Chapter 271 Multiple Breakthroughs

Chapter 271

Alex slowly raised his right hand and stared at it for a moment, then carefully clenched his fingers into a fist. Though nothing really changed, still it was as if the air around his knuckles seemed to tighten as though the strength inside them had become something more tangible. He held the fist for a few seconds, feeling the immense power resting beneath his skin, before unclenching it again.

"Good," he muttered under his breath. "So this is what it feels like to be in A Rank?"

The name still felt strange in his mind. He had spent so long thinking about the next breakthrough that he had almost forgotten what it would mean to actually reach it. Now that he had, the difference was impossible to ignore. His body felt familiar, but the power flowing through it had changed in a way that went far beyond a simple increase in strength.

Back when he was in the Ascendant Realm, his physical strength had already been frightening. He could lift close to twenty blue whales combined, and he had considered that an impressive measure of his progress. Now, however, he was certain he could lift the same weight with only one hand without breaking a single sweat.

Alex flexed his fingers again, then slowly lowered his arm. The ease of the movement made him look thoughtful.

"No wonder Nyx’s father defeated me so thoroughly. And as at that time he wasn’t even using his full strength."

The memory of that encounter was still unpleasant, but he could finally understand it better. At the time, he had believed that the gap between them was mainly a matter of strength, speed, and the energy they could wield. Those differences had certainly mattered, yet he now sensed that the truth was much more complicated.

The transition from Ascendant to Master was a qualitative leap rather than a merely quantitative one. It was not simply a matter of gaining stronger muscles or gathering more energy. His Desire Energy felt denser and more refined, moving through him with a smoothness he had never experienced before.

He raised his hand and slowly turned his wrist, studying how effortlessly he could regulate the strength in his fingers. He could feel that there was much more power available than he needed, but none of it would leak out carelessly without him consciously controlling himself. His control had reached an entirely different level.

"Now I get it," Alex said quietly.

He finally understood why Nyx’s father could deliver such devastating punches without creating enormous shockwaves that tore apart everything around him. The older man was not merely strong; he possessed the control to direct every bit of that strength exactly where he wanted it. Rather than allowing power to spill into the surrounding air, he concentrated it into the point of impact and made sure the target received the full force.

That was the true mastery of the Master Realm. Strength without control was wasteful, and power without precision could become a weakness of its own. At the higher realm, the difference between a brute and a true powerhouse was no longer measured by how much destruction they could cause around themselves, but by how completely they could decide what their power would destroy.

Alex glanced down at the ground beneath his shoes. A hundred meters of the soil had caved in during his breakthrough, yet he had not intended to cause that damage. With his new control, he suspected he could stand in the same place and unleash far greater strength without disturbing even a leaf, provided he paid attention to what he was doing.

"If my strength in the Ascendant Realm was a mighty river, then I think it’s fair to say now it’s probably like a boundless sea."

The comparison felt right. A river could be powerful enough to sweep away houses, but the sea possessed a depth and scale that made such comparisons seem almost childish. He had not simply become a stronger version of his former self. No not at all. Instead he had just stepped into a level where his understanding of power itself had to change.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, though the coldness in his eyes remained. This was the strength he had needed. George might still have tricks that Alex did not understand, but Alex was no longer willing to accept helplessness as his fate, besides that ability of his would no longer work on him, maybe except George finds a way to also become a Master Realm Awakened.

Just as Alex was about to open his status panel and inspect his new stats and upgrade, three beams of light suddenly shot into the sky from distant parts of the city.

His head snapped upward.

The first beam was inky black, darker than the night sky itself, with a eerie feeling of death and frost that seemed to swallow the light around it. The second was a fierce crimson red flame, radiating such unbearable heat that the air surrounding the distant column shimmered. The third was a pale, luminous purple, shining with a quiet brilliance that was strangely different from the other two.

Alex had barely begun to process what he was seeing when a tremor stronger than the one caused by his own breakthrough swept across the entire city.

The ground lurched beneath his feet. Trees shuddered violently, and a wave of dust rose from the mountain paths. Far away, buildings shook hard enough to send people rushing into the streets, while Awakened who had been watching the first pillar stared at the sky in disbelief.

"What the hell is going on?" a man shouted as he steadied himself against a wall. "Wasn’t one breakthrough to the Master Realm enough?"

Another Awakened looked from one pillar to the next, his face draining of color. "Three more?! You’re telling me three more people are breaking through right now? This is insane!"

A woman beside him shook her head as though she could make the sight disappear. "Why is the universe so unfair? Some of us spend decades trying to reach Ascendant, and these people are breaking through to Master like it’s a yard sale!"

The disbelief spreading through the city was understandable. A single Master Realm breakthrough was a rare event, something that could change the balance of power in an entire region. Four in such a short span of time seemed almost absurd, as if the world had decided to overturn every expectation people had ever held about advancement.

The pale purple pillar came from Doris.

Inside her residence, she had been keeping watch over Celine when the first signs of the breakthrough began. She felt the energy inside her surge, gathering with a force that made her breath catch. Before she could fully understand what was happening, a soft purple radiance rose from her body and destroyed the entire building, extending into the sky as her aura transformed.

Doris’s eyes widened. She had expected Alex’s breakthrough to cause a stir, but she had not expected her own advancement so suddenly. Oh how could she forget about it, it seems like whenever he broke through she would break through also! The energy around her was becoming more and more refined by the second, responding to her will in ways she had never felt before while the time around her seemed off sync.

The inky black pillar belonged to Celine. Although she had been badly injured only hours earlier, the Body Recovery Water Alex had given her had helped restore her back to normal. While she rested under Doris’s watch, the power within her began to shift and she woke up with a gasp as she realized she was breaking through. Her aura deepened, spreading outward like an endless night of dark frost, and the black light rose around her as she broke through the barrier that had held her back.

The crimson pillar came from Claire. The heat surrounding her was so intense that the air seemed to ripple, and the temperature in the nearby surrounding began to climb rapidly as if high on steroids. Claire gritted her teeth as her energy surged, forcing herself to remain steady while the last barrier between her and the Master Realm began to crumble.

Far away in South Korea, another crimson pillar of Primordial Essence erupted into the sky, carrying a destructive pressure that sent a city-level tremor rolling through the surrounding streets. This time, the source was Annie, the mixed-race beauty whose talent had always been formidable. Even she looked stunned by what was happening, and her light blue eyes widened as the power inside her rose beyond anything she had anticipated.

"Wait, I’m breaking through now? But I only just broke through to Ascendant Realm last month?" Annie whispered, barely able to believe her own senses.

Meanwhile, on Von Aurelian Island, Jade was training outside with an Ascendant Realm fighter when an unfamiliar sensation suddenly swept through her body. The power inside her stirred violently, pressing against a barrier that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Her expression changed as she realized what was happening, and she immediately turned toward the woman sparring with her.

"Take my sister away from here, right now!" Jade shouted. "Don’t argue with me. Just get her somewhere safe!"

The woman saw the panic in Jade’s eyes and did not waste time asking questions. She hurried to envelope the stunned Nyx in her primordial essence before moving away from the training grounds as quickly as possible. A moment later, a brilliant blue pillar of Primordial Essence with thick powerful arcs of lightning engulfed Jade, shooting into the sky as a tremendous tremor shook the entire Von Aurelian family island.

Elsewhere on the island, Caelan was speaking with his father, Aldrich, about Alex who he had seen at the Bureau while catching up with his friend, the Vice Bureau chief. He had only just begun explaining his thoughts when the ground trembled beneath them, forcing him to pause. His expression changed as he sensed the overwhelming pressure spreading across the island, and he turned toward the distant sky in disbelief.

Even Aldrich, a man whose presence had always been as steady as a mountain, looked genuinely shocked.

For a brief moment, neither father nor son spoke. The pressure emanating from afar was unmistakable. Even Caelan’s earlier conversation about Alex now seemed utterly meaningless compared to what was happening.

They both knew what that immense pressure meant. Someone was breaking through to the Master Realm!