While the mortal world celebrated invention, the heavens stirred once more.
In laboratories beneath the mountains, Karma's team worked tirelessly—assembling sleek VeinLink pods, refining their connection to the stabilized rift.News anchors called it "humanity's second moon landing."Investors called it a gold rush.
Karma simply called it work.
Yet even as Earth prepared to step cautiously into the realm of cultivation, the Astral Vein World was already in motion.
High above the mortal sphere, in a realm of starlit rivers and radiant skies, two presences cut across the heavens like comets.
Their descent made the clouds tremble. Mountains bowed. Even the spiritual beasts that prowled the Su Clan's borders pressed low to the ground, whimpering beneath the pressure.
At the gates of the ancestral domain, elders knelt as two figures descended in silence.
The first—a woman in flowing blue-gold robes, her long hair bound with jade pins that glowed with spatial runes.She was breathtaking—serene and perilous in equal measure, every motion refined enough to ripple air itself.Her beauty was legend, but her mastery of space was feared across continents.
Grand Elder Mei Xuan of the Azure Edge Pavilion—one of the Pavilion's Four Pillars.
The second presence was heavier, older than thunder yet sharper than a sword's breath.When his boots touched the marble, the very formation lines beneath the courtyard lit like veins of lightning.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, his hair midnight black streaked with faint silver threads that caught every glint of qi-light. His eyes burned with mirrored gold—calm, calculating, yet vast enough to reflect whole skies.Indigo robes woven from heavenly silk clung close to his frame, embroidered with flowing sigils of silver that shifted with every heartbeat.
But it was the air around him that told his story.It did not move past him—it moved because of him.
The heavens themselves seemed to hold their breath as he looked down upon the kneeling assembly.
Sect Master Jian Wuya, the youngest Sect Master in the Pavilion's recorded history.
Once, he had been a disciple of one of the Central Region's Holy Lands.But fate had cut him cruelly: a calamity during an ancient trial tore his destiny apart, scattering his Dao foundation.He vanished for a decades, presumed crippled.
When he returned, he carried a new blade and new throne.
At thirty-six thousand years, he accepted the mantle of Sect Master of Azure Edge Pavilion.And now, even the hidden monsters of the Eastern Continent whispered his name with caution.
They said that beneath his serenity lay the sharpest sword since the founding era of the sect—that Jian Wuya was not merely strong; he was invincible.
"Rise," his voice carried through the courtyard—deep, calm, absolute.The kneeling Su elders exhaled in relief as the pressure lifted like the edge of a departing storm.
Patriarch Su Qingyuan stepped forward, face pale but steady."We greet the Sect Master and Grand Elder. Your presence honors the Su Clan beyond measure."
Mei Xuan's gaze softened slightly. "Honor or burden, Patriarch—that depends on what you've brought us."
At her signal, the clan's formation master activated the central array.A crystal mirror bloomed to life, projecting the memories sent by Grand Elder Yuan.
The image flared—The rift above Mount Kailas.And Grand Elder Yuan standing.
Jian Wuya's eyes narrowed, thoughtful. "So Yuan truly found it… another realm, linked through a mortal hinge."
Mei Xuan folded her hands behind her back. "It began with Su Xinyi," she said. "She used her return talisman to relay Yuan's message directly to the clan. Upon learning the urgency, Patriarch Su Qingyuan activated the ancient teleportation array to the Pavilion."
Su Qingyuan bowed. "Her report stated that there is a will thats stronger than of Grand Elder. It was then he sent word for your intervention."
Mei Xuan inclined her head. "And so we came."
Jian Wuya clasped his hands behind his back, aura distorting air like heat on stone."An Immortal Ascension in Lower plane —unrecorded in the Upper Sky. If his lineage wields such strength through, then they are no mere lower world."
Mei Xuan's eyes glimmered. "The realm Yuan discovered—the one bound to this 'Earth'—may not be a simple plane. There is an older rhythm within its qi. It might be… a remnant of the Old Paths."
Su Qingyuan's breath hitched. "You mean—an Astral Bridge?"
Mei Xuan nodded faintly. "The energy fluctuations Su Xinyi described—the merging of mortal essence and spatial Dao—match those of bridges that existed before the Vein Split Era."
Jian Wuya's expression darkened, the weight of history flickering across his face."If that is true, then Earth is not merely a conduit. It is a node—one of the last living junctions between planes."
The air thickened. Even the glowing array dimmed beneath the gravity of that realization.
Jian Wuya turned toward the horizon, where astral currents shimmered like rivers of light."Yuan has likely forged a truce already—but peace without strength is a candle in the wind."His gaze hardened. "I will personally visit this new realm."
He turned to Mei Xuan."You will oversee the mortal world. Reinforce the Su Clan's boundary. Any fluctuation in the rift must be reported directly to the Pavilion."
She bowed. "As you command."
Then his gaze fell to Su Qingyuan."And you, Patriarch—strengthen your clan's defenses. If this rift is truly an ancient node, it will draw attention… not only from our world, but from realms that should have perished with the last era."
Su Qingyuan bowed lower. "By your decree."
The Sect Master's tone deepened, more thought than voice."The Pavilion does not march to conquer, but to watch. If this 'Earth' remains stable, it becomes an anchor. If not…"
He paused. He did not need to finish.
Mei Xuan's eyes dimmed with understanding. "Then it will be severed."
As Sect Master Jian Wuya and Grand Elder Mei Xuan departed toward the horizon, the Su Clan stirred like an awakened dragon.Arrays blazed to life. Scouts took flight. Messengers vanished into streams of light.
Far below, in a world still wrapped in neon and snowfall, Karma sealed the first shipment of VeinLink pods—unaware that, in the heavens above, powers older than myth had turned their gaze upon Earth.
The bridge between worlds had held. But bridges… were meant to be crossed.