Ascended to the third sanctuary

"I need to hurry, but I can't rush" Bian had these thoughts as he stood in front of the Evolution Pool. Once he dipped in, it was straight to the third sanctuary and he wasn't sure what would happen there.

He checked his memory to make sure he did not forget anything crucial in the second sanctuary. He was more or less sure Bao'er was with Han Yan, the only thing he would be leaving behind was fencing spirit. Bian checked his status one last time, he looked towards his geno points.

[Geno points acquired: 100 ordinary geno points; 100 primitive geno points; 100 mutant geno points; 100 sacred geno points; 100 super geno points]

"All set." He removed all the stitches from his body, he had to cut the wire before removing it, which was more disturbing than painful. After removing all the stitches and his clothes, he dived into the pool.

The Evolution Pool was like an endless, aquatic abyss. It was like a black hole.

Bian's body continued to fall, as if he was being dropped into a bottomless vacuum. The composition of his body began to melt away.

As his flesh decomposed, Bian did not feel any pain. He could not see or hear anything. It felt as if his body was being reborn.

Slowly, three objects came to sight. They were so long that Bian couldn't see their end. They stretched from the abyss below to the void above. Two of these pillars seemed fine, while the last slowly melted away.

Bian heard a great rumbling in the distance, a massive wave of water, larger than the human mind could comprehend was fast approaching. He hurriedly hid behind the soul pillar, and watched as the water flooded the entire space.

The unmovable pillar protected him from the wave, all was calm once the space was filled with water. Even though he was under water, Bian didn't feel like he was suffocating. He even felt comfortable as he watched the body pillar reconstruct itself.

It started as a single vertical line, then it began to spread in a circular pattern Bian wanted to see the piston form, he left the soul pillar and floated towards the body pillar. Sadly he felt a force restricting him from moving outside a specific range, but he didn't give up.

Instead he held the formed part of the body pillar for support, hoping to use it to navigate around the pillar. Immediately he held the pillar, Bian felt his body become more active, stronger. He heard a piston sound form and speed up at the same time within the pillar. The metal-like sheen of the pillar began to turn to jade until the entire formed portion of the pillar turned to jade.

Then there was a great whirlpool, the body pillar looked to be sucking up the water from the evolution pool. Bian hurriedly released the pillar, but it had gone past the point of no return. Somewhere behind the pillar, outside his line of sight, water was being sucked into the pillar.

He felt like that was not supposed to happen but was powerless to do anything to stop it. Eventually, the speed at which water was sucked in slowed down, The new body pillar, was almost complete, it stood tall and powerful. Unlike its brothers, it looked like it was carved out of jade.

'Is it the effect of Jadeskin, It caused the pillar to evolve. Then what about the other two' Bian looked towards the soul and spirit pillar. He hurriedly swam towards the spirit pillar and placed a palm on it.

Unlike the body pillar, Bian clearly felt a force leaving his body. The force was like a formless haze, it was like the distortion caused by petroleum or by fire. The force covered the entirety of the spirit pillar.

'The intent mantra, the subconscious ability to sense danger. Then how about the soul pillar.' Bian hurriedly swam towards the soul pillar, the rate at which the body pillar absorbed water had almost come to a halt, he had to hurry.

Luckily he reached the Soul Pillar before it stopped completely. He placed his hands on the soul pillar and involuntarily, the image of the lightning ruin surfaced in his mind. The lightning ruin had been useful in the first and second sanctuary, but Bian knew it wouldn't be so for the third sanctuary.

The normal eyesight of far end surpassers, would likely reach the same level as when he used the lightning rune if not surpassing it. As Bian had these thoughts, time began to flow again.

The image of the lightning rune slowly faded from his memory, and slowly the Soul Pillar was covered in lightning of myriad colors. Every color Bian could think of ran across the soul pillar in the form of lightning, Bian noticed he couldn't remember the lightning rune again. He knew about it, but couldn't remember what it looked like.

[Evolution successful, you have achieved the rank of Surpasser. You have gained an additional one-hundred-year lifespan. Your super body has evolved - Empirical Aura]

As Bian heard the notification, the water in the space began to drain and he felt himself become more lucid. He floated over to the Body Pillar, checking up on it. The pillar looked to have been cut out of one piece of jade, flawless and immaculate. He heard water sloshing around as the piston within moved.

"Damn it, there is water inside the cylinder" Bian already knew the cylinder were hollow within, giving space for a piston to keep moving. His interference had caused water to enter into the Body Pillar, he didn't have to be an expert to know that wasn't a good sign.

There was only one thing Bian could do before the water completely left. He felt he would wake up once that happened, and even if he came back here he feared he wouldn't be able to get so close to the pillars like right now.

He placed both palms on the pillar hoping to remedy the situation. The piston within was suddenly ignited with vigor. It moved up and down with great intensity, ignoring the water that was obstructing it.

Gradually the piston sped up until it sounded like one continuous motion, then Bian woke up. He felt like a brand new person with all his injuries healed, but he felt even better.

After putting on his cloths, he left the Evolution Pool and placed a hand on his chest, his heart was beating wildly. He closed his eyes and focused. He was suddenly back in the space he had just left, but this time he was a spectator.

"What did I do?" Bian didn't know if he had remedied the situation or made it worse. He could hear the single motion, that came from the piston moving too fast. More than that, the piston began to emit steam. It was weird watching the jade pillar emit steam, but it was happening and the intensity only seemed to increase.

Bian opened his eyes, and clenched his fist. He felt like he could topple a mountain with a single punch, and this wasn't just a feeling. Looking at a mountain top in the distance, Bian's figure blurred and he appeared there almost instantly like teleportation. His body was filled with pure energy, distorting the space around him.

"Ahh!" With a loud voice, Bian screamed to the sky.

The weather turned stormy in an instant, lightning fell from the skies wantonly. Suddenly the whole world looked like it was experiencing Armageddon. Bian gathered all the energy within him towards into his fist, for some inexplicable reason, he felt like shouting 'defy', it felt like fate.

With the energy to destroy nations gathered in his right arm, Bian squatted and jumped from the mountain, leaving nothing but rubble in his wake. The surrounding area was altered leaving a gap filled with rocks, soil, and other debris that once formed the mountain.

He flew towards the sky at astonishing speed and shouted the word in his heart. "To go against the heavens with my fist!"

"DEFY!"

His single punch quaked the earth, split the sea and sundered the skies. Space itself became unstable before his fist and shattered apart like glass. Bian 'allowed' himself to be pulled into the space fault in the sky, leaving the second sanctuary forever.

In the space fault, a crushing force descended on Bian from every direction. The energy released from his body was countering it, while also keeping him in place. If not for it, he would have been swirling like a fidget spinner.

Bian had used eighty-percent of the energy to break the vacuum. He felt the remaining twenty percent of the energy reserve going down very fast.

...

In the third sanctuary, Yi Dongmu was walking towards a geno tree in the courtyard of a shelter. As he walked through the shelter, humans and spirits alike dared not to look him in the eye.

Most people didn't know who he was, but they knew to fear him. As the most skilled assassin in the alliance walked towards a geno tree, he couldn't help but smirk.

He had been enslaved by a knight spirit (primitive) and forced to do her bidding for three months, she would laugh as she cut him and used his blood to water he plants, but he would be having the last laugh.

Of the thirteen humans enslaved here, he has managed to convince twelve to join him in taking down the spirit. Even if he can't convince the last person, he just had to stop them from interfering. Although the spirit was strong, an assassin didn't fight with strength.

'All I need is an opportunity'

As Yi Dongmu thought this, he was a crack open in the sky above the spot he was supposed to protect. Checking left and right, he confirmed no one else saw it and cautiously went towards that spot.

Bian looked at the geno tree in front and the walls in the distance, he seemed to have landed in a shelter. He fell on one knee, gasping for air.

'The energy from the evolution pool has run out. The sequela from using it doesn't seem to bad.' Bian already expected some consequences from absorbing and using the evolution pool as an energy source, luckily it wasn't too bad, as he would recover after a couple of days.

He raised his head towards the source of the approaching footsteps. A handsome young man scaled the fence and cautiously approached Bian.

"Who are you?" Yi Dongmu asked, tension in his voice.