The continuous, overwhelming pressure of being the Grandmaster of Life-Source Apotheosis and the Unstained Sage finally became too much for Lin Qi. Every single chore was hailed as a divine miracle, every simple mistake was interpreted as a terrifying lesson in cosmic contempt, and he hadn't had a single moment of genuine peace or a comfortable pillow.
One morning, after Sect Master Wu had declared that Lin Qi's spilled breakfast gruel was the new "Mudra of Liquid Creation," Lin Qi snapped.
"I need to go," he muttered to himself. "I need to find a place where people don't think everything I do is a sign of ultimate power."
The Preparation for Flight
Lin Qi knew he couldn't simply walk out the front gate. He was too revered, too watched. He had to be subtle.
He went to his chamber and packed only what he truly valued: his single change of clothes, his mostly-empty paper bag, and his Void-Sealing Water Conduit Bucket. He didn't bother with the Fragmentation Blade (too sharp) or the Celestial Elixirs (too hard to chew).
He stopped by the stable where his Thunder Dragon, Sparky, resided. Sparky, still paralyzed by the psychic shock of their first meeting, was resting quietly.
"Sparky," Lin Qi whispered. "I'm going on a trip. You're too noisy, so you stay here."
Sparky, hearing his master's command, instantly misinterpreted it as the "Ultimate Vow of Loyal Solitude"—a command to stand eternal guard over the sect until his master's return. The dragon curled up and immediately entered a state of hibernation, ready to wait a thousand years.
The Problem of the Watchful Eyes
The sect was under constant, spiritual surveillance by envoys, disciples, and most importantly, Princess Lianhua, who maintained a silent, unblinking vigil from her high tower. Escaping required absolute invisibility.
Lin Qi went to the back of the mountainside—the location of the previously sealed Spatial Seam (Chapter 11), now contained within his bucket. He didn't know the bucket held a sealed void. He only knew it was an old piece of wood.
He picked up his bucket and stared at the sheer, unscalable cliff face behind the sect. He needed to get over the cliff.
Lin Qi took the bucket, turned it upside down, and placed it on the ground. He then stepped onto it, intending to use the small added height to get a better grip on the cliff face so he could climb down.
The sealed Core of Infinite Density again perceived the intent: movement across a sheer, impassable void. G-EVS's original power, the Dao of Dimensional Bypass, was triggered. The bucket, as the anchor for the sealed void, became the focus.
The moment Lin Qi put his full weight on the bucket, the contained Spiritual Knot of the sealed Spatial Seam activated. It didn't open a rift; it merely negated the dimensional space between the bucket and Lin Qi's desired destination.
The Ultimate Vanish
Lin Qi vanished.
He didn't fly, jump, or teleport. He simply ceased to exist in the current location and instantaneously reappeared miles away, outside the spiritual boundary of the sect, standing on the same upside-down bucket, which he immediately picked up.
The escape was instant, absolute, and completely untraceable.
Princess Lianhua, watching from her tower, blinked. She saw Lin Qi step onto the bucket, and then, in the very next instant, he was gone.
She didn't see an escape. She saw the most profound demonstration of the Ultimate Dao of Transience.
"He didn't teleport!" Lianhua whispered in awe, her heart pounding. "He performed the legendary 'Mudra of Non-Existence!' He erased his being from this location and simultaneously imprinted it upon the new one! He has rejected the very concept of spacetime travel! He used the crude wooden bucket as a means to negate reality!"
Sect Master Wu rushed to the spot, only to find the Thunder Dragon not in the stables (as Lin Qi intended), but standing guard, frozen in perpetual solitude. He saw the empty space where Lin Qi had been.
Wu sank to his knees, his face a mixture of triumph and utter defeat. He found the perfect, final maxim.
> "When the world burdens you with false greatness, do not run or fight. Simply step onto a mundane object and negate the reality that contains you. The universe will call it the greatest ascension."
>
Lin Qi, finally free, walked down the road, his heart light. He was just a clumsy young man trying to find a quiet place and a soft pillow. The cultivation world, however, had just witnessed The Almighty's Accidental Ascension to the mortal world.
The End.