Why is My System Glitching

Krogh Hanz?!

Lordi’s heart jolted. He had heard tales of this Senior Brother Hanz on his journey to the Twin Peak Hill—the Hanz Clan’s prodigy, a once-in-a-century genius who had shone brightly among the million of Abyss Pit Sect’s outer sect disciples a decade ago. His disappearance, tied to the pursuit of the Cosmic Path Foundation Establishment Technique, had become a whispered legend. Yet here he was, not only alive but inexplicably returned to the heart of the Hanz Clan’s ruined mountain estate.

Krogh Hanz ignored Ruru’s outburst shock, his gaze locked on Lordi with an intensity that felt like a sharpened blade against his throat.

"Given your years, your heaven-defying gifts, and that indomitable will of yours," his voice boomed, each syllable resonating with the weight of celestial judgment, "Ascension to Foundation Stage is not a question of ’if’—but ’when.’ A foregone conclusion, written in the annals of your fate itself."

A pause, heavy with implication, as the very air seemed to bow beneath his disdain.

"To tread the Human Path? A vulgar shortcut, beneath one of your caliber. To settle for the Earth Path? An insult—an unforgivable squandering of talents so rare, even the heaven and abyss themselves might weep at the waste."

"Only the Cosmic Path Foundation Establishment Technique is worthy of you. Only it can shatter the shackles of mediocrity and unleash the full, blinding radiance of your potential. Only then will you be granted the divine right to stride unbroken upon the True Dao—ascending where lesser cultivators dare not even gaze."

The man leaned forward slightly, the crimson threads tightening around him. "We both are disciples of the holy sect—spare me the groveling and the hollow courtesies. I have no patience for the mewling of lesser cultivators."

The weight of his gaze like a mountain pressing down. "You stand at the precipice of greatness. The Cosmic Path Foundation Establishment Technique is within your grasp... but make no mistake—it is not a gift. It is a test."

"Complete a single task for me, and I shall bestow upon you the key to your ascension. Will you seize your destiny, rise as a titan of the Dao... or will you kneel, as all the others have before you?"

Ruru’s eyes gleamed with sudden hope, her shock melting into temptation.

But Lordi felt a cold prickle of unease. The haunted estate did hold the Cosmic Path Foundation Establishment Technique—yet it lay hidden within the Hanz Clan’s Ancestral Shrine, a place so cursed that even a peak ninth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator like Garrick Blackthorn had been dragged helplessly behind that evil beaded curtain. Lordi had no intention of gambling his life there again.