Chương 8: The Cosmic-Wave

Ch 8: The Cosmic-Wave Morning came quietly over Baskerville. Sunlight slipped through the dormitory window in soft gold bars while the academy stirred awake around it a few early risers already making their way toward the cultivation courtyards, others hurrying to the dining hall before the day's lessons began. Somewhere beyond the walls, wooden practice swords clacked against each other in scattered, unhurried rhythm. I sat up on the edge of the bed.

Yesterday's encounter with Ellia drifted through my mind and faded just as quickly correcting the flaw in her swordsmanship had never been the point of stopping to watch her train. It had simply been impossible to ignore, and it had worked out better than I'd expected.

"I wonder if she's still embarrassed," I murmured, and had to fight down a laugh at the memory of her blushing face just before she'd fled the training ground. There were more pressing matters waiting for me than that, though. Kalio. The duel was closing in fast, and no amount of confidence from yesterday changed how wide the gap between us actually was.

Experience alone could only carry a fight so far without a real jump in cultivation, no swordsmanship in the world would erase the difference between our realms entirely. I picked up my practice sword and left. The eastern training grounds sat nearly empty at this hour, the air still cool, carrying the smell of damp grass and old maple trees. I chose a quiet spot beneath one of the larger trees, set the wooden sword down in front of me, and closed my eyes.

Every cultivator on Domantia followed the same basic path sit, empty the mind, guide Qi along established circulation routes. The calmer the mind, the more efficiently Qi gathered from the world around it. It worked. For most cultivators, it was probably the best method available to them. I wasn't most cultivators.

"My path's always been different," I said quietly, and let myself smile at the thought. Back on Earth, before the Tower ever descended, Qi as Domantia understood it hadn't really existed at all. Humanity ran on mana, Talent, and the System instead Qi surfaced only in scattered pockets deep inside the Tower, and most people dismissed it outright because gathering even a trace of it demanded years of patience for almost nothing in return.

I'd been one of the few who refused to let it go, and that stubbornness eventually led to the one Talent that changed everything about my life. As it climbed through the ranks — C to B to A to S to SS, and finally to something the System had never named before it kept handing me techniques that shouldn't have existed at all. One stood above the rest. Cosmic-Wave Qi Circulation. Even now, the name alone stirred old memories.

When I first received it at SS-Rank, I assumed the System had made a mistake the technique overturned nearly everything I understood about how Qi worked. Traditional cultivation demanded stillness. Cosmic-Wave demanded motion. Traditional cultivators gathered Qi through meditation. Cosmic-Wave gathered it through the sword every swing, every step, every breath and heartbeat folded into the act of cultivation itself. I'd dismissed the idea as impossible, at first.

How could a cultivator refine Qi while continuously burning through their own body in combat? Curiosity won out in the end. It took ten years of proving myself wrong before the impossible became simple fact every completed motion drawing Qi into the body before it circulated on its own, without the wielder ever needing to force it. The sword itself became the channel between heaven, earth, and the person holding it.

By the time I'd mastered it fully, its efficiency had outpaced every cultivation method humanity had ever devised. Combined with decades of relentless training, it was one of the largest reasons I'd ever managed to stand in front of the Abyssal Dragon at all. I looked around the quiet training ground and wrapped my fingers around the wooden sword.

"This world has no shortage of extraordinary cultivation techniques," I said.

"But I refuse to believe any of them beat Cosmic-Wave." I dropped into the opening stance of the most basic sword form there was nothing remarkable about it, the same movements every beginner in Domantia learned in their first week. One forward step. One horizontal slash. One vertical strike. One controlled withdrawal. Underneath those plain motions, I quietly activated the circulation pattern that had once stunned an entire world.

The instant my breathing synchronized with the rhythm of the blade, everything changed. The Qi around me trembled, then drifted toward me in thin, steady streams, following each movement like something drawn on an invisible current flowing into my meridians with every completed strike instead of arriving in disruptive bursts. A slow smile spread across my face.

"It works." Imperfectly this body was still far too weak to reproduce the technique in its complete form but the foundation held. One swing became ten. Ten became a hundred. Hours passed. Sweat soaked through my robes. My arms grew heavier, every muscle protesting the relentless repetition, and still I didn't stop. Cosmic-Wave demanded continuous motion; breaking the rhythm too early would only blunt what it was meant to do. Four hours. Then five.

By the sixth, something shifted on its own the Qi circulating through my meridians accelerating past the slow rhythm of ordinary cultivation, flowing instead like an endless tide, gathering, refining, redistributing itself through every part of my body before settling into place. Ding. Blue particles gathered into a familiar translucent screen. Legacy Resonance Confirmed Previously Mastered Technique Detected Synchronizing... Synchronization Complete.

Recovered Legacy Technique: Cosmic-Wave Qi Circulation Rank: SS A supreme cultivation method that transforms sword practice into continuous Qi circulation. Every completed movement refines the body, nourishes the meridians, and gathers spiritual energy without interrupting combat. Status: Recovered This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I let out a quiet laugh.

"So you finally recognized it." Unlike techniques picked up through manuals or inheritances, Cosmic-Wave belonged to my Legacy earned across decades in my previous life, and just like Dragon Slayer, the System registered it as something already mastered rather than something newly learned. A second notice unfolded beneath the first. Notice Current World Analysis Complete. This technique possesses further growth potential. View evolution requirements? Y / N I blinked.

"... It can evolve?" Even after fully mastering it on Earth, I'd never once considered that Cosmic-Wave might have a stage beyond SS-Rank. My pulse picked up at the thought.

"Yes." Ancient script scrolled across the screen faster than I could follow, then settled. Evolution Requirements Current Grade: SS Target Grade: Unknown Conditions: - Upgrade Avatar to Heaven-Reaching Realm — First Leaf - Reach Cultivation: Heaven-Reaching Realm — Fifth Leaf Further conditions remain locked. Silence. I read it once, then again, and let out a helpless laugh.

"... Got a very long road ahead of me." Neither requirement sat anywhere close to reach my Avatar had only just stirred awake in the Mortal Realm, and my cultivation stood nowhere near the heights this asked for. Somehow, that only sharpened my resolve instead of dulling it. If Cosmic-Wave really did have another form waiting beyond SS-Rank, I'd reach it, the same way I'd broken past every ceiling this world claimed was fixed the first time around. I closed the window and looked down at the wooden sword.

"Plenty of time to worry about the future. For now I get stronger." I picked the training back up. The Qi around me had already thickened compared to before, pouring into my body with every completed movement, reinforcing muscle and meridian alike, tightening the fragile foundation this young body had started with. Two more hours passed before I finally lowered the sword. My clothes were soaked through, every muscle burning, and underneath the exhaustion sat a real, uncomplicated satisfaction.

A familiar warmth spread from my dantian and surged outward all at once. Crack. The invisible bottleneck gave way without resistance. The surrounding Qi rushed toward me one last time before settling quietly into place.

"Mortal Realm," I said, breathing out slowly.

"... Third Leaf." Nearly eight hours after I'd sat down beneath that tree, the breakthrough had finally arrived. The afternoon sun was already sinking by the time I made it back to my dormitory, every muscle aching, my uniform soaked clean through with sweat. It wasn't an unpleasant kind of exhaustion. It had been a long time since I'd pushed this body all the way to its limit, and despite its many shortcomings, it had held up better than I'd expected.

I set the practice sword against the wall and dropped onto the bed with a long breath out.

"... Not bad." Reaching the Third Leaf in a single day, starting from where this body had been, was an extraordinary result. Ordinary meditation would have taken weeks to get here — maybe months. Cosmic-Wave had, once again, proven exactly why I'd once considered it one of the greatest techniques I ever received. Still. This wasn't the moment to get comfortable. Kalio was growing stronger by the day, and the duel wasn't going to wait politely for me to catch up.

I closed my eyes and circulated my Qi again, and the difference from that morning was immediate every pathway wider, steadier, more stable than before. Even my breathing had changed, the sluggish resistance from my first day in this world gone entirely. Every inhale pulled spiritual energy toward me on its own; every exhale carried the last of the impurities back out.

"So the foundation's finally starting to stabilize," I said quietly. Worth every hour today had cost me. After resting a few minutes, I raised a hand.

"System." Blue particles gathered obligingly into the familiar interface. EPHORA LEGACY SYSTEM Synchronization Progress: 13% I opened the Status tab. Name: Len Fan Age: 10 Race: Human Cultivation Realm: Mortal Realm Third Leaf Strength: 12 (+10) Agility: 4 (+2) Constitution: 3 (+2) Endurance: 16 (+15) Spirit: 4 Comprehension: 9 Legacy: The One Who Walks the Martial Path Recovered Techniques: - Dragon Slayer Art — First Verse - Cosmic-Wave Qi Circulation (SS) Synchronization: 13% I read through it slowly.

The jump in Strength and Endurance was exactly what I'd expected Cosmic-Wave didn't just cultivate Qi, it refined the body right alongside it, tempering muscle and widening meridians with every hour spent training. That had always been its greatest strength. Spirit and Comprehension hadn't moved at all, which made sense those weren't qualities that bent to physical repetition. My eyes drifted to the bottom of the screen. Synchronization.

Thirteen percent only three points higher than it had been after everything that had happened at the sect. Saving Mother. Recovering Dragon Slayer. Unlocking Cosmic-Wave. Two full cultivation breakthroughs. Three percent, for all of that.

"... Raising Synchronization isn't going to be easy," I murmured, leaning back against the headboard. The Legacy System had never rewarded meaningless motion every real increase so far had come from reclaiming something I'd once earned, or changing the shape of Len Fan's original fate. If that pattern held, simply training day after day would never be enough on its own. I'd have to earn it. The same way I'd earned everything the first time. One more question surfaced before I let the thought go. My Avatar.

Yesterday's notification had hinted at the possibility of evolution, and Cosmic-Wave's own evolution requirements had specifically asked for my Avatar to reach the Heaven-Reaching Realm. There had to be a connection between the two. I opened the Avatar tab. Avatar: Kromitos Realm: Mortal — First Leaf Potential: ∞ Evolution Status: Upgradeable I selected View Details. The screen went dark for several seconds, ancient symbols crawling across it as though the System itself were digging through its own buried records.

Then, slowly, new text began to form. Avatar Evolution Current Avatar: Kromitos Current Realm: Mortal — First Leaf Requirements: ✓ Cultivation — Mortal Realm, Fifth Leaf □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ Additional Requirement... Locked I frowned.

"... Another locked condition?" It wasn't the locked text that caught my attention this time. It was the row of empty squares sitting beneath the one requirement the System had actually shown me. Unlike the completed condition above them, these weren't words at all. They looked like seals. As though something had been deliberately scrubbed out of the System's own record of itself. For the first time since opening this panel, real uncertainty crept into the thought.

"What exactly," I said quietly, "are you hiding from me?" The screen offered nothing further, no matter how long I stared at it. Eventually I closed the interface and lay back, eyes on the wooden ceiling. One thing was certain. Whatever Kromitos actually was, it wasn't as simple as infinite potential made it sound. An avatar that could be upgraded at all. A locked evolution path with entire sections erased rather than merely hidden. A System that flinched every time I asked it a direct question about my own nature.

None of it was normal, and if my instincts were worth anything, whatever sat behind that seal would end up changing a great deal more than just my Avatar. A faint smile crossed my face.

"It seems," I said, "my journey's only just started." Outside, the evening bell rolled out across Baskerville as the last light disappeared behind the mountains and somewhere beyond the academy walls, someone had already begun quietly asking around about the student who'd corrected Ellia Vortexian's swordsmanship with nothing more than a glance.