At the heart of the capital's marketplace, Aris moved like a streak of lightning. He slipped effortlessly through the crowded streets, weaving between merchants, vaulting over stacked wooden crates, and disappearing into the flow of people as though he had become part of it.Chris stayed right on his heels. Despite his advanced age, the old servant matched every sudden turn without breaking a sweat, his robes fluttering only slightly as he chased after the mysterious stranger.Victor, however, wasn't nearly as fortunate. His breathing quickly grew ragged, and with every passing street he fell farther behind until he finally had to brace himself against a fruit stall, desperately trying to catch his breath before forcing his aching legs forward once more.The chase finally came to an abrupt halt inside a narrow stone alley was a dead end. Aris skidded across the worn pavement just as Chris appeared directly before him. Without saying a word, the old servant thrust his palm toward Aris

Inside Aris's Chaos World, he stood before his spiritual guardian. Every Master Phase cultivator possessed a guardian within their inner world—a mysterious existence born from the moment they defied the heavens and stepped beyond mortality itself.After giving the masked figure a few quiet instructions, Aris watched as it bowed deeply before dissolving into the ever-shifting mist. Back in the real world, however, he simply continued eating as though nothing had happened.Jasper, Chris, and Victor sat frozen across the table, not one of them touching the feast spread before them. Aris, on the other hand, ate with complete ease. Invisible wisps of gray smoke slowly seeped from his body, drifting across the polished wooden floor between tables before slipping beneath chairs and silently climbing toward the ceiling. No one noticed.The smoke gathered above the restaurant roof, twisting together until it formed the outline of a tall figure wrapped in layered robes the color of fading mist.

Aris looked over his new student—the one he'd chosen… or forced into becoming his disciple, depending on who was telling the story. If Jasper were the one telling it, he'd calmly explain that he'd been backed into a corner. Aris was a Spiritual Master Phase expert, while Jasper was barely in the Mortal Phase. What kind of choice was that?But there was one thing Aris didn't know. Jasper was no pushover. In his previous life, he'd been a rising actor in Hollywood. Even before the false murder accusations destroyed everything, that world had never been kind to naïve people. Backstabbing, manipulation, smiling faces hiding sharpened knives—he had survived that ruthless industry for years before it finally swallowed him whole.Now he had been thrown into an even crueler world, where cultivators could erase a person's existence with a single thought. If he wanted to survive, he needed a plan. Unfortunately, every path he considered led to the same dead end. He couldn't fight. Even if hi