Chapter 568: Energy Booster Tablet

Chapter 568: Energy Booster Tablet

“You can leave now,” Kane said, his voice soft, almost reluctant. As he spoke, a doorway of shimmering light opened beside them, forming out of the air as if reality itself had folded back to reveal an exit. “Walk through that door and you’ll find yourself outside the Nine Dragons Painting.”

Max nodded in understanding.

“I will take care of the dragon egg. I promise.” Max said solemnly to the black dragon.

Following that he didn’t look back. He simply turned and stepped through the door, his figure swallowed by the glow, vanishing from the surreal realm without a sound.

A heavy silence followed.

After a few quiet seconds, the black dragon exhaled deeply, the sound like the rumble of distant thunder. “Why didn’t you tell him the truth?” the dragon asked, its voice low and questioning. “Why keep the reason behind the existence of the Nine Dragons Painting hidden from him?”

Kane stared at the now-empty space where Max had stood, his expression unreadable. He gave a small shake of his head.

“He’s too young. Too green. If I told him everything—if I placed the entire truth upon his shoulders—he would bear a burden he’s not prepared for. A weight that could break him before he’s even begun to climb.” He paused, then added more quietly, “And more than that, he’s not ready. Not mentally, not spiritually. And the path ahead of him… it’s not one I can walk with him.”

There was a beat of stillness before Kane turned to the dragon. “Besides, I couldn’t see his fate. Not even a glimpse. What about you?”

The black dragon’s massive eyes narrowed slightly, glowing with age-old insight. “Same,” it said finally. “When I tried to look, it was like staring into a void. No strings, no flow, no destiny. It was emptiness… which should be impossible. Every living being in this world is born tethered to a fate. But that boy… that child walks without one. He is a fateless existence.”

Kane’s face grew solemn. “Then even you couldn’t see it…” he murmured. “I don’t know if the legends of fateless beings are true or not, but the Mark of Divinity chose him. That means something. That means the great world itself has acknowledged him. He is sought out by the great world. He will rise. Among the swarm of monstrous geniuses, he will rise.”

He looked back at the black dragon with somber eyes. “But that also means I cannot interfere. His fate, or lack of it, must unfold on its own. If I told him the truth—about this painting, about our role, about what’s coming—it would count as interference. And you remember what happened to the others. Those few bearers of the Mark who didn’t reach the ninth floor but who we approached anyway, bending the rules of the Painting…”

The black dragon’s massive form was still.

“They vanished,” Kane said flatly. “Gone. As if erased from the world entirely. Their names lost, their souls never heard from again. I don’t want that to happen to Max. He’s different. I can feel it. But until he reaches a certain threshold of strength, I can’t say a word.”

The dragon let out another low exhale. “Then all we can do now is wait.”

Kane smiled faintly, his eyes still fixed on the place where Max had vanished moments ago. “Though don’t worry,” he said, voice laced with quiet confidence. “I already gave him an Energy Booster Tablet. With that, even if he doesn’t use cores to increase his strength or even if he does nothing, if everything goes as expected, he’ll ascend to the Divine Realm in five years at most.”

The black dragon’s massive head dipped in a slow nod. “That’s good,” it rumbled, its voice deep and thoughtful. “With the Energy Booster Tablet in his system, his cultivation and growth will be accelerated naturally. It will make the path ahead smoother… or at least, less agonizing. But even so, you did interfere in his fate, Kane. Don’t you think?”

Kane chuckled under his breath, the sound tinged with a mix of amusement and resignation. “Perhaps,” he admitted. “But it’s better than dumping the truth of the Nine Dragons Painting and our purpose on his shoulders before he’s ready. The tablet only accelerates what was already inside him. I didn’t change his path. I just helped him walk it a little faster.”

The black dragon didn’t argue. It simply stared at Kane for a moment longer, then turned its ancient gaze toward the horizon beyond the magical dimension.

Kane crossed his arms and exhaled deeply, the faintest trace of hope flickering in his eyes. “Now,” he said quietly, “we wait. Until he finds his way back to us. Until we cross paths with Max again… and this time, when that moment comes, we’ll tell him everything.”

***

Max stepped out of the Nine Dragons Painting, the glow of the ancient artifact fading behind him as his boots touched solid ground once more.

The moment his figure emerged, a wave of murmurs and hushed gasps swept through the sea of gathered geniuses and instructors who had been anxiously waiting.

Heads turned. Eyes widened. Every conversation ceased for a heartbeat before erupting again in a chorus of stunned voices.

“Look! He came out,” someone pointed out, breaking the silence.

“I see that,” another responded, a note of disappointment coloring their voice. “But even then… he couldn’t defeat the guardian. The second Supreme Master on the eighth floor. What a pity.”

“Pity?” a voice argued back sharply. “Are you kidding me? Max just made history! No one has passed the seventh floor in recorded memory in recent times. He cleared it. He battled and defeated one of the Three Supreme Masters of the Black Dragon Palace. That alone is more than enough!”

“You’re right,” another chimed in, awe in their tone. “No one in our era has ever done it. What he accomplished today will be etched into the records of this palace.”

“I mean, sure… a part of me hoped he’d break into the ninth floor,” someone else admitted wistfully. “Especially since he stayed so long on the eighth. But I guess that was wishful thinking. We shouldn’t be greedy with expectations.”

“But still,” a girl near the front whispered with admiration in her voice, “he’s only at Seeker Rank. What kind of monster is he to achieve something like this already?”

As the crowd continued their chatter—some in admiration, some in envy—Max walked forward, his expression calm, eyes as deep as ever, betraying nothing of what he had seen, learned, or done within the painting.

The cheers, the speculation, the reverence—they all buzzed around him like wind passing through trees.

But his mind was elsewhere. ‘Only reached the eighth floor? Staying in eighth floor so long yet failed to clear it? Couldn’t defeat second Supreme Master?’ Max mused hearing them and understood that this should be arrangement of Kane.

He didn’t want Max to draw unwanted attention and so he made his achievements not reach a level where it would seem god defying. Otherwise that would be too outrageous for a genius from the mortal realm.

‘How kind of him…’ Max thought smiling and arrived before Lady Virelia. Lucia and Jason standing just beside her.

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!