Back in the Nexus Domain.

"Congratulations on reaching the second stage of the 5th rank, Master."

Just then, a voice Grey was highly familiar with drilled into his ears.

"You are here, Alan Benson." Grey smiled as he turned around. The bearded man had a kind, respectful expression on his face as he greeted Grey.

"Yeah. I am just waiting for my power to return to its peak. I can break through again in a few days," Grey replied with a blink.

Alan became completely speechless when he heard this.

This guy was truly a monster. Alan Benson knew all about Grey cultivating to his current, terrifying stage in just eleven months, and he had personally confirmed that Grey Lockhart was still only seventeen years old.

He was not some reincarnated old monster from the higher worlds. There was much more to this anomaly.

"Grey, who is this?" Angela asked curiously.

"This is Alan Benson, the original author of the Esper Path."

"I am Master Grey’s new disciple as well. Greetings," Alan Benson said with a respectful gesture.

"The author of the Esper Path..."

"...is Grey’s disciple?" Angela and Anderson were utterly baffled.

What exactly was the Esper Path? It was one of the most dominating evolutionary paths in this world, to the point where the Origin Will actively nerfed people’s natural affinity for it just to artificially maintain the balance of the world.

This had been a direct deal between Alan and the Origin Will: he could continue spreading his path, but strict limitations had to be kept.

In fact, the Origin Will very much wanted to set a hard limit, or purposefully alter newly formed human DNA to be far less attuned to the Aether Evolutionary Path. But this path... it fundamentally transcended the very concept of limitations.

As long as a being could breathe, or do something even remotely akin to it, this path would be infinitely accessible to them.

The only true way to naturally limit this path was by making living beings stop breathing entirely, and that would obviously kill them.

But at the same time, the Origin Will could not fight it. The Aether Path was spreading like wildfire, and it would not be long before it officially became one of the universe’s main evolutionary paths.

Both the Aether Path and the Esper Path were equally terrible for the strict balance of the universe set by the Heavenly Dao. But the Origin Will simply did not have the courage to try and negotiate terms with Grey.

Besides, it knew that even if the Heavenly Dao sensed the uneven balance of the universe and came down to strike this dimension, Grey would undoubtedly take drastic precautions.

"Come, I will take you to the tower. We can chat there."

Alan Benson readily nodded and followed Grey and the others into the central tower.

However, just then, Alissa approached Grey.

"What happened, Alissa?" Grey inquired curiously.

"There is something I want to say in private," she said softly.

"Hm? Alright. Come with me then." Grey seamlessly took Alissa into his isolated sub-dimension.

She never came to him for no reason; whatever it was, it had to be quite serious.

"So, what is it?"

"It is about my breathing technique."

"Your breathing technique?" Grey raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You still need to breathe? Aren’t you at the 5th rank?"

"Not that." Alissa glared at Grey, temporarily speechless. "It is the breathing technique you currently utilize as the foundation for your path."

"Oh? I am listening." Grey immediately became serious when he heard this.

"I asked my mother about things related to True Source Dragons after... our little talk. And while we were discussing it, she told me she never had anything like a breathing technique passed down to her."

"In fact, the main technique that True Source Dragons use does not require breathing at all."

"Huh?" Grey frowned deeply upon hearing this. "But maybe Melissa just received a different set of techniques?"

"That is what I initially thought too. But do you remember when I told you that my mother was the one subconsciously guiding me through my True Dragon evolution? She also guided me in that specific breathing technique... But now, she is completely denying it."

"She is saying she never implanted that piece of information into my head."

"What is happening, Grey? Did someone actively tamper with my memories and the technique... and if so, who could it possibly be?"

"..." Grey fell into a dead silence.

For some unknown reason, a freezing chill ran straight down Grey’s spine when he heard this from Alissa.

If this was just any ordinary technique, he would have brushed it off.

But this breathing technique was anything but usual.

Grey had always harbored a fundamental misconception: that once an entity reached a high enough level of power, they would naturally be able to physically see the structural pattern of energy. But that was entirely false. Not even the goddamn gods could see it.

And this breathing technique was something that directly, flawlessly imitated the exact structural energy pattern of energies itself.

"Someone... there is someone pulling the strings behind all this." Grey had reached a chilling realization.

The fact that Melissa had zero recollection of ever transmitting the breathing technique to Alissa was undeniable proof.

The fact that the Aether Path was demonstrably real and actively being cultivated by others was even more solid proof that he had legitimately obtained this foundation from Alissa.

A being that can perceive the raw pattern of energy exactly like I can.

’I am not the only one, then.’ Grey’s mind violently buzzed.

Was it someone who possessed a Chaos Lotus like him? 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Or perhaps they possessed True Origin Insight?

The very fact that the True Origin Insight already had an official classification and name by the time he awakened it was proof that it had existed prior to him obtaining it.

But who had it? And why did they specifically target Alissa, going so far as to meticulously alter the subconscious guidance transmitted by Melissa?

Who would go to such terrifying lengths to meticulously craft this exact scenario?

"Alissa. I want you to understand. This is absolutely not normal," Grey finally spoke up with a heavy sigh.

"I do not know what is truly going on either. But your breathing technique... it literally contains the foundational secret to the absolute power of the endless reality and the ascendant domain."

"It is one of the core reasons I was able to reach my current power level and successfully develop the Aether Path."

"It completely ignores all universal limitations and restrictions."

"There is something, or someone, that orchestrated this entirely on purpose."

"As for their purpose... I have no idea what it is."

That was when Grey suddenly remembered the spatial aurora back on the Blue Star. That mysterious aurora had completely bypassed the deadly chaos turbulence of the Chaos Source Codex just to randomly abduct people from the Blue Star and scatter them to the outside worlds.

Just who is doing this?