The plaza trembled under the combined presence of Yogrek Grimbark and the sixty prodigies converging on Ash. Dust swirled in the air, banners whipping like wild specters, and the heat of anticipation pressed in from all sides. Yogrek stepped forward, his colossal hammer raised. The air itself seemed to shrink under the weight of his aura, and his voice rolled like thunder:
"Surrender your tokens at once, Sovereign-Slayer!"
My eyes narrowed. The fireflies around me flickered, sensing the danger. Every muscle in my body hummed with tension, yet my posture remained measured and unflinching. A hiss slid into my mind, smooth and silky.
"Master… do you want me to slay them?" It was Felicity, speaking from within my blood—a predator in symbiosis, ready to spill chaos at my command.
"No," I replied softly.
"Guard me. Watch for sneak attacks and deathblows. Let me handle the rest."
Felicity's hiss softened to a satisfied purr, a shadow coiled in my veins, alert to any threat that might slip past my senses. The moment Yogrek lifted his hammer, the earth beneath him groaned. Shockwaves radiated outward, a physical warning that each step carried destructive intent. The sixty prodigies surged forward, a tide of energy and ambition, each striking with weapons, or martial technique. I sidestepped a hammer slam, letting it crash into the plaza, shaking stone beneath the feet of lesser prodigies.
Fireflies danced around me in blinding arcs of light, intercepting projectiles and small attacks. I used bursts of my spirit shell Spire crab Armor, circulating energy around my form, deflecting shockwaves and momentum.
Despite being heavily outnumbered, I weaved a precise dance of offense and defense: A prodigy leapt high, casting a fireball— with a switch teleport I redirected the cultivator back into his own fireball, creating chaos among the attackers. Yogrek's hammer swung again, cleaving a crater into the stone plaza, and the sixty pressed harder!
Yet I remained calm, calculating, exploiting their momentum against them. These Tokens were mine, and there was no way I would let anyone take this chance from me. Every movement was effortless yet deadly, a mixture of instinct, experience, and the subtle guidance of Felicity whispering in my ear.
Some prodigies faltered under the precision of my counters; others stumbled into shockwave craters or tripped over displaced debris. Yogrek roared, fury driving his swing faster, heavier—each hammer strike meant to crush me, but my movements grew sharper, tighter, and more unpredictable. From within my blood, Felicity whispered, cutting in silently where I could not see; she sliced through an ambusher attempting to flank me from behind. She severed a spirit-thread connection that would have stolen tokens mid-battle.
Her hiss carried a warning: "Master… low qi signature on your left. They intend to strike for the kill."
I adjusted instantly, pivoting to intercept with minimal movement. By the time the first wave of attacks subsided, dozens of the prodigies were staggered, stunned and disoriented, or outright knocked out, their momentum used against them. Yogrek, furious, bellowed:
"You dare withstand me alone?!"
My cold blue glacial eye glimmered.
The fireflies flared brighter, their light pulsing in resonance with my King intent.
"I do not surrender… and I will not fall." The plaza held in tense anticipation, the fireflies glow and Felicity whispered warnings. I was the center of a storm that not even sixty prodigies could calm. The air was thick with dust, qi, and bloodlust. The sixty weren't merely a mob—these were prodigies, elites of their clans. Their strikes would have slain a dozen common cultivators in an instant.
Yet against my profound qi, they became a tide waiting to be broken. I exhaled once, the fireflies pulsing around me in rhythm with my breath.
My tone was calm, cutting through the chaos; "You want my tokens? Then come take them… if you can."
A Twin-Saber prodigy lunged from my right, sabers wreathed in lightning! I serpent mirage stepped just out of range, letting the sabers clash against Yogrek's descending hammer!
Sparks erupted; the prodigy screamed as the hammer's shockwave shattered his ribcage!
I air dashed in! Plucking the prodigy's token before it even hit the ground. That's when things went no-holds-bar. The sixty seeing that I was too great a foe even for their number began to rob and make spoil of one another!
The sixty turned mad. Those who came for me turned on one another instead — blades flashing, martial techniques flying spells in chaotic symphony.
A spear prodigy from the raging crane clan impaled a prodigy from the thunder crest clan, tearing his token cloud free before being engulfed by an Ice Lotus detonation.
Two others from rival clans clashed mid-air, grappling as they plunged into a ravine of golden fog — their tokens scattering like rain.
I stood in the eye of it all, watching with cold calm as alliances shattered like cheap jade.
A girl from the heartless clan cloaked herself in a black light aura and tried to strike me from behind — her dagger whispering through the void. I turned slightly, catching the blade between two fingers. Her pupils dilated in disbelief.
"You shouldn't have come alone."
I released a pulse of purifying Ember coil flame and the shadow peeled from her body like burned silk. She crumpled, token slipping from her grasp.
The ground trembled. Dozens of tokens lit the battlefield in a constellation of greed. Every prodigy could feel it — the faint pull of destiny, the Will of the Continent stirring at the height of their killing intent.
A thunderous roar broke through — Yogrek again, hammer dripping with molten earth as he swung it in a sweeping arc. Five cultivators went flying, their protective qi shells splintering under the sheer force.
Above, ice meteors and spiritual dragons warred in the air; below, blood mist painted the stones crimson.
And through it all, I moved like a blade in the storm — harvesting tokens with each motion, my silhouette flashing from clash to clash.
By the time the dust settled, fewer than twenty of the sixty remained standing.
I exhaled again, the fireflies dimming around me.
"Sixty became one tide," I murmured. "And one tide… always breaks."
Just then one of the remaining twenty, a spellcaster began weaving a massive stone coffin technique, intending to crush me under a boulder prism!
I snapped my hand; My Spirit crab Armor and Pinchers fully materializing into view, I grasped the coffin boulder with two colossal azure spire crab pinchers crushing it mid-fall!
"Fortress Grip!" I shouted as junks of stone shot and rained down. The cultivator screamed as the coffin fell apart, suffering qi backlash!
Their token cloud joined my cloud of floating coins neatly. Three coordinated spear cultivators formed a triangular assault, points darting toward me. I pivoted, stepping inside their formation at the last instant. The fireflies blazed with a blinding flash! In their confusion, their spears skewered one another! They cried out in horror and agony, two of them dropping instantly. I parried the third with a palm strike to the chest, sending the last staggering.
Three more cloud tokens swarmed me. A shadow assassin tried to snake behind me with a poisoned dart.
Felicity hissed: "Behind you."
I didn't turn. Instead, my blood rippled, a crimson claw lashing out from my aura, tearing the assassin's arm apart. More tokens joined the cloud of tokens hovering over me. The watching prodigies realized too late: I wasn't just defending. I was harvesting them. Every counter stripped tokens. Every motion crippled momentum. Whispers rippled through viewing screen onlookers:
"He's using their numbers against them."
"He hasn't even called upon his full beast yet…"
"Is this… the Sovereign-Slayer's true power!?"
The fireflies glowed brighter, clustering around me, their tiny lights flaring each time a prodigy fell. In less than ten breaths, I had stripped nearly twenty prodigies of their tokens. Their groans and broken bodies littered the plaza's floor. The survivors hesitated, fear trickling in where arrogance once stood.
But Yogrek roared, hammer raised, shaking them from hesitation.
"COWARDS! DO NOT FALTER! HE IS ONE MAN!"
The hammer slammed into the ground, sending a shockwave that hurled friend and foe alike. Yet I simply rode the wave with the cloud walk technique, sliding back a few paces, fireflies swirling tighter around me like an aura of defiance.
I smirked slightly, Glacial eye locking onto Yogrek. "Then come yourself, hammer-bearer. Or will you keep hiding behind fodder?" My words cut deeper than blades. Prodigies hesitated, their spirit trembling as doubt and resentment turned inward. Some pulled back outright, unwilling to serve as pawns for Yogrek's ambition. Yogrek's face darkened. He stepped forward, veins bulging, hammer glowing like molten stone ready to split mountains.
The plaza quieted, even among the chaos. The mob was broken—I had shifted the flow until only one battle mattered: Yogrek Grimbark, Earth Titan Cultivator of the Golden Boulder Clan. The fireflies pulsed in anticipation, Felicity hissed low in my blood, and I rolled my shoulders, unshaken.
"You wanted my tokens… now earn them."
The plaza stilled as I released my Kingly Intent!
A wave of invisible weight rolled out from my being—King level mental energy compressing the air. Prodigies all around staggered back as if their blood had suddenly grown heavy. Knees buckled. Auras sputtered.
Even the strongest of the surviving cultivators found their qi circulation halved, their breath stuttering. Only Yogrek remained upright, hammer planted like a pillar, veins bulging under the pressure. Yogrek roared, "You think alone can shatter stone?! I AM THE GOLDEN BOULDER!"
My gaze was calm, my firefly aura glowing brighter against Yogrek's earth-cracking force.
"Stones crumble. Kings remain."
Yogrek surged forward, hammer raised overhead.
The weapon whistled down with the weight of a mountain, crushing the ground into craters. Stone dust exploded in all directions.
My gaze remained calm. The firefly aura around me pulsed brighter, swarming up my arm in a golden spiral. Each mote of light was a will, a thought, a sliver of my animus sharpened to perfection.
"Stones crumble. Kings remain!"
I drew my right arm back, inhaled once, and poured my profound qi into my palm.
It gathered there like the forging of a star — a whirlpool of golden and crimson light. The air warped around my hand.
When the hammer fell, I met it head-on.
KA-THOOOOOM!
The shockwave ripped through inheritance plaza, sending cultivators tumbling like leaves in a storm.
A sound like the shattering of the world rang out — not metal on metal, but intent vs intent.
For an instant, time froze.
The hammer stopped — utterly stopped, resting in my palm. The veins in Yogrek's arms bulged to bursting. His teeth ground until they cracked.
Then came the backlash.
His earth qi convulsed — denied, inverted, shattered by the greater force of my profound qi. The qi recoil blasted through his chakras and meridians like a divine punishment. A pulse of golden Ember flame erupted from my palm, spreading outward in a radiant wave.
Yogrek's roar turned into a choking gasp. His hammer shattered first — fragments of divine-metal scattering like shooting stars — and then his body followed, thrown backward in a tumbling arc that carved a trench through the shattered ground.
He landed hard, unconscious before he hit the final stone.
Silence.
Every remaining prodigy froze, the dust swirling between us like suspended ash.
Even the winds seemed to hold their breath.
I lowered my hand slowly, steam curling from my palm, the fireflies dimming into a calm glow once more.
"Golden Boulder," I said softly, "That's real cute rex."
The air trembled again — not from Yogrek's power this time, but from mine.
The Will of the Continent stirred faintly in the distance, like some ancient eye opening.
Tokens across the battlefield flickered in answer.
RUMMMMMMBLE.
The air grew thick with warmth, like summer air after a storm. A hush fell. The prodigies who had been circling like vultures froze mid-step, their greed momentarily forgotten. From above, the heavens themselves seemed to ignite. The sky darkened—not with storm-clouds, but with twilight. A velvet eternal midsummer night unfurled over the plaza. The stars above gleamed brighter than they had in centuries, and from that infinite night, a million fireflies drifted down like glowing embers. Each carried an aura of serenity and eternity—fragments of a king's dream.
The fireflies ignored all others. They spiraled down around me, landing upon my shoulders, my palms, my brow. They crowned me in their glow, each mote declaring silently: ''He is chosen.''
Before me, the fireflies gathered in spinning spirals, weaving silver trails of light until—a line of silver split open the air. It widened, unfolding into a door framed in firefly glow—its threshold shimmering with midsummer fragrance and the hum of eternity. Behind the veil of light, an entire eternal night garden could be glimpsed: tall grass swaying, endless fireflies drifting, and a throne-shaped stone in the distance glowing like a beacon. Elder Mei lips curved faintly, eyes sharp with vindication. "Ash has been acknowledged."
Frozen Heart Matriarch Vanessa was watching Elyahna from afar, but even Her breath caught.
"To resonate with such a King… this child's destiny eclipses even bloodline."
The Golden Boulder Elders Faces were ashen, disbelief churning. "He destroyed Yogreks Hammer with a Palm!"
Whispers spread among the prodigies:
"The King himself descended for him…"
"Not even Dimitri's bloodline blaze felt like this."
"Is he… is he truly a divine being reborn?" The fireflies answered for me, glowing brighter, surrounding my form with a Kingly Aura. The silver door pulsed softly, waiting. The plaza trembled under the weight of inevitability: I was about to step into the Eternal Firefly King's Inheritance. The fireflies spiraled tighter, their glow humming with immortal resonance. The silver door pulsed, a threshold of eternity itself…
But then—
Above the door, symbols of firefly-light etched themselves into the air:
150.
The plaza erupted with gasps. "One hundred and fifty tokens?!"
"That's double the Foe Dog Emperor's cost!"
Another shouted, "Even a heaven-sent inheritance still demands a toll..."
The midsummer night deepened. The fireflies did not fade, but rather pressed closer to me, as if urging me forward, urging me to claim what was mine. Iron Fang Elders Mei, Jinn, Umo, and Vash remained silent, tense… yet secretly they were all thrilled. Elder Mei whispered: "Good. A king's crown cannot be cheap."
Yogrek's elders were sneering, though their eyes betrayed worry. "Impossible—no one can reap so many tokens in the midst of this chaos!"
The silver door shimmered, its firefly-etched number burning: 150.
The plaza trembled with disbelief.
Gasps tore through the crowd.
"He already…he already has more than enough?!"
"Impossible! When—? How—?"
"He was the one who felled the Hill Monster?" Yogrek's jaw clenched, his hammer lowering a fraction. The prodigies around him recoiled in horror. My lips curved in a faint smile. The fireflies pulsed brighter, their wings chiming like eternal bells. Several broke away from the swarm and drifted into Ash's token cloud, mingling with his tokens.
Elder Jinn muttered: "Prepared… from the very start. This boy was walking the Firefly King's path long before today." Matriarch Vanessa's eyes narrowed, realizing Ash and Elyahna had both been chosen by royal-level figures. The patriarch of the Psychic fire eye clan brow furrowed. "Even with tokens, entry is not guaranteed. Will the Firefly King truly let him pass?"
The silver line flared wide, resolving into a towering gate of midsummer night. The sound of countless wings filled the plaza as fireflies poured downward, forming a living bridge between Ash and the door. The gate whispered with haunting words, audible only to me: "Bring not numbers, nor doubt. Only a heart that endures."
I exhaled slowly, my Kingly Intent pulsing once more—not to suppress, but to announce. I stepped forward, fireflies curling around me like a mantle of stars. "I already have what I need."
With that, I walked the firefly bridge, tokens paid, toward the inheritance of the Eternal Firefly King!