Mist drifted low across the ice ridge as Jalen stepped onto the plateau. His cloak moved faintly in the wind, slowed by the small body cradled against his shoulder.
The child slept.
Face nestled quietly in the folds of Jalen's robe, breath soft against his collarbone. His weight wasn't burdensome. But his presence was.
Jaya spotted him first.
She stood near the glacial arch, wrapped in frost-treated cloth, eyes sharp with restrained panic. The moment she saw Jalen, her chest eased—but confusion tightened her gaze again almost instantly.
Walford stepped beside her, his stance ready but quiet.
"You're alive," Jaya said softly. Relief edged her voice. "We thought—when the ridge collapsed—"
Jalen didn't respond.
She took a cautious step forward, gaze trailing from his face to the small form sleeping against his shoulder. Her brows lowered. She tilted her head.
"…Who is that?"
The child stirred briefly, arms tightening around Jalen's neck. Then settled back to sleep.
Jaya blinked, staring harder now. The skin tone. The hair. Those unruly black strands curling at the nape. The way the child's lips pulled in a quiet frown, even while resting.
Her voice dropped. "Is that… your son?"
Jalen didn't answer.
He kept walking.
Jaya frowned, unsettled. Her eyes drifted between the resemblance and the silence.
Walford exhaled quietly. His spirit sense rippled outward, brushing against Jalen's aura. Then it recoiled. Not violently. Not in defense. Just… transformed.
Something had changed.
Not his realm—that was stable. But the rhythm of his energy had shifted. Hardened. Like an internal tectonic plate had moved and reformed beneath the surface.
Walford cast a glance toward the child.
The vibes weren't subtle.
That boy wasn't merely sleeping. He radiated a presence—an ancient aura far too dense, too refined, to belong to someone so young. The weight of it stretched beyond mortal birthright.
And Walford was right.
Though newly hatched, this dragon hadn't been born in the traditional sense. He had been forming inside the egg for over five hundred years—a gestation reserved for bloodlines forged through fire and myth. Dragon eggs typically required a full millennium before awakening. But something interfered.
The Origin Shard.
When Jalen encountered the egg, the shard injected its energy into it silently forcing it to hatch before its time. And whit the soul essence of the dragon mother it create the bond between the two.
It wasn't just claiming treasure.
It was gifting its bearer a beast—one with an unstable, mutated and powerful bloodline, carved from dragon legacy and spiritual anomaly. A spirit companion born not through training, but chosen instinctively. One that would prove critical when the next great treasure—revealed itself.
As the wind shifted, Jalen ascended into the sky without a word. No flare of qi, no spatial tear. Just motion folded within elemental grace. Jaya and Walford followed—the later confused, and the former curious.
__
After an hour of flight they found a cavern nearby—partially shielded by cliffs and spirit moss. The ground was still, and the wind subdued. It would do for now.
Jalen stepped across the field without speaking. Found a flat stone near a lake about half a mile away. He gently laid the boy down, watching as the child curled inward, letting sleep return.
Then, without ceremony, Jalen stripped his outer robe and stepped into the pond.
The qi cold bit his skin instantly. But he didn't flinch. His body had adapted quickly after him unleashing a bit of ice qi.
He sank into the water, sitting deep beneath the surface, eyes closed, arms resting outward. Light qi folded through the pond like gentle dust.
He didn't think about battles. Or victories.
Just stillness.
An hour passed.
The child stirred.
Tiny fingers twitched. Eyes blinked twice. Then, without hesitation, the boy rolled off the rock and dived into the lake.
He sank immediately.
Flailing. No aptitude for swing wheresoever. Then instinct took over.
A pulse of cold aura burst from his core.
The entire lake froze solid—water locking mid-flow, air crystallizing into silence.
Jalen remained beneath the surface.
Then exhaled.
The ice shattered around him, breaking like glass under breath.
Jalen surfaced with the child in his arms, placing him gently atop a flat, sun-warmed stone. In one fluid motion, he redressed, then sprawled beside a nearby boulder, arms folded behind his head, cloak open across his chest. His expression remained as unmoving as the skies above.
The child drifted after him.
At that moment, Jaya and Walford—having sensed an unusual surge of early Enlightened Realm spirit beast energy from the direction Jalen had taken—rushed toward the source.
What they saw stunned them.
Jalen lay reclined on the rock, silent, his aura calm. No tension. No trace of battle. Just tranquility.
Beside him, the child floated with quiet mischief.
Small fingers tangled in Jalen's hair. Tugged his face. Loosened the robe sash.
Still, Jalen didn't blink.
The boy frowned. A low growl escaped his lips. Then, teeth sank into Jalen's shoulder.
No reaction.
The child narrowed his icy blue eyes.
Cold aura surged from his palm. Frost crept across Jalen's side, blooming like crystal vines.
Only then did Jalen finally stir.
He exhaled. Soft. Measured.
Lifted the child. Turned him over. And spanked his behind.
A sharp, direct slap—not cruel, just firm.
The child blinked. Then opened his mouth.
And cried.
Loudly.
Rawly.
Jaya sprinted toward them. "What was that?! Why did you hit him?! He's just a child."
Her fury was palpable.
Jalen didn't answer. He didn't even glance her way.
She dropped to one knee beside the child, reaching out to soothe him—but his aura responded on instinct.
A shockwave of frost drove her back several steps. Not hurt—but off rhythm. Her cultivation trembled. Her perception skewed.
She looked again.
The child stood atop the stone, lit from within by a faint, glacial glow. His eyes gleamed like forged cryo-steel.
He was in her realm— that shocked her. Then she felt his life force...
It didn't belong to a toddler.
It pulsed like an ancient beast. The kind that slumbered for centuries beneath spirit lakes or buried deep in mountain hollows, evolving through silence—not motion.
Jaya staggered slightly. Two realizations hit her at once:
This was the source of the earlier surge. And this was not Jalen's son.
This was a spirit beast in humanoid form. By every law Jaya knew, such a thing wasn't possible until Spirit Fusion. Yet the child stood before her, breaking the very rules of cultivation itself.
What she did not realize was that certain top-tier spirit beasts possessed the rare ability to assume human form earlier than others. Even so, no beast—no matter how exalted—could manifest a humanoid body at birth. That made this one different.
An anomaly.
A creature whose existence bent the laws of bloodline and cultivation, defying the natural order.
The child stopped crying. Then broke into wild, radiant laughter. His giggles rang out like bells through the icy air.
He leapt at Jalen with joy, arms flung wide. Pulled his hair again.
Jalen didn't react.
Just sighed softly.
Then turned his gaze upward—toward the edge of the horizon, where clouds folded over the ridge.
Jaya sat slowly.
Not close.
Not far.
Just enough to stare.
The child curled near Jalen's chest again, quiet now. No longer wild.
Just content.
And the basin held its silence.