Shattered Sanity

(Meanwhile, Inside The Heavenly Ascendancy Sect, First Elder Kremeth’s POV)

Kremeth stood at the edge of his private residence inside the Heavenly Ascendancy Sect, which had been constructed upon a lonely mountain peak, overlooking the magnificent scenery stretching beneath him.

To be fair, he never wanted a disciple, much less, a popular one like Riven Dawnriver, however, this time he was not given much choice in the matter.

Apparently, it was sect rules that every Elder take in at least one disciple, and despite his repeated protests, the sect leader had eventually decided that a student with ’perfect’ storm affinity would be a viable candidate for him to nurture.

Initially, the student was only set to arrive at the sect after his academy days were over, and yet, recent developments had brought that timeline much closer.

’How am I supposed to train an unparalleled storm genius, when I myself know nothing much about storms?’

Kremeth wondered, as his forehead creased into an ugly frown.

Of course, to the outside world, such concerns would have sounded utterly ridiculous.

Because Kremeth was no ordinary Ascendant.

He was the Untameable Storm.

The Raging Thunder.

The Lightning Dragon of the Eastern Heavens.

The Unstoppable Bullet.

The Heaven-Piercing Tempest.

A man whose name had become synonymous with absolute mastery over the Storm Element, and whose reputation extended far beyond the boundaries of the Heavenly Ascendancy Sect.

At barely thirty years of age, he was considered remarkably young for an Ascendant of his supposed caliber, having already accomplished feats that countless elderly masters could only dream of achieving.

Legends claimed that he had once defeated seven powerful Ascendants with seven consecutive punches, without allowing a single opponent to touch his robes.

Another famous tale spoke of how he had destroyed an entire mountain with a casual flick of his wrist, while a third insisted that he had once silenced a raging thunderstorm merely by looking towards the heavens.

And perhaps most impressively, throughout his illustrious career, Kremeth had never suffered a single publicly recorded defeat.

He was widely regarded as the strongest living Storm practitioner in the Valdrak Empire.

A peerless genius.

A monster among monsters.

A man supposedly blessed by the heavens themselves.

And yet...

There was one rather unfortunate detail about these magnificent legends.

Almost all of them were complete misunderstandings.

Because Kremeth, the legendary Lightning Dragon of the Eastern Heavens, was not actually the Radiant Rank Ascendant everyone believed him to be.

He was merely an Inferno Rank practitioner.

The overwhelming aura surrounding his body, which had convinced generations of cultivators that he possessed extraordinary power, came from an exceptionally expensive Aura Enhancement Ring he had acquired through sheer luck.

And as for his supposedly unparalleled mastery over the Storm Element?

Well...

That was another rather embarrassing subject.

Kremeth possessed extraordinary control over wind, having spent decades perfecting a single technique that allowed him to compress enormous quantities of air into devastating projectiles.

He called them Air Bullets.

By channeling Aether through his clenched fist, he could fire these compressed projectiles with such terrifying speed and precision that most opponents were defeated before they even understood what had struck them.

It was a genuinely remarkable technique, and the one accomplishment in his legendary career that Kremeth could proudly claim as his own.

Unfortunately, it was also the only technique he knew how to use properly.

His control over lightning was so abysmal that attempting to summon a thunderbolt generally resulted in little more than an embarrassing spark.

And as for water?

There were Spark Rank disciples within the Sect who could manipulate it more effectively than him.

Naturally, none of this was public knowledge.

Because through an extraordinary sequence of coincidences, misunderstandings, and increasingly ridiculous strokes of fortune, Kremeth had somehow managed to convince the entire Empire that he was an unparalleled Storm genius.

The seven Ascendants he had supposedly defeated in seven punches?

They had been severely injured from fighting one another before Kremeth arrived, and all seven had collapsed after receiving a single Air Bullet each.

The mountain he had supposedly destroyed?

It had already been on the verge of collapsing following an earthquake, and his attack had merely struck the final unstable section.

And the thunderstorm he had supposedly silenced with a glance?

It had simply stopped raining.

Kremeth hadn’t even realized people were watching him at the time.

Yet somehow, each incident had become another glorious achievement attributed to his unfathomable strength.

And by the time Kremeth understood what was happening, his reputation had grown so enormous that correcting the misunderstandings would have been considerably more dangerous than simply accepting them.

Which was why, if there was one title that genuinely suited him, it wasn’t the Untameable Storm or the Lightning Dragon.

It was the Beloved Son of Lotus.

The Child of the Goddess of Luck.

Because without that woman’s extraordinary favor, Kremeth was reasonably certain he would have died at least seventeen times by now.

’And now they expect me to teach a bloody genius.’

Kremeth thought miserably, remembering the report he had received concerning Riven Dawnriver.

An Excellent Soul Vessel.

Perfect Storm Affinity.

A young man whose affinity had supposedly exceeded the measurement limits of the Imperial Academy’s appraisal instrument.

’What the hell am I supposed to teach someone like that?’

He wondered, staring towards the distant mountains with an expression of profound suffering.

’The boy probably understands lightning better than I do already.’

For a moment, Kremeth seriously considered approaching the Sect Leader and begging him to reconsider the arrangement.

Unfortunately, doing so would raise questions about why the legendary First Elder had suddenly lost interest in a once-in-a-generation genius.

And questions were something Kremeth had spent his entire life avoiding.

He sighed.

’Well, perhaps I can teach him Air Bullets. That’s something, at least.’

The thought provided him with a small measure of comfort.

After all, no matter how talented Riven might be, surely it would take him several years to master a technique that Kremeth himself had spent decades perfecting.

And if the boy happened to master it sooner?

Well...

Kremeth could always claim that he had deliberately taught him only the most fundamental aspects of Storm Ascension, while withholding the truly profound techniques until his disciple became worthy of receiving them.

It was a perfectly reasonable strategy.

At least, that was what Kremeth told himself.

And so, as the legendary Untameable Storm stood proudly upon his mountain peak, radiating the overwhelming aura of a supposed Radiant Rank master, the disciples watching from below could only marvel at his magnificent presence.

”Look! First Elder Kremeth is contemplating the mysteries of the heavens again!”

One disciple whispered reverently.

”Of course he is. A man of his caliber must constantly seek enlightenment.”

Another replied.

Meanwhile, high above them, the greatest Storm Ascendant in the Empire was contemplating something considerably less profound.

’Should I pretend to enter secluded cultivation before the boy arrives?’