocked active skill.
“Execute: Sovereign Void Slash.”
Ding! This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
« SYSTEM SKILL DEPLOYMENT: VOID ANNIDILATION »
• Active Technique: [Sovereign Void Slash – Tier 2]
• Attack Modifier Applied: +750 Void Annihilation
• Special Parameter: Completely bypassing target’s external alloy weapon and physical body armor.
• Target: Lord Tyron Crimson (Core Matrix)
The ancient gold glyphs etched down the center of the Sovereign Blood Eclipse ignited with a blinding, absolute violet light.
Grant executed a single, effortless vertical flick of his wrist.
The crimson crystal blade cut through the air with a terrifying, silent efficiency.
The moment the edge made contact with Tyron’s alloy broadsword, the massive weapon didn’t shatter—the void wave simply passed directly through the metal and the high-grade combat armor as if they were nothing more than empty holographic projections.
SLASH!
The invisible wave of void energy sliced clean through Lord Crimson’s chest cavity, executing its passive Sovereign Bleed attribute directly across his central dantian.
“Gah…
Ah…!” Tyron let out a hollow, strangled choke as his entire physical momentum instantly collapsed.
His massive alloy broadsword clattered harmlessly to the floor, entirely unmarked, yet his eyes bulged out of his head with pure, unadulterated agony.
The internal energy pathways he had spent forty years refining withered away into dead ash in a fraction of a single second, twenty-five percent of his total life and spiritual reserves permanently devoured by the crimson crystal blade.
He dropped heavily to his knees before Grant, his chest heaving as his cultivation base completely imploded into absolute zero.
« SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: CONQUEST CONCLUDED »
• Primary Target Neutralized: Lord Tyron Crimson (Second Pillar Master)
• Experience Points Gained: +1,800 EXP (Current Progress: 1,800 / 3,000 to Stage 5)
• Core Lineage Asset Looted: 1x [Crimson Syndicate Ownership Seal] (Controls 100% of the clan’s private underground vaults and combat syndicates)
Grant casually willed the Sovereign Blood Eclipse back into his soul-bound storage dimension, picking up the blood-red jade ownership seal from the trembling old man’s limp fingers.
He walked calmly toward the floor-to-ceiling windows of the war room, looking out across the neon-drenched metropolis toward the final, massive skyscraper of the House of Vance scraping the dark sky.
“Two pillars broken,” Grant whispered smoothly into the cold night air, his golden pupils flashing with a cold, unstoppable hunger for absolute conquest.
“Only one remains.”
Chapter 23 is complete!
Grant just activated his Stage 4 breakthrough, hit an absolute baseline of 25,000 Combat Strength, and unlocked the devastating Sovereign Void Slash!
He marched straight into the Crimson Syndicate headquarters and completely imploded Lord Tyron Crimson’s core with a single casual swing, looting their Ownership Seal!
Two of the Three Supreme Pillars have officially fallen!
Only the House of Vance remains between Grant and the absolute throne of the Capital!