Wind shrieked past crumbling cliffs. Mist twisted into violent spirals, chasing two figures blurred in motion—Lloyd and Tera running side by side, breath shallow, steps uneven. Behind them, the silver-scaled serpent tore through terrain like thunder braided to flesh. Its screech was an elemental warning: I want what was taken.
Even with the violet stone claimed, the beast refused to give up.
They had already crossed five ridgelines, two shattered lake fields, and a forest tangled in poison-rooted vines. Still—it chased. Still—it didn't tire.
Lloyd flickered between trees, qi looping around his muscles, face pale from exertion.
"I think it's gaining," he said through a gasp.
"You think?" Tera snapped, stumbling over a cracked root. "It hasn't stopped hunting us for five hours. I'm running on plant willpower!"
Her hair flew wildly behind her. Her petal aura pulsed erratically. Even her domain threads were flickering at the edges.
Spirit beasts they passed along the way fled at first glimpse of the serpent. Cultivators watching from floating formations turned away. Some vanished altogether. No one wanted to get swept into the chaos.
The duo had reached the far eastern edge of the realm—a territory wrapped in thunder fog and shifting gravity wells. The terrain itself began resisting their movement, slowing each stride as the serpent drew closer.
Lloyd stumbled. Tera grabbed his arm, pulled him forward.
The serpent launched another pressure wave—dense enough to send clouds reeling and crush fragments of mountain stone mid-air.
Lloyd nearly collapsed.
Tera gritted her teeth. "We're not going to make it."
Then the world froze.
A presence surged downward—silent, perfect, oppressive in calm. It didn't explode. It didn't roar. It simply was.
Tera stopped mid-stride, one foot hovering above the rock.
The serpent halted, body slamming into itself from sudden inertia. It didn't breathe. Didn't hiss. It bowed.
The two were clueless as to what caused the serpent to stop chasing them.
Then a voice came from behind them—casual, annoyed, with a hint of echo threaded through its tone.
"I told you to stay out of trouble, and yet here you are in trouble."
Lloyd, who was stunned by the familiar voice, turned, chest heaving. "You also told me to run if I met someone stronger than me."
Jalen flickered into view from a ray of refracted light.
He didn't wear robes lined in sect sigils. No jade banners floated beside him. Just a light-threaded cloak that refused shadow—and eyes that glowed like memory infused with purpose.
The serpent met his gaze.
It didn't snarl. Didn't protest. Its body quivered—and vanished into the mist like a legend unwilling to be rewritten.
Tera froze.
That pressure… it was wrong. No, not wrong—impossible.
This boy was younger than the pig squeak.
And yet the serpent—a beast on the cusp of the Imperial Realm—had bolted like it saw death peeking through silk.
She opened her mouth to speak, but words tangled. All she could do was stare.
"Did you finish mastering all fifteen techniques, Master?" Lloyd asked, breath returning.
Jalen nodded. "Give her the treasure. We're leaving."
"So you were watching me after all," Lloyd said as if realizing something.
Jalen didn't smile. "If I hadn't, you'd be dead."
"Then why didn't you help us from the start?"
"Enough yapping, and do as I say."
"Y-yes, master."
Lloyd summoned his pocket space. With a spiral of qi, the violet boulder levitated gently and drifted to Tera.
She didn't resist.
Didn't speak.
Didn't even glance at Lloyd.
Her attention was locked entirely onto Jalen.
What are these two? she thought. What sect could create monsters like this? No… what kind of lineage did they inherit? That boy—he rewrote reality with his gaze.
"Now let's go," Jalen said.
"Master, can I at least have some time to rest and recover my qi—"
Jalen pressed both palms together.
Light surged—silent but radiant. It wasn't heat. It wasn't pressure. It was clarity given shape.
Twelve beams erupted around Lloyd and Tera—forming a halo of light qi.
This is the twelfth technique of the light cultivation technique: Flare of Recursion.
A single pulse spread out—entered their meridians, wrapped around their dantians, and massaged core points. Within seconds, Lloyd and Tera felt their energy restore completely—not forcibly, but respectfully. It was like they had slept beneath moonlight infused with breath.
Tera exhaled sharply. "What… was that?"
Lloyd stretched both arms and cracked his neck. "That—was a miracle."
Before they could ask questions—
Jalen took to the sky.
No wind.
No sound.
Just motion that didn't ask permission from gravity.
"Wait for me, master!" Lloyd shouted, launching upward with a flicker of light threads.
Tera stood frozen, hand still hovering beside her blade.
She glanced down at the violet boulder in her palm.
It pulsed once.
Then she stored it inside her pocket space and followed them into the sky.