roadtomastery

Chapter 179: Cracking One’s Soul

Happy new month, everyone! As always, thank you for your continued support, and I have news for you! This month, on the 30th, Book 1 of Road to Mastery goes to Kindle. That one day will define the next two years of my life, but I believe things will go great. There is pressure, but I love pressure.

I can't wait.

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The super horde washed over this side of Space Ring, causing widespread confusion and casualties. Several cultivators were overrun. A few more were swept up by the space monsters but managed to make it out alive...

Chapter 178: History

Jack didn’t respond right away. He savored the words. “Invite me into Black Hole Church?”

“Yes,” the Sage replied. “You already know I’m part of it—though I hope you’ve kept this information safe. Dorman is one of us, too, as are many people across the galaxy. And we want you.”

To the side, Dorman nodded.

“Isn’t the Black Hole Church a terrorist organization?” Jack asked, crossing his arms.

“That’s what the Hand of God says. In truth, we are the good side here.”

“How so?”

Chapter 177: A Spicy Reunion

Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. Here, hovering in the middle of a super horde in Trial Planet’s Space Ring, was the Sage.

What the hell?

“You aren’t even going to say hello?” the Sage said again, with a small smile. His telepathy was coming in handy.

“Hello,” Jack responded numbly.

The Sage looked almost exactly as Jack remembered him. Tattered clothes, dirty hair, and an equally dirty brown backpack on his shoulders.

However, there was something more this time. A feeling Jack cou...

Chapter 176: Surfing a Tsunami of Space Monsters

My Dao of Catchy Titles is going strong.

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Space monsters were unique creatures. They were formed by Dao that stuck together, the fundamental properties of the universe given shape and form. When that happened, sentience was developed, but most monsters only remained at the E-Grade, their infancy.

As a result, they were driven by two primary instincts: progress, and survival. Progress came from devouring other creatures that cultivated the Dao—usually cultivators, or sometimes compatible space monsters. Survival was mor...

Chapter 175: Meet The Kraken

Jack lounged on a rock when Gan Salin woke up. He coughed, then shakily raised his upper body. “What happened?” he asked.

“Space monsters,” Jack replied, “but we pulled through. Are you okay?”

Salin’s eyes were piercing. “Did you save me?”

“It was nothing.”

“He fought off an Elite monster while carrying you and Brock,” Nauja said, stepping into the courtyard. “Hardly nothing.”

“I appreciate that,” Gan Salin said. He seemed confused. Perplexed even, like he expected Jack to let h...

Chapter 174: Brock’s Trial

When the world settled, Brock found himself in a long and narrow underground chamber. Or, at least, it looked underground. There were no windows. He might as well be in a large stone box illuminated by a series of torches on the walls.

Said walls were covered in moss, like the outside ones, but the room’s main point was the floor. Brock stood on a narrow ledge against one wall. A second ledge was against the far wall, with a closed door in its midst—the only door in the room.

Between the two ledges, the floor was about ten fe...

Chapter 173: Reaching the Bubble

Happy new week, everyone!

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A second arrow pierced space to accurately land on the tip of the eel’s nose. Jack sensed the Dao of Lightning leak out. The eel shook its head and chased him with renewed effort. They exchanged strikes. He was on the losing end, but not by much. His punches caved its flesh almost as much as its lightning charred his, but he had the Indomitable Body and Life Drop’s regenerative properties, and the eel had nothing. Its greatest weapon, the lightning’s lingering effects, was countered by Jack’s...

Chapter 172: Braving the Darkness

Light speared through the darkness, illuminating a long, mile-wide area. A bright path stretching from the middle of Space Ring to an exit tunnel leading to the next ring.

As Jack’s group found themselves flying through the light, he was stunned and speechless. Just a hundred feet away, the darkness was impenetrable. It could hide the richest treasures or greatest dangers of Space Ring, and nobody would know.

Bubbles occasionally floated through the light, entering from one side to quickly disappear in the other. They weren’t...

Chapter 171: The Darkness and the Flare

The outer half of Space Ring was brightly lit by the sun mushrooms that covered the outer wall. That light dimmed as it traveled. By the middle of the ring, the lighting was like a starry night.

And the final one-fourth of the ring was pitch-black. Fifty miles of darkness crowding with the strongest, meanest space monsters around, but also treasures that nobody had accessed yet.

Jack, Brock, Nauja, and Gan Salin were currently edging the darkness, skirting around just outside its border. This area had biome bubbles that not many ...

Chapter 170: Meet The Lords

Jack and his companions couldn’t sense the aftermath of the girl and the fat guy’s attack, but it must have been tremendous. The space monster horde had all but evaporated before them, sent flying by the giant palm or burned to cinders by the sun that erupted in their midst.

Thankfully, those people were so far away they were barely visible.

“As I was saying,” Gan Salin continued, “that’s Lady Priya of the Exploding Sun faction. One of the three Lords.”

“Exploding Sun?” Jack’s ears perked up.

“Yo...

Chapter 169: Bubble Terrain

Small change: Last chapter mentioned that the basket of torches in every tunnel leading from one ring to the next is provided by Hand of God. Therefore, the tunnel in the Ancient ruins did NOT have torches. I went back and edited it as such.

Many thanks to the patron who pointed this out in last chapter's comments.

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Jack, Nauja, Gan Salin, and Brock hurtled through open space, approaching a large number of biome bubbles. The curved, sun mushroom-filled ceiling was on their backs. It felt like a descent into darkness.

Chapter 168: Space Ring

The Space Ring put all physics Jack knew to shame.

It was a vast expanse of space, stretching so far he couldn’t see the end. The sun mushrooms around him pierced the darkness, illuminating little colorful bubbles, tiny compared to the vastness surrounding them, slowly floating through.

Jack could see a forest, a valley, an icy tundra, even an active volcano surrounded by an archipelago of stone islands. It was like someone had uprooted pieces of the terrain, put them in bubbles of air, and sent them floating through Space Ring...

Chapter 167: Directional Shenanigans

“That was amazing!” Nauja said, walking excitedly next to Jack. “The way you tricked them… Genius! And here I thought you were a dumb meathead!”

“You are literally a barbarian,” Jack replied, but he wasn’t annoyed. He was exuberant. Just now, he’d earned a great victory and secured the safety of himself and his companions.

Plus, he’d punished the asshole who slapped Brock.

“That was for you, little bro,” he said, turning to the brorilla, who was walking with his back almost perfectly straight.

...

Chapter 166: Jack vs. Bocor

Jack’s world sharpened to a point: the minotaur. Everything else fell away. He entered combat. A battle he couldn’t afford to lose.

Bocor closed the distance in less than a blink. His hooved legs carved the sand under them, parting it like air. He was fast, too.

But Jack was also fast.

The sharp butt of a tower shield crashed where Jack used to stand. He’d jumped away, turning in mid-air and smashing a Meteor Punch into the minotaur’s side. The ensuing explosion could fell a hill. Sand flew away in all directions, w...

Chapter 165: One Path to Survival, a Thousand to Death

“Your offer is tempting, Lord Longsword,” Jack said, consciously relaxing his body and mouth. He even forced a small smile. The first step was to give Lord Longsword his respect in front of everyone. “How could anyone refuse? You are an unmatched prodigy. Honestly, after fighting you once, my respect for you is through the roof.”

Longsword nodded. He assumed Jack was just complimenting him to make up for his earlier disrespect. Before he could say anything, Jack continued.

“Besides, I would have to be an idiot to let my...

Chapter 164: Facing Lord Longsword

Jack, Nauja, Gan Salin, and Brock ran over the sand dunes, heading as far away from the village as possible. They thought they would be fast enough. Turns out, they weren’t.

Lord Longsword’s team was the first to crest the tall sand dune between the village and the desert, sprinting after them. Jack could see them clearly under the silver starlight. Longsword himself was at the front—or, at least, the person Jack assumed was Longsword—followed by the icy witch and the dickhead minotaur, Bocor.

Following them was a vast ar...

Chapter 163: To The Rescue!

Hey all, small change in the previous chapter. When they notice Gan Salin and consider breaking him out, they obviously ask themselves, "how?" The following exchange ensues:

“I can break the cage.”

Nauja raised a brow.

“What?” Jack replied. “I’ll be quick. Then, we can run to the next ring before they have time to respond.”

“...You’re lucky to have me.” She sighed. “One of my Dao Skills can harden air in a bubble. It’s nothing impressive in battle, but it stops sound. If I cast that around the ...

Chapter 162: The Village

Throughout Jack’s week-long journey through the desert, he didn’t forget about the Dao Soul.

Every second night, he entered his soul world instead of sleeping. The Dao Soul waited there, a mute copy of Jack that took childlike joy in fighting.

Here, the Dao came easy, but the System was cut-off. He had changed the terrain from a grassland to a desert, to better resemble his current environment. The only other difference from last time was the shining green beacon in the sky—the Life Drop—though Jack discovered he couldn�...

Chapter 161: More Arms, More Fun

Happy new week, everyone!

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Jack cracked his knuckles. He was suddenly eager to fight, eager to unleash his pent-up energy on this clueless monster.

Nauja and Brock stepped away, leaving him alone against the monstrous chameleon, which still hid in the sand, unaware they’d noticed it. Unfortunately, Jack wanted a fight.

“Come out!” he ordered, shooting a Meteor Punch from afar. The purple blow landed on the chameleon’s back with an explosion that leveled the nearby sand dune, sending showers of sand flying t...

Chapter 160: Desert Nights

The sand worm was wide enough to swallow a house, and long enough that they never saw its tail. It burst out from under the sand without any warning whatsoever, biting down on and swallowing a scaled lizard that lounged on top of a dune. Thankfully, it didn’t attack them.

Giant Sand Worm, Level 124 (Elite)

Giant sand worms infest the deserts of many planets. They use the Dao of Stone to swim through the desert floor, then burst up to devour their target before dissolving it in one of their many hype...