The wind had changed.
When Su Mengtian emerged from the spiraling chasm of the abyss, the world above held its breath. The living island no longer shifted in uneasy sleep—it stilled in reverence. Trees with feathered leaves bent slightly toward him. The stones pulsed with steady rhythm, no longer erratic but synchronized with his stride.
Thunderclouds had cleared into a corona of silver and gold directly above the Heart Cavern's entrance. For the first time since the expedition began, the storm had parted.
And at the center of the stillness stood Su Mengtian.
Clad in fractured black and cobalt armor stitched with divine marks, with lightning-threaded lines running down his arms and neck, he was no longer merely mortal. His presence pressed against the air like deep water. Eyes sharp, calm—and ancient. Something watched through them now. Something stormborn.
He stepped onto the ridge where the Hallmasters of the Heavenly Spear Alliance had held position during his descent.
Ji Yeyan was the first to kneel. "Welcome back… Halllord."
The others followed without hesitation.
Baojin's expression was reverent, as if she gazed upon a living myth. Lan Qiu's tempest aura fluttered violently just from proximity. Even Inara, the Ironblood, let her gaze dip in acknowledgment.
"Your resonance…" whispered Xiaoyun, her wyrm familiars trembling. "It's not just Kun's. It's the island's. The world heard it."
Before Mengtian could respond, a sharp pulse echoed across the trees. The air grew tense.
From the east, the Crimson Flame Clan's vanguard approached, led by a tall warrior cloaked in red jade scale-armor—Feng Luohan, second son of the Feng patriarch. His aura burned like a phoenix caught in an inferno, eyes blazing with hostility.
Behind him, the elite of the Dragon Soul Clan emerged—draconic runes flaring across their limbs. Their commander, a proud and brooding youth named Long Yucheng, narrowed his eyes at Mengtian. Rumors had already reached him of the boy's lineage. His cousin.
But it was the Celestial Snow Pavilion who arrived with elegance—and danger.
Lady Bai Qinglian, matriarch of the pavilion and sister to Bai Qingtian, glided forward atop a frost lotus, followed by several disciples in gleaming ice-blue robes. Among them walked Bai Feng, Yueying's elder brother, his expression unreadable.
"You've stirred too much of the island's core," Bai Feng said coldly. "The storm's silence proves you've taken something… too deep. The pact among factions forbade full inheritance claims."
"Pacts made by cowards in fear of power," said Rao Lin of the Hall of Valor, stepping beside Mengtian.
Feng Luohan unsheathed his flame-etched blade. "Then shall we test power by blood?"
The air shimmered. Dozens of warriors formed rank behind the rival factions. Hostility crackled like tinder in dry heat.
Mengtian raised one hand.
Lightning whispered through the roots of the island.
The entire canopy darkened. A single, enormous rumble echoed from the depths below—the island responding to its heir.
Mengtian's voice rang clear, unshaken. "If any of you believe the legacy of Kun is stolen… come and take it."
Silence followed. Even the most aggressive among the Dragon Soul and Flame Clans hesitated. The ground beneath their boots responded not to them—but to him.
Suddenly, an even greater shift in atmosphere swept the clearing.
A floating jade barque emerged from the western mist—its sails embroidered with imperial sigils.
From it descended Dongfang Ruixian, princess of the Radiant Lion Clan, radiant in golden robes and crowned with a roaring lion crest.
With her came emissaries of the Imperial Court—led by none other than Long Aotian, his long black coat rippling in the wind, golden dragon insignia glowing across his back. Su Mengtian recognized him instantly.
His mother's elder brother.
He did not bow. Nor smile.
"So you're the one the storm chose," Aotian said calmly, walking forward, eyes like twin suns. "My nephew."
Mengtian's jaw tightened. "And you're the uncle who abandoned us."
A faint flicker crossed Long Aotian's features—quickly hidden beneath steel.
"There are politics," he said, "and then there is legacy. You've stirred both. The Empire will have questions."
"Then let them ask," Mengtian replied.
He stepped forward. The crowd parted unconsciously around him.
Behind his stride, the Hallmasters fell into perfect formation.
Above, the storm rolled once, no longer chaotic but regal, coiling like a crown.
Su Mengtian had returned from the abyss not merely alive.
He had returned claimed.
The war for the island's secret realm had begun—but the real game now surged toward the world beyond: empires, bloodlines, and the buried truths of ancient beasts.
And from within the depths, unseen by all, the sealed entity beneath Kun stirred once more—feeding on awakening storms.
The factions did not disperse immediately.
Instead, a charged silence held sway over the summit of the Island Bearing Kun, thick with decisions yet to be made. Su Mengtian remained motionless, his aura subtly restrained now, but no less commanding. Lightning occasionally crackled across his shoulders, fading into flickers of silver mist. His gaze passed over every gathered rival with quiet certainty.
It was Long Aotian who broke the silence first. "Your aura reeks of the abyss. Whatever you brought back from below will ripple far beyond this island. Even the Emperor will feel it."
"Good," Mengtian replied. "Then the world might finally listen."
Bai Feng narrowed his eyes. "Your arrogance grows. That power wasn't meant for any single bloodline, even less for a rogue child who dares parade it like a badge."
"Is it arrogance," murmured Yue Mei softly, stepping forward, "when the island itself chose him?"
"Silence," Bai Feng snapped, but his voice faltered beneath the mounting pressure of the storm.
Xiaoyun brushed her fingers against the island floor. Her eyes fluttered open. "Something else has awakened below. Not Kun… something older. It watches now. The island has shifted again."
Commander Fei Wu arrived then, limping slightly, having led the second group of Heavenly Spear Alliance reinforcements. Her eyes scanned the assembled factions. "We don't have time for posturing. The secret realm Su Mengtian discovered in the abyss is real—and it's destabilizing. Resources. Seals. Possibly a vault."
That snapped everyone to attention.
Feng Luohan sneered. "Then let us see who can claim it."
A flash of steel. He struck first, not at Mengtian—but at the ridge.
The battle ignited.
Flame-imbued strikes slammed into shifting terrain as Hallmaster Inara countered, forming iron barriers with her palms. Lan Qiu lifted a gust wall, deflecting incoming snow projectiles from the Celestial Pavilion. Rao Lin met the vanguard of the Dragon Soul Clan head-on, blade clashing with rune-bound fists.
But the true spectacle remained Mengtian himself.
He walked through the fray with calm gravity, his eyes fixed on the churning edge where the secret realm's sealed entrance had begun to manifest—a circle of ancient scale-etched glyphs, slowly unlocking.
Dongfang Ruixian called out from afar. "If this truly concerns Kun's legacy, then it belongs to the Empire. Stand down, Mengtian!"
"I will," he said, "when the storm stops answering me."
He raised his hand.
A bolt of shaped lightning fell like judgment, splitting the earth before her advance. Not a single soul missed what it meant.
Behind Mengtian, Yueying finally emerged from the forest edge.
Clad in traveling robes bearing the dual sigils of the Luminous Veil and the Celestial Pavilion, she stepped into the light.
"Enough," she called, her voice like bells over thunder. "Su Mengtian did not break the island. He stabilized it. If he had not passed the trials, the Kun would have devoured us all."
Bai Feng scowled. "You stand with him?"
"I do," she said.
Even the storm hesitated.
For a brief moment, the factions froze again, caught between conflict and awe.
The circle of scale-glyphs began to spin. The seal cracked.
From below, an ancient cry rose up—not of pain, nor of rage, but of mourning.
And Su Mengtian, standing at the precipice, murmured, "Then the second gate opens."
He stepped through, Yueying beside him. Behind them, the Hallmasters followed without question.
The storm closed above them. And the deeper war for Kun's inheritance had just begun.