Buddha's gaze drifted across the horizon—past the shattered mandalas, past the trembling forest, past the living mountains—and his serene mask fractured.
"…This world," Jinasvara murmured, golden brows narrowing, "its qi flow does not match the Heavenly Records."
He took a step, and the ground beneath his foot bent like warm wax.
Calystria tilted her head. "The ley-lines. The causal flow. Even the karmic lattice… they're altered."
She extended a hand; the air around her rippled in neat, geometric waves—only to twist violently out of formation.
Her mirrored eyes widened.
"This plane is no longer part of the Heavenly Mandate. Its laws… are rewritten."
Lucien's clone sipped his tea, unbothered.
"I changed them," he said. "For my daughter. And for the mortals."
Buddha turned sharply. "You what?"
"Azure Blue was stagnant," Lucien continued. "Built on fear of the heavens, limited by outdated cosmic design. So I corrected it."
He set the cup down.
"I made them capable of evolving.
Capable of rising.
Capable of breaking your ceilings."
Calystria's reflection-filled irises narrowed into slits of polished judgment.
"Do you know the consequences of tampering with a world's foundational laws?"
"Of course," Lucien's clone replied calmly. "That's why I did it properly."
"Arrogance," Buddha hissed. "Infinite arrogance."
Lucien shrugged, unbothered. "No. Just infinite precision."
Calystria stepped closer, the fabric of reality folding behind her in elegant, balanced seams.
Her voice dipped into something dangerous.
"Child of contradiction… I wish to speak to the true you."
Lucien's clone leaned back and crossed one leg over the other.
"And I wish you luck," he said, expression flat. "Because you—Calystria, Arbiter of Balance, Celestial Elder—you are not worthy of addressing him."
The world stilled.
Even Guru blinked. Vaelion snorted into his teacup.
Buddha's knuckles tightened until golden cracks split his skin.
Calystria's mirrored composure shattered.
"What did you say?" she breathed.
Lucien repeated, slower, softer, deadlier:
"You. Are not. Worthy."
Divinity snapped.
In a single moment, the mountain ceased to be a mountain.
Buddha's fist ignited the sky with a roar of sutras.
Calystria's hands unfolded into twin cosmic planes, aiming to fold Lucien into non-existence.
Their combined strike was an extinction-caliber event—something that would erase this world, and the ten beside it.
Their wrath fell—
Far Away — Azure Celestial Sect
The mortal sky cracked open like ice struck by a hammer.
Aelira flinched, nearly dropping her wooden practice sword. Umbra in his tiny form hissed, shadows rippling nervously across her shoulder.
The world bent.
Not metaphorically.
Not spiritually.
Literally.
The training grounds warped like cloth pulled by giant hands. Mountains in the distance grew twice their size, then shrank to the width of a fist. Trees flickered between the four seasons in seconds. Rivers ran backward.
Outer disciples screamed as the air split into glowing seams of karmic threads.
Inner disciples staggered as their cultivation bases wavered, fluctuating wildly—some rising a minor realm, others dropping.
Even the elders dropped to their knees.
Because everyone felt it—
The descent of two Elder Celestials.
Beings who existed too high for mortals to bear.
Their mere presence bent the physical world.
Aelira clutched Umbra, fear rising in her throat.
"Papa…?"
The sky above her blurred into gold and grey—two colossal forces clashing far, far to the west.
Each pulse of power sent earthquakes rippling through the sect.
Ryugan burst onto the pavilion rooftop, eyes wide with the panic of someone old enough to know what true despair meant.
"ELDERS! FORM DEFENSIVE BARRIERS NOW!"
"But Sect Master—"
"NOW! The heavens themselves are pressing down!"
He looked around wildly.
"The girl—where is the Heavenly Daughter—Aelira!?"
Aelira stood frozen in the trembling courtyard, clutching Umbra, who growled fiercely with a seriousness he rarely showed.
Ryugan ran to her and grabbed her shoulders trembling.
"Child—listen to me—what you are feeling… those are not storms, not natural disasters—those are CELESTIAL PRESENCES. If they clash—this world could fold—this sect could—"
Aelira lifted her eyes, expression steadying.
"No."
Her small voice carried something strange.
Unshakable.
"Papa said no one can hurt me."
Ryugan went pale.
He looked up just as another shudder tore through the sky—this one sharper, more violent, reality distorting like glass melting.
Far, far away…
Two Elder Celestials had struck.
At Lucien's clone.
Ryugan swallowed hard.
"Dreamveil… what have you done now…?"
Aelira hugged Umbra close and whispered:
"Papa… please win."
The world shook again.