The sect disciples whispered about him now. Not with awe. Not even with fear. But confusion.
Because Kael walked differently.
He didn't look stronger. His cultivation level hadn't visibly changed. He still wore the same tattered outer robe. Still held no weapon. Still looked like a lost orphan thrown into a world built for giants.
But everywhere he stepped, formations broke. Spiritual beasts backed away. And elders...paused.
"Something about his presence is just wrong" one of them muttered.
Wrong? Maybe.
But Kael didn't care.
He was seeing something they couldn't.
---
The chains were everywhere.
Floating behind the sect master's smile. Wrapping around the bones of every elder who knelt too easily to authority. Slithering through the air during lectures like invisible truths choking every student.
Chains of logic. Chains of cultivation. Chains of belief.
And Kael could see them all.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Thin glowing strands. Some silver. Some rusted. Some golden and bright like halos. They wrapped around meridians, decisions, karma itself.
It started after the lightning.
Ever since the Cold Lightning carved itself into his spine, the world looked different. As if someone had switched on a forbidden filter only Sovereigns were ever meant to see.
Kael stood in the inner courtyard now, eyes half-closed.
Two disciples sparred in front of him.
One fought with flame. The other with pure force. Explosions cracked the stone tiles.
But Kael wasn't watching the fight.
He was watching which beliefs were binding their strikes.
The flame user had a golden chain latched to his core. Labelled: "I must be strong to protect others."
The brute had six smaller chains crossing over his mind, each one echoing: "I can't lose again. I can't be weak. I can't. I can't."
Kael shook his head.
"They're slaves and they don't even know it."
The ground beneath him cracked.
His steps were too light to make noise, but the weight of his realization echoed through the tiles.
---
Later that night, he sat alone at the edge of a cliff. Below him, the sect glittered under moonlight.
He raised his hand, pointing toward the main palace.
It looked regal. Strong. Unbreakable.
But Kael saw the truth.
Chains. Thousands of them. Feeding from the heavens. Wrapping around the disciples. Pumping illusions into their cores.
"It's not the System that binds us most. It's the lies we build to serve it."
He closed his eyes.
The Sovereign Path wasn't about power.
It was about sight.
And now that he could see the chains?
He was going to break them.
All of them.