Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Lucas said nothing. He didn’t spare the Master Cultivators another glance, nor did he respond to Commander Alexander’s orders. His feet carried him with growing certainty to the very edge of the wall. The wind tore at his hair and clothes, flinging strands across his face and whipping the hem of his robe like a wild flame, but he stood still, immovable. His hands were at his sides, fingers twitching slightly, pulsing with the storm that was beginning to ripple through his entire body. The energy within him roared for release, and with every passing second it grew more unstable, more uncontainable. One of the Master Rank cultivators, a tall man with stepped forward. His face was twisted with anger, and his spiritual presence flared as he closed the distance between them. He wasn’t going to watch some arrogant, reckless boy disobey the chain of command and risk the integrity of the defense. In his eyes, Lucas was a liability, and in the middle of a siege, there was no tolerance for that.

"What do you think you’re doing?" the cultivator growled, his voice laced with scorn and disbelief. "Get back into formation before you get people killed!"

Still, Lucas did not speak. He did not flinch or turn his head. His gaze remained fixed on the sea of monstrous bodies surging forward below. His breath was labored, shallow yet controlled, as the vast torrent of Qi continued to circulate violently inside him. The longer he waited, the more dangerous it became. And yet, his mind was as clear as it had ever been. He knew exactly what had to be done.

The cultivator reached for him, perhaps to pull him back or strike him down for defiance. His arm had barely brushed Lucas’s shoulder when it happened.

Without warning, a violent wave of Qi burst from Lucas’s body, radiating outward with such intensity that the air cracked and shimmered around him. The Master Cultivator was flung backward as though struck by a charging beast, his feet skidding across the stone wall before he crashed into the barricades with a grunt of shock. All eyes turned at once.

Silence fell for a brief, surreal moment.

Every soldier, every archer, every cultivator on the wall froze. The pressure was suffocating. The raw force Lucas had just unleashed didn’t belong to someone at the Expert Rank...not even remotely. It wasn’t the power of a steady climb through the tiers. It was something else. Something dense, volatile, and deeply unnatural. The kind of Qi that came from willpower that refused to obey its own limits.

Those standing nearest to him had to brace themselves, staggering a step or two back as the oppressive weight of the energy pressed against them.

The commander turned, his expression unreadable, mouth slightly parted in disbelief. The remaining two Master Rank cultivators narrowed their eyes, their stance shifting, not out of offense this time, but out of wariness.

This wasn’t supposed to be possible, not for someone still bound to the Expert Realm, not like this.

Lucas closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, letting the chaos around him fall away. He reached inward, past the noise of the battle, past the flaring pain in his limbs, past the doubt and shouting voices behind him. His core trembled with the vast sea of energy he had summoned moments ago. Now, he didn’t just hold it, he shaped it.