After Zora left, the wind did not immediately settle.The desolate land still howled.Dust still spiraled violently toward the massive dark opening ten miles away.The portal continued to pulse like a wound in space itself, swallowing light and distorting the air around it.Kai and Abigail stood there silently, staring at it.Neither of them spoke and neither of them moved.For the first time since arriving, there was no sarcasm, no teasing, no smirking confidence.Just raw awareness.They didn’t know what was going to come out of that thing.Were they humans?Were they beasts?Were they monsters from another dimension with forms that defied logic?Zora hadn’t specified and they hadn’t asked because asking would’ve been pointless.If she wanted them to know, she would have said it.If she didn’t say it, it meant they would find out the hard way.Kai folded his arms slowly, eyes narrowing slightly as he studied the portal more carefully. The suction force wasn’t random. It wasn’t chaot

Kai and Abigail did not blink as the beast fully crossed over.The moment its last limb tore free from the twisting portal, the air changed.It wasn’t dramatic like thunder splitting the sky.It was worse.It was subtle and damn ppressive.The spiritual energy in the surroundings, already unstable due to the portal, seemed to sink. The wind slowed unnaturally, as if it too was cautious. Even the dust that had been spiraling violently moments ago settled in hesitant spirals around the beast’s massive frame.The aura it radiated almost suffocated them.Not because it was wildly leaking power.But because it was dense, heavy and complete.Kai immediately felt the realm.Unity Dao.Exactly as Zora had said.One realm above him.Just one.Ordinarily, that difference wouldn’t shake him. He had fought stronger opponents before. He had stood against enemies two realms higher and still crushed them through brute strength and terrifying stamina.But this.. this was different.The beast lifted i

The forest had gone eerily quiet after the beast was flicked away.Emily knelt on the blood-stained ground, her breath ragged, her vision blurring at the edges. Vivienne lay several steps away, ribs rising and falling weakly. Trouble was sprawled beside a shattered tree trunk, its wing bent awkwardly, fur matted with blood and dirt.And standing and watching them was Zora.She didn’t look angry.She didn’t look worried.She looked… mildly inconvenienced.Her gaze swept over the battlefield once. Fallen trees. Torn earth. Blood soaked into roots. The faint smell of death lingering in the air.Then she sighed.“You’re slow.”It wasn’t harsh.It was factual.Emily tried to speak, but the pain in her side flared sharply. Zora stepped forward without another word and raised her hand.A soft glow spread from her palm.It was not blinding and not explosive.It was gentle like moonlight condensed into liquid.The glow descended over Emily first. It seeped into her torn flesh, stitching muscle

Seeing Zora appear with Emily beside her, both Kai and Abigail froze.It wasn’t shock from battle but it was confusion.They had just finished fighting a Unity Dao beast from another world. Their nerves were still sharp, their breathing still slightly unevenAnd now Emily was here.Inside the barrier.Right next to Zora.Kai stared at her for a long second, then at Zora.“What are you thinking?”Abigail didn’t speak, but her brows furrowed deeply.Bringing Emily here?To this battlefield?The place where foreign Unity Dao beasts could step out at any time?It didn’t make sense.Zora crossed her arms lazily.“She’ll stay here.”Emily blinked.Kai’s head snapped toward Zora.“She’ll what?”“She’ll be with you for the meantime.”Kai froze completely.“Are you planning to kill her?”Abigail glanced at him sharply, but she understood what he meant.This wasn’t the forest anymore.This was a front line.The portal wasn’t producing ordinary beasts.It was sending creatures refined by superio

A month passed in a flash.Ever since the first beast came out of the portal and was killed, there had been no major disturbances. The massive portal in the distance still twisted violently, sucking in dust and wind from the surrounding land, but nothing new had stepped out of it. The barren ground outside the barrier remained quiet and almost suspiciously so, like the calm before a storm that was taking its time to arrive.Because of that, Kai and the others focused entirely on cultivation during that month.The environment here was not particularly friendly for training. The spiritual energy around the portal was unstable and somewhat impure due to the disturbance between realms. Still, for cultivators like them, even such a place could be turned into a training ground if they forced their bodies to adapt. Abigail’s cultivation advanced steadily after her breakthrough to the Void Infant stage, and Emily also made noticeable improvements in controlling her energy and stabilizing he