Chapter 691: Divine Path Lotus
"You don’t know?" Lyra asked, her frown deepening before her expression softened as she recalled Max’s origin from the Lower Domain.
Realizing he might genuinely be unaware of something so fundamental, she slowly nodded and began to explain. "The Divine Path Lotus is a mystical phenomenon that every expert naturally awakens upon stepping into the Master Rank. It’s not something one trains or forcibly summons. When someone truly enters this realm, the world itself resonates with their breakthrough, and in response, a lotus blooms behind them—glowing, ethereal, and unique to their potential. The number of petals that bloom represents their innate path, their talent, and how far they can go in their journey toward divinity."
She paused, her gaze narrowing slightly in confusion. "But... clearly, your Divine Path Lotus hasn’t awakened at all, despite you having stepped into the Master Rank." Her voice carried a hint of disbelief, as if what she was witnessing challenged everything she knew about cultivation itself.
Max remained quiet, the weight of her words sinking in. A phenomenon that everyone experienced—a universal milestone—and yet, it hadn’t happened to him. No bloom. No light. No lotus. Just... silence.
A strange, hollow feeling filled his chest. If this was something all experts shared, then why had he been excluded? Why had the heavens ignored his breakthrough? Or—worse—what if it wasn’t the heavens ignoring him... but something else entirely?
"What is the significance of this Divine Path Lotus?" Max asked, his tone filled with genuine curiosity. Now that he knew he had missed something important, something everyone else seemed to experience naturally, he needed to understand its value. He needed to know what he had lost... or perhaps what he still had to gain.
Lyra didn’t answer immediately. She fell silent for a few seconds, as if carefully choosing her words. Then she looked up, her expression a mix of awe and uncertainty.
"The Divine Path Lotus is... mysterious," she said slowly. "Even in the Great Ruler Empire, we don’t fully understand it. But what we do know—what has been passed down through legends and recorded in ancient scrolls—is that it reflects a person’s destiny. When someone steps into the Master Rank, their soul resonates with the laws of the world, and a real lotus—yes, a true glowing lotus—blooms in the sky above them. The number of petals it blooms is not random. It’s said to reflect your potential, your talent, and your destiny."
She paused, then added, "The more petals your Divine Path Lotus blooms, the higher your ceiling as an expert. Some people only awaken ten or fifteen petals... others, if they’re lucky or extremely talented, bloom more . But the legendary talents, the ones who make the heavens tremble with their footsteps, have bloomed more than twenty petals. The most ever recorded in our history was twenty-nine. And it’s said that if someone were to ever bloom thirty-six petals... then they would be someone destined to rewrite the very laws of world itself."
Her voice dropped into a whisper. "But no one has ever seen it. Some even believe thirty-six petals is a myth, a lie woven into ancient times to give people something unreachable to strive for."