The heavy, star-iron doors of the Vanguard quarters sealed shut, isolating Squad 7 from the rest of the Supreme Martial Academy.
Kai Hart did not go to the Grandmaster Springs to wash off the blood of the Tier 6 (Mid) Thunder-Crowned Ape. He walked straight to the star-iron table in the center of their common room. Anvil trotted past him, the absolute-black Qilin-hound letting out a metallic burp as its stomach furiously digested the residual chaotic lightning from the canyon hunt.
Kai's molten-gold eyes were completely unfocused, staring at the translucent blue interface of the Transmigrator System floating in his field of vision.
He had spent the 12,000 Anomaly Points. The blueprint for the Star-Forge Dilation Chamber was now permanently etched into his mind, complete with runic schematics, array formations, and material requirements. It was a masterpiece of spatial engineering, a literal cheat code against the Exarch-Kin's 18-month deadline.
But as Kai processed the data, the cold, metallic thrill of his breakthrough to Martial Artist Tier 3 (Low) began to curdle into a heavy, suffocating dread.
"System," Kai murmured, leaning his dense palms against the table, the star-iron groaning under his passive weight. "Confirm the biological parameters of the Dilation Chamber."
[Confirming...]
[The Star-Forge Dilation Chamber creates a localized temporal anomaly. Ratio: 10 Internal Days / 1 External Day.]
[WARNING - BIOLOGICAL TOLL: The chamber does not freeze cellular degradation. Time is dilated, not created. A Host spending 10 internal days inside the array will age exactly 10 days biologically.]
[If the Host utilizes the chamber for 5 internal years, they will sacrifice 5 years of their mortal lifespan.]
"Damn it," Kai hissed, his breath pluming into superheated steam.
Prince Zhao Long, who was wrapping his bruised ribs with alchemical bandages, looked up. "What's wrong, Hart? I thought you said you found our saving grace."
Robert and Princess Yan walked over, sensing the sudden shift in their captain's perfectly controlled aura.
Kai quickly grabbed a piece of heavy parchment and a char-pen, rapidly sketching out the complex, geometric runes the System had given him. "I did find it. A temporal array. It slows external time so we can train for a decade while only a year passes outside."
"A time chamber?" Princess Yan gasped, her violet eyes widening in sheer disbelief. "That defies the fundamental laws of the Imperial Court. Even the Emperor's personal sanctum only has a minor Qi-gathering dilation, not absolute temporal shifting!"
"It exists, and I have the blueprint," Kai said, tapping the parchment. "But it comes with a massive catch. It accelerates biological aging to match the internal time. We are fourteen right now. If we spend five years in there grinding our cultivation to prepare for the Exarch Fleet, we will physically age five years. We'll be burning the prime of our youth just to survive."
Robert let out a dry, humorless laugh. His star-flecked Void-snake hissed in agreement from his shoulders. "Kai, I grew up in the mud. People there die at thirty from lung rot. I'll gladly trade a few years of my lifespan if it means I get to be strong enough to vaporize an alien Dreadnought. The aging isn't a dealbreaker."
"The aging is only the first problem," Kai said grimly, sliding the parchment toward the Prince. "Look at the material requirements to anchor the spatial distortion."
Zhao Long leaned over, his eyes scanning Kai's aggressive, sharp handwriting. The Prince's magma-veins pulsed as he read the list.
"Temporal Jadeite," Zhao Long read aloud, his aristocratic composure cracking. "Kai, this mineral is hoarded exclusively by the Imperial Merchant Guilds. You need ten pounds of it? That will cost tens of millions of Imperial Credits. We'd have to clear every Black-Tier bounty on the boards for the next six months just to afford half of that."
"We can earn the money," Kai stated, his voice a cold, unyielding rumble. "We have the strength to be the highest-earning Vanguard squad in Academy history. The real impossible barrier is the power source."
Kai pointed a heavy finger at the bottom of the list. "To power the temporal shift, the array needs a spatial anchor. It requires the intact core of a Tier 3 Spatial-Attribute Beast."
Silence fell over the room, heavier than the 10x gravity in the subterranean forge.
The Beast Threat Index was an inverse, terrifying countdown. While humans climbed upward from Tier 1 to Tier 6 to eventually break the ceiling into Martial Master, the beasts were categorized backward. Tier 9 were the mutated scavengers. Tier 6 were the apex anomalies like the Thunder Ape they had just barely survived.
A Tier 3 beast was a walking cataclysm. It possessed the raw, unfiltered, world-breaking strength of a human Martial Master. It was an entity that had completely shattered the mortal boundaries.
"A Tier 3 Beast," Robert whispered, the blood draining from his face. "Kai, we just nearly died fighting a Tier 6 (Mid) anomaly. A Tier 3 Spatial beast? If it sneezes, it tears a hole in reality. If we look at it wrong, it will teleport our organs outside of our bodies."
"We aren't hunting it," Kai said, rolling up the parchment and tucking it into his Vanguard jacket. "We are strong, but I am not delusional. We would be swatted like flies."
"Then the blueprint is useless," Maya said softly, gripping her shale shield.
"No," Kai said, his molten-gold eyes turning toward the heavy oak doors. "It just means I need to delegate. Long, Yan, Robert—you are in charge of the bounties. Start grinding the mission boards. I want millions of credits flowing into our accounts by the end of the month for the Temporal Jadeite."
"And where are you going?" Zhao Long asked.
"To see a man about a monster," Kai replied.
The Solaris Chamber at the apex of the Faculty Spire was empty, save for the towering figure of Dean Azure.
The Martial Emperor was standing by the massive observation window, his hands clasped behind his back, his pupilless white eyes staring out at the darkening sky. He did not turn around when Kai stepped off the elevator.
"Initiate Hart," Azure's voice washed over the room, calm and infinitely deep. "I felt the shockwave of your breakthrough all the way from the Northern Canyons. You are now a Tier 3 Martial Artist. You have exceeded my projections."
"I don't have time for safe projections, Dean," Kai said, walking to the massive star-iron table. He pulled the rolled-up parchment from his jacket and placed it flat on the metal surface. "I have a solution to the eighteen-month deadline. But I need your help to build it."
Azure slowly turned around. He walked to the table and looked down at Kai's hastily drawn schematics.
For a long time, the Martial Emperor said nothing. His white eyes darted across the complex geometric runes, his ancient, unfathomable mind processing the sheer, rule-breaking audacity of the design.
"A Star-Forge Dilation Chamber," Azure finally whispered. The absolute calm in his voice fractured, replaced by a tremor of genuine awe. "You have designed an array that dilates localized time. Ten internal days for every external one. You intend to forge your squad for over a decade before the Exarch Fleet darkens our sky."
"There is a biological toll," Kai warned smoothly. "We will age physically alongside the internal clock. But it's the only way to reach Martial Master in time."
"Mortal years are a trivial price for the salvation of humanity," Azure said, his hand hovering over the parchment. He looked up, his oceanic aura suddenly flaring, pressing down on Kai with the weight of the deep sea. "What do you need from me, Hart?"
"The anchor," Kai replied, holding the Emperor's gaze without flinching, his own newly forged spherical core easily weathering the spiritual pressure. "The array requires a Tier 3 Spatial Beast Core. I can't kill a Martial Master-level anomaly. You can."
Azure looked back down at the parchment. The awe in his eyes slowly hardened into the cold, ruthless resolve of a supreme commander.
"A Tier 3 Spatial anomaly," Azure murmured. "You are asking me to hunt a Void-Weaver or a Rift-Leviathan. Creatures that hide in the fractured dimensions between the bastions. They are myths even to the Vanguard elites."
"Can you kill one?" Kai asked point-blank.
Dean Azure didn't answer immediately. Instead, he reached up and unclasped the heavy, ceremonial jade robes of his academic station, letting them fall to the floor. Underneath, he wore the dark, unreflective combat weave of a front-line warlord.
He raised his right hand. A spatial tear ripped open in the air beside him, and a massive, rune-carved halberd forged from deep-sea leviathan bone materialized into his grip. The sheer presence of the weapon made the air in the Solaris Chamber hum with lethal intent.
"I am a Martial Emperor, Kai Hart," Azure said, his voice echoing with world-shattering authority. "If this chamber is the crucible that will save this planet, then I will tear the spatial fractures apart with my bare hands to find your core."
Azure walked past Kai, his heavy boots echoing toward the private launch bay of the Spire.
"Secure the Temporal Jadeite," Azure commanded without looking back. "Use the Vanguard's authority. Extort the Merchant Guilds if you have to. By the time you have the materials, I will return with the heart of a god."
Kai watched the Dean step onto the launch pad and shoot into the sky like a streak of blue comet-fire.
The Transmigrator System flared quietly in Kai's vision. The board was set. The Dean was hunting the apex predator, and Squad 7 was about to wage an economic war on the Academy's elite.
Kai turned around and headed back to the elevator. It was time to get rich.