The air in Yinfrost City was still filled with uncertainty, but for Victor and Tarkos, the storm had finally passed.
Hours after Yan Rui had been killed with the help of Xiao i, the entire operation that had brought the Erald Coil Pavilion to its knees was near completion.
The final elder who posed a threat had been eliminated by Elder Huang and Tarkos working together.
There had been a flashy battle but they passed it off as so kind of training.
And now... a new order centing itself within the walls of the Jade Serpent Sect's stronghold.
Earlier, when the last elder was on her final breath, she had spoken her dying words through a bashed in face...
"He... he absorbed the legendary Pond of Dragon Tears... and you're making him use just his spit like a buffoon... You have no idea what that boy is truly capable of..."
Those words haunted Elder Huang as he stood in the central hall of the Erald Coil Pavilion. Around him, disciples bowed.
None of them knew the truth of what had transpired over the past month. They only knew that he was now the Overseer Elder of the Pavilion.
The one last remaining elder had pledged loyalty to him publicly, but privately, the blood contract he signed with Victor and Tarkos made him a loyal subordinate.
Xiao i, the last surviving senior disciple, stood before Victor with her head bowed.
Her once cold deanor was replaced with genuine humility. "You spared when you had every right not to. I'm indebted to you, Fang Chen. Whatever you need, the Erald Coil Pavilion will provide. Technically... this entire faction is now yours."
On the other hand, Tarkos retrieved the soul-devouring worm from Elder Huang's body after the final blood contract was signed. The blood pact sealed Huang's fate, binding him to obey any future command given by Victor or Tarkos.
"Don't take it personally," Tarkos said casually. "We just like to be thorough."
Victor, having completed the mission that had begun with the bounty on his head, finally received the notifications he'd long awaited:
[ 100,000 Wisps Of Qi ]
[ 30% Realm Advancent Token ]
[ 3 Rare-Grade Storage Rings ]
[ 1 Mystic Artifact: Dragon Vein Resonator (Bound) ]
[ 100 Attribute Points ]
Victor's eyes widened as more rewards popped up.
Elder Huang later approached and handed sothing over to Victor. Apparently, after hearing Elder Zhen's last words he did so digging in her chamber and found this.
Victor received it and a bunch of new notifications popped up.
[ You have obtained: 'Sealed Scroll of Draconic Waters' ] [Item Grade: Unknown] [Status: Inaccessible - Requirents Not t] [Description: A scroll containing knowledge related to the Pond of Dragon Tears. Requires 5 White Dragon Techniques Mastery or higher to access.]
"Hmm, somthing related with the pond?," Victor muttered before keeping the sealed scroll.
"I figured you would need it more than ," Elder Huang stated.
"Thanks... I guess I'll look into it later."
[Bloodline Integration: 52%] [Nascent Soul Realm Progress: 15%]
"We did it," Victor voiced while stretching his arms. "Now let's get the hell out of here."
Tarkos looked at him, slightly confused. "You do realize this is going to be another weeks-long journey, right? We're basically halfway across the continent."
Victor grinned. "Don't worry, I've got sothing better."
From his storage ring, he pulled out the Spectral Anchor Disk. A gift from the Bluefla City Lord long ago.
It had been sitting idle for months in his storage. Victor activated it with a pulse of his qi.
The golden disk floated midair and emitted a low vibrating sound as a vortex of spatial energy blood out of it.
"Ready?" Victor questioned while offering a hand.
Tarkos raised a brow. "You better not teleport into a lake."
"Trust . I already planted the anchor in my room back at the Violet Spring Sect."
With a flash of light and a ripple of wind, both of them vanished.
In less than a heartbeat, they reappeared in Victor's abode within the Violet Spring Sect.
The familiar scent of incense and quiet calm of the sect greeted them.
Tarkos looked around while blinking. "Okay... I'm impressed."
Victor clapped his shoulder. "Get used to it."
The mont, Victor stepped out into his courtyard within the Violet Spring Sect, greeted by the serenity of early morning mist curling around stone paths and blossoming skywillow trees.
The mont his foot touched the ground, he noticed a cluster of letters placed carefully on the stone pedestal just beside his chamber door.
Each scroll was stamped with the insignia of Bluefla City—the wax seal of the City Lord himself.
Victor picked the top one. It was dated over a month ago.
"The City Lord summons Fang Chen. Your presence is required on the third moon of the previous cycle."
Victor frowned and opened the next. Another summon. Then another. Clearly, his absence hadn't gone unnoticed.
He had barely begun to register the weight of it when the wind shifted, and a familiar qi signature filled the courtyard.
Elder Mo appeared.
The old man arrived without sound like a ghost with his hands folded into the sleeves of his robe, and a subtle arch in his brow.
"You have returned," Elder Mo voiced out.
Victor bowed slightly. "I've been training. Deep ditation and bloodline integration in so... secluded areas."
"Secluded? You missed four summonings from the City Lord," Mo replied with a sharp gaze.
Victor nodded. "My bloodline integration is now over 50%."
That caught Mo's attention. The elder's sharp expression softened, though just a bit. "Then it is ti. In seven days, we shall visit the City Lord and initiate the next step. Be ready."
"Yes, Elder."
With that, Mo turned and departed as silently as he had co.
Victor exhaled deeply. It was ti to log out. He passed quick instructions to Tarkos, telling him to get busy training or helping Elder Huang manage the Erald Coil Pavilion.
Victor proceeded to sit on his soft mattress and logged out of the ga.
[ Logging Out Of Ascendant Realms... ]
...
...
Back in the real world, Victor woke with groggy eyes and aching limbs.
He glanced at the ti. 4:53 AM.
Another morning routine.
Kairo was already tying his boots. Victor shot him a half-joking glare. "You and your friends better not drop by the dorm unannounced again."
Kairo only smirked. "You looked like a vampire in that blanket."
They split off as they always did, heading to their respective camps.
---
Elsewhere, within a hidden sector of the Academy's mountains, a figure stood atop a cliff with her eyes fixated on the horizon.
It was Elyra Vorn, the Academy's S-ranked Warrior—the golden blade of her generation.
A dozen personal instructors encircled her in a safe radius. One of them nodded. "Execute the move when ready, Vorn."
She lifted her blade with smoothly causing mana to gather around her like a moth to the flas.
She took a single step forward and her mana exploded, causing a strange suffocation in the surroundings.
And then she slashed...
[System Notification – Elyra Vorn]
Skill Activated: ⟨Heaven-Sunder Slash⟩
Type: Offensive | Grade: A
[ Mana Cost: 280 MP ]
[ Cooldown: 10 Hours ]
Upon swinging her blade, a crescent-shaped arc tore through the air, leaving behind a brief golden trail that fractured and dissolved like glass.
The mountain before her split with a deafening crack.
An entire section of the cliffside crumbled as if cleaved by the gods. But in the sa instant, the blade in her grip shattered.
Shards scattered across the snow-dusted plateau.
Elyra lowered her hand with a blank expression.
"This is why I need my father's sword," she muttered.
One instructor finally spoke. "You're already stronger than most third-years... there is no one in the first year who can match you."
She didn't blink. "It isn't enough. I must not sha my father's legacy."
She reached down and picked up a splinter of her broken blade. Then, without pause, resud training.
---
anwhile, Victor was in the training grounds of Camp 11, swinging through sword drills with the rest of the warrior class.
Unbeknownst to him, soone was watching him from afar—
It seed to be the sa instructor from back then who commandered the drills.
The man squinted.
"That boy," he whispered.
He recalled the incident from the Saviours and Victims drill—the vest that failed to teleport Victor.
"Only instructors or higher-ups have access to the vests. Students can't even access the storage system. So who? And why? What's so special about him that soone of authority would go to such lengths?"
He clenched a small notebook and wrote sothing in a private log.
Victor completed a spin-slash and paused to wipe sweat from his brow. The instructor continued to observe with his lips pressed into a thin line.
---
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