Author's Note: Do Not Unlock Yet. Chapter Is Still Under Construction.
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The soul bond sent a fractured, strained and bleeding feedback.
Victor's gaze snapped instantly toward the abyss.
He did not hesitate.
The ground shattered beneath his feet as he launched forward, crossing hundreds of ters in a single step. Wind scread in his wake, crushed flat by the sheer density of his aura. As he reached the abyss's edge, the world seed to recoil.
The abyss was wrong.
It was not rely deep—it was hungry.
Darkness churned far below, not passive but alive. A thick, gray-black mist rolled upward from its depths, clinging to the air, corroding stone, withering everything it touched. Even qi dispersed unnaturally within it, breaking down into inert fragnts.
A place that devoured existence.
Any normal cultivator—any living being—would have been reduced to nothing the mont they descended.
Victor stepped forward anyway.
The mist surged toward him.
And died.
His aura pushed outward automatically, a vast, oppressive presence that crushed the mist flat, dispersing it like fog before a rising sun. The withering effects never reached his skin. The abyss itself recoiled, its darkness retreating a fraction as Victor descended.
Below him, Gojo was falling.
The massive frost raptor's body shrank rapidly with distance, blood trailing behind him like a frozen cot tail. His wings twitched weakly, damaged beyond flight. His consciousness flickered—but the bond held.
Victor reached him in seconds.
As his hand closed around Gojo's body—
The abyss opened its eye.
A colossal iris slid open along the jagged wall of the abyss, vast enough to dwarf mountains. It was not a physical eye—not fully. Layers of spatial distortion warped around it, folding light and shadow inward. The pupil dilated, locking onto Victor with ancient, alien awareness.
It noticed him.
Ti slowed.
Victor felt the gaze brush against his soul, probing, asuring, testing the edges of his existence.
He did not allow it to continue.
His fingers tightened around Gojo.
Shadow Blink.
Space collapsed.
The abyss vanished.
They reappeared on the surface in an explosive displacent of air, the ground buckling outward from the sudden return. Victor landed smoothly, cradling Gojo's massive body as he set him down carefully.
The frost raptor was alive.
Barely.
Deep gashes marred his skull. Blood soaked his feathers. His breathing was labored, uneven. One wing was bent at a dangerous angle, bones cracked.
Victor knelt beside him briefly.
Just long enough to confirm it.
Then he stood.
Across the abyss's ledge, the beast that had done this stirred.
The massive creature was embedded into a rock face, half-buried by debris, its body twitching as it struggled to rise. Cracks ran along its armored hide where Victor's breakthrough pressure had slamd into it earlier.
Slowly, it lifted its head.
Its eyes locked onto Victor.
Fear rippled through it—raw, instinctive, undeniable.
Victor's gaze t it.
There was no roar.
No declaration.
No rage-fueled scream.
Only a calm, simring fury that burned deep beneath the surface, cold and absolute.
Victor unsheathed his legacy sword.
The blade sang softly as it cleared the scabbard, the sound sharp and clean, cutting through the oppressive silence. Space around the sword subtly warped, threads of Void Emperor qi wrapping around the steel like invisible veins.
Victor vanished.
He reappeared directly before the beast.
Before it could react, Victor's foot connected with its face.
The impact was catastrophic.
The beast's skull caved inward as it was launched backward, its massive body skipping across the ground like a stone over water before smashing into another rocky outcrop with bone-crushing force.
Victor landed lightly where the beast had been standing.
And leapt again.
He crossed the distance instantly, sword already raised. The beast lashed out reflexively, its massive tail sweeping toward him in a desperate counterattack.
Victor moved once.
The sword flashed.
The tail fell.
It hit the ground in a heavy, wet crash, severed cleanly from the body. Blood sprayed outward in a wide arc, hissing where it touched the corrupted earth.
The beast scread.
Victor did not pause.
He adjusted his angle mid-air, twisting his body with fluid precision as he brought the sword down again.
One slash.
The world seed to pause.
Then the beast's head separated from its body.
It fell in slow motion, massive and lifeless, striking the ground with a thunderous impact that sent cracks spiderwebbing outward. The body collapsed monts later, twitching once before going still.
Silence followed.
Victor landed and straightened.
Behind him, Eirene stood amidst the carnage, her form still stained with dark blue blood. She watched him without expression, her posture unchanged. The swarm had been eradicated. The battlefield lay still.
Victor turned back to Gojo.
He knelt again, this ti placing a hand firmly against the raptor's injured skull. Celestial Restoration activated, golden qi flowing outward, rging with his newly transford soul energy. The healing was slower than he wanted—but it was working.
Gojo released a low, pained rumble.
"You did well," Victor said quietly.
His voice was steady.
Controlled.
Above them, the abyss stirred—but did not open its eye again.
For now.
Victor rose to his feet, standing between the wounded raptor and the darkness beyond, sword still in hand, aura steady and vast.
The journey was not over.
But he had crossed another threshold.
And the world had noticed.
----ss
A Thunderseed Pearl the size of a thumbnail. A prayer fan painted with cranes that slled faintly of sandalwood and old rain.
Every hand presented gifts with more care after confirming themselves that Fang Chen possessed the legendary Void Emperor Bloodline.
The banquet thinned into quieter pockets of talk. Music softened. Lanterns burned down to amber cores. Victor drifted to the terrace to breathe cooler air, only to be hooked by the sleeve and tugged between two moonlit cypresses.
Xuan Qing had swapped formal brocade for an ink-dark jacket and a silk ribbon tying back her hair. Her eyes were star-bright, daring and soft all at once. "Close your eyes," she commanded.
"Why?" Victor questioned.
She pouted in response. He let out a sigh and decided to compromise.
After closing his eyes for a few seconds, she told him to open them again.
Victor did as he was told and and spotted what seed like a ribbon in her hands.
Only, it wasn't a ribbon. It was a thin length of silk bound around a bead of milky jade carved with tiny arrow marks like the ones that appeared on his skin when he called his void blood.
"I made it," she voiced with a sudden shyness. "It's ugly but you're not allowed to say so."
"It's perfect," he voiced with a tone of gratitude.
She stepped closer, tied it at his wrist with slow, careful fingers, and then stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
The touch was warm and bold. She lingered one heartbeat longer than bravery required, then hopped back with pink face and sparkling eyes. "One day," she blurted, "I hope I can try the other cheek. Or—well—"
He laughed softly. "You're incorrigible."
"I am," she voiced with a delighted tone and then fled, vanishing into the palace like a moonbeam chased by a cloud.
He touched the bead. "Did an NPC just fall for ?" he murmured, amused at himself for using the word as if it ant anything here, where the lines blurred in ways he never quite wanted to examine.
He spent the night in a guest pavilion that slled faintly of clove and cedar.
In the morning, he collected his new trinkets and scrolls and all the other gifts before returning to Violet Spring with the sun high and the city bright beneath him.
The sect felt different. Curiosity had turned to welco. NPC disciples bowed with open smiles, and even the players who were easy to spot by their in ga nas floating above their heads, sidled up with friendly audacity.
"You're Fang Chen, right? The grove guy? We're putting a team together for the Black Briar outskirts—need soone who won't die."
"Any chance you'd look at my footwork? I can't get the second beat to sit under the breath—"
"We've got a shard-hunt in the Moonbright Caves. You in?"
What Victor didn't know is that he had beco quite the hot topic, not just in the sect but even outside. The na Fang Chan wasn't unfamiliar to gars in Blue Fla city anymore.
If he walked around during the day more, he would have noticed this but because he had been copped up inside of his core disciple courtyard for the past few months, he never knew.
He didn't overpromise. He shook hands, traded a few tips, added a couple of player tags to his friends list. "Next ti," he told them honestly. "I have sothing I need to do first."
Minutes later, he arrived at the Missions Hall... a quiet building of honeyed wood and transparent paper screens.
A steward recognized him and, with a flustered bow, guided him past the general boards to a small chamber with a single table and a lacquered drawer.
Inside lay a slate of core disciple missions. They were fewer than he expected and heavier than they looked.
He skimd through them:
> diate a border dispute between minor clans
> eradicate a blood-leech hive in the southern marsh
> retrieve a lost heirloom from a haunted pagoda where the floors rember the last battle and replay it nightly.
Then one line caught his attention: "Supervise and safeguard a team of new Violet Spring disciples in the Glassstep Wilds. Purpose: experience, minor bottleneck breaking. Threats: mid-tier spirit beasts, opportunistic bandit companies, terrain anomalies."
The mont he saw it, he was instantly interested.
There were still areas he hadn't explored in the outskirts of Bluefla and he believed this particular mission could also be beneficial to him.
He signed the slate. The steward exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath since dawn and stamped the mission seal.
"When do they leave?" Victor asked.
"Two weeks," the steward stated. "They're green, but eager. They'll need a firm hand."
Victor nodded. "They'll get one."
...
...
Victor kept his head down for two days, doing nothing but cultivating.
He logged out after wards and returned his focus to the real world.
Today was Wednesday so morning routine was water based. He had weights on his waist as he cut through the academy's river pool while beam traps scribbled sizzling lines under the surface.
He slipped between them out of habit, already becoming quite skilled in swimming.
As usual, there was only one warrior lecture slotted in for today due to the ongoing Outland excursions.
It had been like this for weeks but Victor was just glad that his punishnt was ending in two days which ant, he could finally do the one thing he'd waiting a month for...
...
...
Friday ca by in the blink of an eye and as usual, Victor focused on morning routine and lectures.
Ti flowed by very fast and another batch happened to return today so everywhere was pretty rowdy.
However, Victor didn't listen to their stories on the Outland excursions this ti. His mind was only focused on one thing as he waited for the day to co to an end.
Half the auditorium buzzed about sectors and rumored routes; the other half compared loadouts like kids trading cards.
When the bell chid and the instructor dismissed them early, Victor didn't drift toward his dorm or the feedhubs.
He veered towards the administrative tower.
"S-rank perks here I co!" He voiced excitedly as he made his way there.
Now that his punishnt had ended... it also ant that he could finally get the perks of being number two in the entire awakened academy.
He nearly drooled while thinking about the S ranked perks that included private quarters, personal training chambers, d bay cubby, access to personal instructors, one million monthly credits and a bunch of other things.
He wanted the training chamber, and he really wanted the soundproofing.
The clerk at Housing glanced up, did a double take, and then recovered into professional neutral. "Congratulations on your… upgrade," she voiced while staring at him with a look of curiosity. "However, according to your student files, you're listed as B-ranked. It would seem that it hasn't been upsated yet... We'll need your student file to reflect S-tier before we release a private suite to you."
"Oh co on... why does everything always have to be the opposite of straightforward," Victor grumbled.
"Docuntation and Processing can push the update... just head there and let them know."
"On it," Victor didn't let this kill his enthusiasm.
He proceeded to head to Docuntation and Processing on the higher floors.
Docuntation slled faintly of ozone and mugwort from the mana scrubbers. Counters, screens, runic badges on lanyards, the whole ritual.
He queued and waited... apparently, a bunch of students were here for a variety of reasons.
He did his best to maintain a positive outlook, hoping that nothing would ruin today for him.
When it was his turn, a balding tech with a sharp nose waved him to a chair and swung a scanner over a dark card in Victor's possession.
"Na, cohort, camp."
"Victor Revenant, first-year, Camp 11."
The tech's brows rose. Everyone knew the na now, which was annoying.
He typed anyway, bringing up Victor's information. "S rank privileges, yet to he implented... data to be updated..." he muttered. "Baseline scan, mana profile, system sync."
Victor reclined as sliding bands of light swept across his sternum, his temples, the inside of his wrists. Lines of data scrolled and then stopped.
"Awakened System level..."
Then the cursor blinked and the screen threw up a gray box.
< DATA INCONCLUSIVE >
The tech frowned. "Huh."
More humming rang out as the lines of light scanned once more.
A second wand tapped his forearm, drawing a globule of blood into a little crystal reservoir. The runes flared, seeking signatures that weren't there.
"Awakened System Level..."
< DATA INCONCLUSIVE >
"This… weren't you the sa kid from the first day of registration?" The man suddenly recalled that there was a kid he asked to return for rescan over three months ago. "This isn't the first ti this is happening, is it?"
"Sothing like that," Victor voiced with a blank face.
He was starting to realize that this might be a problem... there was no way this light thing would be able to find out his system level because he didn't have one...
"We can't finalize S-tier without a confird level," the man murmured while turning to face the screen.
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