The return of Lu Chen and Yue Xiao to the Sword Pavilion was not a quiet affair. They didn't arrive on a Cloud Crane, but descended from the sky like twin meteors, leaving trails of frost and golden Qi in their wake.
The guards at the gates fell to their knees, not because they wanted to, but because the combined aura of a Rank 5 Spirit Sovereign and a Rank 7 Ice Saintess was too immense to withstand.
"Elders! Assemble!" Lu Chen's voice boomed, carrying the weight of a man who had seen the end of days.
Within minutes, the High Hall was filled with the most powerful masters of the Pavilion. Their eyes widened as they saw Yue Xiao—the untouchable Saintess of the North—standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their disciple.
"Lu Chen, you were sent for a lotus, not to abduct a Saintess," the Head Elder stammered, his sword-intent flickering in confusion.
"The lotus is irrelevant now," Lu Chen said, stepping into the center of the hall. He waved his hand, and a projection of his future memories—vague but terrifying—filled the room. "The Sect of Ancient Void is already feeding on our world's nerves. In one year, we will be refined into pills. I have seen the collapse, and I have brought the only method of survival."
He looked at Yue Xiao, who nodded. Together, they released a fragment of the "Dual-Fate Resonance." The air in the hall hummed with a frequency that neutralized the dark pressure leaking from the distant obsidian throne of Fang Yuan.
"I am taking command of the Pavilion's defenses," Lu Chen declared, his eyes cold. "We will not just wait for the timer to hit zero. We will forge the Great Void-Piercing Array. Every disciple, from the lowest servant to the highest elder, will learn to condense their Qi into a single point. We become the needle, or we become the dust."