The glowing blue stone trembled the instant Lucius placed his hand upon its surface.
The faint light within the stone began to pulse as it responded to his touch. Murmurs began to gather and it rippled through the gathered villagers, but Lucius paid them no attention.
A cold sensation slipped into his palm.
Lucius raised an eyebrow slightly, as he felt the cold sensation, but he did not fight against it. Instead, it flowed through his arm and into his body like a calm stream of water. Because he knew this was an unknown source and they could have severe repercussions if something went wrong.
So he allowed it.
However, the sensation stirred an old memory.
When he had been a child, kneeling on the cold stone floor of the Church of Celestia, he had felt something similar for the first time. The very first time he gathered mana, the cold sensation he felt flowed through his body.
The mana his Goddess Celestia granted him, which was so pure and powerful only he could have as her apostle. He remembered the day his teacher, a nun with her soft voice, had guided him.
She had been kind, though her eyes carried the weight of grief.
A devoted follower of Goddess Celestia, she had once walked the world as a member of the Hero Party, the very group that had challenged the Demon King in the past and failed. Of them all, she alone had survived.
She had taught Lucius with quiet patience.
Not only how to pray, but how to calm his mind. Not only how to believe, but how to act when belief was tested. She showed him how to move, how to hold a sword without wasting strength, how to place his feet, how to judge when to strike and when to stay his hand. Balance, she called it. Judgment without cruelty. Mercy without weakness.
At times, she spoke of the Demon King but never to scare him. Only to ensure he understood what awaited his future.
One evening, after training had ended, she rested a hand on his head and spoke softly.
"I know you will go farther than we did," she said. "Not because you'll be stronger… but because you have the will to never give up."
Lucius carried those words with him long after she was gone.
As the unfamiliar energy—qi, as they called it, continued to seep into him, Lucius grew quietly uneasy. This was not mana as it lacked the familiar pull, the way mana gathered and settled into his mana core. Those born with magical talent formed a core without effort, a place where mana was stored.
Qi was different.
It drifted through him without any destination, it flowed like mist slipping through open air. He tried to sense where it was meant to go, but there was nothing to grasp.
Seconds passed.
Lucius stayed still alert but never interfered with the Qi. He did not probe it with a gentle touch or try to move it. He knew if this energy behaved like mana, pushing it the wrong way could do real harm.
A full minute dragged on.
Then—
Crk.
A sharp cracking sound cut through the air.
Lucius's eyes flicked to the stone.
Fine fractures had begun to crawl across its surface, spreading outward from where his hand rested. The blue glow flickered erratically, dimming with each passing second.
Gasps erupted from the crowd.
Crk—crrk.
The cracks widened. The vibrant blue faded into a dull gray, as though the life were being drained from the stone itself. The faint pulse vanished entirely.
With a final, brittle sound—
CRACK.
The spirit stone split cleanly in two.
The halves fell apart, clattering uselessly to the ground, completely colorless. Whatever energy they once held was gone.
Lucius slowly lifted his hand, staring at the broken stone with mild confusion. He felt normal. No sudden surge of power or abnormal strength.
Thirty minutes ago.
The irony was not lost on him.
To go from being the strongest human in his world, akin to a demi-god wielding divine judgment to a seemingly ordinary youth with a frail body felt strange and almost amusing.
The middle-aged man stared at the shattered stone, then at Lucius, and a note of unmistakable excitement crept into his voice.
"It seems," he said slowly, "that you have talent, boy."
A ripple passed through the villagers, seeing the sight of a new immortal being born.
"You pass," the man announced more loudly.
The reaction was immediate.
Awe. Gasps. Whispered voices overlapping one another.
"Did you see that…the stone splitted in half."
"Ohhh….he drained the stone."
"A new immortal… right here…"
Lucius heard it all, yet he merely chuckled inwardly. To him, this display was hardly impressive compared to what he had once done. Still, he understood what it meant to them.
The man stepped closer, his gaze sharp now. "You absorbed all the qi within the spirit stone. Tell me, what is your name?"
Lucius answered calmly. "Lucius, sir."
The man nodded. "Very well, Lucius. You are qualified to take the entrance exam for the Clear Sky Sect."
Lucius hesitated because a sect sounded like an organization. A gathering of cultivators who claimed to fight against the heavens themselves.
It did not sit comfortably with him.
He was, and always would be, a devoted apostle of Goddess Celestia. Balance, Judgment and Order were the teachings that shaped his very soul. This world, however, clearly followed a different path.
Yet perhaps that was precisely why he was here.
If these so-called immortals strayed too far. If they disrupted the natural balance as demons once had, then he would judge them just the same.
Lucius lowered his gaze briefly, making his decision. He would join the Clear Sky Sect, to gain more knowledge about this world. Because the thought of immortals, going against heaven.
This was heresy. They were breaking the order and balance Goddess Celestia imposed. Now as he stood with a weak human body. He needed knowledge as the concept of mana was no longer useful for him.
He will join the Clear Sky Sect and learn how to use Qi, in his Goddess name.