Bonefire Ridge

The morning sun crept over Ironhollow City, casting a golden hue upon streets still slick with blood. Jiang Chen stood atop a rooftop, his golden-amber eyes cold and sharp as they overlooked the awakening city. Merchants were opening their stalls, travelers filled the streets, and mercenaries sharpened their blades—yet beneath this surface, tension coiled like a serpent ready to strike.

The Crimson Edict had been issued.

By now, every rogue cultivator, bounty hunter, and assassin in Ironhollow had heard the price on his head. Whispers flooded the air:

"Jiang Chen... The monster who defied the Crimson Blade Sect."

"They say he killed their entire outpost alone."

"The bounty on him could buy you a lifetime of cultivation resources!"

Jiang Chen's lips curled into a smirk.

"They can come." His voice was low, but within it roared the promise of destruction.

But beneath his defiance, he knew the truth. Staying in Ironhollow was suicide.

The Crimson Blade Sect had underestimated him once. They wouldn't make the same mistake. The next wave wouldn't be enforcers—it would be Foundation Establishment elders or worse.

And despite his victories…

He wasn't ready.

His body, tempered through chaos and battle, thrummed with power, but he felt it: the bottleneck. His strength had reached the Peak of Body Tempering, but without stepping into the next realm—Qi Condensation—his path would shatter beneath stronger foes.

"I've beaten Foundation Establishment cultivators before, but… why?"

His fists clenched. He remembered those fights clearly—against the Foundation Establishment assassin, against the Crimson Blade elites. He had won, but not by brute strength alone. It was time to face the truth of how he had managed to defy the odds.

His opponents hadn't recognized his true threat until it was too late. Their arrogance had cost them their lives.

Even at Body Tempering, his understanding of the Law of Force—Compression and Infusion—was something cultivators didn't grasp until Core Formation or beyond. His every strike shattered defenses from within.

Chaos Qi: His Qi wasn't ordinary. Chaotic Qi, primal and untamed, consumed and disrupted enemy techniques, bypassing their defenses.

Experience and Instinct: His combat intuition, forged through life-or-death battles since childhood, allowed him to read enemies several stages above his own.

Short Battles: His fights against Foundation Establishment enemies were fast and explosive. He never dragged them into a battle of attrition where their superior Qi reserves would crush him.

"I wasn't stronger than them. I was faster, smarter, and deadlier in a single exchange."

But… that was no longer enough.

The Crimson Blade Sect wouldn't send fools this time. They'd send monsters. He needed to surpass his limits.

Jiang Chen's eyes flicked toward the distant horizon, where jagged peaks clawed at the sky. Bonefire Ridge.

A cursed, chaotic land where spiritual energy and destruction intertwined. Few dared to venture there. It was a death trap of spirit beasts and wild energies.

But for him?

"Chaos calls to chaos."

Without another glance at Ironhollow, Jiang Chen turned—his form blurring into the winds as he vanished from the city.

The land greeted him with ruin. Bonefire Ridge was a graveyard of giants—massive bones jutted from the earth, and deep crimson fissures bled with heat. The air was thick, not with ordinary Qi, but something primal and unstable.

Jiang Chen's Chaos Seed throbbed.

He felt it instantly—the land was soaked in the echoes of an ancient battle. Chaos had ruled here once.

"Good… this is exactly what I need."

The ground trembled, and a massive shadow emerged from the cracks—

A Crimson Bone Ape, towering three meters tall, its body armored with molten-crusted bones. It bellowed, its primal eyes burning with madness.

Jiang Chen's lips curled.

"You'll do."

The ape charged—but Jiang Chen vanished. His speed, amplified by Force Infusion, turned him into a blur.

He reappeared beneath the beast, spear flashing forward—

BOOM! His spear struck the ape's armor with a shockwave-enhanced thrust using Compression, but the armor cracked only slightly.

The ape's claw swept down—

Jiang Chen twisted, redirecting the force with his spear shaft and launching himself backward.

Jiang Chen didn't unlock anything new. But he didn't need to. He was a master of what he already had.

Instead of trying to overpower the armor—he struck the same spot again.

BOOOOOM!

The armor imploded, and the beast collapsed, its bones crumbling like dry twigs.

Jiang Chen's chest heaved, but his eyes blazed.

He felt no sudden insight, no new ability—only the perfection of what he already possessed.

"Hah… Mastery isn't about new tricks. It's about using what you have perfectly."

Suddenly—his Chaos Seed erupted.

A surge of chaotic energy flooded his body, and his meridians burned with agony and power.

He dropped to his knees, his veins glowing gold and black as his body began to shatter… and rebuild.

Inside his dantian, his Chaos Core twisted—then began to condense, shrinking into something denser, sharper.

The bottleneck broke.

Jiang Chen's body exploded with power. His meridians expanded, forming distinct Qi Channels that hummed with Chaotic Qi.

His bones hardened, his muscles refined to perfection, and his skin gained a faint, otherworldly sheen.

The air around him cracked and distorted as his new Qi surged, chaotic and uncontrollable, tearing the earth apart around him.

He could now store and circulate Qi through his meridians, enabling sustained techniques and long-range attacks.

His spiritual sense awakened, allowing him to feel the flow of energy around him.

He could now infuse Qi into his techniques, exponentially increasing their power.

But his Qi was Chaotic Qi—wild, devouring, and incompatible with traditional techniques. It didn't **flow—it **raged.

Jiang Chen exhaled, steam rising from his lips.

"This… This is power."

He clenched his fist, and black-gold Qi coiled around his arm, distorting the air.

A second spirit beast, an Ashen Drake, hissed from above, molten venom dripping from its fangs.

Jiang Chen didn't bother dodging. His body blurred as he reappeared inside the beast's range, his spear flashing—

Using his existing Compression skill, he layered force within a point. With Qi Condensation, he could now detonate that force remotely—creating an internal collapse. 

BOOM! The Ashen Drake's chest erupted, its ribs shattering outward as it collapsed, lifeless.

Jiang Chen lowered his hand, his Qi crackling violently from the technique.

"I'll call you Pulse Rupture." He said as he glanced at the mangled beast.

The winds stopped. The air thickened with a pressure that crushed the earth and silenced the chaos.

Jiang Chen's body tensed—his Chaos Qi screamed in warning.

A voice, deep and amused, filled the air:

"Hoh? Done playing with lizards?"

Jiang Chen turned, his golden-amber eyes narrowing.

And he saw him.