A day later, from atop the Wizard Tower in the Chen capital, Kaelan stands silently and watches batches of wizards walk out through the city gates.
They spread toward every human kingdom, tasked with establishing Wizard Associations.
Later, he will dispatch the graduating students of the Wizard Academy in the Tang Kingdom to found Wizard Academies across all human realms, except the Silver Treasure House.
All of this becomes possible because Kaelan won the war yesterday.
All surviving Divine Mind Realm cultivators are captured.
Those in other kingdoms no longer dare to cross him.
In the human world, he now stands at the very top.
Yet Kaelan knows he cannot stop.
Because on the very day he wins the war, something else changes the course of the world.
The God of Night, Nyxarin, resurrects.
He retrieves his original body, and his strength recovers to the point where even the Gods of Dawn and Evening are powerless against him.
At the extreme west of the continent, atop Rakasha Mountain, the Night Dynasty is founded once more.
Kaelan's gaze sharpens as he senses someone descending from the sky.
From the wings alone, he knows it is someone from the Twilight Race.
As the figure draws closer, he recognises her.
Sieena.
She lands lightly and bows in midair.
"Lord Kong, good day."
Kaelan already understands why she has come.
"Let's talk inside."
He allows her to land on the rooftop, leads her through the rooftop door, down the circular staircase, and into a finely decorated room.
He gestures for her to sit.
Moments later, a servant enters and places refreshments on the table before retreating.
Kaelan leans forward slightly.
"I don't think you're here for a casual visit."
Sieena exhales softly.
"I… no… we, the Twilight Race, have a request."
Kaelan leans back.
"This has something to do with the Divine Mind cultivators I captured."
"Yes," Sieena replies.
"It concerns them. You cannot kill them."
Kaelan already knows the reason.
Any human Divine Mind cultivator who passes through the Twilight Clan's holy treasure transforms into a member of the Twilight Race.
He speaks calmly.
"I'm not going to kill them. After they convert their cultivation to the Wizard Way, I'll release them."
Sieena falls silent, thinking.
Then she says carefully,
"If they refuse… then give them to us. They will never trouble you again."
Kaelan considers it.
At this moment, he needs the Twilight Race as allies against the reborn Night Dynasty.
After a brief pause, he nods.
"Alright."
He leads Sieena to the prison beneath the Wizard Tower.
Among the eleven captured Divine Mind Realm cultivators, five choose to go with Sieena.
The remaining six choose to convert their cultivation to the Wizard Way.
Kaelan releases them from confinement.
However, they are forbidden to leave the Wizard Tower until they advance to the Bronze Wizard rank.
Sieena departs with the five Divine Mind cultivators, her wings cutting silently through the sky as twilight fades behind her.
Kaelan watches until her aura disappears beyond the horizon, then turns back without hesitation.
That night, he enters his cultivation chamber.
The chamber seals itself completely, layers of arrays activating one after another until even sound and light are isolated.
Kaelan sits down and closes his eyes.
His mind returns to the moment of destruction.
The dark meteor.
The compression.
The collapse.
The instant when mass, energy, and law fold inward beyond balance, and then release everything in absolute annihilation.
Dark Starfall is no longer enough.
What truly shook the world was not the fall, but the collapse.
He begins again.
Dark Path forms the foundation, absolute control, suppression, and refinement.
He adds gravity, not crude attraction, but authority over direction and inevitability.
Then devouring, not consumption, but convergence, the act of forcing everything toward a single point.
Finally, explosion, not release, but rupture, the tearing of balance itself.
Days blur into weeks.
Weeks compress into months.
Kaelan dismantles spell structures again and again, rebuilding them with greater precision.
Runes fracture and reform.
Mana pathways collapse and re-stabilise.
His Holy Spirit manifests repeatedly within the chamber, shrinking, expanding, refining alongside the spell.
Three months later, the spell stabilises.
Eight-Tier Spell.
Dark Star Collapse.
The moment the spell fully takes shape, Kaelan's Holy Spirit trembles.
Light floods his spirit space.
Not brilliance, but density.
His spirit space expands violently, boundaries stretching outward as if something fundamental has been added.
Then he sees it.
A single golden drop.
It falls from nowhere, slow, heavy, absolute.
The drop enters his soul.
Pleasure explodes through him.
Not physical.
Not emotional.
Existential.
Kaelan gasps, his breath breaking as a sound escapes him before he can stop it.
A low moan fills the chamber.
His consciousness shakes.
The pleasure is overwhelming, deeper than ecstasy, purer than enlightenment.
His soul reacts instinctively.
The white, shining sphere that represents his soul begins to melt and flow.
Its surface reshapes.
Contours emerge.
Limbs form.
Features sharpen.
The soul takes on Kaelan's own appearance, identical in every detail, with eyes closed and an expression that is calm yet profound.
Then the soul opens its eyes.
A will awakens.
Not borrowed.
Not cultivated.
Born.
Kaelan's spiritual field erupts outward.
For the first time, it becomes tangible.
The invisible pressure condenses, transforming into a true mana field.
The field expands beyond his body, overlapping reality and asserting its presence.
His spirit materialisation surges past fifty per cent.
He feels it clearly.
Thought influences matter.
Will bends energy.
Existence responds.
The breakthrough is complete.
Feedback slams into his physical body.
Bones resonate.
Blood hums.
Mana channels widen and stabilise.
His cultivation enters the Divine Mind Realm.
When everything settles, Kaelan opens his eyes slowly.
He examines himself calmly.
His raw strength has increased, but only by about twenty per cent.
Not overwhelming.
Not explosive.
But when he extends his mana field—
Power doubles.
Effort halves.
Control sharpens to frightening clarity.
He exhales softly.
This is the true difference.
Not force.
Authority.
Kaelan stands.
Dark energy flows smoothly around him as if it always belonged there.
He returns to his seat, eyes already distant.
The Path of Dark still stretches ahead.
And beyond it—
His Ninth-Tier spell begins to take shape in his thoughts.
Kaelan sinks deeper into comprehension, his awareness narrowing until only the Dark Path exists.
Dark elemental energy flows around him, no longer chaotic, no longer merely obedient, but transparent to his perception.
He begins at the smallest scale.
Particles.
Dark elemental particles, once indistinguishable motes of power, separate clearly in his vision.
Each carries polarity, density, intent, and law imprint.
Kaelan reaches out with his will and refines them.
Compression without loss.
Purification without rejection.
Each particle sheds excess attributes, leaving only the purest expression of darkness.
Control sharpens to an absurd degree.
He discovers that three refined dark particles naturally resonate with one another.
When brought close, they do not repel.
They align.
They rotate.
They fuse.
Three become one.
The newly formed particle is different.
Denser.
Heavier.
More absolute.
Its presence bends surrounding energy, forcing lesser dark particles into subservient orbits.
Kaelan pauses.
This is no longer ordinary Dark Elemental Energy.
He refines again.
And again.
More triads combine.
More fusion occurs.
The chamber darkens as the new energy accumulates, swallowing light without resistance.
Finally, the transformation is complete.
Dark Divine Energy.
Stronger in every metric.
More stable.
More authoritative.
It does not merely obey the Dark Path.
It is the Dark Path.
This refinement is not something he learned.
It is something he found in his inherent memory of a Void Monster.
A lock inside him slides open.
Silently.
Completely.
In an instant, clarity floods his consciousness.
There are no gaps.
No missing pieces.
No further mysteries.
He fully understands the Dark Path of this world.
Not partially.
Not theoretically.
Completely.
There is nothing left to comprehend.
One of the Seven Paths of the Dark Elemental Law stands fully mastered.
Kaelan opens his eyes.
"Before comprehending the second path in the Law of Dark Elemental Energy," he murmurs, "I should break through the Third Stage of Transcendence."
He knows the truth of cultivation.
Comprehending the law increases strength.
It does not increase lifespan.
Only when a Law reaches the Moon Stage does lifespan truly rise.
And Kaelan does not believe any naturally existing law in this world has reached the Moon Stage.
To create one—
Thirty-six Minor Paths must be comprehended to the level of his Dark Path.
Thirty-six paths combined form a complete priesthood.
Only then can one step into the Fourth Stage.
Godhood.
But Kaelan cannot walk that road yet.
His thousand-year lifespan may allow him to comprehend thirty-six paths.
But forging them into a priesthood is an entirely different matter.
Too risky.
Too slow.
Too uncertain.
So his path is clear.
Third Stage.
Then Demi-God Stage.
Only afterwards will he consider the God Stage.
He exits cultivation.
The world greets him changed.
The Night Dynasty now rules the western continent, its shadow stretching outward from Rakasha Mountain.
The Twilight Race, alongside demon races that refuse to submit, establish a massive defensive line.
It begins in the northern frozen wastelands.
Cuts through the Arad Desert.
Ends at the Southern Dark Rift Canyon.
Human kingdoms participate as well.
They supply food.
Weapons.
Logistics.
The war is no longer hidden.
Wizard Associations now stand in every human kingdom.
His third clone establishes the Wizard Academy on the island.
And students from the Silver Treasure House enrol.
The Wizard Way spreads openly.
Meanwhile, his first and second clones complete a new invention.
The Runic Steam Engine.
Rail lines begin construction.
Steel tracks stretch between the capitals of the Tang Kingdom and the Chen Kingdom.