Pain tore through her body like molten knives.
Lin Xue staggered backward, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.
The battle against the mutated beasts was won — but victory came at a price.
Her dantian was overloaded.
Qi roared through her meridians, burning too hot, too wild.
"Tch."
"Foundation Establishment…"
"If I miss this window, I'll shatter my core."
Lin Xue knew the rules.
Breaking into a new realm wasn't a ceremony. It wasn't a graceful meditation. It was war inside your own body.
She fell into a sitting position, legs crossed, forcing her trembling hands into cultivation seals.
"Calm the qi. Refine the fire."
Her Lotus Flame Art activated automatically, sensing her crisis.
Golden lotus petals spun inside her dantian, absorbing the raging qi storm bit by bit. But the flame wasn't enough. Her body wasn't strong enough.
"Not fast enough."
She bit down hard on her lip. Blood flowed into her mouth, sharp and metallic.
Without hesitation, she pulled a pill from her spatial pendant — a simple one: Spirit Root Stabilization Pill she had refined days ago.
She swallowed it whole. The pill burst inside her stomach, spreading cooling qi into her veins. The backlash slowed — but didn't stop.
The golden lotus at her core shuddered violently.
"I won't die here."
"Not when the world hasn't even burned yet."
She forced her palms flat onto the cracked ground, channeling every drop of will into stabilizing her cultivation path.
The first core compression began.
Her vision blurred. Her hearing faded.
Her body felt like it was splitting open from the inside out.
A weaker person would have collapsed already.
A weaker cultivator would have let the fire consume them.
But Lin Xue had died once.
She had seen the end of the world with her own eyes.
She had survived betrayal, starvation, and madness.
Compared to that?, this was nothing.
In her inner world, the golden lotus spun faster. Each petal sharpened, edges cutting through the filth clogging her veins — impurities left over from her mortal flesh.
It hurt. Oh, it hurt. But with each scream of her nerves, her spirit grew clearer, stronger, purer. Minutes passed. Or hours. Finally—
Boom.
The golden lotus exploded into fragments of light inside her dantian. In their place, a small, bright golden core condensed — perfect, radiant, spinning steadily with new, pure qi.
[System Notification — Hidden Realm Pendant]
Congratulations!
Foundation Establishment Realm Achieved!
Spiritual Fire Condensed Successfully!
Lotus Flame Art Upgraded to Intermediate Stage!
Lin Xue opened her eyes. The world felt different.
Sharper. The night wind brushed against her skin, and she could feel each particle. Each shift of pressure. Each flicker of corrupted qi from the distant city.
She stood up slowly, flexing her fingers. Power surged beneath her skin — steady, controlled, lethal. She had crossed the first major wall of cultivation. And she had done it alone.
[Meanwhile — Far Away, Within the Executor System Space]
A pulse of energy flickered through one of Li Zhen's surveillance arrays.
He leaned forward slightly.
"Foundation Establishment… in less than a month after rebirth?" A rare look of interest passed through his cold eyes.
"You're not ordinary, flame girl."
He logged the data silently.
And then smiled — a fleeting thing, dangerous and sharp.
"Good. The world needs monsters like us."
The cracked ground beneath her steamed faintly.
Lin Xue clenched and unclenched her fists, feeling the flow of her new strength.
Her muscles had tightened, her meridians reinforced with golden threads of qi. Even her senses had sharpened—sight, hearing, touch.
She lifted her right hand and summoned her flame.
The lotus flower that bloomed in her palm was no longer the trembling, fragile flame from before.
It was bright. Dense. Solid.
Each petal spun slowly, radiating pure fire qi—the kind that could burn not just flesh, but corruption itself.
She pointed forward. With a thought, the flame petals shot outward.
Whoosh!
They carved straight through the rusted conveyor belt fifty meters ahead.
The metal melted at the edges, folding inward like wax.
Lin Xue exhaled slowly.
"Range: increased.
Stability: increased.
Destructive capacity: doubled."
She wasn't just a survivor anymore.
She was a weapon now.
One forged in flame, sharpened by betrayal, and tempered by death itself.
"Good."
Her enemies would come.
Beasts. Mutants. Raiders.
Even cultivators, once the spiritual cracks spread.
And when they came, she would be ready.
[Inside Hidden Realm Space]
Lin Xue returned to her pendant's internal dimension briefly. The spiritual crops flourished under her reinforced qi.
The cold lake's water shimmered faintly with the beginnings of spiritual resonance—a minor qi spring forming.
She moved through her growing realm, inspecting the three zones:
Cultivation Grounds: Stable. Ready for advanced formations.
Storage Vault: 55% full. Priority: secure second vault location.
Spirit Beast Sector: Small but healthy; two spirit chickens already reaching low-tier intelligence.
Everything was progressing faster now.
"I need to start crafting lower-grade spirit tools soon," she thought.
Foundation Establishment wasn't just about stronger fighting.
It was the first step toward building a true foundation — a territory, a force, a future.
She wouldn't waste it.
[Meanwhile — Outside, District 9's Edge]
Across the city, the second leak went viral. This time, there was no "technical error" to cover it up.
A mutated German shepherd tore through a street vendor's stall in broad daylight, attacking seven people before police gunned it down — only for the corpse to rise again minutes later.
The footage hit every major platform. No one could pretend anymore.
Fear began to spread.
"Monster dog attack!"
"Virus? Biological weapon?!"
"Don't trust the government!"
"Stay indoors!"
But Lin Xue didn't bother reading the panic posts. She was already ahead.
She stood on the rooftop of a ruined parking structure, the night wind tugging at her jacket.
In the distance, sirens screamed.
Gunshots cracked.
Smoke curled into the sky.
The end had begun.
And she…
She was just getting started.