Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 1449  A Bud!

"A bud?" Max muttered in disbelief.

He focused carefully and immediately noticed something even more astonishing. The bud was devouring the golden energy at a far greater rate than the Chaos Tree itself had done before. The dense streams of flame energy entering his body were being drawn directly into the bud, as if it possessed its own gravitational pull.

The five leaves still glowed, but the bud consumed with greater hunger.

More than that, the aura emanating from the bud was profoundly different. It was not merely flame based. It carried an ancient stillness, a vastness that felt boundless. As Max sensed it more clearly, a strange familiarity washed over him.

The aura gave him the feeling of standing before the doors of his dimensions.

Calm.

Ancient.

Immovable.

It did not burn like flame. It did not rage like chaos. It simply existed, as though it had always been there, waiting.

Max's expression grew serious.

This was no ordinary evolution of the flame branch.

The bud felt like the embryonic form of something far greater than a mere concept.

And for the first time, Max sensed that the Chaos Tree might be stepping into a realm beyond his current understanding.

"The rate at which this bud is devouring the energy of the ninth layer… it will not take long before all of it is consumed," Max muttered as realization dawned upon him.

The golden streams pouring into his body were no longer merely nourishing the flame leaves. They were being drawn toward the newly formed bud with overwhelming hunger. It was as though the bud had opened an invisible vortex, pulling in the surrounding energy without restraint.

The density of golden light around him thinned perceptibly, the chaotic flame laws losing a portion of their cohesion as their foundation was steadily absorbed.

Max did not hesitate.

With the pressure around him momentarily destabilized by the earlier shockwave and the bud's relentless consumption, he stepped forward decisively and advanced deeper into the ninth layer.

The chaotic flame formations that had previously acted as dense blockades were scattered and weakened. Without their stable structure, they no longer pressed against him with the same suffocating authority.

He increased his speed.

The flames roared around him, yet they no longer felt insurmountable. The bud within the Chaos Tree continued devouring energy at an astonishing rate, reducing the resistance that would normally bind him in place.

Eight thousand two hundred miles.

Eight thousand three hundred miles.

Eight thousand four hundred miles.

He did not slow.

Each step covered distance that would have taken hours for others at this layer. The deeper he moved, the more energy was pulled into his body, and the more the chaotic flame laws destabilized around him.

The path that had once seemed like an ocean floor crushing down upon him now parted like turbulent waters forced aside by a powerful current.

Outside the dome of the Path to Eternal Flames, the change did not go unnoticed.

The projection screen displaying Max's figure suddenly drew the attention of nearly everyone present.

"How can his pace be so fast in the ninth layer?" one elder exclaimed, unable to conceal his shock.

"I am equally astonished," another added quickly. "Even Zain was not this swift when he traversed the ninth layer."

Several disciples leaned forward instinctively, their eyes wide as they watched Max's figure advance at a speed that defied their expectations.

"At this rate, he will enter the tenth layer very soon," someone murmured. "If that happens, his achievement will rival that of the Saintess in training, Isabella Lumin."

A ripple of murmurs spread through the gathered crowd.

"But the real question is how?" another elder demanded, his brows deeply furrowed. "He moved so slowly through the lower layers, spending hours meditating at every stage. Now, at the ninth layer, where the pressure is far greater, he suddenly sprints forward as though the chaotic flame laws cannot restrain him. What is happening to him?"

The elders of the Thirty Six Halls exchanged confused glances. They could not comprehend how Max appeared almost unaffected by the chaotic flame laws that had halted so many others. On the screen, the fire surged violently around him, yet it seemed to part subtly in his wake.

There was no visible explosion of aura from him. No dramatic display of force.

He simply moved forward.

To the observers, it was incomprehensible.

To Max, however, the explanation was unfolding within his inner world.

The bud upon the Chaos Tree continued to pulse with ancient stillness, devouring the very essence that gave structure to the ninth layer.

And with each step he took, the balance of the trial quietly shifted.

"How could he be so fast?"

The words slipped from Isabella Lumin's lips before she could stop them. She was the one who was shocked and impacted the most from what was happening at the ninth layer.

Her eyes were fixed on the projection above, watching Max's figure advance rapidly through the ninth layer. The flames around him surged violently, yet he moved as though the crushing pressure and dense chaotic laws posed no obstacle at all.

Her mind struggled to process what she was seeing.

When she had traversed the ninth layer, every step had felt like dragging a mountain across her shoulders. The pressure had pressed into her bones, the chaotic flame laws forming barriers that forced her to pause repeatedly to comprehend and refine her own understanding before advancing.

She had poured every ounce of her will, bloodline authority, and comprehension into breaking through that blockade. Only by exhausting herself completely had she managed to step into the tenth layer.

And yet now, before her eyes, Max was sprinting.

He was not walking cautiously. He was not meditating between intervals. He was moving with a steady and almost effortless pace, covering distance that had taken her hours in mere moments.

Her fingers tightened unconsciously at her sides.

This level of disparity was something she could not easily reconcile.

It was not simply a matter of talent. It was not even the difference between one layer or another. It was the manner in which he advanced that unsettled her. His earlier progress had been slow, almost unimpressive. He had lingered in the lower layers, sitting in meditation for extended periods. Many had assumed he was struggling.

She herself had assumed so.

Yet now, in the ninth layer where the true difficulty revealed itself, he displayed a speed that even Zain had not shown when he crossed that same region.

Her thoughts churned restlessly.

How could someone who appeared so measured in the lower layers suddenly surge forward like this in a higher layer? How could he treat the chaotic flame laws that had nearly halted her as though they were little more than background noise?

The projection showed him passing another milestone, the flames parting subtly as he advanced deeper.

Isabella felt a sharp discomfort in her chest.

She had taken pride in reaching the tenth layer. She had believed that achievement established a clear boundary between herself and others of the same realm. Yet watching Max's rapid progress through the ninth layer made that boundary feel unstable.

She did not want to admit it, even to herself.

But she could not ignore the growing unease.

If he maintained that pace, he would soon stand at the edge of the tenth layer as well.

And the thought of him reaching the same height without the visible struggle she had endured was something she found difficult to accept.