Adrian stepped back out into the bustling streets of the Outer Commercial Continent he was in. Millions of cultivators laughed, traded, and drank around him, while the glow of the towering golden spire in the distance cast a majestic, imperious light over the entire Providence Hub.
To the wandering merchants and minor sect delegates surrounding him, this place was a paradise of opportunity. But to Adrian, the glittering facades and grand architecture had lost all their luster. Beneath the pristine, polished surface of this Major Sect's hub lay a foundation built on agonizing torment, on the harvested blood and shattered lives of sentient beings like the Elyrians.
Suppressing his killing intent, he lowered his gaze and retreated towards the residential district in this Outer Commercial Continent. He wanted to calm his mind first and plan his next moves.
Navigating away from the high-end avenues, Adrian easily located a secure, high-tier residential sector designed for long-term wanderers. He paid the exorbitant fee without a second thought, rented an isolated estate, and entered it. The heavy doors sealed shut with a pressurized hiss, instantly muting the overwhelming noise of the metropolis outside.
Within, he bypassed the lavish furnishings and navigated directly towards a reinforced meditation chamber. He activated the room's privacy arrays, adding a subtle layer of his own spatial and concealment rules to ensure isolation, and then sat cross-legged on the cool floor.
He didn't do anything for quite some moment and just sat there, calming his mind. The silence of the chamber stretched, disturbed only by the steady, rhythmic cycle of his breathing.
After a few minutes, Adrian opened his eyes. He didn't feel any of his disgust or killing intent go away after seeing the cruel ways of the universe, but he knew he was powerless to do anything recklessly right now. This is not the Virelith Galaxy where Adrian could just storm in and deal with the problems with overwhelming force.
This situation is fundamentally different, and he had to plan everything before he stepped up. The Ethereal Providence Sect was a Lesser Major Sect. A single misstep could result in things he could not yet fully anticipate or counter.
Then, cutting through his thoughts, Adrian remembered the note Marivelle gave him before he left Andromeda: His and Hestia's UNI-OS accounts were scheduled to be promoted to Privileged UNI-Authority in a few days.
The few days had already passed during his travel. If his account was already promoted, then he could use it to see and learn many of the hidden informations that had been restricted to him before. The premium networks of the Astral Archive Pavilion and the Heaven-Weaving Pavilion held troves of restricted data. There could be information on the mastery of consciousness... It's something Adrian really, really needed to understand if he wanted to grow stronger and survive encounters with true cosmic titans.
Adrian retrieved his UNI-OS token, but stopped before he activated it. He was currently operating under the identity of 'Aeon,' and even his mana signature was modified to represent this new person. Reverting this disguise is not a big deal, but if he used his original account here, the UNI-Sect's underlying surveillance algorithms could easily know Adrian was here.
That would break his entire secret journey. So he couldn't do it here, and the safe way is to go back to the Andromeda Galaxy.
And for someone like Adrian, it's not a big issue to go back. With his mastery over the arcane concepts of Space, Void, Boundary, and Continuity, crossing the galactic divide was merely a matter of intent.
But before returning, Adrian closed his eyes and absorbed the high-density ambient mana here.
The Providence Hub was saturated with an incredibly pure and refined energy, concentrated by the colossal formations of the golden spire. During his travel over these past few days, he had spent quite a bit of mana, and even the direct command he used to teleport out of the Andromeda Galaxy had taken him a staggering 50 million mana units. After that, Adrian didn't replenish his mana with active cultivation. Only the passive interaction with the hub's environment was not nearly enough to fill someone of his massive capacity.
With over a hundred million mana units required to reach his peak, returning home half-empty was a tactical flaw he refused to make. Just using the direct command to get into Andromeda Galaxy undetected would take a staggering 50 million mana units again, making him nearly depleted.
"It's better to replenish my mana, and then go back to the Andromeda Galaxy to learn about the mastery of consciousness." Adrian thought as he closed his eyes and reached out to the Devour concept within his Source Seed.
Rather than using normal mana absorption that everyone could do, which was actually slower, Adrian chose to use his devour concept.
A violent, consuming vortex appeared around him, and the ambient mana of the Providence Hub began to drift toward him, seeping through the walls of the estate and flowing into his body. The draw was steady, perfectly calibrated so as not to trigger any sudden atmospheric pressure drops that might alert the Hub's security formations.
He would drink his fill from the very sect that profited off the blood of innocents, and then he would leave to find the knowledge necessary to tear them down.
…
Far away from Adrian's location, within the massive golden spire located in the center of the Providence Hub.
Deep within the subterranean levels of this structure, a suffocating silence dominated a particularly isolated holding block. The darkness within this room was absolute, designed not merely to obscure vision, but to actively suppress the ambient mana and sensory perception of whoever was locked inside.
Suddenly, the harsh, grinding groan of heavy metallic gears echoed through the corridor outside. The reinforced door sealing the chamber hissed as its locking mechanisms disengaged, pulling open to allow a sliver of pale, sterile light to pierce the gloom.
From the illuminated doorway, a dark humanoid silhouette stepped across the threshold. In his right hand, the figure held a long, slender metallic stick, its surface etched with runic lines. He walked forward into the pitch-black room, his pace unhurried and agonizingly slow, deliberately bringing the base of his stick down against the cold floor with every step he took.
TAP!
The sound resonated with an unnatural echo, a sharp, piercing noise that seemed to bypass the ears entirely and reverberate directly within the consciousness of anyone listening.
TAP!
The air within the room grew dense, the atmospheric pressure dropping as the silhouette took another step.
TAP!
As the stick struck the floor for the third time, the room suddenly illuminated. A brilliant, oppressive golden essence flared outward from the man's body, washing over the dark walls and dispelling the suffocating shadows in a single, violent instant.
The golden light revealed the center of the chamber, where another figure was standing, though the term 'standing' barely applied to his current state. The figure was suspended in the air, his arms and legs bound tightly by massive chains forged from a dark, light-absorbing alloy. These chains were heavily inscribed with suppression runes that dug ruthlessly into his flesh, locking his divine concepts and holding him entirely immobile.
Behind the prisoner, two large, majestic white wings hung limply, their once-pristine feathers severely mangled and stained with layers of dried blood and ash. The chained figure slowly raised his head, fighting against the tremendous weight of the bindings, and fixed his gaze upon the person entering the room.
The person who entered had skin of a deep, striking violet shade, and as his lips parted slightly in exertion, they revealed rows of jagged, razor-sharp teeth.
The man stopped a few paces away, his mouth twisting into a scowl of contempt. Without a single word of warning, he raised the slender stick. The runes along its length ignited with blinding golden light, and he lashed out, bringing the weapon down savagely against the chained figure's chest!
CRACK!
The impact was explosive, sending violent sparks of golden energy tearing through the prisoner's skin and directly into his underlying mana channels. The sheer agony of the strike was designed to bypass outer physical pain and attack the inner body directly, shredding through nerves and essence pathways.
Yet, the chained figure didn't make a single noise.
His piercing, bloodshot eyes stared unblinkingly at the man beating him, reflecting a stubborn, unyielding resilience that seemed to mock the executioner's efforts.
"It has been more than a thousand years since we hunted you down and chained you in this abyss!" the man hissed, "One millennium of endless, agonizing silence. Just reveal the coordinates to the hidden location already! Do you truly believe that this pathetic display of endurance will outlast our resolve?"
The man paced briefly, the golden aura around him flaring with his rising temper. "Speak the truth, give us what we seek, and this torment will finally end. But if you think you can hold off like this forever, hiding your civilization in the dark, I swear upon the heavens, you will face something far worse than death!"
The chained figure didn't reply. He offered no plea for mercy nor any insult. He merely maintained his stoic, silent glare.
Infuriated by the persistent, mocking silence, the man lashed out again, striking the prisoner's majestic white wings with a brutal blow that sent fresh blood splattering across the floor. Sneering in disgust, the man finally turned on his heel and stepped out of the dark room, his golden robes swishing behind him.
As he stepped outside, the heavy metallic door hissed and sealed shut behind him, plunging the chained prisoner back into endless darkness.
The man exhaled sharply, adjusting the cuffs of his robes as he stepped forward into the corridor to leave the detention level.
But before he could take his third step, suddenly, the golden essence naturally manifesting around his body began to fluctuate wildly, flickering as if fighting against an unseen pressure.
His heart seized within his chest. A suffocating sensation of immense danger washed over him, crashing into his consciousness like an invisible tidal wave. It was not a physical threat, nor was it the presence of an enemy; it was a conceptual dread, a terrifying ripple in the very fabric of fate that screamed of impending doom.
"What is this now?" he muttered, his breath catching in his throat as his eyes darted frantically around the empty, highly secured hallway.
He clutched his chest, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead. The sensation was so overwhelming that his instincts screamed at him to flee. Finding nothing visible in the corridor, he immediately accelerated his pace, his steps urgent as he navigated the corridors of the spire, desperate to seek out the only person who could explain this phenomenon.