Light flickered softly across the chamber walls.
Lloyd's eyes cracked open, blinking against the silver haze swirling in the air. His chest rose slowly. Breath came easily. Too easily.
He was alive.
But he shouldn't be.
His body no longer screamed in agony. Instead, it felt buoyant—his limbs lighter than air, his core quiet yet radiant. He sat up slowly, glancing around at the white stone etched with pulsing glyph work—walls, floor, even the air felt sacred.
"Am I... dead?" he whispered.
A voice answered, calm and unreadable.
"You're not."
Lloyd froze. He looked around but saw no one.
"Who are you?" he asked cautiously.
"The one who saved you."
He dropped to one knee instinctively, whether addressing a spirit, an elder, or something sovereign—he didn't know. But he knew one thing:
He should've died.
"Thank you," he said with reverence. "Senior."
A scoff rang out behind him.
"Senior?"
Lloyd looked up quickly. "I meant no offense. I just wanted to thank you for saving me."
"Who's offended?"
Jalen materialized out of the shadows behind him, boots silent against stone. Lloyd stumbled back in shock.
"You?" Lloyd blinked. "You're just a kid!"
Jalen raised an eyebrow. "One who saved your life and received a sovereign inheritance. Keep the 'senior' title if it helps."
Despite the embarrassment, Lloyd stood up slowly, eyes lingering on Jalen's calm expression. He was grateful—no matter how awkward it felt.
"If you don't mind me asking, where are we exactly?"
Jalen folded his arms. "We're standing inside the inheritance chamber of the Sky Limit Sovereign: Raphael Litchi."
Lloyd's breath caught. He had heard rumors. Whispers. Wild tales of a hidden sanctuary housing treasures no cultivator could ever reach deep within the vault. A place so well-guarded, it was dismissed as legend.
"You're telling me this... this is that hidden place?"
Lloyd frowned. "How did you find this place? No one has ever found it. It's supposed to be sealed off."
"If I told you that..." Jalen gestured vaguely. "Well, it might end unpleasantly."
Lloyd's hair stood on end.
Silence stretched before he gathered the nerve to speak again.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Jalen looked him over, voice firm. "To retrieve the inheritance. You were chosen."
"Chosen? By whom?"
"The Light Spirit Seed. The Vault itself. Only one with light qi could be truly accepted—and you, Lloyd Reynolds, possess it."
Lloyd flinched at hearing his full name.
"How do you know who I am?"
"The guardian told me before transferring a powerful light cultivation technique into my spirit sense. I wasn't meant to receive it—but you weren't strong enough to survive the transmission. So now... I carry it until you're ready."
"Me? Why me?"
"Were you not listening to what I said earlier? You're now the heir of this sub-realm inheritance. You fused with the Light Spirit Seed. Your body transformed into a Light Physique. And you've awakened an innate ability—it lets you see through deception, through illusions of things that are at your realm or below."
"What light physique?" Lloyd touched his chest, panic and curiosity rising. "That can't be—"
"Check your dantian," Jalen said.
Lloyd closed his eyes, extending his spirit sense inward. His dantian pulsed. Energy—pure, refined, light—curled in elegant threads. His cultivation had even risen to the early Gold Realm.
He gasped.
"My body—my qi—it feels... different. Even my skin is glowing."
Jalen gave a slow nod. "You've stepped onto a path few ever walk."
Lloyd took time to process this truth. And then his voice dimmed.
"But light technique is useless. It can't help me achieve vengeance."
"Spoken like someone naive," Jalen said, sharp. "You're not just weak—you're blind."
Lloyd didn't feel like taking any more insult from this brat or he might punch him in the face. "Thank you for saving me, but I need to leave."
"And go where?"
Lloyd clenched his fists.
Anywhere but here.
The chamber felt too calm. Too sacred. And Jalen—smug, unreadable, too composed for someone so young—set off every spark of resistance in Lloyd's chest.
"I need treasures," he said stiffly. "Real power. Something that'll actually help me.
"You already obtained one of the strongest—if not the strongest—treasures in this vault. What more are you chasing?"
Lloyd didn't feel like wasting any more breath on this brat, he levitated, qi swirling beneath his feet.
But Jalen appeared instantly in front of him, blocking his path.
"You will die if you try to leave this place on your own."
Lloyd's jaw tightened, pride flaring in defiance.
"I'll take my chances."
But the sub realm didn't give chances.
The moment his qi brushed the boundary, the realm reacted. Space cracked. Sovereign glyphs ignited with pinpoint hostility. Light wove into spears—silent, merciless threads designed to tear unqualified spirit frames apart.
Lloyd barely had time to widen his eyes before they struck.
Pain erupted through his body. Light bent backward across his veins. The very essence that once saved him now betrayed him, curling into raw overload. His cry was muffled by spatial pressure collapsing around his limbs.
Then Jalen moved.
Breath Like Dust enveloped them both, folding their presence into terrain. The Vault hesitated, recalibrated... and retreated.