Star Alliance Member

Xu Wuyi opened his eyes.

His hands rested on his knees. Beneath his bronze skin, the pale blue glimmer no longer flowed; in its place was an exceedingly faint, lustrous golden sheen.

Unlike the dark gold bloodstains on his knuckles years ago, and unlike the pale blue of Order Force, this sheen was calm and enduring, like the first ray of dawn entering a deep forest. It neither dazzled nor flickered, simply resting there in silence.

He raised his right hand and gently clenched it. No crack sounded, no muscles bulged, and his skin did not tighten, yet in that instant, every Energy Crystal in the Cultivation Room dimmed at once.

They had not been extinguished by a blow. Their energy had been drawn away. The instant he clenched his fist, his body drew a measure of energy directly from the surroundings out of sheer physical need. No Order Laws intervened, and his will did not actively drive it. It was entirely instinctive, as natural as breathing.

One of the hallmarks of a Tier Three Celestial Being: drawing energy from the void.

According to the Star Alliance's descriptions, this ability should only emerge at the "Third Step," once the inner heaven and earth matured. Yet here he was, having just completed his "True Self Body" at the First Step, already touching its earliest beginnings.

His inner heaven and earth was more substantial than conventional understanding allowed. From the beginning, it had fused with his flesh, projecting none of its power outward and instead gathering all of it into his bones.

He stood and walked to the crystal wall covered in fist marks. He stopped, studied it for a moment, then simply flicked his right index finger against it, as though knocking on a door. Tok.

The wall did not budge.