Panic imdiately set in.
Victor needed to get out of here and find sowhere isolated.
He turned to thank the attendant for allowing him into the vault and made haste back toward the surface where the main palace hall was located.
The palace was quieter now since the party ended not too long ago.
Victor reached the main hall and was just about to call out for the guide who brought him here—when the shadows shifted.
Clang.
Palace guards, fully armored closed in around him from every direction. Spears were leveled. Blades unsheathed.
Victor's brows drew low. "What is the aning of this?"
No one answered.
One of the guards stepped forward. "Fang Chen. You are to remain here. The City Lord has further need of you."
Victor's heart began to pound.
'Need of ...? At this crucial mont? What does that even an?'
The atmosphere turned cold in an instant.
Before Victor knew it, more guards arrived and soon he was surounded by no fewer than twenty palace guards.
Their expressions were calm but the pressure in the atmosphere wasn't. Their hands were resting on the hilts of swords which emitted faint wisps of qi.
The atmosphere had turned sharp—like the mont just before a storm breaks.
"Is this how you guys treat guests?" Victor gaze shifted between the encroaching guards as he barked.
But they said nothing.
Just then, a sudden, searing burn lit up within his chest like wildfire.
His knees buckled from the sensation causing him to hold one of the pillars in the hall for support.
'What is this sensation? It's realer than usual... almost like I'm feeling it in reality as well...'
He tried to suppress a cry but failed...
"Urgh!" his voice rang out through the air in a strangled grunt.
A series of notifications popped up:
His skin began to pale unnaturally, turning a little white. His breathing grew rushed.
Victor clenched his teeth. "I need to leave—now!" he snapped while pushing off the pillar and attempting to force his way through the ring of guards.
Their leader who was an older man in gold-trimd armor with a Nascent Soul Realm presence, stepped forward. "We can't let you leave without the City Lord's orders."
"I don't have ti for this!"
Without another word, Victor moved.
His body dashed forward with an explosive burst of Wind Step as he evaded a spear aid at his thigh.
He elbowed one guard across the temple and ducked low to sweep the legs of another as qi danced around his palm. He wasn't trying to kill—just disarm and clear a path.
He leapt off the shoulder of a stunned guard to gain height—but a second group rushed in from the courtyard. If he kept descending, he was going to land in their midst...
Victor gathered qi at his soles. "Wind Glide."
His body shot up again mid-air like he had just kicked himself off an invisible platform.
He bypassed the second formation entirely, jumping right over them.
But just as he reached the long corridor near the entrance of the palace—a scorching pain lashed through his abdon.
"Ahh—!" He dropped hard to the floor with his knees crashing into the stone tiles.
Thuumm~
Notifications blared across his vision:
The pain was unbearable. It felt like gravity had tripled—no, increased by a hundred fold.
He gritted his teeth and tried to push himself up, but his limbs wouldn't move fast enough.
Around him, the guards saw their chance and moved in, surrounding him once more.
The leader raised a binding seal in his hand. "Immobilize him!"
Several others followed suit, forming hand seals mid-air. Bright golden chains of qi spiraled toward Victor.
He looked up slowly with sweat trailing down his now almost fully white face as his eyes glinted with a silver glow.
Why were they trying to capture him? It made no sense to him but this was bad timing... he needed to leave.
"Log Out..." Victor tried to use the log out option.
"What the hell?! Not this again..." Victor kept trying but the sa notification kept appearing.
At this point the guards had nearly bound him completely.
The chains wrapped around his limbs—but then a deep spatial pulse suddenly erupted from within him.
BOOM!
The binding shattered violently into dust as a wave of oppressive pressure spilled outward, cracking the tiles around him and forcing so of the Foundation Establishnt guards to fall backward.
"What... was that?" one of them gasped whi staring at the fragnts of their shattered seal.
Another guard backed away with a look of trepidation. "That's not normal qi..."
Victor exhaled raggedly with his hands planted against the floor. His transformation was accelerating now, his hair starting to turn white strand by strand.
He could feel the mory and power of so ancient bloodline clawing its way into the present—his bloodline.
"Stop—stop!" a voice yelled from the side.
The guards froze just as City Lord Xuan Wenzhou entered with long strides, flanked by Minister Liang and two more elite cultivators.
"What is the going on? I only asked you to delay his departure..." the City Lord barked.
"Milord," the captain bowed, "he seems to be undergoing so sort of... transformation. He refused to be restrained."
Victor lifted his gaze. "I need a place... to enter seclusion. If I don't—this will go wrong, very wrong."
The City Lord's eyes narrowed. "You're awakening a bloodline?"
Victor didn't answer.
"Take him to the Azure Moon Seclusion Chambers, imdiately!" the City Lord commanded.
Minister Liang stepped closer with a hint of concern on his face. "My Lord, what of the other matter—"
"It can wait," Xuan Wenzhou cut him off sharply. "No one lays a hand on him until this process is complete."
"Yes, my Lord."
Victor could barely make out their words anymore. His ears rang, and his vision blurred at the edges. His body felt like it was vibrating on a frequency different from the world around him.
The guards hesitated for a mont longer, then obeyed.
Victor was hoisted gently by two guards and escorted through a series of winding palace corridors until they arrived at a secluded sanctum carved directly into the mountainside behind the palace—protected by five different formation layers and a powerful sealing gate.
Inside, the chamber was lined with ancient runes, and a glowing pool of qi-rich mist settled along the ground like fog. It was quiet—eerily so—but safe. Safe enough.
As the guards closed the door behind him, Victor staggered to the center of the room and collapsed into a cross-legged position.
His breath was shaky, but the mont his palms t his knees, he felt it—like slipping into a different existence.
He wasn't in the seclusion room anymore. Not really.
A vision spread through his mind—a vast black cosmos with silver stars collapsing inward, forming an outline of a man with eyes like endless voids.
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