(Welcome to 2026! This is your extra chapter, so you only have to live with a cliffhanger for one weekend. Full chapters next week.)
The irritating thing was that the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes were actually quite beautiful, Kai just couldn't enjoy it. He could imagine coasting overhead during more leisurely times, or even taking a vacation there with Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena. But now, with so many deadlines over his head... the sparkling waters, rich qi, and picturesque mountains were basically mocking him.
Well before he left the Brightwind territory, he'd returned to using Mutefang's Stealth instead of skimming above the clouds. It was slower, but it allowed him to weave his way around the various sects that would no doubt have started a vendetta if they saw him. All around he saw people declaring fealty to the Yangix Sect, which was being treated as a sort of empire over all other sects, allowing them to retain their own customs so long as they submitted.
Much of this region was unoccupied, like the other regions of Cloudspire, and he found a surprising number of glades or small islands that were so rich in qi that it would have been worth stopping to cultivate. Instead Kai pushed on, following the rumors - and the occasional blasted wreck of a sect - toward the invaders.
When he finally discovered where Yangix was holding court, he had to stop well outside their range. Sneaking closer, much less trying to go undercover, was an unacceptable risk because there was a chance that the gray power would take over if he got anywhere close.
Kai had actually considered triggering it on purpose, since it might make Yangix act out and begin blasting cultivators in his path, or at least harm his reputation. But in that form he was even more merciless than normal, and potentially more powerful, so it might be wise not to show that, especially when Kai had no guarantee that it would have a positive effect.
Instead he climbed a massive qi-laden tree and focused his senses until he could see into the small island where Yangix was holding court. He had the patriarchs and matriarchs of multiple sects around him, treating them like no more than young masters hanging onto his every word.
"Endlessly compressing qi into the dantian is a dead end," Yangix was lecturing. "Yes, you can attain slightly greater power, but the dantian is only the first seed of true cultivation. If you seek true path, you must first find understanding within."
"What becomes of the dantian?" one of the listeners asked.
"The body requires a sea of qi, of course, but it must grow beyond the small forms you have here. To do so, you need not compressed qi, but elevated qi, a power that has attained true understanding."
"And how does one acquire such understanding?"
As Yangix answered, Kai heard the ring of bullshit. He couldn't claim to be an expert on cultivation, even the Deadlake version of cultivation, but he knew dissembling when he heard it. Yangix was selling the cultivators a false bill of goods, pretending that he could help them attain the same undeniable power he possessed. In fact it was nothing but the benefit of being born in a place with denser qi, so without it, he would never be able to deliver on his promises.
Could that actually be used against him, though? Kai was familiar enough with Cloudspire that he didn't entertain any fantasies of the sects rising up against him - they were hungry for power, but they wouldn't challenge someone who could blow them apart by pointing at them.
Most likely the best path was to shake their confidence in Yangix, to give them reason to doubt that the power they felt could ever be theirs. Challenging him directly was the wrong decision, especially because Kai wasn't completely confident he could win in his current state. No, he needed to find a promise that could be broken from the outside.
Kai shadowed the court for two days, cultivating on his own as he listened to the endless teachings and politics. Aside from his waffling about the principles of cultivation, Yangix was convincing more and more sects to swear fealty to him. He had a dozen offers of marriage, but Kai didn't think Yangix was motivated by lust: what he really wanted was the respect and prestige. Right now he got more out of being the most desired bachelor on the continent, and if he did marry, he would treat women like sterile treasures.
On the third day, Kai finally heard the chance he'd been waiting for.
"These teachings are too subtle for us to grasp," one of the old patriarchs said, shaking his head as if befuddled. "Perhaps we could learn better if you offered us a demonstration, something that would be simpler for primitive cultivators to understand."
"Not an unreasonable request." Yangix stroked his chin, which had grown a thin beard, and nodded wisely. "You have customs related to dragons in these parts, do you not? I have seen your ceremonies of leaving little gifts for them..."
"Yes, it is traditional to leave qi-laden offerings for the sacred dragons of the lake. Of course, the dragons do not bless all who come to them, so perhaps it is not a good lesson."
"Nonsense! I will show you and the dragons a cultivation that they have never imagined!"
That was it: Yangix had made a promise that could be exploited. The old patriarch acted servile, but his only purpose in asking the question was to make Yangix show his qi in a form that could be more easily analyzed. As much as he put on airs, Yangix wasn't actually that bright. Anyone who buttered him up and suggested he was an amazing cultivator could manipulate him easily enough.
So the entire group went to one of the sacred lakes, Kai lurking in their shadow. He wasn't sure if the process would give him a perfect opportunity, but he finally got lucky: the offering was left out in the evening, then the next morning the dragons gave their blessing. Perfect.
Yangix pushed his qi into an enormous incense stick, which began to burn with an intense smell. Kai thought it was vaguely unpleasant, but the cultivators were apparently very impressed, because his stick had produced more smoke than anyone else who had ever attempted the offering.
In any case, that didn't matter: they retreated to praise Yangix and wouldn't return until the morning. As soon as they were gone, Kai slipped into the water of the sacred lake and sank to the bottom, meditating while he stretched his senses. Presuming that the ritual had some substance to it, the dragons were sacred beasts that would be lured by the incense, so it was only a matter of time.
Well after sunset, Kai felt the first dragon appear, curling over the lake as it investigated the incense. He considered bursting out of the water but held back. The cultivators had said something about the number of dragons summoned reflecting a cultivator's strength, so it was a safe bet that Yangix would summon a lot of them.
Soon enough a second emerged, then a third. These were Cloudspire dragons, so they were elegant and sinuous instead of blocks of scale-clad muscle like the golden dragons. Kai didn't think their essence would have been a good fit for Dragon's Might or the other abilities he was planning, but they were very suited to cultivation. Not only were they bursting with qi, they carried a supernatural aura like some of the other sacred beasts he'd seen on Cloudspire.
This must have been what Zae Zin Nim had been referring to, even if she hadn't fully articulated it. Kai was beginning to shift into his Savage Heart form, jaws opening as if he could drink the lake. He waited until no more dragons seemed to be coming, then he burst to the surface.
In his initial burst upwards, he used Isulfr's Bite to consume the head of a dragon he passed, then gripped another in his claws. Kai killed it even as he bound a third in place with Void Gaze, then pivoted to a fourth. The individual dragons were weaker than him, but not much weaker, so he needed to be prepared to fight all of them at once.
He turned out to have been over-prepared. Some of the dragons panicked, while others assaulted him with waves of water-like qi. But with all his defenses, Kai shrugged off the impacts and ate another dragon, and that broke them, sending the dragons scattering in all directions.
Not fast enough. Now that he realized this was a hunt instead of a battle, Kai used the full force of Thunderbird's Wings to flash over the lake, grabbing each and every dragon before it could escape. There was more meat than he could eat, but he filled himself to the brim with the flesh of dragons. For a brief time, even the bottomless hunger of his monstrous nature was overwhelmed, and he concentrated on channeling all the essence into his soul.
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Sacred Dragon's Qi - I (alpha)
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They resolved into "Sacred Dragon's Qi", which surprised him since he hadn't intended to focus on qi. Perhaps cultivation had been too much on his mind, or perhaps the dragons were simply extraordinarily aligned with the paths of cultivation. Their blessings were supposed to grant cultivators nebulous advantages in their breakthroughs, after all, perhaps similar to how the golden dragons granted blessings.
Whether or not that helped him, Kai was satisfied with his work. When the cultivators arrived in the morning, they would find no dragons at all, a disturbing result for the ceremony. Kai had no doubt that Yangix would be able to talk his way out of it, but doubts would begin to worm their way into the mind of all who heard him.
On his way out, Kai realized that someone was watching him.
A man in dark robes stood on the bank opposite the incense, his eyes filled with a calculating rage. He had long dark hair and an ageless face, but Kai guessed that he was at least middle-aged. Based on the cut of the robes, he was probably from the central region as opposed to any of the others, so presumably he was just one of Yangix's followers, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Or so Kai thought until the man opened his mouth.
"You killed my son." The patriarch stepped forward, his qi supporting him as he walked onto the lake. "Your whore seduced him into a war that was never his, then you killed him."
Kai had never seen the man before, but suddenly he saw the family resemblance. "You're Xir Xan Khan's father?"
"Patriarch of the Coiling Island Sect." The man took a deep breath and the power of a Sky Soul flooded out. "I never thought fate would bless me with a chance of vengeance, but it has brought you to your death."