The underground market buzzed with restless energy, but none noticed the quiet figure slipping through its alleyways.
Red Phoenix had vanished into the night.
Now, she returned—disguised.
The crimson mask was gone, replaced by a simple black mask with faint silver edges. Her black cloak had changed to deep midnight blue, with no identifying symbols. Her walk was calm, unhurried—just another wandering cultivator among hundreds in the maze of stalls and vendors.
After collecting the hefty reward—5,000 Tier 1 Spirit Stones and the promised Tier 2 movement technique scroll—Alice moved quietly through the stalls, ignoring curious glances and hushed whispers about the infamous masked assassin.
She stopped before a shop run by an old alchemist with cloudy eyes.
"I need a high-grade Tier 1 Qi Enhancing Pill," she said.
The man nodded without asking for names. "That'll be 700 Tier 1 Spirit Stones."
She placed the exact amount without flinching. "And a Tier 1 High-Grade Foundation Stabilizing Pill?"
"Eight hundred," he replied.
With another smooth motion, she paid and accepted the two sealed jade bottles.
Business concluded, Alice didn't linger.
Within moments, she melted into the crowd and disappeared from the underground once more.
---
By the time she returned to the Royal Academy, the first light of dawn was streaking across the sky.
Her room was still, the walls thick enough to silence even a Qi explosion.
Alice sat cross-legged on her bed, pulling out the two jade bottles from her Tier 1 storage ring.
She removed the cap of the Qi Enhancing Pill first. A wave of rich spiritual energy surged from the pill, and her body instinctively responded.
With a single breath, she swallowed it and guided the released energy through her meridians.
Her Qi sea churned like a rising tide, colliding with the bottleneck that had blocked her path.
Crack!
With a sudden burst, her cultivation base surged past the final barrier.
Qi Condensation Realm – 9th Level.
She exhaled slowly, her crimson eyes glowing with calm control.
But her expression remained stoic. She knew the most dangerous part came now—an unstable foundation was a fatal weakness for future breakthroughs.
Without hesitation, she opened the second jade bottle and swallowed the Foundation Stabilizing Pill.
Cool, stabilizing Qi began to flow through her dantian and meridians, reinforcing every crack and turbulence left behind by her breakthrough.
Alice sat in deep meditation for hours, the energy around her pulsing in rhythm with her breaths. Not until nightfall did she open her eyes.
Her breakthrough was not only successful—it was perfect.
She now stood at the very peak of the Qi Condensation Realm.
Her foundation was as solid as tempered iron.
She slowly stood up, her expression calm.
But deep within, her soul burned with ambition.
Next would come the great divide—Foundation Establishment.
And only those with absolute control, power, and resolve could step across it.
Alice, the assassin reborn, was ready to prepare for that step.