Kaelan opens his eyes inside the Wizard Tower he has built within the Chen Kingdom capital.
An alarm echoes through the tower, transmitted from the Wizard Towers he has ordered erected along the frontline.
Twenty Divine Mind Realm cultivators enter the Chen Kingdom in batches and move directly toward him.
Kaelan's body dissolves into elementisation and reappears high in the sky, choosing the smallest batch as his target.
As he closes in, he unleashes his newest creation, a six-tier spell of the Dark Path.
Dark Dragon.
A massive dragon formed of condensed dark energy manifests, roars, folds its wings, and shoots forward like a falling star.
Kaelan hides his presence completely through the Dark Path, delaying their reaction by a fatal instant.
The Dark Dragon slams into the three Divine Mind cultivators, drags them down, and detonates upon impact with the ground in a massive explosion.
Dust and debris billow upward, obscuring everything.
Kaelan studies the area calmly.
He cannot see them, but he senses their auras, faint and violently unstable.
They are alive, but critically injured.
He does not move to finish them.
Floating in the air, Kaelan turns his head left and right.
Five Divine Mind cultivators rush in from each side.
In moments, he will be besieged by ten Divine Mind cultivators, with seven more closing in rapidly from behind.
Kaelan does not hesitate.
He darts left, choosing to annihilate one group before the encirclement completes.
Dark Dragon forms again.
The dragon roars and charges forward, but this time the five are fully prepared.
One cultivator conjures overlapping mirrors that shimmer like water.
Another raises a crimson shield of condensed blood essence.
A third summons a thick stone wall rooted in the earth.
The fourth forms a massive stone palm that presses forward.
The fifth envelops himself in a crackling shield of lightning.
In these past months, Kaelan's cultivation advanced to the peak Spiritual Wizard Realm.
Their defences rise together, layered and complete, yet they prove inadequate as the Dark Dragon tears through mirrors, blood, stone, and lightning, dragging all five cultivators screaming into the lake below and detonating in a churning pillar of black water and mist.
Kaelan senses their auras through the turbulence and knows at once that the injuries are light, nowhere near fatal.
Before he can press the attack, the other group appears in the sky behind him, and at the same time, the first group, injuries already knitting together, bursts out of the dust below.
Kaelan now stands between five Divine Mind cultivators on each side, while his spirit sense detects three more approaching from the north and four more surging from the south.
Ten Divine Mind cultivators move at once.
Fire floods the sky, water crashes like tides, earth condenses into a crushing mass, wind howls into blades, thunder splits the air, wood vines twist to bind, blood energy corrodes space, light sears vision, metal sharpens into killing arcs, and sword intent locks onto Kaelan's soul.
Kaelan vanishes.
Dark Step triggers, his body slipping through localised darkness as the converging attacks collide where he stood, detonating into chaos.
He reappears above them and raises a hand.
Dark Arrow.
Thousands of condensed dark projectiles rain down like a night storm, blotting out the sky.
Several cultivators roar and counterattack, shields flaring, weapons cutting upward through the barrage.
Dark Armour layers itself around Kaelan, absorbing stray impacts as sparks of dark energy scatter harmlessly.
A thunder spear pierces through the arrows toward him.
Kaelan twists midair and releases Dark Blade, slicing the spear in half before it reaches him.
He follows with Dark Pulse.
A radial wave of darkness expands outward, slamming into the ten cultivators and disrupting their energy circulation.
Formations stagger, attacks falter, and several cultivators cough blood as their rhythms break.
Kaelan dives.
Dark Grip erupts from below, shadowy tendrils binding two cultivators and dragging them together.
Dark Blast detonates between them, hurling both backwards in smoking arcs.
A sword cultivator flashes forward, blade already descending.
Kaelan meets him head-on.
Dark Pierce condenses into a needle of absolute darkness and punches through the sword intent, tearing across the cultivator's shoulder and sending him spinning away.
Fire and wind converge again from opposite sides.
Kaelan spreads Dark Wings and twists sharply, letting the attacks skim past as he plunges downward.
Dark Cage forms midair, interlocking planes snapping shut around three cultivators.
They strike from inside, cracking the cage, but not fast enough.
Dark Vortex blooms beneath them, swallowing the cage and grinding everything inside with spiralling darkness before hurling the captives outward in broken formation.
The remaining cultivators regroup quickly, wounds sealing, eyes burning with killing intent.
At that moment, seven more Divine Mind cultivators arrive, their auras crashing into the battlefield like falling stars.
Seventeen Divine Mind Realm cultivators now surround Kaelan in the sky, sealing space in all directions.
Kaelan floats calmly at the centre of the encirclement, dark energy surging steadily around him as the next phase of the battle begins.
Hours earlier, as human Divine Mind cultivators cross into Chen Kingdom, the Divine Palace of the Twilight Clan hangs silently above the clouds.
Within the palace, the Gods of Dawn and Evening stand beside the core members of the Twilight Race, watching twenty Divine Mind cultivators advance.
Sieena speaks softly, "Lord… this war must be stopped… Kong Wuya is important to the world…"
The Twilight Race, close to the World's Will, clearly sees heaven-and-earth favour coiling around Kong Wuya like an unseen crown.
They know the reason.
Qi Refiners can rival Wizards in power, yet they sever their mortal ties and place themselves above humanity.
Wizards grow stronger while lifting humanity with them.
Bio-engineered seeds spread into deserts, frozen lands, and wastelands, ending hunger where it once ruled.
Hydraulic dams rise across rivers, producing electricity that turns night into light and reshapes civilisation.
To the world itself, the Wizard Way brings tangible benefit.
The God of Dawn answers calmly, "Not now… if we save him now… he will not be grateful…"
Their gazes return to the battlefield.
Kaelan overwhelms the attackers with ruthless precision, three Divine Mind cultivators crippled so badly they can no longer fight.
Five more suffer injuries.
He continues battling ten Divine Mind cultivators with terrifying composure.
Then seven more arrive.
Seventeen Divine Mind cultivators strike together.
Fire, water, earth, wind, thunder, wood, blood, light, metal, and sword intent collapse inward, sealing space and leaving no avenue of escape.
At that moment, Wizard Towers across the Chen Kingdom ignite simultaneously.
Lines of magic energy surge through the sky and converge on Kaelan.
His Holy Spirit manifests.
The tower energy floods into it, swelling its form until it towers over the battlefield.
An enormous armour of luminous magic forms around Kaelan, resembling a colossal guardian like Susanoo.
The combined attacks slam into the armour and shatter harmlessly.
Silence lasts only an instant.
The most intense battle of Kaelan's life begins.
From within the Holy Spirit, Kaelan swings massive energy claws, each strike tearing apart techniques, shattering domains, and ripping Divine Mind cultivators from the sky like broken leaves.
The Holy Spirit towers above the battlefield, a crow-faced giant wreathed in storm and darkness, its wings stretching across the sky as lightning coils along feathers forged from pure dark law.
Kaelan drives it forward with absolute control, storm law compressing into brutal momentum while dark law refines every elemental fluctuation into something he can grasp and twist.
A blade of sword intent slashes toward the Holy Spirit's neck, yet Kaelan tilts slightly, and the attack skims harmlessly along layered darkness before being swallowed entirely.
Thunder spears crash into the Holy Spirit's chest, but storm law answers storm law, dispersing the force into spiralling currents that feed Kaelan instead of harming him.
A cultivator channels fire and blood together, forming a burning crimson beast that lunges forward, only for Kaelan to seize it midair and crush it between clawed fingers until it collapses into raw energy.
The Holy Spirit's wings beat once, and hurricane winds erupt, tearing formations apart and forcing Divine Mind cultivators to scatter to avoid being dragged into close combat.
Kaelan advances relentlessly, claws flashing, storm surging, dark law suppressing enemy circulation and dragging their techniques half a step out of rhythm.
A metal cultivator reinforces his body and charges head-on, but Kaelan's claw pierces through the layered metal intent and hurls him downward like debris.
Water techniques surge upward, attempting to bind the Holy Spirit's legs, yet darkness spreads instantly through the liquid, freezing motion and collapsing the spell from within.
Light flashes across the battlefield, searing and blinding, but the Holy Spirit's crow eyes absorb it, converting brilliance into dim twilight that feeds the dark domain surrounding Kaelan.
Kaelan pivots midair and sweeps both claws outward, storm arcs lacing between them, shredding three incoming attacks before they can fully manifest.
One Divine Mind cultivator slips past the wings and strikes at Kaelan's core with wood law meant to drain vitality, but dark law isolates the energy and burns it away before it can take root.
The battlefield stretches across kilometres of sky, clouds torn apart, lakes below boiling from stray impacts, and mountains cracking under suppressed shockwaves.
Kaelan presses harder, forcing close combat, because the Holy Spirit's greatest strength lies in dominance and pressure rather than delicate exchanges.
A sword cultivator and a lightning cultivator coordinate perfectly, striking from opposite angles, yet Kaelan twists the Holy Spirit's torso unnaturally, allowing one attack to block the other.
Storm law erupts inward, detonating between them, and both cultivators are sent tumbling back with cracked domains.
Still, none fall completely, and Kaelan feels the limits of prolonged exertion even as magic energy floods continuously from the towers.
Eleven Divine Mind cultivators continue attacking without pause, rotating positions, exploiting every opening, adapting rapidly to the Holy Spirit's movements.
At the edge of the battlefield, six Divine Mind cultivators from the Tianren Sect withdraw slightly, their expressions solemn as they stop attacking.
They spread out into precise positions, forming a hexagonal pattern that locks onto heaven and earth.
Spiritual symbols ignite beneath their feet, lines connecting across empty air as their formation begins to take shape.
Kaelan senses it instantly, a pressure different from raw power, something structured, deliberate, and dangerous.
Yet he does not retreat.
The Holy Spirit roars, storm and darkness intertwining, and Kaelan drives it forward again, meeting the remaining eleven head-on.
Claws clash with blades, wings collide with thunder, darkness grinds against light, and the sky itself seems unable to contain the violence.
The battle rages without resolution, neither side collapsing, neither side gaining decisive ground, as formations rise and attacks intensify.