Kaelan feels the refinement of his mana cross twenty per cent.
He exhales slowly.
"The dual cultivation with Yuelan…" he thinks, "…but the increase was less than one per cent."
Two reasons surface immediately.
First, Yuelan's realm is still low.
Second, and more importantly, the higher the refinement, the harder it becomes to improve further.
Mana refinement does not rise linearly.
The closer one approaches perfection, the more resistance the system itself creates.
"I should compartmentalise."
He makes the decision cleanly.
First—complete the Dark Path.
Once the Dark Path is fully comprehended, his realm will step into the Divine Mind Realm, and at that point, the pressure from the Divine Puppet Sect will no longer be something he must evade—it will be something he can confront.
Right now, he can fight them only because of the blood from his original body.
But that power is not infinite.
He has already consumed around twenty per cent of it.
At most, he can safely consume another thirty per cent.
After that, his body will begin to tear itself apart.
There is good news.
The divinity of Storm inside him is growing.
But even divinity is not boundless—it scales with his understanding of the Storm Law of this world. Without further comprehension, it will stagnate.
Everything points to the same conclusion.
Dark Law first.
Dark Path first.
But—
Before entering a long retreat, some matters cannot be postponed.
Soraya.
And the parliament.
Kaelan rises from the bed and quietly leaves the chamber.
Outside, the palace is silent.
He stops an attendant and gives a simple order.
"Call Soraya."
He walks into the garden and waits.
A few minutes later, Soraya arrives.
She sits across from him, her expression complex, carrying awe she no longer tries to hide.
"Kaelan," she says softly, "as time passes, you become more terrifying. You're no longer just cultivating… you're transforming the world itself."
Kaelan waves it off.
"It's nothing," he says calmly.
"Why are you here?"
Soraya freezes for a brief moment.
Then she speaks.
"Someone wants to meet you."
That alone is enough to make Kaelan pause.
Someone who can make Soraya act as a messenger is not ordinary.
He leans back slightly, eyes settling on her.
"Who?"
Soraya answers without hesitation.
"The Palace Master of the Demon Palace."
Kaelan blinks once.
"Oh."
That is not a name one hears casually.
His thoughts move quickly.
The Demon Palace.
One of the three great powers of the demon race.
Formed after the fall of the Night Dynasty, built from rare demon species—entities powerful beyond measure, yet cursed with difficulty in reproduction. To survive, to preserve bloodlines, they banded together.
Powerful.
Ancient.
Proud.
And not a faction whose invitation one can casually decline.
He asks, "Where is she?"
Soraya replies, "Outside the capital. At the Black Mountain Range."
Kaelan frowns slightly.
"She won't come here?"
"She doesn't like the environment," Soraya says.
"The spiritual energy here has already been replaced by mana."
Kaelan nods.
That makes sense.
"Alright," he says.
"But not now."
Soraya tilts her head.
"When?"
"Evening."
She nods once, rises, and takes her leave.
Kaelan watches her back disappear between the garden paths.
Then he turns to an attendant nearby.
"Call a parliament meeting."
The attendant bows and leaves at once.
Kaelan remains seated, already planning the next stage.
He will assign the parliament a task that cannot be delayed—the transformation of every spiritual node in the kingdom into a magic node.
For this purpose, he has already created a new array.
Unlike him, the parliament members cannot directly dominate a node through sheer authority. But with this array, they can gradually bring a node under control, engrave the required runes, and complete the conversion safely.
More importantly—
The feedback from the transformation will nourish them.
Not to Kaelan's level, but enough.
Enough to push wizard cultivators forward.
Enough to thicken the foundation of the Wizard Way.
Enough that, even in his absence, they can withstand the Ren Kingdom's invasion and begin spreading the Wizard Way into nearby lands.
This is how a system survives without its founder standing at the front.
---
Far away, in the Tang Kingdom capital.
Deep beneath the palace, the first and second clones stand opposite Li Xueyao, all three positioned within a vast circular array.
The ground hums.
The array activates.
Threads of light descend from the array, piercing into the spiritual node below.
The node resists.
Spiritual energy surges violently—but the array stabilises it, locking the node in place like a captured beast. The flow steadies, brought fully under control.
Runes begin to form.
Not carved by hand, but etched directly into the node itself, each symbol burning briefly before sinking inward. Arrays layer upon arrays, reshaping the circulation pattern of the node.
The transformation begins.
Silvery spiritual energy trembles… then darkens… then shifts.
The node contracts sharply.
For an instant, silence reigns.
Then—
Magic energy erupts outward.
A purple surge floods the cavern.
The two clones stand unmoved as the magic energy pours through their mana bodies, meaningless to them—but the array redirects it carefully, filtering and channelling it into Li Xueyao.
Slow.
Measured.
Perfectly controlled.
Her body absorbs it like dry earth drinking rain.
Li Xueyao's aura surges.
Bronze Wizard Realm collapses instantly.
She breaks into the Silver Wizard Realm without resistance, her magic circuits glowing brilliantly beneath her skin. The ascent continues—rising, stabilising, pushing—
Until it halts.
Right at the threshold of the Golden Wizard Realm.
Her eyes open.
The second clone speaks calmly.
"You only need to complete the construction of your magic circuits," he says.
"And you'll step into the Golden Wizard Realm in no time."
Li Xueyao exhales, her breath trembling—not from weakness, but from the sheer speed of her ascent.
---
Later, the two clones return to the Wizard Academy.
New notices now hang on the task board:
New Tasks
1. Search for spiritual nodes
2. Transformation of spiritual nodes
In the library, new materials appear.
A newly released spell:
Spirit Eye
A spell designed specifically to locate spiritual nodes.
Alongside it—
Books detailing runes and arrays capable of guiding node transformation.
The Wizard Way advances again.
The clones resume their work without pause.
---
High above the clouds, the third clone stands on the deck of the flying ship.
Beside him, Amy and Gill gaze forward.
Ahead, Silver City emerges—nestled between two towering mountains, its buildings climbing the slopes like living veins of stone and light. Kaelan can tell at a glance that within a few years, the city will completely swallow the mountains, turning them into nothing more than foundations.
The flying ship advances.
Its shadow stretches—
—and falls across the city.
The effect is immediate.
Cultivators rise into the sky one after another, their expressions tense as they rush toward the descending vessel. The hum of the ship's arrays presses down like an invisible weight, forcing weaker cultivators to stop midair.
The city halts.
Markets freeze.
Carriages stop.
Voices fall silent.
Everyone looks up.
A cultivator steps forward in the air, forcing calm into his voice.
"Who goes there?"
The flying ship slows to a stop.
Then—
It shrinks.
Runes fold inward, the massive hull compressing smoothly until it becomes a miniature construct. The ship dissolves into light and vanishes into Kaelan's body.
In the open sky now stand three figures.
Kaelan.
And beside him, the two Twilight Clan members, black-golden wings folding neatly behind them.
Kaelan's voice is calm, unhurried, yet it carries effortlessly across the city.
"I am Kong Wuya."
For a heartbeat—
Silence.
Then whispers explode.
"Kong Wuya…"
"The founder of the Wizard Way…"
"He came on a flying ship…"
"That was his?"
The news spreads faster than fire through dry grass.
In minutes, the entire city knows.
Later that same day, Jin Yinji's convoy finally enters Silver City.
But their path is blocked.
A crowd has formed in the middle of the main street.
Her carriage slows to a stop.
Jin Yinji parts the curtain and looks out.