For one breathless moment, the Vault was quiet.
The haze of death lingered, and the few survivors—the Tenison disciples and the trembling Peak Imperial realm elder—were rooted to the shattered glyphstone ground, unsure whether their lives had truly been spared.
Then Jalen's voice dropped like a blade through still water.
"Apart from the Tenison family disciples… kill them all."
The words rippled like reality being rewritten.
Lloyd didn't hesitate. He moved like light itself. The Supreme-grade lightsaber pulsed once in his hand, then vanished into motion. Disciples of the twenty top sects and nine royal families didn't even scream—fear paralyzed them long before the first slash fell.
Those brave enough to lift a blade?
Jalen fourth form of his Spirit Wind Art—Wind Spirit Needle erased their resistance. Instant collapse. Their minds shatter and their bodies stumbled lifeless.
Eventually only one disciple remained. And Lloyd deliberately left her for last.
Verna. The woman not only robbed him of his treasure and humiliated him but almost kill him. In fact, if Jalen didn't help him regardless of his reasons, he would have died.
She stood, trembling, her robes stained with cold sweat and remnants of pride. She gripped her sword with both hands, knuckles white, chest rising in uneven rhythm.
Lloyd stopped three meters from her. His saber gleamed. The air hummed with his qi.
"The Sabre Sect will hunt you all down and slaughter all your loved ones," she gnashed her teeth.
"Unfortunately, you won't live to see it," Lloyd answered.
Then, silence. One slash. No resistance.
Verna vanished in a burst of radiant mist.
Just like that, the slaughter came to an end. All top sect and royal family representatives—save Tenison—were gone.
___
Outside the vault.
Across the Reigned Continent, panic erupted within the twenty top sects and nine of the ten royal families whose people got destroyed.
The spiritual sense anchors each major force left tethered to their elders, and disciples snapped violently. In sect halls and ancestral altars, bells cracked. Elders vomited blood. Sovereigns paused in meditation. Some wept.
__
Those who had spectated from afar—rogue cultivators, neutral observers, wandering clan members—felt the truth settle into their bones.
Jalen didn't threaten them. He didn't need to.
His aura leaked outward like a tide of impending judgment. It didn't crush—it coerced. And every one of them shivered, not because they were being attacked, but because they knew:
This youth could erase them too.
Then Jalen turned, voice calm, as if none of this mattered. "Let's go."
Lloyd followed silently. No glory. No grin. Just quiet resolve.
Tera hesitated. The nightmare she'd walked through was too surreal. It couldn't be real. Could it?
But it was.
She joined them.
__
Jalen took them to the hidden sub-realm of the void—where light qi flowed unbound and silence reigned supreme.
There, Lloyd trained under Jalen's instruction and unlocked three more techniques in three months.
Light Bell, the eighth technique; Flash, the ninth technique; and Radiant Bastion, the tenth technique.
Though Lloyd didn't master them, he grasped their rhythm—and could now wield them in combat.
His realm shifted too.
From the Early Star Realm to the Early Moon Realm.
As for Tera?
She refined and devoured the violet boulder's massive qi, a relic claimed with Lloyd's help. It pulsed like a heart carved from ancient force. Not merely treasure—it was transformation wrapped in punishment. And the price nearly killed her.
Her spirit veins buckled. Her core trembled. She screamed once—then silence.
That's when Jalen stepped in.
No lecture. No questions. Just calm resolve.
He placed his hands against her back and releasedFlare of Recursion. It whispered to her cells. Showed her body how to remember itself.
And that memory… saved her.
She survived—and broke through to the Early Imperial Realm.
Days passed before she woke in the quiet of the sub-realm. Across from her, Lloyd—pipsqueak, as she'd called him over the past few months whenever he annoyed her during cultivation—sat meditating beneath a suspended shard of glowing light qi.
For the next few weeks, she focused on stabilizing her new realm. Truthfully, she wasn't close to Jalen or Lloyd, and even they felt distant—strangers bound by circumstance most times. The three didn't know anything personal about each other, though, apart from their names.
Then the Vault stirred.
Its ancient layers shifted, sending vibrations through the sub-realm's core. The Guardian's grace—the extended time—had finally run dry. It wasn't a warning. It was a summons.
Jalen stepped forward, cloak rippling behind him like a shadow tethered to judgment. "It's time."
Lloyd stood, the lightsaber pulsing in his hand now merged with his body as if he were its sheath. His aura was no longer volatile—it was measured. Focused. Dangerous.
Tera adjusted her robes; the violet boulder now merged with her qi channels like a heartbeat within her spirit. She nodded silently.
The Vault cracked open.
And what waited beyond was not just retaliation or rage.
It was war.