The silver rank breakthrough pill shimred faintly under the dying light of the sun, its powdered glow pulsing like a heartbeat trapped in glass.
It was more than just a rare treasure.
It was exactly what Damien needed.
With it, he could finally take the next step—evolving his body from the tempered strength of Gray Iron Bones to the radiant, unyielding purity of Silvery Pristine Bones.
But the timing was wrong.
Here, in the heart of a crumbling kingdom, surrounded by chaos and the scent of war, there was no space for reflection or internal transformation.
Not yet.
His thoughts flickered like passing shadows—fast, cold, calculated.
Then, without hesitation, Damien turned his gaze to Anek and the Iron Dungeon leader. His eyes locked onto theirs with an intensity that froze the air between them.
His voice, low and precise, cut through the silence:
"Anek, you take the remaining n back to Valthron City. Take the Silver Rank pill with you."
The words fell like a final command.
Anek’s expression shifted instantly. His lips tightened, and his shoulders stiffened under the weight of understanding.
A solemn heaviness settled over him like armor.
He knew what this ant.
Their campaign, for all its ruthless efficiency, was drawing to a close. The day was almost over, and in that brief span of ti, they had done the unthinkable—conquered over ninety percent of the Blue Hamr Kingdom, ransacking its major cities and toppling their forces like a divine hamr crashing through clay.
Only one target remained.
The Blue Hamr capital.
And within it—hundreds of Silver Rank cultivators, entrenched and prepared.
Anek clenched his jaw.
He understood his place in the battles up to this point, and he understood his limits. The capital was different. In a place brimming with elite powerhouses and hidden treasures, they would only slow Damien down.
Perhaps worse—they might die for nothing.
Damien had made his decision. And as always, it was not clouded by emotion.
He would go alone.
Ricky—no, Damien—knew the risks. Even with all his strength, marching into the lion’s den alone was almost suicidal. Who knew what kind of hidden weapons, ancient arrays, or trump cards the capital’s defenders might unleash?
It wouldn’t be strange if he were torn apart the mont he stepped through their gates.
But still, he moved forward.
Because that was the kind of man he was.
This ti, Damien knew he couldn’t rely on sheer force alone.
A different approach was necessary.
No matter what it took, no matter the cost—the Blue Hamr Kingdom had to vanish from the map before the next sunrise.
Anek understood without needing further explanation. He offered no protest, only a slow, respectful nod. But as he turned to leave, Damien noticed the way his fingers clenched tighter around the wooden box—the one containing the Silver Rank breakthrough pill. The weight of responsibility had never felt heavier.
Once Anek had disappeared into the distance, Damien turned to the Iron Dungeon Stronghold leader and gave a silent gesture. There were no words exchanged—none needed. The man bowed and departed swiftly, leaving nothing behind but the fading echo of footsteps in the rubble.
And then—
Silence.
Damien stood alone on the blood-soaked battlefield.
The sky above him was darkening, streaked with the last trails of amber light as twilight crept in.
The cold wind swept across the ruins, rustling torn banners and stirring the ashes of fallen cities, but it could not extinguish the blazing fury burning within his chest.
He cast one last glance at the devastated city behind him—rooftops shattered, towers blackened, the sll of blood thick in the air.
Then—
He moved.
One step forward, and the ground beneath his foot cracked.
The very air scread as he vanished, leaving behind a thunderous sonic boom that rippled through the battlefield.
---
Though he was already deep within the heart of the Blue Hamr Kingdom, the capital still lay far ahead. Even moving at hypersonic speed, it would take precious ti.
But he didn’t stop.
He couldn’t afford to.
---
anwhile—
At the very center of the Blue Hamr Kingdom stood a castle that glead like a monolith of wealth and arrogance—a citadel carved entirely from a single massive diamond. Its mirrored edges caught the light of the crimson sky, reflecting it across the land like a thousand bloodshot eyes.
But no amount of brilliance could erase the tension within.
Inside the throne room, shadows flickered across polished crystal walls. The atmosphere was thick—a choking blend of fear, disbelief, and dread.
Faces were grim. Silent. Even the highest-ranking generals seed rattled.
The fall of Dreamy Sky City had sent ripples—no, shockwaves—through the kingdom. In response, the Blue Hamr King, a Channel Construction Realm expert clad in regal blue-gold robes, had imdiately summoned an ergency council.
Yet even before his commanders could fully gather—
One by one, reports began to flood in.
Cities were falling like leaves in a storm.
Forts were being looted.
No resistance seed to last more than a few monts.
What started as confusion quickly gave way to horror.
Sothing—or soone—was cutting through their kingdom like a divine executioner.
One by one, the great cities of the Blue Hamr Kingdom had fallen.
Strongholds that had stood tall for generations were now nothing more than scorched ruins and plundered vaults. The kingdom’s proud banners had been torn down, replaced by silence and smoke.
Inside the throne room, the pressure finally boiled over.
CRACK—BOOM!
The Blue Hamr King slamd his palm onto the grand table before him—an ornate artifact carved from enchanted blackwood, preserved for over a millennium.
It disintegrated into fine dust on the spot.
His face twisted with fury, veins pulsing at his temple, his knuckles still trembling with residual force.
"Which expert is it?" the king muttered under his breath, voice heavy with grim disbelief.
The speed of the invasion—how effortlessly city after city had crumbled—made it clear: this wasn’t a conventional assault. It wasn’t a slow campaign, nor was it the work of a disciplined army.
This was the work of a monster.
A single overwhelming force.
Most likely a Channel Construction Realm cultivator.
At first glance, there shouldn’t have been a reason to panic.
The Blue Hamr King himself was in the sa realm.
So what was there to fear?
But that was the kind of question only an ignorant fool would ask.
The king knew better.
Unlike lower cultivation tiers—Silver Rank, Gold Rank, even Nascent Awakening—where nine steady stages provided structure and pacing, the Channel Construction Realm existed in a league of its own.
There were no easy steps here. No gradual slope.
Every progression—every breath forward—was an exponential leap in power.
Only three stages existed within the realm.
Three towering thresholds.
And between each of them lay a chasm wider than the distance between commoners and gods.
The first step in this realm was Domain Formation—
The ability to carve one’s will into reality, to project it across space, to rule within it like a sovereign of law and force.
And if their mysterious enemy had already stepped into Domain Formation...
Then the very foundation of the Blue Hamr Kingdom was at risk.
Because this battle was no longer just about numbers or armies.
It was a clash of supremacies.
Once a cultivator could circulate the mana within their spiritual channels at a speed of 1,000 rounds per minute, sothing extraordinary happened.
A domain would form.
It wasn’t just a technique—it was a transformation. A taphysical territory that bent reality to the cultivator’s will. Within this zone, their thoughts carried weight, and their presence distorted the very air.
Both the Blue Hamr King and the Supre Golden General had reached this level. They were Domain-level experts, capable of exerting their will over a battlefield and overwhelming most opponents through sheer spiritual pressure.
But there was a stage beyond that.
The Domain Manifestation stage.
An elite sub-realm within the Channel Construction realm—where one’s domain was no longer just invisible force, but fully tangible, rooted in the laws of the world itself.
At this level, cultivators could do the impossible.
They could reverse planetary magnetic fields in their vicinity, manipulate gravitational force, and take flight not through artifacts, but by warping the very elents around them. Every strike, every movent, beca a manifestation of natural law—augnted, enhanced, and devastatingly real.
This was no longer cultivation.
It was transcendence.
And that’s what made the Blue Hamr King uneasy.
Because based on how rapidly and cleanly his cities were falling...
Only soone at the Domain Manifestation stage could be responsible.
Only soone with power that eclipsed his own.
And that ant the enemy wasn’t just dangerous.
He was untouchable.
But finding such an expert in this remote corner was imposible, there is was no reason for person of that calibre to resort such things.
If he had as here he would directly ca knocking.
Blue Hamr King was having hard ti understanding the situation.
To the point that his head was starting to hurt.
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