The next day, the battle for the Golden Plain began.
Kanoru led the charge alongside the strongest cultivators, their forces striking deep into the territory occupied by the invaders. Their goal was clear—recapture the nodes, push the GreyRose Circus back, and reclaim the land their world had lost.
Without the Bone Clown leading them, the invaders faltered. His serious injuries had shaken their morale, and for a time, the advantage shifted in favor of Kanoru's world. That brief moment of weakness cost the GreyRose Circus dearly. Node after node was reclaimed, breaking their grip on the Golden Plain. The world itself seemed to fight alongside Kanoru's forces, resisting the infection and making it harder for the invaders to spread their corruption.
But victory did not come quickly.
The war dragged on. Months turned into years, battles stretching across every corner of the Golden Plain. The cultivators of the world fought with everything they had, sacrificing blood, sweat, and lives to cleanse the land. It was a brutal struggle, yet, as time passed, progress was undeniable.
And then, around Kanoru's fiftieth birthday, the final stronghold of the invaders in the Golden Plain fell.
The entire region was recaptured.
For the first time since the invasion began, the world had delivered a devastating blow to the GreyRose Circus.
Yet, even in their weakened state, the invaders were still stronger than the forces of this world. Their influence extended far beyond the Golden Plain, spreading through countless other regions. The Bone Clown's injuries had only bought time, delaying the inevitable rather than securing a complete victory.
More than fifty years had been added to the war's timeline—fifty years before the infection could spread to the point of no return.
But the invaders were not idle.
Slowly, they regained their footing. The initial shock of their leader's defeat faded, and their forces regrouped. They launched counterattacks across the world, reclaiming lost nodes in different regions. The battlefronts became chaotic, shifting constantly as victories and losses balanced out.
Yet, in the Golden Plain, the invaders could not recover.
The damage to their morale had been too great. The loss of the land that once served as their stronghold crippled their operations in the region. And then came another devastating blow—three Spirit King realm cultivators launched an assault directly on the GreyRose Circus' forces above the Golden Plain. The sky itself became a battlefield, the sheer scale of the fight reshaping the tides of war once more.
The invaders bled. Their forces crumbled.
And though the war was far from over, the battle for the Golden Plain had been won.
Kanoru did not allow himself to stagnate. With every battle, he sought not only victory but also growth. His path of cultivation had always been one of relentless refinement, and now, amidst the chaos of war, he continued to push his limits.
At fifty-one years of age, Kanoru took a significant step forward in his cultivation. He connected his fire and wind element runes, not to form a new rune but to enhance his micro-level control over both elements. At first, the effects were subtle, yet as he worked with the connection, two things became clear—his control over both elements improved drastically, and his cultivation realm increased slightly as the fire rune merged with the wind elemental runes.
Encouraged by this breakthrough, Kanoru continued along this path.
By fifty-five, he had taken a monumental step forward. He connected all the runes associated with his alien wind energy, achieving a breakthrough that transformed his combat abilities. With his newfound control, he could stabilize the alien wind energy, preventing it from detonating prematurely. Now, he could direct its devastating force precisely where he wanted, striking with unseen precision.
He tested his mastery on the battlefield.
During an assault on a node near the Red Bamboo Forest, Kanoru put his newfound ability to the test. The invaders stationed there were formidable, including a Spirit Lord Realm cultivator, but Kanoru had changed. The fusion of his wind runes had made him nearly invisible to the average Spirit Lord Realm cultivator. His presence was masked, his attacks arriving before his enemy could even sense them. The battle was swift. The invader fell, and the node was reclaimed.
With this victory, Kanoru pressed onward.
He continued merging the rest of his wind runes into the connected rune structure. The process took years, but by the time he reached sixty-three, it was complete. His power had risen dramatically, and so had his influence. At this time, his group had become one of the most formidable forces in the war. Alongside him stood five Spirit Lord Realm cultivators—Lou Chen, Asuna's mother, Asuna, Gu Mingzhu, and Shen Qinzhi. Their combined strength made them an undeniable force on the battlefield.
Recognizing his growth, Kanoru was appointed as the commander of a large army tasked with conquering the Black Hills region.
At this stage of his cultivation, Kanoru took yet another leap forward. He connected all his wind runes with the alien energy rune, marking a complete transformation in his energy. His chakra, once light blue, now burned with a bright orange glow, a testament to his mastery over explosive alien wind energy. His total rune count reached thirty-eight, defining his cultivation realm.
Though others may have possessed more runes, it mattered little. The explosive nature of his alien wind energy made him nearly untouchable in the Spirit Lord Realm. His strikes were no longer mere attacks—they were calamities, forces of destruction that few could counter.
The war continued.
At sixty-five years of age, Kanoru pushed his cultivation further. He connected the ten fire elemental runes that remained separate, increasing his total rune count to forty-nine. Among them was a new wind rune he had comprehended, further refining his control over the element. Now, within his spiritual space, only nine water elemental runes remained isolated.
He attempted to connect them, but the attempt failed miserably. No matter how much he refined his understanding, the water elemental runes rejected fusion with the others.
Reflecting on his past breakthroughs, Kanoru realized something critical—his previous success in connecting runes had stemmed from his comprehension of alien wind energy. It had been the foundation that allowed his fire and wind elemental runes to merge, creating the explosive alien wind energy. Later, as his understanding deepened, the rest of his fire and wind runes naturally connected with their respective elemental runes. However, they did not merge across elements beyond the initial alien wind-fire fusion.
This meant that for his water runes to integrate with the rest, he needed to comprehend an alien water elemental energy and link it with another compatible energy.
Several possibilities came to mind:
- Alien water energy fused with fire energy
- Alien wind energy fused with water energy
- Alien fire energy fused with alien water energy
- Alien water energy fused with alien wind energy
Kanoru understood that mastering even one alien energy was a rare feat. The fact that he had comprehended alien wind energy fused with fire energy was already an anomaly. But if he wished to integrate the water element into his connected rune structure, he would need to comprehend at least one of these combinations, or ideally, all of them.
A Daunting Task.
To balance the elements within his spiritual space, he reasoned that he needed to comprehend an alien energy opposite to what he had already mastered—a counterpart to his alien wind-fire fusion.
This realization led him to exchange five distinct alien elemental energies:
Steam elemental energy, a fusion of water and fire, led by water;
Devouring water elemental energy, where fire and water intertwined in a consuming cycle, led by fire;
Bone freezing elemental energy, combining water and wind to produce extreme cold, led by wind;
Water chimes elemental energy, a delicate yet powerful blend of wind and water that manipulated vibrations within liquids, led by water; and
Blue fire elemental energy, an advanced fusion of fire and wind that gave rise to flames of unparalleled intensity, led by fire.
However, war demanded his presence. As a commander, he could not afford the luxury of retreating into deep meditation for extended periods to comprehend these energies naturally. Instead, he turned to the vast merit he had accumulated through countless battles, exchanging it for rare resources that could accelerate his understanding.
With these resources in hand, Kanoru set his sights on the next stage of his cultivation.
At sixty-eight years of age, Kanoru comprehended steam elemental energy, and as a result, four new water elemental runes and one fire elemental rune formed in his spiritual space. His understanding of how water and fire could coexist expanded, allowing him to refine his control over both elements in ways he hadn't considered before.
At sixty-nine, he grasped the essence of devouring water elemental energy, a force that embodied the consuming nature of water infused with fire. This comprehension led to the formation of three additional fire elemental runes and two more water elemental runes, further solidifying his mastery over the interaction between these opposing forces.
At seventy-two, he unlocked the secrets of bone freezing elemental energy, a fusion of water and wind that allowed him to manipulate extreme cold with precision. Two more water elemental runes emerged within his spiritual space, enhancing his control over frost-related techniques. Six months later, he comprehended water chimes elemental energy, a delicate yet powerful blend of wind and water that allowed him to manipulate vibrations within liquids. This understanding resulted in the formation of two wind elemental runes and two additional water elemental runes, further balancing his elemental affinity.
At seventy-four, he finally comprehended blue fire elemental energy, a rare fusion of fire and wind that produced flames of an even higher intensity than ordinary fire. The completion of this insight led to the formation of three fire elemental runes and one wind elemental rune.
By this time, his spiritual space held a total of forty-nine connected runes, along with three separate wind elemental runes, seven fire elemental runes, and nineteen water elemental runes.
To break through to the Spirit King Realm, he needed to connect twelve more runes. Among them, ten were fire and wind elemental runes, which he had decided to connect first as the connected rune is compose of fire and wind elemental runes. Over the next two years, by the time he reached seventy-six years old, he successfully merged them into his connected rune system.
At that moment, he felt his strength double. His cultivation realm remained at the Spirit Lord Realm, yet his power had undoubtedly stepped into the Spirit King Realm. Before, he had already been untouchable among Spirit Lords—now, with this transformation, he was certain of it.
His control over his body had sharpened to new heights, his self-healing capabilities advanced beyond what he had ever experienced, his chakra reserves expanded immensely, and his reaction speed had increased dramatically. Cultivation realm and combat effectiveness were two entirely different things, and his newfound power blurred the lines between them.
His dominance in battle had already drawn attention, and with his strength now at the level of a Spirit King, he believed it was time to launch a full expedition. However, before he could finalize his decision and convince the other ministers to move forward, an assassination attempt struck. A Spirit King attacked him near a secluded pond.
But Kanoru had comprehended the Water Chimes Elemental Energy—allowing him to both send and receive vibrations through water—so he was able to sense the attack.