[The Omnipotent Cultivation Art has evolved. Your Omnipotent Physique has evolved. All treasures, techniques, martial arts, and more have evolved.] The system said, as the effect of Omnipotent Talent rippled outward through everything I owned, upgrading it all in one sweeping wave.
'The evolution wasn't by much...' I thought, looking over the newly evolved Omnipotent Cultivation Art. It was infinitely better than the previous version—sharper, more refined, more complete in ways that were hard to put into words.
But it wasn't so far above me now that comprehending it felt like staring into the sun. Sure, I still had to sit down and work through the Martial Disciple section of the cultivation art piece by piece… but thanks to the Black Tower having evolved into the Omnipotent Black Tower, the time dilation and comprehension buffs it provided had jumped up by a massive margin.
Still, it took a few hours of focused effort before I fully comprehended the Martial Disciple portion of the art. And once I did, I wasted no time—I immediately began cultivating. According to the art, I could absorb sunlight, moonlight, starlight, heat, kinetic energy, spiritual energy, and all other forms of energy to grow stronger. I wasn't limited to just Qi like everyone else in this world. Every form of energy that existed was fuel for my cultivation.
So I began. Following the Omnipotent Cultivation Art to the letter, I drew in energy from every source within range and cycled it through my body. My eyebrow raised as I broke through to Level 1 Martial Disciple in record time—barely any effort at all. But I kept my excitement in check. There were 144 levels in this realm alone, which meant Level 1 wasn't even close to 1% of the way through.
On top of that, I had only reached Level 1 in about ten seconds, and that was mainly thanks to the Omnipotent Black Tower running at full capacity. Without its buffs, it probably would have taken me a few minutes at minimum, maybe longer.
'I feel powerful...' I thought, taking a moment to sense the changes in my body and everything connected to it. At this moment, I felt like I could do just about anything I wanted… and in a way, that was true.
Right now, I technically have every power in the book—just nerfed down to a level that matched my current cultivation. I could warp reality, but not on any kind of massive scale. I could teleport, just not very far.
I was immortal, I had extreme recovery speed, and my senses were sharper than anything I had ever experienced in either of my lives. I could see glimpses of the future and fragments of the past, and in theory, I could do anything I set my mind to. The only real limitation was the scale at which I could do it.
[Scaling your strength is troublesome, but currently, the abilities you have are only at Level 1 Martial Disciple. Although infinite in variety, they are weak individually. The only reason you feel like they are powerful is because they all work together, empowering each other in a feedback loop that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Currently, you scale to only Level 2 Martial Disciple in raw output, and higher than that only when using martial arts, spells, and similar techniques.] The system said.
'Wouldn't that be even higher with me being able to control probability...?' I asked, looking down at my open palm as a faint shimmer of energy danced across my skin.
[Think of everyone having a bio-aura around themselves. This aura shields them from everything, but at lower levels, it's weak. As one cultivates, this bio-aura grows stronger and denser. So even a reality warper would find it increasingly harder to have their power affect a more powerful cultivator. The stronger the target, the less your abilities can touch them.] The system said, and I nodded in understanding, the picture clicking into place.
'So this bio-aura would also shield them from my ability to be all-knowing and see the future... what a pain.' I thought, testing it out right then and there. When I tried to peer into the future, I found that anyone at Level 2 Martial Disciple or above was difficult to read.
Their figures were blurry, their actions unclear, and the further I tried to look, the harder it became to make out anything useful. It was like trying to watch someone through frosted glass—you could tell they were there, but the details were lost.
I wasted no time after that and threw myself back into cultivating. I pulled out a handful of pills from the system and popped them one after another while cycling the cultivation art at full speed.
What followed was a string of rapid breakthroughs, back to back, each one hitting harder than the last as my body adjusted and refined itself with every level gained. My cultivation speed was terrifying. In just two hours, I had reached Level 7 Martial Disciple, blowing past milestones that would have taken normal cultivators months or even years to reach.
I would have kept going—the momentum was there, and I could feel that Level 8 wasn't far off—but it was now the next morning, and a message from my sister had just come through. On top of that, my instincts were flaring, warning me that something important was about to happen.
As I cultivated, everything about me improved in lockstep—my instincts, my dao heart, my senses, my reflexes—all of it sharpening toward its current limit with every level I gained.
At the moment, I sat at Level 7 Martial Disciple, but my actual combat capability was a full level above that, thanks to the way my abilities stacked and fed into one another. That's not adding any techniques.
{From Ellen}- Before you run away, I have someone coming over. They should be arriving there in a few seconds.
"What does she mean by that...?" I asked with a frown, staring at the text message on my phone screen. A sense of unease crept through my chest, cold and heavy, and my heart skipped a full beat when I heard the gate to my villa ring—followed immediately by every alarm in the building going off at once as someone bypassed the entire security system like it wasn't even there.
I turned toward the window, and my eyes went wide as I watched the front doors get kicked clean off their hinges. A goth girl stepped inside, her boots crunching over the broken wood and shattered lock.
She wore a neck choker, dark clothing that hugged her figure, and an expression that could freeze a room. She was tall—I stood at 6'2, and she still towered over me at a solid 6'5, her presence filling the space around her in a way that made the villa feel smaller just by having her in it. Her eyes found me instantly, locking on with the precision of a predator that had already decided its prey wasn't getting away.
"My little rabbit, I have missed you." She said, her voice flat and stripped of any emotion whatsoever, but the words themselves carried a weight that pressed down on me like a physical force. I stood there frozen, unable to move, unable to speak—just pure, unfiltered fear rooting me to the floor.
"I have been on a hunt for you for ages… now that we are together once more, we can live together in eternal darkness." She said with a smile, though the expression barely lasted a second before it slid off her face and returned to that cold, emotionless stare. It was like her muscles didn't know how to hold a smile for longer than a heartbeat.
"It's been years since we met, so I see there has been a vast gap between us that can't be bridged." She said softly, reaching into her storage ring and pulling out a collar—black leather, fitted with spikes, and connected to a leash that dangled from her fingers. I took a step backward, every instinct in my body screaming at me to run as I stared at that thing.
"I believe marriage would do it perfectly. Come, my little rabbit, let's go get married." She said, and before I could even blink, she was standing right in front of me. I hadn't seen her move—she was just there, close enough that I could feel the cold radiating off her skin. She fastened the collar around my neck with a practiced hand, the leather tightening with a soft click.
"I will permit you to express your joy through tears and screams." She said lovingly, before pulling on the leash and turning toward the door as if we were going for a casual walk. I stumbled forward a step before something snapped inside me, and I started pulling back, fighting against the leash with everything I had. Then it hit me… I have every ability in the book... why am I acting like I'm still helpless?
I phased through the collar like a ghost passing through a wall, the leather slipping through my neck as if I wasn't even solid. She froze, her hand still gripping the now-empty leash, and before she could process what had just happened, I was already gone—bursting through a window in a shower of glass and sprinting across the villa grounds like my life depended on it. Because it absolutely did.
"Why are you running, my rabbit? Come back here so I can love you!" She called out from behind me, her voice carrying that same flat, emotionless tone even as the words themselves were borderline unhinged.
And then she was in front of me. Not chasing—just there, standing in my path like she had been waiting for me the whole time.
I didn't hesitate. I teleported on instinct, vanishing from the spot and reappearing across the villa grounds in a flash. She turned her head slowly toward where I had reappeared, and for a brief moment, something flickered behind those dead eyes of hers.
"What did I tell you? You can be weak—I will protect you, my little rabbit. I'm all the strength you need." She said, and as the last word left her mouth, her shadow came alive beneath her feet.
It spread outward in every direction like ink spilling across paper, racing across the ground and up the walls of the villa until it covered everything in sight. The shadow solidified into a barrier that sealed the entire property in a dome of pure darkness, cutting off every possible exit. I tried to teleport again—nothing. The space inside the barrier was locked down tight, and I couldn't slip through it no matter how hard I pushed.