Wei Liang spent the following weeks developing his plan. He needed to create a crisis that would force the Academy masters to respond. Something that required their immediate attention and separated them from their usual protections.
The solution came from studying Master Soulrender's research notes. The dead master had been experimenting with techniques to merge souls from different dimensions. His work was considered too dangerous for practical application.
But Wei Liang saw the potential. A soul-merging ritual performed incorrectly would create dimensional instabilities. The kind that threatened the Academy's existence and demanded immediate master intervention.
He began gathering the necessary materials. Soul crystals from Master Soulrender's destroyed laboratory. Dimensional anchors from the Void Wastes expedition. Forbidden texts from the Academy's restricted archives.
The ritual required a suitable location. Wei Liang chose the Academy's Central Nexus - a chamber where ley lines from all ten upper worlds converged. The dimensional energy there would amplify any soul-working beyond normal limits.
He waited until the monthly Faculty Assembly when all masters gathered for administrative discussions. Then he began the ritual in the Central Nexus directly below their meeting hall.
The soul-merging technique activated with spectacular results. Dimensional barriers cracked like glass. Reality storms erupted throughout the Academy. Students fled in panic as their dormitories began phasing in and out of existence.
Elder Voidwalker's voice echoed through the Academy's communication arrays: "All masters to the Central Nexus immediately! We have a Category Nine dimensional breach!"
The remaining eleven masters rushed to contain the crisis. They found Wei Liang standing in the center of a swirling vortex of merged souls. His expression showed perfect calm despite the chaos around him.
"Student Wei Liang!" Master Ironheart shouted over the dimensional storm. "What have you done?"
"I attempted to continue Master Soulrender's research," Wei Liang replied. "The technique proved more unstable than expected."
The masters began weaving stabilization fields around the dimensional breach. Their combined power slowly forced the merged souls back into separate states. The reality storms began to subside.
But the ritual had served its purpose. In the confusion, Wei Liang had identified his next target. Master Starweaver stood slightly apart from the others, focusing on a complex dimensional equation. Her specialty was reality manipulation through mathematical formulae.
While the other masters maintained the stabilization fields, Wei Liang moved closer to Master Starweaver. His enhanced stealth abilities made him effectively invisible to distracted opponents.
"The soul resonance frequency is destabilizing," Master Starweaver muttered, adjusting her calculations. "If we can shift the dimensional phase by precisely 3.7 degrees..."
Wei Liang's spear emerged from a dimensional fold directly behind her. The iron point, now enhanced with crystallized space-time, pierced her heart before she could react.
Master Starweaver looked down at the weapon protruding from her chest. Mathematical equations flickered around the wound as her reality-manipulation abilities went haywire.
"Impossible," she whispered. "The probability calculations showed... zero chance of assassination during crisis response..."
"Calculations only work if you include all variables," Wei Liang replied. "You forgot to account for deliberate betrayal."
He activated the Iron Blood Manual's absorption technique for the third time. Master Starweaver's divine essence flowed into his cultivation base like liquid mathematics. Her reality-manipulation abilities merged with his expanding power set.
The third divine death completed the Iron Blood Manual's fifth stage. Wei Liang's transformation reached its final phase. His consciousness expanded beyond dimensional limitations. His body became a living intersection of space, time, and concentrated divine essence.
But the power surge was too much to contain. Divine energy erupted from Wei Liang in waves that shattered the Academy's stabilization fields. The original dimensional breach reopened and began expanding exponentially.
"The student has achieved divine ascension!" Elder Voidwalker realized. "He's breaking through to true godhood!"
The remaining masters turned their attention from the dimensional breach to Wei Liang himself. They finally understood what had been happening. The mysterious deaths, the convenient accidents, the perfectly timed crises - all orchestrated by the student they had welcomed into their midst.
"Murderer!" Master Ironheart roared. His massive sword blazed with the power of compressed stars. "You killed our colleagues!"
"I evolved beyond the need for teachers," Wei Liang replied calmly. His voice now carried harmonics that existed in seventeen dimensions. "Their knowledge lives on within me."
The Academy masters attacked as one. Eleven minor gods focusing their combined might on a single target. Reality warped under the force of their assault. Lesser beings would have been annihilated instantly.
But Wei Liang was no longer a lesser being. The accumulated deaths of hundreds of thousands had forged him into something beyond their comprehension. He was becoming a true god - a being who existed independent of universal laws.
His spear multiplied into dozens of identical weapons, each one existing in a different dimensional phase. The Iron Blood Manual's techniques had evolved beyond mortal limitations. He could fight eleven masters simultaneously without strain.
Master Ironheart's star-compressed sword met Wei Liang's spear in a clash that sent shockwaves across multiple dimensions. The Academy's floating islands began cracking under the pressure.
Master Bloodmoon launched torrents of crystallized time that could age enemies to dust. Wei Liang phased through the attacks while his counter-strikes found gaps in the master's defenses.
Master Voidcaller summoned entities from the spaces between dimensions. Creatures of pure hunger and malice materialized to tear Wei Liang apart. He absorbed their essence as quickly as they appeared, growing stronger with each kill.
The battle raged for three hours. Academy buildings collapsed into dimensional rifts. Students and staff fled to distant worlds. The very foundations of the institution crumbled under the stress of divine combat.
One by one, the masters fell. Their techniques, honed over millennia, proved insufficient against an opponent who had transcended the normal rules of cultivation. Wei Liang's spear found its mark repeatedly, each kill adding more divine essence to his power base.
Elder Voidwalker was the last to fall. The ancient being tried to escape by dissolving into pure energy, but Wei Liang's enhanced perception tracked him across seventeen dimensions. The final strike ended the elder's existence across all planes of reality simultaneously.
Silence fell over the ruins of the Academy. Wei Liang stood alone among the wreckage, his transformation complete. The Iron Blood Manual's fifth stage had forged him into a being of pure divine essence. He was no longer bound by the limitations of cultivation stages or realm boundaries.
But even true godhood was not the ultimate peak. The Iron Blood Manual contained six more stages beyond divine ascension. Each one required sacrifices that would make his previous kills seem trivial by comparison.
Wei Liang looked up at the golden sky of the Celestial Realm. Somewhere above, the highest tier of upper worlds awaited. Realms where Creator Gods dwelt - beings who had shaped the fundamental laws of existence itself.
They would be his next targets. The path to ultimate power led ever upward, paved with the bones of those who dared stand in his way.