Chapter 5: The Crucible of the Sun
The fifth year was not spent in the dark. It was spent in the fire.
Hobs had transported Carson to the heart of the Hekla Volcano in Iceland. But they weren't on the surface. They were in a pocket of space anchored deep within the tectonic magma. The heat here was so intense it turned the air into a shimmering, distorted curtain of gold.
"Your Mortal Foundation is complete," Hobs said, his figure unaffected by the heat. "You have twenty-nine strands of Saber-Qi. But the 30th strand... the Origin Strand... cannot be born in a cave. it must be forged in the core of a star."
"I don't see a star, Master," Carson said. His voice was calm. His body, once scrawny, was now lean and sculpted like a statue of ancient marble. He wore only simple linen trousers, his skin seemingly immune to the magma bubbling inches from his feet.
"Then become one," Hobs replied.
Carson waded into the pool of Tier-8 Alchemical magma. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt—it was a total deconstruction of his molecular self. His twenty-nine strands of violet Qi began to spin inside his heart, forming a miniature cyclone.
He stayed in the magma for forty days. On the final night, the volcano groaned. The 29 strands didn't just spin; they collapsed. In the center of the collapse, a tiny, white-hot point of light manifested.
The 30th Strand.
Carson opened his eyes. The magma around him suddenly froze into solid obsidian as the heat was sucked into his chest. He stood up and pointed his hand at the volcano's ceiling.
"Combine."
The 30 strands merged. A Saber Ray—a beam of concentrated, conceptual sharpness—shot from his fingertips. It didn't just cut the rock; it erased it. The beam punched through five kilometers of earth, through the ice caps, and into the night sky, visible from three neighboring countries.
"Peak Level 14," Hobs whispered. "The Celestial Sovereign is born."