Legend of the Last Cultivator

CHAPTER 4: First Breakthrough

The shadow on the rooftop never moved.

Rain continued to pour over the silent street as Kai stood frozen, pretending to admire the books displayed behind the fogged glass of a nearby bookstore. His heartbeat refused to slow down. He didn’t dare look directly at the figure again, afraid that even the smallest reaction would reveal that he had noticed them.

“Calm down,” he told himself. “Panicking is exactly what they want.” His phone suddenly vibrated softly inside his pocket.

Unknown Number: “Good. Don’t look at them again.”

Kai’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “How does she always know what I’m doing?” he wondered.

Another message appeared.

Unknown Number: “Walk normally. Turn left at the next intersection. There’s a crowded night market ahead.”

Kai obeyed without hesitation. The streets gradually filled with life as he entered the bustling market. Vendors shouted over one another, children laughed while chasing balloons, and the aroma of grilled meat drifted through the cool evening air. The ordinary scene eased the tension in his chest, if only a little.

The mysterious figure on the rooftop could no longer follow him directly without drawing attention.

“She’s incredible,” Kai thought with genuine admiration. “Whoever she is… she just saved me again.”

He reached his small apartment nearly an hour later after taking several detours suggested by the unknown girl. The moment he locked the door, exhaustion crashed into him like a tidal wave. He leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the floor.

“I almost died twice in one day,” he muttered with a bitter laugh. His apartment was quiet, now too quiet.

The ancient black book rested on the table where he had placed it. Beside it lay the jade ring, faintly glowing beneath the dim light of the room.

Kai stared at them. “So… what exactly are you?” he whispered. As if responding to his question, the jade ring released a pulse of warm light.

The ancient book suddenly opened on its own. Its yellowed pages flipped rapidly before stopping at the first chapter.

Golden words slowly appeared across the page, Spirit Awakening Realm. Kai’s breathing caught up as the letters continued forming before his eyes.

“The first realm of cultivation. One who enters this realm awakens the dormant Spiritual Sea, senses Heaven and Earth Qi, and begins walking the path abandoned by mankind.”

His hands trembled. “So this… is cultivation,” he whispered. The book described breathing techniques unlike anything he had ever seen. Instead of forcing power into the body, it instructed the cultivator to become as calm as still water and allow Qi to flow naturally.

Kai remembered his master’s voice. “Power is never chased, Kai,” the old man had once said with a gentle smile. “True power walks willingly toward those with unwavering hearts.”

Closing his eyes, Kai sat cross-legged on the floor exactly as the manual instructed. He inhaled slowly, then exhaled, again, and again. Minutes passed and yet nothing happened.

He frowned confused. “Maybe I’m doing it wrong,” he muttered. His frustration threatened to overwhelm him, but he forced himself to breathe once more.

“Master never gave up on teaching me,” he thought. “I can’t give up after a few minutes.”

Gradually, the world around him became strangely quiet. The ticking clock suddenly faded, the sound of rain disappeared and even his own breathing seemed distant.

Then, he felt it. A tiny stream of warmth drifted through his chest, it was gentle, almost fragile, like a single drop of water falling into a calm lake.

Kai’s eyes snapped open. “I felt it…” he whispered in disbelief. The warmth spread through his entire body, his aching muscles became relaxed, the bruises from the Hunter Unit battle hurt less, and even his senses became sharpened.

He could hear raindrops striking the rooftop several buildings away. He could smell fresh tea from the apartment next door. His heartbeat became steady.

The room itself Instantly seemed brighter as golden light slowly surrounded him. The jade ring floated above the table, and the black book glowed brilliantly with radiance light.

A calm voice echoed inside his mind. “Congratulations. Spirit Awakening Realm achieved.”

A surge of pure spiritual energy burst from Kai’s body before quickly settling back inside him.

Unknown to Kai, far above the clouds, one of the Human Defense Agency’s Qi Detection Satellites briefly flashed.

A faint signal appeared, but only for a fraction of a second. Inside headquarters, several operators stared at their monitors.

“It happened again,” one whispered. “But the signal disappeared immediately,” another replied.

Director Evelyn Ashford narrowed her eyes as she studied the report. “So…” she murmured. “The Last Cultivator is learning to control his Qi and hide from surveillance, interesting.”

She slowly closed the file in front of her. “Increase satellite sensitivity by another twenty percent, ve can’t stay hidden forever.”

Meanwhile, Kai smiled for the first time since everything had begun. The fear that had weighed on his heart finally gave way to hope.

He wasn’t powerless anymore, he had taken his first step, one step closer to the legendary Eternal Origin Realm his master had spoken of, one step closer to uncovering the truth.

His phone vibrated again. Immediately, he picked it up. A message from the mysterious girl appeared.

Unknown Number: “Congratulations.”

Kai’s eyes widened in shock and surprise.

Kai: “You knew?”

The reply came almost immediately.

Unknown Number: “I told you… I’m watching.”

Kai couldn’t help smiling, for the first time, the unknown girl no longer felt like a stranger. She felt like someone walking the same lonely road.

But before he could type another message, his screen suddenly flickered.

A new notification appeared.

UNKNOWN ACCESS DETECTED.

The chat window with the mysterious girl abruptly closed. Across the city, Aria’s smile disappeared, someone had just tried to trace their encrypted connection.

She immediately shut down every monitor in her room. “…No,” she whispered, her heart racing. “They shouldn’t be able to find me already.”

Outside her apartment building, an unmarked black vehicle silently came to a stop. Its headlights switched off. Someone stepped out, and slowly looked up toward Aria’s window.

Kai slowly looked behind him, the street was empty, no footsteps, no vehicles, no people and then, from the reflection in a rain-covered shop window… He saw a shadow standing perfectly still on the rooftop across the street, watching him.

Aria’s breathing became shallow. Every monitor in her apartment had gone black, only one screen remained active. A tiny blinking warning filled the display.

ENCRYPTION BREACHED: 3%

“No…” she whispered, her fingers flying across the keyboard. “That’s impossible.”

She immediately launched dozens of fake servers across the world, creating hundreds of false digital trails. Within seconds, her location appeared to jump from Tokyo to London, from Lagos to New York, then vanished entirely.

For a brief moment, she smiled. “They’ll never catch me that easi…” Her sentence stopped. A new notification suddenly appeared.

UNKNOWN USER HAS ENTERED THE NETWORK.

Aria’s expression froze. “This… isn’t the Human Defense Agency,” she muttered.

She watched as every firewall she had built over the years was bypassed one by one—not through brute force, but with frightening precision, as if the intruder already knew how her system worked.

Then a single line of text appeared on her monitor.

“I’ve finally found you.”

Her heart nearly stopped. Meanwhile, Kai stared at his silent phone, the chat with the mysterious girl had disappeared completely. He quickly typed another message.

Kai: “Are you there?”

The message failed to send, for the first time since they met… There was no reply.

Far away, in a hidden control room deep beneath the Human Defense Agency headquarters, Director Evelyn Ashford looked at a classified report.

An officer saluted. “Director, we still have no visual identification of the Last Cultivator.”

Evelyn closed the file. “Forget his face,” she said calmly. “If we can’t find the cultivator…” She looked toward another classified folder marked PROJECT ORACLE. “…then we’ll find the person helping him.”

The officer’s eyes widened. “You think he has an accomplice?” Evelyn nodded and agreed, “No one stays invisible forever.”

As rain continued falling over the city, Kai looked up at the night sky, unaware that somewhere in the darkness… The one person protecting his identity had just become someone else’s target.