Chapter 6 ( forbidden knowledge )

  Adam wakes up after his long rest feeling disoriented.

  "How long was I asleep for?"

  "Ruff"

  Red who was beside him hands him a fruit.

  "Thank you Red"

  As he pets Red, the fox’s tail wags excitedly.

  "Good boy"

  Adam looks into Red's memory to understand how long he was knocked out for.

  "Two whole days huh. And now it's the beginning of the third day"

  "I can feel my body has cramps everywhere. It is close to completely healing itself. It's more tempered too"

  "I can feel my dantian is hardening. I might have pushed myself too hard yesterday"

  " By the way why hasn't anyone has found this island? It has been 9 whole days."

  "......"

  "Now that I reached the 3rd Qi condensation level how is my power gonna work?"

  "Since I am using the mid dantian which corresponds to the emotions which according to the book I can use healing and taming arts"

  "Let's start with healing arts then"

  Adam sat cross legged focusing on his mid dantian. He could feel a gentle warm pulse. Spreading throughout his body.

  He took a deep breath spreading this warmth all round his aching body the Qi moved sluggishly at first then-

  "Tch-!" A sharp stinging sensation shot through his body. His whole body twitched, a cold sweat breaking down his back.

  "Shit... It feels like pouring alcohol on a open wound."

  He gritted his teeth and kept going. The Qi swirled, pressing against his injuries. Then, suddenly—a rush of relief. The cramps eased, the stiffness in his muscles faded, and his breathing became lighter.

  Adam flexed his fingers. "It works... but it's rough." He checked his body. No visible wounds, no scars left behind.

  "This technique is incomplete... I need better control."

  Red barked. Adam looked down to see the fox eyeing him expectantly.

  "You wanna be next?"

  The fox stepped closer. Adam reached out, placing a hand on its head. This time, instead of focusing on himself, he directed the warmth outward.

  Red flinched—then relaxed.

  The fox's tail wagged, its once-weary body perking up, its fur taking on a healthier sheen. The exhaustion from their previous hunts vanished.

  Adam blinked. "So, it's not just healing. It’s like... restoration."

  He stood up, cracking his neck. His mid dantian had awakened properly now. He could heal. He could mend.

  "Alright... let's see what else I can do."

  Adam sat down, looking at Red, who tilted his head in curiosity.

  "If the mid dantian can be used for taming… then I should be able to connect to yours," Adam muttered, placing a hand on Red’s head.

  He closed his eyes and focused. The warmth in his mid dantian stirred, pulsing in rhythm with his breathing. He let it flow outward, searching, reaching—

  A flickering presence, faint but steady, pulsed within Red’s body. His dantian. It was like a small ember, warm and untamed, but not resisting.

  Adam eased his presence forward, letting his Qi brush against Red’s, a gentle greeting rather than an intrusion.

  Red blinked and let out a soft chuff, his tail wagging slightly.

  Taking it as a good sign, Adam let his Qi flow further, intertwining with Red’s in a slow, natural rhythm. The fox’s energy did not push back—it simply observed, cautious at first, then gradually welcoming.

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  A warmth spread between them.

  A thread, thin yet steady, formed—a connection beyond sight or sound. Adam felt Red’s emotions, not as words, but as instincts and sensations. Trust. Familiarity. Comfort.

  Red stepped forward, pressing his head into Adam’s palm. His golden eyes gleamed with understanding.

  "It worked," Adam murmured, smiling.

  Red let out a happy bark, his presence now woven into Adam’s Qi. They weren’t just tamer and beast.

  Adam ruffled the fox’s fur. "Looks like we’re partners now, huh?"

  Red let out a soft growl—not of resistance, but of approval.

  "Now then today I must venture deeper inside. I HAVE to know what is in there."

  Sensing Adam's intention Red tries to stop him.

  Adam can sense Red sending out fear, worry and more fear.

  Trying to tell Adam something very scary, something very dangerous deeper inside.

  "Don't worry I will come back after a quick glance."

  Adam ventures inside. He goes deeper and deeper inside

  He has reached the area blocked by the mycelium.

  Adam tore through the mycelium.

  He goes deeper

  Deeper

  Deeper

  Deeper

  "How deep is this?"

  Deeper

  Deeper

  Venturing deeper he sees a opening with a faint eerie purple glow coming out casting shadows against the rough stone walls.

  As he stepped closer. A vast cavern beyond reveals and in the middle he sees 'it'.

  Adam stood there, frozen, staring at the massive, pulsating heart before him. It wasn’t just a heart—it was alive in a way that made his skin crawl. His chest tightened. His breath came out ragged. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his feet refused to move.

  Then it hit him.

  A pulse. No—a tidal wave. Something deeper than Qi surged through his body, flooding his veins like molten metal. His mind snapped, his vision turning white as something—no, everything—poured into him at once.

  A world before this one.

  The sky wasn't always cracked. The Qi wasn't always thin. The lands weren’t supposed to be dead. He saw the past—the Titan before it became a world, before it was ripped apart. The wars. The gods who fought over its corpse. The reason cultivation even existed. It wasn’t some grand pursuit of immortality. It was survival. The strong didn’t get stronger because they wanted to—they had to, or they’d be erased like the countless who came before them.

  His body convulsed.

  His fingers stiffened, stretching unnaturally, the bones fusing, sharpening. His arm contorted, the skin peeling back to reveal gleaming metal. No—this wasn’t metal. This was something worse. Something alive. A sword. He was turning into a sword.

  Pain.

  Adam fell to his knees, his form flickering between human and blade. His mind was still tangled in the Titan’s memories, the unbearable weight of history pressing down on him. The wars, the destruction. His head ached, his vision blurred. He wasn’t supposed to see this. He wasn’t supposed to know.

  Then his lower dantian twisted.

  A searing heat shot through his core, like molten metal being poured directly into his soul. His Qi churned violently, distorting, reshaping. His foundation—his very cultivation—was being rewritten. The Titan’s influence dug deep, branding itself into his existence. His Qi channels twisted, his dantian expanding and contracting in rapid, agonizing pulses.

  His Qi stopped feeling like Qi. It felt solid, heavy, like a blade being tempered in a forge. He could hear it—his own energy humming, resonating with something ancient, something unnatural. His dantian was no longer just a vessel for Qi. It was reforging itself into a core of something else entirely.

  His chest cracked open, exposing veins of light, pulsing in sync with the Titan’s heart. His breath came out in sharp gasps as his body lost shape, twisting, distorting. His ribs fused into a hilt. His spine stretched, turning into an unbreakable edge.

  Then his mind snapped.

  He wasn’t Adam. He wasn’t anything.

  He was a weapon.

  He was—

  "No."

  A voice cut through the chaos.

  Something gripped his soul and yanked. The world around him shattered. Adam's consciousness was thrown into darkness. No—this wasn’t just darkness. This was inside him.

  Inside his soul.

  He stood there, barely himself, his body flickering between flesh and blade. Across from him, a figure loomed. The Titan’s heart had taken shape, twisting into a grotesque mockery of a human form. Its body was made of shifting metal, its veins pulsing with an ancient, terrifying energy. Its presence crushed down on him, suffocating.

  And then—another presence.

  Zayk.

  He stood there, arms crossed, looking unimpressed. “You really are a magnet for fucked-up situations, huh?”

  Adam couldn’t even respond. His thoughts were slipping, his body betraying him. He could feel the Titan pulling him in, reshaping him, making him part of it.

  Zayk exhaled.

  "Well, guess I gotta step in."

  The Titan roared, a sound that rattled Adam’s very being. Then it moved.

  Zayk met it head-on.

  The air inside Adam’s soul tore apart as they clashed. The Titan’s form lashed out, tendrils of living steel striking with enough force to collapse mountains. Zayk weaved through them effortlessly, his aura flaring. A single strike from him shattered a piece of the Titan’s body, sending molten fragments scattering into the void.

  Adam his mind was going to break apart.

  Zayk clicked his tongue. “Tch. If you break now, I’m taking my lifespan payment early.”

  Adam grit his teeth. His fingers curled into the floor of his soulscape. He wasn’t going to let this thing take him. He wasn’t—

  A sudden wave of pain slammed into him as the Titan’s influence surged, trying to erase him completely. His chest cracked open again, his heart twisting, shifting—

  "Your soul is mine until you pay your debt." Zayk said casually. "So I ain’t letting you get taken over by some oversized lump of meat."

  A surge of power exploded from him, slamming into the Titan. The force sent shockwaves through Adam’s soulscape, cracking the very space around them. The Titan shrieked, its form rippling.

  Zayk stepped forward, raising a hand. “Be gone.”

  The Titan’s form collapsed.

  A deafening silence followed.

  Adam gasped, his body snapping back to normal—his body. His. His hands trembled, his skin slick with sweat. He could still feel it. The knowledge. The memories. The weight of the past. But he was still here.

  Zayk sighed. "That was a mess."

  He glanced at Adam. "You’re not gonna break from this, right?"

  Adam wiped the blood from his mouth, forcing a grin.

  “Screw you.”

  Adam's breath was ragged, his body still aching from the struggle. His vision was still hazy, but something felt... wrong. Off.

  His left arm felt heavy. Too heavy.

  He looked down.

  His heart nearly stopped.

  Where his arm should have been—was a sword. Not something he was holding. Not something strapped to him. His arm was the sword.

  The transformation hadn’t stopped at his fingers. His flesh had twisted, merged, fused—his skin stretched over metal, his veins pulsing with something unnatural. The hilt extended from his elbow, flesh still connected in patches, as if his body couldn’t decide if it was human or weapon. The blade gleamed under the faint purple glow, smooth, polished, but undeniably alive.

  His stomach churned.

  His fingers twitched—no, the sword twitched. His arm wasn’t responding like it should. The weight was all wrong, the balance foreign. It wasn’t just a weapon attached to him. It was him.

  "What... the hell?"

  His voice was barely above a whisper. He reached out with his right hand, hesitating, then ran his fingers along the blade. He could feel it—feel the touch, like he was brushing against his own skin. A shiver ran down his spine.

  The realization made his breath hitch.

  This wasn’t just a weapon.

  It wasn’t something he could drop.

  It was a part of him.

  A chuckle broke the silence.

  Zayk stood nearby, watching him with an amused expression, arms crossed like he had just seen something mildly interesting.

  “Well,” Zayk said, tilting his head. “That’s new.”

  Adam’s jaw clenched. “You think this is funny?”

  Zayk shrugged. “A little.”

  Adam felt something crawl up his spine—rage, frustration, panic—but he pushed it down. His arm was a damn sword now. He had to fix this.

  He had to.

  Adam looked at the massive, beating heart before turning to Zayk.

  "Why did you take three of the hearts?"

  "To ascend," Zayk said, his expression unchanged.

  "You could have taken another path."

  "You, as you are now, wouldn’t understand why I did what I had to do," Zayk replied. "To cultivate is to be selfish. To be selfless is to betray yourself."

  Adam said nothing. The heart kept beating.

  Adam stared at the massive heart, its pulse slow and steady.

  "If three were enough for you to ascend," he said, eyes still on the heart, "then the last one is better off hidden."

  Zayk raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

  "Someone like you wouldn’t hesitate to take it if they needed to." Adam turned to him. "And I doubt the next person would care what happens to the world afterward."

  Zayk studied him for a moment, then let out a quiet chuckle. "Reasonable."

  Adam didn’t respond.

  Zayk rolled his shoulders. "Fine. I’ll hide it where no one can reach. But what’s stopping you from coming back for it?"

  Adam glanced at his left arm—the warped flesh, the gleam of the blade. His fingers twitched.

  Adam turned away, using his sword-arm to steady himself as he walked.

  Before leaving, he reached up, pulled a thin thread of light from his head, containing the memories of the Titan's heart and crushed it.

  "I am not like you."

  Zayk let out a short chuckle. "Stubborn, huh."