The wind over the northern ridge of Shenzhou Province carried the scent of iron and smoke. Crimson Sky Academy, now transformed into the command bastion of the Heavenly Spear Alliance, stood like a fortress bathed in dusk light. Atop its highest tower, Su Mengtian stood alone, cloak fluttering like a battle standard, eyes narrowed as he stared into the horizon.
Below him, the Alliance was moving like a well-oiled war machine. The training yards roared with synchronized chants. The halls had begun establishing their forward outposts according to the war map drafted during their last meeting. Yet amidst the disciplined order, Su Mengtian felt it — a shift in the air. Not quite danger. Not yet. But the echo of something awakening.
A soft knock echoed behind him.
He turned. It was Shen Lianhua, the sharp-eyed Hallmaster of Astral Command, flanked by two aides carrying folded scrolls and metal-bound ledgers.
"Mengtian," she greeted, bowing her head. "The scouts from Ironblood and Shadows returned. We've got developments — and anomalies."
He gestured her forward. "Go on."
She spread a scroll over the stone table near the battlement, marking areas in red and gold. "There's movement in the Dead Zones — strange mana pulses. Tempests reported spiritual corrosion in pockets, something not native to the dimensional rifts. It's almost... designed."
"Designed?" Mengtian's voice turned quiet and eyes sharper.
Lianhua nodded. "Deliberate. Controlled chaos. Like someone's testing the perimeter."
Mengtian absorbed that, gaze hardening. "Could it be rogue clans? Dimensional beasts experimenting with territory?"
"No," she answered. "The mana signatures are hybridized. Human and other. And they're not alone."
She tapped a sigil drawn hastily in charcoal — a ring of jagged spikes with a void-like eye at its center.
"We found this burned into a ridge in the northern ruins," she said. "Even the Wyrmcallers' spirit beasts wouldn't go near it."
Mengtian's fingers curled. That symbol... it tickled something in the back of his soul. From his past life. A war crest? A forbidden order?
"I want a full archive sweep," he said coldly. "Check older battlefield records. If this symbol existed during the last Riftfall, we need to know. And if it didn't... we find out who birthed it."
"As you command," Lianhua bowed.
He turned back to the window, gaze falling on the outer patrol posts. Students were being trained there under direct supervision from Hall veterans. This was no longer a school. It was a military crucible.
Just as he was about to leave the tower, a flash of violet lightning surged across the sky — not natural, and not summoned by the Ironbloods. It tore open briefly, forming a rift in the clouds.
And within that tear... for a split second, a giant eye peered through.
Then it vanished.
The entire academy paused. Mages, warriors, and even beasts looked up. No words were exchanged, but the feeling was unanimous.
Something ancient had just looked back.
Later that evening, within the council chamber, the nine Hallmasters assembled once again. This time, unease darkened even the most battle-hardened faces. The violet rift had shaken them.
Rong Heiyu of the Hall of Shadows was the first to speak. "That was no dimensional monster. No beast stares with curiosity. That eye... it calculated."
Wen Rou, head of Luminous Veil, nodded. "My support runes flared for the first time since installation. Some form of passive detection magic — like a scan."
Su Mengtian didn't speak until all voices had quieted. He stepped to the head of the war table, shadows playing across his sharp features.
"I've seen that look before," he said finally. "In my dreams."
The room fell into silence.
"In my dream before I died, the final days of the last Rift War, we encountered a force that didn't belong to this world. Something not entirely beast nor human — an order outside the factions. They came, observed, never spoke. But every battlefield they passed... turned into graveyards."
He paused.
"I thought they died when I did."
Jiang Nuying of Tempests leaned forward. "You think they're from your dream and are returning?"
Mengtian's hand rested on the war table. "I know they are."
"But why now?" asked Yan Ziyang from Aegis. "Why here?"
"Because we've grown strong enough to matter," Mengtian said. "We've formed a unification, something that threatens fragmentation. They despise unification."
Silence stretched again. Then, unexpectedly, Heiyu smirked.
"Then let them come," he said. "Let them see what nine halls forged in war look like when united."
The others nodded.
Su Mengtian allowed himself a rare smile.
But deep inside, he knew the rift-summoners weren't the only threat. Something stirred beneath his skin as well. That incomplete pulse — the sleeping second bloodline — grew more erratic.
He needed to awaken it soon.
But not yet. Not here.
Three days later, the expedition was underway.
Ironblood, Echoes, and Wyrmcallers formed the vanguard platoons. They were heading into the Frostveil Chasm — one of the earliest Dead Zones to appear after the first Riftfall. Located east of Shenzhou's range, it was believed to be dormant.
Now, they weren't so sure.
Su Mengtian stood at the helm of the command vehicle — a hybrid construct of ether-tech and beastbone reinforced steel. The convoy moved slowly but confidently through snow-laden terrain.
Beside him, Commander Bai Renshu of Ironblood handed over an artifact — a glowing shard encased in obsidian glass.
"Found this embedded in a rock spine near the chasm mouth," he said. "It sings."
Mengtian raised an eyebrow. "Sings?"
Renshu nodded. "Not audibly. But our artificers claim it responds to war intent. Like it feeds on it."
Mengtian studied the shard closely. The pulse within mirrored his own bloodline. Just a shade fainter. Like a heartbeat... answering him.
He slipped it into a storage gauntlet and looked ahead.
They were nearing the chasm's edge.
Below it, mist churned like a living beast.
The expedition was about to descend.
And none of them, not even Su Mengtian, could predict what waited within for him and and the Heavenly spears Alliance.