The viewing screens shimmered once, showing nothing but black void where the prodigies' trials unfolded. The Eternal Firefly King's gate sealed behind Ash, and the plaza seemed… quieter, as if holding its breath.
Elder Umo's great wolf tail lashed behind him with satisfaction, his eyes glowing like coals. "That boy… he wears the Firefly King's will like a mantle. He is the future of Iron Fang." Elder Vash folded his arms, silent but smiling faintly. "The other clans now see what we've known: he's a sovereign in the making." Elder Mei tilted her fan to hide her smile, her voice a calm hum. "Eternal paths are not seized. They are courted. The Firefly King chose him long before today."
Elder Jin's expression was stony, but his eyes gleamed with pride. "Let the continent whisper his name. When he returns, the balance of power will shift." Far off, Marla leaned against a pillar, arms crossed, serpentine eyes narrowed.
"Five to ten years… and no word until then." Faeluxe, arms folded over her chrysalis armor, exhaled softly. "We're grounded. All we can do is grow… or die while we wait." Marla's snakes hissed softly, sensing her unease. "If Ash returns to a ruined continent, what good is his inheritance? We'll have to hold the line." Faeluxe's golden eyes flicked to the elders, "And pray they're as ready as he is."
The Viewing Screen went Black.
A collective gasp rippled across the plaza as every floating projection screen dimmed to nothing. The visions of Elyahna's blizzard, Zhenba's sword halls, Vaylan's dark star gravity floor—all vanished. A vast silence hung over the thousand gathered clans. Suddenly, the air shifted.
From the edges of the plaza, storm winds whipped up, carrying the scent of brimstone and rot. Figures in ashen robes stepped forward, their faces hidden behind swirling wind masks, each crowned with horns of obsidian crystal. Their presence was suffocating, and they carried the will of a foreign continent!
The lead figure raised a staff of bone, the wind howling louder.
"Hear us, worms of the Beast Vein Continent! The Forbidden Continent has sent to you it's herald. Bow before the Demonic Heavenly Wind Clan. Your prodigies are gone, your strength is hollow. Submit your banners, your treasures, your bloodlines… or be erased."
The crowd erupted in chaos!
Clan leaders leapt to their feet!
Frozen Heart Matriarch Vanessa spoke "This is sacrilege! You dare cross seas and threaten us here?!" The Psychic Fire Eye Patriarch spoke "They waited until the prodigies were sealed… Clever bastards." Iron Fang Elder Umo sneered, "You think we're defenseless, demon filth?!"
The Heavenly Wind figures didn't even flinch. The wind howled louder as a Meteor Descended! Suddenly, the skies split. A blazing meteor tore through the heavens like a burning sun, its arrival shattering cloud banks and forcing everyone to their knees with sheer spiritual pressure. Cultivators howled in terror just as they thought the Meteor was about to crash!
But it didn't crash, at the last moment the ferocity ebbed away and It hovered. From within the incredible aura stepped a colossal figure, armored in molten gold and red, crowned with silver horns. His aura was so heavy that the plaza cracked beneath him!
"SILENCE!"
The winds stopped. This was Peak-Tier King.
Lord Imperion's very presence crushed qi circulation for every cultivator below Sovereign tier. Many knelt involuntarily, their bodies unable to withstand his aura. High Lord Imperion spoke with ''Far Speech'' a voice amplification technique.
"From this day forward, this land kneels beneath my heel. The Beast Vein Continent shall serve me,or burn."
As he spoke, silver blood began dripping from his eyes, ears, and mouth—yet it didn't fall. The blood spiraled into the air, knitting itself into a woman's form! The silver blood twisted and shaped into an elegant, horrifyingly beautiful woman of silver, wearing a crown. She smiled with razor-sharp teeth, her voice honeyed poison.
Freyjita spoke, "Bow, little lords and ladies. Sign the Blood Phage Contract. Serve us, and your clans will be… preserved." She extended her hand, and chains of silver began coiling from her fingertips like living serpents, each one glowing with runes of servitude. Elder Jin snarled "A phage spirit…he's bound himself to a plague demon."
Vanessa, "He's no king. He's a walking calamity." Mei spoke quietly "Ash… Elyahna… all of you. You'd better return quickly." The plaza's power dynamic had inverted entirely! The continent's greatest prodigies were sealed away, leaving its elders and defenders face-to-face with foreign invaders and a plague-wielding peak tier king.
Inside a dreamlike, endless midsummer night sky, I sat cross-legged atop a glowing silver lotus platform. Fireflies drifted like stars around me, carrying whispers of power and memory. My eyes snapped open—golden fire burning within them. Felicity's serpentine voice curled into my thoughts.
"Master!
Something is wrong outside! I can sense.... another blood phage!" My brows furrowed, I spoke mentally "What do you mean another blood phage, with who?" "I can sense her corruption beyond the veil, Through our pets Faeluxe and Marla. She rides in a peak tier king!'' There was a pause, and then the blood bond pulsed!
My senses bled outward through Felicity's connections—Faeluxe's keen falcon-sight and Marla's serpentine perception painting a vivid psychic picture of the chaos at the Inheritance Plaza: screaming winds, silver blood forming chains, and the meteor-born Imperion looming like a god.
My jaw tightened.
"So war begins while I'm sealed away."
I closed my eyes briefly, calculating. "Felicity… send my orders. Faeluxe, Marla… evacuate the elders. Get them to the Starbite. Elder Umo is to take Iron Fang beneath the mountains. Hide our clan, until I can return." Screams and battle cries erupted as war exploded in the Plaza! Clans that refused to kneel to Imperion surged forward in a desperate alliance. The Black Cowl Clan moved first—masked assassins striking like vipers, daggers glowing with curse-light as they vanished into silver chains, severing Freyjita's first wave of bindings.
Black Cowl Patriarch bellowed over the uproar, "We know the taste of phage corruption! Kill it now or be consumed!"
A coalition formed instantly: Frozen Heart, Psychic Fire Eye, Puppet Walker, and others unleashed torrents of martial power, storming the square! Through the chaos, Medusa Marla and Faeluxe were a storm of efficiency. Marla's snakes lashed out, turning charging enemies to stone statues in mid-scream, while Faeluxe darted through the air, scattering golden feathers that became blinding flashes to cover their retreat. They reached the Iron Fang elders, standing stoically as chaos swirled. Marla spoke in a sharp whisper, "Ash's orders. Star bite, now!"
Faeluxe however was calm and melodic, "He commands Iron Fang to vanish beneath the mountains. We must leave." Elder Umo's face was thunderous, but he nodded. "If the boy is issuing battlefield orders from inside an inheritance… we obey." The elders formed a tight defensive circle as Marla and Faeluxe carved a path of destruction through the battlefield, escorting them aboard the Star bite back at the spirit docks. With a roar of its engine, the star bite broke into the atmosphere, vanishing into the horizon.
The battlefield froze. Freyjita floated into the air, her silver blooded chains expanding into a blooming lotus of death. From the center of her lotus, tendrils of silver blood exploded outward, striking dozens of clan cultivators mid-flight! They screamed as the blood plague dissolved their armor and flesh into glistening silver sludge, their bodies collapsing into puddles that slithered back toward Freyjita like living offerings!
Freyjita smiled coldly, "Delicious… your essence will strengthen me."
She flicked a hand. Dozens of black steel coffins materialized from her chains, snapping shut around cultivators, absorbing their qi in an instant! The plaza reeked of iron and blood. The surviving clan leaders froze. Even the Black Cowl assassins faltered mid-step, terror flashing behind their masks.
Freyjita voice echoed like bells of doom.
"I trust…"
She extended her arms, and the sky itself turned silver, blotting out the sun!
"…no further display of power… is in order?"
Chains slithered across the plaza floor, curling around knees and ankles like constricting serpents, daring anyone to resist. Frozen Heart Matriarch Vanessa face was pale, her frost aura dimmed. "What… is she?" The Black Cowl Patriarch gritted his teeth, eyes full of fury but calculating. "A phage spirit of this caliber… impossible." The psychic fire eye Patriarch Shook with fury, veins bulging with psychic fire. "If this stands, we'll all be nothing but her vessels."
The plaza had fallen silent save for the drip of silver plasma pooling from Freyjita's chains. Above them all, the meteor still hung, glowing faintly, casting the scene in a blood-red light. From its center descended Lord Imperion, every motion like a celestial decree. His boots touched the stone without a sound, yet the ground cracked in a perfect circle beneath him.
Imperion was calm but spoke like thunder "I tire of this noise."
He raised his right hand.
SNAP!
The sound reverberated like a crashing wave across the continent! Freyjita dissolved into a red silver mist, flowing toward every clan leader present. In a heartbeat, that mist congealed into dozens of hovering scrolls of silver blood, each inscribed with ancient demonic runes that pulsed like heartbeats. Freyjita spoke sweetly, voice echoing from every scroll. "A simple oath. A vow of loyalty, a tithe of blood essence, and a promise to never raise blade or scheme against the Heavenly Wind Clan.
Sign, and your clans will live."
There was tension Among the Clan Leaders.
The leaders gathered at the center—Morvek of the puppet walker's clan, Vanessa of the Frozen Heart, Elder Zulin of Golden Boulder—stood rigid, their expressions a study in calculation. Vanessa's frost aura was suppressed to the point of breaking, sweat beading on her forehead despite her ice cultivation.
"We cannot fight this… not now. If we resist here, every child in Frozen Heart dies before dusk." The Patriarch of the psychic fire eye clan flames flared, burning so brightly his veins glowed, but his hands trembled.
Morvek: "I feel her presence in my mind already. Her spirit is consuming those she kills. She is a plague god." Elder Zulin's deep voice rumbled, sorrowful yet decisive.
"Golden Boulder can weather a siege… but this is not war. This is… annihilation." The three exchanged a solemn look and nodded grimly. One by one, they extended their palms over the hovering silver scrolls. A razor-sharp thread of blood essence rose from their veins and etched their names in demonic script, binding them.
Freyjita was purring "Wise leaders. Your loyalty will not go unrewarded."
A sudden laugh rang out—harsh, mocking. From the shadows, the Black Cowl Patriarch emerged, his face hidden beneath a bone mask. He strode up to his scroll, tilted his head, and sneered.
"You believe you can leash us, blood demon? The Cowl bows to no plague."
He raised a shadow dagger and slashed his own scroll in half. Freyjita was amused by this, "Then you have chosen death."
Instantly, silver chains lashed toward him like vipers! But the Patriarch slammed a hand to the ground! A massive escape array flared under his feet, black sigils devouring the plaza's light! The chains lashed out, but the entire Black Cowl contingent had vanished in a whirl of black smoke, leaving behind only mocking laughter.
Black Cowl Patriarch's voice spoke as it was fading away "Come and hunt us… we'll be waiting for you, in the dark!"
Imperion barely moved. He glanced upward, and the meteor pulsed once. The entire plaza trembled, a wave of force flattening every clan representative to their knees. Imperion spoke calmly but with lethal intent, "Two clans flee. The rest stay." He extended a single finger, and Freyjita coiled back into her humanoid form.
She drifted back to Imperion, wrapping herself around him like a serpent of mercury. Imperion spoke, "You have one breath to sign. One breath to bend the knee." Around . The sky above the plaza rippled as his celestial presence smothered the sun itself. The plaza was silent, a graveyard of broken pride. The meteor still floated above like a scarlet omen, casting shifting shadows across the shattered tiles.
Imperion's gaze swept across the kneeling clan leaders, voice like rolling thunder, "You have bent the knee. A Wise choice indeed." He clasped his hands behind his back and turned his eyes skyward, his expression one of dispassionate command.
"Now, prove that loyalty."
He raised a single hand, and Freyjita unfurled into tens of thousands of thin silver threads, spreading like a spider's web over the plaza. One thread hovered above each clan leader's head, quivering to pierce their skulls. Imperion spoke coldly.
"The Black Cowl Clan has chosen treachery. This will not be tolerated! From this moment on, their name is erased from your ledgers, their existence stripped from your histories!"
The threads above the clan leaders began to hum with a low resonance, a warning. "Hunt them down. Root them out. Crush every den, every lair, every sympathizer. Bring me their heads… or your own clans will join them in oblivion." A heavy wave of dread settled over the plaza. Leaders exchanged glances—some pale and trembling, others masking their terror behind stoic faces. Vanessa of the Frozen Heart lowered her head, her knuckles white as she clenched her robe. "Another purge… this is tyranny dressed as law," she thought bitterly. The patriarch of psychic fire eye flickered with psychic flame, but his eyes narrowed, calculating escape routes and contingencies.
"He commands us with terror… but terror can be turned. Someday."
Elder Zulin of Golden Boulder slammed a massive fist into his palm, his teeth grinding. "We have no choice but to obey." Imperion gestured, and every signed scroll compacted and returned to Freyjita, their essence weaving into the hovering threads above. The threads shot forward into each Elder and clan Leaders head!
A burning sigil, the mark of servitude, briefly flared on their foreheads before fading. Freyjita smiled cruelly, "The pact is sealed. Your lives are no longer your own. Fail this command, and your blood will answer to me." Imperion gave one final, ringing command.
"The Black Cowl and Iron Fang Clans are now a plague upon this continent. Treat them as such.
Hunt.
Destroy.
Leave nothing of them but ash."
The meteor above pulsed once more, and a storm of blazing winds swept the plaza, forcing cultivators to shield their faces! When the storm cleared, Imperion and Freyjita were gone, leaving only shattered tiles, lingering silver mist, and the mark of domination burned into every leader's soul.
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