Chapter 16: The Anchor Point

Ao Yetian stood in the clearing, the Sky Poison Pearl settled firmly in his palm, its ancient, purifying power already merging with his Profound Energy.

The pearl felt cool, absolute, and utterly clean—the perfect antidote to the chaotic, impure energies of the TDG realm.

He had secured the ultimate growth tool for his allies and himself. Now, he needed to ensure his command center—the CEO card—didn't go offline.

He held the card, pushing a diagnostic query into its system. The answer was immediate and alarming.

[PREVIOUS FUEL SOURCE (TDG QUANTUM MATRIX): UNSTABLE. DIMENSIONAL TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY: 1.2%. SUSTAINABILITY DURATION: 4 HOURS.]

The distance and the energy differential between the TDG's low-power realm and the Blue Pole Star had nearly crippled his sustainable furnace.

He had less than four hours before the card's drain protocol would initiate, risking his hard-won Profound Core once more.

"We have an immediate problem,"

Ao Yetian stated, turning to his three partners, the calm disappearing from his voice.

"The anchor we forged in Glory City is failing. The dimensional distance is too great. We need to establish a native anchor for the card, or all of this—the pearl, the power, the ambition—ends in four hours."

Yang Xin, ever the strategic thinker, immediately pointed to the energy rich atmosphere.

"The Profound Energy here is plentiful. We must simply funnel it into the card."

"It's not that simple,"

Ao Yetian countered.

"The card demands a stable, high-purity source to minimize energy loss. We need the equivalent of a TDG spiritual vein, or better, the core of this world's system."

He recalled the structure of the Blue Pole Star and its unique, concentrated Profound Energy. It had a massive, concentrated center of power.

"The Core of the Ice Cloud Immortal Palace,"

Ao Yetian muttered, remembering the powerful female sect and their unique spiritual foundation.

"Or perhaps... the Xiao Clan's Profound Energy Repository. No, that won't do. Too dangerous…"

The choice was high-risk, high-reward.

He needed an anchor that could transmit vast, stable energy to the card within the next two hundred and forty minutes.

Ao Yetian's face was etched with grim resolve. The fact that his elaborate TDG Quantum Matrix was failing to sustain the CEO card meant this world required a native anchor of equal, if not greater, magnitude.

"We move now,"

Ao Yetian commanded, his voice a low, urgent rasp.

"Yang Xin, plot our course. Ning'er, Ziyun, clear a perimeter. My primary focus is the Sky Poison Pearl."

Ao Yetian closed his eyes, pouring a calculated stream of his Profound Energy into the Sky Poison Pearl.

The artifact, now fully bonded to him, responded instantly, its purifying power magnifying his senses a hundredfold.

He wasn't searching for surface energy; he was probing the Blue Pole Star's spiritual geography, searching for a place where Profound Energy naturally accumulated and stabilized—the very heart of the realm's power flow.

He recalled a location from the Against The God lore—a desolate, wind-swept canyon known as the Shattered Cliff, where a major battle had once ripped open the earth, exposing a primary Celestial Profound Vein that only the most powerful experts dared to approach. It was hours away by foot, but Ao Yetian was far beyond relying on walking.

"Shattered Cliff,"

He declared, opening his eyes and pointing west.

"Yang Xin, use your highest-grade spiritual observation tools. I need confirmation that a Profoun Vein is exposed there. Ning'er, clear our path. Ziyun, gather us a mount."

Ao Yetian channeled a massive burst of his Profound Energy into his legs, utilizing the ATG method of movement known as Extreme Profound Flash.

He was a blur of purple light, moving with supernatural speed that dwarfed anything the TDG realm had known.

He carried Yang Xin, who was frantically using her inscription tools to track the spiritual coordinates of the cliff.

Meanwhile, Ye Ziyun, using her newly enhanced Snow Wind Soul Force, managed to forcefully subdue a powerful, low-level profound beast—a swift-moving, four-winged wolf native to the region.

It wasn't an ideal mount, but it was fast.

Ning'er and Ziyun took turns riding it, using their enhanced speed to follow Ao Yetian's lightning-fast advance.

Two Hours later.

They arrived at the Shattered Cliff an hour and a half later, the journey taxing even for Ao Yetian's Profound Core.

The canyon was a desolate chasm, filled with a suffocating atmosphere of pure, unstable Profound Energy.

"The air is saturated,"

Yang Xin gasped, her face pale but determined.

"My tools confirm it, Yetian. There is a Celestial Profound Vein deep below. It is utterly pure."

Yetian felt the ticking clock in his core. The CEO card had given him an update:

[SUSTAINABILITY DURATION: 90 MINUTES.]

"We don't have time to tunnel,"

Ao Yetian said, his eyes scanning the gorge.

"We go straight down. Ziyun, use your Snow Wind power to stabilize the rock face. Ning'er, I need you to lead the descent—your Dragon Bloodline is the best shield against this raw energy."

He used his Profound Energy to melt and shape the stone, creating a smooth, deep shaft directly into the gorge. Ning'er, wrapped in a shimmering shield of Dragonic energy, descended first, her immense purification power clearing a path through the chaotic energy.

The primary vein was a vast, glowing river of liquid Profound Energy at the bottom of the chasm—a sight that would have driven any TDG expert mad with greed.

Ao Yetian, Ning'er, and Ziyun stood on the edge of the spiritual river, the purity of the energy almost painful.

Ao Yetian ignored the beauty, focusing on the terrible cold radiating from the CEO card.

[SUSTAINABILITY DURATION: 15 MINUTES.]

"Fifteen minutes,"

Ao Yetian whispered, his hands already moving.

He had to repeat the fusion process, but this time, the process would be native to the ATG realm.

He didn't need to hijack an ancient array; he needed to turn this natural resource into an Entanglement Matrix.

He placed the CEO card on the ground and then, with a devastating burst of power, he plunged the Sky Poison Pearl directly into the river of liquid Profound Energy.

The Pearl acted as the perfect catalyst. Its purification power instantaneously stabilized the vast, chaotic energy flow of the vein, filtering it into a pure, continuous spiritual essence.

Yetian then initiated the command to the card:

“CEO CARD: ANCHOR TO PURIFIED CELESTIAL VEIN. ESTABLISH QUANTUM-ENTANGLEMENT MATRIX."

The card pulsed violently. It was instantly satisfied by the quality of the energy—pure, stable, and functionally infinite.

A massive, black spike of dimensional energy shot down from the card, anchoring itself deep into the bedrock of the planet through the purifying crucible of the Sky Poison Pearl.

[FUEL SOURCE: CELESTIAL QUANTUM MATRIX (ATG NATIVE). CONSUMPTION RATE: SUSTAINABLE. SYSTEM STABILITY: MAXIMUM.]

The Calm After the Storm
Yetian collapsed onto the cooled stone, utterly spent. The clock had stopped ticking.

He had won. He looked at his three women—pale, exhausted, but triumphant.

"It is done,"

He announced, a shaky, victorious exhale leaving his lips.

"We have almost unlimited fuel. The Blue Pole Star is now our workshop."

He had secured the greatest artifact and anchored his entire interdimensional operation to the heart of the Blue Pole Star.

He had successfully engineered his position as the realm's shadow power, with the perfect tool for massive cultivation gains.

He looked at Yang Xin, who was already setting up remote monitoring inscriptions to track the vein's output.

He looked at Ning'er, her eyes burning with determination, knowing she was now on the path to true Dragonic power.

And he looked at Ziyun, whose quiet, pure energy was already stabilizing from the immersion in the celestial vein.

His affection for them was undeniable, complex, and powerful.

They were his co-conspirators, his future lovers, and the only people who knew the true scope of his strange, ruthless existence.