I sat back down cross-legged within the heart of the Fiery Chariot, the bronze deck thrumming beneath me like a living forge. The flames streaming from the four spirit horses roared in rhythm with each beat of my heart. Within that burning chariot, Felicity's presence shimmered faintly, her consciousness riding the current of my blood and qi like a silken ember.
"So, what do you think emperor Ichikawa's greatest treasure is Ash," she whispered inside me, her voice rippling through the channels of my mental energy pool. I raised my eyebrow; to be totally honest I actually had not given it that much thought. When I overheard master Joruns predicament with completing the Tri-Emblem, I felt as though the whole moment was fate and that I had been somehow guided here by fate herself. So, without much forethought I simply seized the moment in the only way I knew how. "I don't know, but I have an odd feeling about all of it. This only happened because the Mimic burped out a divination slip, which lead me to master Joruns forge. For whatever reason, the Will of the Beast Vein Continent has directed our paths to a foreign land."
I could already feel the influence of the Will of Mystic Central.
The Will of the Beast Vein Continent had always felt wild and untamable to me —instinctive and pulsing with primal qi. It was a vast heartbeat in the soil, the whisper of storms and fangs and growth. When I reached out to the wild, it felt like a beast brushing against my spirit — curious, protective, sometimes wrathful, but never deceitful. Beast Vein continent demanded strength and courage, not perfection. The kind of will that rewarded survival, evolution, and raw intent.
But the Will of Mystic Central...
The moment the chariot broke through the last veil of clouds, I felt it seize the air itself. Where the Beast Vein's will had been the pulse of nature, Mystic Central's Will was one of order, structure, deliberate and judging. Every breath I took in felt weighed, measured, recorded. My qi circulation slowed instinctively, as though the very space demanded permission before power could flow.
"It feels…" I muttered under my breath, eyes narrowing, "…like standing inside a rulebook. This continent has a great deal of rules — and it's watching to see if I'll break them."
Felicity's presence flickered faintly in mental pool, her tone hushed. "Mystic Centrals Will sure doesn't feel like home. "It's...calculating." I nodded slowly, then I had a sudden moment of clarity, the sensation of the aura vaguely reminded me of something. " It's a woman."
A shimmer crossed the horizon—no, not sight, but presence. Something vast and sentient had taken notice. The air thickened, dense with fragrance of aromatic leaves, the perfume of a hundred thousand immortal blossoms steeped in ancient Qi. It slid across my skin, curious, almost intimate. I drew a long breath through my nose, Circulating Eternal Breath, my Eon Qi pool within me quivered, disturbed by an unseen tide. A foreign will brushed across my essence—soft as moonlight, yet vast enough to crush mountains. It sifted through my Qi, tasting the wild pulse of the Beast Vein Continent. For a heartbeat, I sensed her: the Feminine Will of Mystic Central, ancient and discerning. The wild, masculine essence of the Beast Vein Continent surged in answer, bristling against the caress of this new will. For an instant, the two forces met inside me—feral instinct against serene intellect.
Emperor Ichikawa drew in a slow breath. "Ah… so she's already seen you," he murmured, not to me, but to the air itself. "The Will of Mystic Central has taken an interest. How rare."
I didn't dare speak. The pressure of that presence was neither hostile nor kind—it was evaluating me, tasting the wildness that had not yet been tamed.
And somewhere within my mental pool, Felicity's voice whispered, half-awed, half-amused:
"Careful, Ash… she's sampling you."
A voice like molten thunder crashed into my ears, "Behold!" He literally made me Jump up at this. "Mystic Central!" The Emperor's command rolled across the heavens like a gong strike. My eyes snapped open. The chariot burst through a stormfront of white flame and cloud—then mystic central unfurled before me.
An impossible continent stretched across the horizon—vast as a god's dream. Mystic Central. The seat of ancient cultivation, where the eldest lineages and celestial orders convened. Its skyline was not made of mountains but of palaces and floating citadels. Waterfalls of pure Qi spilled from the crowns of towers that pierced the stratosphere, turning sunlight into shifting rainbows.
I blinked—then blinked again, unable to trust my own vision. My hands found the railing of the Fiery Chariot and held fast. Even through the infernal wind, the sight stole my breath.
"This… this is the center of the world!?"
No forests carpeted its lands. Well—perhaps that wasn't entirely true. There were trees, yes, but not like those of the Beast Vein Continent. Ours grew wild and towering, thousands of feet high; theirs stood like manicured shrubs, confined to tidy squares between endless avenues of stone. Roads webbed the land as far as my eye could see.
Mystic Central was not green. It was stone-gray—a civilization so old it had paved over the pulse of nature itself. And that's when it hit me, The feminine will of mystic Central cultivated civilization.
My eyes glimmered. Beneath my calm exterior, something darker stirred—a sense that my thread of destiny had just been pulled taut across the continents.
"Then it begins," I murmured, half to myself. "Twin paths… converging."
The Emperor's smile was like dawn breaking over a field of fire. "Yes. But before you meet destiny, young Sovereign—let the world witness you first."
The Fiery Chariot tilted, descending toward a sea of suspended palaces glowing like jewels above the continent's core. The air below shimmered with the aura of millions of cultivators—each one a spark in the vast storm of Mystic Central's living qi.
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