CHAPTER 312: CULTIVATION BOUND FORMATION 2

Lucas’ breakthrough did not stop with him.

The moment his ascendant force stabilized for a while, the ripples of his Yang surged outward like the release of a tidal wave, sweeping through the formation and plunging into the bodies of the four women seated around him. Their eyes snapped open for a heartbeat out of shock, but none dared speak. They shut them again immediately, their breathing slowing in perfect unison as the immense surge of spiritual force flooded their meridians.

The effect was instantaneous and overwhelming.

Lira’s entire body jerked as the wave struck her. Her meridians, already stretched thin from the intense coupling of energy earlier, suddenly expanded violently. A deep light flared behind her eyelids. Her cultivation, which had been stubbornly circling the second stage of the master rank, suddenly roared forward like a river breaking through a dam. She gasped silently as the boundary shattered beneath the force of Lucas’ Yang resonating with her deeply compatible Yin. Her Qi rose wildly, climbing and solidifying at the third stage of the master rank before finally settling, warm and overwhelmingly potent, inside her dantian.

Nyx’s reaction came next.

Her body trembled once, then stilled completely. A halo of frost shimmered around her as the deep cold of her own affinity wrapped around Lucas’ Yang surge and fused with it. She felt the grandmaster barrier forming like a wall before her, but Lucas’ ascension tore it open without hesitation. Her icy Qi spread like a blooming frost flower in every direction as she rose directly into the second stage of the grandmaster rank. The cold aura overflowing from her was so intense that thin sheets of ice began forming on the floor around her knees.

Selene had the hardest time at the start, her breathing uneven and shoulders shaking. The pressure of ascendance was crushing, but she clenched her teeth and anchored herself to Lucas’ energy. His Yang poured into her like a burning river, and though she felt close to collapsing under the force, she rode the wave with determination. The boundary she had been stuck at for weeks suddenly dissolved. Her aura brightened in a pulse that pushed her cultivation directly into the first stage of the grandmaster rank. The force of her breakthrough caused her hair to rise softly as if lifted by a gentle wind.

None of them dared open their eyes.

Not a single word passed between them.

Their minds were entirely fixed on stabilizing the colossal waves that still rolled through their bodies. Any distraction could cause cracks in their meridians, and they all knew it. Breathing slowly, deliberately, they channeled the rushing Qi, weaving it into their cores as patiently as a craftsman working delicate metal. Their hearts throbbed in harmony with Lucas’ ascendant aura, grounding them through the storm.

Henrietta breathed deeper than the others, her face showing no trace of fear but a tightly contained determination. Unlike the others, she had not broken through. Not yet. But she could feel it...right there, trembling at the edge of her reach. She felt the sage realm looming in front of her like a mountain whose peak she could almost touch if she stretched just a little higher.

Her meridians burned as the waves of Lucas’ Yang collided with her exceptionally strong Qi, amplifying it without restraint. She grit her teeth and pushed harder, guiding her energy upward again and again. Her body vibrated with the strain. Her palms pressed into the floor until her fingers dug faint marks into the stone.

Breaking into the sage rank was a trial that devoured countless cultivators. Even with Lucas’ ascendant surge boosting her, the barrier remained thick and unforgiving, refusing to yield easily. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears like distant thunder. Her mind focused only on the next breath, the next pulse, the next push.

She had not broken through yet.

But she was close...so painfully close that she could feel the sage realm tugging at her like the brink of a world she had dreamed of reaching for years.

She inhaled again, slowly, deeply, relentlessly forcing herself upward.

And she kept pushing hard.

For hours, Henrietta pushed... and pushed... and pushed, yet the barrier to the Sage Rank refused to yield.

Her body trembled. Her breath came in slow, controlled, burning pulls. Sweat trickled down her neck. Her meridians glowed faintly beneath her skin like molten threads.

Meanwhile, Lucas and the other women were already stabilizing their breakthroughs.

Lucas...Ascendant Realm, Third Stage.

Something no one his age... no one in the entire kingdom had ever done.

But the cost was visible.

His dantian pulsed violently, unstable, strained from the insane jump. Qi rippled chaotically within him, like a storm compressed into a jar. He sat cross-legged, back straight but fists clenched, regulating his breathing with slow precision.

Lira, Nyx, and Selene had long entered deep stabilization phases:

Lira: Master Rank, Third Stage ... her aura calm but sharp like a newly forged blade.

Nyx: Grandmaster Rank, Second Stage ...cold, focused, shadows curling gently around her.

Selene: Grandmaster Rank, First Stage ... her body faintly glowing as her meridians widened to accept her new strength.

None of them dared speak. None dared even open their eyes.

Every drop of Lucas’s Yang energy still circulating in them was being directed toward reinforcing their foundations.

But Henrietta...

She was the only one still fighting.

Her cultivation base had reached the absolute peak of Ascendant Third Stage. The barrier to Sage Rank loomed before her like a shimmering wall of compressed existence. One step forward...truly forward...and she would enter a realm that most cultivators would never even approach in their lifetimes.

As Lucas focused on his own turbulent dantian, gently containing the swirling chaos inside him, a sudden pressure snapped through the room.

BOOM!!!

Henrietta’s aura detonated...It wasn’t a gradual rise.

It erupted, instantly, violently...like a silent sun expanding in a confined space.

A suffocating wave of Qi slammed outward from her body, thick and ancient, shaking the air itself. The formation lines on the floor flared bright gold before dimming again, struggling to withstand the sheer pressure.

And then...

WUUUUMMMMM!!!

The entire palace trembled.

Windows shuddered, pillars groaned.

Servants across the estate dropped to their knees instinctively, their hearts pounding from the primal instinct to submit.

Because the aura of a newly ascended Sage Realm cultivator was not something mortals...or even experts...could ignore.

High above the palace, clouds swirled unnaturally, drawn into a spiraling convergence of spiritual force.

A clear, resonant pulse spread out like a bell being struck:

A SAGE HAS BEEN BORN.

Nyx’s eyes cracked open, pupils narrowing from the intensity as she whispered:

"...Henrietta..."

Lira and Selene instinctively strengthened their stabilizing cycles, fighting the pressure pressing down on their meridians.

Lucas’s heart thumped once, hard, as he looked up.

Henrietta’s hair lifted behind her as if moved by an invisible wind. Her eyes glowed faint gold. Her body radiated calm, terrifying power.

Her aura had become... profound, ancient, and impossibly deep...like staring into a bottomless ocean.

She inhaled...and the entire room inhaled with her.

Even weakened, Lucas felt the pressure. A newly ascended Sage wasn’t simply stronger... they altered the environment by existing.

Henrietta slowly opened her eyes, and her voice, soft yet echoing with authority, filled the chamber:

"...I’ve done it."

Her breakthrough, instantaneous and massive, shook the palace to its foundation.

And everyone...everyone...felt it.