"I thought you said you would recover in a year," Jalen said.
The shard responded—not in words, but in resonance. A voice, deep and ancient, echoed in his mind.
The shard had been awake for centuries—or in the reckoning of the real world, more than four years—during the time you were busy conquering the Ron State and installing that little emperor.
"What?"
It had waited for you to grow strong before revealing itself. And now that you stand at the Sky Limit Realm, it will guide you toward a power that will help you achieve the next realm.
The next realm? Jalen's pulse quickened. If he reached it, he would be the first in countless generations to achieve such a level in the lower realm. The strongest cultivators he had ever met lingered only at the peak of Sky Limit. Perhaps others existed, hidden, but he had never seen proof.
The shard's resonance deepened. The Transcendent Realm.
A realm touched only by the chosen of the lower plane—after tens of thousands of years through ordinary means.
But you… you have the opportunity many will never know in this life. Once you ascend, you will lose all rights to remain on the lower plane. The enforcers will sense your rise and descend to restore balance. They will either take you away… or seal you, as they did that upper realm cultivator at Kanto Ridge or those in the sealed state.
Concern flickered across Jalen's face. He longed for strength, but the cost was heavy. To be torn from his family and loved ones—perhaps forever—or to be sealed away in silence. That was no mere sacrifice. That was a fracture of destiny.
The shard knew his fear. Do not worry. The shard can mask your energy from the upper realm. None will detect you. That is the gift of wielding an eternal‑grade spirit tool. Of course, there are other ways to accomplish this, but they are irrelevant—you already hold what you need.
Jalen tried to get more information about the upper realm from the shard, but it fell silent and continued to lead him to who knows where.
The journey carried him across mountains, rivers, and forgotten lands. Days blurred into weeks, and weeks into months. The shard dragged him onward against his will, while doubt gnawed at the edges of his mind.
Then, one evening, he saw it.
An ancient ruin.
It was not part of a sub realm. Not hidden behind formations or illusions. It simply stood—within an abandoned country, a land erased from maps and memory. From its heart pulsed a source of energy, strong and insistent, as if calling to him.
The shard relinquished its hold, and Jalen's eyes swept across the desolate land. "What is this place?"
The shard answered.It was once part of the upper realm, before the great war over the eternal‑grade spirit tool known as the Orb of Origin.
Jalen's eyes narrowed. "The Orb of Origin?"
Yes. The shard you carry is one fragment of that orb—the only fragment with semi‑sentience. The other six are pure energy. One of those energies lies here.
Jalen had always wondered. The shard had been his companion, his burden, and his weapon. Yet he had never asked where it came from. He had simply assumed it was from the upper world. He knew it was an eternal‑grade spirit weapon… But what did that truly mean? Who could forge such a thing?
"So that force of energy calling out to me," he whispered.
The shard's voice echoed. Yes. One of the six. If you absorb it, you will step beyond the sky limit. You will touch the Transcendent Realm in less than a hundred years.
It sounded easy. But Jalen knew better—nothing in this world ever came without cost. "And if I fail?"
Then you will die. But with the shard here, and with your second spirit core and luminal heart, failure is impossible.
Jalen exhaled, half‑grim, half‑wry. "That's… reassuring."
As you can tell, the Origin Shard is not forcing you. The choice is yours. But if you refuse… the shard will simply select a new wielder.
Jalen's brow furrowed. "Can the shard do that?"
Yes. By killing the wielder. Other eternal‑grade spirit tools cannot escape once they have chosen, unless their wielder dies. But the Origin Shard is different. So far you have proven a worthy host, which is why it remains with you. Had you been weak… well.
Jalen's chest tightened. "That's… frightening."
He sighed, then stepped across the border of the desolate land. The atmosphere shifted at once.
The sky darkened. Clouds churned. Lightning erupted, striking from all sides. Winds howled, cutting like blades, tearing at his flesh. The ground shook, the heavens split, and the ruins trembled. The energies lashed out—wild, violent—testing him, rejecting him, trying to tear him apart.
The shard pulsed in his chest, resonating with the fragment. Alongside his second spirit core, it devoured the lightning, while alone it swallowed the wind. Yet Jalen's body convulsed under the impact—lightning seared his nerves, wind flayed his flesh, the ground convulsed beneath him, and the heavens split above. His spirit sea buckled, his veins scorched, his blood boiled. The shard devoured what it could, but the mortal toll was his alone to bear.
Still he did not stop. Step by step, he pressed forward. Each pace carried him deeper into the storm, closer to the heart where the energy grew more savage.
At last he saw it: a massive circular crater, its edges scorched, its center glowing faintly with white light. At its core floated a shard of energy—dense, radiant, alive.
He struggled for days, his body reduced to ruin, until he reached the source. With trembling hand, he touched it.
And the world exploded.
Wind surged into him—raw, infinite, merciless. It poured through his primary core, his meridians, and his soul. His body convulsed, his spirit sea expanded, and his dantian blazed as if it would rupture beneath the flood. He felt himself breaking, shattering, unraveling.
But he endured.
Hours passed. Days. Perhaps years. Time dissolved into stormlight.
When it ended—ninety years later—Jalen stood within the crater, his body radiant with silver‑blue light. His aura was sharper, heavier, and transcendent. His eyes burned with blue fire, his veins pulsed with silver lightning, and his spirit sea shimmered with infinite depth.
He had crossed.
Transcendent Realm.