Now Oasis and Vaelrix stood mere inches apart—face to face, breath to breath—yet neither truly touched the other.Between them, the air itself warped.It was as though two identical poles of a magnet had been forced together—north against north—an unseen force pressing outward, resisting, rejecting, refusing union.Their energies collided in silence, forming an invisible barrier that trembled with equal dominance.Neither yielded. Neither advanced.Oasis’s cyan aura flowed around him like living flame—ethereal, fluid, almost sentient.It coiled and uncoiled along his limbs, drifting like mist yet burning with an ancient intensity.It did not lash outward aggressively, but it claimed space—a sovereign presence that declared: this is mine.Then—Vaelrix’s aura answered.Without warning, faint sparks flickered around his body—thin threads of static, crackling into existence.In the next instant, those threads erupted into violent, dancing arcs of azure lightning that wrapped around him l

For a moment—Silence.The group that had once numbered fifteen now stood reduced to fourteen, yet none of them spoke.They hovered in place, frozen—not by force, but by something far more unsettling.Shock.A youth stood before them.A boy.And yet—No one dared to answer him.Their defensive stances remained firm, bodies tense, auras subtly raised—not in aggression, but in caution.It was as if, in that brief span of time, they had forgotten who they were… forgotten the weight of the positions they held in their respective factions.Elders.Leaders.Figures who had walked the cultivation world for decades—some for centuries.And yet now—They hesitated before a youth.The contrast was jarring.Almost humiliating.“I can smell…”Oasis spoke again, his voice calm, controlled, drifting through the air like a quiet blade.“Fear.”A pause.“Anxiety.”Another.“Greed.”His tone did not change.“Pureness.”“Humbleness.”“Skepticism.”“And uncertainty.”He hovered at the center of the loose

Everyone took their seats.The earth-formed chairs were simple, yet sturdy—crafted from compacted soil and stone that had risen moments ago at Oasis’s command.They formed a quiet circle amid the devastation, a strange contrast to the chaos that surrounded them.Dust still lingered in the air, faintly illuminated by the golden light of the rising sun, and the ground beneath them bore cracks and scars of overwhelming force.Yet here—There was order.The six remaining individuals sat cautiously, their movements measured, their gazes occasionally shifting toward Oasis.No one leaned back.No one relaxed fully.Even in a seated position, their bodies remained slightly tense, as though prepared to react at any moment.And at the head of it all—Oasis sat.Calm.Composed.Unhurried.He did not waste time.“I believe that you here are not the only ones affected by this ordeal.”His voice carried gently, yet clearly.“You are simply the ones who were brave enough to approach.”His head tilte

Florentis City.The sun had risen higher now, its golden light spilling fully across the vast city, illuminating rooftops, courtyards, and streets bustling with early activity.The calm rhythm of daily life had resumed—merchants setting up stalls, cultivators moving between estates, servants carrying out their duties.Nothing—At least on the surface—Seemed out of place.Within the Woods Estate—Guest Courtyard.The place where Lukan Maser had been residing.“Finally…”Lukan exhaled slowly, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction.“I think I’ve got the hang of it.”His stance shifted slightly as he adjusted his breathing, feeling the flow of mana within him.The technique Oasis had shown him—subtle, precise, almost elusive in its execution—had taken him longer than expected to grasp.But now—He understood it.Or at least—He believed he did.A faint smirk formed on his lips.“Now…”“Let me go test it.”His thoughts darkened slightly.“…and see if that brat will dare humiliate me again.”

After a few hours within the Celestial Sphere—though in truth, time within this realm had already stretched far beyond that, the atmosphere remained tranquil, almost eerily so, as if the world itself had forgotten the concept of urgency.Deep within the bamboo groves, far deeper than where he had trained months ago, Daku moved slowly between the towering green stalks.The bamboo swayed gently with the wind, their leaves whispering softly as sunlight filtered through in scattered beams, painting shifting patterns across the ground.The deeper he had gone, the quieter it had become—so quiet that even the faintest movement felt amplified.“Mm… it feels like it has been a while since we’ve been here… about five months, I would say,” Daku thought.His body bore the marks of intense training. His torso was bare, wrapped partially in bandages that clung tightly across his chest and arms. Below, he wore fitted trousers, simple but practical.Thin trails of sweat slid down from his temples, tr