Chapter 438 Caption

Chapter 438: Chapter 438 Caption

Valery blinked her pretty eyes several times, her gaze lingering on Riley as though she were seeing him for the first time.

For a brief moment, the familiar image of her father—steady, calm, and indulgent—overlapped with something sharper, something far more resolute.

"Don’t act so surprised, Valery," Riley said lightly, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Strength is the only true measure of a person in this world. It’s always better to possess too much of it than to kneel and beg when the moment arrives—only to realize you have none left to rely on."

His words were spoken casually, yet they carried a weight that pressed against Valery’s heart.

She understood the logic behind them. In fact, she had known it since childhood.

And yet, hearing such ruthless clarity come from Riley still left her unsettled.

As she went about her day, Valery found herself unusually distracted, her thoughts returning again and again to that conversation.

She could not easily accept the depth of her father’s resolve.

It was not merely ambition or pride—there was an unyielding determination beneath it, one forged by experience and tempered by hard lessons.

What troubled her most was not the philosophy itself, but the person who held it so firmly.

After all, Riley had not even reached thirty years of age.

To possess such a coldly practical worldview so early... it was rare. And frightening.

Still, Valery had little time to dwell on it. She, too, stood at the edge of a critical juncture.

That evening, she finally spoke again. "Father," she said, her voice calm and deliberate, "I’ll be going into seclusion to cultivate. It will take at least a month. I’ll be staying in my room during that time."

Riley merely nodded, not questioning her words.

Yet Valery knew this was only half the truth.

The so-called seclusion was nothing more than an excuse.

In reality, she was preparing to break through to the Divine Tribulation Realm—a step that could not be taken lightly.

The terrifying heavenly tribulation that accompanied such a breakthrough was more than enough to reduce an entire city to ruins if something went wrong.

There was no way she would attempt it within White Bone City.

She had already chosen a remote location far from civilization, where even if the heavens descended in fury, no innocent lives would be caught in the aftermath.

Once everything was prepared, she would leave silently, without fanfare.

This was her own trial to face.

And whether she succeeded or failed, the heavens would be the only witnesses.

***

While Valery was away facing her own trials, Riley naturally did not allow himself a moment of rest.

Cultivation was not something that waited for convenience, nor was power something that came to those who hesitated.

From the moment she left, he sealed himself in his cultivation room also and immersed his mind and body into the Desolate Great Ape Transformation.

The first two days passed in silence.

Then, on the third day—

Bang!

A thunderous explosion echoed through the chamber as Riley forcefully broke through to the Second Realm.

His blood surged like boiling lava, veins bulging violently beneath his skin.

Thick strands of crimson fur erupted from his body, spreading rapidly across his arms, chest, and back.

The air trembled under the sudden pressure, and the stone floor beneath his feet cracked from the weight of his transformed body.

Yet Riley did not stop.

He endured the savage energy coursing through him, suppressing the instinct to roar as he continued refining his flesh and bones.

Each breath he took felt heavy, as though he were inhaling molten iron, but his eyes remained clear and unwavering.

Fifteen days later, after countless cycles of refinement and consolidation, Riley reached another critical point.

This time, the breakthrough came without warning.

His jaw clenched as sharp pain shot through his skull.

With a sickening crunch, two long fangs forced their way out from his mouth, gleaming coldly in the dim light.

His facial features became more feral, more ruthless, as the aura surrounding him turned savage and oppressive.

This was the Third Realm—a stage where humanity began to yield to primal might.

By now, even the surrounding spiritual energy had grown wary, swirling erratically around him as though unwilling to draw too close.

Finally, exactly one month after Valery’s departure, Riley reached the final threshold.

The moment he stepped into the Fourth Realm of the Desolate Great Ape Transformation, the chamber could no longer contain him.

His body expanded violently, muscles swelling and knotting as bones thickened and reshaped themselves.

In mere breaths, his figure shot up to nearly ten feet tall, transforming him into a towering, ape-like monster radiating raw dominance.

The walls shattered. The ground split.

And yet, despite the monstrous form he now possessed, Riley’s face remained calm—eerily so.

There was no madness in his eyes, no loss of reason. Only absolute control.

The strength he wielded in this state was beyond ordinary comprehension.

With a single step, the ground groaned beneath his weight.

With a casual flex of his arm, the air itself seemed to distort.

It was power so vast and brutal that even veteran cultivators would feel instinctive fear in its presence.

Riley slowly clenched his massive fist.

This was not borrowed strength.

This was power he had carved into his very flesh.

"Unfortunately, gaining power truly does come with consequences," Riley muttered, letting out a long, weary sigh. "And that’s especially true when cultivating a broken technique like this."

He did not regret his choice—but he would be lying if he claimed he had not anticipated the price.

Each realm of the Desolate Great Ape Transformation granted him strength that far exceeded common sense, yet he had forced those breakthroughs through sheer will and haste.

Power seized in such a manner was never pure. Defects were inevitable.

Valery had warned him.

And she had been right.

The moment he stepped into the Second Realm, something inside his body snapped.

When he attempted to return to his human form, his legs refused to respond.

No matter how much he commanded them, they remained lifeless, as though they no longer belonged to him.

From that day onward, Riley could only continue cultivating in his ape form, relying on its overwhelming vitality to suppress the damage.

At the time, he had thought that would be the end of it.

He was wrong.

When he reached the Third Realm, the backlash struck again—far more cruelly.

His vision dimmed, then vanished entirely, plunging him into endless darkness whenever he returned to his human body.

The world ceased to exist for him unless he transformed.

Even then, his sight felt unstable, as though it could collapse at any moment.

By the time he forcefully entered the Fourth Realm, Riley was already braced for disaster.

Still, the result exceeded his expectations.

The moment the breakthrough stabilized, he realized he could no longer feel his arms or hands in his human form.

They lay motionless at his sides, unresponsive and dead. He could not clench his fists.

He could not even lift a finger.

In that state, he was nothing more than a cripple—legs useless, sight gone, limbs powerless.

A disabled man.

If not for the Desolate Great Ape Transformation, he would have already been discarded by the world.

Fortunately, Riley had sealed himself in closed-door cultivation from the very beginning.

His family, though unfamiliar with such a term, understood its meaning well enough: he was not to be disturbed.

For an entire month, no one had laid eyes on him. Rumors quietly spread, but none dared to intrude.

That isolation had been a blessing.

Riley exhaled slowly, steadying his thoughts.

They had not seen him yet.

They did not know what he had become—or what he had sacrificed.

Soon enough, however, he would emerge from seclusion.

And when he did, the shock on their faces would be well worth the price he had paid.

After all, power always demanded tribute.

And Riley had already begun paying in blood and flesh.

***

Meanwhile, far from any city or settlement, in a desolate stretch of desert that rarely saw living beings, the land itself had been reduced to ruin.

What was once an endless sea of golden sand had been transformed into a wasteland of scorched earth and shattered stone.

Vast craters marred the ground, and the air still crackled faintly with residual heavenly lightning, refusing to fully disperse.

This was the battlefield of Valery’s breakthrough.

She stood at the center of the devastation, her robes fluttering lightly despite the oppressive stillness.

The aura surrounding her was no longer that of a mortal cultivator.

It carried a faint, lofty pressure—subtle yet undeniable.

Valery had successfully stepped into the Divine Tribulation Realm.

After stabilizing her cultivation, the first thing she did was close her eyes and extend her divine sense.

Layer after layer of perception swept across the desert as she searched for traces of the Primordial Heavenly Ancestor.

She examined the lingering laws of heaven, the disturbed flow of spiritual energy, even the faintest remnants of ancient aura.

There was nothing.

No guidance.

No message.

Not even a fading imprint.

Her brows slowly knitted together.

She had fully expected the old man to appear the moment the tribulation ended, just as he always had before—either through a projection or a voice that echoed directly into her soul.

Instead, she was met with a silence so complete that it felt unnatural.

"Strange... very strange," Valery murmured, shaking her head in disbelief.

A trace of unease crept into her heart.

The Primordial Heavenly Ancestor was not someone who would vanish without reason.

His sudden absence unsettled her far more than the tribulation itself.

Still, lingering here would change nothing.

After a brief pause, Valery exhaled softly and made her decision.

Whatever mystery lay behind the old man’s silence, she would investigate it later.

For now, there was only one place she needed to be.

Home.

With a single step, space folded beneath her feet.

In the blink of an eye, her figure vanished from the ruined desert, leaving behind only the scars of heavenly punishment as silent witnesses.