Chapter 50: Break the Limit

She stood behind him.

This time around, she was dressed in crimson.

Her whole being gave off an intent that shook his heart.

As hard to believe as he found it, it seemed she had just returned from a battle.

Her bloody aura was very hard to conceal.

"Welcome, supreme."

The Ancient Supreme didn’t say anything.

She only nodded.

In her right hand was a satchel.

She dropped it on the floor.

From inside it, rolled out all sort of ores and gems.

They looked as ordinary as any common ore or stone he could pick up in the mortal world.

ROAR!

But Devour seemed to see something different.

It roared in joy.

It didn’t conceal its elation.

Its joy radiated into the world around it.

Whatever these things that had rolled out of the satchel were.

Devour was really pleased to see them.

The Ancient Supreme stretched out her hand.

Something began to form in the air.

It gave off a heart shaking aura.

Neo felt his heart greatly taxed on this day.

The thing forming in the air went through a series of dizzying motion that dazzled the eyes, and bewildered the mind.

Before it settled into a form, and landed on the floor.

BANG!

It was a platform.

A massive and archaic platform.

Its height wasn’t towering, but the feeling of ancientness and enormity that radiated from it pressed down on Neo.

A flight of steps led to the top of the platform.

Neo felt something familiar in the style of this platform.

Then it clicked in his head.

An altar.

This archaic platform was an altar.

A structure that had miraculous uses in cultivation.

He wondered what this one was for.

The Ancient Supreme waved her hand in a flourish.

The ores and gems rose from the floor, and landed on top of the altar.

Then all sort of ancient and majestic symbols began to surround the altar.

They sank into it.

The aura the altar gave off became even more terrifying.

Increasing in might and intensity as more symbols sank into it.

The aura shook Neo’s heart.

He watched as the ores and gems placed on top of the altar began to glow.

A glow that was so different from their ordinary look.

It seemed their ordinary look had belied their extraordinary qualities.

Then, they melted.

They slowly melted into a clear liquid.

One that glowed with the light of stars within it.

As Neo stared at the liquid, he felt like staring into the starry sky of the night.

The longer he stared, the more he felt himself detached from the reality around him.

He felt like he now stood in the starry skies themselves.

The feeling became real with every moment that passed.

Like be now shared the same space with the stars themselves.

This was a feeling he had never experienced before.

He was beyond euphoric.

This was what it meant to be on top of the world.

This...

ROAR!

This wasn’t a roar of elation.

Neo felt his very being tremble.

The euphoric joy that had taken over him dispersed like smoke.

That feeling of being on top of the world crumbled into dust.

He felt what it was like to wake up from a terrifying nightmare.

His breathing quickened.

Cold sweat soaked his back.

That feeling.

He glanced at the starry liquid on the altar, but he was quick to look away.

He had almost been consumed by whatever that liquid was.

He would have lost himself forever, if not for Devour.

"There are many things in existence even more dangerous than the True Heavens starry essence."

The Ancient Supreme spoke.

"If you can’t even guard yourself against this. You will suffer a lot."

She was right.

He needed to be more cautious.

RUMBLE!

Devour said something to the Ancient Supreme.

"Don’t be so sure of that. With you being by his side at every moment, he is bound to encounter even more dangerous things."

RUMBLE!

Devour replied her.

"That is also true. But fate plays even the best of us."

Devour let out a muffled growl.

The Ancient Supreme no longer bothered with it.

She turned her attention to Neo.

"Neo, this altar here has been prepared for you. Consider it among the things you will inherit in my Combat Legacy."

Neo paid close attention to her words.

He waited for her to explain what this was all about.

"Devour will gain what it will from this altar. But you will be the one gaining the most here."

Neo thought her words over, but they didn’t seem to explain much.

What exactly would he be gaining?

What was this altar?

What use did it have?

She didn’t say anything about it.

"I will be leaving this world."

Neo could hear the finality in her tone.

"You will be on your own. The moment you break the limit, you are to come to this altar."

She plucked out a strand of her hair, and threw it into the clear starry liquid.

"Do not worry about what to do. Devour will take care of the process."

She seemed to be in a hurry.

The moment she finished her words, she left.

All traces of her presence disappeared from the world.

Devour growled, as if urging Neo to move on.

To break the limit as quickly as he could.

Neo took one last look at the clear starry liquid that now had a black stand of hair coiled within it.

The hair of a supreme.

The Ancient Supreme.

He had just broken through to the fourth level essence cultivation of the F-Rank.

He was nowhere near halfway to the peak of the rank.

Yet, to find out what it was the Ancient Supreme had prepared for him, he had to break the limit.

He looked at the empty land around the altar.

It was devoid of any strange creature.

He left.

He was going to hunt.

The strange creatures here were the only way for him to reach his goal of breaking the limit.

Before, he thought he had been doing his best.

But now, he knew he needed to try even harder.

Refine his every move even further.

His first small goal?

Reach the fifth level of the F-Rank.

Then, he would be halfway there.

The climb to the peak would get harder and harder.

But Neo knew he just had to keep becoming even better than he already was.

There were still many more peaks to climb.

He would climb them all.

Reach their summit.

With an ease born of relentlessly transcending his limits.

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This Chapter is dedicated to DaoistEYNHfS for giving the first golden ticket.