Renin Mountain's summit felt like the eye of a continent-wide storm.
The vault portal shimmered open with a pulse of ancient qi, releasing cultivators in fractured waves—rogue survivors, low-tier faction representatives, mid-tier faction representatives, and the twelve representatives of the Tenison royal family. They stumbled into daylight, their faces drawn tight with fear, disbelief, and raw exhaustion.
Then the last three emerged.
Jalen, Lloyd, and Tera.
Just as Jalen stepped into the light, he activated Thread Fusion his fifteenth technique from his Light Art—merging two techniques into one.
His eleventh technique Flash Reversion anchored him to memory and light. Eclipsed Motion his Shadow Art first technique slipped him through fractures in shadow.
Fused together, they amplified each other—creating a movement technique that bent space and silence alike.
Threads of light coiled outward, latching onto Lloyd and Tera also. Shadows folded around their feet. They didn't resist. They trusted.
And in the next breath—they vanished together. No arc. No roar. Just radiant absence.
Not even the mountain knew where they went.
The two peak Spirit Fusion elders reacted—anchors slammed into the sky, glyphs shattered into trap patterns—but they were a breath too slow. All they caught was a torn strip of Jalen's robe, fluttering once before dissolving into a shimmer of cold light.
A moment of stunned silence followed.
Then the mountain erupted.
Top officials of the top twenty sects and the emperor of the ten royal houses surged forward, pressing in like a tide of dominance. They scanned the crowd with spirit sense sharp enough to wound. Shouts turned into declarations. Declarations into threats.
Who were those youths?
What happened inside?
Where were the elites who entered?
The Vault's silence had birthed panic.
They interrogated the shaken survivors instantly—mind probes activated without ceremony or consent.
They were not searching for stories.
They were hunting memories.
And despite resistance from mid-tier, low-tier, and rogue factions, no one dared object outright.
And what did they see inside those minds?
The images projected from survivor minds were fragmented but unanimous:
Jalen, Lloyd, and Tera arriving at the Vault's northern ridge. The Supreme Grade Spirit Light Saber hovered before the crowd, ignored by dozens of top disciples—until it drifted into Lloyd's palm. The saber was pulsing with compressed light. A ring of pressure radiating outward—the Vault floor cracking beneath his feet
Lloyd's cultivation erupting, realm-jumping from Early Enlightened to Early Star Realm. Murmurs of panic from surrounding factions—unspoken dread.
Then, Themo Tenison stepped forward to demand surrender. Jalen reacted with quiet fury—his cultivation surging, pressure slicing through the crowd. They saw Jalen shimmer once—light coiling around his blade—and Themo collapsed before anyone could react.
Then came the darkness.
A yawning shadow field expanded from Jalen's body—space folded, light collapsed, and sound vanished.
Nothing was seen. Nothing was heard. But what happened there… was devastation sculpted in silence.
When vision returned. The Vault floor was littered with bodies. Fifty-eight top cultivators from the various sects and royal families—were dead. Only Jalen, Lloyd, and Tera remained standing. And then—clear as a chime in still air—Jalen's voice rang out:
"Apart from the Tenison family disciples… kill them all."
Lloyd obeyed without hesitation, slicing through the remaining sect disciples. No resistance. No survivors.
Then Jalen turned toward the surviving onlookers—not with apology, but with quiet intensity.
And he left the bystanders in fear.
___
The gathered emperors, and elders could hardly process it.
A sixteen-year-old—a Mid Spirit Fusion Realm cultivator. A seventeen-year-old—a Star Realm cultivator, wielding a Supreme Grade weapon. Unthinkable. Impossible.
Greed flickered behind some people's shock. Schemes ignited behind silence.
The boys weren't just powerful—they were valuable. They carried a Supreme Grade Spirit Tool. Their cultivation soared beyond reason.
Techniques like theirs had to be obtained. Seized. Studied.
Trapped.
Emperor Raiden, on the other hand, wasn't too shocked by Jalen's realm or his strength since he had firsthand experience against it. But back then they were at a draw; now he's sure he cannot take on that kid.
Elder Kyle of Waveweave Temple, eyes narrowed, stepped forward.
"He spared only Tenison's disciples. That wasn't battle instinct. That was protection."
Eyes turned sharply to Themo Tenison, who stood stoically beside his father, Emperor Raiden Tenison.
"Explain yourselves," snapped Elder Olsen of the Dragon Meridian Sect. "Did the Crown Kingdom collude with a mass killer?"
Raiden's expression remained cold and composed.
"Are you accusing my royal family of conspiracy?"
Kyle didn't blink.
"We lost dozens—legacy elders and heirs. While your bloodline stands untouched. Wouldn't you be suspicious, Emperor Raiden?"
Several peak level spirit fusion elders—Howling Ice Sect, Boneroot Domain, Sunspire Keep—nodded subtly. Suspicion swirled like rising mist.
Raiden's voice dropped a level.
"That boy tore through my palace months ago. He murdered my knights. He kidnapped my daughter. If you think I call him ally, you misunderstand sovereignty."
Elder Myra of Nightfang Pavilion folded her arms.
"Then why did he spare your blood?"
Raiden's eyes narrowed.
"Why don't you ask him that when you find him? Instead of accusing my royal family of guilt you can't prove."
He gestured toward the projections.
"You all saw the memories from those we've probed. If my son colluded with that rogue, then why did he confront him and fall in a single blow? From what we saw, Themo just met the boy."
No one could argue that.
Even Themo remained silent—fuming, embarrassed, and humiliated by a defeat he could neither explain nor erase.
"All right, that's enough," Emperor Lysian of the Goldblood Royalty said firmly, stepping between Raiden and the gathered sect leaders. His voice held the weight of centuries, commanding quiet even from the most volatile factions.
"As Emperor Raiden said, we all witnessed the mind projections. We can at least say for now the Tenison family did not act in concert."
He cast a long glance at Elder Kyle, then at Elder Olsen.
"Instead of wasting time accusing the Tension family, our focus should be on identifying, locating, and subduing the true danger. That boy."
Several elders and emperors nodded. Others remained silent, eyes calculating.
"Agreed," muttered the Boneroot Domain's elder.
"Agreed," added the Sunspire Emperor with reluctance.
One by one, the remaining sects and royal representatives gave their assent. Some did so with clenched teeth, others with veiled intentions swirling behind their eyes. None had forgotten the massacre. None had forgotten the power. But for now, they understood unity would serve them better than chaos.
And so, after brief, forced farewells, the top twenty sects and ten royal families dispersed from the mountain.
They left not in triumph but in quiet resolution to get that boy and his treasures before the others could.