The land stretched wide, barren beneath the crimson dusk, and Aezreal walked it as if the world itself bowed to his steps. The month of seclusion, cocooned in blood-soaked silence, had changed him utterly. His body was no longer merely flesh but something closer to an eternal hymn of destruction, a form sculpted by divine malice and primordial chaos.
Behind him, the scythe Nightscar whispered, the weapon's edge keening in hunger. It pulsed faintly, its surface veined with threads of scarlet light as though veins ran beneath its blade. The month of slow metamorphosis was complete. Nightscar was no longer a mere instrument—it had awakened, grown, and bonded with Aezreal at a level that no mortal eye could understand.
Every few steps, the Sign-In System's indifferent presence flickered in his mind:
> Ding! Omnipotent Sign-In System records progress.
Next Sign-In Location: Azure Sky Sect Grand Altar.
Reward: ???
His lips curved into the faintest shadow of a smile. The Azure Sky Sect… their fate was sealed long before they even knew he existed.
But the path to them was not empty.
The continent of Tianxuan was vast, fractured into competing powers. The Central Empire of Daehan held sway at the heart, its legions clad in enchanted iron. To the east stretched the Ronghai Dominion, known for its naval sects and sea-forged cultivators. The west belonged to the Ironblood Horde, barbarian clans that tempered their strength in endless conquest. Northward sprawled the Frostspire Theocracy, its priests wielding both scripture and spell.
And here, at the southern sprawl of the land, the Azure Sky Sect had ruled uncontested for centuries. They were not the strongest, not compared to the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion or the Myriad Sword Court of the east, but they were ruthless, cunning, and entrenched. Their disciples filled every town. Their elders sat as advisors in noble courts. Their banners rose high over the southern passes.
Now, those banners were simply waiting to burn.
>Shadows Beneath the Azure Heavens
The Azure Sky Sect sprawled across three mountains, each one hollowed with palaces, training grounds, and altars to their so-called "Sky Ascendants." At the center rose the Grand Altar of Azure Flame, a place said to house an eternal blue fire gifted by their founding ancestor.
Inside their walls, life bustled with arrogance. Outer disciples drilled in endless formations, their sweat slicking training fields. Inner disciples sparred, their movements sharp with true qi. Elders meditated in cultivation chambers, their auras bleeding outward like storms waiting to erupt.
But beneath this serenity ran currents of unease. Word of the annihilated battalion—the elite hunters who had vanished into the forgotten ruins—had finally reached the elders' council.
"The Bloodshade Battalion is gone," one elder spat, his beard trembling. "Dozens of Core Formation experts, armed with our finest artifacts, lost. This is not mere coincidence."
Another elder's eyes flickered. "The survivor's jade slip revealed one thing before his life force extinguished… a name whispered in horror. Aezreal."
The chamber grew still. For a moment, no one dared breathe.
A name meant power. A name meant truth. And this name came laced with dread.
Sect Master Xuan Mo, robed in azure flame silk, rose from the head of the council. His gaze swept his gathered elders.
"Then we prepare," he declared. "Whether man, beast, or demon, none may strike at Azure Sky Sect and live. Summon the Grand Protection Array. Recall every wandering elder. The Azure Sky Sect shall remind this world why we have endured."
Their words were iron, but in the silence between syllables, fear lurked like a shadow.