All Chapters of The Forsaken Heir of Ten Thousand Realms: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
45 chapters
Chapter 31 — Ashes of the Only Home They Had
The slums burned long after they stopped running.Arin stood on the ridge of broken earth beyond the city’s edge, chest rising and falling, lungs raw with smoke. Below him, the place that had shaped every scar and lesson of his life collapsed into itself, roofs folding inward, alleyways vanishing beneath waves of flame. The fire did not rage blindly. It consumed with purpose, licking paths it had learned too well.This was not destruction.It was erasure.Lyra pressed close to him, trembling, her small hands clutching the front of his coat as if the fire might reach across the distance and take her back. Mira paced in short, angry circles, soot streaking her face. Elira stood a little apart, eyes fixed on the blaze, jaw set hard enough to ache.Tobin was not with them.The absence throbbed like a wound that refused to close.Arin swallowed and forced himself to breathe. The heat on his face felt like an accusation. He watched a familiar tower of scrap collapse, sparks bursting outward
Last Updated : 2026-01-03
Chapter 32 — The Road of Starving Souls
The wildlands did not welcome them.The ground hardened into cracked earth threaded with thorn and stone, the paths dissolving into guesswork and instinct. Trees thinned and twisted, their leaves brittle and pale. Even the wind seemed reluctant to follow, dragging itself across the plains in shallow breaths.They walked anyway.Arin led, counting steps and shadows, marking landmarks only he would remember. Mira followed closely, club slung over her shoulder, scanning the ridges for movement. Elira drifted at the rear, silent and watchful, erasing their trail where she could. Lyra stayed between them, her weight growing heavier with every hour.They ate roots pulled from stubborn soil, bitter and stringy. Elira identified what wouldn’t kill them. Mira dug with bare hands when tools failed. Arin rationed everything, measuring survival in mouthfuls and hours.Water came from a narrow river that cut through the wildlands like a wound. It tasted of iron and silt. They boiled it when they c
Last Updated : 2026-01-03
Chapter 33 — Mira’s Fierce Stand
The wildlands did not announce danger.They simply shifted.Arin felt it as a tightening in his chest, the same instinct that had kept him alive since the slums. The wind changed direction. Birds that had been circling low vanished into the pale sky. Even the ground beneath their boots seemed to hold its breath.“Stop,” he said quietly.Mira halted at once, club resting against her shoulder. Elira slowed a step behind, eyes already scanning the ridgeline. Lyra leaned heavily against Arin’s side, her weight uneven, breath shallow but steadier than the day before.Too quiet.Then the first arrow struck the dirt between Mira’s feet.It vibrated there, quivering, its crude shaft splintered from poor craft but lethal all the same.Bandits rose from the broken terrain like rot surfacing after rain. They spilt from behind boulders and thorn thickets, faces wrapped in cloth, weapons mismatched but numerous. Hungry eyes fixed on packs, on Lyra’s faint glow, on weakness they thought they saw.A
Last Updated : 2026-01-04
Chapter 34 — Elira’s Assassin Instinct
The wildlands never truly slept.Arin learned that as the night deepened and the fire dwindled to embers. Wind slid through the ravine like a cautious thief, lifting ash and carrying it away before it could settle. Somewhere beyond the rocks, something moved with intention.He felt it in the pause between breaths.Mira lay resting against a bed of packed earth, her leg bound tight. She slept shallowly, jaw clenched, pain keeping her near the surface. Lyra curled beside the fire, exhaustion finally pulling her under. The faint glow beneath her skin pulsed slowly, steadier than before, but fragile all the same.Elira was gone.Arin noticed the absence too late.He rose quietly, easing away from the fire, shadow gathering instinctively at his feet. He followed the path Elira would take if she were hunting. Not straight lines. Not an obvious cover. Angles and silence.He found her near the ravine’s edge.She stood motionless behind a narrow stand of scrub, body relaxed, breathing shallow
Last Updated : 2026-01-04
Chapter 35 — First Encounter With a Cultivator
The air changed before the man appeared.Arin felt it as a pressure behind his eyes, a subtle resistance against each breath, as if the wildlands themselves had grown wary. The shadow beneath his skin tightened, not in readiness, but in discomfort.This was different.He raised a hand slightly, signalling Mira and Elira to slow. Lyra walked close beside him, her steps uneven but determined. The ravine ahead narrowed into a corridor of stone, its walls marked by old fractures and faint mineral veins that caught the light.“Something’s wrong,” Mira muttered.Elira nodded once. “Yes.”Then the man stepped out from the rock face as if he had always been there.He was not dressed like a bandit. His clothes were simple but intact, with layered fabric bound neatly at the waist. His hair was tied back with a cord etched with symbols that made Arin’s vision blur when he looked too closely.The man smiled faintly.“A strange group,” he said calmly. “Children walking the Road of Starving Souls.”
Last Updated : 2026-01-05
Chapter 36 - The Cultivator’s Interest in Lyra
They had not gone far.Arin felt it again—the same crushing pressure that had hollowed his chest earlier, the same distortion in the air that made sound bend and breath turn shallow. The wildlands ahead blurred slightly, as if reality itself had taken a cautious step back.“Stop,” Elira whispered.Mira leaned heavily on her club, her injured leg stiff. “Tell me that’s not him.”Arin did not answer.The cultivator stepped out from behind a fractured stone spire as calmly as before, hands folded behind his back, expression faintly amused. His presence pressed down harder this time, deliberate and focused.“I told you to survive,” he said mildly. “You did.”Lyra stiffened instantly.Arin felt it through her grip—the sudden spike of heat, the violent flutter beneath her ribs. Her phoenix core reacted like a wounded creature sensing a predator.“Stay back,” Arin said, moving in front of her.The cultivator smiled wider. “Ah. There it is again.”His gaze cut through Arin, locking onto Lyra
Last Updated : 2026-01-05
Chapter 37 - Shadow Awakening, Second Surge
Pain had a sound.Arin learned that when Lyra cried out behind him—not loud, not dramatic, but sharp and broken, like something inside her had been struck out of rhythm.The cultivator had not meant to hurt her.That was what made it worse.He reached out with casual precision, two fingers extended, intending to probe the trembling phoenix core again. His spirit pressure shifted, narrowing into a focused thread.It brushed Lyra’s chest.She screamed.White-gold light detonated beneath her skin, not outward like flame, but inward, collapsing on itself violently. She folded forward, clutching her ribs as if something were tearing loose inside her
Last Updated : 2026-01-06
Chapter 38 - The Mysterious Elder Intervenes
Last Updated : 2026-01-06
Chapter 39 - The Elder’s Warning
The elder did not leave as others did.There was no rush of wind, no fading glow, no distortion of space. He remained where he stood, staff resting lightly against the ravine stone, as if the world itself had decided to pause out of respect.Arin felt the weight of that pause press against his chest.Lyra clutched his sleeve, fingers cold. Mira leaned heavily on her club, eyes narrowed. Elira stood perfectly still, instincts screaming even though no threat presented itself.The elder’s gaze moved slowly across them, lingering last on Arin.“You have been warned,” he said quietly.Arin swallowed. “You always say that right before disappearing.”A faint smile touched the elder’s lips. “Because warnings lose meaning when repeated.”He lifted his staff and traced a slow arc in the air. The space shimmered briefly, not with power, but with intention.“Listen carefully,” the elder continued. “This will not be explained twice.”The ravine grew still.Even the wind retreated.The elder’s voic
Last Updated : 2026-01-08
Chapter 40 - Lyra’s First Fevered Transformation
Lyra collapsed without warning.One moment, she was walking beside Arin, steps small but steady, fingers curled around his sleeve. Next, her knees buckled as if the ground had vanished beneath her. Arin caught her just before her head struck the dirt, the sudden weight knocking the breath from his lungs.“Lyra,” he said sharply. “Lyra, look at me.”Her body burned.Not like a fever. Not like illness.Like a furnace sealed beneath skin.Arin hissed and nearly let go, shock jolting through his palms. Heat radiated from her chest and back in waves, growing stronger by the second. Her breath came in short, panicked gasps, eyes unfocused and glassy.“Arin,” she whispered. “It hurts.”Mira swore and rushed over, injured leg forgotten. “She’s cooking.”Elira was already kneeling, hands hovering but not touching. “This is not a sickness.”Lyra arched suddenly, a strangled cry tearing from her throat. Golden light flared beneath her skin, tracing branching patterns along her spine and shoulder
Last Updated : 2026-01-08