I exhaled slowly, loosening my grip on the spiritual web that tethered me across the distance. One by one, the spirit threads dissolved into mist, and my consciousness snapped back into my flesh.
A voice was already cutting through the haze of return.
"Master—wake up!" Felicity's tone was sharp, edged with urgency.
My eyes opened to the sight of her crouched low, crimson hoarfrost Animus shimmering along her arms ready for a fight. She stood protectively in front of me, her gaze never still, scanning the shadows between the rocks, eyes darting.
I looked to her slowly rolling my neck and shoulders, shaking off the vertigo of spirit-travel. "Felicity… what's going on?"
Her lips curled into a tense snarl, eyes flashing. "We've been surrounded, Master! That clan—the one that followed us here. They've brought reinforcements!"
I closed my eyes briefly, letting my spiritual senses unfold outward. Threads of Animus perception fanned across the terrain like a silent tide. In the next instant, my heart hardened.
They were everywhere.
A ring of hostile chi signatures blazed against my awareness—hundreds of cultivators pressing in from all sides, their killing intent like a tightening noose.
The trap had been sprung.
My eyes narrowed, gleaming with cold fire.
"Good," I muttered. "It appears a demonstration is in order."
I extended a hand toward Felicity. "To me, my silver-blooded queen."
She showed no hesitation. "Yes, Master!"
There was a visceral detonation of silver tendrils, flaring outward in a frenzy before collapsing into me. In the next heartbeat, Felicity's body unraveled into liquid gleam and rejoined my bloodstream.
My veins thrummed with power, cold and burning all at once.
The night itself seemed to flinch.
The Poison Lotus Clan had not stood beneath Freyjita's blood contract, nor had their banners been seen at the Meeting of the Hundred. But fame traveled faster than oaths, and the name Ash Embercoil—the Sovereign Slayer—had made its way even into this far and forgotten corner of the Beast Vein Continent.
So when their scouts brought word of strangers cultivating in a forbidden valley, the Grand Elder himself came with a host of warriors. Not to kill. Not yet. But to test. To see if the tales of power were truth—or fragile rumor.
I rose to my feet slowly, brushing dust from my hands. Bloodshed would solve nothing here. Not if I could make them believe in me. Not if I could gain their loyalty.
"Felicity," I murmured inside my veins, "stay ready and guard my flank, but this one's mine."
Felicity's voice rang into my mind, ''Understood Master!''
I drew a slow breath and let my Animus coil inward. My fingers brushed the black fabric of my Ninja Gear, glyphs within it sparking to life. In the space of a heartbeat, my aura winked out—erased so utterly that even first step martial artists could not feel me.
At once, the Poison Lotus cultivators froze.
Murmurs spread. Eyes darted wildly. Spiritual senses flared and found nothing.
"He's… gone?"
"No—he was just here!"
"Where—where did he—?"
Confusion rippled through the encirclement like cracks through ice. Their formation trembled.
"Now for the next part of this magic trick" I thought to myself. I would combine the Serpent Step Mirage technique with the Firefly Mote technique, creating the superior Firefly Mirage technique. A movement technique that would be sure to dazzle anyone below the True Lord Rank.
I stepped lightly, activating the weave of Serpent Step Mirage and feeding it with the motes of Firefly Dance. The two techniques kissed, fused—and the world fractured.
At first there was a hundred points of light, then five hundred. Then a thousand, and then ten thousand!
Ten thousand copies of myself manifested across every inch of the ruined temple!
My phantoms sprinted along the temple walls, leapt from boulder to boulder, vaulted into the air only to split again and again. Every direction—front, back, left, right—the Sovereign Slayer danced.
Cultivators panicked, launching qi blasts, blade-arts, and lotus-poison waves at the mirages. Every strike passed harmlessly through illusions that burst into motes of gold and ember, reforming instantly somewhere else.
The battlefield dissolved into chaos.
And then—silence.
Every flicker of firefly-mirage drew inward, condensing into a single, undeniable form.
I stood at the base of the temple steps; hands folded behind my back. The light of thousands still clung to me, washing the stones in gold and flame.
Across from me, the Grand Elder of the Poison Lotus Clan and his top warriors stared in stunned disbelief.
I inclined my head, calm, unhurried. My voice carried like a strike of bronze.
"Now that I have your attention… shall we speak?"
And then—silence.
My firefly dantian floated around me like a mantle of stars.
The mountain itself seemed to hold its breath.
Across from me, the Grand Elder of the Poison Lotus Clan and his chosen warriors stared wide-eyed, disbelief etched into every line of their faces. Even the most hardened cultivators trembled, their killing intent faltering under the weight of awe.
I inclined my head, slow and deliberate, every motion carved from the bedrock of certainty.
A hush rippled through the shattered arena, heavy as thunderclouds. Then came the whispers—sharp, urgent, carried on the breaths of the continent's finest.
"That was King-level intent…" one voice trembled.
"A Martial King! At such a young age!?" gasped another.
"What kind of movement skill was that!?" demanded a third, awe laced with fear.
The prodigies—those proud scions who had moments ago sharpened killing intent at me—now looked like children peering at a storm from too close. Some took instinctive steps back; others bowed their heads, unwilling to meet his gaze.
Then, like sunlight cutting through storm clouds, came the sound of laughter—deep, rolling, filled with both respect and joy.
"Ha! Ha ha ha!"
The Grand Elder of the Poison Lotus clan gleaming with earthen qi, pressed his massive fists together and bent into a deep, solemn bow. The air itself seemed to quake at the weight of such reverence.
"Marvelous. Truly marvelous! To think I would live to see such power born in this generation. Tell me, young one…" His voice carried across the stunned assembly, equal parts challenge and worship.
"…Are you Ash Embercoil—the Sovereign-Slayer himself?"
Felicity spoke in my mind, " It appears our reputation proceeds us.
I closed my eyes, sinking inward. Deep into the roaring furnace of my Ember coil beast core, where molten fire and coiled destiny slumbered. With a single exhale, I tore the veil between body and spirit beast.
WHOOSH—
A serpent of living flame erupted from my back, vast and terrible, its scales forged of burning embers, its coils spanning the sky. The Embercoil Serpent, ancient and primeval, arched above me like a god descending to claim dominion. Heat rolled off its body in waves that made even the heavens waver.
"To think fire could take serpentine form—his bloodline must be divine!"
I opened my eyes; fire reflected in their depths. My voice cut like a blade into silence:
"I am Ash Embercoil."
The Serpent roared, and the continent trembled.