Three months later. The wind howled, carrying grains of sand that hit like bullets. Lin Jin stood on a ridge, his grey robe flapping violently. He pulled his hood down low, shielding his violet eyes from the harsh sun. In front of him, stretching from the eastern horizon to the western sunset, was a wall. It wasn't made of brick or stone. It was a sheer cliff of black metal, three thousand feet high, piercing the clouds. It looked like a blade that had fallen from heaven to sever the world in two. The Great Wall of Severance. To the south lay the Northern Province—the "Barren Lands" Lin Jin had just conquered. To the north lay the Central Celestial Empire. "Finally," the Entity muttered, sniffing the air. "Even the wind here tastes different. Richer. More... arrogant." Lin Jin walked down the ridge toward the massive gatehouse at the base of the wall. It was a fortress in itself, bustling with

Three days passed in silence. No one dared to approach Lin Jin’s table in the Sky-Palace lounge. He sat alone, drinking water, watching the sea of clouds drift by. Chen Feng and the other nobles stayed in their cabins, terrified of the "Northerner Demon." On the morning of the fourth day, the clouds broke. WOOOOOOOOO. The Void-Whale let out a low, resonant cry that vibrated through the floorboards. It began to descend. Lin Jin stood up and walked to the crystal window. Below them lay the Imperial Capital. It wasn't a city. It was a continent of steel and stone. It stretched as far as the eye could see, a sprawling megapolis of towers that scraped the sky, connected by bridges of solid light. Flying ships swarmed like gnats around the central district. But the most terrifying feature was the geography itself. The entire city was built upon a mountain range that looked suspiciously lik

News in the Dragon Court traveled faster than light.By the time the sun rose the next morning, everyone in the Imperial Academy knew the story. A Freshman—a Special Recruit from the barbarian North—had kicked Zhuo Yan (Rank 8) out of his own annex.Island 9 had a new master. And he had a nickname: The Landlord.Island 9. The Obsidian Villa.Lin Jin sat on the cleaned patio, drinking a cup of Spirit Tea he had found in the villa’s pantry.The villa was magnificent. The walls were made of Spirit-Gathering Stone, which pulled Qi from the air and filtered it into the rooms. The bed was made of Soft-Jade. Even the bathtub was carved from a single block of healing quartz."Luxury," the Entity grumbled, though it sounded pleased. "Soft beds make soft bones. But the Qi density here... it is delicious. We can stabilize Stage 5 much faster.""It beats the swamp," Lin Jin said.He looked at the 5,000 Spirit Stones Zhuo Yan had "donated."He picked one up. It crumbled into dust in his hand, the

The air in the Valley of Fangs was still. The smell of fresh blood from the slaughtered Sky Court team hung heavy between the two fighters. Bai Mu, the Blind Sword Saint, tilted his head. The white cloth over his eyes fluttered slightly. "You have a heavy heart beat," Bai Mu whispered. "It sounds like a war drum. Very distracting." "I have a heavy fist too," Lin Jin replied. Bai Mu smiled. FLASH. He vanished. There was no sound of footsteps. No displacement of air. Just a sudden, sharp whistle of steel cutting reality. Lin Jin’s instincts screamed LEFT. He didn't dodge. He leaned into it. CLINK. Sparks flew from Lin Jin’s neck. A thin red line appeared on his pale skin, just above the collarbone. A drop of blood—dark, heavy, and smelling of rust—slid down his chest. Bai Mu reappeared ten feet away, his expression slightly puzzled. He looked at his sword.

The Skull Fortress was exactly what it sounded like. It was built inside the hollowed-out cranial cavity of a massive beast—likely a subservient drake that had died alongside the World Dragon eons ago. Its jaws formed the main gate, and watchtowers had been erected in its eye sockets. A banner hung from the nasal cavity: A Golden Five-Clawed Dragon. Prince Long’s Territory. Lin Jin and Gu Panyue crouched on a ridge overlooking the fortress. "It’s a military camp," Gu Panyue whispered, scanning the area with a jade telescope. "Look at the courtyard." In the center of the skull, hundreds of captured Spirit Beasts were chained together, forced to dig into the bone floor to extract marrow. Alongside them were dozens of students—Rankers from the Earth and Sky Courts—who had been 'conscripted' to work for the Prince. And in the middle of it all sat a mountain of Dragon-Spirit Orbs. There were at least two thousand of th